The Demons Have Surfaced

This weekend Phoenix and I attended our last trial of the summer together. I’ve decided her skills are not yet proofed enough to be in the ring so we’ll take a few months off of trialling to work on them. Phoefers did some great stuff this weekend and overall I’m very proud of the little girl but my decision to pull her was reinforced by a few missed weave entries, one flick and by the vulture that was staring back at me when I looked back to the startline from my lead out position. Phoenix really has not been in very many trials so I’m hopeful that I have not rehearsed behaviours I don’t want enough times that they’re going to be problematic for me in future, I know, I know one rehearsal is too many but hey we all must live and learn.

The most startling discovery of the weekend is that my little girl has moved from what was an occasional whine/scream around the course to full out growling. During the first jumpers I thought it must have just been bad timing or something on my part but no the demons reappeared in the second run and Miss Phe growled her way around the course. Maybe the intensity level is getting a tad bit too high for the little red devil. On a positive she did put in some really nice course times!

Peso had another awesome weekend and came away with his ExJ Bronze title. His contacts were really good and he nailed every weave entry including a really, really, really tough one – you can probably tell I’m super thrilled! He gave me a scare with a colossal teeter flyoff, the first of his career, but he took it all in stride, landed on his feet and dove into the chute. I think part of the problem is that for Phoenix I say “Teeter, Touch” and for Peso I’ve always said “Teeter, Tip it, Touch”. I’m thinking it probably shouldn’t matter but I know I didn’t say tip it and then was thinking that so I was late on saying touch and next thing you know he’s in the air, it also didn’t help that the teeter had a way different tip point then the one we practice on.

One of the absolute best things about this past weekend though was that some of my friends made their debut with their young dogs. I was so proud of them all – they really did great and should be thrilled with both their dogs and themselves. Way to go guys!!!! Peso’s breeder was one of the people starting with Peso’s half sister Ponder, I was really impressed with how comfortable Diana looked in the ring, especially with her whole entourage watching, it really was impressive how many people came to see her run! Peso’s Mom also came out to watch and we were able to get a picture of Fiesta and Peso together for the first time since my boy’s been grown up.

Today I am grateful for a fun weekend spent with friends, both two and four-legged.