Start Line Rituals

Wendy took this photo of Gyp and I, its part of our ritual.

Start line rituals, everyone's got 'em, mine are different for each dog. - with good reason.

I will sometimes carry Jane to the start line - only because she hates being held, it revs her up. (This technique does not work with Kaleb for obvious reasons.) She can't wait long on the line as the batteries drain rather quickly, so carrying her helps with that too. We do a couple rollovers just to top it off. At the end of her run, she jumps in to my arms, again a technique that only works for Jane, though it would be funny to see K try, and he would.

Kaleb, it is a long process, we need to keep moving, he has a whole warm up routine that involves his stretches and turns. We heel to the line - fast. He gives me '5', and then the 'other one', I ask if he like the judge, and he 'barks', I ask if he is obnoxious, again he 'barks', it is all about excitement with him, from the time he warms up to the time he is on the line. Agility = Fun, but he has to be focused too, so we find the balance. I sometimes start him from a sit, sometimes from a stand with no lead out - if I think he needs a little ooomph!

Gyppie again it is about fun and I can't have her sit too long on the start line - its about keeping connected with all of them. If nothing happens and we lose that connection, she'll get obsessed with -  ghosts and boogie men, and cats in the rafters at the barn (seriously). So if we have to wait a bit, we practice hand touches, keep moving around, also we do 'high 5' and 'kiss' (which sometimes involves teeth too). Then when everyone is ready, I leave to lead out to where I need to be. And then we giv'er.

Sometimes I DO get confused with which dog knows what trick - I generally don't ask K for a 'kiss', I did once, and I ended up on the start line with dripping bloody lip ... Jane doesn't bark on command, she just looks at me like I'm nuts when I ask (hey I know what you are thinking). And sometimes with Gyp I ask her to rollover ... again she looks at me like I am nuts.