Honest dog, realistic mama.

This past weekend was a busy one. Agility Seminar Friday with Lynda Orton-Hill - which was an amazing 4 hours I might add. More on that later ...

Saturday and Sunday, Gyppie and I ventured into the Obedience and Rally rings. One Obedience and one Rally each day. It was her Obedience Debut! Again, this is not the venue we are most confident in ... but we are trying our hardest to be confident. I could have gotten greedy and entered her in all 4 Obedience Trials in a small hope we could win High Aggregate Novice for the weekend (and I am not joking when I saw atleast 5 people asked me why I didn't - and only 3 times I was asked what Breed she was :) ) - but knowing me, and knowing my dog, I didn't want to risk losing the JOY in the ring, due to greed - I am learning both of our limits to maintain the enthusiasm I am getting and wanting to keep in this venue. I know from past experiences that Gyp often can get a little spooky as a weekend goes on - and sure enough she did. Saturday - she was totally confident. Sunday morning was quiet and there was random banging and echoing ... she does much better with lots of noise, so there is nothing for her to get spooked about. We played and played, and she bounced back with no problem, but it was work to get her back, and we had to be in the ring in 15 minutes!

On to the good stuff ... Gyp's first CD leg felt GREAT! She was upbeat and I loved every second with her in the ring. She earned a 194.5 and HIC!!! Her second time in the ring on the Sunday was almost as good - but a couple dumb handler errors (saying sit - um confused with Rally DUH and 2 points off for bad leash skills AGAIN in the Stand for Exam bad mama!) She ended up with a 189!!

She was awesome in Rally earning her first 2 Advanced B legs with a 99 and a 98 under judge Judith Snowden. Both HIC's!

Thanks for the Video Amanda ...

Gyp also raced in Scent Hurdle, she only did 2 races and did pretty good, and was just getting in her groove - she was very enthusiastic - can't beat that! It was too bad there weren't more opportunities to race her that night, but oh well, maybe next time more teams will be there and she can run a bit more. I think she got her Scent Hurdle title, but I am not sure. No Nonscents did really good, and it was a fun relaxed race! I was in my PJs by 8, glass of wine, good movie and 3 dogs snuggling with me :)

And possibly the cutest part of the weekend was Gyp got to be a show dog - I'm not shitting you! She was asked by a friend who was one of the Junior Handler organizers if I would be interested in having her show with a Junior, since she is so good with Kids - the girl was about 11 years old. The girl just LOVED Gyp and had so much fun "training her" for the show ring - Standing and Trotting around, Gyp LOVED her too and didn't even look back at me when they trotted away to go practice. The dog didn't have to be a show dog, but had to be entered in either Obedience or Conformation to take part - since they are judging the kid and not the dog entirely :) I brushed her, got a friend to put a show lead on her, and they were off! I felt like a doting mama who's kid went off to College for the first time. It was adorable to see Gyp pretending to be a Show Dog - she took in all in stride - let the judge see her teeth, did her stacking, and down and back, didn't miss a beat ...

One of these things is not like the others ...