Oh, Banana Hammock, I miss you not!

Well, we are home! And since we slept for the last 24 hours, we are wide awake!  24 hours of sleep for lack of anything better to do, as I was feeling pretty ill anyways after all the dust I absorbed and being in a car with the banana hammock compounded my queasy feelings.  But we are free from the RV and the swingy-sway-ey hammock no longer has any power over me.  The Dog is happy to be home, she ran around performing a head check on all her toys. All accounted for! She was desperate to play with her things- all she had to entertain herself on the drive back was an empty bottle and my chapstick.

"Bottle equals one true love"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, Cynosport. What did we get out of it? We of course found some more things to work on. TOO BAD that it is now the 'end' of the MN agility season and I will have limited access to equipment.  But we can try!
1.) "Grab the nose!" In other words, tight turns when pulling her around me without me having to cross- just pivot in place. So many of the courses had places where it was obviously the thing to do and I had to make due with some funky maneuvers instead.

2.) Aframe meltdowns occurred when I had to either stop forward momentum or move away from her on the exit. Going to need to work on her still hitting the zone in these circumstances.

3.) WEAVING! Must speed up, not just improve her footwork. It is so obvious that this is what is sucking up a huge chunk of her time on course. I am plotting a retrain for the winter. I figure I can do 2x2s inside the house?

On the fence- running dogwalk or not? I really liked how she did it this week, with a slight hesitation. But also need to think about the long run, competition-wise. Also on the fence about blind crosses. It is an option for the issue I have with crossing in front of her on the Aframe (that she missed it almost always!).  I saw it work out awesomely for several dogs, particularly in the Steeple finals and Grand Prix round 2.   Always been against my rules though!!!

Also, I have to say, I'd forgotten the caliber of dogs you get to see at these events. So inspiring! The Grand Prix winning runs by Masher (12), Rush (16), Encore (22) and Solar (26) were amazing; in particular the run by Encore was one of the prettiest I have ever seen. MN was well represented in all finals rounds and congrats again to Tango, Remy, Winn (Perf.); Gators large and small, Crackers, Presto, and the teams of Mm, Tasty Gator Pi and Pyro's Maniacs (especially to Pyro- what a wonderful final outing in Championship for this great guy! Enjoy 16" Pyro, you'll always be Shiver's hero!). Thanks for giving me something to cheer for!

So overall, besides learning a lot and seeing some remarkable agility, The Dog was a very good girl this week for her first trip to Cyno.  I  realized yesterday that she was clean in all her Team classes (if you don't count the bar and missed A in the Gamblers opening- which I am not!), plus silly Rekoons, and on all her clean runs for the week she ended up in the top 15% of the class. With 335 22" dogs entered, this is pretty good! Her Team with Brother Dog and Black Dog did just miss the finals, but 32nd is still at the top! (Top 15% again- magic number) Thanks to them both for being great teamies (though I wish we could have seen Brother Dog run more- curse you separate groups!).  And The Dog's times were more than fast enough to have advanced her to the next rounds when applicable, if she hadn't have had her oopses in the first rounds. 

Just maybe there is an alternate universe out there, and in that universe is another me, who has another Shiver- maybe even another Shiver who rocked in the Finals. But that Alternate Universe Me, despite their slightly better week, still could not be more proud of their little Go Dog than I am of mine! She's come so far this year, by this universe's standards or any others. Hope we can keep it Going!