This week is going awesome(ly?)!

Dog: Whatchya doing?
Me: Shhh... having a moment.
Dog: Ohhh... whats that?
Me: You know, when you take a minute to like, reflect. It's supposed to be quiet reflection.
Dog: Ohhhh.... sorry.
Me: It's ok. Why don't you try reflecting too?
Dog: Ok.
(silence)
Dog: ...Reflect on what?
Me: The week! The nice week we had!!!
Dog: OOOOooohh... OK. Well, I chewed my bone, and played outside, and ran around, and-
Me: No, to yourself, reflect to yourself!
Dog: OOOOOHHHHHH... I don't get it.
Me: Never mind. I'll go blog about it instead.
Dog: OK... could you throw my toy first?

We had a few good days here. First, obedience Thursday. Apparently, one has to heal with their dog OFF LEASH to show in Novice. Surprise!! Figured we should give that a go in the safety of class. And-even bigger SURPRISE!!! the dog was pretty dang near flawless. We had a different instructor who had us go through the exercises in a new order. I have to say, the Dog's mind was blown. I had no clue how very concrete sequential she was until that moment. We usually do long sits and downs after the stand, but instead did a recall exercise. Poor Dog looked nervously at all her classmates releasing to her owners but stayed firmly in her sit, believing wholeheartedly that every other dog was stupid to fall for the oldest trick in the book (Dog says Don't they know- wait means WAIT! Duh.) by actually coming when I called when she was sitting. It was very interesting and I am glad for the insight.

Then we found out that...drum roll...we managed to secure a few working spots for the upcoming Silvia Trkman seminar! Running Contacts and 'Fine Tune Handling for Competitive Teams.' I literally jumped for joy. After trying to apply a lot of her methodology in the last couple months on my own I am overjoyed at the opportunity for help first hand. I am very hopeful that she will be able to help us through some of the motivation road blocks. I am also auditing her 'cik/cap' jumping session and a session on starting a new puppy... just in case. Really looking forward to it all!

Last, today was day one at the AKC show- BOTC. We are fervently trying to get her through Open quickly, and she gained some ground by qualifying in both classes. Though, she had an off course in Standard. (Dog says Didn't you know- 'teeter' is... uh... French ...for 'jump!') She had terrific contacts though so can't complain a whole lot. It was just kind of silly. Jumpers involved two incredibly close calls, but both times she came off to the correct choice. I drove from behind for much of it so I was really happy to keep her head in those situations. Also proud of me for delivering some front crosses on the fly- she didn't even break stride and picked them up amazingly. Very nice times, even with all the almost off courses (and one real). She RAN the whole time, which always makes me happy. We'll see if tomorrow goes as well, we just need one more Q in each for the titles.