Goooooaaaaaal?

So I have this goal for The Dog of being in the Top Ten someday.

Let me start by saying I know that this totally does not count as “Goal: Achieved” by any means, but it still gives me a teeny thrill to see The Dog (however temporarily) in the Top Ten in USDAA in not one, but TWO classes.  

Ta-daaa! Gamblers:

And Snookers (tied for tenth- it counts!):

(Totally crap pictures, but take my word for it- she's there!)

Yes, it is still very early in the year.

So early in fact that it isn’t much more than incidental.

But it wasn’t incidental. And if we can have a good start to the year, why not a good finish? We’ve even gotten several more points since the ‘most recent update’ date.  It could happen.

If anything, it is a little boost to help get us to the final point, and who doesn’t need a boost now and then?  I will take it and run with it.

***

Speaking of taking things and running with them, puppy is now fully naughty. As promised, she is stealing things and running away faster than a greased pig. Its time for baby’s first Hannibal Lector getup (harness!).  I also get the suspicion that her mom was not a Border Collie as I was told, but is in fact, somehow, a Velociraptor.  She is very…um… chompy. And zoomy. And ingenious. Just like a Velociraptor.  All I see when I watch her is the scene from Jurassic Park where the T-rex comes in at the end and the Velociraptors all try and take him on.  That is pretty much what she looks like!

Dynamite, smiling for the camera. 

But, she isn’t totally unruly. She can ‘sit’ on command now and will ‘get in jail’ and ‘go potty’ readily. Also she knows her name and LOVES it. She will come flying at you when you call for her and will usually respond to a casual ‘come’ too.  Clever girl.  Excellent problem solver. (Again, like the Velociraptor).  The only undesirable behavior right now is the chomping.  If anyone has any ideas on getting her to stop the biting? Let me know.  Normal tactics are not working.  When I said I hoped for her to think of me as the greatest fun toy ever, I did not quite mean in this fashion.  Gotta love her spirit though! 

As for The Dog, she deserves an update too (must treat dogs equally! No favoritism!). Her ‘turns’ training is going very well. I will try to get video at some point.  She graduated from cones to jump standards (posts) and is really starting to like the idea. She was digging in for the turns and has picked up which is which even with speed and options.  The turns themselves are killer- very tight. We are going to progress very slowly from here though as I don’t want her to lose the idea and revert to extended jumping.

We have a(n AKC) show this weekend and may actually be prepared (shocking!) We’ve gotten in lots of work since the last show and I have practice tonight and tomorrow too.  I’m wondering how she will do though with all the recent stress. My guess is that she will be angelic, but as I have said before… The Dog has this funny way of surprising me…