Took Auggie, P and Georgie to a fun run on Saturday. I was going to leave Auggie behind but my mom told me to take him, so I did.
It had been a long time since I'd been to this place and I'd forgotten the building was so small! Everything was really crammed on top of each other. I almost clocked myself on the dog walk running Auggie and nearly tripped over things multiple times.
Nonetheless I accomplished what I wanted to Payton, which was to get him on a full-height a-frame (the one I borrowed is just a little short) and on rubberized contacts. It took an extra shot at doing the a-frame and dog walk both, but once he was on and over it, the rubberized texture didn't bother him at all. I was a little surprised since my contact trainer is rubberized so he's used to that texture, but I think he was just expecting something different and was surprised when it felt odd under his feet. Anyway, we can check that off the list, I don't anticipate it will be an issue anymore.
They had a set of six weave poles set up in the other room where everybody was waiting and people were practicing on them so I decided to work with Payton on them too. Funny, they had mirrors set up along one side and at the end. And Payton wanted to play with the sheltie in the mirror.
So it took a while but eventually we got it done, I thought it was pretty good to work past that distraction. After that he went in for his second run and for the first time ever he ran off on me in the ring. I was laughing at the time but when we were done I started feeling annoyed with him. I think really I just asked him to do way too much, he had to work through the new footing on the contacts, he ran a full course with me, then we did weave poles, and I also was testing his stays... then I asked him to go do it all again.... I think his brain was just a little fried and he was blowing off some steam. So tried to not be annoyed about it, but I kind of felt it creeping in. No big deal. Let it go.
Georgie was not bad really but I wouldn't say she was good either, haha. I am thinking of making flash cards for my mom of stuff she needs to work on, and every day she picks from each pile or something and works on a different skill. She was whining about this and that, Georgie doesn't know this because we haven't worked on it blah blah - well how did you expect her to do it if you haven't worked on it?! She can't just magically know contacts by osmosis!! I HAVE contact equipment at my house, go take the dog to my house and train your dog! I was resisting the urge to yell at my mom "TRAIN YOUR DOG" while I was out in the ring with Georgie because I could just tell she hasn't really been trained. Of course part of it was my fault because I forgot that Georgie is now really far behind Payton. They were pretty even with things before and Payton's training has really advanced in the past few months, so I stupidly expect she can do something(s) she can't do.
That said my mom filled out the paperwork and entered her in her very first trial - her debut will be September 22nd. So we have a month.
Auggie was full of ($&*, bounced off the table, kept popping out of tunnels, wanted to do NOTHING but the a-frame over and over and over - and then was such a delight on weave poles my mom asked afterward if I had been practicing weaves with him while I was training Payton. Oh Auggie. <3
Payton's next trial is the 21st and 22nd of September as well (Georgie is only doing Sunday because my mom is busy Saturday) and we will hopefully have one more fun run before then. I still have tons to work on with him.