A few weekends of agility!

Over the past month or so, Mum, Gracie and I have competed in a few USDAA trials!

One in Gainesville, one in Canton, and one in Alpharetta. Since I'm working on my ADCH, Mum hasn't entered me in anything but Snooker and Gamblers for well over a year, as those are the only Q's I need for the title. And since I'm almost nine years old now, she's conserving my energy, like I need that, BOL!

The cool thing is that at the last trial we attended in Alpharetta last weekend, I got the last Q for my Masters Gamblers title, with a super nice run and 2nd place. Out of the past three Gamblers runs, I've gotten two Q's. Mum always knew I was a pretty good gamble dog, and it's really showed in the past few trials.

But now I've been refusing some jumps and other obstacles when Mum is closer to them. And Mum finally figured out why. I've got the Gamble bubble going on...that's the invisible area when Mum is closer to an obstacle that I'm now running around the outside of it, feeling like she's crowding me, BOL!

So Mum's got a plan to help me work more on being fast working closer to her, along with distance, aka more Snooker skills than Gambler skills.

But the cool thing is that for the last four Snooker runs, I've gotten 3 Snooker Q's, mostly 2nd place, but just not the final SQ that I need for the ADCH. I have well over 15 Snooker Q's, which is pretty cool.

Gracie has been improving more and more over the last trials, to the point that at our last trial she didn't run off at all during any of her runs! And for a couple of her runs, Gracie's BC came out in full force....she was focused, super fast, had great distance and made Mum really stay on her toes!

Over the past few trials Gracie has Q'd several times in PII Jumpers, getting her PII Jumpers title, along with her PII Snooker title.

And at the last trial she got her first Gamblers Q. And oh was that run a work of art!!! Gracie almost mowed down the judge she was so focused on the jumps and tunnel. And Mum sent her to a tunnel well over 30 feet away and it was a discrimination to boot! Gracie took exactly the tunnel entrance Mum wanted her to to set up for the next obstacle. What a good girly.

Mum even corrected her on the her final jumpers run, pulling her off a jump and Gracie didn't stress out at all! So Mum thinks that it's finally time to get serious about training a few more things that she feels Gracie can handle now....like the teeter and contacts; so we can enter her in some Standard and maybe even pairs runs.

For years, Mum wanted to run Gracie only in runs that she would be able to run fun and feel more free, and not require her to 'be more controlled' to keep her from stressing. And it's worked. But now they can maybe get down to some business! Yeah!

We're signed up for another trial in a week or so, just one day. And then again in August, Sept and Oct, I believe. Can't wait!