The third of our three-weekends-in-a-row going to trials thing might have been a wee bit too much for me. On Saturday I got lost on two out of three courses, then went back to the hotel and laid down for a second at 4 PM and pretty much didn’t open my eyes again until 7 the next morning. Then I found myself a bit “wobbly on my pins” (to quote a friend’s father) and withdrew from competition. Wimpy I know (my dad always said unless we had a fever, we weren’t too sick to do X, Y or Z), But I just couldn’t imagine trying to run anywhere that day.

Here’s our Pairs run from Saturday. On the whole, we look pretty good. I did get lost in the middle, and Chico took up the time by going off course, but we finished the whole thing and in many parts we had good flow. In retrospect, I wouldn’t put him through the weave poles a second time, it didn’t get us anything and only got him all wound up. He hates it when I break the flow of a course.

In the Jumpers run Chico misses three obstacles. Numbers two and three he missed because I sent him out toward them, but stopped watching him or the obstacles and just ran, so he did what he’s supposed to – he chased me. He missed one more obstacle, close to the end, and that’s because I didn’t, as they say, support him until he committed to the jump. The rest of it is pretty nice.

Again in Standard trouble with the weave poles, but our best effort all day at those. An off course where Chico goes to the table a second time, but when I review the footage, that’s totally my fault, I headed that way.

It’s incremental sometimes, but Chico and I are getting better at this. I’m thinking that a session with a track coach might improve my running (I don’t look so agile to myself when I watch my runs. In fact, I look a little gimpy some days.). Maybe some samba lessons to help me turn with my hips.

Or maybe some “jump and turn” stuff like Vergina Schadenfreude in her OMG handling style. Which, I believe, could be really fun and maybe helpful to try. Happy Dogs Agility in the LA area seems to have done a little day of OMG and the results look fun.