For those of you who like travel stories better, sorry, but today you get two more agility runs.

Third class of the day was Standard and this was our least effective run, I let down on Chico. It was tough at the start line, he’s standing there yelling and I desperately work to connect with him. Then we get off to a pretty good, if not stylish, start. I was sure he had a fly off of the see-saw and I groaned because I thought I pulled him off before he got into the contact, but the judge didn’t see it that way…anyhow, no reason not to keep it to myself. Then the weaves go wrong and the table goes wrong then the next jump goes wrong, then I’m standing almost in front of the tunnel and after that, I fear all I wanted was to get out of the ring. Like I said, not our best run as a team.

But I’m a firm believer in “Ya pays yur money, ya takes yur chances,” so we stuck around for P2 Pairs. We ran second and while the little Chiweenie (Chihuaha/Dachshund cross, go figure) named Ellie is running, you can hear me engaging Chico. Last time we ran second when it was our time to go, he stood there and barked like he did at the start line in Standard. So, while we were beyond slow off the line, I did have a dog when we headed out. And I got a nice set of weave poles. On the no-so-much side, I sent him off course and I stopped dead and he ran all around and came back to me and we went on. The send to the jump after the tire didn’t work so well, but given that this was the end of a long day for both of us, and how much better we did than we did in Standard, I’m happy.

So, this weekend, we’ll go try Performance Speed Jumping again, and see what happens on the Jumpers course. The two classes are neatly grouped on Saturday afternoon, allowing us to go to the Framer’s Market and the dump in the morning. Sunday we’re taking off from trialing, and I’m going to volunteer at the sled dog races the Wonalancet Outdoor Club puts on every year (at least, every year that the weather permits). It’s a fun way to help my community, and it’s fun to see the dogs who love their work so much get to do it.