The actual fun match is not until tomorrow....but we set up today. LUCKILY for me....if you helped set up today, you got to use the courses/field for free for the rest of the day.
CRICKET
Cricket went to the big girl Standard ring while there were still a lot of people running around setting up for the fun match-so there were a lot of things going on, a lot of distractions--this big, bouncy, excited Golden Retriever was running very close to Cricket, right on the other side of snow fencing (I HATE when they use one fence to separate two rings with no room in between rings!). Cricket is so motion sensitive,....she looked at the Golden..and I really thought she was going to go chase that exciting guy....but she looked at the dog, then looked at the tunnel she was going to....and she CHOSE to go to the tunnel. YIPPIE!!!! WHAT A GOOD GIRL CRICKET!
There was actually a wonderful little part of the course that was table, jump, tunnel, jump, tunnel, jump then table. We have done mostly one jump work, this was a new place she had never been, there was a lot of people and a lot going on....and yet...she did that little sequence. I picked three or four areas of the course with tunnels and tables I could send her to, wow, she did soooo good.
I am SOOOOO EXCITED thinking about what the next few months will hold for us.
The one dark cloud on the day was when I went back a second time there were some dogs that were running loose-a girl was running her dogs loose, and Cricket had resisted them for awhile and was working with me, then for the first time that I can remember, she took off after those dogs and was not listening and not coming back until she had got to the dogs and I ended up going to get her. VERY NAUGHTY CRICKET! Guess we are not done with our recall work yet!!
LIZZIE
Lizzie got to go to the standard ring when there were not many people there...but there was her agility instructor who is one of her favorite people and a few dogs-I chose that time to set her up for success. I am working so hard so she does not rehearse behavior I do not want ;-). This was a new place, we walked out of the car, worked on focus on the way to the ring but she had no time to get to know the place or sniff around-we just went to the ring. I was able to run a full course with Lizzie.
I broke the course down into three parts so I could make sure to play and reward her, but hey she did her contacts, she listened to all my directions and she did not try to leave. I was even able to heel her from the end of the course to the entrance off leash so we could get her leash. I was smiling from ear to ear to see how much she is progressing. I did not do the jumpers ring, I felt like she had done so well in the standard ring that I wanted to end on a good note.
BREEZE
...it was perfect because the course was a bit of a weird course with the perfect place to do the forward sends I am trying to brush up on and the backy-uppys. There were about four places to throw the dog to the back side of the jump so that would have been really hard if we had not just started brushing up those skills. The big news of the day for Breeze was that she did the weaves TWICE perfectly, we have had so many problems with the weaves especially since Breeze has sped up recently and it has messed up her striding-so I have been working trying to help her figure out a stride through the weaves, so I was excited she was able to do those, and she has been going so fast she has been coming very close to missing her contacts...well, she did them in a new place very nicely. All of a sudden Breeze's speed is increasing and we have had some growing plains-but that is why I love fun matches because I was able to give her some great rewards when she got the weaves and the contacts and it was in a new place.
YIPPIE-A PRODUCT REVIEW
Another EXCITING thing we got to do....was to review a product!
We got to review - Ewww Pawsitively Clean™ by Bissell®. We got a bottle in the mail to test out.
here is a link where there is more info on what we tested:
http://www.pawsitivelycleanpet.com/index.php/product/icky-messes/ewww/
Soooo LUCKILY we have not had any accidents lately, so while I am pleased as punch about that....nice to not have a puppy with accidents anymore....it did make it harder to find things/areas to test the product on. The bottle stats it uses enzyme action to get to deep down stains and odors, and it says it works on any water safe surface.
Sooooo I did take the Ewww Pawsitively clean over to a friends house who did have a fresh stain I was very impressed with how everything smelled after I used this to clean. I used it on an old pillow that is in the dogs crate, on the kitties litter box and on an area in the corner of the living room that has some old pet stains in addition to the fresh pee pee accident at my friends ;-).
I have to say I was impressed with how fast all the areas I tested were really nice and fresh smelling, so I was VERY HAPPY about that. I would definitely keep this on hand for accidents. The only thing that was a bit of a pain was the directions said to saturate the area and then leave it for 5-10 min, then blot and clean, repeat if needed, then you need to let the area dry and vacuum it, well, I had trouble waiting around, but it was worth it to get the stain out. So this product got a PAWS up from the Bordergirls gang!