Wordless Wednesday

Table Talk

Mom's getting serious about this "table issue" I have. See, in agility you have to run to the table, jump on it, then stay there while the judge counts to five. I've developed a terrible habit with the table - I run to the table, jump on, jump OFF, jump back ON, then stay for the count of five. Not good when you're in Excellent.

To combat this, mom's going zero tolerance. I get on, off, on......NO TREAT! And I have to do a "down" for a count of five, then a release to, did I mention.....NO TREAT!

But if I do the table correctly, first time, like I'm supposed to, then......I GET LOTS OF TREATS! And when I say lots, I mean the heavens have opened up and rained treats. Yum, yum.

Needless to say, I'm really starting to stay on the table. Right now, we're just working in the living room (yes, small table in the living room). Then mom will take it outside, then to class, then to a show.

But not in this picture. Mom got the table and treats out, and Levi just HAD to perform. Then Arnie had to get in on the treat act. That left me out in the cold.

I'm Excellent

No really, I'm Excellent now. Excellent agility, that is. As of today, I'm in the big leagues.

There's 3 levels of AKC agility competition: Novice, Open and Excellent. I flew through Novice. Open took a little longer, what with us moving and all. But mom and I did it, and now I'm in the highest level class in AKC, in both Jumpers with Weaves and Standard. Mom's never had a dog in Excellent Standard before (she has in Jumpers), so she's really proud of both of us.

I'm still having issues - table, weave poles, start line stays and dropping the triple. But in Excellent you can't even have one mistake. Mom figures it will make us get our act together, and make us a better team.

Today, in my first time in Excellent Standard I really rocked it. My instructor high-fived mom as we left the ring. I got confused on the table (remember, I have issues. I usually hit the table, hop off, then hop back on. We're working on it though). So today mom said "table, SIT". Well, I only heard "sit" and sat next to the table. Oops. But mom was OK with that, since it was mostly her fault, and the rest of the run was smoking!!!

We even got to meet another agility pug this weekend. The lady that ran the pug also had a rescue boy that was a lot like Arnie was when he first came to live with mom (in other words, OBNOXIOUS). So they talked a lot about how to get her pug under control. Then Arnie proved the point by running a great Excellent Jumpers run (tipped a bar when mom moved away too fast).

We don't show for another month, so there's be plenty of time to work on my issues.

No photographer again this weekend. What's up with THAT?

Slurp

Mom says Snap has the biggest tongue on the planet. Ya think?

Good fences make good neighbors

While we're renting, we have neighbors we can see. Our old house had a wooden fence on one side, so we never saw the dogs there, only smelled them. The other side had a wire fence, but only had chickens.

This house has a chain link fence, and 2 little dogs.

They have a doggie door, and have figured out that when our screen door opens, we're coming out into the yard. So whenever the door makes "that noise", mom hears them start barking and yapping, and flying out their door, into the yard, up to the fence. They love to bark at us. We don't bark back, but we do like to visit.

This little white guy is just a puppy. He's about twice the size he was at Christmas time. He's just the cutest little thing. But has an attitude bigger than mine! And that's saying something. The brown one is very sweet, and loves to come up to the fence for a scratch and a pet.

They both help me train my weave poles. While I run the poles, which are next to their fence, they run along side barking and carrying on. Great proofing.

Must be Spring

This (Levi)

plus this (brush)

equals this (copious amounts of pug fur)

Agility Day 2

We went back to the trial on Sunday, but unfortunately day two wasn't as successful as day one.

Mom was a little stressed, because she moved me up to Excellent JWW, and so me and Arnie are in the same class now. Arnie was in first, so mom popped me in a crate ringside so I could be "easy access" for my run. He ran a great run, nailed his weaves again, but knocked the triple. He doesn't usually hit bars, but he was flying out of a tunnel and had to make a hard right turn after the triple. So down it went, and no Q. But a really nice run again.

Then it was my turn in the "'big leagues". I was pretty pissed at having to sit in my crate while Arnie ran, so I was a little wound up. My run was pretty good. There were lots of twists and turns, and I got almost all of them. Except for the dreaded weave entry. Again. It was a hard turn after a rear cross, and I just couldn't hang on to entry. But I restarted them and did just fine the rest of the course.

Then it was into the Standard ring. It was a really hard course (why are Open courses harder than Excellent courses in a lot of cases?), but I rocked it. But the weaves got me again - it was a hard turn after the aframe, and I couldn't hang on to the entry here either. I have a running contact, and there just wasn't enough time to put on the breaks. Then I flew so fast through a tunnel that mom couldn't do a cross she had planned, and I got confused and got a table fault. Darn, no Q again. But it was a really fun run, and no zoomies. Mom learned her lesson this time, and only got me out of my crate when there were a few dogs left to run. So no waiting around getting amped up.

We're back to the same place in two weeks, so I'll keep you posted.

Again, the photo isn't from this past weekend. They really need to get some photographers at these trials. I need my glamor shots.