CWCCA National Specialty! Stout & Agility - Day 2

On day 2, Stout pulled out his first ever Q in Open Standard!

I have to admit that I have not trained his contacts all that well, so I didn't run him in standard for a very long time. Actually, that's not true  :)  I spent quite a bit of time in the beginning training a running contact... But Stout never made the connection. So now we kind of stop. Mostly. Or at least slow down. Well, I say the words & do the dance, and he may or may not touch the yellow.

But anyway, all weekend he got all his contacts! And this run was clean so earned him his first leg!

This is what I try to teach students: notice me leaning & turning? And notice where he is looking? Subtle, but he knows exactly where we are going.

Now that's the look I like to see on his face! Happy & engaged!

"Wheeeeee!"

See? Heavily managed contacts  :)

Super Snout!

Our last run of the weekend was Excellent JWW. I had considered skipping it & heading out for herding (3 hours away). But we were still ahead of schedule, and I was happy with the fact that he qualified, and I went against my gut instinct...

We had a total Snouters Meltdown.

He humped me on the start-line. He ran around some things. He couldn't weave. He visited the judge. 

It was just too much. I was so mad at myself for ignoring my gut. I'm sorry Stout  :(

But I am learning to see the signs & listen to what he's trying to tell me.

Here are the photos:

This was post-humping  :)

CWCCA National Specialty! Stout & Agility - Day 1!

At this year's National Specialty, things were done a little differently in the scheduling. Instead of having 2 days of herding on the weekend, followed by 2 days of agility & rally & obedience all together, we had 2 days of agility first (Saturday & Sunday). Then we had a day of herding (2 trials in one day), then obedience & rally (2 trials in one day). 

I don't really have a preference either way, but I think we had a lot more relaxed & fun atmosphere at agility since no one was rushing to get over to the obedience & rally rings. I know I got to watch a lot more runs than I usually do!

We were at Play Dog Excellent in Chattanooga. Stout ran both days in Excellent Jumpers & Open Standard. He actually did pretty well  :)  He didn't qualify at all on Saturday, but his mistakes were normal mistakes, not epic Snouters meltdowns (although we were getting closer...)

Here are some photos from Saturday (thank you again to Phyllis Ensley for these!):

He had plenty of air over this jump...

 I don't know why he does this occasionally.

So here he is coming over the last jump. Check out those eyes...

This is how I know we are on the verge of a meltdown. He gets this look. And everything falls apart  :(

He did get all his contacts all weekend! Even if he looked a little deranged while doing so!

Look at that magnificent tail!

He missed a pole going into the weaves. I did not correct him though because he was already nearing his threshold... 

I've learned if I correct things in the ring, he will hump me. It's how he deals with frustration  :(

Jowls!

I realize I haven't really blogged much about how Stout's been doing in agility (well, I haven't blogged much in general!). I touched on some things here, but it's been a long, complicated journey  :)  We're talking at least 3 blog posts worth!

More photos will be coming soon!