"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom."

Today Noodle is officially cleared to go back to full training - agility, field, you name it. I am so happy! This afternoon we rented the training building for just a half hour to do some stuff. I put the jumps down to 16 inches and did some short sequences. Noodle LOVED it! She was so happy to be back working with me. It's funny how both of us crave this training time together. We spent some time doing a few short sequences, tunnels, and some weaves - all which she nailed. Afterwards we practiced some Rally since we have a trial this weekend. My girl is back!

Just to catch you up on the past week or so - Pizza has been doing absolutely fantastic in her agility classes. Since Noodle has been out, she has been attending hers as well. Man that girl is fun to run in agility! She has had wonderful focus (in other words - NO visiting!) and amazing speed...and her skills are actually better than either of my other two dogs. If I can be confident we have the visiting under control, it may be time to try a trial again.

Today was the first time in 2 1/2 months that Noodle and I got to compete together. Rally was the perfect low-impact choice to ease back into the sports world. She did not disappoint! Noodle earned a really nice Triple QQQ (QQQ #11 towards her RACH!) with great scores, and even a 2nd place in Excellent B out of 18 or so dogs. She was wonderful. This was such a well-run trial, I was out of there by 1:00. I love it when a trial doesn't take all day.

We will take tomorrow off to hang out at home, and then head back to the rally trial on Sunday.

We took yesterday off and had a relaxing day at home, and today we headed back to Dayton to one more day of Rally. What a difference in courses! Friday's courses were spaced out nicely for big dogs, with lots of room between signs and good flow. Today's courses were pretty cramped, and TONS of sits. Over the 3 courses we did (Master, Excellent, and Advanced) we had 30+ sits...yuck. Not only is it demotivating for the dogs, it was especially hard for Noodle after recovering from her lumbosacral issue. However, she did great!

Master rally went OK - it was a little sloppy. Noodle came back and NAILED Excellent for a perfect 100 score and first place! The scoring was tough today, we ended up being the ONLY dog in Master/Excellent (out of 42 dogs) to score a perfect 100. That was pretty awesome. It was one of those runs that just felt so smooth, like we were working as a team together. Our last run was almost perfect - scoring a 99. We were tied for High Combined, but lost based on time by a fraction of a second. The best part about today was once again working with my girl, who was loving having me all to herself! Today was Rally Triple QQQ #12!

Yesterday I headed out on a trip I have been looking forward to all summer - Shenandoah National Park! My training pal and I entered our boys in an agility trial in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Of course, we left a day earlier to be able to hike for a day in nearby Shenandoah. The park did not disappoint! This is my third or fourth time there, and every time I visit I love it a little bit more.

It reached 91 degrees today. We got up early and did a great hike on South Mt. Marshall to a couple of rocky viewpoints (you know me, I am ALL about hiking to a view!). We also did a little but iof South Mt. Marshall, but at this point is was getting close to noon and the temperatures were becoming unbearable. We headed back to the Air BnB to relax in the afternoon, and then headed back out in the evening for some more photo opportunities.

Day #1 of the agility trial was warm, and LONG! We didn't get finished until after 6pm, and Dolphin was the last dog on the course. It was exhausting.

The morning started off great with Time 2 Beat. Dolphin had a bit of a sketchy A-Frame but was had a toe in. It was a great run for 1st place! Standard went well but he pulled off a jump at the last second, I have no idea why. The refusal cost us a Q and he had a blazing time...ugh. Jumpers was a mess, Dolphin knocked the 2nd jump on a curve, then knocked another bar on a long running line of jumps. He ran super fast, hence the sloppy jumping and knocked bars. I sure wish I could have the best of both worlds - super fast AND clean.

Today we started with Time 2 Beat again, and Dolphin had a great run with fantastic weaves for a Q and 2nd place. Standard was a bit messy - he knocked a bar as I rear-crossed, and then I got lost and sent him to the wrong jump (oops!). He then knocked the last jump - a triple. Jumpers was good, he ran awesome, but once again knocked a bar on a curve. In analyzing his jumping, the bars are coming down for various reasons - sometimes he takes off too soon, and sometimes he is just sloppy. I have worked so hard to keep his confidence up by not making a knocked bar a big deal, so now he runs with great speed but doesn't care if a bar comes down. I have to start letting him know (very gently) in training that knocking bars is not a good thing.

It thunderstormed all afternoon, but by evening the storm cleared so we decided to head back to Shenandoah to get some more photos. It was a great decision! The clouds were very low today, and we were able to get to a point that was above some of the clouds, and got some spectacular photos!

Today was the best day, and it was a bit of a heartbreak day. Dolphin was on a roll. We started off today with FAST, and for once I went for the big points, and we had a nice Q and 1st place (with a VERY bad A-Frame, I am ashamed to say). Next was Standard, and he was fantastic! It was a nice Q and 2nd place. Time 2 Beat was next, and again he had a wonderful, smooth, fast run for a Q and 2nd place.

I was sitting on a Quadruple QQQQ and that is a very rare thing. I went into Jumpers with a plan. My plan worked perfectly,Dolphin read my cues and was solid and fast and accurate....and then knocked the LADT jump (a triple, yet again). Everyone at the trial moaned along with me. It was so incredibly disappointing. Dolphin went the whole day today without a knocked bar, until the last bar of the trial. Why couldn't it have been in a class that didn't matter, like FAST or T2B? I feel like that MACH just keeps slipping farther and farther out of reach.

On a positive note, I am thrilled with how he ran this whole weekend. He was super fast, and really pretty accurate other than the handful of bars. His enthusiasm was through the roof, and I will never stop being thankful that I somehow found the key to finding his joy in the sport. Plus, he is the best travel companion on the planet. It was a great trip, and we made lots of memories.

Today is Noodle's 9th birthday! I can't believe it. I wish I could stop time and keep her young forever.

Today Noodle was feeling her age. Her Lymphangiectasia was acting up and she was not feeling well in the morning. She perked up by late morning, so I took her to the bird dog club to hunt some pigeons for her birthday. She had a wonderful time, but got hot after about 30 minutes out there and we had to quit. I know a lot of this was her not feeling well, but it was sad to see her poop out so early. Hopefully when the weather cools off her spark will come back. I am just glad I had the chance to let her do something she completely loves on her special day.

She spent the rest of the day chilling with her bestie Dolphin, and hanging out with me on the couch. It ended up being Noodle's perfect day, in a way!

Happy 6th Birthday PIZZA! My sweet girl turned 6 today. Unfortunately she didn't get to celebrate in the field like Noodle did as it was way too hot - 90 degrees...ugh. Pizza has been spending a lot of time doing agility with me and loving it. We did several seminars in the past few weeks, plus hers and Noodle's classes. Overall she is doing fantastic. In the last seminar, there was a big crowd of 30+ people watching/auditing the seminar and it was noisy and more trial-like than our other seminars and classes. She did leave me twice to go visit people in the ring, but was able to get it together and do the sequences successfully. I hope some day we can lick this visiting problem and she can go back to trialing, but for now we will keep building on our small successes in training. She loves the attention, and has a ton of enthusiasm for agility, and that make sit a lot of fun...not to mention she is my most skilled dog in agility by far (shhh...don't tell Dolphin or Noodle!).