Well we did it!! Gali got his first leg today. For me it felt good to get back into the ring at the end of the class. Gali always has a good time showing so he doesn't mind one way or the other. He worked hard and did some really nice stuff. We missed the sit at the end of the seek back which was pretty costly and because of the string of unsuccessful directed jumping exercises I think he thought he should add his own twist to the exercise and laid down instead of sitting on the second go out – again costly, but we will take it.
I was really happy with his heeling and his fronts and finishes. It was his third trial of the weekend, which we have never had an opportunity to do before, so he hung in there really nicely. His articles were fantastic all weekend. His signals were great except for one trial but that my fault, Gali has graciously accepted my apology and we have moved on.
Here is the funny part. My friend Susie Bell and I were waiting for the end of the class and some of people I get to help with their dogs were waiting around for the end of the class to see the results. It was mentioned that perhaps we should get our dogs ready for a run off. Gali was sound asleep in his kennel, so I got him out and started to wake him up. Sure enough we got called in for a run off. In Utility the tie is always broken with signal heeling. I have known this for a long time, the judge reminded me this fact and when she said forward I promptly said, "Gali Trot." Silly, silly mistake. I was tied with Susie, so needless to say she won the run off. It was funny and we both took some ribbing, but for me it was also a reminder that my concentration level is not back to what it was before I lost my parents.
So I guess the theme to our weekend was that I am still healing while Gali keeps on heeling too! It felt good to be back out and hang out with the friends and support them and their lovely dogs.
Happy Training
