Brighton, my Baby Dog, and Bad Dogs

This past weekend was action-packed.  We had a trial in Brighton Saturday and Sunday.  This facility wasn't nearly as nice as the others I have been to so far in Colorado, but I have been very spoiled so far!  It was really dusty and the surface wasn't fantastic.  Saturday we got no love in either ring.  Layla started off the day popping pole 10, not once, but twice.  I do not know where that came from because she never does that!  The rest of the run was fabulous.  Lay let me get in a blind and FOUR front crosses in a row.  In standard, she had a really nice run except she got called on her aframe.  I wasn't watching her as well as I should have been.  Sunday morning, she NQ'd again in Jumpers.  Lay dropped 2 bars and I was shocked.  This dog rarely drops bars.  She has probably dropped a single digit number of bars during her entire agility trial career.  I watched the video a couple of times and found that the first bar was my fault.  I gave Layla a really late cue for a push, so she dropped her feet while looking at me to tell her where to go next.  The second one was her.  We were racing to the tunnel and she flattened out on the jump before the tunnel- way too soon.  We Q'd in standard.  Whew!  We both needed that.  This was Layla's 9th MX leg, so one more to go.  Maybe we can finish her MX in Fort Collins.

Regardless of our not-so-great as far as Q's go weekend, I am very proud of Layla.  She is so much more confident on the courses- so much so that I did lead outs with her on every course.  This was the first time I have done so in about a year.  She has shown me the past couple of weeks that she is ready for lead outs in practice, so I was ready to give it a shot in a trial.  I got excellent results!  I also found out recently that Layla's qualified for AKC agility nationals just since the end of August as far as QQ's go!  She is up to 7 right now.  We are short on points, but we are really going to try to qualify for 2014 Nationals.  That is my dream: to compete at a National competition with Layla, and I think she deserves to do so if she qualifies.

I am so excited about my baby dog.  Words cannot express how much I love my Jademan.  He is always making me laugh.  He really makes my day every day.  Jade is so funny, but he is also very lucky that he has a mom with a good sense of humor.  He amazes me how far he has come in the short time I have known him.  I am really getting a feel for him, and I continue to learn more and more about him the more that I work with him.  He is a fantastic learner.  Unlike Layla who has to be shown a new skill, Jade offers all sorts of behaviors until I mark the one I want and reward him.  He is obsessed with working.  I have to remember he is a baby dog and that he needs constant breaks.  He would go, go go all day long if I let him.  Jade is making progress by leaps and bounds in his foundations agility class.  We have a great lead out, he does rears by direction on the flat, front cross and post turns on jumps with out bars.  He knows hand signals, has beautiful recalls, and has such a nice natural retrieve.  We are now taking field lessons with Sandy Whicker.  She is really impressed with him.  I am equally impressed with him.  I feel so lucky to have such a phenomenal boy.  I think we are going to do great things together and I am so excited about our future.

Now that I have bragged about my two precious Golden kids, let me fill you all in on our little excitement for the afternoon.  Today was an absolutely gorgeous fall day.  Temps were in the mid 70s, the trees are on fire with brilliant colors, and there was not a cloud in the sky.  I love this weather.  All I want to do when it is gorgeous out like this is to stay outside.  This afternoon, I took the Golden kids on  our daily walk.  We always walk several blocks to a park, walk the loop around the entire park, and then walk home.  I was about the enter the park when we saw a dog sitting in a beat up car on the street next to the park.  I didn't see the owner at first, but then noticed her in the driver's seat.  Her dog was in the passenger's seat with the window rolled completely down.  As we were passing the car, the dog leaps out of the window and runs straight for me and the Goldens growling really aggressively.  I knew things were going to get bad fast.  I was doing everything I could not to get dragged towards this dog because Layla's hair went up on her withers the minute that the dog exited the car window.  I have never seen Layla and Jade be so protective of me.  Layla looked mean.  She was growling and baring her teeth.  She did not want this strange gray dog to touch me.  Layla scared the dog away, and he ran back to his owner's car.  Let me add that the owner watched all of this go on from inside of her car.  She didn't get out to help or call her dog off of us.  Luckily, no one was hurt.  I said to the woman, "You really need to watch your dog.  That could have been very bad."  She replied, "Oh hun, don't worry about it," and then she sped off.  WHAT??  People are idiots.  I am just so thankful I have two awesome Golden kids who are willing to do anything to protect me:)

Pictures next time- I promise!