Ian’s weekend

I’ve already posted about Devon’s big weekend, but I need to talk about what a good job Ian did. The courses this weekend were very though and times were tight. Ian qualified in Standard on Saturday, placing third, and just popped a weave pole in JWW. The weave entrance in Standard was horrendous, and I was pleased Ian handled it so well.

Sunday was a much more difficult Standard course, with another very difficult weave entrance off a triple. Coming out of the weaves was even more difficult; and an extremely challenging tunnel/dogwalk discrimination was made nearly impossible because the handler was restricted by a jump and the tunnel and sandbags were both yellow – the same color as the dogwalk contact. The best way to handle this discrimination was to V set the line off the table, over the jump and handle the discrimination with at least 10-12 feet of lateral distance to the dog; in other words a completely handler independent discrimination.

Ian was the third 24 inch dog to run after two 26 inch dogs. As the first 26 inch dog ran the course, I realized I needed to change my handling strategy and front cross after the triple (always risky) to be between Ian and the judge. He’s really struggling lately with judges moving in the ring, and on Saturday his head was pivoting in all directions watch the judge. Ian nailed the weave entry but nearly came out of the weaves three different times, before I managed to get him through them clean. He handled the worst dogwalk entrance I can remember (his least favorite obstacle) with perfection, and we crossed the last obstacle with a CLEAN RUN!

That clean run was one of the best highs I’ve felt in this game! I can only remember one other run (and it was NOT in the Invitational) where I felt better than this one. I’m competitive against the judge and the course, not the other exhibitors. To me, each run is a test of our agility team of two. When we turn in a completely perfect performance against a nearly impossible course, I’m thrilled! What made this one even better was to that Ian battles his “judge demons” on this course, and we won!

And speaking of winning, Ian was the ONLY 26 or 24 inch dog (out of about 20 dogs) to qualify on that course. That was an awesome feeling! Ian may be winding down his career, but he’s still giving me thrilling moments.