While I only got three hours of sleep Friday night (it was 5 hour drive from my house to the site.) The view Saturday morning made it well worth getting up at 6:30am
It was a gorgeous day out. Very windy on Saturday but Sunday was just perfect!
Our teams ran fairly well during the morning. The high winds weren't affecting the dogs too much. Our team ran a few of our green dogs. They both are progressing really nicely but have some focus work to do. Now we know what to work on in practice!
By Saturday afternoon, Sophie had gotten the 307 points she needed for her Flyball Master title:
So proud of my girl!!!
By end of day the wind picked up even more. One of the jumps got knocked by the wind as Sophie was running and it hit her. Sophie can be a soft dog and while she likes barking at some of our dogs and running with them, she is a little weary of others on our team. I noticed at our last tournament that she was particularly weary of one of our bigger dogs that barks at her as she exits the lane (first time they had run on the same team). Sophie's times slowed as she hesitated to exit the lanes even though the dog wasn't running until last and Sophie was first. Just seeing her in front was causing Sophie to hesitate.
Between the wind and the dog barking, Sophie had enough. I asked to either re-arrange the running order or pull Sophie. Sophie has only passed two dogs on our team before, neither of which were on this team and unfortunately we had no back up dogs. But she really likes the Border Collie that was running with us so we put the big dog first so she would be out of the way by the time Sophie exited the lanes, then our Staffie, then the Border Collie and last Sophie.
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| Wicked, the BC on our team. She hoards tennis balls lol! |
Team dynamics can always be a little hard but I love competing with a group of like minded individuals who all love their dogs. I know my teammate was a little miffed, he felt like his dog was being classified as a bully for barking, especially when Sophie barks at and is barked at by some of our other dogs. But what I love about my team is everyone is open to talking and listening. We were able to explain that it had nothing to do with what we think of his dog but solely with how Sophie perceived it all. While Sophie barks at some of our dogs and is fine with them barking at her (it almost sounds like they talk sometimes )she is a soft dog. We worked it all out and took 2nd in our division on Sunday.
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| Saturday night in the hotel |
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| The Border Collies |
Congratulations on the FM! That is so amazing. Glad you were able to get there with an awesome supportive team.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun experience and congrats to Sophie for getting her FM!
ReplyDeleteSage does agility (we don't compete, just with other dogs) and can be a bit wary of the other two dogs in her group. It's taken a while for her to get used to them, so I know what you mean.
Wow - congrats! A master title, how cool is that. And sounds like you had a lot of fun to boot. :-)
ReplyDeletecongratulations Patty, you and Sophie worked hard and are both deserving of this title!!
ReplyDeleteDid the box bother Sophie when it hit her?
Thank you everyone!!
ReplyDeleteJodi, the box didn't hit her. It was the jump that moved as she jumped over it. I think it startled her more than anything. If something scares/bothers her, she will avoid it for awhile or approach hesitantly. But she flew right over it on the next race.
Great job guys,
ReplyDeleteGlad you're having fun :)
Your pal Snoopy :)