An all-breed agility trial was a brand new experience for me! Last weekend I drove to Manhattan, Illinois, to "help" with the all-breed agility trial sponsored by the American Lhasa Apso Club (ALAC). I say "help" in quotation marks because I did very little helping! However, I did learn how to set jump bars and got to sit inside the ring (is that what they call it??) to replace jump bars that had been knocked down. It allowed me to view the activities from a totally different perspective.
Some of the dogs were amazing. They were fast and zipped through the course with no problems. The heartbreakers were the ones that knocked down a jump bar at the end of an otherwise perfect (to me anyway) run. There were dogs who barked their way through the course and spent a lot of excess energy beside themselves with joy at getting to run the course. Then there were the clowns who decided they'd run anywhere or jump anything they wanted to! I noticed that none of them who decided to do their own thing opted for the weave poles! LOL Those weave poles were the downfall for many dogs who had done quite well prior to coming to them.
The two days that I and four other members of ALAC spent watching (and "helping") at the trial were educational and inspiring. (They were also cold and sometimes boring.) I came away amazed at the dedication of the people who train their dogs for agility. I was awed by the relationship and communication between the dogs and their people.
I took Ty and Raven with me for a couple reasons: I wanted to give Lynn a reprieve from having so many puppies to take care of while I was gone; I wanted an opportunity to socialize the puppies, and I just couldn't see myself at a dog-related activity without a dog! Ty was happy and excited. The trip and the new experience did not bother him at all. Raven was timid and not sure she wanted to be there. When she was held by various people on Saturday, she responded by burrowing inside their jackets and falling asleep. By Sunday, she was more sure of herself and enjoyed the attention and the activity. We just passed her around. Ty was eager to see it all. His tail never stopped wagging except when he fell asleep. Ty went home with Judy, a Lhasa person from Indiana. She will be training him to be an agility dog. I think he'll be a good one!
The worst part of the trip was the 45 minutes on I-80 when the setting sun blinded me for miles as I drove west. I've never been so glad to see a sun finally set! Even sunglasses provided little protection against the glare, but thank heavens I had them. I would have hated to experience that bright sun without them.
Speaking of bright suns…our weather has taken a turn toward "warm," and the snow is melting. What a relief! I suppose it is too much to hope winter is over, but this reprieve from snow and freezing temps has been great, even if the dogs come inside with wet soggy coat from the slushy snow.
Monday and Tuesday evenings were spent watching the Westminster Group judging while grooming my own dogs. Of course, we were cheering for Susan and Lulu and were happy to see them take the Group 3.
Jet left for his new home today. The three girls do not seem to miss the boys at all. One or two of the girls will go to training class with me next week. My sincere hope is that I do not have another Belle who refuses to walk on a lead.Time will tell. The girls will be old enough to show by the end of April so, besides training, my next big chore will be naming them and registering them with AKC so they can be entered in the May shows.
As I sit here at the computer, piles of laundry that did not get done on the weekend are reminding me I have some work to do before I go to bed.
Life is good when you have a Lhasa to love you.
Joyce
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