Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

Well, as they say, Almost only counts in the game of Horseshoes, and with Hand Grenades. Jimmy gave a wonderful try at JWW, but alas dropped just one bar, so Almost. There was a difficult cluster of jumps and I am sure it was something I did. He had 44 seconds to get it done, and finished in 29.63. Today, only one dog in Open was faster than Jimmy, a 20 inch dog, who beat our time by a few tenths of a second. Somehow, I don't feel too bad about that.

The Open Standard course, interestingly, was EXACTLY the same as Excellent. The judge tweaked the angle of the teeter, and a couple of jumps, but everthing stayed in the same spot, same number of obstacles, etc. I feel bad for any true Novice handlers who moved up from yesterday. The weave poles were in a very bad spot by a large open door with lots of foot traffic and bright outdoor light. The smells along that edge must have been heavy as even many seasoned Excellent dogs blew their entry to go stiff. Jimmy was a good boy and did his weaves fast and well. It was into a tunnel, then a jump, then the evil Table. He got on just fine and refused to sit. Just sassed me, and then bolted to sniff as the table was in the good-smelly area as well. I got whistled off the course when he ran thru the weaves to sniff. So, that was that. I had planned on walking him off anyway because he has to learn no table means no more fun!

I am still very satisfied with our weekend. Jimmy was FAST! He did his weaves perfectly all four times. We came home with a Q. What's not to like?

We ended the day with Jimmy getting a nice 30 minute massage. Can anyone say SPOILED?!