You know what was successful? The garbage cans are beautifully laid out! A huge success! Bravo to the garbage crew!
What was not so great? Hmmm….let me count the ways.
I think the number one disaster was Gustavo’s total feral runaway moment, running right out of the IHC Jumpers ring after a stellar beginning of the course. Running right away to some delicious, meaty bones. See, this friend of mine, who I practice with, feeds his dogs delicious meaty bones as their reward for flawless, perfect running. He has trained his dogs. I, on the other hand, haven’t, and don’t tell Susan Garrett, but don’t even have a reliable recall with Gustavo.
And Gustavo is obsessed with meat. He can’t have it. Ever. In his life. And as I run into my perfectly placed serp position, all of a sudden there goes Gustavo. Off to where this friend, who, not naming names but if I was I’d call him Ashley, is rewarding his good dogs with their meaty bones. And Gustavo just goes to join in on the fun with his dog pals. Share the wealth. A super reward for his most excellent obstacles 1-5.
You know how you are supposed to compete exactly like how you practice? Every time my friends feed their dogs delicious meaty bones when we practice, this is exactly how it goes! So in some ways, a huge success! Gustavo is now running in competition exactly how he practices. In the presence of delicious meaty bones.
Otterpop marred her great startline in IHC Standard with a horrible a-frame meltdown and refusal. Like running up the a-frame, of which we rewarded oodles of super speedy ones this week, was going to kill her. And upon reaching the top, had to stop and scan the ring for the judge, in this case our friend Leslie. The rest of it, nice and fast and clean.
IHC courses, so awesome. So much more fun than normal old USDAA courses. IHC Jumpers ended fine but started with a sad hornet face slowpoke startline. You are killing me, Otterpop.
Tomorrow is another day. I got some delicious meaty bones of my own to sit near Gustavo’s boring, sad little liver friendly treats. Right? I can make meaty bone scented cheezy bits for him. This is a recipe I can follow. Buy some dead cow femurs all chainsawed down to nubbins and throw in a tupperware with cheese chunks and chill. Serve at room temperature. Enjoy!
Oh, man, dagger to the heart of guilt for being a meaty bone horrible practice person. But at least it was PRACTICE. Perhaps…desiccated tofu hardened to meat-bone-like density? Light rubbing of actual meat-like smelliness?
I often trick my dogs (I think) by doing something exactly like that–put a bunch of kibble in a bag or container with one or two pieces of something that smells like actual human-like food, so maybe they think they are getting nothing but salmon treats when in fact it's mostly kibble that has just been living with salmon. Of course, that doesn't solve the problem of getting the dog to not run there when you're trying to accomplish something else, like run a course.
Hopefully you gave an earful to your most excellent agility friend that he is at a trial and should be feeding his dogs their wonderful treats somewhere other than ringside!
From, someone who witnessed Gustavo's excellent start and then his detour to just on the other side of the tape line.