ACT Trials

We went down to Canberra last weekend for two trials: the ACT Companion Dog Club on the Saturday, and the Belconnen Dog Obedience Club on the Sunday. It was the Labour Day weekend so we had some travelling time, Floriade was in full swing, and Deb was bringing Rosie and Jenna, and Sophie, up from Melbourne so we had plenty of reasons for the trip.

Thommo was in one of his moods where he won't do the weave poles. He sees the poles, stops running, brings his head up and walks down the opposite side of the line of poles from me. He did the poles perfectly for the first couple of years we competed, then developed problems in trial situations. I handled the problem badly, trying to follow everyone's (different) advice, and now he'll have days where he does them beautifully, and days where he refuses to attempt them.

So I decided that the weekend runs would be about my handling, not his running. We had some great courses on which to do this. I particularly liked Murray's Open Agility on the Saturday morning, one of three nested courses, with appropriately interesting challenges at each level.