Good for Pip (and thank you to Lucy Goo also!)

Today we went to Rhode Island for Pip's second Advanced showing in Rally. We have never been to this building before and starting time was scheduled for 8:35 am.

Other then some stress related sniffing, Pippi did awesome! We received a score of 100 and First Place! I was very surprised - I'm not sure I would have scored it with a 100 - but I am not the judge. As the judge handed me the ribbons she indicated that she does not give out 100's very lightly - How awesome is that. I will say that there was not a single exercise that Pip did not perform for me or correctly. Her walking/heeling was not up to her standards - but we will continue working on that.

We had a lovely ride back as well. After doing a tail gate lunch in the parking, Al and I hit the road. Looked back into the doggie condo and Luchy was passed out on Pip's back and Pip was sleeping on Lucy's leg. Once again - an example of how much Lucy has brought to the house and Pippi. She has never curled up wth anyone - and there is plenty of room in the doggie condo for her to move away if she cared to. Every week I see changes since Lucy joined us.

Next week we are entered in Rally again both Saturday Sunday. We will continue to work on all until then.

The Loveseat,.........

The loveseat in the den has seemed to become a place of calmness and peace for Pip and Lucy together,..........stay tuned for more

A Weekend of Ribbons

We had a great 3 day weekend and birthday celebration. Since I am the Rally Obedience instructor where I work, I wanted to continue working on Rally with my own dogs. In addition to agility, I decided to focus on Pip's Rally skills as well. We've been practicing walking around food bowls, front from the side and all of the other Rally adventures. Pippi already has her Novice Rally title so I am working on Advanced. By entering 4 trials it sort of forced me to get moving on specific things!

Our first Advanced trial was this past Friday. I walked the course, pretty basic, nothing tricky. They did have the dreaded Offset Figure 8 exercise - which is normally a Figure 8 around pylons with food bowls (and food!) as a distraction. This judge 2 giant stacks of stuffed toys - lucky me, Pip isn't really into stuffed toys, she did fabulous. I lost a little attention at an outside corner of the ring -but all the rest was awesome. We received a score of 97 and a third place. VERY HAPPY with the day and Pip's ability to work under distration of the building.

The rest of the weekend we did USDAA Agility. Pippi did well there also, receiving 5 qualifying scores, a couple of second and third placements AND gained 3 titles over the weekend. Pip did awesome - poles were fabulous, her attention was fabulous - couldn't not have asked for more. As this particular weekend was also my birthday, this was a great present for me in addition to the awesome Murder Myster dinner with my husband!

Monday was day of rest for Pip - and we are off to Rhode Island on Friday for another Rally trial - I am somewhat rethinking this entry as I must be there by 7:30am at the latest but am hoping I do not use that as an excuse,..... I've certainly done it for agility!

More training at Petsmart this week for sure - our favorite spot is working together in front of the giant bird cage!!!