Agi4Fun

Today we had a 4Fun trial in Ljubljana. I ran with 5 dogs - I wanted to run with 6 but one of them couldn't come, however as it turned out, running 5 dogs can make you quite tired. I was very happy with most of my runs, even though I got DQ in most of them, but some of them were really nice apart from that one mistake. All of my borrowed dogs were really very fast and responsive, but they've never trained with me before, so this experience was new for all of us. I might be too quiet for one dog or too soft for another, which would be different if they were my dogs, training with me from day one. So I think I could handle a BC if I ever decide to have one. And another thing I learned is that viewing the course with so many dogs in your mind is pretty hard, so compliments to those who do it on a regular basis.

My first dog was Bode, who I think I "clicked" with the most. He was going so fast that he broke the weavepoles and he was the only dog who ran for no reward, letting him run is the most rewarding thing by itself. I still played with him before the start and he was playing like crazy, a really cool young dog - border collie, of course. I trained with him once a week ago and we bumped pretty hard, so I was kind of afraid of running with him again. But this time it was a lot better, specially in our first run.

I also ran with two other borders. Kate is an amazingly well trained dog and I also borrow her for Rally-Obedience, so she is used to working with me. I absolutely adore her. Apart from one stupid mistake we ran quite OK - but that stupid mistake of mine got us eliminated.



The last border I ran with was Buffy, also a very nice girl. Unfortunately, she found it very weird to run with me so she was constantly looking for her Petra. We also had some start line problems. Other than that we had two nice runs, and for a dog who had never ran with me before she did very well.

I also borrowed one small dog, a pinscher. Toy, like Buffy, had never ran with me before. We had a very nice first run with the wrong tunnel entry, but otherwise nice (he only wasn't sure if I wanted him to hit the contacts like his handler. I should have waited a little longer for him to stop). Unfortunately we couldn't understand each other well in the second run. That was really a pity. I was surprised to see how fast such a little dog can go, woooosh :)



Naturally I also ran with Xsara. She knocked two bars in the first run which really took me by surprise, but she did very well in jumping. We were 3rd in the combined Medium Open results. I hope it wasn't too weird for her to watch me with other dogs. I will make it up to her with a big dinner and a belly rub.