Hiazzz!!

Anybody use this expression? Hiazzz! Well that is what happened to us over the last 2 months!


First of all due to some "Administrative issues" we had to cancel our trip to the US we are poorer by $1000 due to the cancellation of our flights. Hiazzzzz!

2nd of all we registered late for the trials meaning paying more for the entry fees and left less than 2 weeks to train for Obedience. Hiazz! We had put too much emphasis on Agility with Keesha and Max, Benji joined in too of course to train a little bit. Our focus was on Steeplechase Agility. We trained for speed, pushing ourselves and our dogs to the limit we hope to achieve. Our minds were like "running the contacts" "hard entries" , tight turns, shortest lines! Run! Run!!

Than suddenly we stop training agility altogether and had to worked on Obedience. Luckily our dogs remembered their Obedience work. They seem quite happy to shift focus a bit though.



Than came the trials Benji was up first we partake him only in Maxi Agility, he didn't miss his contacts but miss his entry to the weaves due to handler error (the only error). Hiazz!



Than Keesha, as she was trying to make her tight turn to the right to the next jump, from the video I can see her changing her lead leg to turn tightly to the right only to find herself thrown sideways to the ground sliding all the way close to the next jump as she wiggled to get up. Did she miss her footing? When Keesha got up I can see that she was a little embarrassed by the fall and went towards me crouching head down. I had to check to make sure she was alright before I can continue and lead her to my side to complete the run. That wasted a few seconds but she still completed the run at a good time. I am very glad she was alright though Keesha was given a refusal even though in the video the Judge did not put her hand up or across. This cost her her 1st placing. Hiazzz! Well a Judges decision is final! We should all respect that, we are Judges too.



Keesha Open Jumpers : Well Handler's mind boggling runs it's like a gymnast jumping on a trampoline and suddenly don't remember whether you did the somersaults routine or the flips and end up you have an ugly jump! Well we call this an Ugly Run!


Max Open Agility/ Jumpers: Max miss all his contacts in Agility, he ran over them, hit a bar in Jumpers.


Than Benji went for his OPEN Obedience trial, the first dog for OPEN that day. Did all the exercise well except for the Scent Towels. From the video we can see his scent the right towel but excitedly picked the one next to it thinking "chomp" that's it. Usually in training Benji would spit out the wrong one IF he happens to pick it up and went back to find the right one (That would be substantial point deductions) but still a pass if you got the right towel eventually. But this time his confidence fooled us and the crowd. Double Hiazzz! Otherwise maybe he might beat his dad for the first time... hmmmm.


Max in OPEN Obedience was great! This time getting a full score for his Scent Towels. We are so proud of him! Thus making him H.I.T. again for the 3rd time this year out of the 4 Trials we participated this year. Making him the National Obedience Champion for Year 2008 for the 6 consecutive time! Congrats Max my boy! There are five trials overall this year. We miss one in July due to some issues that cropped up.


Well, that is what Competition is all about. It should be Healthy. We all have our Ups and Downs. Think about what you and your dog has already achieved up to this date and be proud that you and your dog have worked hard to have come this far already! Everyone wants to win that is human nature. But dogs have feelings too, they don't care about the ribbons or the trophies well maybe the dog food... but they only want to do what you ask them to do and to be with you everywhere you go it is their nature to want to work with you whether by force or at will. In short YOU made them do this. They will feel great to know that their owners are happilly lavishing so much attention to them.

We reminded our students many times and also to ourselves the one thing our dogs would want so much.... so the next time you go into the competition ring, Win or Lose, I want to see you celebrating with your dog!

Happy Competing!