TGI(almost)F

Thursday evening, and you know what that means. Agility class! This week was Holly's turn and we were doing a 13 obstacle course tonight. Which was good because my knees and hips were so not happy with me tonight, but when we're running courses there is a lot of down time waiting for your turn. Plus, running Holly is just easier on my body in general.

Holly gets a gold star for tonight! She really is making steady progress. The only two things she is having trouble with right now are the weave polls (which is my fault because I am not drilling on weaves at home enough between classes) and the teeter totter. Agility teeters are designed to return to the same side down position after the dog goes over it. And Holly hates that the teeter starts going up right behind her as she gets off. For a dog that is generally not afraid of anything, this is one thing that scares her. So she waits as I ask her to let the teeter go over gently, but then rockets off the teeter so she can be as far away from it as possible when it starts going back up. And this is really ok if there is a strait line to the next obstacle, or plenty of distance to get her turned. But tonight there was a diagonal line from the teeter to the tire jump, and the distance was short, and we just couldn't do it. Every time Holly ran off the teeter and was so worried that it took her several strides to start paying attention to me again, and by then she was past the tire. Frankly, I don't blame her for being scared of the teeter. It has never whacked her, but she is an awfully little girl, and that teeter sweeping up behind her must make her feel like it could hit her as it goes back up. We'll just have to keep working on it, she's generally a very brave girl, and maybe we'll just have to hope for stait lines from the teeter in competition.

What are the kids up to now? When it's not Mikey's turn to do agility, when we get home he gets a special treat of tearing up a coke box, so he's busy making coke box confetti. And Holly is tired and indulging her favorite comfort habit - holding a toy in her mouth and kneading it with her paws. She will eventually fall asleep with the toy still in her mouth. She always does this when she is sleepy or just feeling particularly content. Kind of like a kid sucking their thumb. It's just the cutest darn thing!! Also note her sleepy ears at half mast. Ain't she a doll!?!

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi'.