Saturday was a big day! We went to the ACT and it was good training. Hallie needs to keep working on distractions.
First run: The dog before her pooped in the ring and no one noticed because it was just dropping poop as it ran I guess? Hallie started out fine, then came across the first bit of it and sniffed it. She just got very off track and distracted, I ended up just calling her to me to leave the ring.
Second run: This one hurt, and I have it on video. She started out doing so great, she was just “on”, she was fast. Right as she comes out of the tunnel (21 seconds into her run), someone walked up to the ring ledge watching and set down their open ziploc of hot dogs. She only had two jumps left, and she passed them and ran straight to the hotdogs. Two instructors who were judging ended up hopping in with treats so she’d drop the plastic she was trying to swallow. I was mortified. My usual instructor who was there judging told everyone again not to put things, especially food, on the ledge of the ring.
Third run: I wasn’t originally signed up for this one, but I asked my instructor if she thought we should try one more since the second started out so well. She thought it was a good idea. I was wrong, lol. It was probably good to have her run once more and not be able to self reward for abandoning me, but she just wasn’t really “on” like she had been earlier. Hallie took extra jumps, hopped off the table at like three seconds but got her 1 q that round. And a third place ribbon. We also got tons of practice being in the crating room and I got to watch some other dogs run. I’m going to keep training and sign up again in a few months when the place I train at hosts one again.
Today I took her to the pet store for a bath, and someone thought it was a great idea to push their doodle right into her face to say hi while I was trying to towel her off. Hallie barked at him (the first time she’s barked at an approaching dog too) and the owner said she just thought her dog was handsome. I can not.
