Last month, after Auggie got his NAJ, I went to Long John Silver’s and got something to eat… and, because he had such a big weekend, I did what I NEVER do…
and gave him some of my food.
He got french fries… they’re little and skinny and not too terribly salty, so I gave him a small handful. It was a VERY BIG DEAL because, like I said, I never ever ever give him people food. But he just got his very first agility title! We were celebrating!
Well, I took him out just a bit ago to go buy some more dog food, and on the way home I decided to pick up lunch. Oh, heck, why not Long John Silver’s, that sounds good…
HE WANTS MY FRIES.
HELP ME. PLEASE.
Hint: if you decide to give your dog an occasional treat, make sure you don’t do it along with something that smells distinct, like FRIED FISH.
I took Auggie’s pillow, his stuffed puppy, and his loofa dog out of his crate. I also picked up the pillow in the living room, stuffed them all into the wash, and got to work doing Auggie’s laundry.
So it’s pretty much bedtime for Auggie doggy right about now, but I’m not going to work tomorrow morning so there’s no good reason to crate him and go to bed. I’m gonna stay up late doing some work. The laundry isn’t totally done, either, so the crate is still empty.
BUT, just to prove a point… Auggie goes over to his crate (which I had the door shut to since it was empty) and stares at me until I come over and open the door for him. He then goes INTO HIS CRATE. (Any other time he would be just as content laying on the high pile carpeting… ANY OTHER TIME, I tell you.)
He stares at the hard plastic piece on the bottom. He paws at it a little, he whines and snorfles a bit. He sniffs around to make sure he’s really in the right place.
He lays down.
He stares at me.
He is still laying in there, STILL STARING AT ME, and it’s been almost twenty minutes.
THIS IS A GUILT TRIP, PEOPLE.
Somebody make my dryer dry faster.
Wait a second!! Are you SURE you saw that right?? Maybe you should look closer.
I am now the proud owner of Sentinel’s The Flash NAJ CGC. That’s right… we got our novice jumpers title this weekend!! And all three of his qualifying scores – we got running 16! Snazzy!
Today’s runs:
Standard run!
He got buggy on the table and that’s what screwed us, but J is almost positive he just didn’t “see” the table as a table. She thinks he saw it like a jump, since it’s so thin and the walls around it are plain white, not to mention the top is pale purple. So we got 1 table fault (two points) and a refusal for that, but it was the time more than anything else that really put us over. I then failed to pull him in enough to get him a straight shot into the tunnel, so he didn’t go into that right away – another refusal! Also, notice that he doesn’t come OUT of the tunnel. I notice he’s not coming, I can’t see the tunnel moving – where is Auggie? I lean over and look into the tunnel… and he’s standing there at the bend, nose to the ground, sniffing something interesting! He sees me, goes “Oh – HI!” and comes running out. What a goofball!
Regardless of the NQ, I watched this a billion times because of how wonderful his weaves are!
JWW – the run that got us our title!
Would have been clean, but he changed my plan on me! I was going to front cross before that blue tunnel, but when he spotted the tunnel he suddenly sped up so I couldn’t get in front. I KNEW he would hate me trying to rear cross him into the tunnel, and sure enough, when he got to the tunnel entrance and I started to try and cross, he suddenly hit the brakes. Refusal! The time it took for me to back him up and put him into the tunnel put us over time. You can’t see them as well here, but he did flawless weaves again here… so beautiful.
Anyway, I came around that last jump and everybody was clapping and going “THAT WAS GREAT!” and the VMO says to me “That was a Q!!” and my mom goes “YOU DID IT” and J goes “YOU DID IT!”
And I say, because I saw the time on the clock as I picked Auggie up at the exit, “But we went over time.”
“It’s okay,” J says. “You’re allowed time faults in Novice.”
I stare at her.
“You get a point off for every second over time, but you weren’t over by that much, even with the refusal. You did it.”
I stare.
“YOU DID IT.”
“Wh…??”
Seriously… it didn’t sink in. It didn’t sink in until I looked at the scores posted and saw, yes, he really did Q. And then I stammered out to the trial secretary that we get a new title ribbon. And even now…
we’re in Open. My dog can run in Open.
