Gemma’s five legs

No, she isn’t a mutant hell-bent on world domination.

Now that she has her UD title, she needs five UD qualifications at a score of 185 or better to earn her (much coveted!) “Obedience Champion” (OC) title.

Or should I say… she needs four more

In one of her best performances to date, she overcame a few problems to produce an “OC pass” at her first attempt.  She’s done better in training and mock trials, but not much!

I’m sure she would have been a bit more focussed and scored a little better if she wasn’t hell-bent on playing with a ball with one of her long-time playmates – and particularly if her silly handler hadn’t washed his hands just before going in the ring with her!

The scent on the metal was clearly much weaker than usual – she had to shop around a few times before convincing herself that the metal really was the only one – and I’m sure I relaxed a bit when she grabbed the right one and headed back towards me

There were only two passes tonight, and we both had the same score!  We don’t really give a hoot where we come in the competition, as long as it is a good and enthusiastic performance – and preferably a passing score.  Tonight’s was all three, at 188.

Now I have my fingers crossed that she’ll be OK after the exercise and play rewards – she’s been favouring her right foot a little lately after a run with the bike to the Happy Hunting Ground to toss the Aerobie around.

As a result, the plan to “give her more exercise” backfired in a big way, resulting in virtually no exercise other than walking   She managed the jumps tonight without any discomfort – but has been just a little stiff now and then since we got home.

We have an Agility trial on Monday, but if I have any doubt that she’s physically up to the task, we’ll be pulling out or staying home.  It isn’t worth the risk!

She’s been putting on weight lately, despite all my efforts to keep it off; I couldn’t really feed her any less so I’ve changed to a ‘lite’ version of her food, and that seems to have made a difference in less than a week.

Between the hot weather, lack of regular training classes, and injuries / seeds, she just hasn’t been able to get out and do the usual level of exercise.    Her metabolism seems to be gearing up for another season and another litter – conserving all the food resources she can, after turning herself into a wraith the last two times.   The challenge now is to drop some of that “buffer” and get her back into tip-top fitness without running her into the ground.

The other three continue to confound me…

Individually, they are quite well-mannered when walking on- or off-lead (except Heather, of course).  Heather will even heel most of the time when Gemma is out walking with us.  With the hot weather lately, there just isn’t enough time to give four separate walks twice a day, so there is no alternative but to walk 2, 3 or 4 of them at the same time.

Whenever I do so, there is almost always someone who is pulling at any particular time   Heather is usually OK apart from her mad, explosive sled-dogging pulls whenever she hears or sees a dog, person, bike, car…  Finn and Shadow just don’t seem to notice the tension they are putting on the lead.  The verbal corrections are clearly perceived as being directed to “everyone else but me.”  Only the make-like-a-tree or reverse-gear manoeuvers  seem to get through to them.  Everyone, by now, understands that when I stop dead or go into reverse that I’ve HAD ENOUGH.  They all turn around and go back towards me as little as they think they can get away with

At least Heather has finally decided that cars aren’t really all that interesting!  Mostly, she’ll ignore them now instead of trying her damn-est to become roadkill.  Bikes and joggers though…

It’ll be easier once the weather cools a bit and we can do two-by-two instead of four-at-once.

My kidneys and three of my vertebrae feel like they are floating half a metre in front of me

One-fifth of an Obedience Champion already   Attagirl!

Roll on Autumn, I say!