Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx

Really wasn't interested in going to agility class today -- tried and distracted with other things.  But Sash really likes it and I've paid for the lessons, so at the last second I got my butt in gear and got us to class (only like 5 min late -- oops!)

Sooo glad I went though.  What a blast.  The first half of the class was skills.  Sasha picked up one we've never tried before on about the third try -- super-smart puppy!  It's so fun to watch her figure stuff out, and she gets soooo proud of herself, trotting around with her frisbee *g*   Then she did all the weave poles with only one wire on!   Woohoo!  She seems to quite like those -- if I'm not paying attention she'll randomly go wander through them or over the dogwalk.  hahaha   The teeter-totter otoh is still a little scary, but she's doing it now.  Just still nervous about it.  More practice needed!  Sadly I lack a teeter-totter at the barn *sigh*  Ah well.

Then the second half of the class was course running -- and it was almost all jumps, which Sasha loves.  So always highly entertaining.  Esp now that she's jumping them at height (they seem huge to me since she can easily walk under them, but she doesn't seem to care).  Had a great lightbulb moment in handling for this one which'll hopefully make us a little more successful *g*   She's super-eager but sometimes her enthusiasm and speed outdistance my handling abilities *g*   Hahaha ah well, we'll get our act together some day.

First draft of new book is done!  Woohoo!  Now to convince myself to ignore it for a couple weeks before looking at it again.  hahaha we'll see.

Other book...  So very close!   Look for official launch soon!  Super stoked about that!

Of puppies and ponies

Yesterday Sasha went to agility class.  I can't believe how much fun it is.  I'm not surprised *she* loves it -- I am surprised how much *I* enjoy it.  hahaha We're still practicing the teeter-totter, now with more speed which goes much better.  But everything else is starting to be put together.  We got to do some courses and it was highly entertaining.  Puppy did everything she was asked to.  Passed with flying colours.

Her handler otoh...  Oh dear.  Off course two...?  three? times.  Omg.  You'd think after the, what?  Couple thousand courses and dessage tests I've memorized over the years an eight-obstacle course would be fairly simple.  And tbh the order of the obstacles wasn't even remotely an issue.  But running the course I'd get pointed slightly the wrong way and send Sasha off to never never land.  And this is why we walk our courses *sigh*   You'd think I'd know better by now >;-P   Not that I didn't know where we were supposed to go, but I didn't manage to convey that info to my wonderful puppy.  hahaha but since *she* didn't get to see the course map ahead of time she still got rewarded and play time.  After all - she went where she was told, it wasn't her fault I didn't tell her to go where I actually wanted her to.  My coach is quite good with the details of how my body alignment directs Sasha and when I can implement them all it goes reasonably well.  hahaha I think that's part of why I'm enjoying it so much -- firstly because it's a lot of fun to play with Sash, esp when she's clearly having a blast.  But also because it's actually an entirely new challenge to learn.  I didn't really expect that, but it is.  So entertaining.

And with the critter I *do* sort of know how to direct, my  lesson this am was somewhat bemusing.  Since my horse is not fit enough to really work for an hour and, quite frankly, doesn't have the attention span either, I don't warm her up before my coach gets there like I usually would.  End result is that if he's early, I'm still tacking up.  So was the case this am and we chatted while I was getting her ready and I put her on the lunge line for a few minutes -- all good.  He put some poles down for her to go over.  No problem.  So I stopped her and was going to turn around and go the other way but I guess paused just a little too long and my coach came over, took the lunge line from me, "let me help with that..."  hahaha oh dear, you know it's been a rough day when...  In what three years?  Four?  I'm not sure exactly but a long while, he's taken over exactly once before (although in that case it was riding rather than lunging).   But since my hands were blocks of ice at this point and I wasn't entirely functioning well I just handed her over and exited the circle.  hahaha warmed myself back up, set a few poles, and eventually when he was done lunging her I got on to ride.  Get less than half way around "are you okay today?"  hahaha I must've been in quite some state.  I know it's been a long week and I'm tired but I didn't think it was *that* bad >;-P

Ah well - I redeemed myself and Lexi chose to behave herself and in the end we had a reasonably good ride.  Still mostly working on forward.  Seriously basic.  Taking me way longer with this mare than anything I've ever started.  Esp as I didn't even really start her - she'd been backed and had two n a half gaits before she came home.  But it is getting better now.  And I suspect when the light goes on, it's *really* going to shine.  But for now three gaits, two directions and zero meltdowns is pretty much all I'm asking for.

This has been....  Quite the week.

Agility 101 :)

Ok so my mini-vent of the day -- my Kobo isn't working right any more :(   And it's only a few months old.  Booooo.   When you plug it in it only sometimes charges (and a Kobo with no charge is less than useless) and it won't connect to my computer at all, making getting new books more of a pita.  Thoroughly not impressed :(  And the internet suggests *lots* of people are having these problems.  Till now, I loved it.  But now I might recommend one of the other e-reader options out there to those shopping.

Now in much happier news - Sasha did her first agility class this week :)  hahaha woohoo!  She has to pass grade two before she can do real agility but this was an "on leash" class (nobody ever said the leash had to actually be held!)  She was *SPUN* when we went in.  Fake grass and TONS of new dogs to play with (and they did all seem to be full-grown dogs; I'm pretty sure Sasha was the youngest).  At that point I had a *few* doubts.   First, and most important -- I couldn't really control her even ON leash.  Definitely not a promising start *sigh*.   Then, the ring was set up with three stations - jumps, tunnels, and planks.  Sash isn't a big fan of jumping and hates terrain changes.  So the only one I thought might go well was tunnels.  *sigh*   But at least the jumps were super low -- going over them would be not much different than stepping over the poles flat on the ground at the barn.

So they divided the class into three -- seemed to mostly be by size.  Sasha was with a couple boarder collie types who seemed to have been there before.   Our group started with the jumping -- she certainly did it well enough; didn't like the idea of one she'd actually have to jump over but everything little was done bravely if a little puzzled: "ummmm Laur?  It's really just as fast and much easier to go around..."  hahaha but she's a good puppy, so she humours me.

This is easy!

So then we moved on to the tunnels - which she loved!  She figured out that game after the first try: "I go through here, you give me treats."  And then would *run* to whatever tunnel was closest and bolt through it -- I was having to run just to get to the other end before she did -- even though they were curved tunnels!  hahaha so that part she's clearly got down :)  The only down side was when she tried to randomly pick her own tunnel, just as somebody else was setting up from the other side.  Oops - poor puppy form!

Best. Game. Ever.

The day finished off with planks -- Sasha's not a huge fan of weird footing OR heights, so I wasn't sure how this would work, but with a handy lead of hotdogs after the first few tentative steps she was happily trotting along from one end of the balance beam to the other, up and over the A-frame, and even navigating the teeny-tiny teeter-totter!  I was pretty thrilled :)

First time on the A-frame

And grade two starts next week :)

Puppy agility

Had so much fun with Sasha today.   Getting ready to leave the house and she's sitting looking at the door ready to go out.  Looks at the door, looks at me.  Can just see the thought bubble "stupid human".  Clearly I wasn't getting the hint fast enough so she went and got a shoe and put it by the door too.  "Come on, what more do  I need to do for you?"  hahahah too funny.

Then later I had a break between lessons so figured we'd try the agility tunnel.  All sorts of notes about "introduce slowly" etc.  Yeah or not - I pointed her at it and took a treat to the other end.  Done and done.  Quite happy to run back and forth through the tunnel for treats...  I have the kewlest puppy ever.

Of course the same notes suggested the "pause box" would be the easiest one for them to learn.  Methinks I need better notes >;-P   Or perhaps to pass puppy kindergarten before attempting agility.   Nah.

Kinda helps offshoot feeling so sick.  Booo.   HUGE thanks to Paula and my dad who saved the day and took on stalls for me.  Would've been a very long and challenging day without them.   I love my job, but there is absolutely no flexibility for having a rough day - when I only had 8 horses I could do it no matter what state I was in, but with 17 (and 6 lessons) it's a bit more of a challenge!

Tomorrow Paula and Steph are taking on the barn for me -- all I have to do is sleep and teach a few lessons.  Hopefully resulting in one day recovery :)   I have the most awesome students ever!