Second Rally-FrEe Novice leg

I participated in December's World Wide Video Event. This was our run:



We qualified with a score of 168 - much better than our previous score of 133! We still lost some points for Cai losing focus, and for overly-obvious signals, but both things were much improved. We lost 7 points on the playbow since Cai did a down. D'oh!

Last Saturday we met up with two members of a local freestyle club to prepare for an event on January 10-11th. Saturday will be two WCFO Freestyle trials, and Sunday will be two Rally-FrEe trials. I fully expect us to lose points again for Cai losing focus, since there will be other dogs and people moving around. But I'm crossing my fingers for earning a third Novice leg and our title!

On a side note, Cai's leash reactivity has improved so much, that he did not bark or growl at the other dogs in open station wagons! He wagged his tail and his body was loose, even though he was pulling toward the dogs. Inside the building, he did get upset when the youngest dog was playing and jumping around, but he was quiet the rest of the time. Good boy!

We're practicing again this Saturday.

Full Metal Papillon

I made this coat a couple of years ago for Dragon, but Chimera is almost exactly the same size. (He's a good replacement.) My family went to Truckee, up in the mountains, for Thanksgiving, and Cai needed coats to keep him warm and dry. He didn't like this one very much, since the sleeves are restrictive, and ugh, the hood.