Shelby and I attended the NSCA rally, obedience, and agility trials this year, held at Countryside Agility Training Center in Edinboro, PA. This was a very different trial for us, since we had to drive six hours to get there and stay in a hotel. We got in Thursday night around midnight, and we started competing around noon the next day. All the shiba owners were awesome and very supportive. Shelby and I definitely were a bit stressed at this trial, I think on account of the lack of sleep/traveling distance/our first trial in a long time/our first breed trial. We had some issues: a) the weave poles--by the end of the weekend, we were almost back in the groove, but we have yet to master them at a trial (which sucks, since we're now in Open); b) the teeter--this teeter was made out of something different, and had a tendency to double-bounce on the landing. Notice that Shelby flies off with her tail tucked under her the first time that it hits the ground in standard. She was not the only dog to react that way, that's for sure. I declared victory the next day when she stayed on it, and I basically chose to end the course there; c) the A-frame--we've now developed the lovely habit of jumping off above the contact zone on the descent side. This gets you disqualified, as you can see in our first standard run; we should have been disqualified in our second standard run (Saturday), but the judge didn't see it; d) me--The handler is always the biggest issue. I tend to get stressed, which didn't help matters at all--it just transferred to her. By our last run, you can see we were starting to finally chill out. We didn't have any Qs, but I learned some valuable lessons about handling and patience. You can't lose sight of the fact that it's supposed to be fun, and I think I did when I got stressed out. I was better the second day, but I still wasn't handling her the way I do in class. Ultimately, I'm still glad we went, because I met a lot of cool people and dogs, and I think Shelby enjoyed bonding with her own breed! Thanks Mom for the help with filming and driving, and thanks for always being our personal cheerleader. [music by The Vapors and The Cars]

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