Cold and damp!

The weather has been cold and damp. Well, really, it isn't THAT cold, but the Pin Heads are feeling it. They are old dog and feel the cold. My friend Mary gave Colby a bed that has an insert you can heat up in the microwave and stick under the pad. I did. Roscoe stole it! He was SO happy!

 He can look so cute (or evil?).....

 And odd if I use my fish eye feature! Funny looking little old dog!!!

 Evil! Definitely EVIL when Colby arrived to see what was so interesting. She would have liked her warm bed, but Roscoe had something to say about that,............evil little monster..............

 He looks satisfied that he was clear and to the point, doesn't he?

We had a trial on Saturday. Not Spur's best performance, but some moments of brilliance! A couple really amazing DW's right into the crowd, which is always a crowd pleaser. His jumpers was quite nice, but our starts not so fast. It wasn't a busy trial, so not at all crowded. Then during pairs I ran into a jump, and the whole thing fell down and the bars rolled across the floor. Poor little Monkey ran away from me, tail tucked between his legs. I had to chase him down to get him back. Oi. And that all immediately after he did his teeter. Damn it! Timing. Timing is everything. That was really BAD timing.
He recovered and did bark at me at the outgate. I always know he is OK if he barks at me at the outgate. The two runs after that he was quite slow at the start. The start line was over by where that all happened. He managed to pull it together and do OK, but no more Q's. He took off course tunnels, which was fine with me. They make him happy and after such a bad deal, being happy is my number one goal! I did have someone come up to me and say I do a really good job making sure he doesn't know when he is "wrong" and that I just keep him happy no matter what. That felt good. I do work hard at that because I am only human and my instincts tell me to fix things and make it right. Meaning, go back and redo when he goes off course. I can't do that with him. I have to just keep going like he was perfectly right all along. Usually, it is my fault anyway. Sometimes he just takes things because he wants to and that's fine, too. I can't get all picky about him when we have a struggle out there, for sure. I have to be positive and tell him he is brilliant no matter what. He IS brilliant. He has skills I don't see from too many teams, we sure have learned a lot of things, but executing them during the pressure of a trial is a struggle. And for me, getting out my verbals in time is a HUGE struggle. My jumpers run I seem to say "Good BOY", over and over and over. What is that about???? Yeah, he IS a good boy, but he might like some direction, too!!!! LOL!!!