Crow Tastes Nasty

Crow tastes nasty. No, I'm not talking about the flying, feathery, ornery buggers that make a general nuisance of themselves. I'm talking about the kind that comes from being an idiot and having to cop to it. But here I am. Copping to it on my own blog because that's the only way to make a permanent record of my assmanship (This one will be in the 2012 dictionary.)

Okay, so what am I eating crow for? Well, last weekend's agility recap was highly distorted although, to my credit, I didn't realize it until a couple more days went by along with some super smart people spoke up and provided insight as to what caused The Great Fall-Apart. I mentioned not thinking anything I did with my front cross at the end of the a-frame could have queued Vegas to take the jump ahead of the a-frame, behind me. Well. Here comes a big serving of crow. Thank you to Kim for pointing out how similar that move was to my blind crosses on the end of tunnels. Yeah; I didn't see that one. But really, I didn't scoop like I had intended to to ensure she really moved through the contact zone. I didn't turn as quickly as I should have. I made the cross too close to the end of the a-frame. Everything about what happened was my fault! Again, thank you, Kim, for helping me to see what I did wrong. It wasn't huge; it was fairly subtle, but it mattered to Vegas.

It doesn't hurt to remind myself here, too, what Rachel reminds me, Vegas is consistent for me. She doesn't try to go off course. She doesn't act like a nut. She's a fantastic partner. Unfortunately she has a second rate handler. So I need to work on remembering that she is rock solid. She is trained and experienced. And I am the one more likely to bumble things. Whew. I sense lots of crow in my future.

Last but not least, another thing Kim said makes me ponder going G.I. Jane on my hair one of these days soon. Okay, not really, but perhaps a signature hat should be in my future. She's so right! I do brush my hair back from my face often! Ugg! Maybe I need to go back to long hair and put it in a pony when I run. I can't believe I don't give credence to some of these things on my own without a big temper tantrum, pissed off, pity party where I blame my poor girl! Ugg! So stay tuned on the hair front. Next trial is not until Memorial Day weekend so we shall see what I come up with before then.

So moving on from my crow dinner, Vegas, thank God, loves me to death and we're having a good week. Last night was an unexpectedly gorgeous, dry, sunshiney spring evening so before Leo's agility class she and I took off on a bike ride to one of our favorite places. The Willamette River Water Treatment Plant is gorgeous. It's also a great place to ride because it has nice, paved paths running alongside plus grassy areas. That way Vegas can run on a soft, lower-impacting surface while I can ride on a paved surface. It's a win-win. Plus there's rarely too many people there at once so I almost always let her off leash to run free. She loves it. Along the way there is a wide, open, grassy field with slopes that Vegas enjoys, too, and a cute little bridge to cross over. All in all, it's a sweet little spot of heaven right near home.

Risking life and limb, literally, I got a kick out of Vegas on our ride back toward home. For the stretch prior to the bridge is the path I ride on. To the left is a sidewalk-width strip with intermittent shrubbery. On the other side is a wide strip of grass leading up to the sloping hills of grass in the field. Well, Vegas took off between shrubs and raced me down toward the bridge. I decided to bike it back the direction we'd come and she raced me back again. So heading toward home yet again I decided to go for a little video. Gotta love smart phones!