This weekend, Maggie and I were at Lake St. Louis for an agility trial. She ran really well, but was beginning to do her start line creep again. She gets SO excited to run, that she does not want to stay where I left her. The problem was compounded this weekend because the club that sponsored the event had fabric covers on their winged jumps, which blocked her vision. So, if I left her on a stay to lead out a few jumps, there were times when she could not see me and she would stand up or creep up until she could see me again, rather than wait for my "okay" to go. We were still running well, but I realized that every time I let her run after that, I was reinforcing the idea that is was okay to do.
Saturday afternoon the club had a new event that the AKC is experimenting with called RAD (Run and Done- meant to go very fast). So I put my money down, led out three jumps, turned around and there she was, creeping up! So I walked back to her, said "wrong! Bad stay!" told the judge "thank you" and walked her right back to her crate. Her head hung low and she was in shock that she didn't get to run the course. But fortunately she's a smart girl, because the rest of the weekend, she stayed on that startline without moving a muscle. It was worth every penny of the $10 entry fee.
(photo from Sunday, click on it to see a larger version and how she tucks her front feet under her chin when she jumps)
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