Cedar Rapids Weekend

Christi and Maggie and Magic and I took a little trip this weekend down to Cedar Rapids Iowa. It's true that I almost always have a good weekend when I am doing dog stuff, but this one was super. Probably because I was with really good company.  I enjoy spending time with Christi, and we sure don't seem to run out of stuff to yak about.  We went down for the 4RK9's Obedience and Rally Trial, and since we were so close to CIndy's we were also able to spend some time there which was also very nice. Cindy and David were wonderful hosts, and to make it even better I got to hold the babies, and play with the older pups and the chickens!  Simply cannot beat that.

Unfortunately Maggie did not seem to be feeling well this weekend, and while she worked for Christi, there was a bit of a disconnect.  She did well, easily qualifying, but it just wasnt quite as pretty as usual.  Hopefully by Premier she will be back to kicking our butts, which truly was my expectation.

I have been having some issues with Magic lately expressing how much he would rather not play in the obedience and rally rings any more. He has been showing his lack of interest with less and less enthusiasm toward working. I have been worried about that, and had decided that this weekend I was going to try to find the right mix for him.  So we did a little bit of obedience mixed in with the rally.  I think I was pretty successfull in finding the right buttons to push. We were not perfect, but I saw some huge improvements in the performance, but better yet, I saw some desire start to show. Not lots, but enough that I think maybe I am going in the right direction.   In fact yesterday we had the best NQ ever. The score sheet brought tears to my eyes and not because of the NQ.  We only had 1.5 points off on heeling in open!  He was heads up and happy motoring along.  What a joy.  Of course we mucked up the drop on recall with an anticipated come, and went down on the long sit, but truly I am OK with that since that wasn't my goal. 1.5 I was tickled.

Over the course of the weekend, Magic manage to earn the high scoring herding dog 3 times, High in Trial twice, and also earned his URX2.  That one was fun since Christi and Maggie earned their URX on the same two runs.  Not to mention they picked up their UROC!  The MN/WI gals had a pretty darn good weekend! 

(photo taken when we got home, Magic is squinting, but I wanted a picture of it all together-I dont anticipate having such a weekend again so wanted to keep a remembrance)