This week we had our dog club Christmas party. My older dog Rik does not feel a lot of Christmas spirit when it comes to being in close proximity to other dogs, so Able got to have a turn at the games.
The Border Collie Stampede
Recall races are an annual feature at the party. Able won his heat easily, and then he had to wait while the other dogs had a turn.
Able did not want to wait quietly. Able very much enjoyed his five seconds of glory, and he wanted to go again NOW! He’s always been very calm watching the other dogs at agility, but now he serenaded me with a selection of his best monkey noises as he tried to drag me back to the start line.
The big dog recall race final consisted of Able, another Border Collie and a Heading Dog. Three high-drive herding dogs – what could possibly go wrong? Able went rocketing down his lane and won the race by a head. Apparently the race was not over though – the dogs were so obsessed with each other that they rocketed straight past us and just kept on going. I was so, so, super proud that when I called Able away from the Border Collie Stampede, he came straight back. He was so hyped up that he shredded his tug toy, but maybe Santa will bring him a new one if he’s good.
The Cone Race Chomp
The other event we attempted was a cone wrapping race inspired by rally-o. We had to make our way up the lane of cones, wrapping each one, and then race back to the start line with our dogs. For an added challenge there was an exclusion zone around the cones, so that I had to send my dog from at least two metres away.
I wasn’t entirely sure whether Able would handle the distance aspect, as he’s a bit lukewarm about cones, but he surprised me and performed them really well. We actually got to the far end just ahead of our opponent, a much more experienced agility dog.
It soon became clear that I’ve never tried to run flat-out with my dog next to me before. When we do our baby agility handling exercises, I always take a head start, and reward with at my side once he catches up to me. Able was still quite excited after his recall race victory, and when I sprinted off back to the start , he assumed that there was going to be some sort of tug toy celebration if he followed me.
He was so confident in this assumption that he launched himself at the point where he expected the tug toy to magically appear – and bit me in the wrist.
I was still trying to win the race, but it was a bit hard to run with a revved-up border collie pup bouncing around right in front of me, so sadly we were unable to make a clean sweep of the Christmas party games this time.
There’s always next year. And you better believe I’m going to teach my dog to run next to me without mauling my arm before then!