a title a finish and a new start

I finished up the stitching on the Herb Gatherer over the weekend and started on the back-stitched trees. These trees are going to take forever! I worked on them for at least six hours and swear I didn't even make a dent.

I was going to have a photo of my new start, Autumn Bouquet from Blackbird Designs to show off this morning. It's been in my stash for a couple of years now and I felt like working on something with a fall feel to it. Well I forgot to put needles into my bag. And my backup needles weren't in my computer bag. And to really make it worse, my backup, backup needles at work are not there. I must have used them at some point and forgot to put news ones in there place. So tomorrow I'll bring entire packs of needles for work and for my computer bag. So I have nothing to show. bummer - I hate losing an entire days worth of train rides.

Clancy had a VERY uneven weekend at the agility trial and quite frankly I'm ready to pull him again. On Saturday he earned a first place in Novice FAST earning his Novice Fast title. So his new AKC name is Clancy O'Shay NA NAJ NF. That was the highlight of the weekend and I'm very pleased. Although the rest of what I have to say doesn't sound like I'm happy at all.

Now for the rest of the day on Saturday - he had the most amazing jumpers run but didn't do his weaves. :-( On his standard run he did his weaves beautifully but missed a contact so no Q. We also participated in an exhibition sport that didn't count for anything but bragging rights called Time To Beat - it will be a new AKC event starting in the new year. He did his weaves like a pro and we ended up in 5th place for the 12th inch dogs. :-) Against Excellent Level dogs. That was nice. On Sunday it was more of the same. A beautiful jumpers run no weaves. I decided I had enough so if he missed his weaves during his standard run I planned to pick him up ending the fun. Well he missed his weaves so I picked him up half way through the course showing him there are consequences to not completing his weaves. At this point I don't know what else to do. I did get a look from him - he's never not been able to complete his fun before so maybe something will click for him. No weaves, no play. If he wasn't perfect in class and at home I would not try this. But it's only at trials where he decides not to finish all 12 poles. He makes a perfect entry and just stops at some point before we are finished. I've watched the video and so have my friends and I am doing nothing to pull him out. It really is all on him. We have three weekends of trials in the next four weeks planned so I'll see if this has any impact on him. If I get more of the same, I won't sign him up for any more trials and I'll concentrate on Aoife for the time being.

I have some nice video of his runs and I'll post them to YouTube at some point today.