Fun match (Dream Fields) - Teeter success!

Dream Fields held a fun match in conjunction with an AAC judge's clinic, which was a fabulous opportunity to test Lucy's teeter confidence. It was at Dream Fields earlier this month that Lucy had a big scare on the teeter, and since I don't train there and they rarely have fun matches as far as I know, this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. My single goal for the match was for her to do the teeter (and dogwalk, of which she was also afraid after her teeter scare) and hopefully to do it with confidence.

The dogwalk (which is the springiest of the dogwalks she's ever been on) was the third obstacle of the Standard course, and as she began to climb the upramp she slowed and looked very unsure, but she continued up with no encouragment needed. Later in the run, I collected her after the tunnel which preceeded the teeter, and then - the moment of truth. She did the teeter with only a slight hint of hesitation, again no encouragement from me was needed. A nice tasty treat for Lucy got us whistled off the course, but since they were encouraging participants to break the rules for the sake of the judges-in-training, they allowed those of us whose rule-breaking resulted in elimination to have a rerun. For the rerun, she had no hesitancy at all on the dogwalk, and again did the teeter with full confidence. No treat this time since we had used up our treat-giving quota.

For Gamblers, I was planning to not even attempt the dogwalk or teeter since she had already had four successes. But then, while I was trying to position her for the gamble after the whistle blew, she decided she'd rather do the nearby teeter instead. Well, that was just fine with me and we ended the run with that. :-)

Non-teeter/dogwalk related notes:
- While on the table she noticed the judge doing the count down and became nervous about him. She stared at him and had an uncomfortable air about her, as if wondering what the heck he was staring at her for, and why he was apparently talking to himself. This was extremely strange behaviour for Lucy, who's a total social butterfly with people, men included.
- On one of her Starters courses, she kept entering the 6-weaves at the second pole. We retried them two times but she kept doing it so I just kept going.
- Both Standard courses were good overall, as was her first try at the Gamblers, but on her Gamblers rerun (due to timer malfunction) she became a bit scatterbrained, running past obstacles left right and center.

Anyway, I'm just extremely glad (and relieved!) that she did so well on the teeter and dogwalk.