Our Second Freestyle Event!

Tessa and I took part in her second Freestyle event this past weekend.  It was extra nice because it was at the training center where we train, and where I teach.  So, it was at "home", so to speak.

On Saturday we were in the first group, and we were going for our second Beginner leg.  The performance went pretty well.  It wasn't as nice as the one we did in March, but it still went well.  Tessa had fun, and that really was the main goal.

Unfortunately, my camera malfunctioned, so I don't have any video, but I do have a couple of still shots.  Here we are going out to perform . . .

 And here is our opening pose . . . 

You can see that Tessa was well pleased with herself!!!!


We did qualify!!  Yay!!  And that was her title!!  So, that is Tessa's first live event title!


She is now:


Tessa, WFD-MF, ITD


Love it!!


She enjoyed the day.  She liked hanging out in her crate and being at the competition.  I took her home at lunchtime, knowing that she was going back on Sunday.  It was a smart move, although I don't think she appreciated it all that much!!!


Here is Tessa with her first title ribbon:

And a silly shot with her ribbon.  I think we need to train this as a Freestyle move!!

I enjoyed the day a great deal.  There were a lot of really good routines, and many that were very entertaining.  I was definitely inspired to go and train more!

I did have a bit of a quandary because we qualified.  I hadn't planned on qualifying on Sunday.  I expected to NQ on Saturday and go back and try to qualify on Sunday.  Well, that didn't happen.

Tessa and I were not ready to move up to Novice.  We hadn't even been thinking about Novice.  At first I was inclined to just go back the next day and do Beginner again, even though it wouldn't count for anything.  I was thinking that I'd like comments on the routine from the other judge.  Well, pretty much everyone in the world, with just a few exceptions, thought I should move up.  And I finally gave in to peer pressure.  But - I was not willing to perform our regular routine because I would be showing it under the same judge and the technical score had not been in Novice range.  Tessa would have had to nail the heck out of her moves.  And I didn't want the pressure.

So, I decided to get out the plaid covered box I made in the winter, and use the skirt that a friend had loaned me, and go do the Scottish routine.  It wasn't finished, so it would be part planned, part improv, but I figured it would be fun.  I wasn't trying to qualify with it, but since it wasn't finished I was OK with that.

Tessa was glad to go back the second day, but she was tired.  She curled right up in her crate and went to sleep!!  So, a bit before her performance time, I gave her a "rev-up" massage, and did some food tossing games to get her "up" a bit.  Then we reviewed the box prop moves because she hadn't done them in months!!!

The performance went well.  Honestly, I don't remember a lot of it.  I wish I had a video, but I forgot to take my camera back on Sunday!  Ugh!!

I do remember that she got up on the box and sat on it when she was supposed to put front paws up on it!!  But that was OK.  I walked around her, sitting on it, as I would have had she had her paws up.  She did switches nicely.  She did her leg weaves, but I needed to use hand signals a bit.  When I sent her to the box, she put paws up, but I acted like it was what I wanted.  I put my leg on the box and she went under it and around the box.  

I do remember the ending.  I had her lie down and I held my arms in a "presenting her" gesture.  It was nice, I think.

I was very happy with her.  Tessa isn't crazy about improv.  Speedy loves it, but Tessa hasn't done much.

I was shocked beyond belief when I found out, later in the day, that we had qualified!!!!!  Just.  We got an 8.0 Technical and 8.0 Artistic.  The minimum you can have in Novice is 8.0!!!!

I was thrilled and amazed and definitely pleased!!  Whodathunk we'd have a Novice Q before we even started training for Novice!!!

I let Tessa stay the whole day on Sunday, although she slept for most of it.

It was definitely a great weekend!!  I can't wait to do more of this with her!!