Go home trophy, you're drunk!

Last Thursday was the end of the next block of training at our local club, and consequently the end of course test. I had one or two doubts as to how this one was going to go, as Daisy and I have had to go back to basics on our retrieve training.

Somewhere along the line, I have managed to teach Daisy that the process of retrieving her toy involves bringing it back to about two feet away from me and then spitting it in my general direction. Meanwhile, using the clicker to get her holding the dumbell has been going well, except that we have only just started on the "going to get it" element of the retrieve. So while I have been sorting out the toy-spitting, it's still a work in progress, and the full retrieve with dumbell is somewhat haphazard because we haven't especially worked on it yet. Not least because she tends to bounce up to it, knock it flying and then let it roll back into her mouth and chew on it as she's bringing it back, which will lose us a point or two (or five) in competition.

Daisy's heelwork was not too bad in her test round, though she bounced again at the start. She doesn't really bounce in training, so I wonder if I'm that little bit more animated during the test and that sets her off. She also had to sneeze a couple of times on her way round but, bless her, did it without breaking stride. Went for a snap decision on using the dumbell for the retrieve, which was the right call - apart from looking at me with slight suspicion when I sent her to fetch it and then giving it a decent chew on the way back she did a nice retrieve - and a lovely straight present in front which I think was a surprise to both of us.

Anyway, we did win again, so that's two for two and the pressure's on for the next class! And the judge was extremely complimentary, which was nice (publicly - I got some rather more robust feedback afterwards :))
No trophies you could kill people with, this time, but instead one that I think may have been dropped at some point. So I shall attempt a DIY repair at some point - looks like it should be fairly straightforward. And I'm disproportionately delighted by the fact that it seems to be another repurposed cup that was originally sponsored by my local chippie.