No. 100 and today I'm beaming

Marvin at BREW BeagleFest 2008.
Photo credit: My friend, Nicole's, friend, Jayne.

Welcome to the 100th post on my SnoutBeagle blog! I started the blog just over two years ago as a means to journal Diesel stories. Since then we've gained a Marvin and I've made blogging friends – BIG thanks to Dogs with Blogs! Who would have thought? Thank you all for checking in on us and your kind, much-enjoyed comments.

…

Marvin and I had not been to agility class together for three weeks. The first week I took Diesel instead. The second week we were still cleaning up water in our basement after ALL THAT RAIN. And this week I wasn't feeling well enough to want to attend our Monday class. Well, last night was a beautiful evening. I was feeling back to my old self and I had a hankering to run around an agility course with Marvin.

I e-mailed the Wednesday night instructor and asked if we could pop in to her advanced class last night to do a make-up class. It was a go! Admittedly I was nervous because we've never gone to a higher level class than our intermediate, but I knew a couple of the students as well as the instructor so we went for it.

Unfortunately, I thought the class started at 7PM but it actually starts at 6:50. I had reserved the ten minutes "early" we arrived to walk the course, but those ten minutes "early" actually put us there just in time. The instructor had set up one course with 15 obstacles which we all ran first. Then we did three (or four?) smaller exercises using parts of the same course. Finally we ran the entire course again. It was set up really well and I enjoyed all our runs a ton.

Our first time out Marvin was in snouting mode. The instructor suggested I run with him on leash to keep him moving before he did too much sniffing. He seemed to get the hint as halfway through I dropped the leash and we were back on track and focused (the leash knocking all the bars as we went!). The instructor made the comment "He's a typical beagle!" when he was snouting (which she had said before when Diesel and I had her for beginners class). That makes me even more determined for her to see what we can do when we're on track as a team. In all honesty, even though both boys are prone to beagle-mode at times, for the most part I feel we've accomplished a great deal in the focus department.

Snouting wasn't an issue for any of the smaller exercises. Marvin enjoyed the runs and was looking to me for more. Since I hadn't had the chance to walk the course I felt I could have definitely done better in my handling tactics. Oh well, next time!

Finally, the last run ... the same as the first run. Back to Jump One and Marvin found the floor rather interesting once again. I started before he was "with" me so I asked for a restart. This time I took my time getting us on the same page ... and once we started Woweeeee!! The boy – suddenly motivated like crazy – flew over the jumps, took the tunnel from a distance and did the weaves faster and more perfectly than he had ever done. The advanced students ooooed and ahhed as he mastered those weaves (not kidding!) and I gleamed from the inside out. Another tunnel, the A-frame (my handling still klutsy here) and a string of jumps. He was so excited he barked over the last three jumps and I couldn't have been happier.

We left class and I was impressed as heck with my bluetick boy. All the students were so friendly and supportive and laughed with me when I laughed at myself for doing a silly handling maneuver. The instructor was helpful, positive, and gave each student individualized suggestions. Not only that – I have a feeling we made an impression on her. She probably now sees more than a beagle sniffing the ground when she looks at Marvin.

What a great evening and today I continue to beam.