Popper's First Teacup Trial

After trying out teacup agility this previous winter, I entered Popper today at a local Teacup Dog trial. We entered Near & Far, and two rounds of Standard.

Near & Far is kind of like jackpot, except that there are TWO gamble lines, one near, and one far. Jackpot is super hard for Popper, the biggest reason being that he has some nasty separation anxiety. However, he performed flawlessly, earning a Q and a 1st place. The building had one of its bay doors open in the course area, which was distracting (to put it shortly) to a beagle mix. However, I found that yelling "TREATS!!" is quite effective. :)

Standard was a bit of a surprise. Popper was distracted running off the teeny a-frame, and ended up doing a back jump. I later discovered that in Teacup, you aren't allowed ANY faults at all in Standard, which is different than I'm used to with CPE. :) So no Q in the first one, but he did Q the second round. Of course, there was a different table behavior the second time (first one was stand) but nobody told me! So after I had him stand, the judge told me it was supposed to be sit. Okay, no problem. He sat for about three seconds before he turned it into a beg. The judge started laughing. The crowd was laughing. I was laughing. He was trying his darndest to get a treat, LOL. Eventually we got it worked out so he sat for five seconds (four paws on the table!!), then we continued on. :)

And that ended our day. 2 Qs, 3 1sts, and a very, very happy dog. The judge actually pulled me aside after our second run to tell me what a neat little dog Popper is. The whole time she was talking to me, Pop was happily slurping my face, LOL. I think next time I may do an entire weekend - which I've never done in any venue before, but Popper may last the course in teacup. I think Popper enjoys teacup more than CPE, and I imagine it has something to do with the cute little equipment, him getting to be a "big dog," and the fact that the course size is so much smaller, so he's doing stuff more often. We're trying to earn a TBAD title before the next BRAG dinner in January (or is it Feb....).

Tomorrow is Popper's tooth extraction, and I'm pretty freaked out about it. I had a weird nightmare last night that had nothing to do with anesthesia or teeth, but the dogs were in it and were in danger all the time, and it was only my constant vigilance that kept them safe. I tell ya what, I will NEVER have my dogs' teeth cleaned. It seems silly to go through all this for such a thing. If it weren't for Popper needing his tooth removed (his molar is cracked), I wouldn't have them cleaned at all. I've been hugging the little guy all night. And of course he's eating it up! We'll see how he does tomorrow morning when he finds out he isn't getting breakfast...