After posting about Agility, we haven't been doing Agility much, because a physio who saw Mint recommended that he had a break from the sport.
Well, when Mint saw the physio, he was not lame or anything. But, Mum was very worried about strange movements of his muscles around his body. It is natural for us dogs to wiggle if the side of the body or the tummy is scratched, isn't it? But, in Mint's case, almost anywhere caused a large section of his body to twitch.
After a thorough examination the physio told Mum that Mint had several sore spots, which in fact explained why he didn't want to walk on his hind legs the day before. Also, he had been dropping rails when doing Agility, which was strange, considering that he can jump really high. So, now he has been having a break from Agility, and instead he has been getting Mum's massage and doing some stretching and muscle strengthening exercises every other day, if not every day.
However, we have still been doing Rally Freestyle Elements (Rally-FrEe).
Well, I just realised that we hadn't posted about Rally-FrEe much! OMG! The only post about Rally-FrEe in the past was two years ago! And it was about my failed attempt at demonstrating Rally-FrEe! At that time we had never done the sport, but a half year later Mint and I started competing in video events, as there aren't enough competitors to hold live events in New Zealand.
So far, we have competed in five Rally-FrEe video events and earned our Rally-FrEe Novice titles. In our last event that took place last month we entered the Intermediate class.
Last year there were times we didn't want to do Rally-FrEe at all, because Mum always got stressy when videoing our rounds. But, it seems she has changed her approach, and she looks more relaxed when she does it. If she feels relaxed, we feel relaxed too and can perform better. And in our last event we got qualified with very good scores.
For those who don't know what Rally-FrEe is, here are our video submissions for our last event.
This is my round, which qualified with a 2nd place on 189/200.
This is Mint's round, which qualified with a 1st place on 191/200 points.
When my round was videoed, no one else but the cameraman, our dad, was around. But, when Mint's was videoed, there were so many people around, because Agility class was brought inside as it was raining heavily outside. I was so impressed with how well Mint performed despite so many distractions!
Last Thursday our ribbons arrived!
