Agility Our 2x2 experience

I am a totally dorky student. I'm the student who sits in the front row with my clip board, pen, pencil and highlighter. I also have no qualms about asking questions for clarification. Even if the topic doesn't pertain to my dog, if I don't understand I'll still ask. I always expect a pop quiz and I fear I won't be prepared.

This means prior to any training class I have my dog walker walk her during the day and I make sure Marley has a brief walk before class. This means when class starts Marley is ready to learn, in essence she has her highlighter ready to note anything important.

Our trainer has only seen us when we are both calm and ready to learn. She has recently discovered our hidden slacker. Yes, we totally dropped the ball.

I took a private lesson to figure out why we were not getting the 2x2 weave method. Our trainer watched us for 2 tries and then told me I had to "get Marley excited" about the activity. So she offers to show me and I hand her our toy. She is getting Marley excited and then she says, "GO."

Marley takes off missing the poles and runs circles around us for about 4 laps, while my trainer's face becomes more and more horror stricken. She finally asks in a small voice, "Does Marley do this often?"

My face is trying to look horrified and smirk at the same time, I'm sure this isn't a good look for anybody. I indicate yes, Marley does have a tendency to run circles around me when she is excited. Around Marley's fifth lap I call her back and we work at a more sedate pace.

It seems our cover is blown and she'll probably never call Marley a great little dog with a ton of agility potential. On the positive note I did learn we can't work the 2x2 method until I learn how to throw a toy.