Monday, October 26, 2015

What now???

So I went to someone else's place to train my dogs this weekend.  There were several people  and dogs running throughout the day. At the end of the day, I asked if it was ok to run my dogs before I left.  So I was going to run Java one more time over a small standard course.  She ran up the teeter and BAM!  The whole teeter falls flat to the ground. I dont know how she stayed on but the she did. (She probably thought this was some type of new proofing method. )  Anyway, I got her off the teeter and checked it.


Well the weld broke on the bottom support piece. so when that broke, the whole thing  went flat. Ugh!!! Java seemed ok. I put her over another teeter , that was there, and she seemed ok with it. So hopefully, she is ok with what happened and she wont be scared of it.  The person, who's equipment it was, felt bad and was just glad Java wasnt injured.  How very scary that this happened. Ugh!! (No, it wasnt a MACH1 teeter)

In other news, I went to a trial up in Pendleton SC , not this weekend but the weekend before. Once again, it was a small trial. It was suppose to be 2 rings and 2 judges but because of the small entry, they had to go to one judge.

On Friday, it got very warm during the day. I didnt bring any shorts or short sleeve shirts. I didnt know it was suppose to be so hot.  I think the picture from above, it from Saturday morning. Its that time of year where its chilly in the morning and hot in the afternoon. So I had the heat on in the rv at night and the ac on during the day. LOL. Overall the weather was beautiful!
Friday went ok.  I had not entered Miley in this trial and was going to enter her later if she was ok. Remember I thought she might have had a seizure?  I havent seen anything else that concerned me but I forgot to enter her. So only Java was running.


"Wait, what??  Im not running?"
I thought she might be very barky because she couldnt run, but she did really well.

First up was  FAST.  It didnt look tough but not many dogs got the send.

So I knew I had to be down the line to cue #4 otherwise your dog comes out of the tunnel and curls in toward you.  Many people put their dog over the jump with 2 points and then send to the #3 tunnel send. It just didnt work. so my plan was to  come off a-frame,   from #9 to #1 and then blind cross between that #1 jump and #5 double and then send to the #3 tunnel send.  Well that worked great but she flew out of the tunnel so fast and took the #4 jump fully extended. So then when I tried to cue the turn back into the tunnel, she back jumped the #4 jump.  Ugh!!

Next up was Master standard.

Java left the start line early, so I had to RC on the flat into the weaves. (I had planned to front cross). When she came out of the tunnel she turned the wrong was for a second but I got her back. I was worried about the turn off the a-frame and that she would be so far in front of me, that she was take the start jump instead of the chute. But she didnt. I used verbals to  help with that.

Anyway, I asked my friend if anything was called. Its hard to run and see if your dogs is getting their contacts. But she said nothing was called. whoohoo!! I didnt go check the computer screen.  Sometimes I do but most of the time Im just glad I Qed.  Later someone came up to me and said,  "Wow, you beat xxxx (Dog name)".   I was surprised. Then the owner of the xxx dog came up to me and told me I had beat her dog. So I went over and looked at the screen and sure enough we took 1st place. But just barely. I think we took it by .10  of a second.  (To bad I didnt get a tighter turn out of the chute).




Next up was JWW.

I really wanted to run this and I needed one more double Q to get the 5 I need for nationals.  I posted turned #2, I turned to the right and Java went left. What the heck?? I wasnt late either.  The only thing I can think of it , she knew the course didnt go to the right because there are no obstacles over there, so she went left.  I was able to save it and get her over the #3 jump but now Im behind and cant cue the #4-5 line and she went off course. Ack!!  So disappointed.

The next day Premier standard was first.


I felt pretty good about everything on this course except getting the correct tunnel entrance after the aframe.  (down side of running a-frame. ) Anyway, she didnt read the backside to 2. WTH??  We practice this all the time. Even watching the video, I dont know how we missed it. Then it was just kind of a mess until she got into the tunnel.  I couldnt leave her at the teeter, because I figured she would fly off, so the kept me behind for the threadle at 12-13 but she got it. Then the dreaded a-frame -tunnel thing. I even layered the triple, trying to pull her into the left side of tunnel but it didnt work. (I took out the crappy stuff at the beginning of the run).




I really wish we had done a better job but live and learn.
Next up was Master standard.
It had the same a-frame tunnel set up as premier. Ugh!!  I tried to handle it better, call her, give her more verbals but I got the same results.

She also went wide around 7.  I dont have a video of this run. (My ipad camera is doing that same crappy white screen thing sometimes when you tape. Ever since  Apple send out that 9.0 update, my camera has been doing that. It looks like its taping but when you are done and try to view it, it shows a white square  spot and said that it cant read the format the video is in)

Next up was Master JWW.

So this looked fun!!   She broke her start line, so I RC 3 and then RC4.  Everything was going good until #17, I went to RC her, to turn her to the outside, and pushed her off the jump. Akc.
So no Qs today. I told my friend I have to stop thinking about going to nationals and  stop counting the points I need. Its messing with my head.

This was a tough course.  My friend, who is a Qing machine, had trouble. I saw several other people, who are really good, have trouble too.   Great.  Anyway, hardest course of the day and we Qed. LOL   That figures, It didnt count for anything toward going to nationals either.  LOL

I came out of the ring and several people said that was awesome ect...  I said thanks but in my mind I was thinking, "No it wasnt. All I did was kept calling my dog off of things".  It wasnt a smooth run.  She kept thinking she knew where to go but she wasnt right and I had to call her back to me. Like 8-9.  She was headed straight to the tunnel and I had to call her off and bring her back.   Some how me made course time. Not sure how.
So here is the weird thing about premier. They have a specific course time set. Its not based on yardage. How can they do that. The 8 inch and 12 inch dogs have the same amount of time to get through the course. Thats really unfair to the 8 inch dogs. Im not even sure what they were thinking.  And how can they just add all these tight turns and think that , yep all dogs should make it through in this amount of time.  The more tight turns, the slower the dogs will be because they have to slow down and collect to make the turns.  Several 8 inch people were really upset. And I dont blame them. I told them to send the course map to the AKC and a letter with their complaint. I feel they are going to have to change this part of premier.  Otherwise no one is going to play the game if they have no chance in Qing.

Now to RV trouble.  On Saturday my friend's RV kept tripping the breaker at the pole where you plug in your RV. It happened several times. And one time it started smoking when it popped the breaker. She wasnt tripping any breakers inside the RV. So I have another friend, who was at the trial and lives nearby. I asked him to come look at it.  Well her plug was bad. He could see that one of the prongs was loose and  it was fraying where the plug connects to the long cord part. He thought he had an extra one at home and he came back and fixed it for her.  When he took the old one off, it was all melted inside and wires were touching each other. He said she was lucky she didnt have a fire.  (So if you ever keep popping the breaker at the pole, get your connector and cord checked)
Then the next day , when I was packing up, my slide wouldnt go it. The button would click but then shut off. So the button will shut off if it senses something is wrong. Like it taking to much pressure to pull the slide in.  Ugh, If I have to hand crack this thing in again, it will take me over the edge. That last time I had to do it, I had so much pain.  So, I called my friend again. I felt so bad asking him to help me. He wasnt even at the trial that day and had to drive over.  He help me get it back in. He hand cracked it and I kept pushing the button inside and it finally started pulling in on its own but it took a lot.   So my friend said either the slide is out of alignment, the motor that pulls the slide in is going bad or the motor needs to be adjusted to pull just a little harder.  I made an appointment to get it checked. Of course they cant see me until Nov 5th. I told them I need it back by the 11, because Im going to a big dog show. So I hope they can do it.

Ok, Im tired of writting now.  After just trying to forget about needing points and counting points for AKC, we  double Qed on Sunday. Yea!!  This was kind of a tough course. Tight in places like 4-5-6.  It doesnt look tight on the map but if I tried to go into the spot between 5-6, it would have pushed her over #11.


So I layered that #17 jump in the opening.  Then I knew I couldnt beat her out of the tunnel to be on the left side of 8 to push that backside. So I stayed to the right and pulled and then did a RC on the flat to get her over the backside.




So yea, we double Qed on Sunday!!  I didnt count points but yesterday I couldnt take it and counted my points. I have 510 and need 600.  I have all my Qs but you have to get Qs to get points. So will see how things go. I have 3 more trials to get points.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

gosh, you guys are looking great!