Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Trial update

LOL, its about time huh????   Sorry. Ive been beat.  It started Thursday with the trial set up.  The truck was late getting to the trial site. So while we waited me and another  girl fill 50 small sand bags. The truck finally shows. I think we had 5 people for set up. It was a lot of work for 5 people.  I was exhusted by the time I got home.  Hey did I tell you Im not the trial chair anymore. Whoohoo, it was so freeing!! I felt so relaxed all weekend.   I actually talked to a lot of people too.

I didnt feel nervous about my runs.  But sorry to say, 8 runs  and only one Q in T2B.   Miley did lots of circling in the standard ring. I feel like it got worse as the weekend went on.  I was really surprised I didnt get whistled out of the ring on Sunday.

So lets see.  Friday our Ex JWW run wasnt to bad.  There was a serpentine  after the weaves and for some weird reason I told her "out" after the first jump, she went out and took the jump from the wrong direction. (So I was making it a threadle).  Ugh.  But except for that it was great. She even jump the 16 inch jump that was set wrong without dropping the bar.


In Open standard we started out nice. Then she dropped the bar to the jump before the a-frame. It was a late drop, and I heard it as soon as she got on the a-frame. And silly me, "tisked" and sighed. So  poor Miley thought she was wrong getting on the a-frame because of me  and turned around to get off. Ugh. Then she couldnt get in the tunnel. Im not sure what that was about. She circled 1 and 1/2 times at the table. When she got on I told her several times what a good girl she was and then left the ring to reward.


Then Saturday came.  Standard, Miley jumped all her contacts, couldnt get in the weaves but had a pretty nice table. LOL.

Ex JWW, here is the course map.
The green line is what I had planned to do. But when running it I got to far behind and had to layer #11-12 by staying behind #14. ( red line).  All of a sudden I realized I was in the wrong place and tried to fix it. Im not sure why. She was on course and I should have just fronted where I was. But instead I tried to fix my position and messed Miley up.  LOL, Oh well.


Then we ran T2B.  Hey we stayed on course.  But another dog beat us by 2 seconds. So we didnt get first. You dont get any placement ribbons or toys for 2nd so I didnt even look where I placed. I was just happy to be on course.


Then came Sunday. I woke up and every part of my body was screaming to stay home and rest. I didnt think I could run my dog again let alone work and clean up all this stuff.   Almost hit a deer on the way there. Lucky I was going slow enough that I could hit the breaks and the deer kept running and didnt stop. Standard was first. It was a similar course to excellent. I timed for the big dogs in excellent and only a handful were clean.

I posted both the excellent and open course maps.  I knew it was going to be tough coming out of that short chute and push Miley down that line. Lots of big dogs went off course either taking the a-frame after the #6 panel jump or taking the off course tunnel opening after  the chute.  Anyway we had lots off circling. (sorry you had to wait a little to watch the run begin. I forgot to delete that beginning stuff of just standing there).



So a few of us who were in the open ring missed our walk for excellent jww. So we got to walk after everyone was done running. Then we ran. Almost everyone was gone. We had a beautiful run. After 41 attempts at trying to Q in excellent JWW I thought we might manage to do it.


Really all I could to was laugh. Its just not mean to happen for us.   How could I be upset. At least we were on course. This is huge for us. That is my biggest problem.  I cant say I wasnt disappointed.
So I ve been exhausted for the last two days. Im finally recovered. I will say that Ive been contemplating a lot about quiting agility. I just kept thinking that I must just not have what it takes to do this. I shouldnt be this hard.  Everyone who comes to my co-op class on Mondays got multiple Q's and titles this weekend, except me.  So Im teaching the class and they are all doing better than me. Hmmm, what do you think that says. 
Something that was funny. This guy that I know who take pictures and he and his wife have a dog from Java's breeder , he came up to me. He said he got some good pictures of my young dog today. I was confused because he knows who Java is. But I said, You mean Java?  He said no, your other dog. ( I was walking both my dogs). I pointed to Miley. I said , "oh you mean Miley".  He said , No, Miley is the dog that just had the awesome run in jumpers.  I laughed and said "yea, but she is the same dog who ran in open standard and ran circles in the ring".  He couldnt believe it.   "Thats the same dog?".  LOL Yep. 

3 comments:

Chris and Ricky said...

Too bad about little things happening because you and Miley had some really great runs! I loved how calmly you stood and waited for her to stop circling - that was great! There is lots of positive stuff going on and you have made such progress even if you don't have the Qs to show for it.

If you still enjoy it, don't quit. It is obvious that Miley LOVES agility. I sure wish Ricky would go to the startline at a trial or class and be that excited! It really is neat to watch!

Unknown said...

Don't take it too hard on yourself.
You guys did a beautiful run out there. About quitting agility, I have no experience in the field. But I would say, if you and your dog enjoy it, then keep doing it. Maybe trials aren't too great for Miley, but you never know, maybe Java will be an awesome agility dog for the future too! Don't give up hope!

Anonymous said...

really great jumpers run. What a heartbreaker. so so close.

Diane