AKC Trial

Well, I dont have any pictures to post. I didnt take one picture. To busy I guess.  I drove up the morning of the trial. I didnt realize I was working the first class of the day. 

Ok, I just could not have just one picture for the blog. So I went out and took this.

Miley took 4th in ISC standard. She dropped one bar in every run this weekend. Java got her novice jumpers title. She qed in standard on Saturday and both jumpers runs.

Anyway, I walk into the trial and they are calling my name to work. Oops.  So I put Java and Miley in their crates and went and worked.  But I didnt get to finish because I had to go walk my course, novice jumpers. 

I thought the weave pole entry was kinda hard for novice dogs but then the theme of the weekend was nested courses, so all levels had the same opening.  But I was pretty sure we could do it. What I wasnt sure about was the 6 jumps straight out ending. I knew I would fall behind and she was spin because she didnt know where to go. I need to work on my "go on" more. We only had one spin, so that was good. I really thought I would get two. My late rear cross almost caused her to go into the tunnel but she turn on a dime and saved me.

 

Next up was Miley excellent jumpers run.

 

Miley missed the weave poles. Then stressed. It was weird even for Miley. Afterwards , when I was walking her outside to cool down, I was thinking maybe I shouldnt run her anymore. Maybe it just to much for her. To much stress. Then she vomited a large amount. Lots of white foam and some food.  So maybe her stomach was hurting. She didnt vomit again all weekend.

 

 

My turn must have been late at the end and she went wide.

Next Java's standard run. I knew that jump after the dogwalk was going to be a problem. I figured she would take it.

Its weird how far away a jump looks on this map and but look that far on the course.  So she got the DW contact but took that off course jump. I didnt even know we had Qed. Someone told me.  Who knew you could have one off course and still Q, not me. LOL

 

 

Next  up was Miley's T2B.  For this run, my hope was she did her aframe contacts. Whoohoo, she did. We dropped bar. Ugh.

 

Last up was ISC Standard. I entered this for the experience and there is no table.

 

Lots of collection in the beginning to get your dog into the tunnel. Lots of dogs dropped the first bar, including us. And several went up the dogwalk even with the handler right there.

Miley did well, did her contacts. She Qed and took 4th place. (you can drop a bar in ISC and still q).

 

 

I think I was the only one who front crossed after the tunnel the second time. I figured if I didnt she would take the #1 jump. Most people just called there dog.  Nice run.

I stayed at a hotel with my friend. Im not sure why she agrees to room with me. My dogs always seem to wake us up in the middle of the night. Either barking or  having to go to the bathroom. This night was no exception. A car made a horrible no muffler noise and all the dogs started barking. (other dog people  at the hotel said their dogs all woke them up barking at the noise too). After I woke up I realised I was getting a headache.  I took some medicine. It didnt help. Then I thought maybe I was congested because the pain was over my right eye and temple area. So I took sudafed. That didnt help. I finally took my migraine medication. That took care of it. Except now I had been up several hours and had woken up my roommate too. I felt bad. But at least we got a few more hours of sleep. 

First up was ISC jumpers

 

I walked to the line. I knew Miley was a little over the top from how she acted at the practice jump. I walked in, took ther leash off, I hadnt left the start line or dropped my leash. Miley did a lap around the first jump. I called her to me and made her sit. I never saw the judges arm go out calling a fault.  I lead out and started my run.

 

 

So after my run, Miley is all  happy and stuff. The judge comes up and said she NQed me for training in the ring. Making my dog sit at the start after she circled the first jump was training in the ring. Then she said she allowed me to continue but she should have whistled me out of the ring. I dont know why but this really upset me. I feel like Miley and I cant catch a break. I realize that I should have better control of my dog. But I never left the start line. I know the rule if you lead out and your dog breaks, then you cant set your dog up again. I knew if she took the first jump, your run has started. But I never left the start line and Miley didnt take the first jump. Of course everyone is coming up to me asking what happened.  Then someone came up to me and said that yesterday a green handler started her run before the "go". She thought she heard it. They stopped her on the 3 obstacle and they let her restart. So when she restarted, she lead out and the judge whistled her out of the ring. She couldnt lead out because she had already lead out the first time when she thought she heard "go". OMG!!!!!

Im sure you are tried of reading 

This is how close the dogwalk was to the end of the wall. That is not right for novice dogs. I can see excellent dogs but novice? Again the courses were nested all weekend. So Java missed the dogwalk contact turning. This picture is of the excellent course. Look how close the table is to the dogwalk and they came off the DW and had to go to the tunnel. I didnt run Miley. I figured the table that close to the DW was a disaster waiting to happen and I didnt need that. ( the judge in the picture didnt design the course, it was the lady who said I was training in the ring)

I probably didnt have the right frame of mind going into the ring. I had just finished the ISC jumpers run with Miley. I tried really hard to let it go but I think it was still bothering me.  I released Java to soon. I should have  got a little more of a head start to I could really push on the end of the dw. Anyway she missed the contact and didnt do her weave poles correctly.

 

 

 

Next was excellent jumpers.

I wanted to front cross between 8 and 9 but I didnt make it. So i had to RC 10. Lots off dogs, even with the RC thought they were going to the weaves. So the front cross was the right thing but I just didnt get there. When we ran, I felt like Miley was slow. I ran down that line of 2-4 and thought, "where is she?  did she go around a jump?"  She finally caught up to me. (this was another reason I decided not to run her in standard. I thought maybe she was sore or tired. she doesnt rest in her crate the way Java does).

 

 

Then I worked two classes.  Finally it was time for Novice jumpers and excellent standard at the same time. Ugh. But I decided to not run Miley after seeing the course so it wasnt a problem.

Here is the course map for the excellent standard run.

 

After the 24-26 inch dogs ran the judge changed the course. Like I said the judge who actually judge the course didnt design it.  She couldnt get around the weave poles after judging the dogwalk contact to see the a-frame contact. So they called the akc and changed the course. The penciled in obstacles are what it was changed to.

I just concentrated on running Javas jumpers course.

 

 

Java broke her stay. I didnt know what to do, as you can see in the video.  Hey, I dog who doesnt freak out when I stop, thats a nice change. I kept running since I had practice yet pulling her for not staying in practice.

 

 

Not a pretty run but she sure saved me a few times.  We qed and got our novice jumpers title. Not sure we are ready for open but here we come. LOL
I drove home and about 30 minutes before getting home my headache came back. By the time I got home it was a migraine.  It took several hours to go away. Then it came back again this morning. What the heck???  Im falling apart. My headache is gone now. I feel like I wasted the whole day. 
(sorry if there are spelling errors. Im tired)