Another Trial

What crazy weather we had.  I tried to get into an indoor trial but got wait listed and my friend forgot to enter. So then we decided to do an outdoor trial.   Last weekend it was 85 degrees.  Saturday is was 35 degrees and raining when I woke up.  All around us people were having snow. My friend , who live just below me but still in Columbia, sent me a picture of her yard covered with snow.   We decided to go anyway. When we got to Charleston, it was cloudy and windy but no rain.  Well, until we were done setting up our stuff.  It never poured but it was raining on and off.

 

This was taken Sunday.

 

Anyway, our runs were ok on Saturday.   Java had weave pole problems. Not sure why.  She had a nice jww run but popped the last pole. Then a nice T2B run and again popped the last pole. I forgot to go back an fix it. Ugh.

 

 

The weather was miserable.  I didn't stay for the B-match. I think only 4 people entered the b-match. Even in the regular trial I was the only 12 inch dog and there were 3- 16 inch dogs. Most people left. The contacts weren't rubberized. I didn't realize this until walking the course and the equipment was wet. Plus on the dogwalk, the down ramp supports, kept coming loose. Sometimes you didn't see it until dogs were running. Ugh.
It was windy and jumps kept falling over.  Dogs were dropping bars all over the place.  Even on Sunday. I didn't see a lot of slipping.  Then on Sunday I notice that the bars seemed short on some of the jumps.  Plus the PVC jumps were sometimes coming loose , which made the bars barely touch the jump cups. I kept seeing people pushing the jumps together. On one of my friends runs, the bar was uneven going across, and her dog dropped that bar. Someone noticed it after her run. They went out there and pushed the side pole down into the 5 way connector. Then the bar was straight across.

Granted  your dog shouldn't be touching the bars but it seemed like it didn't take much for them to fall. One person came out of the ring, her dog had dropped multiple bars. She said to me, this is so weird, my dog never drops bars.   It was crazy.



Im only showing Miley's runs for Saturday.  Sunday was terrible ,with both dogs. The weather was much better. Sunny, no rain.

This trial is at a  huge park. They have a big dog park. I took the dogs in there first thing in the morning so they could run off some energy.  There were a few people in there but they were all near the lake, where there is a big beach area.  I Stayed far away from them. Then all of a sudden I heard a huge dog fight.  I saw multiple  trying to pull big dogs apart. I quickly leashed up my dogs even though we were no where near them. Then, they didn't even leave the park. They all stayed there. Crazy.

So Sunday I had entered FAST. That way I can work on the teeter and weave poles.

 

Both dogs did the weave poles twice in my run. They were perfect. I even left Miley in the weaves and moved off to the #10 jump. Java Qed.  Miley dropped the bar in the send. The sun was coming through the tress , so there was sun and shade right there where that jump was. She jumped weird. 

But then in Standard both dogs couldn't do their weaves.  I corrected Java with a "no" and she then did them perfect. Didn't help for Jumpers, she still popped out.  Miley, I made a mistake and also said "no" , when she popped the poles. Bad me. She stressed and ran around the ring, which hasn't happened in a long time. I felt terrible.  Ugh!

 

 

 

 

I felt pretty bad when I left Sunday. We sucked.  Ugh. And in 2 weeks we go to the UKI nationals.  Man, we aren't ready for that and now I wish I hadn't entered.  Every time I think things are coming together, they fall apart.  Java's teeter is looking so much better and now she it popping poles.  I don't know why she dropped those bars in the last jumpers run.  The one after the weaves, she didn't get any lift off her rear end.  Maybe she slipped but I couldn't see it because her back end is kinda covered by the jump stanchion.

Mickey is still covered with sores.  It is getting better but it still looks bad.