Christmas and trials

For Christmas, well the weekend before Christmas, we drove to Savannah.  Everyone in our family had things they wanted to do for Christmas, so they wanted to meet the weekend before. That didn't quit work for me but we made it work. I had to cancel my seminar on Saturday with Loretta Mueller. Than to beat all, I woke up vomiting on Friday, and had to cancel the one day of the seminar that I could do. Ugh!!! 
The drive to Savannah was rough. It usually takes us 3 hours and it took us 5 with traffic.  We had a good time. We played a  game called "Heads Up" with Stephanie's cell phone. It was fun.  We didn't really buy gifts. But we did do a white elephant exchange.   We left that night to drive home. My son had to work and I left the dogs at home.  (both my  nieces brought their cats, so its a good thing I didn't bring my dogs).   It was a rough drive home. We kept having to switch drivers, but we made it.

Then actual Christmas , we spent at home.  Our neighbors invited us over for Christmas dinner. It was very nice.

Then  on Friday, I went to Perry Ga for a USDAA trial.  Last year the trial was freezing and windy. So windy , it almost blew Miley's feet out from under her. I remember thinking, "What am I doing here?".  But this year is was warm. It felt so nice outside.

 I entered Miley in Team. On Friday we started at 7:30am. We walked team standard and Team gamblers and then ran both.

 

Miley was awesome and took 1st place.   She took 2nd in gambles.   Of course I some how deleted my videos for Saturday. So no video's of any Q's.  That figures.  Java had a pretty Advance jumpers run with 1st place. I cant remember what happened in Miley's PIII Standard run but we didn't Q.   Java missed the DW contact in standard. (Ive  been changing Java to a 20/20 , but she didn't stop on any contacts at the trial. She didn't even think about it).   We had Steeplechase, I just entered Java.

 

 

We were awesome on this run.  So many dogs went into the tunnel after 5 but Java read it perfectly.  Then I messed up. I was so worried I was going to push to hard after 8 and send her off course to 2, that I didn't push hard enough and she missed 8 and then took the backside of it. Ack!  the rest was perfect.  She probably would have taken first place if I hadn't screwed that up. Ugh!!  (Im so mad that I deleted this video. )    I actually think we ran Grand Prix first and then steeplechase. 

Here is the grand Prix course map.

Lots of people ran the outside of the tunnel. But I figured I could never beat Java to the end of that. So I  FC between 2 and 3 and it worked fine.  Our only mistake was she missed the dogwalk contact. ACK!!



We left at 8:30 pm and some people we still running. what a tiring day. But they put a lot of classes into the day. So if you didn't enter all that , it wouldn't be bad.

Then next day started again at 7:30am again.
First up was Team Snooker and Team jumpers.

 Miley was doing great and then for some weird reason, after she finished 6B and I was sending her to 6A and she flew off to the tunnel. Tweet. Silly Miley.

Then was Team jumpers.

The hard part was 10 to 11. many dogs went off course into the tunnel, including Miley. I was planning to front cross after the broad jump. I started to drive in for the FC and then chickened out. so my rear was late and she took the tunnel. After watching the video, I could have made it. I wimped out.  And then E'ed.  You never want to E in Team. It kills your score. Better to drop bars, miss contacts and get refusals, that only adds time to you score.

Talk about dropped bars....   Miley DID NOT drop one bar all weekend. Whoohoo!!!!!  I have no idea why sometimes she drops bars and other times doesn't.  But she was on fire this weekend.



PIII standard, no Q. Ugh!!  I have not idea why she freaked out and ran a loop around the ring. Once she came back, she was perfect. Ugh!! So he called a refusal on me but  he wasn't calling a lot of refusal. I saw some sheltie spin and not take the jump in front of her 3 times (the same jump) and he didn't call a refusal. I thought maybe you don't get refusal in team . My friend sitting next to me said the same  thing. Then we saw the next dog get a refusal, so who knows. 

Java ran  starters standard on Sunday.  She gets to the table and just stands there.  She has been trained to do an automatic down on the table. She wouldn't down. Then you see my arms go up and I said "really" to her. LOL, after that she went into a down.  I really thought she hit the dogwalk contact but he called it . ugh.  Well never get out of starters. LOL

Next was Biathlon jumpers.

Oh yes and Java's big accomplishment  was no broken start lines. Whoohoo.  It was 30 feet from jump #1 to jump #2. I even asked someone else how far they thought it was and they said about 30 feet.  I went almost to the second jump before I released her.  That's the biggest lead out that Ive done with her. Yay Java!!! I thought I had her coming over Jump #2 and I turned my head and she cut behind me. Ack, so off course. Bummer.

This was a tough little course.   missed the weave pole entry and the dogwalk contact.  Then off course after 18. I wanted to front cross after 16 but didn't make it.



Last up was team Relay.  My partner E'd but Miley rocked her side. Whoohoo!!  It was the  hardest Team course Ive seen so far.  Sorry, I cant find the map.
We finished at 7:30 at night. I really wanted to go home. It was a rough drive. There is one part of the drive, about 1 hour, that is back roads.  It had rained and there was fog. A trucker passed me on a two lane road, double yellow line, up hill. I was doing the speed limit of 55. I thought we might get killed. You couldn't see if someone was coming because we were going up a  hill and then into a valley. Dumb trucker.  I slowed way down and no one came in the opposite direction, thank god.   I had to stop at a rest area around 10:30 and slept for 15 minutes. That still didn't help. Then I stopped at an all night McDonalds.  Thank goodness, that helped. I got home a MN. Safe and sound.

Lots of good things happening with my dogs as far as agility.  Im going to another trial this weekend. What was I thinking???  I feel like Im still not recovered from this pass weekend. Oh, well. Off we go!