Another Trial

Ok, Im going to try to blog on my ipad but not sure its going to work. I cant even get this picture to be at the top of the page. 

  

The trial was up in North Carolina. Lets just say it was freezing cold.  Its been freezing cold the last few days so I expected it to be cold.  First I left my on bag on the table. It has all my agility stuff in it, like my ipad holder for my tripod ,my hand warmers, balls, and my notebook for keeping records of trials. Ugh.  So in case I ever do this again, Ive ordered this tripod holder for my phone. That way I can still tape myself without having to ask anyone. I feel like every time I ask someone to film me, I screw up my  run. Im going to keep it in my car, that way I wont forget it.  They delayed the trial an hour every morning.  When I went to my car Saturday morning it was snowing. It didnt know we were getting snow. 

It was really snowing at my hotel but  the closer I got to the trial, the better things got. My windshield wiper fluid froze and I couldnt clean the windshields. Ugh. Irritating.  Anyway, it was freezing cold inside the barn. Ack!!  I had multiple layers on  and unlike other people, I wasnt taking them off just to run. LOL I did find a spot close to the two heaters they had in the crating area. I really didnt want my dog to be cold. The poor pony that lives in this barn, had to big buckets of frozen water. 

(Oh good, I finally got my curser to go below the picture. )

First up was Master FAST

I felt and so did other people, that this was a hard send. I was happy there was a dogwalk because usually   there isnt in FAST.  First off, Java hasnt been stellar about finishing her weaves  and then with her being 25 feet away, I wasnt sure how that was going to go. So I did all my practice things first , like the teeter and 2 dogwalks.  Then I went in for the send. She got into the weaves and I step around the line. She stayed in the poles.  Then when she was in pole #10, I started saying tunnel, tunnel and she finished   the poles and went into the tunnel. Lots of dogs pulled into the handler at this point.  Then I ran down the line, toward the a-frame and told her to Climb, and she did it!!!.  Whoohoo!!  Only 3 dogs in all of FAST Qed and we were one!!.   I was freezing cold but happy!!

Next up was JWW.

I dont know how I screwed this up but I did. LOL  I watched the little dogs run. I ring crewed the class, it was freezing in the ring. Poor little dogs with no hair. They couldnt even run right. This one girl finally picked her dog up and told the judge she didnt know what was wrong but they were leaving. The judge turned  and looked at me and we both said at the same time,  "The dogs freezing".   So  anyway, I had seen the dogs almost go off course after #6. So I knew it would be a problem. This map makes the course look like its spread out but it wasnt. It was all squished up in the middle of the ring. There spacing between #6 and #18 was tight. I figured if I got my front cross after 7  soon enough, she would read it. NOT!!  Afterwards, I wish I had pushed into the pocket between 5 -6 more, then I  would have shaped her jumping effort to 6, so she wouldnt have been headed directly to 18. Then just RC 8. Oh well, live and learn.  

 

Next was Master standard.  I knew she was not going to do a 2o/2o on the dogwalk, based on what happened in FASt. So I was just going to run and pull hard to the left and telling her "Left, left, left".  Guess what, she did it and hit the contact!!!   I even left her at the weaves and did a blind cross between 14 and 15.  How confident was that???   And we Qed and took 2nd place to the fasted little border collie that I know. We always seem to be 2 seconds behind him in course time.  But who cares, it was awesome. 

Last up as T2B. 

We Qed in this class too!!   I even did a few more blind crosses.  I had to really be in front of Java to get those blinds in, in time for her to know where to go. It was awesome!!  It was a good day besides being freezing cold and I kept thinking about going home. LOL  

Then next day was a little warmer in the morning. But for some reason I was really tired. I kept thinking about driving home right after I left the hotel that morning.  But I forced myself to go to the trial.  Beside some of my stuff was there. Most of it was in my car but I left the crate and a pad on the ground, so I figured I better go back to the trial.  Our first run was ISC jumpers.

This was a tough little course.  She broke her start line, so even though she still managed to get the #2, a backside , correctly , I was late going down the line to the weaves. So she went to the tunnel and had her front 2 feet in the tunnel before I called her off. Ugh.  The rest was absolutely beautiful!!  We even got the other backside, #8.   I did an pull after 9. to shape her approach to 10, so she would get the correct tunnel entrance. (Lots of dogs went off course here).  The whole thing felt pretty great. Several people even came up to me and told me how great it was, (even with that mistake).  LOL 

Then it was ISC standard.

I screwed it up. The beginning was nice but then I was on the inside of#8 and trying to pull her into me over the jump, I guess I didnt slow down enough and she ran by  the jump and then when I tired to fix it she jumped it the wrong way and then it fell apart. We got back together at #13. Then she flew off the teeter.  I said "Oh No!!"  But it came out harsher than I meant it to.  I was surprised she stayed in the weaves after that. 

But the was T2B. An freaking easy course. 

And I messed it all up. I pulled her off #2, #8 and #14, but she did both her teeters  correctly.  Im not sure if  my harsh correction caused her to be very clingy or if I was lazy or what. Someone came up to me and said , "Wow Java was really naughty in T2B".  So I talked to her a little more about it, trying to figure out if it was here or me.  

 So I decided I was going to run  this next course hard ,and make sure she was confident about taking everything. This was Master standard.  That little part at 15-17 was tricky.  We managed to stay on course but we dropped the panel jump.  I was happy that she was back on track. 

Because they started the trial day 1 hour later, my jumpers run would now be another 3 hour wait. I wouldnt run until 4:30pm.  That means I wouldnt get home until late and I wanted to see my husband. So I decided to go home and end on a good note.  Besides we had already done 4 runs that day, I was good. 

 No Video, sorry. I left my ipad holder at home. 

 

Just some info for me,  A couple of days after getting  home after the Perry trial, Miley started waking up at  night again.  She had been doing so well for 2 months. I have not idea what happened.  She has now even started waking up twice a night to go outside to pee. 

Mickey, his  skin culture came back with no pathogens.  Hmmmm. So we decided to do nothing and see what happens. We did up his Thyroid medication  a few week ago, since his level was still way low. So far , so good.  His skin is still continuing to get better.  So hopefully it was just his thyroid causing all the skin issues.