Perry Regionals.

Last week was USDAA Regionals in Perry Ga.  I drove down on Wednesday because Daisy Peel was coming for the regionals and was offering private lessons.  I was really worried my lesson would get rained out.  I got there at 2pm and thought I could set up my RV and then I had arranged for someone to come get me and take me to the lesson. The lesson was only 1.5 miles away.

A storm was coming and I could see the dark clouds and here thunder every once in a while.

 But the Georgia  fairgrounds wouldn't let you come in to the sites until 4pm. Ack.  I thought great, now I will be setting up in a thunder storm.  I called the person who was suppose to pick me up, and she said just to drive over to the lesson. She felt pretty sure I could get my RV in there.  So I drove over but couldn't find the place. I called her again. When walked out , so I could see where they were. (the site is land locked).  I pulled down between two fences and into the gated area. (I never would have found this place  if she hadn't walked out).  So we had our lesson.  Lucky it was cloudy, which helped with it not being so hot.  I had a good lesson and learned a few more things that I was doing wrong.   I was able to turn my RV around and get it out of the area, to be able to leave.

It never did storm.  It sprinkled a couple of times but that's it.  So I was able to set up with no problem.

I had a pretty good spot. There was no one to the right of me. There was a fence and bushes and tress. So that was nice.

Thursday I went over and helped with set up.  Lots of people were already putting their crates in the building. Funny, you could do that if you helped with set up. But there is no way all those people who set up their crates, helped with set up.  

Then we ran  Master Challenge Standard and jumpers, then Steeplechase and  Grand Prix. 

Because so many people were entered in the trial, there were fault limits. Which means, if you Eed (went off course) you had to leave the ring.  They didn't decided this until after the trial closed and lots of people were mad.  But they really didn't have a choice.   We were already there really late most nights, like 9 and 10pm.  So I cant imagine how late if would have been if they didn't do that.

This was Master Challenge jumpers. I only entered Java in the Master Challenge classes.    So the first run of the weekend, and off course we went. Sooo my fault.  I turned my back to here driving to the opposite end of the tunnel and I think she thought I was blind crossing. Ugh!!  Not a fun way to start the weekend.

Then Master Challenge Standard.

And Java Qed and took 1st place!!  Whoohoo!!   No video. I stopped taping after I messed up in jumpers , thinking it was jinxing me. Lol.


Next up was a Local Qualifier for steeplechase. (Both my dogs have a Bye for the finals of Grand Prix).

I was so worried about Miley jumping the broad jump.  In USDAA its this huge metal thing, that looks like steps (at least to me).  She made it over the broad jump but then fell over the next jump and landed hard on her face and shoulder.   She seemed ok  but I didn't finish the run. 



She was ok the rest of the weekend until Sunday. She had two runs Saturday and one run Sunday, the Grand Prix finals.  When I took her out of her crate Sunday, late afternoon, took her down to the ring, she started limping badly. Walked her back up and was fine on the concrete. Then back down to the ring and she had a bad front limp. So weird. I checked her paws but didn't see anything.  I pulled her from the run. Sad but what else could I do.  Then Monday at home, she would limp badly on the living room rug but then get excited and jump off the couch, before I could stop her.  You would think with that bad of a limp, it would take her down when jumping off the couch. But it didn't faze her at all.  What the heck??  Today she is fine. No limp. I even walked her at the park, no limp. I haven't given her any medication.  So now Im wondering if she burned her paws on the parking lot at the trial.  It was that dark black tar type parking lot. We had to cross it several times to get to the RV.  I tried to take the shortest route and we ran but maybe that wasn't enough.  I guess time will tell. 




This run allowed us the run in the 1st day of Steeplechase in Regionals. Yay!!

The weather was very nice once the sun went down. It was cool and breezy.


Friday morning started early. Friday was all the team runs. In case you don't do USDAA, there is an event called Team. There is Championship and Preferred. A Championship team has 3 dogs and Preferred has 2 dogs.  I had both dogs on a team.  
We started early and had to be there ready to walk courses at 6am.   For some reasons we didn't start till 6:30am.  So people complained about that. Then they ran out of course maps. More made people. I gave someone my course map after taking a picture of it with my phone.  Then when they reminded people about  the time faults and leaving when you E, my two team mates where made. I think the one know already but the other one didn't seem like she knew. But they were both really upset. Which I understand but really I don't want to stay all night, so it is what it is.   I have no video from Team because it was just to hard with running both dogs on a team.

First up was jumpers.

I cant believe it but Java and I made it through this course. It wasn't  pretty but we didn't E. And we took 4th place. Whoohoo!! Miley Ed. She went straight form 3 to 5.   This doesn't look hard on paper but this course ate a lot of dogs.  A lot of dogs, big dogs, crashed the broad jump or went through is side ways.  Scary. 

Next up was snooker. Ugh , I had snooker and I better start practicing so I can get better.

I should have had a better plan for Java, I did all the weave poles after the reds and messed up with Java. I think she back jumped the last red. Ugh.  So I changed my plan with Miley and did #5 weaves, then red to the #7 tunnel. This worked my better. We made it to the closing until #5 weaves.  She didn't make the correct entry to the weaves. 

Next was gamblers. In team Gamblers, its a timed gamble, not a distance gamble.

This was lots of fun.  As soon as the buzzer rang, you had to run to  the gamble area and start with a tunnel, then jump, tunnel, jump tunnel. As many times as you could before the second buzzer rang. You had 17 seconds for Java jump height.  Java did great but I was scared of loosing all my points if I didn't take the finish jump before the buzzer. So I only did 2 tunnels and one jump. I left over 5 seconds on the clock. Ugh!!  I could have done another jump tunnel in that time. Oh well.  I think she placed 5th.

 We had a nice run in Standard and took 4th place again. Whoohoo. There were lots of world team people here, so I was very happy with myself.  There were areas , where I could clean things up a little to increase her time. My path from 14 to 15 was good but otherwise , we did a nice job.

So last up was relay.

My team mates didn't have very good runs today , so our placement was near the bottom.  They were tired and didn't want to stay and run Relay.  I cant say I wasn't disappointed but I understood. Its hard to keep running when you dog isn't doing well. Im not going to Nationals, so its not like I needed the Q.  But they were so upset about  having to leave the ring when they Ed, I just thought they would want to run , when they got the chance.  Oh well. It was fine. I had to stay anyway to run Miley for her Team.

Team Relay  for Preferred was different. Usually you just run two parts of the DAM team relay but this time they did a completely different course.

Miley ran the Squares.  She stayed on course. WhooHoo!!

 

 

These ducks were at the Perry National Fairgrounds. I have no idea what type of ducks they are. Ive never seen them before. Someone who was being given a tour, not related to the dog show, asked to see my pictures, so they could see a close up.  Then they talked to me for a little bit. The one guy, not the guy being given the tour, felt that someone, who had owned them, just dropped them off here. The one person also said they had never seen them here before.

 

 

Saturday was round one of Grand Prix and Steeplechase.

 

First up was Steeplechase.

 

 

 

There were some very fast dogs in this class.  Im not sure what happened here but for some reason Java ran to the other end of the #12 tunnel.  I yelled "No!!!!!".  And she stopped, right at the edge of the tunnel and came to me and we got back on course.   I wasn't sure if we made it to the finals and decided no to look until the next day.  Even with this mistake, here time was pretty fast.  I think we would have placed in the top three if I hadn't wasted that time.  




Next up was Grand Prix.  We ran today just for fun, we already had a bye into the finals on Sunday.

 This was going so nice, until I messed up #16.



So things I learned.   One,  Java and I are getting better as a team.  Were are so close to getting it together.  Two, I don't have a lot of fiends in agility.  So going to a trial for 5 days can be really lonely. Three, people aren't always as they seem.   I met someone this weekend and she was really nice and invited me over to her RV. We watched the horse race together and had a nice time. (Right before this,  I was thinking of driving home) .   Four,  Bring extra food in case dinner plans don't work out.  Five, try at all cost, not to drive your RV at night. Its to hard.  

I will finish this post tomorrow. Im tired.