Monday, June 22, 2015

Trial weekend


I went to Sanford, NC for an AKC trial.  It was indoors , which was nice because it is now so freaking hot outside!!   On the drive there , it was 105 outside. I had my air conditioner blowing 3 bars and the lowest setting. I was sweating.   A couple of hours later I was shivering.  I look at the outside temperature, now it was 74. Wow!!  A storm had come though but I never saw it.   By the time I got to Sanford, it was hot again. LOL.  My friend was about 45  minutes behind me and she ran into two hail storms. Im glad I didn't hit those.  As soon as I got into Sanford , I stopped at the park. Its a really nice park called San-Lee park.  Except I cant get in because the road to the park is closed and I had to drive several miles around to finally get in.  They are working on the main building. It looks a mess, broken windows everywhere.  But the birds are still in their cages. Poor birds. I hope they get bigger cages when the construction is done.
 
 
 
The bathrooms were closed at this main building so I hiked up the hill to the campground. There were people tent camping up there but the bathrooms were locked. WTH??  So I peed in the woods. I didn't know what else to do.  Why would they have the bathrooms locked and people are camping there??  Where are those people going to the bathroom? 
It was freaking hot outside so we didn't walk around much.
 
 
Our hotel was very nice. I only took Java with me. I had pulled Miley because she was limping at the last trial. She hasn't limped anymore but  she will be on rest for a couple of months.
Ive been to this trial site before. In the past they have had the air conditioner cranking and I usually freeze there.  So I took my fans out of the car. Oops, mistake. It was cold inside in the morning but as the day heated up, the air conditioner couldn't keep up and it became warm inside.  The lady who owns the building had replaced the dirt/sand stuff she use to have in the ring and now it has turf.   The good thing about it, is you no longer smell all musty when you leave the place.   I use to have to go home and wash all my crates because everything smelled like must.  
Java had never run on this turf before and I wasn't sure how it was going to go.  I went to the practice jump but they only had 2 squares of turf under the jump, so it wasn't enough for your dog to practice running and turning.   I fingered our first run would just be practice. 

Its hard to watch people run their dogs at the site.  You cant bring any dogs into the ring area, until its your turn to run.  They use to have you wait outside before your turn. They changed that and now you wait at the top of the steps, inside, then you go to the bottom of the steps, then its your turn to go in.  The one big problem, was some of the  gate stewards liked to walk around with the gate sheet in their hands.  So you never knew when it was your turn to run. We asked several times to put the sheet up on the board, but I guess they didn't want to do that. I know their job was hard, because they couldn't see the ring, so they would have to go into the ring area and see where the dog was running and who was going in next but it was hard on us trying to run our dogs and not knowing how many until you ran.   
Anyway, this looked pretty easy right?  So many of the big dogs went off course after #8, they took #12.  The other problem was , after #13, they took the wrong tunnel entrance.


 So, we did stay on course but she dropped a bar.  I think I was late on the front cross.

Next up was standard.


Easy, right???  I screwed it up. LOL.    I thought she would have more momentum coming off the a-frame and I could send out to jump three. But I had to support jump three more and then I tried to force a front cross after the tire and she missed the tire because I was late. Ugh. I should have just reared #5 but I didn't think that quick. I feel like Im never going to get this. Easy course and I couldn't even do it. Ugh!!




Oh Well, what can you do. Live and learn.

We were done early, like before 3pm.  But it was to freaking  hot outside to go to the park, so I just went back to the hotel.  We went out to dinner at the Iron Pig. It was very good. They  also were the ones who brought the food into the trial for the workers. 

The next day, standard was first.

Another easy course, right?  Ugh, I should have done more of a lead out at the startline. Because when she went off the end of the dogwalk, she wasn't sure which end of the tunnel to go to. I was saying tunnel and she was headed to the right one but  she spun and we got a refusal. So I figured , go for broke now. Leave her at the a-frame and see what happens.  She missed the chute. It never occurred to me she wouldn't come straight off the a-frame and take the chute right in front of her. Ack. LOL


Then Master Jww.


This was all out , just run as fast as you can.  And she did but so did everyone else.  There is another sheltie who's father is  Rush, the dog who has been on the world team multiple times and  won nationals several times.  Anyway in AKC he jumps 16 but USDAA he jumps 18.  He can really run fast and did this course in over 7 yards per second. whoohoo.  Java did it in 6.5 yards per second. And took 2nd place. Yay!!


3 comments:

Helen said...

That would have been Beckett at that tunnel too, if I had tried to tell him which tunnel mouth from behind. Nice Jumpers! We did UKI for this first time this weekend, they have weaves in the Jumpers too. I think it's time for Beckett to move down. He had the slowest time of all the 16" dogs in the Jumpers which isn't like him at all. But then again maybe it's me that's slowing down but there were times I felt like I was waiting for him.

Sara said...

6.5 YPS! Wow! You must be in really good shape to keep up with ehr. Java did awesome!

Anonymous said...

I can't even believe that you got 2nd with 6.5 yps! FAST dogs!!! How fun.