Cold, Windy, Crazy

I had entered an outdoor trial in Savannah this weekend.  I only entered Java on Saturday, two runs that were back to back. (It was a one ring trial).  Then I entered Miley on Sunday, back to back runs.  I didnt enter much because I was worried about weather.  If I didnt run, I didnt want to loose a lot of money.  I was planning on driving down Friday after work but I was to tired.  So I went down Saturday morning. Not a problem because I didnt think I would run until at least 10:30am.   When I left Columbia is was cold and raining.  I got to Savannah and it was beautiful and sunny. Wow, what a surprise.  It was really nice out. Great!!   Except my runs didnt happen until after 12:00 and now the weather had gone south.   It was cloudy, looked like rain, cold and the wind was blowing like crazy.  In the briefing , the judge  said, if the jump or jump stanchions fall over, just keep running and take the jump as if it was correct unless it seem unsafe for your dog. She didnt want people stopping and telling her jump or jump bar was down. She said we would worry about it when the run was over.  Ok, no biggie. I walked the course and was ready to go. I was the first dog on the line.

Right before I was getting ready to run the double stanchions fell over, the wings of the jump before the double fell over and the poles around the broad jump fell onto the broad jump. OMG. And the teeter was moving on its own. Now Im nervous. I dont want my dog to get hurt.  I had to ask someone else to video because all my friends were missing.  So I run. She gets the dogwalk contact, hits the table and almost slides off. Some how hangs on but sliding all the way around and now facing the opposite way she got on. I now realize the contacts arent rubberized. Ugh!  I then go table, weave poles. Wow thats a hard entry. But we get it on the second try and go one. We finish the course without anything falling over. Whoohoo. The judges comes up to me and say, that was a great run but you ran the course wrong. I didnt do jump 7 and 8 after the table. ( thats why the entry to the weave poles were so hard. LOL)  Oh well.  The person taping my run closed the app on the ipad instead of hitting record and couldnt get it back open. So I couldnt see the dogwalk contact and thats all I really cared about.

There were only 4 dogs in Novice standard and open jww was next up. So the next run happened right away. This time I was determined to run correctly.

I did run correctly but I have got to remember to support the jumps. How many times do I have to pull her off the jumps before I will remember this????



She got the weave pole entry. And she went on at the end with me falling behind.  I left after this. It started raining when I was driving to my parents. 
The next morning it was freezing and windy. I bagged Miley's runs. It wouldnt have been bad if the wind hadnt been blowing.  Plus the non-rubberized contacts had me worried. Java had burned her pad and I think it was from the table. So I didnt want to chance it with Miley. O'yea, I saw three people slip and fall Saturday and I was done half way through the day. So it just seemed like the right thing to do. I probably wont enter this trial again. The last two times I went the weather has been cold and windy.  Plus the non-rubberized contacts.....

Lost Confidence

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This morning started out great. I didn't have to be at the trial until after 9am so I had time to take Miley for a walk. I got some great sunrise pictures. Well, at least I think they are great. Then I was able to play chuck-it with Miley in the backyard to burn off some energy. We showed up to the trail and was sunny and warm. I think it hit 70 degrees today. I was feeling pretty good and then I went to walk the excellent jumpers course.



OMG, I thought, I cant do this. This is just to hard for us. I think after yesterday, I just didn't have it in my to do another crappy run. I kept trying to get my mind in a better place but I just was overwhelmed by this course. All I saw was off course everywhere. It looks spread out but walking it , it was very tight. Ugh!
My plan was to lead out pass #2 and do a come to heel and then rear cross her over #3. ( everyone I saw just lead out just pass #1 and post turned) Then bring her around #5-6 with a post turn and back up and pull her in toward me so that I could rear cross #8 so she didn't go off course.( most people did a front cross here) Well, the lead out worked and the rear cross worked, even the post turn with a back up worked. Whoohoo and then she didnt read the rear cross before #8 and flew off course over that #17 jump. Crap. We did manage to get back on course. She pulled out of the poles at the tenth pole and missed jump #17. I dont have any video because the person I asked forgot to film it. That's ok, I really didnt need to see that again. On the 3 hour drive home I thought to myself , why didnt I just walk an easier course for her and I so we could be successful? No, human nature is to follow the rules. Lol She did have a rock solid start line on this run. She didnt move a muscle. Also , no circling so thats a step in the right direction.

Next was out open standard run. No confusion there, like yesterday.

We still didnt do the table. She ran great. The only problem was that chute to the weaves. Wow, she just blasted passed the weaves. I guess I should have said "weave" while she was in the chute. She just couldnt collect to get into the weaves. I didnt put her back in because I didnt want to stress her. I front crossed after the weaves and put her into the tunnel. We did manage to get all the correct tunnel entrances all weekend. And again, no circling when things went wrong.
This was a tough day for lots of people. This one couple, who run 5 dogs, didnt "Q
" at all today. She told me they haven't had a day like this in 2 years. WoW. I heard someone else talking when I was walking JWW. She said only one large dog "Q"ed in the excellent standard run.

Thanks to everyone for the kind and supportive comments. It really means a lot to me.
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Out of Sync

Miley and I just had our signals crossed today. Im not sure what the deal was. I gave her the "Rescue Remedy" that the animal communicator recommended. Do you think that had anything to do with it? Does anyone use that stuff. I started it 2 days before the trial. Anyway, our first run was excellent Fast. It was a tough distance challenge for me. I thought I could sling shot her out to the jump but she didn't take it. So I brought her over a few more jumps and tried it again and she did the first two jump and was suppose to turn over the last jump in the distance challenge but my cross was late and she went off course.



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Next was Open Standard. I new there was no "Q" for us because I wasnt going to do the table. I wasnt sure if the table being where is was might be a problem. But it wasnt. We did well until after the teeter the she misread the rear cross and went off course grabbing lost of obstacles several times. Maybe she thought we were doing fast again and she was trying to get the most points.


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Im not sure why she kept misreading those rear crosses, weird.

Last was exc Jww. What a tough course. I walked it multiple times and really felt like I had it down pat as what I was going to do. But right before my run I was drawing a blank but then got it back again .


Im not sure why she didnt take jump number 3 and then I just started winging it after that he got all messed up. We finally go back together and finished nicely.
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Hopefully tomorrow we will do better. Hey at least she got all the correct tunnel entrances. Do you think Ill ever get the hang of this? I sure hope so.