From the Masters Ring...

It was a very long, but fun weekend at the Contact Point USDAA trial.  The weather was good, it kept threatening to get too hot, but a breeze always seemed to kick in just in time.  It was a big trial with a DAM and a Grand Prix in the Masters ring, so the days were long.  Overall, I liked the courses, but I was surprised by how many E's there were. To keep things moving there were fault limits (whistle blows to indicate a team may now leave the ring), so maybe I just don’t normally notice how many off-courses happen.  It just seemed like more than normal.   

All my dogs were good.  Finn's results don’t reflect how good his efforts were.  He did pick up Qs in DAM (15th with Peggy B. and Indy and Kathy Marshall and her lovely bc Windy), Grand Prix (3rd, despite a refusal at the weave entry and me stopping to mark his self-released contacts) and a Snooker leg.  I sent him off course in a couple runs with complete conviction.  Those were agony, because both times, I realized what I’d done just as he committed to the obstacle I’d sent him to.  In one case, the judge had to jump out of the way, since she was standing in front of the tunnel I mistakenly sent Finn to. AAARRRRGGHHH!!!!!!!  He gave some really amazing efforts in both Standards and had a gorgeous Jumpers run that was jinxed by Doug Hanford, who predicted the double was coming down (let’s just say, Finn wasn’t the only dog that knocked that bar, there were only two clean runs in 26“).   

Miss Star was such fun to run!  She started the weekend with Adv. Gamblers.  I made my opening plan to work her contacts and figured her first dogwalk would be slow.  Instead of slow, she did a great dogwalk on her first try.  I ended up having to kill a lot of time with only two jumps to play on.  She did a great gamble and picked up her second leg towards her AG.  Yay!  We ran Pairs with Bob and Cooper.  The judge didn’t let us pick sides and Star’s half had the teeter.  I have to thank everyone who told me that I didn’t have to do it, but my gut told me it was time to face our teeter demons again.  Star was great, totally confident.  WOOHOO!!!!!  I then lost my mind and sent her off-course.  We fixed our mistake and the agility gods gave us a gift Q (I’m pretty sure my off-course should have eliminated us), which finished Star’s SR title! 

On Sunday, Star was the first and last dog I ran, so she had a TON of time between her two classes.  She did a good job in Jumpers, but knocked the second bar.  I was really pleased with her time and how she handled my  crosses.  Her other class was Masters Snooker and by that time I was dragging.  She was very good.  A couple bobbles in the opening:  a missed weave entry and some confusion at a jump.  In the closing, she paused at the top of the A-frame to stare at the very tall judge in a floppy hat.   For a moment I thought she was getting scared, but once she checked out the situation she was fine.  She made her next weave entry, but the whistle blew while she was in the weaves, so we only made it through 5 of the closing.  It was still enough for her first Masters Snooker leg!  I’m so proud.   

Max was great in his regular classes.  He was a bit of a pill in a couple of his DAM classes, but no E’s, so I can’t complain.  His DAM Gamblers run was pretty funny.  I planned on going for the big points gamble, which involved him doing a set of 12 poles with me standing back past the first pole.  This was pretty risky, considering there was an option that would have been easier to do (hindsight I should have taken the easier option).  In the opening, I planned on doing the weaves twice to practice adding some distance.  Max wouldn’t do the weaves the second time.  First, he came out in the middle of the weaves, then he missed his weave entry, then he started growling and when I finally got him weaving again, the whistle blew, so I pulled him out of the weaves and started the gamble.  Things weren’t exactly going as planned, but he did the gamble beautifully.  Whew!  With all the time wasted at the weaves, he really needed to do the gamble to help his team with points.  

The DAM team (all GVDC team Diane/Gidget and Anne/Zip) did qualify (19th) and that’s all that matters with the DAM.  He Qed in 5 out of 6 of his regular classes (knocked bars in Jumpers).  He did a great job in Gamblers, took 3rd in Saturday’s Standard, which finished his SACH-Silver (25 Masters Standard legs) and 2nd in Pairs with Sarah Johnson and her awesome young bc Rav.  Sunday’s Grand Prix was another terrific effort by him and he ended up 5th.  He also had a lovely  Standard and won the class!  He took 3rd (Super Q) in Snooker with a great effort.  He would have won the class, but the whistle blew while he was jumping the last jump of 7.  I’m treasuring every show with Max, he’s such a joy and I only wish everyone could be so lucky to have a dog like him.  What a guy! 

It was great  to have so many GVDCers at the same trial!  Having friends around makes the shows even more fun.  I didn’t see nearly as many runs as I’d have liked.  Diane and Gidget had some awesome runs.  She has become such an incredibly consistent handler and they’re definitely a team to inspire people, especially those with non-herding breeds.  I loved seeing all the GVDCers by the Adv./Starters ring.  I have to say, you guys looked like you had the best set up going and there was such a positive vibe over there (unless of course, I’d come over to say, “you know why your dog did that”...I swear, I mean well). 

Dave and Molly had some beautiful runs, that dog can turn on a dime and they picked up a big pretty ribbon for 2nd place in Grand Prix (ahead of me and  Mr. Finn).  Another big pretty ribbon went to Cooper with Bob running.  They were 3rd in Performance Grand Prix!  Yay!   What fun! 

Thanks to everyone who made this past weekend so much fun.  Tell your dogs they’re good.  mia 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Peggi:

Well I would like to blame the fact that I was on crutches less than a month ago and my knee is still painful and I am not supposed to be doing agility but I think it was just one of those weekends!

We had such a fun time even though we just weren't doing our best. Jessie was super as always and three for three! I pulled her from her last two classes on Sunday. I took her over for a massage and she was very nervous and weird. Soooooo we decided it was better to be safe than sorry. Of course on Monday morning she is running like a crazy dog in the back yard and seems fine! Yeah!!!!!!!

Indy was really a pretty good girl. I kept making mistakes or she was just a tad goofy! For the past month we haven't done much and it showed! I have to thank my DAM team for saving us! We ended up in 15th place for a Q out of 41 teams! No thanx to Indy and I except we did run the last leg in the relay and kept it together for a clean run!

My proudest moment was I didn't complain about the heat! I had a great time watching everyone and had a great tent site with lots of visitors throughout the weekend. Everyone from Santa Barbara was having a good time! Congrats!

Peggi and labs 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Diane:

Gidget and I had a great weekend. A third DAM Q with Mia/Max and Anne/Zip was a great accomplishment in itself. They are a lot of fun to work with.

Gidget got her first Master Standard leg, and it was also my first one ever at the Championship level. Kona got all hers in Performance.

We did very well in other classes too and picked up a few other legs. Thanks to Anne and Zip my pairs partners where we also got a leg.

One thing I thought was good was my last Standard run. I was super tired and so was Gidget. She missed not one, but 2 contacts. Very rare for her. I never noticed, not her performance of them or the judge's call. When I got out of the ring I had to call Dave over to see if I was clean. He said he thought I knew I wasn't because I was running like it was a training run. This was a great compliment. Any time I blow a run early I really pick up the speed and see what I can do with Gidget. His comment means that I am finally gaining the confidence to run like that when I think I am still going to qualify.

It was a very long tiring weekend, but I love that trial site and the judge's courses were very fair. I was at Bay Team 2 weeks ago and the courses there were brutal. We had lots of training runs there ;-) 

Diane

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Terra:

I gave Seeker an inch and he took a mile – when will I learn? Seeker had some startline trouble this weekend and I didn't handle it well. He stood up before one of my DAM team events and I let him run anyway. On the next run he stood up again, I asked him to lie down but he creeped toward me a lot before he downed. That should have been my clue that I was headed down a bad path. I stupidly decided to continue to lead out and run him. For the first time EVER, I mean even in practice, he took the first 2 obstacles before I said the release word. He has never ever done that in his 3 years of life. In the past, the worst he had ever done is to stand up and occasionally inch forward a step - but he has never taken the first obstacle.

When he reached me, after he broke his stay and took the jump and tunnel, I took him off the course knowing that I would receive an “Elimination” for that team event. It was hard to do but all my friends “clicked” me after wards.

Seeker had 2 more runs left after all that. Having been rewarded for doing the right thing I was prepared to hold my criteria (Seeker’s bottom must stay on the ground) for the next run. He held those 2 start lines perfectly. When will I learn?

Other than that we had some “strikes” and some “gutter balls” at the show and it was very fun. We got a couple Qs and had a few great non-qualifying runs. Running Seeker is just starting to feel more natural. 

Terra