PAC/GSDCO AKC Trial Day 1 - March 2011

Today at least one of our judges was something we hadn't run under yet. Interestingly enough, she's a local competitor. I never knew she was a judge until today. The schedule is a little wonky and, in the end, I don't think any of it is going to behoove the tall dogs running in Excellent. Today was small to tall and started with Excellent. Tomorrow is tall to small but starts with Open or Novice. Sunday is back to small to tall but starting with Excellent. In the end I still won't get home much sooner than I would a normal trial and will end up being there early anyway - at least Sunday - because the exact jump heights are subject to change to avoid conflicts. *sigh*

So here goes.
Our first run ended up being Jumpers. The judge was Terri Campbell. There were some tricky spots on the course, sharply angled turns and whatnot, but overall it looked doable. The weave entrance was particularly nice - a good straight on approach with a tunnel then single jump prior.

I knew I would have to work the tunnel entrance as the wrong end was directly in the dog's path. Unfortunately I didn't work it enough and I didn't work it fast enough. Vegas locked onto the tunnel and wouldn't let go. I corrected and we moved on and I was very happy with her weave performance. I was edgy about it after last weekend and having six most of the time but she nailed these and I didn't really feel like she was going to pull out. There was one other error though. I moved in too close to the #18 jump and queued her to turn too late and we took down a bar. Otherwise a nice run for a big girl and she was sure smiling afterward. I'll find out our time tomorrow just for reference sake.

After another two hours or so we got to walk then run Standard. The judge is the local gal I mentioned earlier. Interestingly enough, I understand she went through the judge's training the same time Craig did. Either she doesn't get hired locally often or I'm just clueless. :) Maybe a bit of both....

In watching the 20" class run this course I didn't have a lot of hope. While she put a 180 on the course, the progression of the sequence subsequent to the 180 made it much more like back-jumping seen in international style courses. I'm referring to #4 and #5 with the wall on the one side and #4 as a potential off course on the other. Walking the course proved to make the feel a lot better though. I still had my worries, but it felt better. After CPE last weekend I worried a smidge about the table, too. Fortunately I was able to get my command out like I needed too - a nice quick, "Table. Stay." She stuck it and I know I called "weave" before as soon as she was committed to jump #12. Vegas nailed her weave entrance but she either pulled her head up as she did, or she popped up right as she passed through them because I lost her and had to correct and rerun the weaves. The saving grace is that it was at the first pole, not the 10th. Much better timing and better on her that way. The rest went well. That was our one mistake and I'm not displeased. Stuff happens.

I came home with a tired dog whose still crashed downstairs on the couch. I had a ball watching our friend, Lindsay, run Heffner today and am so excited for her. It's her story to tell so I won't spoil it but it's very exciting to see those two run as a team and Hef running so well. I'm planning on bringing my older video camera tomorrow so we can try to catch each other's runs. Hope everyone's weekend goes well - here's to Spring on the horizon!