Sno King AKC 11-12-11

Wow, today started early. I somehow woke up at 2:36 am, about half an hour before my alarm. The dogs and I were on the road before o' dark hundred (3:45 am) to head to Argus Ranch for the Sno King AKC agility trial. We made really good time, about a half hour shorter than previous trips. Many thanks to photographer, Nina Sage, for saving us crating space. That saved me a ton of stress and strain. One of my least favorite places at this venue is the precious little crating space for the number of dogs entered. I got unloaded, set up, and then took the dogs out to one of the fenced  fields for the dogs to have some off leash stretch and potty time. After a short while, Nina brought her Papillon, Heidi over to play. She and Juicy romped a bit. It was pretty cold, the grass iced over, and soon it was time for me to take mine in and see where things were at.

I picked up maps and proceeded to wait. I could have sworn first dog was to be on the line at 8:30 but they waited until 9. Standard was up first followed by JWW. There was no Fast running this weekend. They ran our favorite schedule with Excellent classes followed by Open then JWW. Leo wasn't entered today and it meant we got our runs out of the way relatively early. The one down side is that we couldn't check into our hotel until 3.

24/26 ran first in Standard and in JWW they ran 16, 12, 4/8, 24/26, 20 which meant we had some time between runs. Good and bad. I didn't have to stress over both courses at once, but it was cold enough (30s) that I wanted to be sure to get Vegas good and warmed up as well as stretched out.

Our judges were Lisa Potts, who we had run under before, and Carol Smorch, who we had not. No video this weekend as my normal "posse" aren't up here with us. :)

Standard

So most of this course looked like fun except I really struggled with which way to handle 1-4. My gut was telling me to handle it from the inside (left) because I knew I had a good "flip" maneuver to turn and send Vegas into the chute. The line was terrible and the off course jump in front of the tire was much closer than it appears on the map. Plus crossing from the right seemed like I would be way in the wrong position. Truth be told, none of the options for that section were good. In the end, I worked from the right and made sure I called the tire early. A mantra I need to keep repeating until it needs no thought to provoke it: Vegas is a rockstar. She goes out there and gets the job done. She knew what to do and did it with gusto. I rear-crossed the chute and she somehow just knew what direction she'd be going. She nailed the dog walk and moved across it. I decelled at the contact, waited for her then called weaves. She took off like such a shot I was almost certain we would have to restart our weaves. Again, Vegas is a rockstar. She likes the weaves now so hits em' hard. From there to the triple I needed to make sure she had good momentum, I didn't accelerate too hard or far into the jump, but not pull off early and cause her to drop a bar. The objective was to not hit the off course either #18 or #17. Again, she handled it like a pro. I'd like to have had a rear cross at the teeter but that didn't happen, although in hindsight I probably could have as she drove straight into the tunnel. A blind cross from the tunnel to the a-frame while I made sure to watch her tunnel exit so as to avoid her taking the off course jump. Nailed our contact to the table. She hit the table so hard as I came around it almost seemed her momentum caused her to struggle to stay on, but stay on she did. While I know I called hard on the 16-17 as I think I moved in a bit far, it's kind of a blur. This was a mind-blowing, fast, fun run. As I sit here and describe the course, I know it wasn't perfectly fluid or in sync, but it felt like it was at the time. Vegas was hauling ass and having a ball and I was just steering as we went. I couldn't believe our time - 48.02. To get a standard course time that low seemed unreal for my big girl but that's what the final score showed. SCT 63, yardage 168. Fourteen MACH points. Whoohoo!

JWW

I worked the 12" class so got to see how this class ran first hand. I think it's probably good I watched it so many times as I really feared getting lost. The weave pole entry was what everyone struggled with. They either stayed on the inside for the 6-9 stretch and pulled toward the #2 jump to shape the entry (most people) or they front crossed between 8 and 9 and pushed in to the weaves. Either way that was difficult and fewer dogs got it than you would expect for an Excellent class. The other issue although a bit less so was the #14 jump. They either went wide around it or took it instead of #13, the former being more common. It was a tough course. I'm proud to say Vegas nailed everything I told her to do. Her weave entry was gorgeous. Her speed was wonderful. I made the mistake and I knew it right away. In handling the 13-14, I pulled out too far and drew her around the #14 jump. Had I rear crossed 13 but stayed in front of 14 or even moved back toward 15, we would have been fine. As it was, when I tried to correct the "refusal" on #14, I accidentally pushed her over it the wrong way. So an off course and a refusal. Oh well. She was still awesome and I know it was my fault. And, I knew it right away and told her it was my fault on course. Her time was 43.07; SCT was 41 on 146 yards.

And that's today. We worked half the 20" JWW class as timer in order to kill time before checking into our hotel. After getting unloaded and settled we napped from 4-6 or so, then I fed Vegas and we went out to potty and grab me a bite to eat. She's now sawing logs on the bed, happy as a clam.