MCDF February 2012 Trial

So since we've gone over the sickness for the weekend, I can quickly cover the agility portion of the weekend.

Saturday
Standard first, JWW last, opposite rings. 24/26 inch dogs ran third in the line-up. Our judges for the weekend were two we had never under before, Howard Etzel and Carla Boudrot.

With a tunnel start I always give Vegas a nice run into it. I started her out back where it says IN on the map. I sent her in with a nice rev-up and I moved laterally toward the dog walk, calling and pulling her toward me over the #2 jump. From the table my plan was to basically front cross and send her into the tunnel from the left and head out to the weaves. After the weaves we had the 360 and I knew it would be important to call her in and pull in via my shoulders and motion to complete the second half. Then we needed to make the drive to the teeter. From there the challenge was the panel jump with a sharp pull back to the a-frame. A lot! of dogs took the #19 from the wrong direction. A lot of people were making a front cross before the a-frame, others afterward. I was going to do something different. Basically stay to the right, run up and around the down contact, and drop my left shoulder while moving past it so Vegas came inside me on my left. From there I just needed to make sure she didn't take the a-frame again after #17 and we were good.

Unfortunately we dropped jump #14. SCT was 69 for 186 yards. Our time was 53.87. It would have been 15 points. A great run. In looking over the video it seems she was just off stride and that's what happened to #14. 

My goal for this course was to front cross between 3 and 4, blind cross between 6 and 7,  blind again between 14 and 15, and then work from the right all the way through the end of the course.

141 yards, SCT of 40. Our time was 36.74. There were 13 qualifiers; we were 11th. Just 3 points, but better than nothing. It was a fun course. 

Sunday

So Sunday was the "up in the air" day where I didn't know if she would run or not. Turns out she ran Standard. All heart, my girl. My plan was to run on the left until I sent her over 6 and rear-crossed to 7. From there, I needed to make sure I didn't push her too far on 9 so she was tempted to go off course despite the strange angles but didn't pull up short and cause her to knock 9 either. From the table I planned to run out to the end of the triple then pull in to send her over 12 and rear cross the chute. I would handle from the inside of the loop from 14-17 then flip to turn her to 18 then handle 19 like a serpentine and push to 20. 

170 yards, SCT: 64. Our time was 55.56. There were only six dogs who qualified; we were fifth. Eight MACH points and that put us under 200 points to MACH! Even feeling lousy, my girl rocked the house and ran clean. I love her so much. She ran with all her heart. 

Here's the JWW course I scratched her from. 

We ended the weekend with a JWW Q and a Standard Q, 11 points, and with just 197 points remaining to earn our MACH.

And I'm pleased to say Vegas is 100% now and back to her normal self, on her normal diet, and acts as if nothing ever happened. Thank goodness.