The weekend turned out to be beautiful. Sunshine was welcome after a wet beginning to the trial, and the wind calmed considerably. I was able to go from long pants and two layers of sweaters to shorts and a T-shirt.
The dogs perked up as the trial grounds dried out. Neither likes wet paws, and Sadie and I both found the muddy footing a bit slippery. A light breeze and some big solar canopies helped keep the tent comfortable as the temperature hit the mid 80’s. I made sure they had plenty of opportunities to drink, and alternated which dog got to wear the cooling coat.
Open Jumpers was Sadie’s Saturday warm-up run. She still needed multiple attempts to complete the weaves, but we got through them… only for me to give her a bad front-cross. My motion and body language must have cued forwards rather than turn, because she happily leaped the double out ahead of the weaves, ignoring my shouts of Sadie. Sadie! SADIE! We completed the run otherwise clean and with a wagging tail.
My fiancé showed up to watch that afternoon, just in time for Novice Standard. I made him hide among some tents off the course’s visual path. In the past, Sadie has charged the edge of the ring to find him and/or spent entire runs worrying that he might disappear. I was determined that she wouldn’t even know he was there until after the run. And no pressure (hah), since I had already blown her title on Thursday! She ran beautifully, with just a pause after the very first weave pole. I’d have given her a refusal at one of the jumps, but her scorecard came up clean. First place and her title, with her human watching!
She was ecstatic to see him after the run, nearly ripping the leash out of my hand to charge up to him.
Novice FAST was the last course of the day, and the pup was hot. I kept her in the shade as much as possible, and my fiancé hung out with us. She kept her focus on me (and the hotdog bits, cheese, and buffalo jerky). I could certainly have taken more points, but I didn’t want to push her too much physically. A rock-solid Q and second place was enough for me! And to Sadie’s immense credit, she ran like her other human wasn’t even there. Not a single off-course glance, and all she wanted was her treats as we ran out.
Sunday brought us a lovely, flowing T2B course. It felt incredibly long when I walked it, though it was only about 18 obstacles, but ran beautifully. Sadie gave me all 12 weaves, clean jumping, and her heart in the game. We ran like a real team, and were rewarded with a Q. Our first ever in T2B! 14 more Q’s and 93 points to go…
We moved up to Open Standard that morning. The course was fun, and highly reminiscent of the previous day’s Excellent course. In fact, Mr. Trainer was convinced that the wrong course had been set up while we were walking it! My girl ran well, but didn’t feel like weaving and back-jump a bar. To be fair to her, that was her 11th run in four days and it was hot. She was moving noticeably slower that on day 1, but still responsive. In fact, she near ran by one jump, screeched to a halt when I shouted to her, and took it cleanly from mere inches away. I heard a spectator say ‘Nice save!’
With Open Jumpers last, Sadie was pretty much done; mentally, physically, and emotionally. She was still taking cues from me, but her reaction time was down and distractibility was up. She was starting to lunge at other dogs, though with no apparent malice, probably out of tired habit. I was happy with the run overall even without a Q. Plus, I got to entertain everyone at the weaves. Yet again, she did not feel like weaving. This time she found a smelly spot right by pole #3. It looked like she was going to eat some blades of grass, so I told her ‘No grass!’ just as she dove into a shoulder-roll!
After four days, I was very happy with Sadie’s performance. She had 11 great runs (sorry girl, Standard on Friday stank) and four Q’s. She completed her NA title, and is one more leg away from NF. The 7 good runs that didn’t Q still made me happy. I feel strongly that the issues we had were honest mistakes on both our parts (mis-cues and ticked bars) and a training issue (better, independent weaves). Those we don’t always run perfectly, I think she has truly earned her place in Open. I’m proud of my girl:
Poor Maxwell didn’t get nearly as much attention as I’d hoped. I kept getting pulled in for more volunteer work, like gating and setting bars. Especially by the end of the day, people stop offering to help. I had planned to not work at all on Sunday, and spend all the down-time with my boy. Instead, he just got one decent outing and a few quick potty walks. Despite being cooped up so much he remained very well-behaved. He didn’t pester competing dogs as we walked around. He didn’t jump up on anyone that wasn’t inviting him up. He gave me good focus in exchange for string cheese.
I’m still glad I’ve stopped trialing him for a while, but his excellent behavior gives me hope. When indoor trials start again in the fall, I may consider entering him in Standard again. We’ll see. In the meantime, he gets to be just my good little man!
No comments:
Post a Comment