We don’t have our “official” pix yet, but here’s one I snapped of Bryce with his C-ATCH ribbon … and his friend Hat, who thought it was actually a CAT-CH . An honest mistake. (Bryce wasn’t in a posing kind of mood and he’s horribly out of coat besides so it’s a pretty crappy picture, but for now it will have to do.)

I went into last weekend feeling pretty good. I’d managed to get an appointment with Bryce’s physical therapist the Monday before and he had cleared him to run. We’d been doing our walks twice a day, and Bryce seemed to be feeling pretty good. The bonus was that the weather was supposed to be decent (for January in the tri-state area). We had two chances to get that remaining Jackpot Q.

When there are 2 Jackpot runs in a CPE trial, I think one of them HAS to be a “non-traditional” Jackpot, which is *usually* (depends on the judge) easier than the “traditional” kind. My plan was to avoid contacts as much as possible for the sake of Bryce’s back and stick to “safer” obstacles like jumps, tunnels and weaves.

Saturday was the “traditional” variety. A traditional CPE Jackpot is similar to USDAA Gamblers – there’s an opening “point accumulation” period, then a buzzer sounds and you have a few seconds to complete a distance challenge. There were plenty of point accumulation opportunities that didn’t involve contacts, however there was an A-frame in the distance part.

I was more nervous about Bryce reinjuring himself or having any weird “episodes” than I was about him qualifying. As long as he stayed sound, it knew it was just a waiting game.

Time came for us to run. He dropped the first bar, which totally unnerved me because I can’t REMEMBER the last time he dropped a bar! Then I sent him into a tunnel and he popped back out! He seemed very tentative – like he wasn’t sure he was “allowed” to be doing agility. Either that or he’d forgotten a LOT in the last 3 months!

We got enough points in the opening but he didn’t have the impulsion to go out and complete the distance challenge, so we didn’t qualify, but the sky didn’t fall either. He seemed none the worse for wear and didn’t drop any bars after that first. Game on for Sunday!

Which brings us to the non-traditional. In a non-traditional Jackpot, pretty much anything goes, as defined by the judge. For this one, you had the standard point accumulation period, then when the buzzer sounded you had to do 2 different jumps and a tunnel (in any order) and go to the table without doing anything else. The tricky part was that there were a lot of straight lines heading towards that table, designed to tempt Certain Dogs into throwing in an extra obstacle or two before (or in lieu of) the table!

They were using the same course for all levels, and Bryce was after both Raven and Jayda in the run order, so I had 2 chances to practice.

Raven turned out to be one of those “Certain Dogs” mentioned above, and got sucked into an extra tunnel (and then some!).

With Jayda I did exactly what I planned to do with Bryce and, being Jayda, she did it perfectly, finishing her last Level 4 title.

Finally (after a LONG, nerve-wracking wait after Jayda’s run) it was Bryce’s turn. I *shouldn’t* have been nervous about this run, given the course, but running a dog with serious health issues really ups the bar on the mental game! I was counting on two 5-point jump combos for 10 of his opening points so I had my fingers crossed that the bar-dropping incident of the previous day wouldn’t repeat itself!

He started out really well – a bit faster than the day before. No tunnel popouts, no dropped bars. Got through the 5 point combos, I only needed 3 more points to have enough for the opening. I went to turn him towards a 3 point double …

…and he turned the OTHER way and stuck his NOSE to the mats!! There was a collective gasp from everyone and some (er … MANY) humiliating moments from his youthful days flashed before my eyes!

Fortunately, I got his attention back quickly enough to do the double and a few single jumps for good measure before the buzzer sounded. Then he did his jump-jump-tunnel-table as perfectly as Jayda had :).

In retrospect, it wouldn’t have been a true “Brycey moment” if his evil twin “Bubba” hadn’t put in a cameo appearance!

There was a lot of cheering and a lot of crying. I hugged him for a long time, crying in his fur a little bit, then we did our victory lap. He was obviously happy and faster on his victory lap than on his run – he knew that applause was for him and he was lovin’ every minute of it :)!