So still trying to finish Bryce’s C-ATCH before summer (or at least getting as close to that goal as possible) we set out bright and early last Saturday morning on a 2.3 hour trek to Connecticut for one day of the SNEAK trial.

Day started a little rough … about 5 miles from home my car began doing bad things. Weird, bad things. Weird, scary bad things, like responding erratically to the gas pedal. NOT a good feeling! I almost turned around and went home, but like the “Q ho” I’ve become, decided that I’d give it until the Tappan Zee bridge (i.e. still in an area I know) to either 1) fix itself or 2) break down completely before making up my mind.

Happily, it chose #1, and the rest of the ride was uneventful, if very long!

Got there a little later than anticipated – which would have been fine if we had a NUMBERED course to start with, but what was our first class but Jackpot – and a “non traditional” one at that! For you non-CPE’ers, a “traditional” jackpot is like USDAA gamblers – you accumulate points, at a certain time a whistle sounds and you have a few seconds to do a distance challenge. Some thinking involved (so you accumulate enough points) but not too bad.

In a non-traditional jackpot, anything goes – it’s up to the judge. You really need to catch the briefing and think a lot harder and plan more than with a traditional jackpot. This one had 3 distance challenges on course that you could do at any time, 2 of them overlapping, all with different point values, and there were some fairly complicated rules about what you could/couldn’t do if you attempted one and failed it.

Unfortunately, I misssed the briefing and nearly all of the walk-thru and couldn’t get it into my early-morning-and-scary-drive-frazzled brain which obstacles in the 2 overlapping challenges belonged to which, so for breakfast I had 2 NQ’s, over easy – damn!

Things improved from there – both dogs Q’d in standard, Jayda Q’d in Colors (finishing her level 5 requirements in that class), both dogs had really nice, qualifying runs in Jumpers at the end of the day. I probably could have salvaged Bryce’s Wildcard run, but it was hotter out than he’s used to and he was slow and not looking too happy so instead of fixing a probably-fixable mistake I took him off the course. Good move, he had much more energy and it had cooled down a little by Jumpers and he was much happier on that run.

Here’s the jumpers course – I thought it was fun, but I always like jumpers. Tunnels 9 and 11 were a lot closer than they look on the map (jump #6 was straight in front of dogs coming out of #11)! Lots of teams got “eaten” by the dummy jump at the end – that part was really quite easy as long as you didn’t handle with the jumps on your left (which put that jump right in the dog’s path).

And here’s the Colors course. Colors is two short nested courses, you choose which one you run (we did the square one). It’s really too easy, especially for the upper level dogs. I think it would be a LOT more interesting if there were a handling restriction at the first decision point, like a tape line you can’t cross until the dog takes one of (in this case) the #2 obstacles…

I should probably shut up before I give anyone ideas!

Raven came out a few times to sit ringside and socialize, both of which she enjoys. She’s not at all bothered by any of the sights or sounds at trials – *I* enjoy that! She’s very sweet and very good when watching, the one thing I have to be careful about is that she wants to play with EVERYBODY so I have to be vigilant to keep her out of trouble when walking through crowds of people and dogs (who may view her as more of a snack than a playmate).

There was a vendor there with some very cute colorful collars and leashes – I was tempted to invest in a spring wardrobe for my little foofoo but I resisted (only because they didn’t have martingales).

We left right after we ran Jumpers – it was around 6 PM and IF by chance my car was going to have problems and IF I were to end up stranded and waiting for AAA in the Middle of Nowhere with 3 dogs in the car (one of them being Jayda), I figured it would be somewhat better if it was still light out! Fortunately none of that came to pass, and the car WILL be visiting the car doctor before next weekend!

There was a photographer at the trial, but it seems he was only shooting the “baby dogs” (levels 1, 2 and 3) ring on Saturday – boo hoo !!! Oh well – here’s a picture of Jayda jumping from another trial – this picture makes me laugh! I have no idea HOW she keeps bars up with those dangly back legs, but she always does!

Since we don’t HAVE to do the latter until Wednesday, we opted for the agility – an indoor day of CPE on Saturday and an outdoor day of NADAC on Sunday .

We went into Saturday hoping for Standard, Jumpers and Wildcard legs for Bryce. I don’t know what it was – maybe because I was uncentered because the whole feng shui of my household if “off” without Jasmine, but my first jumpers run with Bryce was easily some of the WORST handling I’ve done in years! Somehow, he qualified, no thanks to me – it was bad. Bad as in “I’m really glad nobody was taping this” kind of bad.

Our standard run started well but ended quickly when he slipped off the side of the seesaw 5 obstacles in. Stupid, freak thing to happen. I was relieved that he didn’t get hurt – he actually seemed to be running even BETTER in his remaining runs. Why did it happen? Who knows – maybe his dain-bramaged handler did something weird again … or maybe his foot just caught a slippery spot. Anyway, he got a Wildcard Q and one in Colors so 3 out of 4, (but we NEEDED that standard Q .)

Jayda was Jayda, cranking out 5 q’s, finishing her first Level 4 title (CL4-H), and making it look easy. The highlight of the day was when she made a 90 degree entrance from a double jump into a set 12 weave poles (and completed the poles) like it was nothing. When she’s “on”, she’s good.

Which brings us to Sunday – our first outdoor trial of the year. I’d prayed to the Agility Gods for dry weather and got it. Unfortunately, I forgot to request a side-order of No Wind. How windy was it? The judge had a special 2nd briefing mid-morning to discuss it and later pulled the dogwalk from the Chances courses. Big 30-35 mph gusts, things blowing around all over the place, nasty stuff.

Here are a couple of pictures of the windswept Miss Raven:

No way I would have let that little featherweight up on the dogwalk in that wind!

Bryce got out of the car and went “We’re outdoors and it’s really windy – WOOHOO!!!” Raven got out of the car and went “We’re outdoors and it’s really windy – WOOOHOO!!!”. Jayda got out of the car and went “We’re outdoors and it’s really windy – AW ****!!!”

Did I mention Jayda is major-freaked-out by wind? So as luck would have it, Jayda, Ms Q of the day before, had major meltdowns in both her runs.

Bryce had a great time in regular but took a wrong-course tunnel on a tunnel-dw discrimination (maybe I was conflicted about sending him onto the dw under the conditions, but it was a tough angle and they were really close too). I was happy to see him running nice and extended – he looked pretty darned good. Another NQ for him in Chances (Note to self: running him as a skilled vet his takeoffs and landings are VERY different which totally changes the “best” strategy for his distance work).

We finally managed to eke out a Q in Hoopers – NOT Bryce’s favorite class, to say the least. He started all happy and enthusiastic … then he realized what it was, ran it dutifully, but it was obvious that he doesn’t see the point of those silly hoops. It’s funny – most of NADAC is so motivating but leave it to them to come up with a game Bryce hates even more than that other NADAC classic (and Brycey un-favorite), Weavers.

Sunday’s big smile of the day was thanks to Raven. Since nobody was using them, I took her over to play a little with the practice jump/weaves between classes and she TOTALLY took me by surprise by doing a beautiful “sheltie bounce” through a set of straight poles – several times! She’s made her way through straight poles before, but this is the first time she’s ever done it with the speed and footwork I want.

In my experience, those breakthroughs usually come in the living room or the back yard or in class or someplace else cozy and familiar. Here we are – brand new place, super-distracting sounds and visuals, scary stuff blowing around and just yards from the food truck to boot and she goes hopping through straight weaves for the first time like she’s been doing it all her life? What the??? Sometimes I just have to look at this funny little dog and ask “who ARE you???!!!”

… because I’m OK about WRITING but I keep forgetting to take PICTURES!

Case in point: Raven has a new friend – another little tri sheltie girl who’s in the agility class after ours. At first glance they could be sisters – Daisy is 1/2″ shorter, 1 lb heavier and 1 month older than Raven. The two girls hit it off immediately and we thought it would be fun to get them together for a play date, so yesterday we did!

Daisy has a lovely, big yard all to herself, complete with a tunnel, jumps, weaves and a little tire. All surrounded by a 6′ fence, with plenty of room to run.

And run they did! Up the hill, down the hill, around the garden, through the tunnel, Daisy chasing Raven, Raven chasing Daisy. Lots of photo ops … did I take ONE freakin’ picture? No! OK so I didn’t have my GOOD camera with me, but I had my cell phone. It takes kind of gray-ish pictures but in a pinch would have been better than nothing. Never crossed my mind – duh!

Since you probably came to my blog hoping to see pictures, you’ll have to settle for a picture of “Hat”, taken with my cell phone. It doesn’t matter that my cell phone takes gray-ish pictures of Hat because he IS gray. He’s squinting into the sun – I just realized he looks kind of mean when he squints, but nothing could be farther from the truth (he was purring and kneading his big paws on the windowsill while I was taking his picture)

Darn – what’s wrong with me? Not even a decent gray-ish photo of a gray cat!

The kids and I had a PERFECT weekend of CPE agility this past weekend!

Bryce – 8 runs, 8 Q’s (level 5)
Jayda – 10 runs, 10 Q’s (levels 4 and 5)

Definitely one for the record books :)! Weather (although it was indoors) was perfect too – sunny and warm. AND, for a change, nobody messed with my crate setup so I didn’t have to stack poor Jayda on top of someone else’s dog this time. That made us both very happy – she hates being in the upper bunk and it’s no fun constantly having to lift my HEAVIEST dog in/out of her crate!

Bryce ran well and seemed to be feeling pretty good, but it looked like he had 3 “good” runs in him each day – he was really slow by the 4th. He was sleeping a little between runs, but he never really rests enough when he’s crated indoors. I had ambitiously entered him in 10 runs and ended up scratching him from 2. Not so bad. He’ll probably sleep most of today.

Bryce’s C-ATCH countdown is now:

6 Q’s in Standard
2 Q’s in Jumpers
2 Q’s in Wildcard
2 Q’s in Jackpot
0 Q’s in Colors, Snooker and Fullhouse!

I was very pleased with Jayda – she just recently completed level 3 (2 weeks ago – her bad Mommy forgot to blog about it!)

Now we need to find more trials!!

Monday morning = not so perfect. I was planning to sleep in on this 2nd day of Daylight Savings Time, but a passing thunderstorm at 5:15 AM (followed by 3 dogs who were certain that was the cue to get up, go out and have breakfast) put the kibosh on that.

Maybe I’ll post some of the details and some obligatory pictures later, when I’m awake!

Speaking of great weekends, a shout out to my friend Bernadette Bay and the kids’ cousin Zen (Ag Ch Obay Truly Balanced) for finishing 2nd at Crufts in the Medium Agility Dog Championship on Sunday! They’ve both been away from agility for a while and Zen just recently whelped a litter – WELCOME BACK :)!!!

We started off the new year with a CPE trial January 17-18. Yes, it was indoors (at our training building) but it was brutally cold outside and not all that much better in! I was concerned about my dogs getting too cold as it was especially chilly in the crating area. I put several blankets and fleecies in with Bryce and (being Bryce) he pushed them all aside and used them for a pillow instead, so I guess he was OK. Raven was pretty chilly – whenever I got a chance I took her into the main room to sit on my lap. She was very funny, watching the runs like someone watching sports on TV. Possibly critiquing them in her head too!

I think Jayda kept herself warm worrying (about whatever she could find to worry about).

Sunday I had my adrenaline rush BEFORE I got to the trial. It was snowing a little when we left, but since it didn’t look TOO bad and it was supposed to stop soon I decided to head up and just take my time.

It was interesting that the roads got progressively worse as we neared Garnerville. The Garden State was wonderful (we may pay exorbitant taxes to live in NJ, but they do clear our roads!). The Thruway was OK. The Palisades? One lane clear (for the Palisades that’s really good). Then we got to 202 … uncleared, and the snow was packed into ice, and a slushy ice that was sticking in tire treads! Did I mention most of that stretch of road is down a fairly steep hill with lots of curves? I put my car in 1st, drove less than 5mph, stayed WAY behind the cars ahead of me (so I could see the worst areas well in advance) and tried to keep a tire or two in the non-icy snow, but it was still white knuckle time!

I was very pleased with Bryce this weekend. I’d only entered him in 5 runs and he qualified and looked good in all of them. He was also very proud of himself after each, as well he should be! Saturday he finished his 2 remaining Level 4 titles with Q’s in standard and jackpot.

Sunday he got his first 2 level 5 Q’s in those same classses. We also ran jumpers – unfortunately there was an error in his run level which I didn’t catch until after the class finished so it won’t count – damn! (Note to self: check trial confirmations more carefully in the future!). He seemed a little tired Saturday night but bounced back Sunday and was his usual perky self Sunday evening. He slept a little during the day both days, which helped.

Jayda ran in 10 classes, qualified in 8 and finished another level 3 title. She only needs one leg each in standard and jackpot to get completely out of level 3 – that was fast!