Last weekend we were supposed to go to the PlayBow NADAC trial up in Rhinebeck, NY. Saturday morning, I woke up, took one look at the pouring rain … and went back to bed! I have wussy Shelties who don’t like running in rain, and I’m a wussy handler who doesn’t like running in rain! (Actually, Jayda doesn’t seem to mind it that much, but she was outvoted.) People who went Saturday told me I made a good choice – it rained heavily all day, lots of ruined tents, some thunderstorms too.

Sunday’s weather couldn’t have been better! Bryce did well, getting a 1st and Q in Elite Regular and a Q in Elite Chances (there are no placements in Chances). Both of these classes involve distance challenges – Bryce had gone through a period of being very “sticky” and we hadn’t qualified in either in quite a while. It was great to see him get his distance work back :)!

Jayda wasn’t as stressed at this trial as she was the previous weekend. She also qualified in her Novice Regular (2nd place) and Novice Chances classes.

Chances (for those unfamiliar with it) is a short course with one or more challenge areas, marked off by a tape line which the handler may not cross. The challenges must include a Distance, a Directional and a Discrimination test – this can be combined in one part of the course or in several different places. In this case, it was combined. Higher levels have to work at a greater distance than the babydogs.

Here’s Sunday’s course (very approximate – from memory, not a course map). (The reduced size is distorted – click on the image to see it full size). The challenge area is obstacles 5-7 (actually 4-8 for Elite), the red line was for Novice, the blue line for Elite:

For Bryce, I stayed to the right side of #3 and flipped him with my infamous “Turnip” command (I use “hup” for jumps and “turn” for a change in lead, so “Turn-Hup” sounds like “turnip”).

For Jayda, I tried staying on the left of the jumps after the tunnel, since I had a little more room. Maybe not the best choice, as this resulted in me stopped at a dead standstill, toes against the tape line as she went over jump 3 (if you’ve ever done Gamblers or Chances you know that’s a REALLY bad position to be in)! But somehow, I managed to turn her, getting her to ignore the inviting blue tunnel, get her over the first jump. I took off, and so did she – taking a nice line OUT to the far jump and back in over the 3rd. Then into the tunnel and down the final line of jumps to qualify! This from my nervous-novice babydog – what a good girl she is!

I ran Jayda in tunnelers (all tunnels) too – and decided I’m not entering her in that class again, at least not for a LONG time. Bryce loves it, but Jayda gets so slow and un-motivated – argh! Sally was the same way – NOT her favorite class.