Summer’s here and we’re officially on summer break – time to catch up on the blog posts. I hate running in hot weather and the girls aren’t big fans of it either, especially Raven. We’ll do an occasional indoor trial (if we can get in!), but otherwise it’s time for us all to kick back, take a break, do a little training.
Since my last post, we did 2 more AKC trials, 2 NADAC trials and a little bite-sized bit of a CPE trial. The first AKC trial we had entered 3 days of a 4 day trial (4 days is too much for all of us!) The courses were challenging, which I expected, knowing who the judges
were!
We had a reasonably productive weekend – 1 Q in Ex B JWW and 2 Q’s in Ex A Std for Jayda, 1 Q in Nov Std and 1 Q in Ex A JWW for Raven. Considering that most of Jayda’s runs were in what I’ve come to refer to as “the cootie ring” (she’s ALWAYS spooky and distracted in that ring at that site), I was happy with that. Raven would have finished her Nov Std title if not for the chute – poor mite, she’s just not that confident about it yet :(.
One judge was thoughtful enough to post her courses :)! Here’s one of the standard courses – I did some very “dog specific” handling with Jayda between 4 and 9, which worked out well for us. Not sure how I would have gotten Raven through that section – something to try.
Here’s Friday’s Ex JWW – it was a fun course that ran nicely. Both girls Q’d on this.
The Sunday jumpers course was tough but fun – both my runs had glitches, and I was surprised that on my front cross after 15 BOTH girls ran past me into the wrong course tunnel entrance! Hmmm – that HAD to have been me, unfortunately no video .
The NADAC trial was the weekend that some folks predicted the world would end … and for a short time Saturday I thought they might be right, when Jayda made time in Open Jumpers and again in Open TNG! Raven rocked the entire weekend, and Bryce had a great run in Tunnelers on Saturday. Altogether, we started off with the possibility of finishing 7 titles – we brought home 6 of them :).
I was pleasantly surprised with Raven: Sections of the field were very soggy from a week of rain and although they tweaked the course to make it safe for the dogs, some of the handler zone footing was awfully mucky. Normally, I RUN with her, but self preservation left me gingerly tiptoeing in spots, which made things kind of “interesting”. I came away from the weekend in awe of how much she’s matured in just the past 6 months – she’s really shaping up to be a wonderful partner!
The CPE trial was two days, one run per dog each day. I avoid outdoor trials in June and the only reason I entered was to get old man Bryce’s Ch-WC. Mission accomplished.
Some pix of Bryce:
The other AKC trial was indoors and it was quite hot. I wisely left Bryce (who was a little under the weather) at home and skipped a couple of classes. Still Raven (who does not do well in the heat) got her second AXJ leg and Jayda finished her Excellent Standard title, so it was worth the trip. I had never run Jayda in a soccer stadium before and was very pleased with how relaxed she was (after she got over her initial “OMG,OMG,OMG where ARE we?”) She was relaxed enough that I was comfortable leading out on her. Leading out on Jayda in an unfamiliar place? I think that’s a first!
