Extreme Weekend

We had a great weekend in Medicine Hat- yet again my my dogs ran awesome, our GDG students rocked, and overall it was a fabulous weekend.

Except for the weather that is. Saturday it was 35 degrees celsius. That's hot. It was windy, which helped a bit- but mostly it was hot. Sunday it was cold. Like 6 degrees Celsius and pouring rain. I of course did not bring a jacket and had only one sweater. Andrea took pity on me and offered me a rain poncho (i.e blue garbage bag) It would have been pretty humorous except we were sooooo cold. Thankfully the rain stopped mid day and the sun even came out.

The dogs ran so well.

Boone takes center stage for this post. Oh. My. God. I LOVE this dog. He did SO well. He had some amazing runs and two times over the weekend I had to hold back the tears after a run. Wow.

In the first Advanced Standard on Saturday he had a wicked run- smooth and effortless. It gave me goosebumps. We had the FASTEST TIME OF ALL OF ADVANCED. Serious. Boone. I was so excited for him! This is his second Advanced leg.

He rocked the first gamble too and racked up 70 points, and got the gamble.

On Sunday he got a second gamble Q- this time barely squeaking by point wise- he was a little flaky and had a hard time with the mini gambles. But I was so proud that he was able to pull it together. He moves up to MASTERS Gamblers for his next trial. Cool eh?

The last event on Sunday was snooker- and he totally rocked. We did FOUR 7's! Something I only do with Wicca on occasion. But he did it- and it was the same path I took with Wicca essentially. Not only did we do four sevens, but we made it all the way to the end. 59 points. Perfect. It doesn't get any better than that!

It wasn't all rosy with him though- he had a bit of a melt down in the rain and WOULD NOT lay down on the table in the puddle. I had to physically make him. But he recovered and finished the run. We also had a 12 point snooker run. :o) But wow. He is just the most amazing dog. To see him so confident and enjoying himself is just the best feeling.

Wicca had a stellar weekend- she is running so well these days...

The Good-
Gamble 1- had a nice opening, and nailed the gamble- she had 92 points in total. Q
Gamble 2- had an AMAZING opening- 63 points in the opening alone and was the ONLY dog to do the mini gamble twice. However she knocked the bar going into the gamble so we didn't get the Q- but wow- that was SUCH a great run.
Sundays Snooker. We did four 7's, and almost had it for a Q- but she went back into the wrong tunnel. It was a nice course though, and she listened. Like actually paid attention to where I was sending her. It was nice to have that connection on a snooker course, so even without the Q I am proud of that run!

She had very minimal bar knocking- some ticking, but nothing major. Also she didn't injure herself in the poles. I also did something different with the a-frame, which will be a blog post all it's own later this week...

The Amazing-
our steeplechase run on sunday was amazing. it was such a rush and was SO fast. it was not an easy course either and I really had to haul ass to get to where i needed to be. I am so proud of that run- it was perfect. She ran it in 32 seconds and had the fastest time of ALL THE DOGS. Serious. My little dog. WOW. This was her 12th Steeplechase Q...

The Bad-
Her 10 point Snooker run on Saturday. I was actually not even really annoyed at the time..but geez.
The challenge course. This was the first time I've run one- it was interesting- really tight course with LOTS of off course options, a fast time, and it is LONG- 23 obstacles. It was not a very pretty run and we made a pretty good mess of it...Sarah also called me last night to inform me that when she watched the videos she noticed that wicca MISSED her dogwalk contact. Wicca NEVER does that...

The cool- Jolayne ran her in jumpers for me and did awesome- she had two bars but Jo handled her very well and it was neat to get to watch. I love Wicca's tail when she runs. AND wow- is she fast!

Vito also got to run once and he did so good. I entered him in Gamblers and he racked up 31 points in his opening! Which means that he actually ran, and he took direction. He is so cute this dog. We didn't get the actual gamble because I lost him! He was right beside me and then he was gone- visiting the judge...I told him how wonderful he was anyway- visiting the judge is a good thing when you are Vito.

I took Pixel out lots this weekend- and we played and did some training in the extreme weather. She is getting more and more confident with her jumping and it was very apparent on the weekend.

Our students totally kicked butt- sarah said that between all the GDG people (11 I think) we had 45 Q's or something ridiculous! Crazy eh? Sarah will update the Go Dog Go blog later today or tomorrow with the final count.

The Go Dog Go set up...