Training Troop Trial Results

I am so tired. But if I don't type it now I will have forgotten by tomorrow.

The weekend started rough, I didn't have a great sleep and was kind of "off." My weird mood totally affected the dogs and I had a hard time concentrating. As the day went on we all got better, but the first few runs are a bit of a blur. The second day was MUCH better, and I was more with it. Here is what I remember about each run, and the results.

Boone
Saturday
Masters Gamblers
he was very distracted and unfocused. Our opening was poor, but we did almost get the gamble, so I was pretty impressed with him. His distance skills are improving!

Advanced Std 1
again he was very unfocused, and did some "drifting" away...he did however have great weaves, and some really nice rear crosses on my part.

Advanced Std 2
i don't remember this course at all...or what went wrong...perhaps an off course tunnel?

Masters Jumpers- Q!
Smoked it. It was a nice course with lots of flow and he LOVED it. Beautiful. Probably one of his best runs ever.

Sunday
Steeplechase
a really nice run- amazing weave entry, and then I sent him off course. Sigh. I spent so much time pumping him up I forgot to go over the course in my head before our turn...

Advanced Standard 3
another great run- we had a bobble of some sort (a refusal maybe) but he was mostly focused and pretty speedy!

Advanced Standard 4- Q!!!!! This was the Q he needed to get his AADC, and move to Masters!
Amazing run. He was completely focused and did an amazing serpentine. This was not an easy course, and I am very proud of us to have run it clean.

Masters Snooker
I had a good plan and everything. :o) And then he drifted away in the closing and we got tweeted. Stupid Snooker.

Overall I am so impressed with him- he had some brilliant moments. His weaves were great all weekend, he only had one run where he popped out. His contacts were great and we are working really well together. My handling is very good for Boone. I am so excited for him to be in Masters. He is most definitely ready for that. There are a few things I need to work on after this trial- running through obstacles (snooker was painful), his turn cue was a little rusty, tight sequences, and distance. Oh, and I need to add some more distraction and get him more pumped up in training- we really need to get rid of his disconnecting during a run....he only ever does it at a trial so I need to figure out how to get him to do in training so I can fix it...

Wicca
Saturday
Masters Gamblers- Q
I was surprised to read that we got the Q for this. The closing was no problem...but our opening was awful. I had a decent path picked out but Wicca had other ideas. She was pretty much taking things at random and not listening...I was annoyed.

Masters Standard 1
She broke her startline when I was trying to lead out..I didn't correct her and let her go...and it spiraled downhill from there...I really should have taken her off, instead it went from bad to worse...I will never learn apparently.

She had a HUGE long break between the standard and jumpers. I didn't enter her in the Challenge class. I think it was a good break for her.

Masters Jumpers- Q!!!! omg. I was SO excited.
We worked hard for this Q, and almost every bar ticked. :o) But we did it- she was paying attention and working hard to keep the bars up. I was focused and trying desperately to remember where I was going. The course was really nice though, and I was thrilled to get through it with a Q. This was one of my goals for this trial so that makes me happy.

Sunday
Steeplechase- Q
This was a really nice run. My handling was very good, and I was confident. Wicca was very good and had great weaves. I did shape the entries for her though. We had a great time, and one bar. So we still Q'd even with the 5 seconds added to our time. We had one of the fastest times overall.

Masters Standard 2
I need to work more on wicca's teeter contact. I tried to front cross off the teeter (not normally an issue) and well, she went flying the wrong way and then I was all flustered and nearly sent her over the wrong jump....

Masters Standard 3
lots of rear crosses in this course...which would have been fine if wicca wouldn't second guess. I have no idea why but she pulled off a jump not once, but twice on a rear cross...

Masters Snooker
we got to restart two times, (one due to judging error, and one due to a timer error) and STILL managed to get tweeted off in under 20 seconds. She was knocking bars like mad...makes it hard to play snooker when there are no jumps left standing...

Overall it was an okay weekend with Wicca- we are just off as a team...I am so worried about her physically that I am not concentrating on handling the dog, and remembering the courses. My memory sucks at the best of times, and when you are running a dog like Wicca it is pretty important that you know where you are going! But we did have some really great moments- her contacts were good (except the teeter) and I was so thrilled with that Jumpers run...Her startlines SUCKED however, so we will be working on that a lot over the next few months...Also am going to go back and do some more jump grids.

I ran Ally (the sheltie I dogsat for a month) and I was very happy with her rear crosses and obstacle commitment. She had some really great moments, and we got a Gamblers Q together. Ally and Tripp went home with their Mom today. It was SO cute to see them with her after being gone for so long. Tripp remembered her, which was the cutest thing ever and Ally was very excited too.

So, that's that from the weekend. Go Dog Go students all did awesome- there were some really great runs, and some shining moments. We sure have a great group of people. The Pizza party on Saturday was lots of fun, although short lived when we all fizzled out after an hour...Saturday was a very long day.

Sarah videotaped some of my runs- including Boone's last Advanced Standard run- I will post it when I get it.

Oh, and I ran Kaleb in Snooker briefly until he ran out of the ring looking for his mom...it was fun while it lasted! Everyone needs to send good thoughts and healing vibes to Sarah- she popped her knee out on the last run of the day with Gyp. Hopefully once the swelling goes down she'll be okay! I am sure she will blog about it later in the week, but in the meantime a few good thoughts wouldn't hurt!