Breakdown of the Weekend..

Lets start with Pixel for a change (mostly because I have spent the last half an hour watching her videos...)



The good stuff...
She was fast! Like actually ahead of me a few parts on each course.
She was accurate (when I told her where to go...)

The not-so-good stuff
Her dogwalk sucked. Only twice did she actually drive into position. Other times she didn't bother at all, or would stop and stare at me instead...
Her weavepoles sucked. Only twice did she dive into the poles and complete them all the way through.

Things I need to do
Train the dogwalk.
Proof the poles when she is fast. I think that is the problem- she is usually kinda pokey so when she is fast she doesn't know what to do with her body.

We've been working on these issues but they are still issues. Must try something new. lol. I will say that I was very proud of how hard she worked for me this weekend. Pixel can be kinda lazy sometimes and I didn't once feel that I was pulling her around the course. She was happy, and bouncy, and just very eager to work. She earned an advanced snooker q, and then a masters snooker q the following day...

Wicca



The good stuff
Only a few bars!!! Her jumping was very, very good. (mostly)
She listened. She had only one wild run (the last jumpers on sunday), and otherwise was trying very hard to be good.
Her weaves and contacts were super!!!!

The bad stuff
Her start line. I didn't trust her very much, which caused some issues.
My handling at times. I am still late, or sometimes early. I wish I could just figure it out. lol

Things I need to do
Be consistent with her start line. I could kick myself.
Watch my arms. Hello flingy arm, not so nice to see you again....

Overall I am very pleased with Wicca. She started it off with a smoking Steeplechase Q on Friday night, and just got better as the weekend went on. We did get the gamble, but due to a Scribe error didn't get the Q, but that's okay. We have lots of gamble Q's.... She also earned a Snooker Q, and a Standard Q. In the third standard she had the fastest time of all the masters dogs! I believe that was just a bar. She is such a good girl, I felt very connected to her all weekend. It's a shame about our jumpers run, and the resulting "on paper" Q. It really ruined my mood as far as the trial was concerned.

And Brit tagged along for the exposure and was totally awesome. I love that nothing bugs her- all the dogs and people, and tents, and trial noise didn't seem to phase her at all. We got in some training a few times each day- her retrieves are getting awesome! Her first hotel experience was a good one (minus the b*tch who kicked her in the hallway....) and I think that it was great for her to experience the whole travelling/trialing atmosphere.

So all in all a pretty awesome weekend. Even the rain, wind, hail, sun, and more rain couldn't put a damper on my spirits. :)