Day One

We survived day one of our first trial!

I'm exhausted from the day and have quite a headache, so I'm just going to give the digest version now and I'll fill in the details in the coming days.

Highlights:
-Got up before dawn, got up there and got settled in the crate area
-When I showed up to the briefing (a minute late--oops!)  someone alerted everyone that it was my first trial and everybody clapped. 
-Jonah was very nervous about measuring.  He never stood fully upright, and the woman declared him just under 20".  I decided to run him in 20" anyway because I'm pretty sure he's over 20 when he stands up.
-We weren't in the first class so we waited more than 6 hours before our first run.  Jonah was pretty relaxed, but I wasn't!
-Our first run was standard and Jonah was great.  A nice, clean run although a little slow.  I wouldn't say he was especially nervous but he wasn't excited, either.  We got our first Q and were second by less than a second.
-Our second run was wildcard.  I set Jonah up and when I said ok he just exploded over the first jump, full speed!  I'd been so worried about getting him excited enough that I wasn't prepared for the fast Jonah I haven't seen since we were at Four Paws.  He bid on a tunnel at the first option, which wasn't my plan, but I was able to adjust easily.  Unfortunately he dropped the second to last bar (I was surprised--the last three jumps were in a line so he had a nice straight approach.  I don't remember the last time he pulled a bar.  Oh well.)  As we came out the gate, a nice lady came over and said, "Wow, he's fast!"  I never thought I would hear that, especially this weekend.  We were more than 20 seconds faster than the other dog in our class (and faster than all other dogs in other height categories), but thanks to the dropped bar we were second again.  I was so amazingly proud of this happy, fast, enthusiastic dog!  Q number 2.
-The last run was a little more creative.  It was colors, and I picked the more flowing of the two courses.  He was going super when he came out of a tunnel and ran right past the jump right in front of him and got right back on the dog walk that he'd just done.  It happened so fast that, before I knew it, he was half way up the dog walk.  Oops.  Anyway, I figured I should just pretend it was exactly what I wanted, he had a beautiful contact at the end and we ran back to our course, which he finished beautifully and quickly again.  Q and first (we were the only dog in our class), even with the off course. 

So, 3/3 Qs ain't bad!  I'm so proud of Jonah.  Now I need to rest up so we can get up early again in the morning.