Sunday, January 16, 2011

Day Two

I've realized that trials are long, exhausting days!  Today was a lot better than yesterday in terms of stress and my headache, but I'm still just going to do a short post today, and then I'll fill in some gaps tomorrow.

If you look at the negative light only, we had some real mistakes:
-In Jackpot, I set Jonah up in front of a jump and when I released him he ran right around it and halfway across the room to the dog walk.  Talk about tunnel vision.  Good thing there's no such thing as off course in Jackpot...
-One of the Jackpots (it was non-traditional, so there were 3 gamble options) was a tunnel to 6 weaves at a distance.  I think he could do weaves at distance, but the entrance out of the tunnel proved to be too much for him, and we didn't get it done.
-Jonah flew off the teeter!  I guess he was just so excited that he didn't register that it was a teeter.  I was shocked.  He normally is very cautious on teeters.  This is just one example of how I was not handling my normal dog this weekend (but usually, unlike in this case, that was a good thing). 

However, there were so many wonderful things that we come away with an overwhelmingly positive feeling:
-3 more Q's!
-We got a Jackpot!  It was a tunnel (had to rear cross) to a jump pointing RIGHT at the dog walk (gulp!), back to the tunnel for another tunnel rear cross.  I did not know if he would do it, but he did, with no hesitation.
-I told you he had trouble with the weaves at a distance, but there was another set in Jackpot and he did them twice, and he was fast!  Those are our first in-trial weaves, and I was super pleased.  Not as fast as he can be, but he hopped right through.
-So, Jackpot had major problems but we Q'd and second place.
-Our standard run was our best run of the weekend.  Fast, clean and flowing.  I front crossed a tunnel and almost sent him to the wrong jump out of it, but luckily I found my bearings before he came out of the tunnel.  First place, fastest dog in level one, 30 seconds faster than the second place 20" dog!
-I did a nice, successful lead-out in Jumpers. 
-Jumpers went smoothly, although it was not his fastest and most motivated course of the weekend.  Still a big success, and another Q and first.
-Jonah got LOTs of compliments all weekend!  'Very talented,' 'lots of potential,' 'so cute,' 'this is his first trial?!!'  etc.  He made me proud.

Ok, that's enough for now.  Video tomorrow (where I look really silly but he's mostly good), and some more complete thoughts on the weekend.  Jonah is exhausted and it's about time for me to head to bed, too.

No comments:

Post a Comment