Statistically, this was by far our worst trial--we came home 0/4!
Besides having my pride hurt, though, all but one run had an overall positive vibe.
Round 1: Jackpot Level 4
This course was a little too good to be true, and I blew it. It was non-traditional, and there were 3 available gambles. You could do all 3, and you could do them at any time. We went in the ring and he started fast and furious. We got the first gamble (15 points). Then we got the second (20 points). It was the letters as below:
I thought that would be the hard one, but he raced out to the tunnel like a pro.
Then I did a little loop around collecting points and we started for the third gamble (numbers above). Well, I wasn't careful enough and he was in the tunnel before I realized it. I knew he would look for it since he'd just done the 'out to tunnel' gamble. My bad. Anyway, the buzzer still hadn't sounded so I called him back and we turned around to do the numbered gamble. The buzzer sounded just before we did the numbers (for another 20 points), meaning we had another 18 seconds to collect points and get to the table. So...I got greedy. In the end, I got to the table 1.05 seconds too late. Bummer. We got 84 points, though! And Jonah ran fantastic. He was flying, and I take 100% responsibility for any mishaps we had. Good boy. Anyway, it was an NQ.
Round 2: Standard Level 4
This course still has me shaking my head. It was a great run. Except for when he fell off the dogwalk. I really don't know what happened but I looked at him up on top of the dogwalk and he was flailing around trying to catch his balance. He failed. Once he fell I was kind of shocked, but he just grinned at me, leaped and barked like "MOM. You're SLOW." So, we went on and finished the course. He was flying again. I guess it was just a big oops moment. There goes level 5 for standard for nationals.
Round 'would have been 3': Colors
Dave was cranky and the trial was going really slow (they didn't finish until after 8:30pm!!!), so we scratched. Kind of a bummer, but we had a lovely afternoon trail running, hiking, and camping in a state park up in ME.
SUNDAY
Round 1: Wildcard Level 4
Well, it started great. Again, he was totally full speed and having a blast. Then there was a line of jumps right towards the spectators. He flew down the line but then instead of nicely wrapping the last jump and completing the course he disconnected for a few seconds and looked for dad. Grr. He recovered, but he was so out of position that he latched onto an off course jump and I couldn't call him off it. Yarg! The rest of the course was flawless. Thanks, bud. Again, NQ.
Round 2: Standard Level 4
I had really high hopes that this would be the run where everything would come together. He'd been so excited and fast and happy for the whole trial experience. No signs of nervousness at all. Just a little distraction from dad, but even that hadn't been bad at all. The course had some challenges, but nothing too bad, I thought. Well, things didn't come together. The second obstacle was a tunnel and he went in...and then it was several seconds before he came out. I have no idea why. He's not generally a tunnel rocket dog, but something was up. Goof. Then we got going again until there was a tunnel to RC. He headed for it and I started to accelerate behind him and I guess it was too much pressure because he turned around. I put him in the tunnel and off we went. The next jump was towards the spectators, and he disconnected again so then he missed a discrimination. We went back and got the A-frame and he was doing OK but turning really wide and generally being slow. He was slow on the teeter and then ran past a jump (again near the spectators). I got him going again, and this time he went all the way over the dogwalk (yay!), but he was looking around and ran through the 2o2o. Yay for training a running contact. After that he picked up steam and got to full speed, but still. It was an overall bad run. Another NQ. So frustrating. Not a good note to end the weekend on. I feel like we're so much better than that. I don't know why he has runs where he's that unlike himself, right after fantastic runs where he's full speed and happy. Maybe some day we'll get it.
Besides having my pride hurt, though, all but one run had an overall positive vibe.
Round 1: Jackpot Level 4
This course was a little too good to be true, and I blew it. It was non-traditional, and there were 3 available gambles. You could do all 3, and you could do them at any time. We went in the ring and he started fast and furious. We got the first gamble (15 points). Then we got the second (20 points). It was the letters as below:
Then I did a little loop around collecting points and we started for the third gamble (numbers above). Well, I wasn't careful enough and he was in the tunnel before I realized it. I knew he would look for it since he'd just done the 'out to tunnel' gamble. My bad. Anyway, the buzzer still hadn't sounded so I called him back and we turned around to do the numbered gamble. The buzzer sounded just before we did the numbers (for another 20 points), meaning we had another 18 seconds to collect points and get to the table. So...I got greedy. In the end, I got to the table 1.05 seconds too late. Bummer. We got 84 points, though! And Jonah ran fantastic. He was flying, and I take 100% responsibility for any mishaps we had. Good boy. Anyway, it was an NQ.
Round 2: Standard Level 4
This course still has me shaking my head. It was a great run. Except for when he fell off the dogwalk. I really don't know what happened but I looked at him up on top of the dogwalk and he was flailing around trying to catch his balance. He failed. Once he fell I was kind of shocked, but he just grinned at me, leaped and barked like "MOM. You're SLOW." So, we went on and finished the course. He was flying again. I guess it was just a big oops moment. There goes level 5 for standard for nationals.
Round 'would have been 3': Colors
Dave was cranky and the trial was going really slow (they didn't finish until after 8:30pm!!!), so we scratched. Kind of a bummer, but we had a lovely afternoon trail running, hiking, and camping in a state park up in ME.
SUNDAY
Round 1: Wildcard Level 4
Well, it started great. Again, he was totally full speed and having a blast. Then there was a line of jumps right towards the spectators. He flew down the line but then instead of nicely wrapping the last jump and completing the course he disconnected for a few seconds and looked for dad. Grr. He recovered, but he was so out of position that he latched onto an off course jump and I couldn't call him off it. Yarg! The rest of the course was flawless. Thanks, bud. Again, NQ.
Round 2: Standard Level 4
I had really high hopes that this would be the run where everything would come together. He'd been so excited and fast and happy for the whole trial experience. No signs of nervousness at all. Just a little distraction from dad, but even that hadn't been bad at all. The course had some challenges, but nothing too bad, I thought. Well, things didn't come together. The second obstacle was a tunnel and he went in...and then it was several seconds before he came out. I have no idea why. He's not generally a tunnel rocket dog, but something was up. Goof. Then we got going again until there was a tunnel to RC. He headed for it and I started to accelerate behind him and I guess it was too much pressure because he turned around. I put him in the tunnel and off we went. The next jump was towards the spectators, and he disconnected again so then he missed a discrimination. We went back and got the A-frame and he was doing OK but turning really wide and generally being slow. He was slow on the teeter and then ran past a jump (again near the spectators). I got him going again, and this time he went all the way over the dogwalk (yay!), but he was looking around and ran through the 2o2o. Yay for training a running contact. After that he picked up steam and got to full speed, but still. It was an overall bad run. Another NQ. So frustrating. Not a good note to end the weekend on. I feel like we're so much better than that. I don't know why he has runs where he's that unlike himself, right after fantastic runs where he's full speed and happy. Maybe some day we'll get it.
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