DAWG weekend

Ah, decided to take the day off and rest and recharge after heading down to TX for a USDAA trial. I usually don't travel that far for trials or give up AKC for traveling, but Lori needed Qs for nationals and I wanted redemption from the February USDAA trial. Guess what, I GOT IT! I was SOOOOOOO proud of baby-D this weekend!

We started off the weekend by heading down to Tulsa thursday afternoon so Lori could teach lessons friday. We stayed at Sharon Clark's place and wow, I am jealous. What a great dog friendly house and what an amazing agility set up!!!! After riding for a few hours, the dogs got to get out and play with 9 other dogs. Funny, they all pretty much got along and had a good time. Did I mention there was a pond? Oh yeah, deuce found that pond pretty quick! We got to do some work with the dogs that night as Sharon has lights (did i mention i was jealous? ) and then went to bed early (well, early for my standards). I slept like a rock and ended up waking up earlier than Lori did LOL! Lori taught all morning friday and I just hung out, sunning, reading magazines and doing little drills with Deuce when she was done teaching. It was pretty hot out and he tends to wilt like a delicate flower so I wanted to prepare him for the TX heat. We loaded up and headed out around 2 and had a nice relaxing drive to Mckinney. It was nice to break the trip up for sure.

Our first day of running included Gambler's, Jumper's, Standard, Grand Prix, and Steeplechase. Our first run of the day was starter's standard and he had an awesome run but just couldn't beat Solei's running dog walk or a-frame. He stopped above the yellow on the dog walk and I had to say toes a few times so that ate up alot of time. Our second run was an NQ in gamblers after I had gotten more points (did two sets of weaves that were 7 points) than lori and solei but had knocked a bar in the gamble. I said GO GO GO for no reason, he knows straight lines and needs no GO GOS:) so I caused him to knock that dang bar. We had grand prix next and a nice course. I had to pull him to the close end of a tunnel and he was headed for the wrong end and I over-handled it and he basically went passed the entry and ducked back in at the last minute. Should have been a refusal but for some reason didn't get called. I thought it had so ran like hell the last part and cause him to miss his weave entry because I didn't shape the line enough. Dang it, I cost us a GP Q!!!!!! Anyway, he handled the course like a pro, hard to believe he isn't even 2 yet!

Steeplechase was another matter entirely. The course was very nice, with two a-frames and I think I got nervous because it was so doable. I didn't play with him enough before the run and he felt my nerves and decided the leash guy was way more fun than me and tried to leave with him! Got him back but couldn't get him to focus, probably should have done a couple of jumps and left but decided to try and run it anyway. Great beginning, got almost 2/3 of the way through but then he decided to take the broad jump backwards and then it kind of fell apart. Got him back and then started out again and instead of jumping the broad jump the correct way, decided to walk over it or should i say PLOW over it. Was worried that he hurt himself so we ended on that note. Good parts for sure but I learned a very valuable lesson. I cannot just sit and feed him treats and watch the course. I MUST play with him and keep him engaged in a fun way. He is not miller, he can not sit and stare at me for 1o minutes and then go into the ring and run. I have to be fun for him or he turns off and I learned that the hard way. I have never had to put him in a sit ever at the start line. BAD me:( We had jumpers next and got him back and got the Q and a first so ended the day on a very good note. I felt like he handled the heat very well and other than my screw up by not playing with him enough, he did very, very well. Deuce also got to see his original mom, Heidi and got to see the two Pams and got to see his brother. Heidi is going to show him in some upcoming shows in conformation so how cool would it be if he becomes a breed champion in ASCA? I was planning on at this point leaving him intact till his third measurement at 3 for USDAA anyway so let's do this!!!! After Lori and I went out to dinner, we took a nice long walk and did some geocaching where the dogs found 2 geocaches (see the pics on FB). Again, a good night's rest and up early. I was really pleased with my sleeping this weekend, even though I did have to take a melatonin saturday night. I pretty much slept very sound and woke up rested both mornings.

Sunday had another round of standard, jumper's, gambler's and snooker, plus we got to watch Solei in the finals of steeplechase. Gambler's was first and we got a Q and beat Solei points wise because she got a zero on an obstacle. Even if she would have gotten full points, she would have only beaten us by three which by my standards is pretty awesome! We had standard next and he self released off of the a-frame and then knocked a bar. The bar was just a fluke but the self release was not a good thing. He had done it twice in gamblers and I went with it because i needed the Q. I got a very good UH-OH in and i could tell he knew what he had done because he stopped dead in his tracks and looked at me like "crap, i was suppose to stop wasn't I?" I hate criteria and i hate it even more when I let it slide. I do believe I can get it back and I do believe that the taller a-frame had a part in it. The whole weekend he had good a-frames so am hoping the whole hitting it going 100 miles an hour and then creeping over has stopped. Baby dogs are so much fun:) Anyway, we will see in the next show in two weeks. Jumpers was not good and again I saw some stressing. We had a nice three jump lead out in which I sent and went to get a front cross and while I was crossing/sliding into place and calling him, he blew me off and took the off course jump. We have it on video, my timing was right and I was in position, he fully blew me off. Guess we have some work to do!!! Got some good exercises to work on so hoping to get some of those done after class tonight. Again, was able to get him back for snooker and got two 7s and all the way through the closing and beat another BC for the first:) I had one OH SHIT moment when I had a cross planned and didn't get to where i needed to be so basically had to stop him on the course to get him re-focused but we made it through.

Positives for the weekend: Great teeters all weekend with driving to the bottom and good toes. Dog walk was good and bad, most runs good. A-Frame was also much improved as far as driving to the bottom and sticking toes (except the gambler's run/standard run which I will blame on me). Weaves were great, using them to my advantage in the games classes to get max points. Rear crossed them twice on two different runs and he didn't care. Most of the runs were very focused and showed much improvement over the last USDAA show but the 24 inch poles helped. The heat was a tiny factor but he seemed to bounce back as long as we played and I hosed his belly off. Got to use the fan I got for christmas which was fun.

Negatives: I let my criteria slide in gamblers for sure so BAD ME! He got the contact, held it for a split second and left. That is NOT my criteria but i put the blame on me. We are still having the issue of him getting in obstacle focus during jumper's runs and blowing me off. While it is improved, it still isn't where we need to be to compete in excellent.

All in all, we walked away very happy. I need two more standard legs to move him up and I needed a third judge so it works out well. I plan on traveling to St. Louis in June to finish up his AD so we can do so. Didn't get any Qs in the tournament games but am feeling so much better about his skill set and what we can accomplish. More work to be done but i like doing work:)