First USASA nationals for baby-D

Finally rested and done with laundry so I can write. Got baby-D's video done last night and as usual, stupid youtube stripped it of its sound. I love the song, the Beastie Boy's Make Some Noise, which is their newest single. It just fit his runs to a T. If you are on FB, watch it on FB since it has the song still on it. You know, this was the first year I went to aussie nationals with 0 expectations. With miller I just wanted to have fun as it was his last nationals and possibly his last show period and with baby-D, I just wanted to go and have fun since he just got into Excellent A. I was also excited to run on turf as deuce has never run on turf and Miller LOVES turf. Well after a very fun weekend spent with good friends and good beer, here are the usual positives and negatives.

Positives: Okay last time I dominated the negative catagory so this week I get to move up. I only had two runs out of 9 that i had creepy contacts and that was ONLY the a-frame. We train on rubberized teeters and dog walks but this was the first time all the contacts had been rubberized. Let's just say that I didn't baby sit them and baby-D didn't creep. It was crazy to watch his video from the last weekend where I was holding up on every contact and this weekend where I just RAN! Yeah me!!!!!!

This next one goes in both categories. This judge LOVED two jump leads out with a push to the left or right. I had a split where half were good, he collected and respected my cross and was tight and the other half where he ran past me and then came back in and got the jump. We work this so much in practice and apparently need to run it more. Timing is such an issue with the lead out push and I just need to improve as well as he needs to collect. Guess maybe that should go into the negative category, whoops:) All except the last jumpers run was very cool and collective on my part. I don't think I reactive handled all weekend so i get yet another gold star:) And here is another TMI but i am going to tell you anyway, I was not in the bathroom at all this weekend!!!! No nervous stomach YIPPEEEE!!!!! Deuce just doesn't make me nervous and I am thankful for that. He gives me so much confidence every run and even though he is far from perfect and I have a list a mile long of things to work on, i LOVE running this dog. I get off the course and am just so excited with where we are at and where we are headed. Yeah, the wheels fall off every once in a while but that is getting less and less. I really feel like his JWW run was a product of my shitty handling in EX A FAST and that carried over to his JWW run. I don't normal run it and probably won't much more anyway since his contacts are getting so much better. Weaves were alot faster, probably due to the turf and even though we missed a couple of entries, I don't care, he got some really tough ones too. Bars were not an issue, dropped two but not worried about them. He had so much drive this weekend and for the most part listened so I am one proud momma!

So with all the positives, I have decided to not do a negative category this time:) Enjoy the video, minus the damn song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca2ZfhGq_qc