Well crap.

I got two bits of crummy news yesterday. Which do you want first? I suppose the one I found out about first...

The premium was posted for the QCDC February NADAC trial down in Davenport, IA. Yay! Finally! We can enter!

Or not.

When we went down for the New Years Eve trial, part of what made that trial so appealing (and made it win over going to the closer trial in Minnesota) was their "household package" pricing. If your household of dogs ran over 18 runs total, you got each run for $10/run vs. $12/run for single-run pricing. This adds up and makes it much more affordable, especially when you are factoring in gas, hotel, etc.

I figured this was the adopted policy of this facility's trials and expected it to be the same for February. Not so much. The only package they are offering is the full weekend package per dog, and I'm not coming close to running all three dogs in all twelve classes. It would add almost $50 to my already inflated budget for that weekend. I just can't do it. Secret won't be debuting in Iowa next month.

But really, it's not the end of the world because there is a trial here in La Crosse on March 5 & 6. It's only a couple weeks later and no big deal, but I was really looking forward to going down to Iowa because I love the facility. Maybe later this year, I guess.

On to our second piece of disappointing news.

I got an e-mail last night from Debbie, our instructor at ABCTC. She has been experiencing some back problems and recently found out that she herniated one of her discs. :o( She is on strict orders to rest & do nothing until February, at which time she will be re-evaluated and hopefully be able to start teaching again.

So we don't have a lesson this weekend and won't have one for the foreseeable future.

There is a glimmer of hope in this post, though. Because of the change of plans, I tossed out an e-mail to my friend in MN to see if he wanted to try again for that play date we got snowed out of last month. There is, of course, snow in the forecast for tonight & tomorrow morning and we are going to play it by ear, but I am hopeful that it will work out. Secret really needs to get out & work in more places, so it would be really good for her.

But I'm still bummed about the other two things.