I LOVE MY DOGS!!!!!

I think this picture sums up how we are all feeling right now. Wow, I am so tired -- well, at the moment I'm rip-roaring wide awake -- But a couple of hours ago I was so exhausted that I felt physically ill. Amazing what a good run will do for that, but more about that later!

We had a good, good, GOOD day at day two of NADAC Champs!

Secret ran first, but not until dog 70-something so it was a bit of a wait. Baby girl came out raring to go and just had so much fun. It was a 20 obstacle course that was fairly standard. We had to do the a-frame twice and there was a dog walk/tunnel discrimination (dw being the correct option). The distance challenge was a fairly simple pinwheel configuration following the first a-frame.

I had no option of fitting in a front cross on the serpentine in the first sequence, but Secret drove really well with the rear cross. I kept good distance to call her back to the jump after the tunnel and then rear crossed her to send through the pinwheel. She nailed it! Then back over the a-frame and around to the dog walk discrimination. I kind of held my breath -- I have a tendency to over handle these (as I did with BOTH boys...), but she got it! I fit in a front cross after the next jump, as we then had a really tight slice into the weaves. She *nailed* it and her weaves were pretty speedy. It was a really nice run. Really nice.

With as competitive and FAST as the 16" class is, I thought she'd be around 12th. Her clean run last night was 20th place, after all. Well guess what.

THIRD PLACE!!!! Secret got THIRD PLACE in the most competitive class at Championships!!! I am completely beside myself and so very proud of her. Wow, just wow. She got a ribbon!

Her second round today (round 4) was pretty nice, but I handled a tricky serpentine sequence like a doufus. I almost caused her to back jump towards me, but I saved it. Then she recoiled at the weaves -- they had just raked them before our run (they held us up, that's never fun) and who KNOWS what went through her mind. I quickly reset her and she weaved fine. She ripped through the final sequence with nice speed, but I'm pretty sure my errors will keep us out of the ribbons for that round. We'll find out in the morning!

Luke is doing well. He got 13th place in Round 2 yesterday and moved up to 12th overall. We had zero faults and ended up 15th in Round 3 this morning -- As I mentioned, I way over handled the dog walk discrimination and he cut in and came to me. We wasted a good deal of time fixing that. Otherwise it was a lovely run.

Luke ran on a Vet Team between the two Regular rounds. The Team course was the first ten obstacles of the course we just ran, only with hoops replacing the jumps. Luke did his job and put in a beautiful run, but unfortunately one member of our team (the dog, I should clarify) seems to not be doing well -- His handler thinks strained muscle or something of the sort. At any rate, it looks like our team is at the bottom of the Vet standings. Oh well.

Luke had a lovely Round 4 this evening. If he got called on his a-frame it was completely my fault because I released him early. We'll see in the morning, I guess!

And now.... Kaiser. Oh Kaiser. He has a fan club down here and let me tell you it's pretty fun. He's getting noticed, and thankfully it is in a good way!

Kaiser did get called on his dog walk in round two last night, which placed him 9th in the class (just out of the ribbons). He slipped to fourth place overall. He didn't run his first round until after noon today and he was just good old classic Kaiser. lol He had fun, but he was all over the place. He had two off courses, missed the dog walk and took three times to enter the weaves correctly. So he got 30 faults and not a very good time, landing him in 13th place that round.

But Team! WOW, Team was so fun! I am teamed up with two junior handlers with really awesome (and fast) dogs. I knew we'd have fun and that if things went well, we would have a shot at placing -- And that's saying a lot considering we are in a field of 32 or some odd teams in the standard division. All three dogs blew it away. And guess what!

Yes, we got FOURTH PLACE! It is worth mentioning that the three teams that placed above us are comprised of super fast large dogs (border collies, etc.). I am totally stoked with our Team placement. Not only that, but our outfits got a lot of attention -- So I am crossing my fingers for a "best dressed team" award! :o)

Poor Kaiser had to sit around forever again before running his last round of the day. I will say, though, thank heavens we ended up having an earlier day today. It was 7-ish before we got near Kaiser's turn. He was completely crashed in our stall (as was I...) and I worried about getting him to wake up for his run.

Silly me.... The second I grabbed his agility leash he was ready to go. When he saw me get the cheese, he was on fire. He was throwing tricks at me left and right to get my attention. He was doing spins at lightning speed. Oh yes, the boy was high.

The dog walk was the third obstacle on course with two hoops before it. The chutes at Champs do not allow for slingshot starts like I usually do at trials to get ahead, so I begged and pleaded with him to PLEASE stay. And he did! I mean, I didn't do a huge lead out, but any little bit helps. Then I just told him, "GO, GO, GO!" as he crossed the dog walk and he gave me a *gorgeous* running dog walk. I was concerned about him running straight through an off course tunnel so I called pretty hard and took a couple of steps back to get him to turn -- and he did! Then there was a tricky serpentine sequence that I had to handle from waaaaaay in the back since I was so far away. Normally Kaiser will give me one switch at a distance and that's it -- but OMG, he did it! And it was tight & fast! He came flying out of the tunnel and I sent him into the next one, then I pushed a bit hard to keep him over the line, as when I told him "out tunnel" (under the dog walk) he started to go around the outside of the tunnel. We fixed it quickly and then he blasted into the weaves. He hit them so hard that he got hung up on the second or third pole, but he hung on and got through them. Then up the a-frame, another hard turn right into the tunnel, a 180 jump sequence back through a tunnel under the a-frame and out the finish tunnel!

It was THE MOST AMAZING RUN OF MY LIFE. It was like driving a Ferrari. We just clicked. It was so beautiful. I went to the 3 Pines area to watch it before leaving for the night and it was just as pretty as it felt. I don't want to jinx myself, but Kaiser has consistently been the fastest dog of the class, but has been bumped back because of faults. There were NO FAULTS in this run, so is it too much for me to hope for 1st place? Oh wow, who could have ever imagined?? I can't wait for results to be posted.

I was just floating after that run. I almost cried I was so happy & proud of my little man. I had so many people compliment me on the run as we were leaving. Oh wow, I'm just on cloud 9.

It should do a lot to help Kaiser's overall standings. I'm really hoping we can hold on to a spot in the finals. It would totally make my entire year.

So now it's 9:30 and I do believe we will go to bed early tonight!! That is, if I can sleep. :o)