Decals!!

Finally, I feel like the van is "mine." It has felt so.... boring. So.... naked. In the parking garage at work it has looked just like all of the other vehicles parked next to it. Sure, I've got my personalized plates -- but it just wasn't the same.

This weekend at the NADAC trial, our awesome friend Kelly hooked us up with some rocking decals! For some reason I sometimes like to pretend that I have graphic design skills and play with various editing software that I have no idea how to use. And sometimes things actually come together and I end up with something I really like! lol One of the things I always liked most about my Klee Kai Agility decal was that I made it, so this last week I sat down and came up with a couple more designs. I actually really love how everything turned out! Choosing colors was about as hard as it gets, but that worked out, too.

Of course, as soon as we (and by that, I mean Kelly, because I'm useless at such things) applied them, I instantly started thinking, "Hmm, I could put something there, I should put something there...." lol I mean, look, there is empty window space! For the back end, though, I'm seriously considering doing a mirror image of the border collie on the other side, and then possibly doing paw prints with the dogs' names going up the (currently) empty bottom corner.

Luke thoroughly enjoyed his weekend as an only dog. I did, too, although I will admit there were many times when I found myself wishing the other dogs were there because I knew they would enjoy some aspect of the courses we were running. Even Secret would have LOVED the Regular courses today because it was essentially a Jumpers course with contacts and weaves (it didn't even have a tunnel in it, so weird).

Luke needed to get both Jumpers runs and both Chances in order to come home with NATCH 5 this weekend. He's been on a streak lately with something like 6 Chances Qs in a row, but looking back on my records his last Jumpers Q was in October!! I had no idea it had been so long... Darn all that fancy handling. lol

Well, unfortunately it wasn't meant to be and we NQd in Chances yesterday. It was so close, though! The course ended with a dog walk/tunnel discrimination and with the way Luke has been about his dog walk lately I knew that he would prefer to take the tunnel option. If I called too hard I was liable to pull him off the dog walk completely, so I figured I'd just cue the dog walk normally and if he took the tunnel then well, he was choosing what he felt was best for him. And he did. Everything up to that point was lovely, though, and it was a decently tricky course.

I'm glad for that NQ, though, because otherwise I fear I would have played it "safe" in Jumpers, and what fun is that? With nothing to lose, I figured I'd handle the course the way I wanted to, which means BLIND, BLIND, BLIND!  :o)  I did "chicken out" and throw in one front cross when there was an off course tunnel as an option, but otherwise I blinded my way through the course and Luke did a FABULOUS job and picked up one of the Qs he needed!

He also got to run one round of Regular and Hoopers yesterday. Regular was a good effort, especially with two dog walks in it, but I apparently dropped my arm and he crossed behind me on a sequence. Whoops. Sometimes blinding will bite you in the butt, I guess. Hoopers was awesome and I blinded the heck out of that run, too. lol

We got to play some EGC after the trial. Family Dog Center will be offering EGC runs the Friday of the their next trial (June), so judge Jim set up a couple of Novice courses for people to play on and get a feel for the game. This is where I really found myself wishing the other dogs were there -- or at least Kaiser, as I've been curious to see what he would do on these courses. Luke rocked it, of course. Our first course was "gaters" and he missed one gate on the first go for 2 faults (still a Q) and then nailed it on the second go for a clean run. After that we set up extreme hoopers, or whatever the thing with the giant circle of gates is called. He stalled out in the gate circle both times when a send to the far hoop was required, but redirected so I have no idea if that would be a Q or not. It's not likely that I will enter EGC, but it was nice to have the chance to try it out.

Today Luke just had Jumpers and Chances. Jumpers was so fun because I think I threw in like six blind crosses! I probably didn't need to blind my way through a serpentine, but why not? Ha! Luke's Jumpers and Hoopers runs were all clocking in around 5.5 yps this weekend, which is totally awesome for the old man. He likes the blinds! Chances was totally a Luke course today. It didn't even have any contacts, just nice and flowing with jumps, a tunnel and the weaves. He nailed it --- so now he just needs one more Chances Q for that next NATCH. Hopefully we can do it in June with one of our favorite judges, Roger Coor.

Unfortunately for all of the dogs who were stuck at home this weekend, the weather has been pretty crummy. There was a HUGE storm that blew through yesterday -- It was so bad that a ton of rain blew in through the dog door. Wonder what everyone thought of that?? At least we were able to sneak in a walk after I got home yesterday. Not so lucky today. It's been raining steadily since I got home, so we are stuck indoors tonight.

Looking forward to AKC next Sunday! Hopefully Luke forgives me for leaving him at home again after his "only dog" weekend.  :o)