Oops -- NADAC

We went and played at the local NADAC trial on Saturday, and apparently I failed to post absolutely anything about it. Oops.

I almost stayed home. I was seriously *this close* to turning off my alarm and going back to sleep that morning. Honestly, if it weren't for Kizzy being entered and Kizzy needing the ring time, there is a good chance I would have said "screw it."

But Kizzy was entered, and so were Luke & Kaiser, so I got up and went. I enjoy the judge who was there this weekend (Rachelle Jensen) and knew that I would regret not going. Granted, I didn't get there any early. I think I rolled in around 7:40 for an 8:00 trial. I made the executive decision to crate out of the van all day since I was only there for one day and it was going to be like 62 degrees outside. I felt a little bad because I know Luke likes to hang out at trials and schmooze with his fans, but he seemed happy enough with the time he spent inside before & after his runs.

Luke got to run in all of his normal classes (so that would be Regular, Jumpers & Chances) and he did great in all of them. I'm always wondering, "When should he retire?" His running was solid enough this weekend that I don't think he's quite there yet. Luke went 3/4 for the day, with his only NQ being when I didn't support an "out tunnel" under the dog walk because, let's face it, lately I have to work REALLY REALLY HARD just to get him to take the dog walk -- so I sluffed it, I admit, and I rotated my body too soon in order to get into place for a blind after the tunnel -- and Luke promptly went right up the dog walk. Um, what? Oh well, good boy. Guess he's feeling more confident about the dog walk these days!

I've decided that Kaiser should maybe finish up his second V-NATCH one day, so I just stuck him in the two games that were offered that day (Weavers and Touch-n-Go) and, of course, Chances -- because who ever passes up the opportunity to get much needed Chances Qs? I thought TNG would be first (because that's usually how it rolls at this trial), but they ended up going straight to Chances after Regular, so Chances was Kaiser's first run of the day. He was a good boy and nailed it. I apparently got too close and pushed him off the side of the dog walk in TNG, but he got a nice easy Q in Weavers (although it certainly won't be a 100 DRI because we did have to redo an entry).

Kizzy had a bit of a Kizzy day. Her first Novice Regular course started with a dog walk/tunnel discrimination, which I didn't worry about a bit because she never takes tunnels. Of course, then she jumped right off the dog walk at the end, so.... I stood there and waited for her to put herself back on, and she just jumped right off again. Oh well, so much for training.

I didn't have much hope for Kizzy's second round of regular because this time we needed to do the "out tunnel" under the dog walk coming back around. But you know what? She did it! I about peed my pants in surprise and excitement. And it was a 20' tunnel, even! Craziness. The judge gave us a gift on her a-frame (I would have called it) and Kizzy didn't stop on the dog walk but ran through the yellow, so somehow we actually managed to get a Q and she finished up her first NADAC title. So now Kizzy has her NAJ and her NAC. Woot, woot!

Jumpers was a nice enough course for the Kizzy-dog, but she completely lost her brain for that run. There was a dog running a few dogs before us that just had Kizzy in a tizzy. He'd been in the Intro Regular runs, so it wasn't an issue then -- but he was in Novice Jumpers and well, that was the end of that. I could barely get Kizzy's attention with super stinky treats before the run. It started well -- I did a drop and run, but as soon as we changed direction and turned back towards the peanut gallery she was gone. There was a moment when I thought she was coming back, but she just turned and went out the other door. Sigh. I really had hoped that maybe that whole business was behind us, but apparently not yet.

Oh well. We'll keep plugging away. I'm kind of at a loss on how to handle that exact situation, though. There is another NADAC trial before the next AKC trial, so maybe I'll go back and we'll work on it some more. If nothing else I can at least stick her in Open Regular now to work on 12 weave poles before she sees them in Open JWW.

There isn't much else going on at the moment. I am not scheduled to work at Petco at all until my classes tomorrow night, so it has been a nice week of actually getting to be at home with the dogs at night. I'm not working at all on Sunday, so I'm REALLY looking forward to that. Last night we went out for a walk on the bike trail for the first time in ages. Tonight I'm hoping I have the energy to set a Happy Hurdle Day course.