I decided to just write this whole post in acronyms. ;o)
This is going to be a brief yet overdue update. We got to play three days of AKC here at home this weekend! It was the Coulee Kennel Club trial and our judge was Katherine Rudolph. I "know" her from our trials over on the other side of the state, but my brain never connected that she was a judge (hello, she did Kizzy's first measurement....). She runs golden retrievers and is very conscientious of the large-dog style of running and designs her courses accordingly. She was also familiar with the turf at FDC and said that she purposefully designed her courses to not have tight turns that would cause dogs to slip and fall. To her credit, I don't think I saw anyone slip all weekend. The courses were not technical, but I didn't consider them so easy as to be boring. The dogs definitely liked them, and that is what matters most.
I don't have video from Friday and I'm too lazy to take a picture of the course maps. Secret brought home QQ #15 and I think it was 31 points that day. Kaiser got a Q in Std (which he needs), but kind of went off the rails in JWW. It was totally my fault, though, because I was late for the front cross after jump 3 and he went off course. I was so incredibly tired from my draining week at work that my brain more or less shut off at that point and he just did whatever he wanted from there on out. The trial was very, very small again this weekend -- we started running @ 2:00 and were on our way home by 4:00.
Secret had another super day on Saturday. She earned 14 speed points in her JWW run in the morning. Her Standard run was the fastest in the entire class! Unfortunately she jumped a bit flat coming out of a tunnel and knocked a bar. We need single Qs, though, so I wasn't upset in the least. I would have preferred the 24 points from her Std run, though!
Saturday was Kaiser's day for a QQ -- this was his 6th. His jumping was much better than it was on Friday, too, and it got better all weekend. I wish I knew what was up with this and why he's being so hesitant on day one. He's the opposite of Secret -- She starts out crazy and fast and gets slower at the end of the weekend, whereas Kaiser starts out slow & hesitant and gets better as we go.
Kizzy was super, super good on Saturday! We had too many refusals to qualify in Open JWW because it took her a little time to find her brain, but she did the whole course, including her weaves this time. We ran Standard at the end of the day and she was a good, good girl! She missed the weave entry again, but that was pretty tricky coming off the a-frame like that. She ended up with a score of 100 and her NA title! On to Open for everything!
Kizzy is the only one with video from Sunday. Again, I'm very pleased with how she ran! Okay, so she was pretty naughty on her dog walk and teeter in the Standard run, but aside from that I think she did awesome. The Open courses were barely any different from the Masters courses, so she stepped up pretty nicely, I think! She even hit her weaves on the first try in both runs this day!! Our JWW run wasn't the prettiest in the world because, well, we still don't actually have a rear cross. There were two spots where I just knew I wouldn't be able to get into position to beat her, so I did ugly landing-side rear crosses, let her spin and then kept going. Not pretty, but it worked and we got through clean for Kizzy's very first Open Q!
Kaiser had a really great day. He dropped the third from last bar in Standard on an otherwise lovely run, keeping him from another QQ. I had been hoping he could go 3/3 in Std for the weekend because that would have finished up his Master Std Preferred title, but it will have to wait for next time. Secret got QQ #16 on Sunday but not a whole lot of points -- only 18 in Std (she wasn't that slow in this run, I think it was wheeled tight) and dropped down to 7 points in JWW in a run where I felt like I was pulling her along. She was the first dog on the line and I don't think I spent enough time getting her going prior to the run. As it stands she would need to get 45+ points per QQ if her next four days are perfect. Yeah.... I just don't want to be one of those teams that MACHs on points. Whatever. It is what it is. As a side note, on Friday she officially qualified herself for AKC Nationals! (Kaiser needs 61 points.)
Did I post here about the Jamberry nails I had made? A friend on Facebook was hosting a "party" and posted a picture of these custom nails she did with a picture of her dog on them. I was like, "WHAT ARE THOSE? I NEED THEM!" So I joined her party and made my own nails. I attempted to put them on for the first time Saturday night. While I need some practice in applying them correctly, they are still SUPER CUTE! I will probably go bankrupt designing and ordering custom nail wraps now.
Tonight I took the dogs for a walk, but before doing so I took Kizzy out and did a quick training session with her to remind her how we behave on our contacts. She'll get there at trials eventually -- the current trend seems to be that she's great on day one and a leaper on day two. Tonight she was fabulous. I started pushing my distance, both laterally and running ahead of her -- and SHE HELD HER BOTTOM! I tossed treats back at her to reward her. This is huge progress! Hopefully some of it sticks at trials.
This weekend we are playing USDAA in Madison on Sunday. The run sheets were posted on their web site. We have 460 runs on Sunday. Four hundred and sixty. There are "only" 330 on Saturday, so I guess I picked the wrong day... It will be a very, very, very long day because Kizzy is one of the last dogs to run. Hooray. Can't wait. Oh well, I'm looking forward to the agility part of it at least.
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