MACH Secret!

She did it! We came to the Lakeland Dog Training Club AKC trial needing just 23 points. I figured there was a pretty good chance we'd finish it this weekend, but you never know, right? Now Secret is officially MACH NATCH Secret. Maybe one day we'll get that PDCH put on there as well.  :o)

Our day started with JWW, which was kind of nice because there wasn't a huge amount of pressure. While a Q would be nice and the points were needed, there was no way we'd ever get 23 points on a JWW run.

Secret saved my butt (again) when I sent her to 15 and moved into a blind cross. She read my movement as a send to the off course jump and at the very last second I got her back to me. Even with that bobble she picked up 13 points in this run. That's very good for JWW! Only 10 points to go...

Kaiser NQ'd because I cued a rear cross too early at jump 6. I said "switch" and he switched. Before the jump. So my fault. I wasn't even planning to handle it that way. Kizzy couldn't hold on to her weaves and slipped out, so we just kept going. The rest of the run was clean. Yay Kizzy! She's handling the Masters courses like a champ.

While Secret gets the lion's share of the kudos for this accomplishment, I do have to pat myself on the back for holding it together pretty darn well for our second run of the day. It probably helps that the stress of NEEDING that QQ was off my shoulders and with only 10 points needed, if we didn't get it today there was a high possibility that either run tomorrow would net the same result if we Q'd. But still, I did pretty well.  :o)

Then we went into the ring and they had timer troubles. We were held up for at least five minutes. Sigh. We played at little at first, and then Secret just got super cuddly. Thankfully she jazzed right back up and all was well with the world. She put in a very nice run. I was probably a bit more stern about the dog walk contact than usual, mostly just because she was a little high today and I wanted to be sure she didn't pull one of her once-in-a-blue-moon fly-offs. She gave me a look like, "Whoa, okay, I got ya" and stopped like a good girl. Then everything was great until she hit the table and nearly slid off. In addition, the darn thing almost tipped over. Apparently it wasn't sand-bagged. After Secret's run it was... What would a MACH run be without Secret pulling one of her "I hate the weaves" moves (FYI, she had rockin' weaves in JWW). Mid-weaves she started sniffing. I gave her a "SECRET" and she popped her head back up and finished the weaves. The rest of the run was good to go.

I made her do a victory lap.  :o)  I think all she did was a jump and the tunnel under the dog walk and then I stopped to thank the judge. After the NATCH experience where she literally just stood and looked at me while refusing to move, I had no idea what to expect. I'm happy she played along to appease me today.

There is video, but I didn't bring my docking station along so it will have to wait to be posted until I get home tomorrow. The owner of the facility took a picture when we came out of the ring, but I haven't seen it posted on Facebook yet. There is a photographer at the trial this weekend but she had to leave before Std. She'll be back tomorrow and we can get an official photo then. So stay tuned, this is the MACH that never ends.

Kaiser had a super duper run. I'm very proud of the wee dude. And then he knocked the third-to-last bar. Forget QQing, I'm starting to feel like we just don't Q at all anymore.  :oP  Kizzy also did super duper in her Open Std run. The naughty stinker did not stop on the dog walk, but she got it. She also got the chute on the first try! And she slid to a stop on the table, what a good girl. The weaves got us again. She either missed the entry or slid out right away. We tried again since one refusal is allowed, but she popped at 10. It was probably my fault for stepping off too soon for the next jump.

Everyone did well inside today. I got there at 7:00 and managed to snag a sweet spot in a back corner where Kizzy can't see too much stuff going on. Hopefully we'll have a similarly quiet experience tomorrow.

Time for bed. I just took the dogs outside and suffered for a good 15 minutes waiting for Kaiser to poop. He appears to have developed some issues with pooping while traveling. That gets old when it's this cold outside. Oh well, I won the battle.