There were a lot of the normal cast of folks here this weekend and a fair amount of people that we know from Phoenix came as well. The weather today was very nice. It was in the high 70's but with a nice little breeze - really a pleasant day.
The day started with Regular which meant that Sparkie got two runs right away while Wazzu and Slugger had to wait a few hours before their first turn. Sparkie's first run was clean but she didn't look like herself at all. Her second run she started okay until she was in the weaves (fourth obstacle). She looked really odd - her form wasn't the same at all. By the time she got to the next jump she had an odd look on her face and wasn't paying much attention. She did finish the course but ended up with 65 faults. She immediately returned to the car and went right to sleep. Fortunately she had a few hours before her next run.
Wazzu was happy again today. In fact, in one of her Regular runs she was a little too happy and missed a contact. If the dogwalk is the second to last obstacle she'll sometimes miss the contact as she is so excited to finish. Other than that situation she almost never misses a contact. Even though we had that fault, we still got 1st place in both rounds.
The dog that Q'd in both Regular runs was Slugger! The runs were even fairly difficult for Novice as was evidenced by the fact that there were only three Q's for the entire class in each round. For Slugger to Q in both rounds was really tremendous!
What a way to finish!
Then came Chances - the only thing I really care about all weekend. When I saw the first course it looked tough. But I thought we had a chance - although an outside chance at best. We didn't even come close! There was no way Wazzu was going to weave at a distance - not today anyway. Sparkie on the other hand made this course look like a piece of cake. Good for you Sparkie!
Little Slugger tried hard but it was just a little too tough for him. We had our fingers crossed for the little guy but Chances is always hard for him since he's never ever been taught distance.
The moment I saw the second round of Chances my heart sunk. This was not a Wazzu course at all. On the up side, it did look like a pretty easy course for Sparkie. Like Wazzu likes to do, she shocked me to pieces as she did the course like she knew the numbers. The change of direction way out to the boonies is something Wazzu has never done before. But today she did it without even stopping to argue about it. Way to go Wazzu Puppy!
Sparkie was going perfectly and did the hard part with no problem. But I think Mike turned just a hair early and pulled her inside a jump. Too bad. During the Novice walk-through I decided that it was well beyond what Slugger could do so I scratched him from the run. Much better to save his energy for the next runs of the day than to waste it on something he can't possibly do.
The last two runs of the day were Tunnelers. Sparkie and Wazzu were both in very fine form (although Sparkie wasn't quite as fast as usual) and Q'd in both runs. Although if you look at my position, it is a wonder we Q'd. Most definitely saved by the dog here! How she went in the correct end of the tunnel I'll never know.
But as you can see, I was in the correct position after that.
Slugger was sluggish in his first run and missed time. I ran him the second run and this time he was fast enough to Q. Pretty good for the end of a very warm day.
I thought I'd throw in a couple pictures here for fun. Here is little Boogie running.
Did I fool you? This is actually our friend Billie and her dog Klev'r (Boogie's half brother).
And here is Slugger running.
Did I fool you? This is actually Bones - he looks just like Slugger but he is super fast, unlike Slugger.
Well agility may have been over for the day but our day was not nearly over. We got all of us in the car along with Billie and Klev'r (see Mike, I told you we have room for more dogs! tee hee) and off we went to Meg's house for earthdog practice. There were 19 dogs at Meg's house and I swear they all knew what we were doing long before any of them got to come outside.
We got the tunnels all set up, got rats in the cages, and Meg was in place.
Then it was time for the dogs. I think Klev'r went first. They've been working really hard on the recall as it's been impossible to call Klev'r away from the tunnel. With a little reinforcement they had some luck today. I think it was a very helpful practice for them.
Meg was working with Lulu and they were all ready to go.
As you can see, Lulu got to the end and found the rat but she wasn't all that interested in working the rat. So they opened the cage and took all the dowels out so that Lulu could actually get to the rat. But what happened was that the rat actually thought this was good as it could now get at the dog! The rat was lunging at Lulu and she kept getting scared and jumping back. The rat definitely won this round!
Boogie's sister, Mimi, didn't really get the game. Harriet let her go straight in line with the tunnel entrance. But Mimi figured it was much faster to get to the rat by just going over the ground. She quickly was told that was cheating and wasn't allowed to get the rat. Hmmm - foiled!
Eventually she played the game correctly and got her rat fair and square.
Boogie was by far the superstar of all the dogs today. He zoomed into the tunnel, immediately started working the rat, and worked the full required 60 seconds. He was so proud of himself that he started doing laps around the yard with his rat. Mike and I are so encouraged - we're sure he's going to do well at the upcoming test!
While Mike took Billie and Klev'r back to the trial site, we put away all the earthdog equipment and got on to the next task of getting a good picture of Boogie's dad, Higgins. It's not a perfect picture but isn't he a handsome guy.
When Mike got back he started cooking ribs on the barbeque. Meg, Harriet, and I got the baked potatoes and salad ready to go. We had a really great time visiting while eating a very good dinner. I'll tell you, if you want to have fun spend an evening with Meg and Harriet!
What a day! We were busy from 7am until 10pm and every bit of it was fun. We definitely need more days like this.
Debbie
3/22/08
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