Tails of the Travelin' Trio: XXXX (No I'm not Bowling!)

(Las Cruces, NM) Another perfect day perhaps?

Today the Regular runs were first. And when both rounds were said and done, our weekend was still perfect! This is truly amazing!

And I just couldn't resist taking more pictures from above! I loved seeing how early Sparkie took off for her a-frame performance. She looks so little - like a little jackrabbit jumping into the air. She sure does love to fly through the air.

Perfect dogwalk performance!

Then a little bit of distance work.

And how about a perfectly executed switch away from that bright blue tunnel that got so many dogs.

Just after the first Regular round ended the predicted winds really came up. You always have to be prepared for that when you're in Las Cruces in March. Today the winds were supposed to be 40-50mph and I'm sure they were every bit that strong if not stronger by the end of the day.

We were supposed to be doing Chances next but due to the increasingly strong winds, they wanted to get Touch N Go done as quickly as possible - they didn't want the dogs being blown off the dogwalk - dangerous! Moving Touch N Go up really concerned me as I really just cared about Chances and I didn't want it to get cancelled due to the strong winds.

Sparkie was our first dog to do Touch N Go.

She was as pretty as pretty can be. I wondered after looking at this picture - who is really telling who what to do. Hmm, I don't know - but I do know that Sparkie was the louder of the two!

You can see her just gritting it out going just as fast as she possibly can.

A perfect flying exit off the contact!

And out the last tunnel (still barking orders)!

But she really wants to know why they can't go around again? It was so fun the first time!

And fun it should have been! You couldn't have asked for a more perfect run to complete a Versatility NATCH-10! In addition to being a truly beautiful run, it earned them first place!

The wind didn't bother Wazzu a bit and she tore around the course - not quite as fast as Sparkie but pretty close. Wow, still perfect as a family! This is truly unbelievable.

We were really concerned about Slugger though. Everyone, including us, had been hiding out in their cars trying to stay out of this horrendous wind. The car was rocking, tree branches were falling from the trees and hitting the car, dirt and grass was flying everywhere, and Slugger was shaking like a leaf. Not a good sign.

We were hoping that he'd run really fast since he was so scared - like running away from all the scariness. But he looked a little stressed at the start line.

Even though he was scared, he gave it a great effort.

The further he got into the course the more he got into it.

As usual, he did a perfect running contact on his favorite obstacle.

But unfortunately it wasn't quite enough. He is now in Open in Touch N Go and he came 1.05 over time. Darn. He tried really hard. We were so very proud of how well he did in this very scary (to him) wind. Even though that ended our perfect streak we were still very proud of him.

It wasn't just Slugger that got bitten by the Touch N Go bug. The girls each had a little trouble in their second round. This was a tricky course in one spot as if you ran it the way that was best, you had to do two front crosses within a one second period. Mike and I talked about it during the walk-through and I decided there was no way my feet could do it that fast.

Mike ended up backing up just a tad too much on the second front cross (probably because he was dizzy) and pulled Sparkie into the wrong end of a very tightly curved tunnel. But they kept going and Sparkie had a really fun time.

I did the much more "incorrect" moves doing two rear crosses - which tend to slow the dog down more but we managed to do the course correctly. But Wazzu jumped a tad too soon off one of the dogwalk passes and just missed the contact. So no Q for us either. But that's okay - we had a great time.

By now Slugger was truly petrified. He was jumping at everything - and there were a lot of things to jump at. The poor little guy gave it a try but between stopping to look at all the things blowing and running away from things blowing by, he didn't have a chance. Poor guy.

I was really getting worried that they'd call it a day due to the wind but after a little discussion they decided to keep going. Phew! Well I thought "phew" until I saw the course. It was hard. I was very disappointed. To get this we'd have to have a lot of speed...and a little luck. Being at the end of day two is not when we typically have any speed left.

Wazzu surprised me right off the bat by doing the discrimination correctly by taking the outside of two tunnels. Wow, I didn't think we'd make it this far. Gosh, now I have to work the rest of the course! The next test was distance and the dog had to go through another tunnel and go WAY out to three layered jumps. The dog had to have a lot of speed and know before coming out of the tunnel to continue on out or there would be no chance. Dang (good dang)! It was like Wazzu knew the course. She didn't glance back for a millisecond - she just shot right out to those three jumps. Now it was time for a HUGE call off. After doing the three jumps the dogs were looking way out from you. If you did a "here" you ended up getting on off course tunnel. I'd say 90% of the dogs that failed on this course failed at this point for one of two reasons. Many of the dogs took that dreaded tunnel.

To get the correct obstacle you had to do a really big "here." The problem was that for the big dogs with long strides by the time they could come in and avoid the tunnel, it put most of them past the first jump in the serpentine and put them into the second jump. It was really tough. But my Wazzu was a mastermind - she did it perfectly. I'm still in shock! But a very happy shock!

Sparkie started out perfectly. But that dreaded off course tunnel right near the end got her too (with many many other dogs). She just couldn't turn that sharp no matter how hard she tried. I think that's what saved the course for Wazzu - she can turn on a dime better than any dog I know of. If you've ever seen her do her famous crazy dog you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Once again discussions took place on whether or not the second round of Chances would take place. And fortunately it was decided the show would go on. One look at this course and I was extremely happy that Wazzu had Q'd in the first round. There was no way, no matter how much speed she had, that Wazzu was going to get this one. She's never once done this move and I truly don't think she ever will. True to form, she did the exact thing she does every single time we see this type of course.

After some other challenges the dogs had to switch 180 degrees away from you and away from a tunnel that is straight in front of them. Wazzu came zooming over the jumps I was running parallel with when I gave her the "switch." She stopped, looked at me, I kept saying switch, she looked at the previous jump, NO, she went toward the tunnel, NO. This repeated about eight times! Finally she gave up and went in the tunnel. This is exactly the routine we go through every time in this situation. Funny Wazzu. Too funny.

Sparkie on the other hand shines on courses like this as long as the switch is to the right. Switch to the left...no can do. Switch to the right - easy as pie! And in this particular course it was a switch to the right. She could have done this course with her eyes shut...okay with her eyes really squinted. She really shined on this course - even the wind couldn't blow her off line at all.

So when all was said and done, the girls had done very well each going 10 for 12 for the weekend. And little Slugger was perfect until the wind got too scary. If that wasn't enough, Sparkie reached a huge milestone with Versatility NATCH-10. With all that, we decided we should stop on the way home at the ice cream shop to celebrate. The dogs all thought that was a great plan!

Little Boogie was a good sport all weekend spending most of his time in car. He was so good. He did get some walks here and there and he got to play with a few other puppies a time or two. But overall he didn't really get to do all that much.

So when we got home I took him out into the field for a play session with his ball. I think he immediately forgot that he'd been so bored all weekend.