Going Back

Yes, Boogie has been practicing a lot and he is getting very good at backing up.  But that’s not what I’m talking about.  More on that in a minute.

The dogs all did really well at the trial this weekend.  I loved the trial site as we could park so close to the rings.  I could see without anything in my way!  (Sorry for the glare lines in this picture...took it through the window.)  The trees were so beautiful too.

Sparkie only missed two Q’s.  And both of them were while trying for the bonus line.  So close too.

2iggie is really starting to have more confidence and therefore is picking up speed.  She even beat Sparkie in a couple runs. 

Boogie seems to get more driven all the time.  He’s really running fast.  

He missed four Q’s this weekend.  Two were due to that darn Superman cape (it’s still for sale if anyone would like to buy it) and the other two were handler errors.  But he did earn his Versatility NATCH-3 today.

While Wazzu has only been doing two runs a day recently, it looks as though retirement is getting closer.  She really is feeling less and less confident on the dogwalk all the time.  And I think going up and down the ramps is very painful for her.

On her first run of the weekend, she did the dogwalk but extremely slowly and did not look happy.  It was the second obstacle of the course and once she finished that, she ran fast and smooth and happy…  even earning an Elite Chances Q.  But on her second run yesterday and her first run today, she refused to go on the dogwalk.  So for her second round today, we switched her to Hoopers…  which she has always hated.  But at least there were no dogwalks.

She started out super slow because as I said, she hates Hoopers.  But then Mike started running around being really silly and she thought it would be fun to chase him.  So she ended up having a good time.  So we will no longer enter her in Touch N Go.  She still really likes to have a turn but finding a class she can do is getting much more difficult.  I’m thinking we will cut her down to one run a day.  We will try Chances and just take the “chance” that there’s no dogwalk.

When the trial was over we drove 90 miles east to Grant, New Mexico.  Just as we got off the freeway the check engine light went on.  Mike spent a couple hours doing some diagnostics on the engine and finally found the error code.  However, when he looked it up in the book, that particular code was not listed.  Of course!

Our planned route tomorrow takes us way out in the boonies through many mountains.  Certainly not safe to do that with engine problems.  So it looks like we’re going to have to backtrack 90 miles back to Albuquerque.  Big bummer.  Hope we can make it back and find someplace that can get this fixed in a day or two.  Lets hope they can get us fixed for good this time…  not just for a few days.

And finally, congratulations to Bushwhacker for becoming the PBR’s (Professional Bull Riding) bull of the year!  Which rider won the title?  Who cares.  For me it’s all about the bulls.

Debbie