AKC in the heat at Arapahoe park

Well in case there was any doubt, my Skye boy does NOT like to run in the heat outdoors. I did the 3 day AKC trial at Arapahoe park near Denver on Aug. 1-3. It was triple digit temps and blazing sun. Each day we ran STD, JWW and FAST.

Friday was 102 degrees and I know that contributed to us getting no Q's. Skye missed his weave entry in Exc. STD, and though it was a slow run, it wasnt bad other than the entry. I then had to run my novice FAST to try and finish that title (its the last novice anything title I need). I mishandled it and brought him over the distance line so NQ. Then we ran in Exc. JWW with about 65 other dogs and he came out of the weaves about pole 9. He was really just walking through them anyway with zero motivation, so I just finished up the course.

On Saturday it was a similar story, though this time we did manage to Q our novice FAST and earn our NF title. We got 2nd place, 1 point behind 1st though our time was faster. Similar issues as Friday with STD and JWW, as again it was I think 101 degrees. Just slow slow slow Skye boy.

Finally Sunday was supposed to be cooler (ha, like only about 96) but at least the morning started off comfortable. We ran a nice consistent Exc. A STD and managed to Q with 3rd place. With very little time to breath, I then had to go run my Open FAST and though we did get the distance bonus, Skye would not weave and caused us to waste too much time so the buzzer went off when I was way on the other side of the ring and we didnt have enough points to qualify. The JWW run was actually nice, he wsa running pretty darn fast until his nemesis weave poles came into view. He nailed the entry, I started cheering him on to get through the damn things, and about pole 7 he decided it was too hot and too much work to be weaving, so we just continued on and finished the rest of the run. NQ again.

So for us, this was a really bad weekend as far as Q's go, and I am pretty sure I will not be entering any more outdoor trials in the summer - just not worth chancing that its going to be 100 degrees.

We left the other dogs home so they could stay cool. They still had the sad puppydog faces when we were leaving without them though.