QQ streak is over

Would the opposite of a "dry spell" be a "wet spell"? Well, anyway, Skye and I did two days of the 4 day AKC trial at the Denver Stockshow. Since last fall when I got into Excellent B in both JWW and STD, we have managed to get a Double Q each weekend we trialed. This weekend it wasn't meant to be. Though we did Q in both our JWW runs, we NQ'd both Standard's this time.

We also ran in Open FAST and got the Q on Sunday.

Saturday in the Standard run, Skye jumped both the AF and DW contacts, and to top it off, he ran around the chute once again (re: last week's USDAA trial). I brought him back around to the chute and we continued. Looking at the tape, that runaround wasted 6 seconds, and without that, our time would have been good for 4th (out of 50-some odd dogs).

Saturday's JWW was nice - he could have been faster in the weaves, and if his speed in the first 1/2 of the course was as good as the second 1/2, we would have placed higher, but still we managed a respectable 12th place out of 65 dogs I believe.

Sunday's Standard was doomed from the start. Sometimes Skye will get all crazed watching a dog run before him. He was barking and carrying on when we entered the ring. He then would not sit for my short (but necessary!) lead-out. I even tried to physically push his butt down into a sit and he resisted, so as to not waste too much time, I just decided to go with the 1 step lead-out that I had. Jump, Jump, Offcourse Jump was how we started. Ugh. We got back on track, did that chute without issue, hit the AF contact, did weaves and then another offcourse wrong-end-of-tunnel entry, and hit that DW contact just fine. We finished out and though it wasnt a disaster, I was bummed as I really wanted to keep that streak alive!

In Open FAST, I did not walk the course as the timing of the walkthrough was during my STD run. Had I walked it, I would not have gotten greedy and tried for all 80 points, so though I did Q (with a 2nd place of 13), I was just over time and didnt get to finish my plan.

Finally, we finished Sunday with JWW, and I ran trying to squeeze some extra speed out of Skye. He did a great job for me and his time was pretty good - 27.something, compared to the real fast Sybil / Lucky / etc. dogs who were pulling in mid 23, or 24 something. If I can get within 4 seconds of Sybil, I am happy. Scores were not posted when I left, so I dont know where we placed - I will have Katrina get me the scores when she goes back tomorrow.

Oh, with the two Q's in JWW, we are just 1 Q away from our MXJ title.