Final day, USDAA Brighton

Today we finished up the USDAA trial and it was a so-so day for us. We only ran 3 runs (Snooker, Steeplechase round 2, Pairs)

In Snooker, we had a decent plan on a 3 or 4 red course. We did 5/6/6/7 in the opening and everything went smoothly, and in the close we finished the AFrame which was number 5 and Skye drove straight ahead and took on offcourse jump rather than stay with me and go to the tunnel. We still got a Q due to our number of opening points, but no SQ. If we could have continued and finished out with the #6 and #7, we would have had 1st place (of all the 22" and 16" performance dogs) and earned that last SQ. As we only had 5 22" dogs, we were combined with the much larger 16" class for SQ placement.

Steeplechase round 2 was interesting. I ended up caught in a web of controversy. We ran a nice course and on our 2nd pass at the AFrame (3rd obstacle from the end), Skye came with me instead of climbing it, and stepped 2 feet into the tunnel below it (see any consistent theme for this weekend? Guess what we will be training). So anyway, when he stepped in the tunnel, we got whistled off with an Elimination. As I was walking back to our chairs, Stacy Peardot-Goudy stopped me and said I should check with the judge as she believes the offcourses in Steeplechase are judged using Starters rules, which means its a 5pt fault since he didnt go in with 4 feet, but not an E, and I could have finished out the course. After the last 22" dog ran, I asked the judge and she said no, it is only 1 paw on the obstacle and I am E'd, so then Kent Mahan, also a USDAA judge who was sitting next to us, agreed with Stacy that it is not an E, so we checked with the judge from the other ring, and she agrees with the first judge, that it IS an E. So OK, what is it?? Anyway, since the 2 judges presiding at the show say its an E, then that's what I get and no re-run. Stacy is going to bring it up with the USDAA committee and make sure that all judges are made clear on this - whatever the real decision is. Stacy P-G is the USDAA world team coach, so you might think she would know what she's talking about!

Then finally we ran our Pairs run. My partner Marrin and Bren went first and wouldn't you know, they had an offcourse at the 2nd obstacle. It was jump, into the far side of the tunnel, and Bren took the wrong entry.
My 2nd half of the course was run clean, so I give us a 1/2 Q for that run, but USDAA isnt going to count it as anything!

So, this weekend I only ended up with a Steeplechase Q and a Snooker Q. I have some items to work on in training in the coming weeks for sure. Our next USDAA is in Laramie WY next month, but in the meantime we have 2 AKC trials coming up later in July.

I may post some video later..