Skye and Rip did 2 days of the big 4 day CKC AKC trial this past weekend. I think if the venue were closer, I would take advantage of the 4 days, but getting up at 4:45am two days in a row is all I can handle!
There were a number if "Firsts" for us - Rip ran his first FAST runs ever. One of the distance bonuses had an aframe, which he launched with authority, and the other was a jump-tunnel sequence that I think he could do with MY eyes shut. He went 1 of 2 for Q's in FAST, with a 2nd place (pretty good since I didnt really have a plan when I got to the line).
On Saturday, I again had trouble with Rip popping out of the weaves. He's managed to hit every entry presented to him, but on many occasions he's come out of them. I talked to Katrina about it and she commented on how I appear unconfident that he will get them, so that could be feeding into the problem. On Sunday, I just ran him and drove the weaves as though he will get them no problem, and he DID all three times.
He had a great Open JWW run on Sunday with a 2nd place and his first Open JWW Q. He missed both Standards, once with a jumped AFrame and once with a jumped Dogwalk. Note to self, next time train a STOP on the contact first, then train a running...
Skye was pretty consistent with 4/6 Q's. My non-distance dog managed to get Q's in BOTH of his Excellent FAST runs this weekend, and that completes our Exc. A FAST title, so we move to B whenever they offer it again. Sunday's distance challenge was a flip into a tunnel off the dogwalk, away from the handler. Only 5 total Excellent dogs (all heights) got the challenge, and only 3 of the 20" dogs got it. Skye got 1st place in that one!
In Saturday's Standard run, we got a mystery call while Skye was down on the table. I saw the judges hands go up at about the count of 3 - made no sense and messed with my head so I made a couple handling mistakes after that which caused the panel jump to be knocked. If I was otherwise clean I would have pursued the call with the judge, but at that point it didnt matter. Maybe she thought I had touched Skye when trying to get the table down? Dont know.
*lesson* - dont watch the judge , just run as though you are NOT being judged!!
And my Blooper moment of the weekend, on Sunday, I ran smack into a jump wing after rotating for a front cross. Remarkably the bar did not fall, but it put me behind and caused Skye to come off a jump. It was otherwise a nice run!
