MACH 2 Skye!

I've mostly ignored my blog for the summer as except for one two day trial in July, I basically took all of July and August off from competition. My dogs really do not enjoy running in the heat, and it's been such a hot and dry summer that it was just a good decision for me and them. We continued training, although for Skye, even that had to take a long hiatus, since at the end of July he broke his dewclaw off and that left him sore and limping for a week, followed by another two weeks of minimal activity. Just as we were about to return to our regular class, he tweaked his front right wrist chasing a rabbit. I am sure if you asked Skye though, he'd say it was worth it, as rabbit chasing is his favoritest game in the world.

So, Skye had one short practice session last week to make sure he'd be OK for the weekend trial and he did seem OK, and didn't limp, though he may not have been quite 100%.

This trial was held at the Lakewood indoor soccer facility that has the really awesome turf, and the really God-awful ventilation and heat retention problem. Some friends elected to not enter this trial because it gets so blasted hot in there, and with this summer being the hottest ever, they passed. As it turned out, we were back in the 90's again. They did decide to move the start time for this show up to 7:30am, which is fine if you don't live an hour and a half from the facility and have to drive back and forth each day, but we worked it out.

So, Skye was sitting at 19 Double Qs for his MACH 2, and I had really hoped we could finish that this weekend. If you recall, our last attempt at the MACH here resulted in the fluff incident, so this time as I walked the course, I picked up tufts of dog hair as I found them!
We started with JWW, with Skye running it before Rip. Both dogs had really awesome runs and both got a Q! I tried not to get too nervous for the Standard run that was a couple hours later. I felt pretty confident about the course, and though I did run Skye a little conservatively, and insisted that he hit his dogwalk contact, we ended up with a 15 point Q, earning that MACH 2!!

It was sweet to get that done on Saturday and then allow Sunday to be worry-free.

Rip had a few issues with that Standard course. First I pulled him off the Aframe, so we skipped it, and then he ended up knocking the panel jump and missing his dogwalk contact.

On Sunday, we started with Standard. Skye ran first again and had a very nice run for a 19 point Q. Rip then ran it and he bunny-hopped his teeter, which he was called for, and then he took a nasty looking spill coming out of the chute. He exited it on his shoulder sliding a couple feet. I purchased a couple pictures of this incident from the photographer that happened to choose the chute to photo that day. I should have those pics by Wednesday. Fortunately, Rip seemed fine and I didnt even realize how bad it looked until I watched the video. He never limped or showed any soreness fortunately.

We ended the day with JWW, and Skye ran very nicely for another Q - and a Double Q to start off his MACH 3! This was the last double Q we needed to qualify for next year's Nationals in Tulsa. We do still need some points, but we should be able to get those.

Rip then ran JWW and had an awesome run, two seconds faster than Skye and ended up in 4th place. So no double Q's this weekend for Rip, but he did have two great jumpers runs. I'm still looking for two more double Qs to get Rip qualified for Nationals, along with about the same number of points as Skye needs.

Here are a few of the videos:

First half of Skye's MACH2


Second half of Skye's MACH2


Rip's Saturday JWW


Rip's 'ouch' Standard from Sunday