The facility is at Michigan State University in the Livestock Pavilion. Agility is run on dirt in two very nice, large rings with stadium seating and the building is climate controlled. Conformation & Obedience/Rally was held in the adjacent building and I brought River in there for a bit on Friday to get him used to a different doggie venue and to work on attention. Quite a few people stopped to pet him and ask what breed he was. A really nice obedience judge gave him the once over and she just loved his coat.
The weekend as a whole was pretty good. I got there kinda late on Friday as I forgot about the time difference, so I missed my FAST walk-thru. No biggie: I just scratched her. We had a little problem with our weaves in Standard as she popped at the tenth pole and I pulled her off the last two jumps. Oops! She had a beautiful Jumpers run though earning 11 MACH points.
On Saturday we got the send in FAST (jump a-frame tunnel) only to get called on the a-frame contact! She's about 60% from that distance so I can't always count on it. Then she took 2nd in Standard with 22 MACH points. I am very proud of that run as we were in the land of giant border collies. Then another Q in Jumpers and 10 MACH points though I was running a bit conservatively for that last QQ. =)
Sunday: FAST was definitely doable and we hit every pointed obstacle. In the send (tunnel teeter double) she got the wrong side of the tunnel but got the rest of the gamble. I was very happy with that and the way she ran the course I made up. Standard was a little tricky, tightly wheeled and had a wrap between two jumps on the course. I chose to handle it like a serpentine instead of pulling her through and it worked but I was just a little behind her and had to fix it. She was a good girl though and we Q'd but only earned 10 MACH points. Jumpers was a blast! A beautiful course with a high Q rate and we got another 13 MACH points. I love this judge (Cynthia Kean). I will def trial under her again and I liked Barbara Diaz' courses too.
I was very happy with Miss Ruby this weekend. We qualified for Nationals with 7 double Q's and 450 MACH points. She's understanding distance work; it's just my direction that we need to fine tune a bit and I'm not quite sure what to do about the a-frame issue. I'm going to start pushing for more speed from her. My foot was bothering me a bit from the surface and standing on concrete (I have a bone chip in my right heel along with some ligament damage in the same foot) but I'd like to run her faster this weekend. Run, Forest, run!
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Congratulations on qualifying for Nationals! We never doubted you. You two are getting smoother and smoother.
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