September 19 - WAG - Crystal Lake, IL

I just decided to do one day of the trial to keep my boyfriend company. ;) LOL! The JWW course was pretty tough, a lot of off-courses and handlers got lost. I even saw quite a few dogs cut behind their handlers, very strange. I had no expectations from Ruby since our luck in jumpers lately has been oddly absent. We handled the course great though and she placed 4th behind two Border Collies (one being my boyfriend's dog, Viper, who took first) and my girlfriend's really fast Golden, Rookie, placed third. I was very proud of Ruby. =)

Ruby was smoking the STD course but popped her tenth weave pole - the third obstacle from the end - she hasn't done that in a LONG time; the only thing I can think of is there was a tunnel right in her face after the poles or maybe it was because she was in 20" weave poles all last weekend. These were 24" and it adds 44" to the length of the weaves so maybe she thought she was done. Really sucks because she was 22 seconds under SCT. We really could have used the QQ and the points for ranking. Oh well...Viper placed third (Ruby was only 2 seconds slower than him and faster than the other Vizslas at the trial) and earned QQ #17 for his MACH and QQ #4 to qualify for Nationals.



No video this weekend as the batteries for my camera were both dead. Maybe I'll get some tape next weekend in Ohio. I'm hoping we have a great weekend down there and I'm hoping we finish our XF title too. It'll be nice to trial away from this area as things have felt strange lately.

Jari and Frodo - Winners of the European Open - Midi Dogs

Clearly, I need to run...

Fox Valley DTC - September 12 & 13, 2009

I was very excited to trial again and to make it even more fun...River Puppy made his debut on Saturday. So I'll start with him:

First we had Jumpers with Weaves, Novice B Class. He was awesome! He got his weaves on the very first try and finished them. =) Only a quick visit to one of the ring crew then right back to me and we finished the course. He was great and very happy! I did one FC with him that was pretty late; I think I was surprised that he'd be moving that fast. So next time I will be running and trust him to do what he was trained to do. :) He had a perfect score and won the class!



Then Standard Agility, Novice B Class. He was a very good boy letting me take a two jump lead out & reading that very well. :) He has just never been on rubberized contacts and slowed to smell the top of the DW. I did a quick release with him into the tunnel, a-frame, chute...Oops! He's never been in a 12 foot closed chute before so he came right out & we moved on to the table. Perfect! To the weaves...slight detour to say "hi" to the judge, perfect weaves, skipped the broad jump, jump to teeter, perfect 2o/2o to tire, skipped the panel jump and a big finish at the double! Yay River! Quick note: River's only seen the panel jump, broad jump and chute one or two times so I didn't expect him to do them anyway.

Ruby...a completely different story. First off, the courses were kinda weird. Both of the judges were "new" judges and need some lessons in course design. She was the pinwheel queen (though she had a higher Q rate) and he put two jumps very close together right before the finish jump in both of his courses as one of many challenges. Not very many Q's this weekend in the Excellent classes, at least for the big dogs, except for Sunday's JWW course. It was tricky but doable. Now I'm not saying that everyone should qualify & the courses should be easy, but when only 4 out of almost 50 dogs qualify and it's an exceptional running surface there's a problem.

I screwed up both days in JWW & my handling was off, though on Saturday I think Ruby was a little full of herself & took the off-course backwards triple just because she didn't feel like listening to me; I DID call her, maybe just not soon enough or loud enough & when we got to the end I really didn't give a crap because the course sucked. Like I said only four dogs Q'd in my class. Sunday's JWW run was going nicely but as I sent her out & over a jump to get into position for a FC, I checked back a second time with her because didn't trust her. That made me late getting where I needed to be for the FC to be smooth so it wasn't in the right spot, it wasn't deep enough and I ended up sending her off-course. She did have a nice ending on that course; where most of the other dogs NQ'd, she read it beautifully & made it look easy.

The Standard courses we handled great & I'd say that she rocked them! She did miss her A-frame contact on Saturday but we got a "gift" that we were "owed" as the judge didn't see it. Too bad it really didn't matter as there wasn't a QQ on the line. Unfortunately she missed her DW contact on Sunday & this time the judge didn't miss it. That really sucked because the rest of the course she ran awesomely. She didn't take the wrong side of the tunnel, she got her weave entrance & read the rear cross at the end really well not taking the wrong jump before the finish. That really bummed me out because she would have been 3rd on a course where only 6 dogs Q'd. =(

Notice the song choice for Ruby's video. Yes, it's Britney's 'If You Seek Amy' that allegedly has a double entendre but no it's not about sex at all if you listen to the words. It's about the people that watch her every move & everything she does & Brit-brit is pretty much giving them the finger! I know the feeling girlfriend! ;^) Which is why I can't wait to trial in Ohio at the end of the month. LOL!