We had an iffy time at this trial. Parents were out of town so I had to go and stay with a friend. Let's just say Bea (friend's dog) wasn't too excited to have Blue around, especially when Blue tried to get a drink, walk towards her bed area or check out "her" shadows. We drove up Friday night and stayed in another friend's driveway and their neighbors were having a party. Not fun.
Blue was fine the first couple of runs on Saturday, but I noticed she was off. I cannot really explain it, but it just did not feel like when we normally run. She did not seem as enthusiastic or like she was having the best time of her life like usual. She did get a Q in Chances and both rounds of Regular. One of those Regulars happened to be a 20 point bonus. Her other Regular and Jumpers bonus attempts were really close too. I think if we were totally on, she could have nailed the Jumpers easily, but we couldn't "switch" away to save our lives for the rest of the weekend. Err. There happened to be bonus lines on all but three courses all weekend. Err again.
I was really worried about her Sunday. Almost all she wanted to do was hang out in her crate. She usually vehemently protests when asked to go in. I thought that maybe she was sore and got very upset. Then I called my mom and she reminded me that Blue was sort of like this when we were at Championships in 2008. Only my mom and I drove to Gillette with Blue and by the last day, Blue really seemed like she wanted to go home. I think she misses the other dogs when she goes alone. I also think the issues with Bea didn't help at all.
She got another Chances Q and a Regular Q on Sunday. Once again, we couldn't switch so we missed a few bonus Qs. She was pretty close to a 15 in Regular that I tried just so I could run a bit closer to her. The only time she seemed a little more normal was in TnG. Tunnels yay!
This attitude issue cost us qualifying for SuperStakes, as there are now no more trials to go to before Aug. 1st. There was going to be one day at another MAC trial, but that trial was moved to a later date. I think this is the first goal that Blue and I have failed to reach. Just because we didn't qualify doesn't mean we wont be running. I volunteered to run SuperStakes if they need more teams to even have the class. I know last year they needed more people to have enough competitors to offer the class. I don't know if they will have the same issue this year, but it was worth a try. We will definitely be doing SilverStakes if we don't get in to SuperStakes, though.
I was also told how mentally fried dogs are after running SuperStakes. Which made me think, "Oh, snap" thinking about the PIDC we have to the weekend after. We'll see what happens with that. Wasn't planning on going there to win anyways seeing as there are younger dogs that are faster on tighter courses than Blue. Hopefully she can keep her head together enough to have some nice runs there.
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