Long time, no trial. Seriously, it's been months since we trialed. The last 'trial' we did was the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge. We haven't been doing that much practice since it's been warm. Mostly chilling at the beach or home or going for walks. School just started so now I've got that 4 days a week.
Anyway, the trial was tons of fun, even if I was tired on Sunday. This trial was held at the same trial site last year, which is right next to an airport, if you don't remember. Staying overnight is not fun for people. Blue finds the airplanes fun, though, if you recall. She did seem to care less and less, since we had her out the day before the trial just wandering around AND the night we hung out for the judges dinner.
Blue has been so adorable lately. OMG, I can't get over her sometimes. Maybe it's the thought of her not being around all the time that's bothering me. (I may be going away to school sooner, rather than later.) It's really hard to believe she'll be 10 in January. Here we come Double Digit at NADAC Champs!
Blue Qd 6/10 runs: one Jumpers, one Chances, two Regulars, Touch n Go and Tunnelers. She finished her Vers-NATCH 4 requirements in Tunnelers. Unfortunatly she's not even half way to that in TnG and just to that point in Weavers. I almost always screw around with lines in the special skills classes since their short and the tunnels encourage Blue to go fast. I have a major brag for her in TnG. She got her second ever 100 DRI run! Blue hasn't gotten one of those since 2008. Needless to say, we never had hopes of a Versatility PSS, haha. Blue's still got it.
Now to some bonus-y stuff. We only tried two lines. One was in Jumpers on Saturday and one was in Chances on Sunday. Lately, I've seen a definite difference in speed from her while working far away when we practice (and at trials). The last trial we did (May, JCAC), she was 'normal', which is moving at her usual speed. For at least a couple years, we've gone through phases of doing distance stuff 'slow.' It's probably my fault with a combination of doing too much, 'correcting' the wrong way, and horrible handling.
Anyway, she was really rather unsure about doing the whole distance thing on Saturday. She needed to send all the way to the back of the ring, which was just four jumps in a row. There was a jump off to the side after the third one and she decided to take that. I probably handled it wrong, but she had been a little unsure on the Tunnelers run before when I sent her, which was odd. So, I took it as a hint she didn't really feel like it and ran 'with' her the rest of the runs that day. (Well, the rest of the lines were in Regular and she needs those for her NATCH-7. Oh, yeah, only 6 more to go now!)
So on Sunday, I saw a Chances bonus (that had two point options, actually!) and went "AWWWW YEAH." Blue's best bonus class is Chances, so I figured why not. I made sure to practice a little distance in Regular after she had messed up. One round actually had a similar set up and sequence to something in the Chances course, so I made sure to try that from a little further away. She had good speed on the pieces I did, which made me happy (because it means she was happy and my handling was decent).
We didn't quite get it, but Blue was totally normal during the whole run and even went on after we messed up right at the beginning. I was surprised that I could actually handle the part I thought I would mess up. Yay me!
So, Truly did the same as Blue and got 6 Qs out of 10 runs. She Qd both Jumpers (which means she got her EJC!) , 2 Regulars, Tunnelers and Touch n Go. That means 15 more Regulars, 9 more Jumpers and 6 more Chances to NATCH. LOL, it probably seems so far for some people, but it doesn't seem like that many more Qs to me. I don't know if I'm more excited for her to get the title or for what I have planned for after that milestone. It's weird.
She was really flying some runs this trial. I think she looks way too fast at the beginning of her Tunnelers run, haha. If I recall correctly, she was only a couple hundredths of a second slower than Blue that run. Crazy. I was really pushing her for speed after she had a mistake on course to hopefully make up time so we wouldn't be over. I know if Tru has more than one mistake she most likely wont make time. Those little legs aren't quite fast enough for 16" Proficient Elite time and a ton of bobbles.
Anyway, I let her have really crappy contacts this weekend, at least on the AF. Her dog walk wasn't totally in the 'right' position, but I kinda wanted to train a 4 on anyway, haha. She never practices contacts, and it probably shows. I could gripe about how I don't have access to non-slatted equipment again (other than my own homemade AF), but I'll spare you. So, yeah, no trials for months + no contact training= crummy contacts. OH, and if I waited for her to get into position on both contacts, she'd probably end up over time, especially if she has one other miscommunication on a jump or something. It's crazy. I don't think Tru's slow, so I don't get it, but whatever, we're not leaving NADAC. I'm thinking I'll eventually train running anyway. Running contacts might actually help with the distance work eventually and cut down her times.
She also got to try that Chances bonus. I tried from the 15 pt line with her (Blue did the 20) and she got half way through the course and decided to hesitate and look at my mom filming. She's had that issue before, but mostly when my mom was in ring. I guess we're going to have to figure out some way to get over that. She kept going to the AF (next obstacle), but came in after that. I guess I'd been letting her do that all weekend, but I think she kind of had a brain fart after looking at my mom, so I'm going to use that excuse for now. Right now I'm really thinking about pulling our AF out and working on it in the next few weeks. Don't need no coming off the sides. :/
So yeah, I was mostly concerned about my timing for the hoop 180 thing towards the handler that was part of that course TWICE. It seems I didn't have a problem with it, because my dogs got it all the times they did it. I figured that tunnel would be so inviting, but my timing must have been right for once, yay! Maybe we're getting somewhere. I still think I might have found a little sequence to practice, though, just because I was concerned about it. (That and contact/tunnel sends.)
We don't have a trial in the area that we're for sure entering until October. Everything else around here is AKC, and I don't know if I really want to enter that right now, since it's so hot and Tru would be the only one to enter. Other than that, we've got at least 3 trials planned for November/December. We're hoping to get at least one more trial in, but that's really not for sure. In the mean time, we get to practice and play.
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