We'll start with Championships. My dogs were pretty darn awesome and each came home with ribbons from all but one round and got into finals. I was really happy with Truly and how she handled the atmosphere. She didn't seem bothered at all and only one loopy run. She was clean all six rounds up until that point. I wasn't sure how she'd handle it since the only other 'big' even she's run at was a demo day at the fair for 2011 PIDC, because Blue's ear was messed up, and she was crazy. Here's Tru's first run at Champs!
Blue was a lot less consistent than she's been at previous Championships. It really seems to me like she's 'aged' a lot in her attitude this year. It seems like she's a lot less serious than she used to be. I always say that she thinks 8" jumps are a joke. She's very sassy and has more of a mind of her own than ever before. Despite the faults she had in about half the runs, she still managed to place all but one round. I think the fault that set her back the most was getting called for 'unsafe' weave poles because she got stuck her shoulders stuck on the entrance, which isn't something I see her do very often. Figures it would happen at Champs though. She placed 1st a couple rounds, and I'll be honest, I would have been disappointed if she hadn't gotten at least one blue ribbon, haha. Her name is Blue and I kind of expect high placements out of her. Here's one of Blue's 1st place runs on an extra long course: her favorite!
Blue and Truly also ran on a team together, with Truly's brother Aiden (who is freaking fast)! I think I already mentioned that my mom was running Blue in team and they did really well together! I think Mom and Blue were the only ones to run clean all rounds. All in the Family placed 3rd in round one. We weren't able to follow up that performance in any of the other rounds haha. I always suck at team. Maybe one year I'll manage to do well all three rounds.
So, anyway, both my dogs go into finals. NBD right? It is a big deal, but it really doesn't feel that way to me because I've run finals every Champs I've attended. Blue's division, Double Digit 4"/8" were up and she was second to last dog to run, which meant she was sitting in second place going into finals. I was kind of nervous as to be expected, but hey, it's just Champs, I've got this. Blue was extremely spunky before this run. We had just won one of the huge raffle baskets and it was full of toys, so Blue was just in the trailer playing with all of them. I don't know why, but I got to the first discrimination and started to say 'tunnel' when Blue needed go up the AF. It came out 'tu-climb' and while my body and the path Blue was on said 'climb,' Blue chose to listen to my mouth and made an amazing effort to get into that tunnel. Just watch:
Even with all her faults through the week, she still managed third place overall! I'm really disappointed with myself for that last one, because after the scores came out, I saw that she was exactly 10 points behind the second place dog. I would have liked to get first at what was more than likely Blue's last Champs, but I at least wanted a big ribbon. I would expect nothing less of Blue, haha. Is it bad to just expect something like that of your dog, or good that you have that confidence in them? I don't know.
As I've stated, Truly surprised me with how well she did through the week. I really had no expectations of her (unlike Blue, haha), so I would have just been happy with her running clean and maybe earning one placement. Yes, I'll admit hoped for at least one placement. So, Truly placing all but one round and getting into finals was an awesome surprise! I knew that she was not the fastest dog in her class so I didn't expect her to get 1st place over all. The only way she could hope to do that would be run clean and smooth every round. That didn't happen. Her only faults all week were in round 7.
Despite that run, she was in third place as she went into finals, which is what she came out with! I was really into yellow this year, haha. She also earned the Highest Scoring Sheltie award, which at first I thought was because the Sheltie that got first (the top three dogs in 12" were all Shelties) didn't sign up to get count. This award only counted through round 5 or 6, I can't remember, but I went and added up the scores and Truly really did have the most points. I was honestly surprised when I saw that. This means she was in first place until that run in the morning and it knocked her all the way done to third. Poor Tru. I am always so suspicious when she does really good. Tru has gotten only a couple 100+ run indexes at trials and I am always suspicious. I know for sure that one was a timer mess up because I timed my video of the run and it didn't match up. It's almost the exact opposite of Blue, haha.
Champs is always an experience and I got to do some things I hadn't done before like fly on a plane alone (not really a big deal) and well, run Truly. It was really fun to watch Truly's brother run and as always see friends that I only get to see at Champs. Truly and her brother have so many of the same quirks! I haven't had a dog with siblings before and it's really fun to see how they are alike and different.
So, anyway, after that I felt pretty rushed the rest of the semester even though I only missed one class each. I got lucky and some of my classes ended up cancelled so I had extra time to do the work I didn't do over Champs. Whatever. And then a sudden three day NADAC Fun-rasier was added a couple weeks after Champs in our area. Dogs did pretty well, if I remember correctly. Tru was doing really awesome with distance. Her closest try was the Chances in this video. As it would get further into the day, she would have brain farts in the sun. I swear, since she'd be fine the part of the course in the shad and then it'd get sunny and it's like she'd forget what she was just doing. Oh Tru.
Then we had another trial in November. It was supposed to be two and a half days long (they do a few classes on Friday, not a full day though), but I started to feel really tired on Saturday and got home and confirmed that I had a fever, so I didn't go on Sunday. I didn't take any videos, and the dogs did okay.
So, then we went to our usual Dec. trial in AZ the weekend after classes ended. Good way to kick off break, haha. The dogs were awesome, while the weather was not, at least on Saturday. The other days were fine. Truly got a 20 pt bonus in Chances! Blue was really close and got a Q, but since it was a box, I needed to be in there before she left the start line, and she broke when I was one step away. Blue seemed really fast that weekend and even got a 100+ dri in Tunnelers. Crazy 11 year old dog. And someone was saying it was time to retire her and get a new dog after Tru finished her NATCH? Hahaha, no. Blue is gonna live forever.
We did a few runs at an ASCA trial the other weekend because I needed to drop something off. Not sure I'll be back because of the price. I wish I could because that club has rubber equipment, so Tru could run, but yeah, again, expensive. Blue almost has an ATCH worth of points from before ASCA and NADAC split, but I don't know if it's worth it.
That's everything agility wise. I have a couple more weeks of break and then we'll do one day of a trial after the first week of school. Then whatever the usual trials in the area are. I probably won't keep this updated. I just put off writing about trials and then I forget how we did or how I felt. I don't practice anymore so it's not like I can update that. So, I hope anyone that still reads this has a great 2013! I don't know when you'll hear from me again, but I can't say I'll never post again. I still post videos on my YT and write about how we did in the descriptions. That's also where you can find the rest of the dogs' videos from Champs.
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