College Station USDAA 6/19-20/10

Friday we made the three hour drive down to College Station Texas to go to a USDAA trial at the Louis Peirce Pavillion at Texas A&M. I had only entered Deets, thinking that despite being air conditioned inside, Landon would still refuse to run in the heat of Texas summer. When I got there and found myself shivering and teeth clattering in the arena, I wished I had entered Landon after all.

Saturday, Deets just didn't seem to be on the same page as me. He was running ten times faster than he usually runs, but wasn't listening to me, either. We NQ'd in Standard, and in Gamblers, and by our last run of the day he was finally listening again. He got his first Snookers leg with a first place and a really nice time. Unfortunately, I do not have it on video.

Sunday, Deets was in a better place and he and I had a great time running. He got his second Gamblers leg with a 1st place, and got his third and final P1 Standard leg for his P1S title... the first title to his name. He also got a blue ribbon in that, class, as well.

His P1 Jumpers run was fantastic, but he dropped a bar because I called him to me too soon. Even still, it was one of the most fun runs I have ever done and we both had a blast doing it! He finished in 16.89 seconds.



Monday night I took Landon to class in Deets' place since Deets ran so hard over the weekend. He had fun but was so hot he wasn't really into class.

Mimzy, on the other hand, had a GREAT class and is really starting to show potential and demonstrate that she knows what her job is. She is moving fast and deliberately, and is learning to really listen to me. In other words, she's learning handler focus instead of obstacle focus. She's finally getting her contacts on the A-frame and the dog walk, and doing so well. I have a few things I really want to get her working on, like getting her to hit the down-side of the A-frame hard and fast and clearing the apex. I also want to work on her go-outs, so she really knows that when I say "go" I mean for her to run as fast as she can away from me. Her weaves are looking good but are not accurate, which is simply my failure with working on them lately. Either way, she should be ready to try her hand in the standard ring at the trial in College Station in August.

Landon and Deets have an obedience practice trial this weekend, as Landon is ready for the Open ring and Deets is ready for Novice... or so I believe they are. This weekend will demonstarte to me if they are or not. If they are, we will be going to an AKC obedience trial in Longview in a few weeks.

USDAA McKinney Memorial Day Weekend 2010

Memorial Day weekend was a very successful weekend for us! We went up to McKinney for the USDAA trial and came home with quite a handful of ribbons! I didn't manage to get videos of all the runs but I got most of them.

Saturday first thing was Gamblers, and Deets was the only one entered. He Q'd to get his first Gamblers leg and first place and an admirable 56 points!

Then came Standard, where Deets got his first Qualifying leg with 2nd place and a time of 40.61 seconds.



Landon got his third Q in P1 Standard to finish his P1S title, with third place and a time of 47.09 seconds.



Jumpers was after standard. Mimzy competed in Starters jumpers at 26" and had a nice run and would have qualified but took down the double. She and I are still learning to mesh well together and I think I need to let her grow up a little before she competes further, so I do not plan on entering her again until the fall or winter.

Deets had a very nice jumpers run but took down the penultimate bar. I am still proud of the run because I felt we worked really well together.



Landon competed for the second time in P2 Jumpers, and Q'd with a second place and time of 34.57 seconds. This was his first leg toward his P2J title. He was mister old reliable this weekend, and I really enjoyed running him.



On Sunday, I actually had to walk Mimzy off the course in Jumpers, as she decided to go visit the judge and a ring steward and then got pretty out of control on the course, and I decided I wasn't going to permit her to get away with those antics in the ring and picked her up and walked her off. That's okay, she's still such a baby.

Deets broke his start-line stay in Jumpers on Sunday and ran right into me and took out a jump. He was in trouble for that, but the rest of the run was nice.

Landon Q'd again in P2 jumpers on Sunday and now only needs one more leg to move up to Masters Jumpers. I didn't get the run on video and I wish I had, but he did get 2nd place with a time of 30.69 on a pretty gnarly course. I was very proud!

Sunday was MY very first time to ever compete in Snookers, and with the help of a fellow TOTC club member plotted out a very nice course for Deets. Again, not on video, and I so wish it were. We took the weaves twice because they were the 7 point obstacle and we got all our opening done and got mostly through the closing, but we got whistled off because Deets bailed on the teeter totter. That was very unusual for him and I was confused, but oh well. The judge complimented me on a very nice run and Deets still got first place. Not a single P1 dog qualified in Snookers on Sunday. Deets was just shy of Qing with 31 points.

Last on Sunday was Standard. Landon had finished his P1 standard title on Saturday but wasn't able to move up the next day, so he got another P1 Standard leg (a fourth) which was just icing on the cake. He was having fun this weekend and was a joy to run. He got third place with a time of 54.87 seconds.




Deets had an adventure in P1 Standard on Sunday. I think he was very tired and wasn't really into the run, but still did what mom told him to do. After dogs had been running down the dog walk all day, Deets happened to be the unlucky dog who suffered the dog walk falling out from under him after the pin that held the down-ramp onto the board fell out, and wasn't noticed by any of the ring crew. Deets did not seem phazed, but the noise of the board collapsing made me nearly have a heart attack. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it so that Deets would not get upset reading off of me, so I sent him to the table and waited to hear what the judge would do. He finished the run and still Q'd for his second standard leg, and the judge ran up after we were done and said she would let me bring him back in the ring and run him over the dog walk as many times as I wanted to make sure he wasn't upset by it. He wasn't, but I sure was glad it was him and not Landon who had gone just a few dogs before. If it had been Landon, I would be re-training the dog walk from step one again. What a good boy, Deets!



So, a few things I noticed this weekend that I want to work on with the dogs... Landon and I still need to work on our cross-behinds, because we are getting to the point where we are going to have to perform them in the masters jumpers ring. Deets has a nasty habit of stopping on top of the A-frame and that needs to be stopped. Mimzy just needs to grow up and learn not to go visit people in the ring, so I am going to start setting her up for that in class and having people ignore her.