Mom, Gracie and I are back from the Indiana Collie Club AKC Agility trail this weekend. Fun times, but weird times - we're calling it 'Wipeout Weekend'!
I ran in Standard and JWW Exec B on both Saturday and Sunday. Boy were those courses tough! Only 5 out of about 50 dogs qualified on both Saturday and Sunday Exec B Standard. More dogs qualified in JWW, but not that many! Tough courses.
On Saturday we had our standard run, we were running great. Then I took the triple with a pretty hard right turn to the dog walk - I totally wiped out after the triple, landed on my side and the side of my face in the dirt - but I got back up and ran the dog walk faster than ever, Mom met me at the bottom and got in a front cross. Ha!
Then came the weaves. The chute was out from end of the weaves about 3-4 feet, perpendicular - and the wind was blowing the chute open. OK, I have to say I've never seen that! Only 4 dogs made it through that course and nearly all those that didn't qualified popped out of the weaves because of the chute - me included. But the rest of our run was good.
Saturdays JWW was pretty tough, but we made it through and got 4th place! Yeah, more MACH points. Mom was running her butt off!
Then Sunday Standard was tough again - so tough that after it was over the judge apologized for it being so tough - WHAT!!! That's a first. We were running great, but I took the tunnel instead of the frame on a discrimination - so after that Mom thought, 'let's see how far we can push it'!!! So we barreled through, taking quite a few risks with speed and handling.
Then came a really difficult stretch - out of the tunnel to the triple, with a really hard left to the weave entrance. Most dogs ended up trashing the triple, or missing the weave entrance; but Mom ran me past the jumkp and at the last minute threw in a front cross and pushed me back a bit, then sent me into the weaves - worked beautifully. Sure was fun to see how far we could push it!!!
Then we had JWW - a few jumps then three tunnels in the middle, then jumps and weaves to the end - weird course, but fun! We were doing well - a little slow in the tunnels - but picked up a lot of speed on the jumps. Then I came to a jump, looked to the left a little and then realized I had to take the triple on the right - oops - totally missed it, barreled through it with my chest, collapsed my legs and went chin into the dirt - AGAIN!!! What the.....?????
Well by that time I was pretty sore - good thing our Doc, Aunt Bonnie, was there. She immediately checked me out and gave me a quick Chiro adjustment. Then I cooled off, rested a bit and she checked me again and gave me a full Chiro adjustment. I was so sore, and I didn't want her working on me! I made a fuss, but finally gave in.
Well needless to say I have been prescribed daily massages for the next week, and more 'cookie stretches' before any activity - as well as major warm up and cool downs after runs and long walks. Ahh, poor me!!!!
I have to tell you, those falls scared Mom a little. She got a little emotional. After all we've been through over the past two years - I just don't think we could take another injury right now. I'll be fine now - let's keep it that way, K?
I am glad you are okay! I've watch dogs face plant into the grass and it always worries me, too. A Belgian Turvuren at our trail barrelled into a metal wing jump and limped off the course last weekend. It was scary, too, but then I saw him later and he seemed okay. Whew.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you got some Qs! Sounds like tough courses for sure. We had a tunnel to weave entry, and it was HARD to make. Hardly any of the big dogs did, but the little dogs had a better time. :)
Ain't agility great!