We're beat!

We're back from the final day of the USDAA trial this weekend. What a long and fun weekend!

Had four runs today - pairs, standard, snooker and jumpers.

Pairs - This is so cool! When I was just about 12 months old and too young to compete, Mum started taking me to agility trails, walking me around, getting me used to the wild and crazy environment, working a little. Once last summer we met the judge at the AKC trial that we were visiting. Well, the weirdest thing - we were paired with him and his Min Pin this weekend. How fun is that! We didn't Q, but had a lot of fun running together. He and Charlie (the Min Pin) have qualified many times for nationals in both AKC and USDAA and have even placed in some of the AKC nationals. Fun!

Standard - It was getting pretty hot by the time we ran standard today. So Mum was trying something new - take me out of the crate about four dogs before, and running me to the ring as a warm up and taking the practice jump on the way. Well she needs to make sure she really knows the course before she does that! Ha! She hesitated on jumps 4-6, trying to remember where to go, well needless to say I made my own decision and took a jump in front of her. She told me she was sorry and we went on and had a nice run. Mum calls it a brain fart - good thing it doesn't smell! NQ

Neat thing is that at our Jen Pinder seminar on Thursday - Jen and Mum talked about his very thing. Jen said that I read Mum like a book - and that if she hesitates I start to think about what I'm supposed to do, and make my own decision. Jen says that I probably make the right decision about 95% of the time, but Mum and I loose time - not only with Mum hesitating, but if I have to make any decisions. So Jen told Mum to be really, really certain and sure about the directions she gives me, so that I don't have to think, just follow her lead.

Snooker - Yesterdays snooker run was a fabulous course. Today was extremely challenging; with a couple of times that Mum and I had to run about 3/4 of the course without taking an obstacle to get to reds. But Mum tried a new thing that Jen taught us on Thursday, the backing up run - where Mum faces me, running backwards to get the focus and not slow me down, then she throws in the front cross and I keep running at top speed. She did that and it worked great!!! We are going to do this move much more in the future. I loved it!

We got in two sevens went for the four instead of the six, since there was so much running and many weren't making time. We ran great - and was taking the last jump of seven when the buzzer went off. Luckily we got in enough points to Q!

Jumpers - Jumpers, the last run of the day and weekend. Jumpers is my absolute favorite thing - jumps and tunnels. Love it!!! We can really get the speed going. Well I got the 'Big D' right before my run, but Mum thought I was OK. I ran - pretty fast too - but got the 'Big D' again after. Mum thinks I picked up something on the ground and it flared up my IBS - cause when I got home I was fine.

I ran at a pretty good clip, not my best but.....Mum gave me lots and lots of goodboys, and ran with me a lot to keep the speed going and we ended up Q'ing on this run too!

It was a great weekend trial! We had some unbelievable successes and learned a lot; even got to try out some new 'tricks'.

And the best part is.......we have another trial next weekend - AKC. Yippee!!!