Weekend trial recap!

If you've read the updates, you know the outcome! Not a bad weekend for agility, I'd say.

We got hot, wet, muddy, sunburned (well, Mum did, anyway), and tired. But we had loads of fun. Mum thinks I may be getting a bit used to the heat, which is great.

It all started with us leaving for the trial on Friday early morning. We got there and scoped out a great shaded spot. Despite the high 80's and humidity, we kept pretty cool back at our crating area.

This was the Hoosier Kennel Club AKC agility trial, which we always attend since it's so close. We started with STD, a pretty fun course. I wasn't my fastest by any means with the heat, but it was a nice run with some good speed in parts. (You can see the run in the vids below). Mum thought I was showing a little more confidence, getting more and more at each trial. She's happy with that and was happy with the run.

Our second run for the day, JWW, was a nice course. Mum really liked this one because she could do more rear crosses with me, which I'm liking more and am faster with. And she got to use the 'run out from the weaves' training trick we've been doing at practice to get my weaves speedier. I worked those weaves very independently, and had pretty good speed, despite the fact they were uphill.

So we finished the day with a real nice DQ. That was our 16th DQ toward our MACH and we finished out the day with 24 MACH points, which was great.

We got to spend some time with some good friends. We hung back near our crating area, talked, had lunch, and lots of fun. It was good to have our crating buddies back. They've been away for awhile, and we're really happy they are back.

On Saturday morning we left home for the trial while it was raining, thundering and lightening. Not a promising start to the day. But the radar looked like it was going to end in a couple of hours so we headed out. Little did we know that the storm system was going to continue to redevelop over and over.

And it ended up creating the worst flood ever in Indiana. Luckily we escaped all that flooding, but points south of us are still under water and having a rough time.

We finally got to run at about 11:30 after a huge downpour. We didn't get any vids of our runs that day because we wanted to keep our camera dry. After that big last downpour, I was 2 dogs in. When I ran there were puddles up to my elbows that we had to run through. Mum was splashing me as she ran through over her ankle sized puddles. We ran clean in STD, but not good enough for a Q, unfortunately. Normally I don't mind at all running in the rain, as a matter of fact I get speedier. But with Mum splashing me it was just too weird. Mum was happy with the last half of my run, I looked happy and fairly speedy, even though I was very wet and muddy.

After that we ran JWW. The course had drained of most of the water by the time I ran, but there were still some puddles. Mum planned her course so she hoped she wouldn't splash me. I ran pretty well and would have Q'd if I wouldn't have taken an off course tunnel. So we were happy with the run.

But we were super glad to get home. Mum took me out to the kiddie pool and cleaned me up. She washed our crate pads, and her clothes, see how muddy they are! Too funny! It took Mum three washings to get her shorts clean.

Mum rubbed me down that night, iced me, gave me a Traumeel pill and rubbed a little Traumeel on a spot that was super tight near my iliopsoas muscle. It felt real good. She was a bit worried since running in that mud, and sinking, makes the run twice as much work. And I was kind of sore.

But we woke up the next morning and Mum started loading up the car. When she opened the car door, this awful smell came out. What was it? Dog poo? It smelled horrible. Then she realized she had left her muddy, wet shoes in the car overnight and they really stunk. A nice fragrant mix of dead fish, wet worm poo, and, oh my, who knows what else! She took them out, put them outside, and aired out the car, then we headed out to the trial site again.

Mum had definitely decided if the course was still muddy, she would be pulled us from the competition. There's just no reason I need to be put through that again, just after a muscle pull.

But by the time we were up the course had dried up a lot and the dog's path was not bad at all. So we ran. And dog, are we glad we did!

First I have to tell you about these courses and the judge. We really like the judge that put together Sunday's courses, but we have had loads of trouble Q'ing on his courses in the past. Actually, we have never Q'd on his courses, ever. We've teased him and his wife (who is also an AKC judge) about the fact that we can't Q on his courses. And we all enjoy joking around about that fact.

So going into STD we were hoping for the best. And the judges wife was scribing so we gave her a big smile as we went into the ring. It was a real nice course and we liked it a lot. No big surprises, good open areas for some speed. We ran and ended up in 5th place. Not my best speed, but not bad for 87 degrees, sun and humidity.

About an hour later it was time for my JWW course. Mum got me out, stretched me with cookie stretches and more. I visited my pee spot, and we headed over to the ring. We tried to keep under a shade tent near the ring. Mum asked me "what else ya got?" Which now makes me bark like crazy and gets me all riled up. When Gracie, who was about 150 yards away, heard me bark, she started a screaming fit. I barked more and started looking for the Gracester. I barked, she screamed, I barked and she screamed more. But we were up in two dogs, so there wasn't anything to do but run!

So we ran our friend's JWW course and wow, was it tricky! Gracie had done her cheerleading job, so I started of nice and speedy, did my weaves pretty well and Mum got to do the run out from the weaves training thing again.

It's the JWW course below, and the last one on the vid. It's kind of difficult to see in the vid, but it's very twistie turnie on the last half of the course. Mum sent me out to the triple, so she could run her fastest to get in a front cross before the tunnel, very tricky entrance that many, many big dogs missed. But sending me out, got her there in time.

After our run we got big congrats from the judge and his wife. We finally Q'd on his courses!!! Yeah! And we got a DQ to boot, with some nice MACH points.

So we ended the week on a nice little high. I'm not quite sure I'm totally back, but I'm getting there, fur sure. Mum would still like to see some more speed, and more confidence, but we're closing in.

We got home about 3:00 PM on Sunday, rested up, and then I was raring to go again. But Mum made me stay inside, gave me a Traumeel pill just in case. And Gracie and I waited till it was later in the day and cooler to get our zoomies on.

What a fun weekend!

We both have training on Wednesday this week, weather permitting. Gracie is really hoping we have practice this week, she's getting so jealous!!!! At least Mum mowed the backyard today, so we could get our weaves back up. Our next trial is about 5 minutes from our house, a three day AKC trial...and the best part is it's indoors on nice soccer flooring in air conditioning! Yeah!

Here are a few of the courses from the weekend:

And here are all the vids we got (thanks to Cody's Mum), all Q's, can you believe it?