AKC trial this past weekend!

After being off trailing for about 5 weeks, we finally got to go to an AKC trial this past weekend in Lafayette.

It snowed Saturday morning about one inch, so driving the hour to the site turned into about two hours. And it was white knuckle time for Mum. But we made it safely and in time for Mum's walkthrough.

Many folks didn't like the courses much, not much room to run full out. But Mum and I didn't mind them, and we've seen worse. Have to say though that we are not sure we'll be running at this facility anymore. Haven't totally decided yet, but the floor was rubber matting. And even though it's fairly new, I slipped a lot, and crashed after the triple in my first run. Mum also didn't think I was running full out and our YPS showed with over .4-.5 less in our YPS for each run overall. And the big thing is she doesn't want me to have to be one bit hesitant after all the work we've done to get me over my muscle pull, and build up speed. We'll see.

My first run was Standard, not a bad run, even with the slips and fall. We ended up with second place and about 15 MACH points. Just about 1.5 seconds away from first place. But the best part is that I wasn't hurting one bit after my slips and fall. What a relief.

A couple of things we need to work on in this run - turns after the AF, and Mum calling me more through the chute, so I know where she is after. Since the turn was bad after the AF, Mum had to improvise her plan and she did that well.

My second run on Saturday was JWW. Mum did her usual bad and moved to soon laterally and pulled me off a jump. But we liked the run otherwise. And some of my turns were really tight. That work we've done in the backyard on tightening jumps has been paying off. We ended up with the fastest time in the 16 inch class, but of course no Q.

Driving home on Saturday was again a knuckle whitener. But we got home at about 3 PM or so, and had lots of time to de-stress and rest up for Sunday.

Sunday morning we woke up and it was 9 degrees. If you mix snow on the ground and those low temps, my toes just can't handle it. I came in from my potty break, went right to the couch and didn't want to come off for about 10 minutes. Mum knew instantly that it was my 'cold feet.' So she planned on trying to find a place at the trial site that didn't have any snow to take me out for my pre-run potty. She found it and I didn't have any problems.

Sunday's drive was a breeze. Roads were perfectly clear. We appreciated that. Got there just in time to walk my Standard course for the day. Not a bad course at all we thought. After Saturday's bad turn off the AF, Mum wanted to work on that. We had a nicer turn, but I still came out wide after the AF. Now that we have a nice running frame, we have to work on turning after, without me slamming myself into the floor.

Got a Q in that Standard run and another second place. Saved Mum pretty good on that last jump after the chute. Less than a second off of first place and 16 MACH points. Not too bad.

My next run was Jumpers. Again, Mum moved too soon laterally and pulled me off the jump after the second blue tunnel (hard to see in the vid because of the pole). But a nice run otherwise - accept for the wide rear cross. Mum was the only one we think that ran on the outside of the weaves and decided to push me out to the second blue tunnel. Most folks stayed on the inside of the weaves and did a front cross after. But Mum knows how much I love her going way out from the weaves, when I'm in them; and it worked well for us. We were happy with the tight turns in this run, even though NQ.

Overall we were pretty happy with the weekend. And we were super happy that I made my running DW contact :) Although we're not sure they would have held up on USDAA contact zones.

This coming week we're going to the training center to work on more tighter turns and my DW contact, and adding in some chute work. Gracie will work on her focus, DW and weaves.

Next weekend we have a USDAA trial at the same training center, me with three runs per day and Gracie with two. Mum will get a nice workout.

Here's the vid: (And I want to thank the nice folks at Anything's Pawsible for video taping me!)