Great agility weekend: I went 6/6 and a won Perf. Grand Prix!

This past weekend was the last agility trial of this year for us. So we aimed to make the most of the weekend!

We entered three days. Even though Mum had to pull me from the last trial because of the heat, we decided since it is the last agility trial of the year we wanted to really enjoy it, and take advantage of the opportunity and the cooler weather.

Being 10.5 years old now, Mum and I know that I may not have that many more trials in me. But one thing is for sure, I'll run as long as I'm able!

Friday we ran PIII Gambers, Standard and Jumpers. Mum was hoping I was having a 'feel good' day. And it turned out that I had a feel good day both Friday and Saturday!

My first run was gamblers. Mum had a good plan and the gamble part of the run was right up my alley. A jump, out to the tunnel, back to the dogwalk and another jump.

I was running really, really well...nice and fast. So we got in a lot of obstacles before the buzzer, including two 7 frames. When I reached the dogwalk in the gamble Mum yelled, 'Dude, EASY!!!' and I kind of paid attention. Luckily I got a toe in and we Q'd! For this run I got the most points in the shortest amount of time for all the dogs in both performance and championship levels. Cool!

Our next run was Standard. I don't run many standard runs in my elder years, but I thought this one was fun! Mum worked to help me get as tight of turns as possible to help with our time. Turned out we didn't need to worry about that because I was running great. But it always helps, right? Ended up with a Q and 1st place and I had over 10 seconds to spare!

Our third run of the day was PIII jumpers. I love jumpers, it's my favorite event. Always has been from 18 months and on. It's the first title I received when I was young in all the levels I've run in over my years.

Again, I ran well with this one too. Interestingly, on the straight line jump areas of the course, Mum didn't remember I like to hear 'go on!' when we reach these parts of courses when I'm running really well, so I was looking back at Mum a lot. Lost a bit of time with that, but again, ended up with 1st place and a great time!

Gracie ran PI Gamblers on Friday and was really, really wild. She stayed pretty focused, but the gamble was difficult for a starters level and she got the first two jumps and missed the out two jumps. But she was having a lot of fun and stayed with Mum which is always their goal.

After that she ran PI Standard. If you know her, she's leery of the teeter, but Mum thought they'd give it a go after loving the teeter where we occasionally practice. She was running really great, but when she got five feet from the teeter, she froze. Mum tried to keep her focused, and just about the time Mum thought she may bolt, she sent her to the next obstacle which was the tunnel (she loves tunnels) and Gracie finished up great. Too bad...no Q for Gracie.

She ran PII Jumpers after that and did really well! She started out kind of slow, but when Mum said about three jumps out, 'are you ready to go tunnel?' Gracie sped up a lot and ended up with first place and a Q. Good girly!

Off to home we went to get ready for the next day.

We got up very, very early on Saturday and headed back over to the trial site which was an hour and a half away. Mum felt good, but she noticed I looked a little tired from the day before. She gave me a Traumeel and let me have a nice nap in the car since I didn't run until about Noon.

Gracie ran her gamblers run and was really unfocused and wild. Mum thought she was going to bolt and possibly jump the ring fence, but Mum sent her to a lot of tunnels and she got her focus back. Then the buzzer went off and Gracie was flying through a jump, frame, jump, jump, jump and got far ahead of Mum and missed the final jump. But wow, oh wow, she was flying!

Finally it was my time to run. Mum entered me in my very first Performance Grand Prix event. We were pretty excited as I haven't run in Grand Prix for years!

The course was fun, and Mum had a great plan. There were a couple of tricky areas, but if you paid a lot of attention in helping your dog keep their lines, you had a great chance of success. And Mum did just that. I ended up with first place with only two Q's in performance, and only about only 8 Q's in championship. So I got my first PGP bye for regionals, cool!

My next run was PIII Jumpers. Again, I love jumpers. Mum had a conflict with Gracie's PII Jumpers run, so she had to walk both courses and remember both courses.

She got both of us out and asked a friend to hold me while she ran Gracie. Did I tell ya I hate it when someone else holds my leash, I throw fits. But Gracie is used to it and doesn't get as concerned about me anymore while running.

Gracie started slow again, but sped up and got her Q for her PII Jumpers title, cool!

Then Mum had to run me right after. She grabbed me, warmed me up really quick and we were off! It was a bit of a complicated course, and she didn't get in the several front crosses she wanted to. But she led me through with some rear crosses and I got first place again!

Soon after that I was up to run my first Performance Speed Jumping course at 12 inches. Again, we haven't run Steeplechase events for years, so we were excited.

This course was fun! But it had two sets of weaves which aren't my fastest obstacle anymore. Nevertheless, we did well and I ended up with second place, just a couple of seconds from first place. So we were really happy!

We decided not to go back on Sunday. It was very cold both Friday and Saturday, and rain was scheduled for Sunday on top of that. We were only entered in a couple of events anyway and Mum wanted us to end on a super high note, which we did! Good thing we stayed home because by late afternoon we were getting sleet up on the mountain and we're really glad we didn't have to drive through that.

Gracie ended up with 2 PII Jumpers Q's and her PII Jumpers title. And, I ended up the weekend with 2 PIII Jumpers first places, 1 PIII Gamblers first place, 1 PIII Standard first place, 1 PGP first place and 1 PSJ second place. Not bad for a 10.5 year old, huh?!?

It was such a fun, fun weekend! We're looking forward to our next trial early next Spring!