A practice QQ!

This weekend we showed at the AKC trial in New Smyrna Beach...what a very different weekend than last weekend's USDAA trial...in many many ways. The first big difference was neither judge ever got in my path - LOL!!! But in spite of that, Burn still managed to blow his aframe contact on Saturday and his dog walk contact on Sunday, so...guess what he'll be working on this week?? :))) But he ran well at 20" and was feeling good and at 8 years old and having just come off a couple of injuries, he can still win the 20" jumpers with weaves class - that was nice to know!!!

I was pretty discouraged after last weekend's USDAA trial - discouraged with some of my runs, some of my handling, some of Triumph's jumping, his start lines, his pushiness on the contacts and table, my feelings about feeling "judged" by other competitors, my reaction to some of the issues I had over the weekend, my inability to run 3 very different dogs and do well with all 3 of them, and the list goes on.

I LOVE USDAA and it has always been my venue of choice...until this past weekend. As of Friday, I was actually not really looking forward to going and even considered not. But New Smyrna is only 25 minutes from my house and I hated the idea of throwing away my entry fees, so I reluctantly went. It was a decent size trial and much to my surprise, very laid back with a very different "air" about it with a totally different group of people and dogs that I spent last weekend with. It was so apparent that most of the competitors just wanted to go out there and have fun with their dog and qualify - there was no competitive edge in the air - it was refreshing for me. It was also a major bonus that big dogs ran first both days and we were done by noon both days!!!

The courses both days were super fun, super fast, with some very subtle challenges that kept you on your toes! While Triumph was completely ridiculous about his start line, I was VERY happy with MOST of his jumping!!!! Saturday he earned his second AX leg with a 1st place and a 36.69 second run. He had a very nice JWW run but he took an off course before the weaves - totally my fault as I just didn't tell him where to go.

On Sunday he had another nice standard run with another 1st place for his AX title and then he earned his 2nd jww leg with another 1st place!! Hence, our "practice double Q."

There were eight 24" Excellent A dogs and like another 20 Excellent B 24" dogs - a lot bigger than the 26" class at most of the local USDAA trials...interesting.

Another interesting thought...maybe two classes a day for Triumph as opposed to 5 or 6 classes a day doing USDAA (and more when we do DAM team) may suit him better right now...I think he gets somewhat overloaded by the end of the second and sometimes third day of USDAA trials...he seemed to have more of a brain this past weekend and was a little more under control in the ring which made me more relaxed and even more confident in my handling.

Here are his runs from the weekend...