Sunburned+Tired = Great Agility Weekend

It was our first outdoor agility trial of the season - and last trial before Regionals. After the last trial I was feeling not super confident in myself, and I've had to go back and really think about our strength and weaknesses - and reevaluate that - and be HONEST about it. I ran in the right headspace for most of my runs, I am the issue, and I need to focus on myself and block other people and their strategies out of head etc etc, and try not to second guess myself. I need to do what I think is best for me and my dogs. I also ran Wicca in snooker, that was some kind of funny. Wicca and Gyp are VERY different creatures, and it was good for me to run her and vice versa, though they are equally fast, it pretty much ends there. YIKES! It really confirmed to do what is best for MY dog and Amanda's strategies are much different for her dog too - what works for me, may or may not work for her and Wicca!! Gyp came home with 4 Qs, and 1st places in those classes. K-man came home wth 5 Q's and ran really well in the heat!

STANDARDS:

We ran 3 Standards, and Gyp had the 1st, 2nd and 3rd fastest Masters Standard times of all the Masters dogs. She Q'd in 2 of them and dropped a bar in the last one (the fastest one), but I was THRILLED with her, and how I handled her for the most part too. I just went for it, no second guessing. I for the most part tried not overrunning and being to flingy. She placed 1st in her classes.

Kaleb Qd in 1 of his standards and placed 3rd of 11 dogs, which I was thrilled with!! It was his 35th Masters Standard Q I think! And in Kaleb fashion he had to say HI to the photographer to make sure she got his close-up .... His other two standards we had a missed contact a popped weave exit.

JUMPERS:

K, Qd in his Jumpers with a 5th of 11th I think. He was feeling the heat of the day, and I was really happy with his effort!

Gyp had a pretty good Jumpers, it didn't feel the smoothest, I am not sure if it was the course or my lack of confidence in the course - she took an off course on the second last jump (bad mama). But I have some things to work on based on this run!

GAMBLERS:

I stress over gamble openings, and I have a new strategy for it (find flow and the points will follow, and stay CALM DAMMIT) and I am proud to say we had 58 points in our opening!! Wicca and Gyp tied for the most opening points! We had different strategies. Wicca did the 22 point mini Gamble twice - Wicca can take way more pressure than Gyp so Wicca can go right into those minis and do them back to back, I can't do that with Gyp, I need to build confidence in between applying that distance pressure - I know this now. So with Gyp I worked on building speed before hitting the minis and we did one 18 point mini and the 22 once, but got more equipment in overall. Interesting hey? Gotta know your dog and what works, and I hope I am on the right track for that.

We missed the final gamble by a tunnel entrance (bad shoulders pointing in the wrong direction - with both dogs DUH!!!)... but I was so thrilled with my opening I wasn't that annoyed at all!

SNOOKER 1 & 2:

The moment you've all been waiting for .... I ran Wicca, Amanda ran Gyp. I ended up with 28 points ... Amanda ended up with 7. We ran each others dogs, JUST that good LOL ... see the video for some good laughs ....

Our Snooker on day 2 was great and we got through to the end, and we had an awesome run that was really challenging for us THREADLES! AHH! K-man Q'd in both his Snooker runs, and was a good boy and worked in the heat really well!

STEEPLECHASE:

Probably one of the best feeling runs I've ever had with Gyp. I just went for it, and did my best to stay infront of her the whole time on this course with front crosses, it took a bit of convincing my self I could get there, and we did it. She had the FASTEST time of all the dogs! But I REALLY pushed it .... and she missed the last A-frame contact for 5 faults (time), but was still 1st in her large class. I was thrilled! 

Our Go!Dog!Go! group did AMAZING!! Great runs, Titles and Q's galore! I'll update the GDG Blog when I have the updates from everyone! CONGRATS to ALL!