Lack of snow and non-frozen ground allowed me almost a month to work Seeker outside on grass. We did Susan Salo jump grids and lots of fun groundwork.
I pulled her Open JWW entries (and got a full refund...always a good thing!) and decided to go to the shows and run out of the ring in a positive manner if she was hesitant and stuttering. But deep in my heart I could tell that she was almost back to normal.
Lynn and I arrived at the site on Thursday afternoon to set up. I was thrilled with the site. It was huge and with a great surface of artificial turf...almost as good as running on grass. I bought a new tug leash from a vendor and we were good to go on Friday morning. Seeker loved the fact that she could tug intermittently right up to the start line. She was extremely focused. And she ran fast! The course was nice and flowing. She completed it easily and took 2nd place missing out on first place by only one second to a BC. I never thought we would be competitive in Novice B!
Saturday brought a hope for a Novice Standard title run. I must have shown my nerves because Seeker put her head down in the poles and starting to sniff. I gave a verbal "uh, uh" and she popped out. Bad trainer/handler. I should have said "Weave" but it's hard to think on your feet. And of all darn things, she backweaved! That earned her a refusal. But she got down to business and weaved well the 2nd time through. We finished the course only 3 seconds off the leaders, but our refusal gave us a score of 95 so we ended up in 6th place. But we Qd and now I had to decide what to do for Sunday. I decided to move her up to Open. I am so glad I did! She was ready. She almost leapt off the start line, but I was able to get her back and do a lead out. I was thrilled to see that much drive in her at a trial. It proves that I was right: the more they trial and have fun, the faster and more confident they get. The trick is to keep making it fun. I was so surprised at how fast she ran! I could hardly get the commands out fast enough! I got a bit cocky and didn't support her tunnel entry enough and she ran past the plane of the tunnel and got a refusal. But she quickly got in on the second command and we went on to a jump and the table. While she was on the table, I decided that I had better give her the best chance to get through the weaves without a refusal since we had already used up our max penalties. I had walked the course planning to be on her left and complete a front cross at the teeter. But knowing that she is even better in the weaves when she is on my right (she is left pawed), I did the front cross at the table. What a great on-the-fly decision! She not only did the weaves, she did them fast and well! We got several compliments about her weaving. I have to thank Lynn for suggesting that I use tiny little steps to keep her cadence up. It worked like a charm! From there, we completed the teeter and then the dreaded triple jump. She stuttered for an instant and flew over it! Then it was one more jump, the dogwalk, and a line of 3 jumps to the finish. We flew over the last three. I had a huge rush of adrenaline that I had never felt before...what a feeling to earn our first Open leg. It got even better when I saw that we placed 3rd. It was a big class!
Needless to say, the drive home was very easy as I think the car floated along beneath me.
The new leash tug proved to be very lucky for this girlie who continually amazes me and tugs on my heartstrings with her love and devotion.
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