One thing about agility trials that isn't so great is that you usually have to get up at the crack of dawn (or even earlier!) to be there with enough time to settle in, walk the dogs, get your armband sticker, and have time for the obsessive walk-thru. That being said, I set my alarm clock for 5AM on Saturday morning so I could have a full hour to get myself out the door. Well, when my eyes first opened, I immediately noticed the day was getting light! Yikes! 5AM is still full dark out this time of year! I knew I was in trouble. I must have been sleeping so heavily the alarm never roused me! I looked at the clock and saw that I had only fifteen minutes to get out the door for the hour and a half drive to the trial. CRAP! No time for coffee, and you definitely wouldn't like me on a day that starts without coffee! All I could do was feed Jimmy and Wilson, throw them in the car and go! No time for even a short walk. Good thing I had had my shower before bed ;-) So, of course, when the day starts this frantically, every new delay adds to the frenzy. The drive to the trial site wound through Maryland farm country, and while beautiful, getting stuck behind a piece of farm equipment that is taking up a full 3/4s of the full road width with no hope of passing is nothing if not maddening, angry and insane! I did manage to arrive at pretty much the time I had planned for but certainly not in the frame of mind I needed. And, unfortunately, this sort of set the mood for the whole weekend. Jimmy and I just could not get it together. If Jimmy was doing his job, I was screwing up. Jimmy popped out of the weaves on two runs, which is usually not something I need to fear. The first time he had not one, but two tunnels gaping at him at the end of the poles. The lure was too great and he popped at pole ten. Later, on our very last run, the poles were angled into the wall. He again popped out at ten. I'd say it's time for a Chiro checkup to see if he's out of adjustment somewhere. This was a one ring trial and the days were very long, with a lot of down time between runs. That never helps to keep us on track.
There was one very bright spot in the weekend. This trial offered the optional class called Time to Beat. There is only one winner in each jump height, and that goes to the fastest dog. Jimmy won the 12 inch class and got the blue ribbon! He earned the full ten points for being first. This has never happened before and may not again as it is very hard to beat the 12 inch Shelties/Jacks/Cockers, etc. For this particular run, we lucked into the right combo of dogs that let Jimmy come out on top! Yay, Jimmy!
While not shining examples of either my or Jimmy's skills, here are our Standard runs...I certainly don't have to worry about my ego getting out of control!
A very poorly planted front cross by me before the table ensured Jimmy didn't know where to go so we got a refusal. Completely my fault and of course everything else was clean.
Since we added nothing to our MACH quest or our Nat'l tallies, I'll leave off our progress info for this post.....We will try again another day!
