USDAA Trial - DART, Irwindale

Went to an USDAA trial this weekend. This one is relatively close (30 minutes away) compared to most of them (90 minutes away + traffic in the afternoon). It was nice to be able to get up at a more reasonable hour. Still haven't managed to get Enzo any more Q's for nationals, unfortunately. His contacts were decent he stoped on about half of his aframes for the weekend and only leapt one. Still stopping short on all but one dogwalk. I think he does that because he thinks if he stops sooner then that means he can leave sooner. I try to make him come all the way down most of the time but sometimes I'm bad and sometimes he's bad and self releases.

Saturday, Tooney ran first in P3 Standard. She had a good run but she was pretty amped up and left the table when the judge said go. Then Enzo ran in Starters Standard. His contacts were kind of eh, fast and almost maintained criteria but not quite. His dogwalk he hestitated in the spot where's he's been stopping early and then took off and for his aframe he had nice striding down into the yellow but didn't actually stop. On the table he laid down right way but he got up halfway through the count and wanted to jump off the table. It took several seconds and some body blocking but I eventually got him back down. So we managed to Q that run and that finished his Starters Standard title so now he can move up to Advanced in Standard.

Next was PNS/GP. In Tooney's PNS run, she leapt over the dogwalk contact and then I pushed her off of a jump when I wanted to rear cross. It was a tricky spot where they were coming down with a lot of speed and there was a tunnel ahead but they had to turn 180 to the teeter. You had to pull a little to the jump and then rear cross. I think I got in her path a little. I probably should have tried a front cross there but there wasn't much of a curve so I wasn't sure about getting there in time and then I was afraid of flinging them over the next jump even if I did get there. Unfortunatly I made the same mistake in Enzo's run, even though I did better at staying out of his space I was still putting too much pressure on. At least he had already knocked a bar before that or I would have really been mad at myself for making the same mistake twice. It still kind of annoys me though.

Then we ran in relay. Tooney missed her dogwalk contact but did well otherwise. Tooney's partner decided he didn't want to go up the teeter so no Q there. Enzo's relay partner was Sam a big Golden with an awesome attitude and Enzo's puppy class classmate. Enzo knocked a bar but we still ended up with first place.

Next was Enzo's Starters Snookers run where he knocked the first bar and then took the next obstacle since I led out kind of far so we got whistled off right away. I need to have a contingency plan for that situation or my brain doesn't react fast enough.

Then Tooney ran in P3 snookers and got 53 points for 3rd place and a super Q. That was her 3rd Super Q in Performance and I think that finished her PK3.

Then we ran PSJ/Steeplechase. The opening of the course was one where you'd really like to have a 3 jump lead out but I knew that neither of my dogs would stay. It was 3 jumps very slightly offset to a 90 degree turn to the weaves and there was a straight tunnel parallel to the weaves about 10-15 ft back. With Tooney, I tried running on the right side of the jumps and rear crossed the third jump but she just went right into the tunnel. With Enzo I led out on the other side hoping to at least get far enough out to do a moving front cross before the weaves. I couldn't get there for that so I RFP'd before the last jump but I did that a little late and he knocked the bar but did get the weaves instead of the tunnel. Unfortunately, he knocked another bar so we didn't Q. This time he would have made the cutoff with only one bar. He really doesn't knock a lot of bars in practice but we seem to be getting a lot in competitions.

Sunday, Tooney actually Q'd in 3 out of 4 runs. She didn't get gamblers but she placed 2nd in Snookers, 2nd in standard and 3rd in jumpers.

Enzo got his first Advanced Gamblers Q. the gamble was Aframe turn away into the tunnel under the aframe and then 2 jumps out. Enzo did it perfectly, he stopped at the bottom of the aframe and I said left tunnel and pointed towards the tunnel and he turned his head and went right in. I don't really use directionals normally but he does know left and right turns on the ground. Don't know if the drectional helped or if he just followed my body language.

We ran Starters Standard for fun since he already got his title the day before. It was good that we didn't need this one because he leapt over the aframe contact. he did one stride over the top and leapt. I marked it and stopped him this time. His dogwalk ended up being really awesome this time, he ran all the way to the bottom.

Enzo needed the Starters Jumpers Q to get his AD and move up in everything but unfortunately he knocked two bars. Really fast time and decent turns though, second fastest time and only 0.1 seconds behind the fastest time and 6.2 yds/s.