USDAA SW Regional

Had a great time at the Bay Team Regional in Prundale, CA. Great location, great weather, really well organized trial. Saturday was the DAM Team/PVP and Grand Prix round 1. Tooney was paired up with a young Pyr Shep named Gator with the team name Gator's Wild Ride in ToonTown and Enzo was teamed up with Pixel and Sparks with the team name of ESP.

Unfortunately our first run of the weekend was Grand Prix Round 1 and it was a really tough course. Both Tooney and Enzo were wired and the course started with the dogwalk and an off course tunnel right in front of the dogwalk. Tooney ran straight into the tunnel and Enzo leapt off from halfway down the down ramp and almost went into the tunnel so they were both NQ'd right off the bat. The course had two places where you had to send to the backside of a jump and both dogs did it right the first time but went around it the second time. Need to practice that some.

Next was Team standard. Tooney and her partner both went off course in this. Enzo had a pretty good run but missed the aframe contact and then crashed the last bar. Tooney had also crashed into the last bar and I thought that was strange so I turned around and saw that there was a gopher hole right before the jump! I pointed it out to the jump setter and they filled it. Luckily no dogs were hurt.

In team jumpers, Enzo had a really nice run with just one bar down when I mis-timed my rear cross on a tight wrap. Tooney had an ok run, I got a little lost and front crossed a little too soon and pulled her off a jumped and got a refusal and then she missed the weave entry and got another refusal.

Team Gamblers was pretty straightforward. I got a little messed up with my opening plans but both dogs did a bunch of stuff and got some points.

In Team Snookers Enzo had a decent run and got through number 3 in the closing when he shot out of the straight tunnel and went over the wrong jump. Tooney had a really good snookers run got throught the closing and ended up in 6th place.

Both Tooney and Enzo's teams weren't doing very good going into the relay. Both teams did pretty good in relay and that brought us up but not quite enough. Tooney's team ended up one placement below the cutoff in PVP and Enzo's team ended up two placements below the cutoff in DAM team. Everyone in Enzo's team was already qualified so we were just playing for fun, but we were hoping to get Tooney's teammate qualified. It was kind of a weekend of a lot of almosts for me!

Sunday started with Tooney's P3 Standard and Tooney did great in this run but the judge got in my way when he was judging the aframe and when I was trying to avoid running into him, Tooney ran off course. The judge apologized but we were still eliminated :(

Then Tooney and Enzo both ran in P3/Masters Gamblers. The gamble was a tunnel/aframe discrimination and they had to take the tunnel on the other side of the aframe. Both of my dogs took the aframe. They're pretty much trained to take the obstacle closest to me unless I'm pushing into their path so that was expected. My opening plan was a little messed up because I couldn't decide what I wanted to do. I also forgot that I was running Enzo in this when I walked it and then decided that I wanted to practice his dogwalk without ever walking that plan.

Next was Enzo's Advanced Standard run. He did really good and got a Q and 2nd place. That was his 3rd advanced standard Q so he can move up to masters now in standard.

Then we had to go right over to the Steeplechase ring. He was a little slower than normal since he ran back to back and he was a little confused about where to go in the opening. He ended up knocking a bar anyways because I didn't get ahead enough for a serpentine move. I wanted to make sure that I supported the triple enough before that but I needed to get ahead sooner. He wasn't fast enough to make the cutoff with the bar. without the bar he would have just made it. Tooney had a really good PSJ run and made it into the second round. I layered a jump in the opening which I didn't do with enzo and that made a big difference in the part where he was confused. I don't really like layering if I can avoid it. I didn't have a choice with Tooney because she wouldn't let me lead out far enough but that actually worked out better.

Last run for Sunday was Advanced Snookers for Enzo. I had to improvise a little when I didn't get ahead enough to push him off of a number 3 jump that I wanted him to run by. I kind of forgot what I was doing there. He got the Q though! That was his first Advanced Snooker Q so he needed that one.

Monday was a little lighter on runs. Thank goodness because my feet were trashed at this point. I have flat feet and they hurt a lot when I'm on them a lot. Enzo only had Advanced Standard and Advanced Jumpers. He didn't need the standard leg so I tried to work his contacts a little. Then advanced jumpers was pretty tight and a tricky for an Advanced Course. At one point I had to run around a jump and that caused Enzo to knock a bar. Hoping to get that Q so he could move up to Masters for everything. Oh Well.

Tooney had Masters Snookers, Jumpers and Standard. In snookers I didn't walk my plan enough and ended up sending her over the wrong jump. She did well in Standard and got 4th. Jumpers was a mess. I had trouble remember the course for some reason. Then at the end of the day Tooney ran in the second round of Performance Speed Jumping. Finally a nice course! She had a really awesome run and ended up in 6th place. Only around 1 second out of 3rd place. Nice to end the weekend with a smooth run!

Jeff took a lot of video so I'll be posting some later!