Summit earns his first DOUBLE Q

This weekend we had a three-day AKC trial in Castle Rock, Colorado. Three rings with FAST. I did not enter my dogs in FAST as I've learned my lesson - too many conflicts and walk-throughs that are cut short because of FAST. I decided only to enter FAST at one-ring trials.

Friday was Excellent only. Summit ran clean in Standard that morning and earned 2nd place. I felt very good about his run. He did have a wide turn off the jump before the teeter and so didn't have a straight approach to the teeter (lost some time there).

That afternoon he ran clean in Jumpers with another 2nd place. A Double Q! I think I'm still in shock:-)

Saturday he had a beautiful Jumpers run but I forgot where to place a cross and sent him off course. Sunday he qualified in Jumpers with a 3rd place. Saturday's Standard he dropped the panel jump. Sunday's standard was a little OTT. I think after three days, he had enough. But I am thrilled at his performance this weekend. He dropped two bars out of 6 classes (and one bar was because he slipped before takeoff).

I did do something very silly on Sunday. During Summit's Standard run, I sent him to the table (he has an automatic down), then I confidently turned and walked away to lead out to the next obstacle. As I'm confidently striding away, I realize I don't hear the judge counting. My first thought was, "the table was NOT the correct obstacle." I turn around and the judge is just standing there staring at my dog. Then I realize, "Oh yeah, it's a SIT!" I grin at the judge (who is laughing by now) and say, "Oops, my bad" and I tell Summit to sit.

Sage had an awesome weekend. She had 6 beautiful runs. No QQ's but very close. Friday's standard run I released her too soon from the DW and she missed the contact. She qualified that afternoon in Jumpers. Saturday and Sunday's Standard run she dropped the panel jump both runs. Very odd for her. Although a lot of dogs were dropping the panel at this trial. She does not drop bars very often and I can't remember the last time she dropped the panel. She qualified in jumpers on Saturday and Sunday. I did schedule a massage for her on Sunday but Jim didn't notice any hot spots.

But I have to say, her runs were so smooth and she knew exactly where she was going on the course. The courses had some challenges for Sage (Friday was a DW/Tunnel discrimination), but I'm becoming much better at setting lines of motion (letting her extend over a jump to land deep when I needed to set a line for the next sequence of obstacles or using lateral motion to get convergence or divergence).

So a very good weekend and lot's of fun. The courses were challenging and I'm very pleased with how well both my dogs ran them.

I did take the course map from Sunday's standard run and will set up the beginning to practice. I'll post it here once I get it in CRCD - it was a difficult beginning for fast dogs and it was handled many different ways. Robin Kletke was the judge. He had great courses all weekend but this Sunday course got a lot of teams at the first 7 obstacles.