First AKC trial of 2010

Well no MACH for Sage this past weekend but she was 50 percent with nice runs. Sunday she had a gorgeous Standard run in the morning but I rotated out of my FC too soon at the A-frame and pulled her off the contact. That afternoon she was clean (6th place) in Jumpers.

Summit also did well and won Jumpers both days. He had a wrong course tunnel in Standard on Saturday (jump, 90 degree turn to A-frame/tunnel discrimination). I had too much forward motion towards the jump and cued extension and he landed right in front of the tunnel opening. The rest of the run was nice though. Saturday, he left the teeter too early and was called for a contact. I guess I better brush the snow off my teeter and remind him of the criteria for teeter performance - or maybe not. I was pushing the lateral distance on the teeter. His A-frame and DW were flawless.

Here are Summit's two first place jumpers runs.

Saturday

I'm not too happy with my bending over while cueing the 180 degree turn at #4. Need to stand up straight! In case you're wondering what I'm doing with my vest as I lead out.... Summit had released himself early in Standard that morning (released as soon as I got to my leadout position and turned around) so I was going to train a startline stay in jumpers (we would leave the ring if he didn't wait for the verbal release). As I left him at the startline, I noticed my vest was unzipped and flopping around. I found this irritating and knew I could not run a course with a flopping vest so I was attempting to zip it up as I lead out but couldn't get the zipper aligned... so I guess that was pretty good proofing of his startline. He didn't move until I released him.

Sunday

I was a bit out of position as he exited the tunnel so had a wide turn to the weaves. Both these courses were a lot of fun. I really like it when judge designs a course that has a combination of tight sequences followed by wide-open sequences where you can really let the dog open up and extend.

Next weekend we have a small one-ring AKC trial at a nice venue seven minutes from my house.
The judge is known for great course so maybe Ms. Sage will MACH.