Happy Midnight!
I said "don't care about" twice right there....see what I mean?
Don't care. :)
So I went to a trial last weekend.
Yeaaaaa...we got home wednesday night from nationals. I was home thursday. We left friday morning. Hmm. I would have liked at least one more day at home, but I guess you just can't have everything you want!! ;)
I just realized you can change the font on this bad boy. Craziness is happening in my life right now!!!
But yeah, the trial. That was super fun! Friday we had a standard and round 1 steeplechase. Good steeplechase run...there was a teeter problem in the standard and everyone, including starters, advanced and masters dogs were flying off of it. So obviously there was something wrong...Tof even had a fly off. As it turned out, it was set higher than it should be, so I'm guessing all the dogs thought it was the dogwalk. Oh well, it was a fun run anyways. Annette yelled when we were running "There's a national champion running in the field..woooo!!!!" heheh, still feels kinda cool.
Saturday was funny. After the weekend before at Nationals, going 8/8 and then going into the trial and after the first 6 runs only getting 2 Q's (both of which were Steeplechase). Tony said after he won nationals in 2009 he had about 2 months of bad trials. Tori Self, after getting chosen for the World team had a 0/6 weekend. ...Shoot, I had another example..it's gone. Anyways, some say it's because you work so hard leading up to it and then you just get lazy afterwards, some say you're worried about your reputation, and the list goes on and on.
But I'm here to say, they're all wrong. Sorry :) Everything that happened on our runs weren't out of the ordinary for Tof and I. Missed main gamble, because she turned the wrong way, missed dogwalk contact in the standard, and fumble on which tunnel mouth in the snooker. It was just a coincidence that they all happened at the same trial, on the same day.
I didn't really care that those things happened. They were all really great runs otherwise.
Gah, so much font. Here's a random picture.
Sunday was better, though. We got both the standard and jumpers, and we made it to the steeplechase finals, where 500$ was on the line. I was up first for my division, so I knew I had to run really hard, because the other dogs were border collies and a young mini aussie. (Point is: they're fast). In the end, I was the only one who ran clean...so I WON 500 DOLLARS!!!!! FIVE HUNDRED!
I so needed it, because I was so completely broke. Like...no money to pay for the rest of my trials this year. But now I can. Yay!
Another picture? ,...Sure!
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| Toffee being a nut and playing with a sqeaker... |
Here, you can watch the trial montage here and the steeplechase rounds here.
Frank and Annette are the sweetest people on earth. They were so kind and the day they arrived home from nationals organized getting me a jacket with all the things I won at nationals embroidered on the sleeve, with Erin and Toffee on the other, with an agility/paw print on the chest and a big thing of agility equipment on the back. It is beautiful!
I was talking to Frank a few times during the weekend, and he always says the sweetest things to me. At one point I responded with "You're gonna make me cry!"..and sure enough when he left, I did. I cry way too much. hahah There's just something about when someone says that they're proud of me, I always choke up. Waahhn.
I am having way too much fun with this whole font thing.
I ran Mach. It didn't really go so well. The poor guy had basically been laying in his crate for two weeks. He has this incredible obsession with water and we don't see water very often, so I don't get to work on the whole self-control thing around it. I knew entering him at this trial (since the water is RIGHT there) would be risky. But I thought, meh, whatever. Might as well try it. I would have to do it sometime. Anyways, I decided not to show him the water at all throughout the weekend and I just walked him on the road. But he so knew it was there. You'd see his nose sniffing the air and his tail shoot up. Baha, who was I kidding?
We get down a few dogs before us, and we're so close to the water that he won't even tug. Right then I knew it wasn't going to be good. I set up on the startline and he stays. Good. I lead out. He still staying. Great. I release him and he goes over the obstacles in front of him. Awesome! 1, 2, 3, 4...we're at the other end of the field at this point (where the water is) and zooooooom!! he's gone. Jumps off the wall and into the water.
I could have killed him. But he is dangerously adorable, so I didn't. I was worried though, during the weekend (when I knew he would run to the water) that he wouldn't come out. This has been a problem in the past, so now I keep him on a long line...just until I can work on it. But boys oh boys did he know he was in trouble. I think he realized that you just don't leave work like that. I called him once and he jumped back up the wall to me. Time out followed. Sorry bud, you just can't do that...but at least he came back!!
Afterwards, I did do a training session for self control with the water. He did well. So I definitely won't kill him.
In other Mach news, his dogwalks ROCK! So excited about them.
Just need to work on the teeter.
And then his basic training shall be complete.
FINALLY.
This post is so long. And I get so distracted while writing.
Happy 1am.
Goodnight!
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