Saturday, June 7, 2008

All Dogs trial - Day 1

What was originally supposed to be a very hot, wet, and thunderstormy day actually turned out to be a very hot (31 degrees; 37 with humidex!) but sunny day. The strong breeze was the saving grace.

Jumpers
Hoo boy. Poor Walter. He was sooo good, but I was sooo bad. I totally messed us up in several places and even came close to getting lost on course for the first time! :-P One of the jumps was used FOUR times throughout the course! But, on the bright side, we did a ton of rear crosses and he seemed to be reading them well. For some reason I've been avoiding rear crosses lately. So it's good to know he can still do them.

Gamblers
Our first try at a Gamblers course since last September, and our first try at Masters Gamblers! My goal was simply to get enough points in the opening and be in a decent place when the whistle went. Walter in his infinite wisdom decided to offer his own contribution to the opening but it didn't mess us up too badly. We didn't try the mini gamble because it involved the weaves; Walter's not crazy about weaving so I never choose them in Gamblers or Snooker. The main gamble was generally considered pretty easy and was doable with our current skill set, involving a series of 5 jumps with no turning away. Unfortunately I fumbled the approach so he had no momentum and in the heat of the day didn't have a lot of get up and go, so the gamble was a no go. Oh well; it's so nice in Gamblers compared to Snooker knowing that you get your full at-least-40-seconds on course. :-)

Standard
Walter was such a good boy and came within a few weave poles of getting his first Masters Standard Q. He popped out around pole 10, no surprise as his weaving footwork gets all messed up when it's warm due to running slower. But, he was listening really well and held his teeter/dogwalk contacts (which he didn't hold in Gamblers...). It was a good run to end the day on, and I was very impressed with how well Walter kept it together given the crazy heat!

Two more events tomorrow: Jumpers and Gamblers.

2 comments:

Elayne said...

You've never got lost on course before? Very impressive.

Sounds like a good day, good luck with it all on day 2.

Muttsandaklutz said...

If that's impressive, it's about the only impressive thing about my handling skills. Heh.

Thanks for your luck - I dare say it helped.