All Dogs mini trial

Gamblers: Our first line was a three-jump slice for which I started off the line with him. Well, he had his sights locked on the nearby chute instead so he crossed in front of me to take it; glad we avoided a collision there! Then he couldn't even do the mini gamble which was a simple send to a jump followed by a tunnel, and you were allowed to cross the line after the dog committed to the tunnel. On a good day he should be able to do that but I think our goofed up opening hurt his confidence. The main gamble was pretty neat: send to a-frame facing directly away from you, dog turns right into chute to come back to you, send away over the frame again, then dog turns left to a jump. On a really really good day Walter could probably get that one, but today he came back to me without taking the chute. I think I was in spectator mode and didn't give him instructions in time after the frame. We would have had just enough points to Q (28 pts) if he had done the gamble.

Jumpers: Ooo, a fun course with a few twisty tight bits at the start. Walter was feeling good again and ran really great. Our flub was when I thought he was committed to a jump but then he pulled off at the last minute. Part of the run was caught on video including the part with the goof so it's neat to be able to see exactly what happened, although being not much of an expert the best I can figure is I gave him the tunnel cues too early? If so, on the bright side at least he was being very responsive which sure comes in handy on twisty courses with lots of off-course potential! :-)


(Kindly ignore the part where I scream "Walter argh!")