Morning Star trial - Day 2 - Expert Snooker Bronze - and 3 LAAs!

Well this turned out to be our best trial Q-wise (and weaves-wise, and fun-wise) in a long time, breaking the 50% mark with 6 out of 11 Qs, or 7 clean runs out of 12 if the Team run is included (see yesterday's post). Our Q rate has been pretty low lately with usually one random glitch getting in the way of many Qs. Once upon a time back in the land of Starters and Advanced I would have considered a 50% Q rate to be pretty low for Walter's runs since Qs came really easily for us back then (except for Advanced Standard!), but nowadays I'm a happy camper if we're in the 30% range.

So anyway today we had 6 more runs. No videos from yesterday, but today all but one run got filmed so I'll just post the video. The non-filmed run was another Snooker with a Q. Compared with his waning energy level last weekend, I was happy with Walter's enthusiasm and energy over the weekend, despite it being pretty warm inside the building. He looks better in his final run of today (the Snooker in the video) than in his first run of the day (the first Jumpers in the video). I was especially glad that he did great weaves as the very last obstacle of his very last run of the trial. Usually when he's tired his weave footwork gets messed up and he pops, but here he single strides all the way to the end.

Oh and no dogwalk refusals this weekend although from the hint of worry on his face he's not a huge fan of dogwalks.



So in the end he picked up 2 Standards (out of 3), 3 Snookers (out of 4), 1 Jumpers (out of 4), and no Teams (out of 1). He needed 2 Snookers for his first Expert Bronze title (10 Masters Qs) so he's got a new title, Expert Snooker Bronze. Not surprising that this little momma's boy's first area of "expertise" is Snooker. :-)

Something really exciting happened at the trial today: not one, not two, but THREE dogs -- an All Canadian, a miniature poodle, and a spaniel (?) -- got their Lifetime Achievement Awards today on the VERY SAME COURSE! 100 Masters Standards plus 125 Masters Games = W O W ! There was huge applause and many teary eyes as one dog after the other got their last required Standard Q for their LAA.