Sunday, June 14, 2009

Gadzooks! I mean, All Dogs trial, Day 2

Three runs today:

Gamblers: This was just after Lucy had done a fabulous job on her return-to-trialing run, so I was not entirely present for Walter's first run of the day. It started out decently enough, then all of a sudden he jumped over his second dogwalk contact!!!!!! To understand the gravity of the situation you must know that Walter has NEVER, EVER, not in practice or trials, missed a dogwalk contact! Once in a while he won't stick 2o2o, but at least he's always trotted through the yellow. After that our run went to pot as I tried to recover from the sheer shock of it all. It wasn't pretty. Got a 16-point mini gamble (that was before The Incident) and could potentially have gotten the main gamble but I was late on a "pip" cue for turning away from frame to tunnel and we ran out of time anyway.

Jumpers: An ok run, but definitely on the slow side. What a good dog to run in the heat for me. Picked up a Q.

Snooker: Wow, Walter really sprang back with great energy! Not sure if it's because clouds had rolled in or what, but it was great to see. It was such a neat course offering lots of flow, tunnels and jumps only (woo hoo! like yesterday's Snooker, no weaves! this judge is great :D), with everything multi-directional in the opening AND the closing. Never have I seen anything like that. A ton of people went for four reds with a really nice flowing course but I hadn't thought to do it so hadn't walked it, so I stuck with the original plan. Could definitely have thrown in a fourth red as he finished in 38 seconds with a Q.

TO WORK ON: At least three times this weekend I took my eyes off my dog and lost track of him, resulting in not so great stuff. Need to remember to keep an eye on him. Also need to do some work to remind him that blind crosses are a no-no. But considering other than one short practice on Thursday he hasn't done agility in six weeks, I think he did a great job.

Oh and Walter received a ton of compliments on his new cool coat. Doesn't it look spiffy? The sponge-like fabric stays wet and cool for a long time and did an amazing job. Walter doesn't take heat very well, but provided he was in the shade and wearing his coat, he wasn't even panting despite highs of 24 (26 with humidex) (75-79 Fahrenheit).

5 comments:

Elf said...

Ahhhh, that's like winter temperatures around here! ;-)

Muttsandaklutz said...

Oh man - Don't think I want to know what your summer temperatues are like...

Elf said...

OK, well, really maybe mid-60s to low-70s F in most of the winter, with a few heat spells going higher. It's actually been cooler than normal the last couple of weeks; only into low 70s today. But supposed to be 90 on Friday. Just perfect before an agility weekend. (Not!)

Elf said...

(I meant 60s-low 70s high temps.)

Johann The Dog said...

Nice job! Sounds like you two had fun :) Ahhhh...75 is kind of cool here, tomorrow it's supposed to be 92 and very humid, yuck!!!