Sunday, September 20, 2009

Dogz trial: The super-dork and the slow-poke

I was feeling extra-specially dorky today after one of the nose pads on my glasses fell off and got lost as I was swatting at flies early in the day. Hopefully the lopsidedness wasn't too noticeable, but it feels weird for sure so off to the glasses repair shop tomorrow.

Wow, they sure weren't going to run out of Q ribbons with today's courses being what they were. The day started with two Standards, neither of which Walter was entered in but from what I saw they took more than their fair share of victims.

Then it was Gamblers, and NOT ONE of the ~35 dogs in the event got the main gamble. And, it's not like dogs were coming close to getting it: only one dog made it beyond the second of the five obstacles in the main gamble. And, no, it wasn't Walter. Oh, and there were no mini gambles to have a try at, which was a bit sucky.

Then Snooker. Holy combinations, Batman! The 5, 6, and 7 were three-jump combos, and the 4 was a two-tunnel combo. But hey, no weaves so I wasn't going to complain. Went for a non-exciting 5-2-3 in the opening since the combos would have eaten up a lot of time. So we had just enough points for a Q and actually had about 6 seconds left over.

Last, Jumpers. Walter was quite slow for this run, about as slow as he's ever been, I guess because of the heat. It was only about 22 degrees (72F), but felt warmer than that. I had to slow down and wait for him at a few spots and even started cheerleading at one point, poor pup. This run reminded me of the reason we don't do a lot of summer trialing, although what trialing we have done he generally hasn't been that slow. Anyway, his slowness (3.94 yps - typically he's in the 4.5-5 range for Jumpers) combined with the tight SCT gave us almost 2.5 time faults, so no Q. I can't remember the last time we ran clean but with time faults on a Standard or Jumpers course - was probably back in Advanced due to non-NQing bumbles. Well, at least we were in good company today as there were quite a few clean Jumpers runs save for time faults.

Here's our Jumpers run, the only one of the day we got on video:


Having fun though, and looking forward to more trials in the weekends to come, though hoping for cooler weather!

5 comments:

Natasha said...

I didn't notice your glasses but the same thing happened to mine a few weeks ago (not the first time it's happened either), those darn nose-pieces :)

That Gamblers was tough! I was ring crew for Gamblers and had a good seat for seeing all the attempts to get the gamble. I feel bad for the judge, I'm sure she didn't intend it to be that way, but hey maybe she'll make the next gamble super-easy! :D

That Jumpers run didn't look too slow -- haha, whenever people say that about Mika's runs after I said that "she was a bit slow," I never believe them :)

~Nat

Muttsandaklutz said...

Ah, a fellow glasses-nose-piece-breaker-offer! When I felt my glasses suddenly go crooked I half-panicked before realizing it was just the nose piece - I thought the frame had broken, yikes!

Yeah that Gambler was a toughie for sure. On the bright side, "misery loves company" so I don't feel badly about not getting the gamble ;-)

I don't think I've ever seen Mika run "a bit slow" - just maybe a bit less fast on some days, but "slow" just isn't the right word. :)

Elf said...

Glasses: I've avoided that problem by having plastic frames for many years. Duct tape doesn't look TOO bad when the frame breaks--

Only Q rate I remember seeing that low was several years back, and after a while, the handlers just stopped going for the gamble, instead racing to stop the clock so their time was better than others with the same opening points. Judge said he felt bad about that.

Snooker: Good planning! Choosing courses for your strengths.

Good luck in upcoming weekends.

Sam said...

That's too bad he didn't Q in Jumpers, it really was a lovely run for what looked like a pretty hard course. Walter really follows your directions well!

Muttsandaklutz said...

Plastic frames - I can "see" that would solve a lot of problems!

Thank you Sam! Yep, Walter's my reliable guy.