So, I suck, and it’s been awhile. It seems to happen at the same time every year, so I blame all the work for Nationals and Tryouts. 🙂
Tryouts–I personally feel like it was Trip’s best one ever. She ran fantastic, but little errors resulted in Es, so it wasn’t her best “finish” ever. Her contacts were fabulous, she gave me everything she had. Can’t wait for next year 🙂
Since then, I’ve been making a point of NOT doing a lot with Trip and trying to give her a break. She goes to her class once a week, I work her a bit at Lori’s house, and we show. I’m putting a lot of focus on Ticket, since she definitely needs the most work. She’s at times brilliant, and at times mind-boggling–in other words, pretty typical baby dog.
Our areas of focus (and they are ever-changing) are aframe contact, DECEL, weave entries with speed, and stays. Aframe contacts and weave entries are a work in progress–she needs more experience. Decel is definitely a challenge for a dog that wants to power over everything, but we’ve got to have it for international courses. And stays, well, I just need to put a little more focus on them. She has not broken a stay, and in general she’s very good, but I’ve noticed her getting more “antsy” at trials. Dancing her feet, doing the “raptor stare” at the first obstacle, etc. I need to be prepared for when she does break, because I think it’s coming. But I need to do a better job in practice of rewarding stays, period.
We’ve done a couple of USDAA, and Trip now just needs one PSJ leg to qualify for USDAA NAtionals at P12. Unfortunately, with the LONG schedule it has, I don’t know if we’ll be able to go, which is disappointing. We’ll see how it plays out… Ticket has run well, and just needs a standard and a jumpers leg for her AD title.
Here are a couple of videos from recent trials…
Trip is looking good, and we’re just about ready to head to Minnesota for World Team Tryouts. We ran this weekend in San Antonio, and while Sunday was forgettable, Saturday Trip ran GREAT, and had the best JWW run she’s had in a long time. I hope it bodes well for next weekend. I gave her the week off-no agility, no nothing, since she’s been battling some hamstring soreness, and I think it paid off. I’ll do a little bit this week, but nothing hard core. We fly out Friday morning, have time for warmups on Friday, and then head into the weekend. We are ready! I just need to out there and attack those courses, and have confidence in what Trip can do.
The other good news for the weekend is Ticket had two fantastic Standard runs. She dropped a bar near the end on Saturday of a perfectly gorgeous run, but managed to get her first Excellent Q in Standard today. She also got an Open FAST leg. Her jumpers runs were less then stellar, but had some good spots. Once we get it together, she’s gonna be pretty tough out there. 🙂
Trip did it again. My always perfect girl got another QQ (I think she’s at 6 in a row right now), to earn her MACH3. On a Tuesday. At the Cardigan Corgi National Specialty trial. Ginormous, humoungous beautiful ribbon. Saw it, had to have it, so Trip said ok. 🙂
Once again, Trip proves that if I ask, she can deliver. Hopefully this will also apply at World Team Tryouts in a couple of weeks. We are working hard to make sure we’re as prepared as possible. I feel like she’s right there–we’ll just have to see where the chips fall. She did great on a Standard course designed by judge Gruber from the Bogota trial last night. I think my perception of what’s “difficult” has been skewed, because I didn’t think it was that bad. My only real issue was a poor handling choice when it turned out I couldn’t actually get there for a front cross, and you HAD to get to the other side of the aframe.
Anyway, I’m very proud of that MACH 3. Also completed her competition record for Tryouts, and she has an 80% Q rate in both Standard and JWW for the last year (I think she was at 75% in Standard and 80% in JWW the previous year). I’ve never dreamed of that level of consistency.
Ticket managed to get her OA title in Baton Rouge last weekend, but I screwed her up so no OAJ. Tried again on Tuesday, but the surface was like ice, and Ticket is not a dog who knows how to handle slick dirt yet. She was trying so hard to dig in, but it never occurs to her to slow down and collect a bit more. Her first run in Excellent was…entertaining. Very much showed she was a baby dog.
We’re heading to Lake Charles for the weekend. Hopefully Ticket will come home with a new title–I’m ready to be done with Open. For Trip, we’ll celebrate her MACH, eat some crawfish, and have a few more perfect runs, where, no matter what happens, I get to take home my best girl.
