My intent with Grace this weekend was to get her as much real trial time on familiar equipment as possible. We moved the equipment from the LCCOC practice field to the trial site so each piece was known to her. Without closed weaves, I knew we didn't have much chance of Qs (there were even weaves in the Novice FAST course on Saturday). She gained confidence over the 6 runs this weekend. By Sunday she took a non-directed A-frame in Novice FAST when we were running near it on the way to a different obstacle. Since the A-frame was not being scored as a bi-directional obstacle and Grace was excited to run over it the wrong way, I sent her to a u-turn tunnel and back over the A-frame again (a legal move in FAST). More practice.. nice performance. No Qs for her this weekend put she was happy, confident on her obstacles, and settled enough to tug with me outside the ring entrance gate. Based on the look she gave me Saturday when she flopped on the table for the down, I know she has figured out this is a game and we are going be playing it often. She seems happy with that knowledge and hungry to understand it better. Now I need to install more steering options so we can run clean. Nedra's class on Wednesday is helping with steering as several folks saw big improvements between the Amite trial a few weeks ago and the LCCOC trial.
Bern ran his usual style - very few knocked bars, huge wide turns, and a mental block at the weave poles (geeeze... this must be a new type of obstacle - I've never seen these before...). Wouldn't you know it, the send in FAST on Saturday was a tire and a set of 12 weaves poles. Tracey just laughed and said she was not staying late to watch that not happen... it didn't happen as she predicted. I noticed that Bern struggled seeing the tire both in a FAST send box and as a start line obstacle in Exec Standard. I think he isn't looking up high enough - I may need to try a new handling queue to help him look "up" for the tire itself and get his focus off the tire jump frame supports. We queued in FAST on Sunday afternoon... 1st place and his 1st Open FAST leg.
Sunday morning I was playing English Handbells at FUMC for both services. Tracey volunteered to run Bern in Exec Standard and (Open Jumpers if I got too delayed). Since the Woodland Ringers were the "choir" (bell tables in the choir loft) this morning, we sat in the loft throughout the 11:00 AM service so the television broadcast would look more normal. This "delay" meant Tracey handled Bern twice. I'm interested to see what Tracey blogs on the runs but it sounds like during their Standard run he was still trying to find Mom while on the course. But Tracey dispensed yummy cookies after the 1st run so when the 2nd run of the day came, he was ready to play with her. A combination of Tracey handling numerous dogs over the years, Bern starting to head in the wrong direction and stopping to reverse direction so he was in a very low gear, the planets aligning just so, and who knows what else must have done the trick... he hit the entrance to the weave poles during the jumpers run and Tracey managed to keep him weaving until pole 12. YEAHHHHHHHHH!!!!! 1st place and his 1st Open JWW leg. Heartfelt thanks for the great effort. Several folks were amazed he knew how to weave... he must have really hit the poles nicely like he CAN do when he puts his mind to it. Must remember to use the new back stretch idea before he runs... Tracey tried something new on stretching him before he ran... must repeat the stretch to see if we can repeat the weaving again. We do various stretches to limber him up while we are waiting at the gate.. I intend to add the new Tracey stretch to the routine.There were a few injuries during the trial and ice packs were applied to both dogs and people. Heather Dickinson has a knee injury that I have not heard any follow-up on. Hopefully she will be back competing and judging soon. Shout was running with a iced sore back but performed great for Shelley. Boost's mom (????) continues to run on her sore leg (Overcome Trial injury still healing). Alicia helped out by running Boost in FAST late in the day.
Michael Loftis was there taking pictures.. I would like a collage of Bern and, eventually, of Grace. Michael thinks the photos should be posted on his website Wednesday. When they arrive, I'll post links.
