I entered the USDAA Gulfport show for Saturday and Sunday. In retrospect giving Bern another chance at a P1 Standard course on Friday would have been better for meeting our training goals than running him at LCCOC on Friday last week. But I had a great time at Parker on Friday so it may have worked out for the best.I tried to economize on entries this weekend, Bern was entered in P1 Standard, P1 Gamblers, and P1 Jumpers on Sat. We ran P1 Jumpers, P1 Snooker, and P1 Gamblers on Sun. He jumps 20" in AKC and 22" in USDAA; the extra 2" cause problems.. he knocked bars in his Standard run as well as our Sun Jumpers run. He had ring jump problems again on Sat.. jumping between the tire and the upright so we didn't Q in Jumpers Sat. The USDAA tire is smaller than AKC tire and we never practice with it. I was excited to not see it on the Jumpers course Sun but then he knocked a bar so we didn't Q. Snooker was a disaster on Sun because he off-coursed from my plan after the first red jump, taking half of the 6A/6B combo, it took me about 0.5 nanoseconds too long to I realize we had to go do 6B too before going to the next red jump, trying to turn him to get to 6B (the weaves) he shot through the 7A tunnel... whistle and we were out. We managed two 1st place Qs in P1 Gamblers to get his PG1 title. Overall our runs were fairly smooth over the weekend (yes, for those of you who saw it... my Snooker handling stank!). Nearly forgot the dreaded weaves... we almost had a set of 12 weaves on Sat during Standard. His effort was ohh so close.
I entered Grace in Starter Gamblers and Jumpers on Sat. On Sun she ran Starter Jumpers, Snooker and Gambler. She was hesitant and, therefore not running, but trotted both courses on Sat. She didn't get the Gamble on Sat. Sun morning we ran Jumpers early. Grace tore off the start line and whizzed around the course really fast. Because she was going so fast she was jumping too flat and we left the course with a pile of downed jump bars. Sun was her first showing at Snooker... she got off to a bad start and back-jumped the first red jump... we were done (well at least she had 1 point). Our last class on Sun was Gamblers. I messed Grace up and didn't let her get enough points in the opening before the 25 second bell rang... she was still on the 7 point A-frame. We were 2 points short in the opening but she got the Gamble. She came home with two 4th places and one 2nd place ribbon. No Qs yet in USDAA but she was really excited and happy to be running. There are less required weave pole sets in USDAA so these courses are better suited to Grace now. Several folks commented that she looked really good on the Jumpers and Gamblers courses on Sun. She was so excited when we finished... as her confidence grows she is loving the new game she is learning.
I stayed with Tracey in her RV... with the exception of Grace on Fri evening. I think we all slept great. Several competitors staying in RVs visited and ate dinner Sat night. Dinner was sort of a stone soup affair with additions to a large package of chicken that Kim and Suzanne had. Several of us had a great time chatting. After we finished eating Tracey and I took the 6 dogs on a long stroll. I tried to take some photos of the full moon through the trees but without a tripod they were blurry (I have several "moons" in some of the shots). I've included a few of the other photos I took with the blog.I gave Monica my entries for AKC Brandon (BARK) next month. I entered Fri and Sat... Bern in all 3 classes and Grace in FAST only.
