Vacation (And a trial, of course!)

We had a really fun time this weekend with our agility friends.  Jonathan starts his job on Monday, so we took a mini-vacation to SC.  We needed it after our few days sans power (keep an eye out for a blog on this!)

Dogs didn't seem to mind the new crate set up much.

 On the 4th we had a wonderful cookout with our friends at Low Country Dog Agility (check out their blog!)  It was so nice to catch up with everyone as it has been a while!  We also ran a Standard course and it was so fun to see how everyone has progressed since we saw them last.  (Bentley just watched--but seemed to enjoy all the attention and treats that he got!)  Lexi looked good, but is getting a little odd about the weaves.  More to come on that below...

We ate some delicious seafood while we were there!

The dogs pretty much spent the rest of the trip in the hotel room or in a crate in the car.  We broke the trip up and instead of driving for 11 hours at once, we stopped halfway coming and going.  It was nice for us, but not so nice for the dogs.  They aren't allowed to play (= barking) in hotel rooms, and it was WAY too hot to walk them!  Needless to say, both were a bit amped!





On Saturday we were entered in the CPA trial in Raleigh, NC.  We had so much fun catching up with agility friends we haven't seen in forever.   Originally Bentley was supposed to run as well, but he was on week 4 of crate rest, so poor guy had to watch.  Lucky for him our friend Erin wanted a dog to play with a bit before running her dog Jefferson.  Bentley loved it--and got to eat a lot of steak, too!

Lexi was entered in 5 events on Saturday, and had a blast.  Attached are the videos...

Masters Gamblers

I really liked the opening here.  Lexi was responsive and I had a fairly decent plan!  I even changed it last minute (usually a frightening decision!).  Of course I had way too much time and stood around for awhile and was out of position when the buzzer went off.  D'oh!  You can hear Stuart tell me "send her now!" at around 43 seconds.  Even if she hadn't dropped that bar I don't know if I could have gotten her out to the final jump.

Masters Pairs Q:

You can really see her weave issue here.  I don't know if the entry was "too hard" so she didn't feel like trying, or if she worried over it (this issue started after Jonathan's Snooker run at Incredipaws last month), or maybe it was because I wasn't right there with her.  This is something we'll really need to work on.

Masters Snooker Super Q:
This was an AMAZING run.  And I was so worried and watching so intently that you can't see anything in the video.  Darn it!  She had beautiful collection in a few places, and really looked great.  She was one of the few dogs to complete the course. (Jonathan did two 6s and two 7s). 

Masters Standard:

Another almost!  I told my husband after I walked the course that the approach to the a-frame was one of my biggest concerns.  I wanted to accelerate to make sure that I pushed her out over that double (she has a tendency to knock doubles) and it was not a straight line.  But, I was afraid if I did that that she wouldn't make the turn.  And she didn't--but totally my fault.  After that I had zero stress and was very proud of the rest of her run (I made her hold her a-frame and teeter, but quick released her dogwalk.  Loved them all!)

Masters Jumpers:

Again, almost.  Despite her lack of Qing, I again was so happy with her.  Not only did she have a great time (as usual) but so did I!  We felt really connected and that's an awesome feeling.  I'm not sure why she dropped the bar in this run, but I felt like it was a tough course, and full of things that are Lexi's weaknesses (sends and post turns!)  At 15 seconds she lines up and perfectly takes that jump headed towards the straight away.  Sounds easy, but usually she just launches over jumps at whatever angle!  If you notice at the end she turns and barks at me and backs into the wall.  She started limping right afterwards (oh no!) and is resting the next couple days (though she seems totally fine now, I think it was just bruised).

Lexi is worn out!  Bentley wants to run!