We were at an outdoor show this weekend - the first of the year, and Dexter's first ever. Saturday was rough - cold, rainy, and winds up to 40 mph. We had STD first, Dex was not too pleased with the scoring tent's walls flapping very loudly by the start line, or the tent man with the huge hammer/mallet fixing the tent posts, so I opted to do only three jumps and leave the ring. He did them and I was thrilled. Later we ran jumpers, and he did much better! Overall very fast but got weirded out by a few jumps so was overtime.
Sunday was much better weather! We started out with standard again. HE WAS AWESOME!!!! Ran so fast and happy :) did have to visit one bar setter and look around on the table before laying down, but nailed everything including his biggest stress points - weaves and the teeter. His first starters standard leg. So proud of my boy! In jumpers today the course was a little tough and he visited the judge along with a few other bobbles, plus he was tired at the end of a long weekend, but he did well. Just a few secs overtime again. I am a little bummed/disappointed we have not been able to get a jumpers leg - I know we haven't yet had a "perfect" run - but it's starters for goodness sake. Seems like a dog should be able to hesitate at a jump or 2 and still Q? Oh well - his improvement is really, really monumental.
I kept thinking outdoors would be better than indoors. And, as I learned on Saturday, there are a whole new set of stressors to worry about - but my BIGGEST lesson is just not to worry about them at all :) I can't control our environment at a trial, and it's silly to worry about it. He is SO sensitive to my emotions so if I just chill the f out, he pretty much does too. I honestly could watch the video of his standard Q over and over again :) So nice to see him be fast and happy out there!
Panic ran in the DAM tournament on Saturday with teamies Malibu/Aida Peterson and Maple/Blanche Cooper. Panic kicked butt all day :) We started out w/team snooker, and she won the 22" class! She also got a 3rd in standard and a 4th in jumpers. Ran an awesome gamblers opening but missed (like many) on the time gamble so no bonus points and no placement.
She ran so FAST! I am not worried about her jumping/speed anymore. I am convinced it's a confidence thing on matting and other certain surfaces - but she in general is fast on sprinturf, dirt, and outdoors. Slower on matting and some astroturf. She has common sense and if she doesn't feel OK extending or pushing herself too much on those surfaces, that's alright. I don't want her to get hurt. She ran SO much more ahead of me this weekend than I was used to! It was great to see her just get out there and have a blast.
Sunday we did not get our sought after gamble for our ADCH - or our GP leg - unfortunately. GREAT opening again in gamblers. I'm so good at planning these openings, wish I could stop losing my mind when the buzzer goes off!! In GP - I made the mistake of not doing a DW in gamblers, and so our first DW of the day was GP and she missed it by a mile. Also went off course later on, I'm pretty sure due to running faster/wider than I was used to. Ended up w/Q #6, 2nd place in M Relay w/Malibu, Q #22, 2nd place in Jumpers, and Q#21/SQ #10, 1st place in Snooker. Along with our #2 DAM tourney Q, which gets our Tournament Master title as well as another coveted qualification for nationals! All we need now is that one last GP.
Can't wait for the rest of this summer's trials :)
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