Lets end it with a BANG

Let’s end it with a BANG! Today out of 3 runs we got a 3rd place and no Q’s! Ugh, um, oh well.

Our judge, Eric Quiroet, showed up this morning with a No Whining button on his shirt. I had almost worn my No Whining shirt and ½ way through the day I changed into it! He will be one of the judges at our PBAC USDAA trial next year and he has requested a 3X shirt!! He said with the club logo please! It didn’t do me any good with getting Q’s though… he was still fair… darn it!! :-)

Gamblers this morning was great fun, we didn’t get the gamble but we had enough points to take 3rd place. The gamble was from a jump into a tunnel, which was placed under the A-frame (not fair – no whining), then over another jump. Well, Blyss took the A-frame instead of the tunnel which totally surprised me! So, take nothing for granted while running a course.

Our standard run was also surprising. Blyss hasn’t jumped off the table but she did today. She wouldn’t down, which we’ve been working on, then when I told her down she got off!! Oh, well, she then dropped a bar. We have our homework!!

Since yesterday I’ve been having trouble keeping Blyss’s focus so on the jumpers course this afternoon I decided that I don’t care if she takes wrong jumps or misses jumps or drops bars I just wanted speed out of her. Well, I got it! She took 2 off course tunnels but she was flying! I’m good with that. Now I need to work on getting my signals to her faster.
All in all, out of 13 runs we placed 8 times and Q’d 7 times so I guess we did ok.

Now we are on our way home. We’ve made it to I10. We left at 3pm and it’s now about 6:30. I’d like to get as far as possible tonight so we have a short second leg of the trip in the morning.

It was a great weekend. We got to meet some new people and play with our pups… what more can you ask for?

Oh, by the way, Trik is now giving me left and right high fives!! Teri gave me some pointers on getting high ten out of him!!! Through the raindrops we drive, getting closer and closer to home.

I would highly recommend Hattiesburg and Dog Gone Fun if you want a USDAA trial!!

Well, well… the day started out (kind of) great and got more and more interesting as the day wore on. Blyss Q’d her Jumpers and took 3rd place! Our Gamblers fell to pieces when I sent Blyss over the wrong jump and didn’t think quickly enough that it was 6b and I needed to grab 6a to not get a whistle… UGH.

But then, we got to pairs, which was so awesome. Blyss and Kayla ran together. Blyss ran first because I wasn’t sure that I would be able to keep her attention while her arch-enemy ran! The girls took 1st place! Holy cow! Kito and Skah ran together and Q’d!

Standard was ok but I pulled Blyss too far into me on a 180 so we got a refusal.

Snooker was the comedy show of the trial. Blyss was at the start line looking cool as a cucumber, I released her and she ran over to the Judge to say… “Buddy, what are you doing in my ring???”. I was able to get her back but she was in a world all her own. I finally gave up and we joyfully ran out of the ring singing as if we had just won a jackpot in Vegas!

I believe I have learned my lesson. Not only is it absolutely exhausting for me but also for Blyss. She just could not handle as many runs as she had today. She was so exhausted that she just shut down. This is why I tried to make leaving the ring as much fun as I could so come tomorrow she will want to get back in.

After we were done trialing we took all 5 kids out to the lake here. We let them off leash and let them play in the water with the Frisbee. It was a much deserved reward for a job well done.
Trik is sleeping on his back with his arms stretched over his head. He had a full day, too. We worked more on his clicker training and I’ve added some “High Five” stuff to his repertoire.

Tomorrow is our last day and even though I don’t want the vacation to end, I’m almost ready to be back home!

Oh, Blyss titled in Jumpers!!! YAY!

4Q

Four Q or Fork You... HA! We ended the day on a beautiful note... Olaf and I ended up with a Q for each dog in Starters Jumpers. Very Cool!

Snooker for the first time was great. Debbie helped me with a plan and wow, it came together. Blyss took 3rd and Q'd, we accomplished our plan exactly as, well, planned :-)

Standard this morning kind of fell apart a little. Blyss pulled out of the weaves at the last pole then dropped a bar but she is running FAST!!!

Trik had a play date with Seven, Kellie Hayes's 15 week old Blue Aussie. He also had his nails done by Teri. Everyone just loves the little one and everyone has an opinion on what is in him!

Couple of quick notes. Here at the Hattiesburg grounds they will sell you bags of ice for $2.00 each... not a bad deal. Also, I've heard that if you stay at the Motel 6 you are taking your life into your own hands.... It is recommended you stay at the Ramada and dicker for the $25.00 per stay pet fee because it isn't published that it is $25.00 per day.

More tomorrow...

No Dogs Allowed!

What a great day! First of all, when you walk up to the building where they are hosting a Canine Agility Trial the doors are plastered with the sign -> HA! Too funny. The facility itself is great, they graded the dirt last night and rolled it so it is firm but not too hard packed. There is plenty of room around the outside of the rings, in fact they could have had two rings with a walk way between them.

I started out with Jumpers which started out beautifully (except that she dropped a bar… first one ever!) until I got to a pinwheel where I didn’t support a jump enough and pulled Blyss in to me… UGH! Oh, well, by the time she got me straightened out and we finished the course… we were WAY over time and NQ’d.

Gamblers was a bit better. The only problem I had was I brought her too close to me at the teeter so we lost a bit of time because we had to go back. She still took 2nd place and earned a Q.
Now Jumpers was really nice. I don’t think I ran as fast as I should have and I didn’t “trust my dog”. She took 1st place and earned a Q.

Tonight we are going to the dinner. Here they sell tickets to dinners on 2 of the 4 nights. We thought it would be nice to sit with the other people and chat about well, dogs. There are quite a few people we know who came up from Florida so it’s nice to chat with them.

Funny, I was talking with a woman today about Trik and she said… and I quote, “Gee, maybe he has Bassett Hound in him.)! Ok, ok, so maybe he does. I’ve also heard Beagle but his front legs aren’t looking like a Beagle.

Off for some much needed rest… my poor feets are tired, and so are the pups!

Ok, Let's hear about some Dog Stuff...

But first...
Things to do on Hwy 65 and 98 on your way to Hattiesburg… Church spotting. I’ve heard it said that a community’s sinner ratio is directly correlated to the number of Churches in that community, if the number of Churches is high, the number of sinners is high. If that is true then Alabama and Mississippi have some repenting to do! There are so many Churches… colossal brick structures with schools attached competing with the gigantic white Church across the street… there are small windowless Chapels and even Churches in trailers (or should I say, Mobile Homes). There are even signs for Churches that are off the beaten path… big professional signs and small hand painted on plywood signs. I thought of counting them on the way back home but then I thought that would just push my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder into overdrive!

Anyway, about dog stuff: It was a brilliant idea to take a long road trip with a 15 week old puppy. This has helped to reinforce in Trik that going outside on a leash is when he should be pottying. He never missed a beat. No accidents in the RV and every time we stopped he did his business outside! YAY! Now, let’s see if that translates to home!

And Blyss kind of scared me when we first started out. She didn’t want to even get into the RV, let alone ride for 12 hours. When we stopped for gas I was able to get her to tug and sit and tug and sit. She is much more comfortable now… in fact, she is appearing to feel downright at-home.

More about gas prices. There is a WalMart/Murphy station as soon as you get onto I98 from I65 that had the cheapest gas we found… keep any eye out for that one, it can save $$$ for more entry fees.

So far, at 3:30pm there are only about 6 or 7 RVs parked. The place is beautiful. Just behind us is a gorgeous lake. It is chained closed except for Thursday and Fridays. There is a fishing pier jutting out into the lake… maybe I’ll sneak over tomorrow after the day is done.

The facility is beautiful. It’s a bit of a hike from the RVs but the place huge! We were up there right after we parked and so far nothing was set up... we're going to hike up there in a bit to see what's happening now.

More later….

Welcome to Mississippi

Pensacola

Pensacola is kind of cool, there are a bunch of tributes to the Blue Angels... everywhere you look is another Blue Airplane!