Mid Florida Golden Retriever Club Part II

Awesome day. The facilities here are great. There is a Men's and Women's room with showers plus a laundry room. The RV slots are far enough away from each other that you don't feel like you are sitting in each others laps. The rings aren't too terribly far away. The crating area is all along the tree line surrounding the rings.

Lots of good stuff today. Carol titled, Olaf double Q'd TWICE! It was Christine's birthday (shhh, don't tell her, we are getting a cake for tomorrow). Poor Carole Beth is sick so she couldn't make it.

Blyss took first in Standard! Yeah, my big girl! Her Jumpers run was incredible! We dropped the 2nd bar (oops) but after that she had steam and sailed through the course. It was pretty tricky too. I gotta say, we handled it like champs!!

Let's see what tomorrow will bring....

Mid Florida Golden Retriever Club

On to another trial… this time in Orlando. I just got back from a brutal conference there this week for my “real” job. Standing 8-10 hours a day and chatting up prospects and clients… This was Monday through Thursday. Home late Thursday night, on the road again Friday afternoon.

It is sure to be a great time because I will have two classmates who will be there this weekend. It will be nice to discuss courses and plot together and see if we can remember what we have been taught and see if we are skilled enough to apply it!

This weekend is hosted by Mid Florida Golden Retriever Club. The trial is outdoors, no cover. We have only a 20% chance of rain but we are supposed to have record breaking heat… YEAH! Hey, at least we won’t be shivering…

What will also make it an interesting weekend is that because I haven’t been home, I haven’t been able to work with Blyss all week. I’m hoping she remembers the high we were on when we left the last trial … after her AMAZING jumpers run. Of all the runs to NOT get on tape… :-( Oh, well… that’s what the memory banks are for.

Sunday at Tailwagger

Great day! The cold front finally arrived Saturday night making it waaaaay chilly in the morning which fired up the dogs... BIG TIME! They were running like the breeze. So much energy, you could tell they were feeling fine!

Congrats to Lisa who tore up the Jumpers course with Trigger.

Blyss also had a great jumpers run. I have never seen her so fast. She was nailing it and it felt so smooth. It gave me the adrenalin rush I get when John lets me run Hellion. She was sooooo impressive. We really feel like a team.

We are well into Advance and on our way to Masters! *Now if I could just figure out Snooker and Gamblers ;-)

Olaf did really well. Came in 3rd and 4th with Kito and Skah in Steeplechase!

We finished up early and got home before dark!

Now I'm off to Orlando for a conference... ugh, work! Then next weekend we will be in Orlando for an AKC Trial.

Saturday at Tailwaggers

Last night was wonderful, great dinner with greater friends. The steak was melt in your mouth delicious!

Then things turned ugly. When we got ring side this morning we found out the place had been vandalized. Someone came in over night and took all sorts of stuff... from dog treats to cell phones to canvas bags to money to knee braces!

Olaf had left his knee brace on one of the crates and it was gone... $1600.00 down the drain.

But, things got better as Saturday got going. Olaf and I ran 2 sets of pairs... Blyss & Kito and Kayla & Skah... It was mighty fun... My run with Blyss was very nice. My run with Kayla, well, I was LAAAAAAAAATE. Oh, well. Lesson learned. We still took 2nd and 3rd!

My standard run with Blyss kind of all fell apart. First, I changed my mind on how I was going to lead out... Mistake with a capital M. Then I let her off the A-Frame early then I didn't get my front cross in after the weaves. However, her down on the table was good.

Tonight is Spaghetti night with, well, yeah, spaghetti and spaghetti squash and salad... One more day of fun to go!

West Palm Tailwaggers USDAA Trial

West Palm Beach - Tailwaggers and it is HOT HOT HOT! I'm just hoping the cold front is going to come through tonight. Today was a good day. We had 2 clean runs! Blyss missed a Q in Grand Prix by 1.4 seconds!! She took 4th place though and I am sooooo proud of her.

Our Standard run was picture perfect but she just ran a little slow, she's just a baby.

There are lots of good people here. Mary brought one of the new rescues, Shay... she is so special and beautiful.

Trik was reunited with one of his litter mates. Pilot looks like a Border Collie... all long legs and everything. But I think Trik is still tougher!!

One more Q in Standard and Blyss will be able to advance to Masters!

The facilities here are very nice... outdoor under a gigantic cover. RV is dry camping but it is very close to the rings. The restrooms are very clean.

Crossing fingers for tomorrow!

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!