Sunday, April 10, 2005

I've Had Better Weekends

This weekend certainly could have been better. The trial on Saturday went o.k., not great. Neither dog had Q's (qualifying scores) in any of their runs. Cody's first run was Gamblers and he was distracted and a bit stressed on the start line so he ran off after 2 or 3 obstacles to chat with the photographer taking photos ringside. I got him focused back on me but because of the lost time I didn't know when the buzzer would go off to start the gamble and had to change my planned course. I was close to the gamble when the buzzer went but not close enough and even though Cody did the gamble he was a second or two over time so it didn't count. It was a really tough gamble too, hardly anybody else got it. Fortunately I worked on his focus the rest of the day while outside the ring, asking for sits, downs, silly tricks, etc. and that seemed to work, I had his attention on the start line for his other two runs. Lola didn't seemed stressed at all which was great after the last couple of trials. Aside from the Gamblers run where both dogs were a bit wild, both dogs got all their contacts which was a huge accomplishment. Lola even had a nice fast dog walk in the Grand Prix and a fast A-frame in her standard run. The creeping is slowly starting to diminish so that was some progress. Cody fell prey to a tunnel trap in the Grand Prix so didn't get the Q he needed to qualify for nationals but there are still a couple more chances if I really wanted to go. He had an otherwise really nice run. Lola was distracted at the tunnel trap too and though I managed to keep her out of it I also sent her up an off course dog walk. She had on otherwise perfect Grand Prix run so I guess I shouldn't feel too bad. I think we'll be in Advanced for a while which is fine with me. I think Master's level would be a bit much for both dogs right now (and me as well).

I didn't go back to the trial in Loveland (45 miles away) on Sunday because the whole Front Range was having a blizzard. As it turned out Boulder didn't get hit all that hard. I'm not sure what the roads to Loveland were like but in general that stretch of I-25 is not a very happening place to be when there are high winds and snow. Also I felt like crap when I woke up Sunday morning so I decided to sleep in and eat my entry fees. I'm still not feeling 100% and yesterday was a long, hard day (left the house at 6:00 a.m., got home around 6:45 p.m.) with bouts of dizziness and coughing. The dust in the air didn't help much either. I just didn't feel up to it today.

To put the icing on the cake to this weekend my husband dislocated his elbow riding his mountain bike in Fruita. One of his riding partners dislocated his wrist shortly after. The trail they were on is called 'More Fun' and let me tell you from personal experience, it's not. It's ridiculously steep, twisty and technical. I managed about a mile on it (mostly pushing/carrying my bike) and insisted we turn back, it was just too insane. I wasn't pleased to hear they were going to do it but there was no talking them out of it.

I managed a 2 mile walk around Wonderland Lake with both dogs today as well as some snow shovelling. I spent a lot of time resting on the couch too. Hopefully I'll start feeling a bit more up to training next week.

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