Regionals - Day 1

Overall, a great day. Dogs ran great, weather cooperated with some cloud cover and a nice wind in the afternoon. I was nice & relaxed and not a single sign of stress from the dogs. They were running slower than normal due to the heat but that was o.k. with me because they seemed to be having fun.

Lola
Miss Lo went 3/3 today, getting Q's and first places in her Advanced Standard and Advanced Gamblers runs and running 'clean' in Speed Jumping thus earning her a spot in the finals tomorrow. That Gamblers Q was her title as well so now it's on to Master Gamblers. I was especially pleased that she had a lovely quick down on the table, phew, finally!!! I've been working on that these past few weeks. Both runs were beautiful, lots of enthusiasm and focus. Speed Jumping was a bit herky jerky for both dogs, lots of refusals and run bys but they don't count in this event and we somehow managed to pull it together to finish clean. Not that great feeling of a smooth fast run but good enough to get us into the finals.

Cody
Cody was running really nicely today for the most part, no stress or avoidance behavior even when I messed up. Cody's on a team-Mad Dogs in the Mid-Day Sun- \and none of the team runs count toward titles so on the one hand there's a bit less stress. On the other hand I feel bad when I make mistakes that effect the team, even though my teammate is very laid back and understanding. In Team Gamblers he didn't do the gamble but had a nice run and some lovely weave poles. Team Standard started out really well but about halfway through I did a front cross at the A-frame, lost sight of where I was going when I turned to cross and accidentally sent him off course which is the worst mistake you can make in team because it earns you an elimination and thus no points at all for your run. And my teammate had a beautiful clean run so I felt a little bad but she was nice and told me not to worry about it. Cody also missed that darn weave entry but was fine on the do over. Again Speed Jumping was a bit wild & wooly and he missed an easy weave pole entrance but managed to do them perfectly when I had him redo them. Definitely something we need to work on.

Tomorrow is Round 1 of the Grand Prix and Speed Jumping Finals as well as more Team events for Cody and regular Advanced events for Lola. Hopefully the weather and my nerves will hold out.