Today was a long day and I'm very tired so no time to deal with the video.
In short, another great day especially for Lola. She ran clean in Standard, Jumpers and the NAC (North American Challenge, DOCNA's version of USDAA's Grand Prix). I held her up on purpose in the Time Gamble thinking we'd be leaving the ring too early but instead I went .37 over time (should have headed straight out, oh well), otherwise she would have had a perfect day. She took first place in all the other events since she's the only dog in her height and she'll go through to the Standard and Jumpers finals tomorrow. She was also first in the combined east/west rankings for the NAC but it's possible there were no dogs in her height in the east. It's boring having no competition but at least she ran clean in all her runs so I feel like we somewhat deserve all the blue ribbons.
Cody took first in Time Gamble and had a clean run in Standard (by DOCNA's standards, he popped out of the weaves but I fixed it, not a fault just wasted time). His Standard run was good enough for 2nd place so he'll also go through to the finals. I'm really pleased about that, he had some good competition. He was having a beautiful Jumpers run and had a good chance to go through to the finals but I screwed up a front cross on a serpentine and sent him off course for 10 faults. His class was full of dogs who were mostly running clean and times were tight between them so I doubt he'll go through with 10 faults and the wasted time to fix the off course added to his score. I was too tired to wait for results, I'll find out for sure tomorrow but I'm not holding my breath.
Another fun day but too long for Lola. She ran her final Jumpers run at around 6:00 pm and by that time she'd had enough. I almost couldn't get her off the start line but she eventually put on her gameface and got it done but I didn't feel like she was enjoying it. Surprisingly Cody held up o.k. and did better as the day wore on. He was in crazy mode for Time Gamblers (1st run) and blew 2 dogwalk contacts in his enthusiasm and his NAC run was beyond a comedy of errors but by the time Standard rolled around he was much more focused. Too bad I screwed up his Jumpers run, he was doing so well.
Lots and lots of serpentines and 180 degree flips from contact to tunnel, I don't think I've ever seen so many. I'm not complaining but it was weird. The NAC course was the most technical DOCNA course I've ever seen and Standard today was tricky as well as they should be since this is Champs after all. Some fun challenges and good runs but I'm oh so seepy, off to bed for now. Trigility (3 dog relay) and finals tomorrow.
Exciting, being in the finals at your first DOCNA Nationals. Hoping you've had good luck today (since you're probably already done by now).
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