DOCNA in Denver

A fun weekend of DOCNA for Mr. Strummer man and me.  I originally signed up for only Saturday but they were taking day-of entries for Sunday and we had so much fun that I decided to go back for more.

Not a lot of Q's but lots of good stuff and improvement.  He's finally getting his weave entries, not 100% but it was his best trial by far.  'Over the top' agility training must be working.  My training partner had much success with her contacts too.  The dogwalk success rate seems to be improving slightly as well.  He had some fantastic tight 180 degree flips off the dogwalk and A-frame into tunnels off just his verbal cue.  The key is for me to tell him early, right before he hits the down plank, and to not overwhelm him with too much body language (ie turning into him and/or waving that outside arm to indicate the flip). 

Strum did get the one Q I really wanted, Intern Standard, which earned him title and puts him in Specialist (Masters) in everything.  Was a beautiful run too, everything nice and tight for 1st place and a 5.50 yps. and nearly 20 secs. under standard course time.  His first shot at Specialist Jumpers was also a beautiful run, 6.22 yps and .01 yps behind a dog that regularly makes the USDAA Finals and has some podium finishes as well.  That was a fun run.  Except for the one stupid bar that came down but oh well.  On Sunday's Jumpers run I tried to be patient and focus on my timing/handling and not rush in order to keep the bars up and I did a good job of it, no bars down, but unfortunately I took a wee wander around the course in not the direction that the judge had in mind.  Was such a wonderful run otherwise and I thought I'd made up quite the creative course.

Had another fast, tight Standard run on Sunday for his first go in Specialist for a Q and 1st then his second Standard run was something of a disaster, likely because I was rushing. 

Don't have time to go through the rest of the gory details of all 10 runs but in general if I my timing was late or I was rushing things went south very fast.  If I was focused and patient then things went much better.  As I suspected Specialist courses are so much easier for me and it seemed like there were less problems with bars coming down.  There are so many more turns and places to collect him, I prefer them over the nightmare of Starters.  Let's forget about Starters and never speak of it again.

Final Stats:

Intern Standard-Q, 1st place (5.50 yps)
Specialist Standard-Q, 1st place (5.29 yps)
Specialist Strategic Time Gamble-Q, 2nd place

Titles Earned:

Intern Standard (last Intern title)

No more trials until DOCNA Champs at the end of September and I'm not happy about that.  May decide to enter a run or two in USDAA over Labor Day but I'm back in Starters and Advanced and I want practice on more difficult courses.  Today I have a half day Running Contacts seminar with Daisy Peel then a half day of Master Jumping tomorrow then a full day of Masters Handling for high drive dogs on Thursday, which is also my birthday.  Bizarre way to spend your birthday I suppose but oh well, I'm looking forward to it.  Better than spending it at work which is how I usually spend it when it falls on a weekday.

Did a brick (bike then run) yesterday and lived to tell the tale.  We'll see how well I keep up with Strum today.  I have a triathlon (not my big race) this Friday night too on top of all else.  Gotta pack in all I can before summer bids adieu.