Somebody Had Fun at DOCNA this Weekend

Somebody actually said to me, 'That's the very definition of a crazy Border Collie'.  And I wasn't even coming off the agility field, I was cooling him down with the hose.  Strummer loves hoses.  I think they might be his favorite thing ever.  Loves them more than food and agility.  It was hot this weekend so he got plenty of hose time.  Stinker even went charging out of the ring to the hose at the end of his run.  I was not amused and he did not get to play that time.  Hard to believe he's 8 1/2 years old.

Whee Ha!

About the last thing I need sandwiched between  all my races is an agility trial on a hot August weekend.  But our last trial was at the beginning of July and our next wasn't going to be until Labor Day and I get too rusty if I go that long without competing.  In fact, 6 weeks was already clearly too long and I was plenty rusty.  And Strummer was plenty off his head despite the heat.

I only entered 2 classes each day in the morning so we could avoid the worst of the heat.  I ended up adding a Jumpers run on Sunday because we were there anyway and Strummer loves those wide open Jumpers courses even if I'm bored out of my brains with the pinwheels, serps and generally boring DOCNA Jumpers courses.  I decided to try an ambitious forward send out to a jump so I could get into position for a blind cross and he pulled off.  Oh well, it's good information about his commitment point at the moment.  And I did get the blind in no problem.

On the good side he got 2/3 of his dogwalks and a Q and 1st place in Strategic Time Gamble which is 10 Gamblers Q's and finishes off some title or another I think as well as the Gamblers part of his MEX.  Only needs 4 standard runs to finish off his MEX and we didn't get any this weekend.  Missed his dogwalk on Saturday and popped the weaves, knocked a bar and had a spectacular teeter fly-off on Sunday.  Didn't think it was possible to NQ the impossibly easy courses but we found plenty of ways.

Most if not all of the weave pole entries were coming out of tunnels and Strum blew all but one.  Sheesh.  And 2 naughty teeters.  Double sheesh.  Because I've got weaves, teeter and dogwalk/table plank set up in the back yard and we've been practicing several times a day all week.  He was nailing some difficult weave entries and finally starting to have some super nice teeters.  Trouble is my yard is too small to get any kind of speed going and this makes all the difference in obstacle performance for Strummer.  I tried to go to the field first thing in the morning before it got too hot twice last week but other people were there or showed up right after me both times so I left without getting any practice in.  Even came back after 50 minutes and one lady was still there drilling her poor dog in the heat and another lady had shown up so we went swimming at the Rez instead.  Guess I'll have to wait until cooler weather so I can go during the day and avoid the crowds.

While Strum had a grand old time I was on the 'meh' side all weekend.  Courses weren't very exciting (trying to put that as politely as I can) and I wasn't all that motivated.  We've been having an awesomely cool summer, unseasonably cool temps. in the 60's and 70's and of course the one weekend I enter an outdoor trial the temps. shoot up to the low 90's so I was a bit foggy in the heat.  The one good thing was that I ran in 3 classes, worked 2 classes and was done by 10:45 a.m. on Sunday.  Was done by 1:00 or so on Saturday.  Didn't sign up for the afternoon runs because I knew there was a chance it would be hot or there'd be early afternoon thunderstorms. 

I guess he had at least one good teeter.

I think I must have been cueing the weaves here.

Hopefully I can get out to the practice field at some point before our USDAA trial over Labor Day weekend.  I predict a lot of tunnel to weave pole exercises in our future.  I'll think I'll be a lot more motivated by then as well, signed up for Masters Challenge Standard and 2 Snooker and Jumpers courses, my favorites.  And it's on the springy, rubbery turf stuff that Strum did well on last year so that will be fun.  Regionals will be at the same place in May so it's good to get some practice on it even if it's months and months away.

Big thanks to whoever the nice lady is that took these photos.  I met her at a trial a few months ago but I forget her name.  She takes photos at trials for fun and posts them to Facebook.  I love them all, especially the A-frame.  Was glad to see he had a good solid teeter too.  For some reason I thought they were all iffy.

Can't be bothered with the stats.  In short, got only 1 weave entry, missed all the others and popped out during his Standard run.  2/3 dogwalks.  Naughty fly-off teeters.  Got all his A-frames.  1 knocked bar.  No off courses except for the gamble portion of the Traditional Gamble.