What a wonderful weekend at USDAA: Jake's turn

Backfill: May 1 '04
Jake's weekend was much better, too--only 3 for 7, but better than nuthin', for sure! (And--holy Toledo-smacking gumshoes--that was his 100th Masters/P3-level qualifying leg. Blows me away, thinking about it. I remember busting my buttons when he finished his MAD way back when--first masters-level title I ever put on a dog in USDAA, and that required all of 7 Qs. What a good boy he's been. )

Anyway, this weekend he almost had a fourth one--he did much better in Snooker than the other Performance dogs, but he was half a second short of completing the #7 obstacle in the closing, and because of the opening I chose, he had to get all the way through the closing to qualify. Had a bunch of wide turns, comes from his deafness and me still not being able to figure out how to avoid him getting in front of me and deciding to keep going in a straight line.

For the last run of the weekend, he had a wonderful Jumpers run; that was Jake's 10th Performance-3 jumpers leg, giving him the AJD title. (P3 equiv of Jumper Champion.) I'm quite proud of him!

He qualified on a challenging Grand Prix course for the Performance Grand Prix; he now needs one more to be eligible for Perf. GP in AZ in Nov. Like Tika, after a zillion GP qualifications over the last 4-5 years, he had been 0 for 4 up until this weekend. The GP Nationals actually has 3 versions now: The "championship" track, for which Tika qualified (the "real" GP); the Peformance GP, which is the same thing but with dogs at lower heights, lower A-frame, and no double or triple jumps (plus a little extra time); and the Veterans GP, which is the same thing as the GP but the only eligible dogs are those who have--at any time previously in their career--competed in the GP Nationals, which Jake did twice, the 2 years it was in CA.

Jake missed both Standard Qs due to running across the table instead of stopping on it. Back to practicing in the back yard, relarnin' him that tables are to *down* on, not to run across as if doing a gamble at all times. Sigh.

Since I"m backfilling and don't have my papers here, I don't remember his 3rd Q. Will get back to you.

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