Where We Did What We Did

SUMMARY: Some of the weekend's course maps

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Saturday Masters

• Masters Jumpers: Tika's off course (where I forgot the course) is shown. Otherwise it ran smoothly (except for Boost!). There weren't many Es on this course.
• Masters Snooker: This is the funny one where only 2 of 49 22" dogs earned 59 points but 8 out of 27 26" dogs did. It was soooo obviously a speed course from the get-go, not a strategy course.
• Masters Standard: I noted that about half the dogs Eed on this course, but I don't particularly remember why this was so hard. I saw some dogs take the wrong end of #8, maybe a couple did 9-10-2, or take the tunnel instead of #15, but I was so busy with the score table that I really didn't get a chance to watch much.
• Masters Pairs: 11 of 32 big-dog teams eliminated on this course, 9 were over time (usually with faults but sometimes just wasted time trying to get through it) and only 12 teams Qed. The first half was pretty straight-forward, although a lot of dogs wasted seconds blasting far beyond the 3-4-5 sequence before coming back to 6. The second half presented the greatest challenges with the sequence from 3 to 6 and 7 to 9. I saw very, very few handling options that worked smoothly on either one, especially for the faster dogs. It didn't help that the wind was coming from the upper right corner, keeping the chute wide open most of the time, giving most dogs a beautiful view of the off-course jump immediately after it.

Saturday Tournament

• Grand Prix: Lots of opportunities for problems; I don't think that the Qualifying rate was very high, but I didn't write it down. The 1-2-3 was fairly straight-forward; I saw a couple of off-courses from 3 to 14. The 4-5-6 sequence made the #6 a challenge for many teams, but I don't recall any 6-to-19 offcourses.. Saw a couple of off-courses from 7 to 17. The entry from 9 to 10 was a little challenging for some. 13 through 19 took some running and handling but wasn't stunningly difficult. Some people got a front cross in between 18 and 19, but most opted for a push/rear cross between 19 and 20, which wasn't always smooth.
• Steeplechase: A very fast course.

Sunday Masters

• Gamblers: Many dogs opted for our path, numbered on the map; several dogs besides Boost earned 33 in the opening. A very few dogs had 36 in the opening and I'm not sure whether they did the same path and got in another teeter, or whether it was some other, cleverer path that I didn't see.
• Standard: Dogs looked hard at the #13 after 1-2-3 and had to be called off very hard, if they didn't actually take it. The push out to #14 was interesting; there were several different ways of handling that sequence and out to the finish and I think I saw them all. Don't know what the general results were.
• Pairs Relay: For the square numbers, the 3 to 4 gave a challenge; most people pulled their dog into 4 to stay on the dog's left but it was a tight balance between pulling too much and not enough, and there were a lot of missed entries there. During the walkthrough, people were worried about the square 9 to 10 but it handled very easily.
• Jumpers: This was a killer jumpers course. Not many dogs came through it clean. So many calloffs and sharp angles and turns! No straight line until you got to the last two jumps.

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