I Like the Way Things Are Going

SUMMARY: Lots of good, not much bad, at this weekend's USDAA trial so far.

No agility photos today, but I pulled over during my drive to Prunedale to capture the early glowing, pink light on the fog peering over the coastal range. Subtle but all the more beautiful because of it.

In DAM Team, new rules allow Qs for the individual classes; they don't count toward regular titles but do count towards your Lifetime Award totals. The trick is that you have to be within about 15% of the average of the top 3 dogs in your class, rather than meeting a minimum standard to which you must adhere. Makes those Qs a bit harder to get.

But I double-checked Tika's numbers from yesterday, and she Qed in all 4 individual classes plus the Team overall, so 5 for 5 yesterday. What a good dog. She is surely liking being in Performance at 22"!

Today she Qed 4 for 5 very nicely--she's keeping those bars up at 22" and I like it, too!--

• Standard: Still at 26", she finally kept all the bars up to earn her 25th Masters Standard leg, earning her Standard Silver title, and now I will move her down to 22" performance in this class. (Now only 3 26" jumpers legs stand between us and ADCH-Silver.)
• Performance Steeplechase: A lovely run indeed and easily qualifying, although we came in only 5th this time (out of 15?) But here's the interesting thing: With times between about 34 and 36 seconds, the top 5 dogs covered a range of only about 2 seconds. Furthermore, the 4th place dog squeaked past Tika by a teeny two one-hundredths (.02) of a second! And even more furthermore, the 3rd place dog beat 4th by .02 as well. Very close! Had I taken one faster step somewhere, had Tika not blinked at the wrong moment somewhere, we could've been in 3rd instead of 5th. But at any rate, it's a Q and we're in the money round for tomorrow.
• Performance Grand Prix: Another smooth, clean run for Q, 4th place, and a fancy ribbon.
• Snooker at 22": One of only 3 dogs her height (and I think one of only about 14 or 15 of around 90 in all Masters and P3) who earned the maximum 51 points, and she did it faster than the others, so a 1st place and a Super-Q, her first in P3!

Boost has no Qs to show for today, but we had some really, really nice runs. Very little of the "what jump? this one? this one? this one?" sort of thing, and not many knocked bars. Some issues with weaves, but really I am pleased with her contacts--ALL perfect so far!-- and thrilled with the smooth, flowing, fast performances that we achieved and came EVER SO CLOSE to success with:

• Steeplechase--a very nice run with only one tiny weave pole bobble--but unfortunately I didn't call her quickly enough on a turn and she cut THROUGH the broad jump for an Elimination, but I didn't go back and try to fix it because our run was sensational and I didn't want to break the stride.
• Snooker: With a plan that many people found difficult, we actually executed it perfectly and had gotten to the easy ending when she BARELY-- like a little breeze from one toenail--knocked a bar 3 obstacles from the end. But it was just lovely, she was so good on a weird course!
• Standard--I thought we were actually going to Q and it looked so nice up til I think a runout on a danged serpentine maneuver; she so hates coming in on those fast Serps! And then weave issues. (I'll have to check my notes on weave issues from today.) But otherwise nice.
• Gamblers: A beautiful opening, executed completely to spec, only a couple of points less in the opening than the winning dog, but we still need work on sending out to gambles ... sigh ...
• Grand Prix: Hmm, didn't bring home my notes. We definitely had issues with weaves in this one, but I seem to remember that most of it was nice.

It has been *so long* since I've been able to say that I felt that one of Boost's runs was really nice, and today all of them felt so much nicer than what we've unfortunately more often experienced.

AND we won a free entry through the worker's raffle.

And I am very tired. I might not even check facebook before heading for bed...

Oh, yeah, right.

Tomorrow: Steeplechase Round 2 for Tika, Jumpers (hope for another 26" Q for tika), standard, and Pairs Relay.

If boost can come up with a Q in Pairs, that'll be her 10th for her Relay Champion title.

And that's all I'll say about that, because if I even bother to mention that Boost STILL needs just one Jumpers Q for her MAD, I'm sure I'll set my own expectations too high again. I mean, really--28 attempts in 21 months and not a single Q to show for it? And I thought it was bad when Tika took 13 attempts before she got her first Masters Jumpers leg to complete her MAD! It's just nuts.

Hope everyone's having as much fun this weekend as I am, doing whatever it is that you're doing. Happy Independence day, U. S. of A., my favorite country!

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