C-ATCH MOLLY!

YEAH, BABY.

On Saturday Molly and I returned to the trial for our only entry of the day: Standard.  It was the last class of a five class day, but I got there hours early because I simply could not stay away, even if it meant doing ring jobs for a while.

I was full of insane nervous stressed up energy and I could do nothing to help it.  Everyone was telling me to breathe, to enjoy myself, to relax but hell if I could manage to do so.  I was brimming with anxiety about her A-frame and Dog Walk since she dashed every bit of confidence I had in our control over those two obstacles with Friday's performance.

The run wasn't pretty.  She barely got her A-frame contact, she did one of our lucky running dog walks instead of stopping, she popped the weaves and I had to restart them, she launched towards the next jump before my planned front cross after the weaves.  From that point all of my planned handling was a disastrous mess and who knows what on earth I was thinking other than "We survived the Aframe, dog walk and weave poles, we cannot screw this up."

It was embarrassing as far as agility runs go.  I wanted so much more for our championship run, but my own anxiety really limited our performance.  But!  We qualified, we made it!  And Molly is a CPE Agility Trial Champion!

There is no feeling in the world like the dizzy ecstasy and can't-stop-smiling high that I experienced for the next hour after winning that title.  All of the congratulations, the hugs and smiles, all of our CPE Family beaming and overjoyed for me and Molly on our special day.  Facebooking and texting and instagramming and feeding Molly an entire stick of string cheese and three meatballs and an entire double cheeseburger and feeling like I just wanted to cry I was so happy.

I was lucky enough to get to go play again on Sunday.  It was incredible how light and stress-free I felt, I could remember to actually enjoy this game again!  It's a good thing that we got our C-ATCH on Saturday because a certain handler thought she could beat her pitbull to the tunnel exit and got taken down!  Hey, it probably would have been a Q, and a nice one at that.  Her A-frame wasn't as pretty as I have gotten used to , but her stride hit a lot deeper than it had all weekend, she stopped on her dog walk and didn't make a mess of the weave poles.  It was a good feeling, despite being knocked on the dirt!

We NQd Colors because I forgot where I was going and asked her to do the wrong end of the tunnel.  It was still a great run that I am proud of!  I didn't try to yell her off of what I had clearly asked her to do and I am so happy with myself for that. 

Jackpot and Fullhouse ended the day.  Jackpot was Non Traditional, you had to do the weaves and two more obstacles and end on the table to get your Gamble points.  We earned 55 points/44 needed, no problem.   Fullhouse was our usual point rack up and I think we got something in the 30s.  My two favorite games to end a trial weekend on!  The video is of Jackpot.

Ugh, must you kiss me?