Friday night we played CPE Agility. Short story. Perri was entered in Wildcard and did a nice 18 second run, and then stressed down badly and bombed Snooker due to slow sad poodle. Molly bombed Snooker due to manic insane pitbull!
Saturday we switched gears and went to play AKC Agility. Both dogs were entered in FAST and we started with that.
Molly and I NQd (wrong tunnel entrance on the send.) but I was disappointed in not sticking to my original plan (I had planned to lead out in a diagonal line towards the send, rather than a straight line.) and disappointed in my lack of chaos-survival in the end. Ah well.
Perri was next in Novice FAST. I am really glad that Perri is still in Novice level in FAST. We are having some obstacle struggles right now and it is nice to have a low-level class to fall back onto during this time. Perri earned her second leg towards her NF with this run. She misses the collection into the weave poles after hitting the entry, but stays very happy and does some of her fastest trial weaves yet when we re-attempt. 65 points and I had my happy trial girl back!
Our next run was Molly in Excellent Standard. Standard, groan. And the beginning of this course had me cringing, I did not think Molly and I had a snowball's chance in hell with this course. I need to stop thinking that way....because....WE QUALIFIED!! Our very first big girl Standard Q! This was one of those moments that I really never thought was possible. We have been doing okay, but as always something has been going wrong with Standard every time. It's Standard. I remember this time last year I was thinking of never doing Standard with Molly ever again. I would really never have believed that it would be possible that we could qualify on a Standard course where you are permitted zero mistakes. The run isn't pretty pretty, I chicken out of two front crosses that would have made our run smoother...but it is pretty enough for me to look at and smile and say "Wow."
I also made an enormous effort to not vulture-stare at Molly in her weave poles...and she picks up the pace and weaves like the fast girl I know! My favorite run of the day...is Standard. Imagine that!
Following that was a most horrible ring conflict for me with my two girls: 20" JWW running right at the same time as Open Standard. With a rude gate steward who told me "if you miss it, then you miss it!" Not true, I later found out. I was semi-angry at myself for breaking my rule of not entering my girls in the same day...but at the same time, I have to learn to deal with ring conflicts. After all, you can have a ring conflict if you only enter one dog.
My brain was nonetheless a disaster. Perri ended up going first since the Open ring is most important (it is a smaller class.) And Perri needs my 200%, because we were heading into the ring with 12 weave poles and the chute. She would not do the chute but I was happy with her for trying. She went all the way into the fabric, and that is better than she did at the USDAA trial. We had a pretty run otherwise, besides a refusal on the tunnel after the Aframe. I pulled her as hard as I did Molly. Unecessary. If I had a clear head and was relaxed during my walk through and not worried about the ring conflict, I would have front crossed at the bottom of the Aframe to gently show Perri which tunnel end I wanted her to take (Perri has a very polite A-frame, versus Molly's barrelling say-a-prayer running frame.) Not so fast weave poles but I can see on the video she was thinking and working very hard, and I kept my mouth shut for her. And Perri was happy and did not shut down after the chute issue. Yes, I am very pleased with this Standard NQ!
The last run of the day was Excellent JWW with Molly. I rushed into ringside with Molly, four dogs from the class being finished. We went after the end of the preferred dogs. My memory of the course was shaky. I remember after the weaves guessing where I needed to go. I was right, but you can see where I push Molly in the video a few jumps later...and I should not have. Poor Molly was stressed out by that, and rightfully so. That gave us a refusal, quickly followed by an off course tunnel because we weren't in sync anymore. I did not correct the wrong course (what's the point? I had already undermined poor Molly's confidence in my handling, why compound it.), but we finished the run as-numbered. I remember after the second tunnel feeling lost again but guessing correctly. I have got to learn better mental management during these ring conflicts. Determined!
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