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| But first, Molly models her "Cool Coat" from Clean Run. We give it an A+ |
Wildcard Level 2 was first. The first run of the trial is always a bit hair raising for me. And Wildcard is the game that we are the most behind in, so I really wanted this Q! I planned on 2A, 3B and 9A. (You must have two "A" obstacles and a "B" obstacle in Level 2.)
Molly was FAST but took what I wanted her to. She blasted around 5-7 nicely enough, but ran out around the 8-jump and took the tunnel. (off course!) I got her back but set her up too close to the bar and she took the 8-jump bar. I thought it was a lost cause, but we finished the course properly. And good thing! In Level 2 Wildcard you are allowed certain faults, and a dropped bar and off course were allowable. We Q'd! Whew.
Colors Level 3 next. Eep, Level 3! With Colors you are given two mini-courses to choose from. I chose the "Circle" course. I was worried about the way those first three jumps were lined up - a dropped bar is an NQ in Colors, no matter what your level. Molly kept them all up and ran the course fairly wild but clean. She did blast out around the weave poles but I got her back and we did them. I was pleased that we managed the tunnel/jump discrimination at Circle Jump 9. That's tough for a Molly!
Snooker Level 2, paradise lost. I don't particularly remember what we did exactly - but it involved the number 2 tunnel in excess. We finished the opening with some slow and awkward moments and flew through the closing...until Molly did a jump run out at the 6-jump and took the 7-jump instead. We were four points shy of a Q. Ouch. Made me wish we'd gone for big points in the opening - something to think about from now on! I did not say "Jump" out loud to her, and I do not remember pulling away from the 6-Jump but I must have as we went around the curve. Ah well.
Jackpot Level 2, something we could have fun with! Distance handling makes me nervous. Molly does not do well with it, doesn't like it, and we really haven't trained for it. (We will get there!) This was a traditional jackpot which meant that we needed to run around and collect points (sixteen for Level 2) and then do the "gamble" after the whistle blew. I don't remember exactly what we did here either (I need to take better notes!) but it involved some Aframe, teeter, and the combo jumps. When we got to the gamble she took the jump and tunnel well enough, but I was so far behind her (fast dog!) that she pulled to me and away from the tire. I did not think I could send her to a tire from a (small) distance, but she did go back out and do it. We Q'd! We got 51 points (we needed 36.)
Jumpers Level 3, last of the day. We like Jumpers courses but this one seemed to be full of weird jump angles and bars just waiting to be knocked down, not to mention our first Level 3 course. Molly is a good jumper, but if I hesitate whatsoever or set her up wrong when she runs around a jump (GR!), she will take a bar. I need not have worried. We ran this clean and recovered from an allowable jump run out at the 12-Jump.
We started off the next day with another Level 3 Jumpers course. For some reason I was very very worried about forgetting this course. The run was good except coming to the 11 Jump I kept running a little too far and pushed her into an off course jump. (sigh.) Then I forgot where I was for a split second. We recovered it well for a Q with only the off course fault.
Snooker Level 2. I wanted this one. Getting this Q, and a Jackpot Q later in the day meant the CL2-S
title. Dream on! This was my least favorite of the whole weekend. I drew my plan on here. Molly normally would have been able to handle that jump wrap after the tunnel, but yesterday it confused her terribly. I don't doubt that I was standing somewhere that I didn't belong. She came to a dead stop and looked at me. I encouraged her over the jump, but she took the bar. We found another red jump, took the tunnel all the way to the left. Then I went to another red jump and when I thought that she had committed to it I tried to run for the 7-Combo. Too soon, she saw my motion and took the bar trying to get after me albeit sluggishly. We got whistled off the course. Molly was really confused by me the entire time, and I knew it. After she took that red jump I had to make it up as I went, and that's just not my strong area. She was moving very slow as a result - she didn't want to do the wrong thing.
Fullhouse Level 3 was next, not to fear! Our best and favorite game! I drew our course on the map (and that's probably confusing.) We went jump-dogwalk to far tunnel to jump to the teeter, collected some tunnel action in the lower right corner, grabbed our last jump and a tunnel, then the teeter again and table. We got 36 points in 29 seconds - we needed 23 points in 35 seconds. *dusts hands off* I hosed Molly off with her cool coat on before this run and that put the blast back in her step clearly.
Jackpot Level 2 was next. Since we didn't get either Snooker Q from the weekend, the CL2-S title was
off the table, but that's okay. I again drew our plan on the map. Point gathering was nearly flawless in the opening. This was non traditional jackpot, you could do the gamble at any time. I chose to still do things the traditional way, because I didn't want to make a stupid mistake and cost us our Q.
We did jump, dog walk, tunnel, then I wanted the dog walk again. I thought she would come out of that tunnel and suck right on to the dog walk, but she didn't. She came to a near stop and just looked at me. I must not have been standing at a good place to direct her onto the dog walk (I erroneously assumed that little precise handling was needed to get her onto a favorite obstacle with no discriminations around!)
After that we got our necessary points and after the whistle, tried to start the gamble.
She blew off the 2-Jump and went halfway up the A-frame. This was not a problem, thankfully. I called her back, got her to take the 2-Jump and then the 4-tunnel and the 6-tunnel. I was VERY proud that I pulled out hard enough to get her out of the line to the Aframe in that gamble. I did NOT want to risk a blown contact and our Q, and I also wanted to see if I could get her to take the more difficult option.
So you may now be bored to tears and possibly asleep, but that was our weekend! We got a lot accomplished, and had a lot of fun. I am very very happy with the maiden voyage of Molly's Cool Coat from Clean Run. Two weekends ago she was surviving but panting a lot in her crate, despite a fan being on her. This weekend there was a lot less of that.
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| Nuggets for my good girl! |
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