Tuesday, July 21, 2015

July CPE Trial @ Flexible Flyers

This past weekend was two days of CPE and it was hot.  Really, really hot and humid.  Despite that, Molly and I really had a good weekend together with 8/10 runs and they were good runs (not just Qs.)  I remember this particular show last year, being so disappointed with my handling and Molly's lack of ring confidence.  "I was disappointed in my handling in a million different ways and I feel like I'm never going improve."  With no ego, we have improved so much since last year.  So much!

Fullhouse was the start of it all!  Since Molly has earned her Level 5 Fullhouse champion title, I entered her in C-level in Fullhouse.  She of course qualified with her first ever Q in C class.  Cool!


Perri had a predictable episode of dirt-footing induced zoomies.  I was very proud of her for re-engaging with me and we finished together.  




Our favorite Standard was next.  A lovely run with Molly's running A-frame taking her right to an off course tunnel and blowing the whole thing for us.  Still, any run where we do the weaves, dog walk, A-frame without faults is a good run!

Snooker next.  The judge brought this crazy flamingo prize with him since he is from Florida, to be awarded to the team who ran a 51-point Snooker round.  Since that involved weave poles, Molly and I went the conservative route and did an all 4-point (tunnel) opening and qualified with a nice run.  She was becoming pokey in the summer heat, so I started the hose-down-before-every-run routine.

Wildcard was next and it was a nice and super fast run with an actual weave entry.  Facebook-only video here.  In Wildcard Game you have to plan through three different discriminations, "A" or "B" obstacles.  In Level 5 you need to complete two "B" choice obstacles and one "A" choice.  I almost always leave my "A" choice obstacle for the last one, so that if we mess up, we have some flexibility.   Except that this time around the A obstacle was a tunnel right in Molly's line, with the B obstacle being the weaves.  No.  Way.  I let her enjoy the tunnel and we did well on an easy tunnel discrimination for our last "Wildcard".  This is so funny, but Wildcard gave me such stress when we were working on our C-ATCH.  We now have all five required Wildcard legs, already!, for her C-ATCH2.  

Jumpers was last.  Nice run and a Q for Molly...and the same for Perri!  Perri came back to earth and ran quite nicely for me.  Such a change from the naughty poodle of the morning.

 


We started Sunday with another round of Jumpers.  Molly again earned another Q with a nice fast round.  Perri....got the zoomie bug again!  It amuses me to no end how perfectly she runs the course, totally focused and engaged but had to take that little zoomie break in the middle.  Oh well!




Two rounds of Standard were next.  The video is of Molly's NQ, we survived it all but she blew the A-frame since I was behind her.  I wonder what she would have done if I had really sprinted with her.  I remembered slowing myself down due to ringside critique (that I should not listen to!) of "racing" Molly.  I ended up behind her which is always a recipe for a faulted A-frame.  Sigh.


The second round we qualified.  If you handed me all three Standard courses for the weekend and I had to pick the one that I would least expect Molly to qualify on, it would be that course!  Why?  Two A-frames, one A-frame had a tunnel trap right at the bottom but instead you had to 180 onto a jump.  She...did it!  So...2/10 towards the C-ATCH..  It will be another brutal Standard march.  I thought things might even out a little, but we have been NQing Standard and qualifying in everything else.  Just as ever.  Oh well!  I am really in no hurry this time, I am allowing myself to enjoy more venue-hopping and enjoying the challenges that AKC and UDSAA have to offer us.  No crazed doing of every CPE trial we can get ourselves into this time around.  That really dulled my enjoyment this past winter.  No driving through snowstorms in my little Honda Fit for Standard runs this winter, nope!

Anyway!  Colors next and besides the weave entry we had a nice run.


Jackpot Non Traditional finished out the weekend.  You had to do a three jump pinwheel "Moon Orbiter" and that would double the next two obstacles that you did after successfully doing the pinwheel.  For some reason I couldn't focus on , or care about, a good plan for this.  I winged it with Molly and got lost.  We still qualified because Molly and I are Jackpot machines, I just love doing whatever we feel like instead of those numbered courses restricting us.  (joking!)  We qualified.  That brings us to needing four more Qs for her Jackpot Champion title.

Perri got to run this one too.  She broke her start line and  deviated from my plan, so I went with it.  This entire run I did not walk at all, so it is definitely bumpy but we made it with Perri halfway through her Level 4 Jackpots.  But most importantly, I had my poodle with me the whole time!  I don't care about the start line, she is allowed to break her SLS if it is too much pressure for her.

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