my legs are jello

but my heart continues to be full of admiration for my amazing gang ;)

Thea was just incredible - she ran in starters snooker and starters jumpers

in the snooker course the judge had the teeter as the #4 obstacle so the ONLY way we could possibly Q was to go for 4 reds and 4 of the 7 point obstacle... (in this case the aframe) Thea smoked the course.. nailing all the reds and the aframe - sadly as we finished the last frame she was distracted by the red jump and went off course to jump it... SHOOT .. but how many chihuhuas out there can claim a 34 point opening??

WOW

in the jumpers course she was fast and accurate til the second last obstacle and then she ran past the chute .. she hasn't seen a chute since November and it's not her favourite obstacle (fussy gal that she is not liking chutes, teeters or weaves much yet)

but she was FAST and she was listening and she was BOLD so there is hope for her yet ;)

Sally was a NUT - a maniac - a barking fool.. she did the two gambles classes and while she nearly got the gamble each time she couldn't calm herself enough to earn the opening points...

Brody earned his two advanced gambles qs - how I'm not sure - I really really didn't think he'd ever get them ... the first course was interesting - the mini gamble included the teeter and usually Brody would be ok on that but he wobbled so I ran in and supported him and asked him to do it again which he did much better ... lucky I did that as the second gambles course had a long go out to a teeter ..

the first gamble was a jump a aframe a crooked tunnel and then a last jump - dogs missed the frame, the tunnel and the last jump ... so I had plenty of places to worry me - and I had never done a distance aframe (I only get to see them in trials) but Brody flew it - very nice that Tom as watcing his first ever agility class and saw it!

and I had done my usual thing and not picked up a course ahead of time - for me I obviously learn by action - running each course three+ times seems to do it best for me (which, of course, when added with the course building and racing from ring to ring results in the jello leg thing when you do 12 runs) so using the educable moment from the first ring really paid and I didn't know it would!

The second gambles class I ran with such great intention that I ended up in the right spot but wayyyyyyyy ahead of schedule ...Brody did 11 obstacles in the opening (usually he gets 7) and I nearly loitered at the gamble line (penalized with elimination I think)while I tried to think what to do ..
the gamble line was a tire to a teeter to a jump - and the gamble line swung out away from the teeter so timing your motion was a bit tricky - a number of dogs bailed on the teeter but not the rockstar Brody! no siree not him!

We didn't need the third class so I used it to train for the rest of the weekend - and Brody ran well - he didn't get the gamble but he got plenty of point!

Brody was slow off the mark in both the steeplechase (weaves were second obstacle and while he was accurate he was SLOW) and snookers I was an idiot and had the aframe as the second obstacle - so again he was NOT impressed ;).. I'm a little disappointed in the snookers actually - first one he's missed sinc ehe earned the starters snookers in the fall and had he earned it we would have had our first masters title

He flew the jumpers course tho - to earn his first masters jumpers Q - actually what he really did was waste no time - he didn't RACE but he did cute tight corners and do wraps that saved seconds all the way around - there really wasn't even a bobble to worry about. He came second in that class too - behind a very good dog!he had nearly 12 seconds to spare .. two more to go to masters jumpers title

His masters standard course also rocked- only 4 dogs in the whole class earned a Q apparently and Brody was one of them ... making him only one standard Q away from his masters title ...amazing

Our last class was team and my partner and I were 1.4 seconds overtime - and brody was pretty quick but hey- what can you do? maybe next time - or maybe we'll be like Jen Laird and take 16 tries with clean runs each time before we get the two Qs we need to move on


this is the anniversary of our first trial in the east - was nice to be able to wish so many people happy anniversary :)