Our first day of our first regionals was pretty successful. Brody was great back in 2008 and he was pretty great today too.
Our opening class was jumpers and, like 3 years ago, he rocked it - and earned a few time bonus points - like 10 extra or so. 81 points was a nice start. The course had lots of off course options for bigger striding dogs but if you could get enough speed to front cross it ended up being pretty smooth. Brody read a really nice rear cross fairly late in the course too. Good boy!
Next up was gamblers ... not our favourite course ever but Brody plugged away and did 8 obstacles including the aframe (which he actually bypassed the first run at) and 2 dog walks (being a 5 point obstacle made it worth doing twice). The main gamble was 6 weaves (at not much distance), a jump to a tunnel ( a hard left away) and then 2 jumps. Brody actually made a solid effort to weave. We then did the 2 jumps and partied!! Imagine Brody weaving without me right on top of him! We got 32 points once we applied the vet bonus to our earned 27 points. Not too exciting but any gamble over 20 points makes me happy.
Last class was standard. Brody ran a nice clean run - not super fast but no heart stopping moments. Just a 3 second bonus ( I think) but I'll happily take it. So, if my math is anywhere near right Brody has about 215 points. Honestly I could have stopped after jumpers and been quite content.
Sally was fun to run ... oh to do her justice some day! Her jumpers run required more rear crosses than ideal for the course so it wasn't pretty but it worked. She is an honest generous soul that's for sure. It ended up not bothering me to run with the A team - in fact watching their handling choices was interesting. And they had moments too - including one of international members proclaiming "OH SHIT" quite loudly. Sally was clean and under time but I'm not sure by how much. Just a second or two I'd guess.She was only seconds faster than Brody.
Gamblers was interesting with her - I wanted to stay away from yellow but for flow the dog walk made sense. She ended up earning 39 opening points including teeter and two dog walks and if she had had ONE more second she would have earned the closing gamble too - what a dog - what a whole lot of wonder dog!
Standard was not an easy course for a long striding green dog. Sally had one wobble (caused by me of course - after the aframe I was so pleased she got the contact I didn't support the next jump - she did a funky s curve thing to find it - R was called rightfully!) 95 points in standard isn't too shabby though :) her weaves were amazing! Sally is pretty hot on Brody's heels with 209 points if I've calculated properly.
Tomorrow should be fun. I suspect both dogs will be tired. It's a long day of hanging around for them! Now I'm thinking a little more pressure would be good - I just have to grab my mission and run with intention and all should be OK though.
1 comment:
Wow!! Sounds like an awesome day for the three of you!! Hope today went well also and that the weather held off. Looking forward to the final report! Safe travels home!
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