PASA ASCA Agility Trial
March 31 – April 1, 2007

At the last moment I decided to drive up to Hollister and support the ASCA trial. Also – Cinder only needed two Gamblers legs to finish her ATCH and this trial was offering 4 runs of Gamblers over the weekend. The drive up was lovely and staying at Nancy’s house was, as always, a real pleasure. It is SUCH a wonderful thing to be able to go to an “away” trial and not only bring Kane (gasp!) but have a giant yard for all the beasties to play in before and after the trial. And Nancy takes such good care of me! This report will be relatively brief despite the fact that I was showing oodles of dogs (Cinder, Gale, Kane, Patches and Kane) and I will just hit the highs (and lows.)

First run on Saturday was Novice Gamblers and it was a lovely, easy combination of jumps and tunnels. What I remember is that Kane and I were doing the closing gamble and all of a sudden my legs stopped working. Literally. I was telling them to run down the line and they just didn’t. Down I went to the ground. I was absolutely fine but Kane was completely freaked out so the rest of his day wasn’t great. Added to that was the fact that Nancy’s PWD – Tuner – was crated directly next to Kane and Kane HATES him and Kane was not a happy camper. He did manage to finish his Open Standard title (with a 3 rd place) despite being worried and unhappy. He tries so hard for me. I still am not sure what happened with my grass-kissing experience – I ate a banana and was fine for the rest of the day so go figure…

The “fall” was the big excitement for Saturday, but I should hit on what my other dogs did as well. Chancie picked up his first Novice Gamble leg and a 5pt Elite Regular leg. Good boy! Patches was her usual reliable self and was 3 for 3 – she took 1 st in Elite Reg (she is in all Veterans classes), 3rd in Rd 1 of Elite Jumpers and 2nd in Rd 2. Gale flew around the jumpers courses, Q’d in both and took 3 rd in both. Cinder was her usual wonderful self. She picked up an Elite Gamble leg (only1 more to go!) and then took 2nd in Elite Reg and 1 st and 2nd in both rounds of Elite Jumpers. We all went home quite tired but happy from the day.

Kane was NOT a happy camper on Sunday. We left Tuner at home, but Kane had a seriously upset tummy. Despite that, he Q’d in his 1st round of Open Jumpers with a 2nd place and finished his Open Jumpers title! Our second round of Jumpers was going WONDERFUL – we had flow and speed and were just about to start our closing line. I cued a rear cross into a tunnel and Kane came to a dead stop. So guess what I did? I fell over the top of him and kissed the ground AGAIN. I looked up and Kane was so worried he was on his belly next to me – I couldn’t resist and pet him to make him feel better. Then I stuck him in the tunnel and we had a dynamite closing line. Here’s the kicker – even with the fall, the petting and all that mess, he still made time. It was an NQ (because I pet him, but I couldn’t NOT) but I was thrilled with him. Not so thrilled with falling down again – that seems to be a blue boy thing: only happens with Chance and Kane.

Patches had entirely too much fun on Sunday and only Q’d in Elite Jumpers – with a 2nd. Gale had a lovely standard run going until I happily sent her off course. Grrr. But she flew around both her Elite Jumpers courses – q’ing in both and she got her first Elite Gamble leg. Yay Gale! Chancie was wonderful – he finished up his Novice Gamblers title with a 2nd, picked up a full Elite Standard leg and his first Elite Jumpers leg! Good boy! The big news is that Cinder finished her ATCH!!! She got the first Elite Gamble offered (and it was one that I thought “no way” but it was also the one Gale did.) So Cinder now has her ATCH and her ADCH and her WTCH. We are working on the MACH. She also picked up another Elite Regular leg and Elite Jumpers leg. I was trying really hard to beat Star (the super fast Aussie) in Rd. 2 of Jumpers and did some fancy-pants handling and promptly sent Cin off course. But it was fun trying!

Kristi