Santa Barbara Agility Club - July 30-31, 2005

What an amazing weekend we all had! Thanks to SBAC for putting on an incredibly well run trial and hiring really fun judges (Jo Ann Mather and June Ebert) who designed courses that were challenging and exciting to run.

Saturday started off with Excellent B JWW and Gale was up first. Gale and I are still having “weave” issues so my only goal was to make sure Gale was happy and confident. The weaves were the 4th obstacle in a fun, fast course (with a couple of serious off course challenges) so I hoped that if Gale and could get through the weaves, we would have a blast for the rest of the run. The good news is that Gale hit her weaves perfectly! The bad news is that I was so thrilled that I promptly forgot the rest of the course. Poor Gale – I was throwing in the weirdest crosses because I was still back on obstacle #4 – so delighted she’d had such marvelous weaves. Needless to say, despite Gale’s best attempts to make up for my ineptitude, we had a couple refusals (but she did her weaves!) and didn’t Q. Next time!

Patches was lovely through the course (as usual) and had a really solid clean run. Then came Cinder. We had a GREAT run but it was one of those panicked kind of runs. Remember all those potential off courses I mentioned earlier? Well – Cinder was awesome and called off of each of them – she was very responsive and excited and I wasn’t sure when we left the course that we’d managed to get around clean. We had - Cinder won the class and the weekend was off to a great start for the two of us.

The Standard run was a blast. Patches handily made it around the course for DQ#23 (how come it’s so easy to get them now that we have our MACH?) Gale was LOVELY. She missed her entry on the weaves but I just kept her going and she was perfect for the rest of the course – fast and happy. Cinder and I had an amazing run – although she didn’t hold her A-Frame contact there is not much more I can complain about. She was fast, tight and responsive and got DQ#8 with a 2nd place! Yay Bin-bin.

I have moved Kali back to Preferred so she can jump 16” (and also give me a little more time in the Ex B 20” class – now I only have three dogs in that class rather than 4!) Both of Kali’s runs (she’s in Ex A Pref in both JWW and Std) were perfect except she pulled out at the 10th pole. I could see her think “Well, that’s enough weaving for now” and go on to the next obstacle. Stinker J She redeemed herself on Sunday though by doing all her weaves in both classes (although she came off the table in Std) and winning Ex A P JWW. Funny little dog.

Sunday was a different game for poor Patches. Normally her mother – Betty – does not come to shows because Patch has a habit of looking for mom when she is out on course. True to form, Patches would have a great run going – look for mom – and drop a bar. So – she DQ’d on Sat and didn’t qualify at all on Sunday. Hmmm….Betty and I are going to have to make some decisions here.

Sunday jumpers was another fast fun course to run. Gale missed her weaves (sigh….) and then did the oddest thing: she came straight at me between two jumps. I couldn’t figure out what had happened until a friend of mine (thanks Peggi!) pointed out that we had been doing that EXACT maneuver in the Jim Basic seminar the weekend before. Poor Gale thought we were playing Snooker apparently. Once I figured out what she was thinking, it made a lot more sense. Gale’s STD on Sunday was perfect (awesome weaves) except for the missed A-Frame contact <VBG> but hey, we are working on weaves right now – one thing at a time.

Cinder’s jumpers on Sunday was marvelous – once again, she was responsive and a delight to run. She Q’d and took 3rd and now we just had our standard run. We couldn’t possibly double-Q again could she? Yes we could! I made her stick her A-Frame (to fix the self-release from the day before) and Cinder and I earned 4th place and DQ #9! I have never Double-double Q’d with any dog and I never would have expected it to be with Cinder. What an amazing little dog she is.

The weekend was a GREAT one – let’s hope we can keep it together for the USDAA next weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for us.