Contact Point Agility USDAA Trial Contact Point Agility USDAA Trial - August 6 - 7, 2005

At the last minute (figuratively speaking) I decided to try and get Cinder qualified for the USDAA Nationals to be held in Scottsdale this upcoming November. Poor Cinder – I needed her to Q in DAM Team, Steeplechase and Grand Prix all in a couple of shows! Thank heavens for Mia – we put together a really great DAM Team: Cinder (the BC,) Finn (the Aussie) and Nala (another Aussie.) All dogs are very consistent and fairly quick on their feet.

Saturday morning started out with Advanced Gamblers for Gale. Gale was having a great time but I was not terribly convinced she would do the gamble which was a jump – tunnel – teeter – jump combo (and the teeter angled away from the handler!) I should have more faith in my dog! Gale did the gamble flawlessly however there was one small problem: me (the inept handler) had inadvertently negated our gamble in the opening! ACK! But Gale was wonderful and didn’t realize her mother had screwed up. Good girl Gale! Our Advanced Standard run was lovely – except for the launch off the A-Frame (I think she was paying me back for the Gamble run!) Then it was Gale’s first time in Masters Jumpers. She was AWESOME – flew around the course and got her first Masters Q! Yay Gale!

Cinder was perfect all weekend. This trial only offered Tournament legs (no regular Masters classes except for Jumpers each day.) Cinder was lovely in all the DAM Team classes – did the Gamble, did great in Snooker and smoked the regular course.

Then she went out and tore around the Masters Jumpers course. All the dogs on our DAM Team ran without a single elimination and by the end of the first day our team was in 3rd place!

Sunday was even hotter than Saturday had been. (Did I mention it was REALLY hot on Saturday? And how much I hate the heat??) Gale and I had a lovely Adv STD run going until she absolutely refused to lie down on the table. I kid you not, we were there for over 30 seconds. Good news: she ran totally clean, even got her A-Frame contact. Bad news: over time because of the table debacle. I came off the course wondering what in heck had gone wrong. Then I watched dog after dog refuse to lie down on the table and finally my over-heated brain figured it out: the table itself was blisteringly hot! Poor Gale (who has NO hair thanks to post-puppy syndrome) didn’t want to burn herself on the table. Sigh….more reasons than one to hate extreme heat. But we redeemed ourselves in Masters Jumpers by q’ing again. Good girlie.

Cinder was amazing again on Sunday. Perfect in the Team Relay and Team Jumpers and then went on to qualify in the Grand Prix! (Now we just need one more leg.) Our entire DAM Team was wonderful and we finished up overall in 2nd place! What a blast! Cin also got another leg in Masters Jumpers – she is SO close to her ADCH – now if we could just get those Standard legs…

Betty brought Patches down to enter in Performance Grand Prix just on Sunday. Patches was wonderful as usual! She not only qualified, she took 2nd place! She is such a wonderful consistent dog – I am going to miss her horribly when she retires.

All in the all, despite the heat, it was a wonderful trial! Cinder is halfway to being qualified for USDAA Nationals: only one Steeplechase leg and one Grand Prix leg to go!