This past weekend we traveled through a lovely snow storm to Crystal Lake, IL to attend the RACE Agility trial.  All told, the roads weren't really that bad and we got to our hotel in just over four hours.

I decided to get Luke and I a room of our own, knowing that nobody would get any sleep if we tried to have Luke & Belle in the same room along with myself, Kristi & Derrick!  While it would have been nice to split the expense, knowing that I would actually get to sleep was well worth it.

When we got to the venue Saturday morning I was very pleased to see that it was almost exactly like Soccer Blast in Burnsville, MN.  Actually, it was *bigger,* so there was more than enough space for crates.  I was a little iffy about the footing at first because it looked a little worn out, but it actually ended up being very nice (if you could ignore the little rubber pellets getting in your shoes!).

Our first run of the day was Elite Regular 1.  Luke was his usual nutzo self first thing in the morning and he put in his usual crazy run.  Actually, it flowed very nicely and was a very nice run right up until the second to last obstacle.  You guessed it -- the dog walk.  And yes, he lept off it.  *sigh*  10pt fault and 1st place.

Elite Regular 2 was second of the day and I was determined that Luke would get his contacts!  He did, but it took three times to get through the weave poles.  Those weave poles would be our downfall for the entire weekend, as Luke HATED them.  They were spaced closer together and had the world's worst-designed base (double-supports and really wide).  Because of the weave problems we came in 2.96 seconds over time.  I was running Luke in skilled yet this weekend, so that was a 5pt Q and 1st place again.

We had to run straight from ring one to ring two for our tunneler run.  The gate steward let us sit and catch our breath for about five minutes before sending us into the ring.  Luke was definitely slower than normal, but came in under time for a Q and 5th place.  He cut his paw pad on Thursday and I have to think that this probably slowed him down over the weekend as well.

Weavers was a disaster.  Luke normally loves his poles and it was sad to watch him struggle so badly with the weaves at this trial.  He didn't complete a single set of poles in this class -- For some reason the results said that we were eliminated, but I didn't see that on the video and he should have ended up with 60 faults.  Not that it matters!!

Luke was starting to shut down a little by the time jumpers came around.  He was pretty slow, plus we used up a lot of time when I had to call him back to a missed jump.  He brought down one jump when I called a little too tight on a turn.  We ended up with 16.17 faults, total, and a 1st place (the elite skilled class is pretty small!).

Our day ended with chances and as soon as I saw that we had to do weaves at a distance I knew that was going to be an issue for us.  Actually, I was very happy with how Luke performed the distance portion and he had a perfect entrance to the weaves, but he completely shut down when he got there.  I wanted to keep things on a happy note so I just kept running and finished the course with him.

Both of the dogs crashed at the hotel that night.  We hung out in Derrick & Kristi's room until around 9:00 before going back to our own room and passing out for the night.  Luke must have slept well, because he was raring to go again by Sunday morning!

Our day on Sunday started with chances and I was very happy to see that there were no weaves OR contacts!  While walking the course, I figured our biggest danger would be if Luke brought down a jump because of his wildness.  The distance portion of the course was to send out to a line of jumps while layering with a tunnel.  Belle sucked right into the tunnel during her run, but Luke surprised me and did the course beautifully.  Now we only need one more open chances Q to get that title!

Luke was a little spacy during our jumpers run, unfortunately.  He blew his first and only start line of the weekend (he did REALLY well with those!!), so we got off to a sketchy start.  He brought down a jump on a turn and then took an off course at the end that I didn't bother going back to correct.  We ended up with 35 faults for that run (and 1st place).

He got 35 faults in Elite Regular 1.  He brought down the first jump thanks to me positioning him poorly, and then he BLATANTLY jumped off the dog walk in spite of me being RIGHT THERE to babysit the contact!!  The weave poles also gave us problems again, but we did manage to come in just under time.

Luke got his contacts in Elite Regular 2, but those stupid weaves got the best of us.  I finally had to get serious with him and yell at him to listen to me.  I don't care if he has to walk slowly through the pattern, but he HAD to do his weaves.  We ended up with 5.78 time faults, putting us just 0.78 seconds past getting a 5pt Q.  Darn it.

I didn't have high hopes for weavers, but I knew that I had to make Luke do his poles.  The first two sets took repeated tries to get through (mostly just had issues with the entries because he didn't want to do them) but by the third set of 12 he conceded and decided just to get it over with.  We ended up with a dismal 22.53 time faults, but dang it, we finished the course!  lol

Touch-n-go was the final class of the weekend and I really, really wanted that Q.  We've been working so long on getting our open touch-n-go title because Luke has been having such issues with his contacts.  I hoped that having it at the end of such a long weekend would be in our favor by slowing him down and getting Luke to listen.  He only came in three seconds under open time (sad by normal standards) but dang it, he got his contacts! 

So with that, I e-mailed the trial secretary for this next weekend and bumped Luke up to Elite Proficient 20+ for every class.  I know that we're going to have a real wake-up call with the new times that we have to make.  There won't be any room for slouching.

We had class last night, which I could have totally done without, but Luke was happy to go!  Actually, we did some really nice jumping drills that were good for both of us.  Luke jumped 20" all night and handled it just fine.  After class, Kristi and I both worked our dogs through the set of 12 weaves.  Luke actually single-tracked them and seemed so much happier.  I did have to get after him when he sassed me for correcting his missed entrance.  Barking at me like that really needs to stop.

This week we will be working on weaves & contacts after work.  Our trial in Madison this weekend is nothing but games -- tunnelers, weavers & touch-n-go.  I look forward to hopefully earning our first points towards our NATCH!