Whoops! I didn't realize that it had been THAT long since my last update/post!! I brought my new puppy, Kaiser, home on the 1st of April and I guess things have just been nuts since then.
This weekend was our only trial of the month and our first trial since Kaiser came along. I didn't think that Luke would suffer any jealousy issues over the puppy since he's had all month to get used to him (everything is super!). My only worry was that Kaiser would have a complete meltdown from the noise & stimulation and that I would be completely stressed because of it. As it turned out, I had nothing to worry about!
Luke started out at his usual crazy self Saturday morning. The day started with Regular 1. This was Luke's first time doing the 20+ Proficient courses with jumps. Long story short, his zooming crazy speed caused him to jump flat and bring down three jumps. He also took an off course jump on the way to the dog walk, but the judge must not have noticed because we didn't get marked off for that. Luke was so fast that he came in 10 seconds under Elite time, but with 15 faults for a NQ and fourth place.
For some reason the Regular 2 class wasn't just a reverse of the first class and, IMO, the second course just did not flow well. Luke and I were totally not in sync and I ended up throwing in the towel halfway through and making up our own course to the end. Obviously we were eliminated in this class.
We were SO CLOSE to getting our final open Chances Q on Saturday!! Luke was doing great with the distance and even -- get this -- got the frame contact at a distance! He then had to go take an "out" jump, but he started to come in to take the nearer jump to me. When I tried to pull him back to push out to the correct jump he backjumped it, so there went our Q for that class. I was still so proud of him for that lovely frame performance.
Up next was Touch-n-Go. Luke took an off course tunnel that was totally my fault. We ended up with time faults because of that, for a total of 14.71 penalties and 6th place. I feel this is as good a place as any, though, to brag that Luke GOT EVERY SINGLE CONTACT THIS ENTIRE WEEKEND!!!!! I am so, so, so proud of him for that.
Saturday was our chance to test out Weavers on the home turf. I am desperate to see if Luke can make time on a set that he's familiar with. Unfortunately Luke popped out of the 10th pole on the very first set, so we ended up with 16.73 time faults. The rest of the course ran just fine for him, though, so I still wonder about ever coming close to making time...
Elite Jumpers was our sixth class of the day. To this point we hadn't managed to Q in any class this day, so my expectations weren't too terribly high for this one. Can you believe it, but Luke jumped flawlessly! I even managed to squeak in two front crosses while sending him out at a distance. Luke came in four seconds under time and earned first place in a very competitive class!!
The day ended with Hoopers. I figured this was a given Q for Luke considering that he ran it so well at the last trial. Well, my brain was fairly fried by class number seven and I got a bit lost on the course. We ended up coming in 4.82 seconds over time, so no Q for us. Who would have thought that an elite Jumpers class would be our only Q of the day?!
Sunday ended up being a really good day for us. It was a reverse order of classes, so we started out with Hoopers. Luke was insanely crazy for this first class, as ususal, and he came VERY close to bypassing many hoops, only to catch himself at the last minute for the correction. I have to admit that this impressed me -- he obviously has a clear understanding of the hoop obstacle! We came in 14 seconds under time and had the fastest of all of the Hooper runs of the day! This Q earned Luke his Novice Hoopers Title.
Luke put in another fabulous Elite Jumpers run, but unfortunately he hit a bad take-off spot coming out of the tunnel and he brought down one bar. The course flowed really nicely otherwise and had excellent speed. These Elite Jumper courses are wicked to remember, but they are fun to run!
We had a flawless tunnelers run again. Considering how nice (and FAST) the run felt, I was again amazed that he came in less than 1.5 seconds under time and finished in 3rd place. This was the final Q needed for our Elite Proficient Tunnelers title. This is Luke's first Elite Proficient title and the first big step towards his Versatility NATCH.
Chances was up next and it was the perfect course for us, provided that Luke could manage to leave all of the bars up. Luke was absolutely flawless, getting a solid contact on the a-frame and then sending out with a switch to a line of jumps at a distance AND avoiding the tunnel discrimination test. This beautiful run earned Luke his Open Chances Title -- but more importantly, his OPEN VERSATILITY AWARD!!!! Yes, Luke earned his Open Versatility on his one year anniversary of trialing. Yay!!
They decided to run the Regular classes before Touch-n-Go, so Elite Regular 1 was up next for us. Luke and I were a little out of sync for that whole run. He brought down a bar on a tight twisty maneuver and then surprised me by taking off up the dog walk totally unexpectedly in the middle of the course. This gave us time faults for a total of 44.1 penalties.
We clicked for the Regular 2 run. Luke was definitely starting to get tired, so it wasn't the fastest run, but it was really smooth & flowing. We came in seven seconds under time for 3rd place. This was Luke's first Q at the Elite Proficient 20"+ regular level.
Touch-n-Go was the 7th run of the day and the 14th of the weekend. I think Luke was just done. Luke took an off-course tunnel straight away in the beginning and then argued with me about a few tunnel entrances on course. With the off course and time faults, we ended up with 16.69 faults and 5th place. I couldn't blame Luke; I was done, too! It was a very long weekend for everyone.
So to summarize, Luke ended up with a total of five Q's for the weekend -- one on Saturday and four on Sunday. He finished his Novice Hoopers Title, his Open Chances Title and his Elite Proficient Tunnelers title PLUS earned his Open Versatility Award! He is now an entirely Elite dog only one year into trialing. This is an amazing accomplishment.
I'm also very proud of how well Kaiser handled the weekend. I was so worried that the noise and atmosphere would cause him to have a meltdown, but he settled right into things and wasn't bothered by it at all. We played pass the puppy all weekend long, so he got a ton of socialization with new people. Kaiser also made many new dog friends and started to get so bold as to start approaching & playing with new dogs on his own! This was a great experience for him and I feel a lot more confident about how he will handle trials in the future.
Our next trial is in Savage, MN on May 18 followed immediately the next weekend in Zumbro Falls. Training classes start up on May 5th for Kaiser (puppy preschool!) and May 7th for Luke (competition agility). It should be a lot of fun!!