A Secret Mission

Blue Ridge Dog Training Club AKC Trial - March 6-8, 2009

This will probably be Cisco’s last trial running regular classes.

Cisco did really, really well. We only came home with one Q in JWW on Saturday, but overall it was a really good weekend for him. We had weave issues Friday in both classes that kept us from qualifying.

Saturday, our standard run started with almost a straight line of almost 4 jumps. He went over the first three and then we had a little bobble. I didn’t have anything video taped, so I’m not sure what happened — I might have pulled him off, or he may have saw Michelle who was ring crew near the jumps or he was just having a moment. I got him back on track and did the next two jumps to the a-frame. His a frame contact wasn’t great (I was going to pull him if he didn’t get it), but it wasn’t horrible and since I had just gotten his attention back I figured we’d keep going. The weaves were still an issue, but we had a beautiful dog walk contact! Probably the best I’ve seen him do in competition. JWW we qualified and his weaves were excellent — he even speeded up as he was going through them!

Today, overall was not a bad day. Our standard run went pretty well. I was hoping for the same behavior as I had got yesterday and it was close. He did his contact and then popped off which threw me off and I hesitated and we had a refusal on the next jump. Next was the table which as I told him table I realized I had no idea if it was a sit or a down (I think that’s a mistake everyone has to make once). The rest of the course went really well, we had a fabulous a-frame contact - as good as the dog walk the day before. We did miss one weave pole though. JWW went really really well except for the weave polls.

So we end our regular career with no excellent standard legs, two MXJ legs and eight MACH points. Cisco is developing some arthritis in his elbows — totally no unexpected in a dog who loves to fly off of thing. We also have trouble making time especially in standard courses. When we’ve been clean we’ve been a second or two over time — missing one leg by 0.01 seconds. Hopefully moving him down to preferred it’ll be a little bit easier on his elbows and he’ll be able to run longer since he loves to run so much.