NW USDAA Regionals in Review July 4, 2008

Well… first off we survived the heat. It has been very cool here – in the 60′s on a warm day…. that is until the weekend of the USDAA Super Regionals which gave us temperatures of 100+ on the field on Saturday afternoon. Needless to say my black, muscled Stafford didn’t fair too well. She had the Stafford Community Pool to use – provided by our friends and neighbors Karen, Kersten, Prot & Idgie – and she had fans, cool pads, etc…. but it was just not enough for my girl. We bombed the Grand Prix run and scratched the Steeplechase run. I do have to say that Rowan does have a marvelous work ethic – all things considered. I think my favorite run was this gamblers run… she had nice contacts and good speed. The gamble itself was brutal. No dogs in our class got the gamble – I’m not sure how many in the whole class were successful.

Rowan is still a young dog in lots of ways and we will take forward building steps to get us back there next year! Her overall performance and work ethic in the Advanced runs on both days were wonderful… she’s such a good girl! You will note that I did choose to run off the line with her in most runs… I have found that she has lost some confidence coming up to the line in competition and I want to build that confidence. So we are back to the games up to the line and I am getting toys back into training. She is very receptive!

Here are some more of our weekend runs:

Standard

Jumpers – 3rd place an a Q

And Pairs… my half and I think we qualified!

Running with the Bulls May 19, 2008

I have not been feeling like much going on is very “blogworthy”…. maybe it’s more like I haven’t felt like blogging. But I guess this past weekend was fairly worthy!

I attended the Fleet Feet DAM team trial in Turner, OR. What a wonderful trial – despite the heat. It was one ring and all team event. I was on the Running with the Bulls team consisting of Rowan, Proton the Staffy, and Zoe the Aussie. Alas… no video. I just didn’t feel like getting it out of the case and asking someone who I didn’t know very well to film me. Oh Well. I do wish I had it now… I really want to get better about filming so I can evaluate my handling.

We did well as a team. Karen and Zoe really carried us with many clean, fast runs. Rowan and I had some faults that just added points to our overall time and I feel like she ran really well! She got all her contacts… minus the teeter flyoff… but she was in the yellow – downed bars were due to me calling her over the bars… (I could just hear Daisy saying – “you’re late!”) But overall she ran nicely – I was very pleased with her consistency. She maintained good speed – I never felt like I was cheerleading her. And I felt like I was consistent with my handling overall and I pushed my comfort zone a bit here and there with good success. No course seems too difficult due to the courses that we run in class Wednesday nights and there was some good challenge that we have not been getting in the Starters courses.

We were 3rd going into the final run – team relay and ended up 14th overall! That’s the Q Prot and Rowan needed for Nationals!!

We also Q’d for a second time in Grand Prix – so that wraps up her Q’s for Nationals in the Grand Prix as well.

Next stop – Super Regionals!

Also in the works: The new Fitness Challenge started last week, Banjo needs to get weave poles down because he will have his first trial in August, I need to decide if I am going to run team in Regionals and then if I am going to Nationals…..

Last Weekend – USDAA TRIAL April 19, 2008

Rowan and I competed at the RAT USDAA trial in Elma with many of our friends. Rowan wasn’t feeling very well… and still isn’t but I hope to get that taken care of today at the vets office. We dropped a lot of bars in Grand Prix – which is not like her – and continued the trend in Steeplechase. I got her a massage and pulled her from her last run in Jumpers. Kelly said that she seemed to be sore in her hips and mid-back. I need to find her a chiropractor.

We did – despite not running our best – get our final leg for our AD title!!! That was a snooker Q we needed… and I didn’t get that on tape. Oh well. Here is our best run of the weekend – gamblers. She dropped two bars here but that was due to me queing her over the bar and accelerating… both things I need to work on in handling and training.

Round one – our Q March 11, 2008

Thank you to Suki for the video and wonderful editing – so high tech!

and the snooker that was not to be… don’t blink! I’m not sure how I thought I could out run her to turn off the jump after the triple that she could not take…. maybe someday that will work for me.

Our first USDAA trial January 27, 2008

This was the weekend that I have been training for – well at least so far. I wanted to get Rowan into USDAA as soon as I felt we were ready and when I felt that we could run with the “big dogs”! I was anxious and excited for the weekend to come. Elinda was there and the gang from Fido’s. I also found out a few weeks ago that the Canadian Stafford Brigade was going to be there as well. It was great to see them all. And – even though there is no really-quality video that came out of the weekend due to the fact that operating that camera with gloves is just plain tricky – I had a blast!

Rowan didn’t feel too well on Saturday (note to self – do not give Rowan a raw bone just before a trial!) … and I pulled muscle on Sunday but we managed to get through 8 runs and we ran 6 of them clean and qualified. On Saturday we ran the Grand Prix local qualifying round for the nationals. …and we QUALIFIED (see above)! That was my biggest thrill of the weekend despite I was quite late in doing the front cross after the weave poles – I was just so excited to have made it that far on the course I forgot where I was going next! She ran that course better than the Starters courses. So now I am able to go to the Super Regional in June for Grand Prix or I need to get one more Q in Grand Prix and I am qualified to go run that at Nationals in October. Just two legs more legs to finish her Starters title. Sa-weet!

Rowan’s contacts were really nice this weekend. She kept most bars up – only dropped them when I cued or called her over the bar. I need to continue to work on weave poles. We ran Pairs Relay with Prot. I wish we had gotten that on film but the camera was being a little bugger. It would have been a good run to watch. We got 1st. And her times could have been a bit faster – but that’s about my speed at this point… and I am working on that. The It’s a Dog’s World Fitness Challenge begins tomorrow!