It was at a new trial site, which has potential to be a nice site (and pretty close to home). The permanent rings aren't set up quite yet, and the footing in the rings we used was sketchy in some places. But there were lots of shade trees and lots of pretty close parking.
The first thing we had to take care of was getting Lonya's permanent height card. There were two "official" measuring people there on Saturday, so we could take care of it all in one day. I had bought some chicken lunch meat to use for the measuring, hoping the chicken would trump having to be measured. The woman judge (Rhonda Carter) measured us first. Lonya took chicken from her and settled pretty quickly. She was able to get a measurement pretty quickly, at 17.75". The male AKC rep (don't know his name right off) took a little more time for her to settle, she's not around men very much. She wouldn't take chicken from me with him there...but she did stop leaning in to me after a couple of minutes. He measured her at 16.625, which is short...don't know if he read the wicket wrong or what. I'm not sure if I should have questioned him or not... I think the first measurement is closer to her true one (I have her at about 17.5). But, both place her in the 16" height, so I was happy!!
Her first run (after a LONG wait) was in Jumpers With Weaves. She ran SO well! She's been popping out of the poles, so I wasn't sure what she'd do this weekend. It was a nice course, but the footing wasn't great. I think she was a bit tentative due to that (which is okay, I'm fine with a dog with some self preservation instincts!). The trickiest part was avoiding an off course tunnel. I had to call her off HARD, and she tucked the nubbin for a minute. But she recovered and finished strong. She placed 2nd and got her second leg for her OAJ!
The Standard course was tricky, with several twisty areas and another off course tunnel looming. Lonya's been jumping contacts, so I overhandled a bit on them, but she got them all! I wish I had video of this run, but wasn't able to get it. But, she ran steady and clean (with a couple of nice 180s). She did bounce off the tire, but went through the hole. It was the first obstacle, and I'm not sure if I had her set up quite correctly. But, she got her first leg towards her OA! And, she was the only dog in Open to qualify!!
On Sunday, we didn't qualify, but still had a good day! Her JWW run was first. The footing was again a bit tricky (it had finished raining about an hour or so before our run). It was a really nice course! Lonya was FAST and so I had to handle her at more of a distance, even layering a jump! She almost ran by a jump, but fixed it last minute. She didn't slow up when she hit the weaves, so skipped pole #2, but got it right when I fixed it. She got a second refusal at the last jump, she was so far ahead of me that she turned back for me to catch up. But, I was very pleased with this run overall. The video isn't great, but I wanted to post it anyway.
Standard was a much nicer course than yesterday! Lonya had a couple of baby dog moments. She ran by the teeter the first time but fixed it and needed to repeat the weaves again. Lots of dogs had problems in the area of the field where the weaves were, sniffing a lot. This wasn't Lonya's issue...she was just being a twit! She did have another nice call off the wrong side of the tunnel and she got all her contacts.
And I got a nice picture of her at the trial site!
Wish we were going back tomorrow, instead I have to work...
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