Day 1
Felt really bad about late lateral motion on the RC in standard. I chickened out on the no-motion RC, which would have been perfect there. It's a skill we have, but I don't recall that we've ever used it in a trial setting. Next time, I'll just do it.
Day 2
The crowding in the crating area and around the ring entrance was nerve wracking for both of us today. I let it get to me and paid for my mental lapse in JWW when I didn't pick Emma up out of the tunnel. What she did makes total sense based on what she saw me do, and I'm tickled that we continued running without missing a beat after our disconnection. Oh well. Emma seemed tired and stressed today, and I considered pulling from day 3.
Day 3
The final day of the trial started out cold, and with pouring rain. I thought about packing up and leaving, but decided to run Standard and make a decision about JWW afterwards. I also decided to leave Emma in the car and see if that helped her. It did--we were much more relaxed and in sync today in our runs. Although I didn't realize it at the time (I usually check score sheets at the end of the day so I can stay focused on performance rather than outcome goals), I saw that only four dogs each ran clean in the 24" and the 20" classes in Standard. JWW fared better, with a 50% Q rate in the 20" class.
Overall I'm happy with the weekend. Kim's husband Ross taped runs for several people running dogs of all sizes, and by day 2, I didn't even have to tell him where I was in the running order!
And...we loved staying with Deb, Devon and Page. Revel got to train on her teeter and dogwalk at home, and we had a blast socializing with them and watching their runs at the trial. There was lots of be proud of this weekend!
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