Eugene Kennel Club, AKC show, Day 4

Wow, tired this morning.  It's the last day of the EKC Memorial Day 4-day trial.  We loaded up early again, and I worked Novice and Open FAST early to get my working obligations out of the way.  Picked up the maps and was totally stoked for the courses.  The judges seemed to realize that by day four neither the handlers or the dogs would be 100% so the courses looked pretty straight-forward.  Standard was up first again.


Excellent B Standard

On walking this course, there were a few handling choices to make.  After walking both a front and a rear between the teeter and #3 I chose a front cross.  We went with another front cross after the A-frame before #6.  Jump #9 (triple) landed them looking right up the A-frame, so to avoid that I threadled and gave HP his weave command.  He pulled into me nicely and did his weaves well.  People were walking the serpentine (11-12-13) in a variety of ways, I chose to handle it from the front side, sending him over 11, threadling back over 12, then sending him over 13 with a rear cross right behind him (between 12 and 13 jumps).  The rest was smooth and easy, with a front cross after the tunnel(#18) and on to the finish.  We Q'd for our 7th MX leg and 16 MACH points!

Video of our run:

Excellent B Jumpers with Weaves

Boy was I glad to see a nice, easy jumpers course!  Walked this and thought we might actually have a chance at a QQ today.  So my plan was:  Front cross (FC) between 2-3, another between 5-6, another between 9-10, then run for the end.  I had seen lots of dogs take the off course #2 jump on the run to the finish, between 16-17 so I knew I had to work that hard.  We were doing great, and on plan until 9-10, for some reason, after the FC HP turned toward the 15 jump.  I screamed his name, he turned and took 10, and we were still in it.  On the run to the finish (15-16-17-18) he did look at #2, but I called him and he focused back in and finished strong.  We Q'd for another QQ!  Woot!  MXJ leg #3 and 4 MACH points!

Video of our run:

I am just beaming, astounded, astonished, and so very proud of my boy.  Talk about an amazing weekend.  Three MX legs, three MXJ legs, two QQ's, and a HIT working group all in one trial.  How spectacularly awesome. 

I think I'll give HP a break and skip practice tomorrow, he deserves it after how hard he worked this weekend.

MACH totals: 97/750 points and 2 double Q