Memorial Day AKC Trial

Once again I took Friday off.  We headed to the Fairplex in Pomona for 3 days of AKC.

This trial is under cover in the big barn at the fairgrounds.  The colorful displays for the farm animals makes for a festive trial environment.

We were set up by the Little Red Hen exhibit.

Dottie was entered 3 days, Pie 2 days and Fancy only 1 day.  

The best part of this picture is Muffin.  I did not put him there!  While I was positioning the other dogs, he moseyed over, and plopped down in the perfect spot to be included in the picture!  Smart dog.

Dirt agrees with Dottie; she didn't drop one bar over 6 runs! Also, she took first in ALL the runs she Qed in! 1 QQ, and 1 single jww, and 1 single standard. 4/6 is great for us! 87 points if I added correctly.  The 24 inch class was large this weekend with lots of fast dogs.  Dottie beat them all!  These are the same dogs I used to compare times with to see how much slower Dottie was than a dog I would watch run and marvel at how fast the dog was.  Now Dottie is beating those dogs!  Wow! 

Pie was 4/4 with 1 first and 3 seconds, behind a very nice border collie.  

Fancy was 1/2 with a fourth that matches her white coat. :)  I totally pulled her away from the correct jump.  That is 2 runs in a row I've lost us a QQ we should have had!  Bad handler!!  Fancy shows her disdain for me in this photo.

Besides the fact that Dottie was running great all weekend. the other cool thing about this trial was how many other Belgians were entered.  There were 7 Malinois entered in 1 day, 3 Tervs and 2 Sheepdogs.  Plus many more Sheepdogs and a few Malinois visiting or hanging out because they are too young to enter.  Go Belgians!

And now for the videos:

Dottie Friday Standard.  Right before our first run of the weekend, my leg "went bad."  This happened at class the other night and I went home because there was no point in practicing when I could barley move.  It was a stabbing pain on the inside of my upper leg running from my groin to my knee.  Plus pain on the left and right side of my knee.  I could walk fine, but the extra weight from running brought it on.  The strange part is last time it happened, it was my other leg!  Anyway, the horrible pain explains why I am limping and running so slow.  Dottie was amazing anyway!  I should have had a Double Q, but I rushed a send in jumpers and Dottie pulled off.  More "shame on me!"


Dottie QQ 11!


Dottie Jumpers Sunday.  Standard was a semi-disaster.  We left after our 3rd mistake because Dottie was starting to get worried with so many mistakes.  But jumpers was great! 


That was our last run of the weekend. Watching my other videos I saw places I looked casual and Dottie was not driving. My goal here was to make sure there were no places I though she could be going faster. I see 2 places in this run she lost speed and both places I'm looking casual. Something for me to work on! I love how she kept the bars up, without me worrying about them.

And finally, Fancy Standard Sunday.  I bought this video to get the sale price on the other videos. 4th place.  Not moving her fastest.  I wanted to make that serpantine, but she didn't read it very well.  Nor my fronts.  Oh well.
  

Dottie and I received lots of compliments on her runs and I feel that we were worthy of the kind words.  She really has changed from the dog I started running and I am so pleased!  If I could stop having silly handling mistakes we'd have our Mach in no time! 

Tomorrow we are doing 1 day of USDAA.  Happy Memorial Day!