2009 AAC Nationals -- Sunday

Whew, haven't written on this blog in over a week. I realized that I still haven't posted about Sunday of Nationals...so here we go.

Sunday's runs:

Jumpers

Mika took off from the start line soo fast! This was her fastest ever Masters run, 30.09 seconds, but with an off-course! If we hadn't had the off-course it would have been around 27 seconds, I'm sure! Wow. And I actually had nice front crosses in this run too, good timing. Yay! :) Although I could have run a little faster. Better handling than usual overall, though.

Gamblers

I'm sure Mika knew what the main gamble was already even in the opening -- she ran away to race over the teeter when I was trying to direct her over a jump! And this is the dog who was scared to death of the teeter two years ago! We got really far in the main gamble and I even directed her in the right tunnel entrance. The only thing that got us was the send over the jump after the tunnel. I was THRILLED that she got that teeter though, almost 20 feet away from me!!!

Standard

Even though we were both tired (physically and mentally) we still had a great, smooth run! I handled the pull to the DW differently than everybody else I watched; I actually kind of jogged backwards instead of doing a front cross. I think this worked better for Mika than doing a front cross would have. We messed up the first set of 6 weaves, which was our only mistake (well, my mistake, I handled the weave entry too much, I should have let Mika try it on her own). I was really happy with Mika for doing so great on this course!

I love my dog. I can't believe that this is the dog that people told me would never be able to compete because of her teeter and stress problems. Nothing is impossible -- Mika's proved it.

~Nat and Mika