AAC trial Nov. 6, 2009

Last trial of the year...

Advanced Gamblers
Kept the opening as flowing as possible, with only one or two tight turns. (Hard to plan a Gamblers opening.) At the beginning, I led out and called her over the first jump and the teeter right after, then headed over to the mini (a simple jump-to-tunnel). At first I accidentally pulled her off the tunnel opening but then she ran in a loop back to me, and I flipped her out to the correct opening. After that we did a couple jumps, then the dog walk (she hit the yellow!), over a jump, back over, then the DW again (she hit it AGAIN!). Then we did the tunnel again -- watching the video (which I'll post eventually :) I realized that I handled her at a 15' without even meaning to, it just came naturally, I sent her into the tunnel and then as she raced over to the opening I ran to the next jump to get in position. Wow. The buzzer rang soon after and we headed over to the main gamble: the A-frame, then a tire right after it in a straight line, then a tire then curved away from the gambling line. the handlers had to pull their dogs in after the tire and then send them back out to the jump, which was about 15' away from the line and kind of both a lateral and linear send. So the buzzer rang, and I sent Mika over the A-frame. She's been missing the A-frame contacts at the past few trials (then again we haven't trained the AF since September), so was I ever surprised when she got the AF contact at a distance! And a really nice hit too, all four paws in the yellow!! She zoomed through the tire, and I pulled her back to me, then sent her to the last jump. She ran over with no hesitation, and we were done! A great run, really fun, and got ALL THREE of the DW and AF contacts that we did! our final Adv. Gamblers Q, which means that we'll be in Masters Gamblers next year.

It's been an awesome year of trialing. Mika's drive and speed has increased a TON since last year, and she's having a lot more fun. Our first Regionals and Nationals were very memorable experiences too. I'm very proud of Mika. We have no more trials until March, which will give her body and mind a well-deserved break. Both her and Wall-e have four fun matches this winter, (one each month November to February), but I'll be running Mika in Starters which I'm sure she'll LOVE. What an amazing girl, she deserves to run on some nice flowing courses!!

~Nat