Very Busy Day

Yesterday was nuts, no wonder I'm totally sick. Got up at 4:45 AM and left for an agility trial in Gamber, MD. A drive that was supposed to take an hour and a half took 2 hours. I got to the show at a good time though, took more cold medication and chilled until we had to walk our courses.

First run of the day - Steeplechase. It's was a very cool morning, the dogs were feeling quite happy which usually means, bad runs. But Gusto ran nice - he did drop the first bar as did EVERYONE in our height class except one. He handled some tough areas (a bit more technical than some ST courses) but ticked the broad jump. When he ticked it, I slowed down and looked at him. When I turned back around to run down the last line of 2 jumps, a wing jumped moved into my path and I fell right on it, over it and landed on my face. Just call me grace under fire. Gusto went down the line, kept the bars up and got his leash. NO concern for Mom, whatsoever. Everyone asked if I was ok, I couldn't answer because I was too busy laughing. I was fine but my leg and ankle bothered me later on after the adrenaline settled. I eventually went up to the score table to check his time because it was a very nice run all things considered. His time was smokin - and I held his frame for a long time to make sure he knew where to go. He had the second fastest time - some dog I didn't know must have had a great run. Only one dog ran clean - Whip and her time was slower by 2 seconds because she marked her frames on both passes due to Whip coming off early. Basically, Gusto Qd because the entire class except for Whip dropped one or 2 bars. Since Gusto's time was fast, he got a Q. First one for 2009 at 26 - it was a very nice gift. 22 inch class fared much better and had many great runs with all bars up - they ran later than us and the grass definitely had dried out better.

Next run was Gamblers. He was great, kept all his bars up, nailed a weave entry that I wasn't sure he would get. Had fast fast contacts...traveled off the dogwalk so I planned to work that one in Standard. Got the Gamble! 8th Gamble leg. I was thrilled that he kept all the bars up!

Last run before I decided to leave was Standard, the leg I need for his MAD title. Sadly, no Q because he dropped a bar and took a jump in the wrong direction (that one was my fault). I decelerated too early and he read it as come in. I needed to drive a bit further. After the table, I led out to the landing side of the next jump to make sure he knew NOT to take the frame but to come to me and take the tunnel. He was too busy shopping at the 2 options and dropped the bar. So I lied him down and removed him. Normally I do not remove him unless he is totally brainless but he was not even paying attention to that jump. He was sighting on the options and he can do better than that. That was the end of my agility day - I felt like crap and needed to make the 2 hr drive home so I could watch Devin's football game.

Note for Rosanne - I held all contacts in Standard and Gusto was good, didn't come off early.