CP BLEW BREEZE NAJ, TN-N...its official!

Thanks everyone for the well wishes-they seem to have worked!!!

I got to the trial about 12:30, it was a one ring trial so novice check in was not until 1:30, which made for a long day. I think it was about 4pm when I finally got to run.

I did a good job of keeping my nerves in check, although I had a little upset tummy when I woke up in the morning, but I did not do too bad I think in the ring nerves department.

JUMPERS
First up was Novice Jumpers with weaves. Ann Croft judging. I left my course map at the trial so I do not have a course map ;-(. It was not a bad course and the biggest challenge was a point where you had to do a rear cross into the weaves and it was a hard angle. Breeze Held her start line stay, did the first part which was a pinwheel, then you drove to the jump that you had to rear cross-let the dog float out into the weaves....Breeze tried but she caught the second pole, so good girl, got right out and re approached with some gorgeous weaves. next there was an arc of jumps going out to a non wing jump, so the biggest challenge there was to RUN LIKE HELL, so I could support that jump that was WAY out there, with no wings so harder to see, then there was another rear cross and the last jump off at an angle. It was gorgeous, take a look for yourself on video....well, there is only video of the ground, the camera did not get turned on, so like the fish that got away you will have to believe me when I say it went without a hitch. No spins, no whirls, no frustrated barking, I was pretty silent, no waving arms, yippie. The course time was 48 seconds, and we ran it in 24:11, and that included the refusal at the weaves.

SOOOOOO WE GOT OUR NOVICE JUMPERS WITH WEAVES TITLE, making Breeze officially CP Blew Breeze NAJ, TN-N. Whoo hooo, so that means we go to open tomorrow in jumpers with weaves.



STANDARDFirst and our first ever Q in standard. Standard course time was 79 second and we did it in 43 seconds. One refusal for the table.

Second course was right after the first, the building was scary silent by then, and I could hear all my commands so well, it was weird.

First challenge wss a tire as the first obstacle, followed by a wing and a weird angle to the Aframe.
Mistake one-I wish I had led out a few LESS feet, maybe right before the wing, I was worried about her going around the tire, she didn't but that would have supported that more and what was I in a hurry for? I knew she would go to the aframe, so if I hung back and ran with her I do not think she would have started running for me and then I had to push her out a little bit and made the approach to the Aframe a little less pretty.

Excellent contact on the Aframe, she was rock solid.

Mistake TWO-I have been practicing the table with my table in the back yard and duhhhh, I left the high legs on it, AND this is another point I feel I should have hung back and not tried to get so far ahead, the lateral distance did nothing for me except make it harder to show movement to the table. So she refused the table, but once on she did her sit (I never train the sit so I was concerned over that one).

Next good thing is from the table to the weaves, I let her know right away, but she missed the entrance again, but she came back and caught them and did some gorgeous weaves.

Still more good things, a slight decel to let Breeze know to switch to handler focus and not keep blasting into the dog walk...which looked to make sense, so she read the turn to the chute, and I did another good thing yelling tunnel way early so as she came out from the chute she knew she was heading for the tunnel.

NEXT BAD THING-I did not push out on her line out of the tunnel, or go in and support her line to the teeter,....bad handler!

Next good thing was I know she almost blasted off the dog walk without doing her mat behavior, but I stopped and made her hold it for a second.

BAD THING, I was concerned about the broad jump, we never do those and this one looked way different then anyone we have ever seen....so I think I just sort of did not keep driving forward after the broad jump, or perhaps I should have just front crossed after the dog walk, I did get a spin and a bark before the last obstacle, so Breeze did not know where she was going--bad handler--too little info ;-).




ANYWAY, we met our goals, contacts and start lines stayed awesome, I was glad I did not have to do any longer lead outs because I was trying to set Breeze up for success. Weaves, well, she was not checking her stride and catching the first pole either time,...so guess we will still need some work on that! All in all I am very happy with both of us!!! I think we did good, not perfect but very good!