November's CPE Trial

This past weekend we trialed at Happy Tails in Portland, ME. I love trialing at Happy Tails, the drive is only 40 minutes, the facility is huge with an equally large crate room, and all of our friends are there!!

Tsuki sat this trial out. Being a three day trial, I wanted to focus on knocking off some Qs towards Kiba's C-ATCH. Not to fear, Tsuki will be doing TDAA with us next month and will be back in January in CPE. I've also decided that our next CPE trial Stryder will debut in a Fullhouse run, mainly because I want to see what he'll do, and the fact I've lost my ever-loving mind. We've got a couple of Fun Runs between then and now, and I'll (hopefully) be signing up for some private lessons with all three dogs as well.

Here's a general run down of our weekend for those interested.

Friday
Jackpot (4) - NQ and 4th. Enough points in the opening, Kiba is just not a Jackpot dog.
Standard (4) - NQ and 3rd. Over time by 9 seconds and faulted in the weaves.
Wildcard (4) - Q and 2nd. Last leg required for Wildcard (4)!!!
Colors (4) - NQ and 3rd. Over time by 8 seconds due to weaves.
Jumpers (4) - NQ and 3rd. Over time by 8 seconds.

Friday we did not run together at all. My mind was elsewhere over possible issues regarding our weekend and my head just wasn't in the game.

Saturday
Jumpers (4) - Q and 2nd. Last leg required for Jumpers (4) and our CL4-F mini title!!
Snooker (4) - Q and 2nd. 41 pt Snooker run, we did three 6s in the opening and made it through to 6 in  the closing. Kiba is such an awesome Snooker dog.
Colors (4) - Q and 1st
Fullhouse (5) - Q and 2nd. 34 pt run.
Standard (4) - NQ and 1st. I tried something different during our weaves (mock-jogging) and she        nailed the entry and made it to 10/12 poles before she popped out. It was an allowable amount of faults before she chose to go off course I accidentally directed her to the teeter. Very proud of this run!!

Sunday
Fullhouse (5) - NQ and 2nd. Short by 1 pt due to being late to the table. We were late this morning and didn't get a chance to walk the course. I also tried something new again this run. Kiba will sometimes get frustrated at me and redirect to yelling at me on course, resulting in her losing focus where she is going. Instead of stopping and messing around I'd duck behind her keep running. This actually worked and got her head back in the game!! This is one of the issues we've had for years and are continuing to work on, though she is 110% better since we've started up with our new trainer.
Standard (4) - Q and 2nd. I again tried the mock jogging, and she had TWO SETS OF PERFECT WEAVES. One of the most enjoyable runs to date, our last also being another Standard course.
Wildcard (5) - Q and 1st. Our first Level 5 Wildcard!
Colors (4) - Q and 3rd.
Jumpers (5) - Q and 1st.

This weekend also had a lot of serpentines, tunnel entrances next to the dog walk/a-frame, and lots of flipping around and onto the dog walk. I'm proud to say I actually looked ahead during the day and tried to layer runs that would benefit later in the day. It's only taken 5 years!!!

I am 98% sure I will soon be dropping her down to Enthusiast in CPE. This means she will be able to drop one class. Kiba is not a Jackpot dog, she loves to run with me, and fact of the matter is we haven't really done much distance work. If I drop her to Enthusiast we need 4 more Qs to finish off Level 4, and 39 Qs to her CT-ATCH. If I don't drop her, we'll need 8 and 42 respectfully to finish. Part of me is struggling with the decisions, that we're cheating to accomplish our goals, while the other is yelling (quite loud) that it's all about having fun. Kiba doesn't know she's earning titles, or pretty ribbons (RIBBONS! *drool*), she's just out there having fun and getting fed yummy food.

Any who, that's the short version of our weekend (lol) and we'll end with a picture of Kiba and her swag.

Mum, I think we need a bigger chair...

EMAC CPE trial 2/18/12

Saturday we attended EMAC's CPE trial at Happy Tails. We haven't trialed in over 9 months, and I was pleasantly surprised that Kiba and I were still working as a team, and it didn't go as bad as I thought! I didn't realize until after the trial, that it was almost 4 years exactly (same judge even) that Kiba got her Level 1 title! I wonder where we would be right now if we hadn't taken so many breaks in between competing. Anywho, here's the break down of this weekend!

• Fullhouse (4) - 29 points after losing one due to time. Kiba kept dodging in front of me on the way to the table. Also nailed a tricky entrance to the weaves. Q-1st
• Standard (3) - 5 faults due to me accidentally pulling Kiba out of the weaves. Nicely recovered and continued the rest of the course as a team. Q-2nd. This also finished off our CL3-R title!!
• Wildcard (3) - Clean run. Q-2nd. This also finished off our CL3-H title!!
• Jumpers (4) - Off course. I did not make it in time for a front cross and ending up stopping short at the tunnel. Took her a few times to get in there but the rest of the run was nice. 

Stuff to work on:

• Treat every run like we Q'd! I was upset about our Standard run because of the weaves and didn't jackpot her afterwards like I normally would. In the end we Q'd and I felt like a jackass. Opened my eyes that we just need to go out there and have fun!!
• Distance work and directionals
• When I stop short I would like for her to keep moving
• Start line stays need to be improved upon.