Trial Report

Gidget and I ran in a trial this past weekend.  We walked away with 1 Q and a first place, but I wasn't all that happy with the day overall.  Gidget was way slower than she had been in practice in recent months.  My best guess was that the stress from travel plus the trial was a little too much for her.  We hadn't traveled in over 5 months and I was having a hard time getting Gidget to even eat her meals.  She was otherwise acting herself though until the trial.  Had I had this experience before I may have even pulled her from her second run, the one we didn't Q in.  Hopefully our trial this next Mon. will go better since we don't have to travel for it.

Anyways, beside being a bit on the slow side, our STD run looked pretty decent.  The opening was nearly identical to that of the excellent course so I got to watch lots of dogs run it before we were up.  It really wasn't too tricky of a course, just needed a few front crosses and we were good.  She may not have been feeling her best but she stuck with me and did everything I asked of her so really I shouldn't be complaining. 

Our JWW course wasn't as pretty.  The beginning was again very similar to the excellent course and we made it through that part just fine, I even thought Gidget had pepped up a little.  After the opening though I lost her again.  She walked right past a jump and I didn't think I was out of position but I couldn't tell.  In hopes of keeping her moving I didn't go back to repeat the jump but she wasn't focused most of the rest of the course.  I think she got distracted by my family on the sidelines and didn't finish her weaves, she even looked back at them a couple jumps later, not like her.  We finished the course and did our best.  Thankfully she was completely back to herself running at the open agility practice on Mon.  If next Mon. seems similar I'll have to change something, but hopefully I just have to work on relaxing her when traveling.