First up was jumpers. This had an interesting start. I had been bar setting for the higher level dogs and went to use the bathroom when they were done. Apparently they managed to set up the level 1/2 course and have the one other person running the course walk it while I was in the bathroom! They let me walk... er, run it quick and then I ran a got Gracie. We rushed to the start line and off we went. The run was a lot of fun! Gracie was amped and neither of us had a chance to get even the tiniest bit nervous (yay!). Gracie was so excited she ran past a jump for a tunnel, but later in the course she saved me from a slightly off blind cross. I'd say we're even! We got a first place Q with just 5 faults. No need to tell Gracie that she had no competition what-so-ever the entire day!
Next up was Jackpot. I was grateful for an interesting change up on the gamble. Instead of a distance challenge, we just had to take all four tunnels on the course once. Unfortunately all levels were running this course and we had to wait in line, meaning both of us had a chance to get a little bit nervous. Or maybe just over think the situation! So we had a bit of a rough start. Gracie took off right away to go visiting and exploring wasting time we could have been using to earn points. We didn't have time to quite finish my plan and my head wasn't quite with it enough to realize we needed just a couple more points and we had time to do it. I heard the first buzzer and went "Ah! Get that last tunnel and get to the table!" We were only 2 points shy of a Q. Oh well, we'll do better next time!
Wildcard was next in line. I made sure I knew how many 1pt and 2pt obstacles we needed since I messed that up on our first attempt at wildcard. This was most definitely our best run of the day. We set ourselves up to sort of rush to the start line since that seemed to work out well earlier. Gracie was fast and accurate and I didn't mess up, it was great!
Last up were 2 rounds of standard. First run the course one way, then flip it around and run it the other way. In round 1 Gracie got distracted in the weaves and I almost messed up the last jump. I'm not quite sure what I did, might have said something or maybe brought my hand down too early. We still got our 1st place Q! Round 2 went perfectly, though Gracie was slowing down a bit after a long day. Can't blame her for that, I was tired too! Another 1st place Q in round 2 earned Gracie her CL2-R title!
We had a great day at the CPE trial. I set bars for the higher levels in every single class and very much enjoyed the mix of handlers and dogs that were there. There were lots of chocolate labs, keeshonds, and Aussies along with your usual mix of mixes, border collies, and shelties. There is a lot of uniqueness at these CPE trials that either doesn't exist in AKC or there's too many dogs/people to notice at AKC trials. One lady was so loud during her runs! I would have found it obnoxious, except her dogs loved it! You could see their joy with every shouted command! She and her dogs ended up being very fun to watch. Then the group of chocolate labs all looked alike to me, but had very individual personalities on the course, from one that wound herself up like a wind up toy to one that was just happy to follow his person around a shortened course. Then my favorite older guy with three little slower dogs. He puts every bit of energy he has into each and every run trying to get his dogs pumped up! He practically runs circles around them! They all love it and they're a joy to watch! I definitely hope I can do more CPE trials in La Crosse this year. Though I would still like to get into an AKC trial sometime soon! Happy agility!
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