Flying Poodles

Dancer NJP

Dancer got her Novice Jumpers Preferred title on Saturday, with a gorgeous first place jumpers run of 29.55 seconds over a distance of 109 yards; SCT was 41 seconds. The judge was Lavonda Herring. I enjoyed her courses all weekend; they were challenging but not in the usual (boring!) ways. In Open standard on Sunday, for example, Elly had a lovely run (well, except for repeating the weaves) right up to the final obstacle–a tunnel with the two ends almost touching. Of course I sent her to the wrong end! But what fun to see something completely different as the finish line.

I moved Dancer to Open Jumpers Preferred on Sunday and she ran six dogs ahead of Elly. Dancer ran gorgeously, fast, good distance–and of course I sent her over the wrong jump! She was two seconds faster than Elly on the same course, despite doing two extra jumps. Elly did Q, 43.43 seconds over 140 yards (SCT was 45), with one refusal that was entirely my fault, for a 95 point Q (and first place), but I’ll take it anyway.

On Saturday, Elly had a lovely Open FAST run, winning her class with a 67 point, 32.71 second run. It was the third highest number of points in the class; I am unspeakably proud of her. Elly now has two Qs in both Open Jumpers Preferred and Open FAST Preferred. None in Open Standard Preferred, but still, that’s a little pressure for the next AKC trial.

My knee held up very well.