Flying Poodles

Whee!

Well, I mostly had fun this weekend at the Timberland Valley Dog Fanciers Association trial in Olympia. I ran Elly in Excellent FAST–where she didn’t get the send but did lovely weaves and was clearly having a good time–and Dancer in Open FAST and Excellent Jumpers.

Dancer and I have now run six runs of Excellent Jumpers (AKC-style, jumps with 12 weaves) and have yet to Q. Yesterday and today were the closest we’ve come. We were clean until the last jump–a triple, which Dancer crashed–yesterday and today she was clean but came out of the weaves at the tenth pole, probably because I looked ahead to the next jump instead of waiting… I need to work on independent weaves.

However, today she Q’d and took first place in her class (only dog in her class–20″ preferred) in Open FAST, with 56 points. (55 points to qualify.) She did a gorgeous job on the send, out to a tunnel and then two jumps, at about 12 feet. She also went WAY out to the A-frame, but didn’t get her contact (I need to work on A-frame contacts).

It is a sign of the heightened tension we’re all feeling about the election that I actually had a political conversation at the trial. That’s pretty much a first… no one talks about anything but dogs at agility trials!