NADAC Trial at WAG , 6/14 - 15

Q: "Are you ready?

A: "I was born ready!"

This was a Games-only trial -- no Jumpers, Chances or Regular runs, just Weavers, Tunnelers and Touch N Go (tunnels and contacts).  Oh, and Hoopers, which we don't do. Once again my plans for tent camping were foiled by hot weather and M,M & I enjoyed the refrigerated air of the Extended Stay Suites.  It wasn't as hot as at the last trial we went to here, but hot enough -- high 90's.

Miko only ran in 2 classes -- the first one at his level each day.  On Saturday this was TnG, with an easy course that should have been a piece of cake for him.  But he hasn't been to a class since last October and all I do with him at practice is play, so he's rusty and he and I aren't fully in sync ... a roundabout way of saying he took an off-course obstacle and didn't Q.  However, despite how easy the course was none of the other dogs Q'd either, so Miko got 2nd place.  On Sunday he had a lovely smooth Tunnelers run for a first place Q.

Moxie was a wild man in his first TnG -- barking and spinning and taking off-course obstacles.  But then he settled down and left the screwing-up for me to do!  And I did plenty of that -- Tunnelers, in particular, are difficult for me, partly because I never have an opportunity to practice this type of course.  Physically moving around among a bunch of tunnels poses a handling challenge -- get stuck on the wrong side of one of those things and you have to run 30' out of your way to get where you want to go.  But the real challenge as far as I'm concerned is that there aren't any "landmarks" in the course.  Everything is tunnels, so you can't remember "tunnel, tunnel, dogwalk; tunnel tunnel A-frame."  It's just "tunnel tunnel tunnel tunnel tunnel..."  and even though they aren't all the same color they're more alike than different.  And I tend to get lost; did so twice last weekend.

Fortunately Moxie only needed one Tunnelers leg to finish his novice title in that class, and he got that, and a first place, on Sunday.  On Saturday he picked up the 2 Weavers legs he needed for that title.  I moved him up to open Weavers on Sunday.  He had one first place Q and one off-course NQ -- another of those inexplicable (to me) adventures where he literally ran into me as I stood directly in front of the A-frame directing him as strongly as I knew how to Get Out! and Take The Damn Tunnel, dammit!!  He hit me so hard he yelped!  He did this at the fun-raiser in Santa Rosa in April, too.  Of course I can't get him to do it in practice, and of course Sandy thinks I was late with my information or something.  But I wasn't.  His mind was firmly made up.  

Moxie's grand total was 6 Q's out of 10 classes, with 5 firsts and a 2nd.  He's now in Open everything except Chances, where he still needs one more Novice leg.

Now we have almost a month with no trials.  Our next outing will be the Bay Team CPE trial in Petaluma, the middle of July.

That's my story and I'm stickin to it.