Thinking it would be too hot for Miko (July, right? Sonoma County, right?), I entered only Moxie in the Bay Team midsummer CPE trial. As it happened, the weather was cool all weekend, almost chilly on Sunday morning with the fog hanging in till after lunchtime. Miko probably would have enjoyed a couple of runs, but who knew???
The Mox came into the weekend still needing one Level 2 Snooker leg to finish his CL2 title. Piece of cake, thought I, since Snooker was offered both days. Two chances to get the one lonely Q we needed. Piece of cake ... did I just say that? He also needed just one Level 3 Jumpers leg -- 2 chances to get that as well.
First, the good news. He Q'd and won Saturday's Jumpers class, which meant he could do an overnight move-up and enter Level 4 Jumpers on Sunday. Saturday's run is on video at the end of this post. (Turn the sound down or off; he barks!!) I wish I had Sunday's run on video as well, because it was another Q-win (his first ever at Level 4), and a lovely fast run. Standard course time for 16" dogs was 45 seconds; his time was 24.5!
The rest of the good news: Q's in 7 of 10 classes, with 5 first places, 1 second and 1 third. He Q'd/won his Jackpot (Gamblers) both days, which moves him up to Level 4 in that class as well.
So what about the 3 non-Q's? you ask. Well, two of them were the 2 Snooker classes! Yep, 2 chances to get the one single solitary leg we still need to finish out his first title, and we blew them both. I should say I blew them both! Snooker is a strategy game, and I have no head for it. And Moxie's so fast, if I don't get info to him right now he's halfway across the ring merrily taking whatever jumps seem like the right course to him. This was something like our 4th and 5th tries to get that second leg ... I think he'll be in Level 2 Snooker for the rest of his life!
Our next competition will be HumDog CPE, up in Eureka, in mid-August. It's a long drive, especially with gas costing what it does these days, but we have friends in the area and are staying an extra day and calling it a mini-vacation. We went last year and had a great time.
Meanwhile, here are videos of Moxie's Saturday Jumpers and Jackpot runs. See Sara almost trip over the gamble line! Sorry about the quality ... I was getting pretty good with the old iMovie, but the new, improved version is quite different, and completely counter-intuitive. I'm just guessing...
Jumpers above, Jackpot below.
Miko continues to do exceptionally well in his tracking classes. I hope he'll get his TD title in February. He has made me promise that the next post here will have videos of him with his nose deep in the grass, following a trail of footsteps (and bits of hot dog!) in search of the elusive "Lost Object"!
