The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Well this weekend did not go as hoped for. It was a bit of a disaster to be honest. Totally not like what our classes are or anything.

Saturday:

Raining off an on through the whole day..what a bad day to have a first trial!!!

Fullhouse- 1st and Q- Not a bad first run. We had one small miscommunication, but we got a lot of points and in great time. I was feeling pretty good about the weekend after this run.

Standard- 1st and NQ- Not too great with two knocked bars which caused a NQ. Almost had a fly off on the teeter which shocked me.. he usually is steady as possible on that obstacle... starting to see the "Maniac Mode" coming on to Yoshi.

Jumpers- 1st and Q- One knocked bar.. after that, a pretty decent run actually. I was not too happy about the bar as I could see his jumping slip further and further. We communicated a lot better this go round at least.

Colors- 1st and NQ- Another dropped bar which caused an NQ..starting to see a pattern here??? Maniac Mode in full fledge by this time. Hes not responding well to my rear crosses. Dont know if the rain and the slick ground is tripping him up.

Snooker- 1st and NQ- knocked bar ruined us here...

By the end of the day I was so frustrated I wanted to just cry..it felt like nothing really went right.. I dont even know how to describe what I felt. I almost did not want to come back the next day.

Sunday:

Better weather, though some rain earlier that morning which made everything slick at first.

I was going to do a totally different thing with him. NO rear crosses hardly at all.. almost entirely fronts to see if bars stay up. I might not be that great at front crosses for his speed.. so I might have caused some of these huge mistakes. However, the Maniac Mode coming out REALLY ruined him.

Wildcard- 1st and Q- A pretty great run...fast too.. he did run past the a-frame which has never happened before, but I saw way more than a couple of dogs do that..and wondered if they all did not want to go due to the slick ground in that area.

Standard- 1st and Q- A CLEAN standard run..YAY... I was so worried about keeping bars up that I did not do too great on me and his groundwork and I let him come in way too wide for the weaves which caused him to botch them.

Colors- 2nd and NQ- A knocked bar...Maniac Mode starts up again........UGH

Jackpot- 2nd and NQ- This run about made me cry... he was in total chaotic state of mind and pretty much stood there barking at me the WHOLE time... we botched our opening, we botched the gamble HORRIBLY. It was an easy gamble that he could have done any other day but he just totally refused to listen at all... I ended up having to pick him up and put him in his crate. I was close to tears on this run.

Jumpers- 2nd and Q- I did a front cross that he didnt like and I tried to slow myself down which made the mouth start again and caused an off course..but the bars stayed up... At least he wasnt as chaotic as the run before.

The knocked bars were AWFUL this weekend.. I tried so many different things and I could not get anything to really work. He acted like he has never acted before and it has totally discouraged me. Me and him barely did any right this weekend

The good: We Q'ed out of Level 2 Jumpers. We had a couple of good, fast runs.

The bad: The knocked bars were too often of an occassion for my liking. Me and him were not working together very well at all. My massive migraine was not helping me any so I probably was not the world's greatest handler. The mouth started up at the barking at me, which gets both of us in trouble. I dont mind if hes barking while running, but not barking AT me.

The ugly: Maniac Mode in full force, we had a couple of really terrible runs that made me wonder if I am stupid for even trying this out.

I dont know about these AKCs coming up.. I think its a disaster waiting to happen... Though dont listen to me right now.. I'm just discouraged at a not so great First Trial...........

*sigh* I know we all have bad days (animals included) I just wish the first trial would have been a bit more encouraging.. That was the whole reason to do a CPE. AKC is going to eat us alive if he and I do the same performances again.

Time to be on a positive note- We are going to do much better next time =)

Our Fullhouse run


Our Jumpers run..yes its raining


Our Wildcard run (see the crazy decision to not go on the a-frame? I really think he didnt like the slick...silly dog!)


The Standard run with botched weaves (bars stayed up though! YAY)


Pictures to come sometime soon hopefully.......