Our first trial back and so many emotions and thoughts and happiness! I had entered Miller all three days (why?) and at full height. I think my thoughts were that we would be able to train and get back into shape and we haven't. I should have entered him in novice preferred so he could jump 16 inches. The good news is two days are done and he is running great. The bad news (not really in my eyes but in others) is that we only have one Q in four runs. I am super happy that he is running like normal and I am focusing on that. I truly have not shown my true miller since September so we are going through a period of readjustment. I did show him at USDAA nationals but he was not better at all so he was very clingy and not able to work any distance at all. I have been able to work great distance all weekend and he is even driving ahead of me for rear crosses! I am so shocked as usually if I decelerate, so does he! His times haven't been as fast as they once were but he is still running great for a 10 year old dog. I have had to remind myself of my goals this weekend as people have been getting MACHs and double Qing like crazy. The courses have been so nice and fun to run and I have had a great time seeing all of my friends that I have really missed. I do still feel like my decision to pull back to two day shows is probably in Miller's best interest. As one of my fellow competitors pointed out, he is getting older and I need to keep that in mind. I am going to post several of his runs and I will recount them (mainly to bore you to death).
We started out with standard on Friday with an awesome course from Bonnie Drabeck. She always has such great courses and I always enjoy showing under her. She was the judge for both rings and we started later since it was excellent only. I was so happy just to see all of my friends and catch up on all I have missed. So many people have been doing so awesome and so many people are close to their MACHs!!!!!! Miller's start line stay has been horrible the past couple of practices and he seemed very hyped up so I was kind of worried that he wouldn't even stay! The course was jump and then dog walk so I had a feeling it might be a very short course. Well, i am happy to report that he had great stay and a great dog walk! Unfortunately, for no reason other than I may have put too much pressure on him, he popped out of the weaves. I did take him back and he did the same thing again but he is becoming a distance dog for some odd reason as he gets older. I am finding that he prefers for me to be away from him on all obstacles and any pressure in causes him to react. In a way, it is kind of neat that he is developing Independence and distance skills but weird at the same time. Maybe we will get our gambler's Qs we need in USDAA since he is feeling like working away from me so much. We had jumpers next and of course again, a very nice course by Bonnie. For some odd reason he refused a jump but I think it was my fault. I did a front cross to a serpentine and I just think he came into it so tight that he didn't see the second jump. He got his weaves so that made me feel better but I did stay farther away from him and gave him tons of room with no pressure as a jump straight ahead was the next thing. I ended the day with no Qs but so very happy that he was running like his normal miller self!
Day two of the weekend started with Miller in standard again and another great run! We were clean and he ran around the last jump to NQ us. Who knows why he did that as the video doesn't really show why. There was a tunnel past the last jump and I said just go so maybe he thought go tunnel? Who knows and who cares as he ran like his normal self. I did baby his dog walk and shame on me for doing that. I need to start training for nationals and not for the Q so I need to push his dog walk as much as I can and not baby sit it at all. The exciting news is that Harley and Tony got their AX today!!! I am so proud of how they did!!!! He did have some weird contacts and we all thought Harley missed his dog walk contact but he got it and got a first! I am so proud as that finishes all of his excellent A titles and puts him in the Ex B forever! Now Tony can work on his MACH and work on his contacts! Harley is such an awesome dog sometimes and could be a border collie beater if tony can just get it together with him. I hope some day they go to nationals as I think they could at least place in a round whereas Miller is too slow and too old! Miller got a Q in jumpers and one rear cross with two nice fronts but was a little slow. I think rears slow him down but I wanted to practice some rears as you won't always be able to do all fronts on a given course. I think he got 8 points total which is a little low for him but I will take it. I am just so glad that he is running like his old self!
I will update everyone on tomorrow's run tomorrow. I am hoping for good runs from both of us. Harley just needs one more Q for his MXJ, so finger's crossed! I am so happy to be back in the swing of things! I would love to concentrate on USDAA this year but not many trials in our area so will probably do mostly AKC. Again, goals are just to have fun and to get the Qs and doubles as they come. The videos aren't uploading at this point so I will try and upload them later.
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