We arrived Monday late afternoon.
The dogs liked the view from the hotel room.
So on Tuesday we started off with the All breed Agility Trial held at Purina Farms. It was soooo windy the panel jump never had all the panels on it. Half of the bars were falling off the cups and the chute had to be moved so the wind blew through it! Bell was up first in Open Std. She Q'd and got first with one wrong course and a GREAT teeter performance! The teeter was the second obstacle and I had a whole thing of Liver sausage I was bribing her with before our run. The teeter was all aluminum and kinda noisy. I was extremely surprised by her enthusiasm! YAY! Then Qwik was up in Novice Std. She did GREAT! She Q'd and placed First. She had one table fault cause she was racing so fast she didn't stick her landing. She got her weaves on the third try, but did great for her first AKC run. Then was JWW, Bell was up first in Excellent B and had a refusal. She ran nicely though. Qwik Q'd in Novice and placed first with one refusal. She got her weaves on the first try and ran super nice!
After agility we drove to the Upland Field test. I had Diesel and Qwik entered. Qwik was up first and did alright. She was a bit distracted by the gunners and all the "stuff" they were carrying. She passed though. Diesel was up later and just spanked the test. He did so great. He was ALL BUSINESS and was focused and I think only peed once. Good boy. The tracking/trailing started really late. Qwik did a great job and only detoured once or twice. Diesel ran almost last and had some trouble cause there was so much scent out there he couldn't pinpoint exactly where it was. He found the duck at the end of the trail and passed also. We left that test at about 9:00pm...kinda a long day!!!
Wednesday was Obedience and Rally, a field training seminar and Super Singles. Qwik started off in Novice B Obedience. She did alright and was mostly focused. Being outside she was a bit distracted and kinda bumped me alot trying to keep herself attached to me cause she was having troubles focusing. She passed the on leash heeling n Figure 8, stand, off leash heeling and recall. Then for sits and downs she sat fine, but was getting hot having to sit in the sun and all. The long down was another story.....I typically have her roll on her hip, but she would not. I couldn't get her attention to do it. Then it all started.....she sniffed the grass and frogged out with her rear legs....then she rolled the side of her face on the cool grass and proceeded to flip over on her back and kick her legs up in the air with a look of sheer pleasure on her face.....dork. She NQ' and her sister Sunny took High in Trial. Ohhh well. I will never show outside again. Then we did rally and she had a great run. She Q'd with a perfect score of 100 and took first place. Good girl!
After Obedience awards we had a retriever training seminar Mitch White of Gamekeeper retrievers. It totally got me motivated to train. Cool Stuff. He has the "odd breeds" and had some nice things to share. I might be looking at getting a flatcoat from him in a few years.
After that we held the Super Singles competition. I had D and Q entered. Super singles is like a field trial. The dogs are competing against each other and graded based on style, intensity, marking ability, line manners and just how good the dog is. Qwik got her first mark well but on the second one she decided she needed a salad and started eating grass.....dork. She did NOT get a call back. Diesel did great the first series and only hunted a little bit for the second mark. He got a call back. He almost nailed the last mark but faded with the hill a little bit. There were lots of nice dogs competing including 2 Master Hunters.....Diesel took Second!!! I was SOOOO excited for him! Good boy!
Thursday was puppy and veterans Sweepstakes so I had a free day. I took the dogs to Purina Farms for a romp, and gave Bell a bath. Then my parents came down and we met for Lunch and then took a tour of St. Louis and went up in the arch! That was fun. We hung out and I was able to relax.
Friday was the BIG DEAL breed competition. I had D and Q entered in the Working Retriever dog and bitch class. My parents came to watch and were totally bored....sigh. I wish it was more exciting and went faster. D showed awesome and won his class of 3. He sooo deserved it too. He was a good boy for me. Qwik placed 3 outta 4. She seriously is THE smallest curly I have ever seen. Poor lill girl. But she's so cute. I was fine with it.
Saturday was the retrieving tests. D and Q were entered in the Middle level where they need to sit and stay for a double retrieve on land and water. D was up first and did excellent on land. I could NOT have been prouder of him. He was SOOO good. Qwik did alright but went to the wrong side of the gunner station for the memory bird..but she hunted for it and found it. Water was another story. D was up first again and cheated a bunch on the test.....I was NOT happy with the water test. I thought it was way to cheaty for a WC....A senior Hunt test maybe....but not a WC. Anyways, D did alright but I didn't know for sure if he would pass due to the cheating. Qwik had a brain fart and decided to go for the memory bird first instead of the GO bird. Whatever! She cheated 100% on the first bird and never got wet......then she cheated as much as possible for the second bird...so not swimming on a water retrieving test is a failure. I was soooo totally bummed. I am blaming the cheaty test and the lack of being able to train in water in Wisconsin in April! Next time.
It was nice looking back while driving home.
I had an absolute blast and got to hang with some really cool, fun people. It was an exciting and exhausting week that was over way too fast. Back to work tomorrow!
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