The Poodle "Almost" trial
Finally home from Argus from a long weekend with some big missions. We still only manage to qualify half our runs. Another story of "almosts" which is frustrating to try to figure out.
Friday had a really nice standard run including tight turns where others' were wide. Our Jumpers run was fine but I apparently didn't put enough pressure on a certain point of a line so ended up with a refusal. Not his fault. I found out later he broke his Startline Stay though! That IS his fault and made me give him the "side eye" for the rest of the weekend! Our Premier Standard run was perfect... but the end included a very simple, straight serpentine. We do those in our sleep, and this one was not tricky, but when I moved on after getting what I thought was commitment, he elected to follow my movement instead of coming in. Such a bummer.
I walked him out afterwards and without seeing the next course came back to the rings and realized I was already one minute into our walkthrough! Also, it was IMPOSSIBLE! In full extension (straight line of tunnel, jump, jump) while staring into the face of a tunnel he needed to turn a 180 and hit a weave entry against the wall. The only possible plan I could think of to get there involved a send and layering the crap out of the course. Even if we managed that, there were at least two other tricky spots to get afterwards. This was the most difficult course we have encountered in trial.
Crazy.
Saturday started the same, super clean standard runs with much tighter turns than other competitors. My Jumpers plan included a layer out of a tunnel since it worked the day before... but apparently I didn't get to the right spot so another R. Premier JWW looked tricky but we GOT it... until a weave pole pop at the end. Such a heartbreaker. We haven't had that happen in almost two years now. Not sure why it pops up now. Darn.
We finished the day with a pretty Std Prem run that involved a pushback. I walked it in both directions and though one way made the line easier, it involved facing a tunnel to do it. I finally decided to give him the good line way and of course we got the tunnel. Ugh. I should have taken the safe path.
Sunday's courses had lower than normal Q rates. Weave entries were taking out Standard dogs and a weave-tunnel-tunnel pattern was causing trouble in the Jumpers ring. We managed nice runs in both but our JWW run lost a bar during a rear cross. Unfortunate, but I'll take the hit on that one. Nice job Dogus. We did get both our Premier runs as well.
So after all is said and done - still no QQs for us. We can cobble together a couple of our Premier QQs to substitute 3/7 required ones for Nationals so for that purpose we are 2 out of 7 required logged so far. Definitely need to pick it up soon though. I'm used to performing better than this so we'll be on the path to fixing some of these things before June trials start heating up!
Friday had a really nice standard run including tight turns where others' were wide. Our Jumpers run was fine but I apparently didn't put enough pressure on a certain point of a line so ended up with a refusal. Not his fault. I found out later he broke his Startline Stay though! That IS his fault and made me give him the "side eye" for the rest of the weekend! Our Premier Standard run was perfect... but the end included a very simple, straight serpentine. We do those in our sleep, and this one was not tricky, but when I moved on after getting what I thought was commitment, he elected to follow my movement instead of coming in. Such a bummer.
I walked him out afterwards and without seeing the next course came back to the rings and realized I was already one minute into our walkthrough! Also, it was IMPOSSIBLE! In full extension (straight line of tunnel, jump, jump) while staring into the face of a tunnel he needed to turn a 180 and hit a weave entry against the wall. The only possible plan I could think of to get there involved a send and layering the crap out of the course. Even if we managed that, there were at least two other tricky spots to get afterwards. This was the most difficult course we have encountered in trial.
Crazy.
Click to viewSaturday started the same, super clean standard runs with much tighter turns than other competitors. My Jumpers plan included a layer out of a tunnel since it worked the day before... but apparently I didn't get to the right spot so another R. Premier JWW looked tricky but we GOT it... until a weave pole pop at the end. Such a heartbreaker. We haven't had that happen in almost two years now. Not sure why it pops up now. Darn.
We finished the day with a pretty Std Prem run that involved a pushback. I walked it in both directions and though one way made the line easier, it involved facing a tunnel to do it. I finally decided to give him the good line way and of course we got the tunnel. Ugh. I should have taken the safe path.
Sunday's courses had lower than normal Q rates. Weave entries were taking out Standard dogs and a weave-tunnel-tunnel pattern was causing trouble in the Jumpers ring. We managed nice runs in both but our JWW run lost a bar during a rear cross. Unfortunate, but I'll take the hit on that one. Nice job Dogus. We did get both our Premier runs as well.
So after all is said and done - still no QQs for us. We can cobble together a couple of our Premier QQs to substitute 3/7 required ones for Nationals so for that purpose we are 2 out of 7 required logged so far. Definitely need to pick it up soon though. I'm used to performing better than this so we'll be on the path to fixing some of these things before June trials start heating up!
