Here's the break down:
April 9-10th- AKC Agility Trial
First two day trial running both paps :) Lilly Q'd 4/6, FAST and Jumpers both days. Got her OF and 14 MACh points. (5 on Sat, 9 on Sunday) I was a bit of an idiot handling her in Standard... not really sure what was going through my head. My front crosses were all late, I wasn't giving her enough information, it was just sloppy. One highlight from Standard though, was on Sunday she had the fastest Dog-walk I've seen her do... ever. I'm rather sad I didn't get it on video. It was pretty much picture perfect for what I want her running DW to look like. So she really ended that run on a high note haha. I managed to get my head in the game for Jumpers both days though and had some really fun runs. She was having a blast, giving me some speed and really pushed through her weaves. It was so encouraging to see her get some MACh Points in Jumpers, I've gotten so used to seeing her scrape course time that I was pretty much dancing around when she got five points, then very openly doing a sort of victory dance when she got nine. Lilly joined me in bouncing around so I don't think I embarrassed her too horribly.
Knight-man Q'd 6/6. Just powerhoused through two of his Novice titles (NAJ and NF) along with getting two legs for his NA. I just love how much enthusiasm he brings when it's time to "work". His entire face just lights up and you can practically see the gears whirling in his head. He was a little iffy with the weave poles both days, something that's totally my fault. I haven't been working on them as much, I'm terrified of "drilling" them. What I really need to do is grab the 2x2s and his favorite tennis ball and just play with speed and entries on four poles for a bit. Get him really driving, focused, and genuinely loving his weaves. He handled the long hours at the trial site like a well seasoned pro. Gotta love the little man :)
April 16-22nd
So, you know that picture I posted of "Fancy" in my last update? Well, Selina and I ventured out to TN for the 2011 PCA National Specialty and picked her up! Her name is officially "Mia" aka "Pilot All Eyes On Me". She's living with Selina right now, and will be entering the show ring for the first time in... June? June, I'm 90% sure haha. I might be handling her for the Ludwig's Corner show up here June 18-19th, but in all honesty Selina is a much better handler than I am LOL. I'm going to start getting back into handling classes with Knight so I can brush up on any skill I once had, and hopefully transform myself into a half decent Conf handler in case she hasn't finished her Ch by the time she comes to stay with me in October.
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| Selina and Mia <3 |
I was a little surprised at how unwelcoming the majority of the papillon people were. I thought they'd be excited to see some young people showing intrest in the breed, but that wasn't really the case. I still had an amazing time and actually learned quite a bit. I'll absolutely go to the Pap Specialty again when it's on the East Coast.
April 23-24th
The day after I got home from picking up Mia I had a CPE trial with Lilly. I almost didn't go, I was a little worn down from all the driving but managed to drag myself out of bed. Oh man, am I glad I did. I think both Lilly and I really needed this trial.
The entire week at the Pap Specialty Lil was treated a bit like a diseased mutant. Breed people would actually pick up their puppies when they saw her coming their way. Then we went to the CPE trial where Lil was pretty much treated like royalty. She prefers to sleep on the bleachers instead of her crate so I let her, I'm confident nearly every handler at the trial was petting her at some point. She more than happily soaked it all up.
She ended up Q'ing 7/8 runs and got her CL3-H title. On Sunday I actually tripped over a tunnel during a run and we still managed to pull off a Q. Some dogs will run over to their handlers when they fall to make sure they're all right, Lil just kind of looked at me like I was a total idiot. I probably deserved that haha. Note to self: run the course you walked or you'll end up landing on your face.
Someone came up and complimented the gentle manner that I handle in, she said that that gentleness will take me a long way. I smiled and told her Lil was to thank, she's an amazing teacher. I really hope that I keep that "gentle" manner as I pursue a carreer as a professional trainer. No screaming, focused more on clear handling and being able to just laugh it off and keep going when we screw up. We aren't trialing because we have something to prove, we're trialing because we want to show off how much fun we're having as a team.
May 1st
And now I've caught up to this past weekend. I ended up driving out to Freehold, NJ for a one day TDAA trial. When I'm running Teacup I've decided to just run Knight. That was Lil gets a chance to be an only dog once in a while with CPE, and so does Knight with TDAA.
This was Knight's first outdoor trial, I wasn't sure what I was going to get. I ended up entering him in two runs, Beginner Standard Round 1, and Beginner Standard Round 2. He already has his games 1 and games 2 titles so I wanted a chance to get caught up in Standard. We NQ'd round one with a knocked bar, I wasn't actually watching him when he did it so I'm not 100% sure how it happened. It was the first jump and he just kind of... ran through it lol. The rest of the run was pretty nice though. I had about 85% of his focus.
Then came round two.... Wowza. He was awesome! Q'd with a 34 second standard run, getting the last Q he needed for his TBAD title. He gave me his full focus and was really tearing up the course. I was a little late with some of my cues, but that's something I know I really need to work on haha. SO proud of my Knight-man!
And that, is roughly what I've been up to this past month.
