It's been a little while since this trial, but I wanted to make sure I posted what I remembered. I don 't have the videos yet, but hopefully soon.

The first thing I'll always remember about this trial is I totally forgot to change our registration. This cost us two run that I paid for. We were still signed up as Novice Standard and Open Jumpers, even though we should have been Excellent A in both. =( Oh well, it made Friday a very quick day, which was needed because we had just come back to Florida from Chicago and it was a loooooong drive. So we ended up running FAST and T2B and then going home right away to nap for a few hours.

Friday:

Novice FAST-- After some wonderful instruction from our trainer, Baxter and I took 77 points and came in first place!! It was such a fun run. We even out the very oddly placed weaves! Go Baxter!!

T2B-- After having a literal quick turn around (we literally come off this course and right onto T2B) we ended it with 7 points! It was a very nice run. Very flowly and super proud of Baxter bear!

Saturday:

Novice FAST-- This course wasn't tricky, but I made it tricky. I ended up sending Baxter into the same tunnel side twice, even though both tunnel entrances were worth points. I felt sort of stupid after that. Then on top of it, we went to grab the A-Frame at the end, only to get buzzered and then lost a bunch of points. We still placed third and got Baxter's Novice FAST title. Very good!

Excellent A JWW-- Baxter took a first place finish in this run to get his Excellent A title! Off to Excellent B now!! Super super proud.

Excellent A Standard-- NQ'd on this course. It had weaves diagonally running away from a table that was set back from the weave exit. After trying to position myself properly, I think I pulled Baxter out of the weaves. Very sad. Otherwise than that, awesome run.

Sunday: Hurricane day! Well, not really. In order to get all the S. Florida people home before the storm hits, the club decided to do T2B last. Sadly they didn't think ahead and it ended up being big dogs running Ex Standard AND big dogs running T2B. That really really sucked. It took a long time to finish that and small dogs had to wait until Ex Standard was done to even run T2B because we had the same judge. =(

Excellent B JWW-- We NQ'd here. Baxter was over-extending a lot on a pinwheel turn and I didn't get into place fast enough to guide him to the next jump which I stupid rear crossed as he came up to the weaves. Although it seemed like a straight entrance, my lack of "easy" command paired with his speed, sent him past the entrance which NQ'd us. He was such a great little guy otherwise! When I called him back he was like, ok cool weaves! Took them like a champ and then finished the course nicely.

Excellent A Standard-- I was really hoping to nail this course so when we go to Chicago next month, there won't be so much pressure to get Baxter's Ex B title. We need two more legs, so I figured one leg here and one leg there... The course was going awesomely. We were on a straight away right before the home stretch when Baxter took a triple jump placed ever so sweetly near the course entrance. He blasted over the jump and headed right out of the ring. He wasn't running out of the ring, I think he just thought we were done. So I called him back in and right as the judge blew her whistle, he had taken the last of the obstacles with speed and grace. Too bad for us. It was such a nice run! NQ.

T2B-- I was really excited to finish everything and walk the course for familiarization. Although that didn't happen because of the dog big snafu. I waited and waited at the ring side. When I walked the course, I of course wanted to try this really nice layering and distance as the course went straight and then turned into another straight run up an A-frame. That worked beautifully and then the one part that gave us trouble seemed like it would be the easiest part! Baxter wouldn't pinwheel! So I brought him back to me to try again, accidentally sending him over a jump he had already taken! D'oh! The best part was, that in my head I didn't even notice. When he again refused the jump, I brought him back and specifically thought, Oh! He just did this jump, better not do it again. That last time he went on and we were able to get this really rough weave entrance. I swear that entrance, which was right after landing a jump, had to at like a 30 degree angle down to the right. He nailed it and I was so proud. I had totally thought we Q'd until I saw the video my dad took. Wow. What a dork I am!

It was a nice trial, although it was really really cold in there! So much A/C! Baxter is at the Ex B in JWW now and I can't wait can't wait can't wait to get him up to Ex B in Standard. So very excited!!