Saturday, July 07, 2007

Questioning my Sanity

Yes, you read right - I am beginning to question my sanity! Who in their right minds would get up at 5am on a SATURDAY to go to an Agility trial?!?!? Whats that I hear - no-one - well that SHOULD have been the answer *vbg*! But do I have any common sense? Nup - course not!

So up I get and trudge off to Sunbury for our agility trial.... miserable *COLD* day today! The grounds were absolute mayhem with mud piles everywhere! I swear - If I were 2 yrs old i'd be in heaven! What is worse is that the trial started at 8:30am and guess when my runs were? Yep - you guessed it...... dead last :p. They only had 3 rings set up - so both agility and jumping went through in the order like Masters/Open/ Excellent/ Novice - with slight variations, but NOVICE always last! Result? Agility and Jumping novice were running at the same time! So here I am walking the agility course - when they are calling my number for jumping EEK! I didn't even know they were up to that yet (coz I was keeping an eye on the ring).... quickly bolt over - take Leo straight from his crate (note time is now 12ish so he has been in there for a while) - no chance to warm up and straight into it! He did well considering the conditions AND the fact that I couldn't run coz of the mud (a brisk walk was more to the point!) but NQ'd as silly handler left her brain behind and the dog ended up 'refusing' (ie: walking past) 2 jumps at various stages of the run!

Next up - Novice agility - again the area was a complete slosh pit - horrible, horrible run - Leo bolted off the A frame (but we got our contacts) - was contemplating NOT doing weavers, but I got him in, only to have him stop and gawk 1/2 way through and me having to put him back in after he popped out - tunnel after weavers and obnoxious little dog decided NOT to listen to me and go in the wrong entry!!! Then dumb handler stood in the way of dogs landing area over the next jump and we 'collided' briefly *rolls eyes* - the rest of the run was faultless!

So due to the bogged conditions -the rings got moves to a 'higher' part of the ground - but they were still pretty muddy. Enter wind, rain and blistering cold temperatures :(.... Another Novice agility run (in the rain!)..... We are going really well until...... A frame we almost miss our contacts - completely bypass a jump (right infront of our nose mind you) coz yep, we spotted a Tunnel and for some reason that was the flavour of the day *rolls eyes even further into head!*....

Enter our last Novice Jumping run - by this stage I swear I am a frozen ice block... it is still raining and everyone is pretty miserable.... 2nd dog in.... the ground is so bogged (despite the move) that I can barely run but have to sort of 'brisk walk' instead.... result.... a PASS under course time and..... drum roll please...... OUR JD TITLE!!!!!!! *enter screaming cheersquad, cheering handler and happy dog here!* Of course this couldn't come without it's troubles! So we wait around for another 90mins (have I mentioned the wind, rain and blistering cold at all?!) for presentations..... call out Novice jumping - nothing for me... hmm... call out Novice jumping again (it wasn't in running order as everyone just wanted to go home!) and nothing for me - so I question it - judge says.... 'no, no passes in my ring' - says I ' but I had a clear round and no time faults.... I finished in 25sec.... CT was around 30sec!'..... Puzzled look on judges face..... checks the sheet and "oh - sorry steward didn't mark it properly, you DID get a pass - the ONLY one for the whole RUN!!!!!"..... So he had to go and write up the card, hunt up the person with my trophy and sash and then hand it to me ;)!

So since March 17 - Leo has obtained 3 titles - CCD, CD and JD! What a clever boy. Only 1 more to go until I have reached exactly what I wanted to this year (well 2, but since I haven't done any herding....).....

On the other hand.... Kinta is searching for a new home as of NOW! Went out last night to watch a movie with a friend - came home to find a hole big enough to bury my grandmother in.....AND leads and everything strewn everywhere.... this had me confused as I made sure I checked before I left for work that ALL the cupboard doors and drawers were shut TIGHT.... only explanation - the little miss has figured out how to open drawers as well as cupboards!!! *sigh*... so guess who is going 'child lock' shopping tomorrow.... (Ana found this highly amusing mind you... and she didn't want her back :-P)... umm... someone refresh my memory - did I ask for a more active dog when I was sober and feeling normal?!?!

Lastly - here are some pics that some friends have made for me via photoshop:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket





Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket



Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket


1 comment:

Amanda O. said...

HUGE CONGRATS on your and Leo's JD title!!!!!!!! Whoot! Makes freezing your toes off since the wrong side of the crack of dawn worth it! Hope you came home to a lot of nice warm hot chocolate!

Good luck with the child locks! I've tried every sort on the market - dual handle zip ties, latches, velcro reach across ones etc. They don't stop children or dogs in my experience; they either work out how to use them better than you do or chew them to itty bitty pieces.

And yes, for the record, I clearly recall you wanting a dog that was extra spunky and really smart! I think that was one of the things that helped you decide on Kinta versus the little puppies at the time if I recall... ;-p ;-p ;-p