by JadaFINALLY!
Joni has been saying for MONTHS that she's too busy to let either of us on the computer, but COME ON! This is ridiculous! It's been since last winter since we've been on it and now it's almost winter again! She's got several computers, so what's the problem! Now she's even got a laptop, which she was a bit stingy with at the beginning and is finally starting to let us use. We've even been telling her that we can use her computer when she's sleeping, but noooo, she still won't let us. Where's the trust here!
I don't even know where to begin. SO much has happened! I guess I'll have to summarize alot.
My CPE Trial Updates
Okay, trial-wise I'll definitely have to summarize alot. Since my last posted entry we've done a whopping 22 days of trials! No way can I remember everything we did now! But you know I'd love to try!
Let's see....in CPE we've done alot, but only 2 more titles - my Level 4 Standard (CL4-R) and Level 4 Handler (CL4-H) titles. I'm in Level 5 and working hard for my C-ATCH title hard here! Wait, I still have 2 more legs of my Level 4 Jackpot (groan) to get. Geez, I hate this game! They don't have enough of these at trials, and when they do they keep having "traditional" jackpots and I desperately need some "non-traditional" jackpots! This is the game where I have to finish it up by working far far away from Joni and you all know how much I hate that! I've come so close on some of them, though! I might have gotten some of them if I hadn't objected strenuously at the beginning at Joni coming to a dead stop by this colored tape and insisting that I go on without her. I always forget that it's okay sometimes! I can't remember everything! The last Jackpot we actually got - it was a "non traditional traditional" - which I kinda like. I did have to do a teeter far away from Joni and going away from her AND get that stupid contact - but I did it! When I got off of that I had to go to some off-side weaves. I thought Joni would pass out when I did this!
So the way it's going we'll have runs up to our C-ATCH 3 or 4 levels before I finish this level 5 Jackpot!
Anyway, we've had some good CPE trials. The March trial we had 7 out of 8 Q's (only NQ was Jackpot, naturally). Our April trial was kinda crazy - we only had 5 out of 8 Q's. One NQ was Jackpot (again), but I screwed up on Wildcard and Colors also. Yeah, I know - I never do this sort of stuff. The Wildcard was just me laser-locking into another tunnel while coming out of a tunnel. I LOVE TUNNELS. Joni wanted me to stop after the first tunnel and take some jumps, but I was having SO MUCH FUN flying thru these tunnels that I totally tuned her out. Not a good idea in retrospect! The Colors course also involved a tunnel. There was a tunnel next to the A-frame an both times I was suppose to take the A-frame. I took the A-frame the first time, but the second time I decided to take the tunnel. Again, not a good idea once I had a chance to think about it.
We didn't have another CPE trial then until Labor Day weekend, and that was a 3-day trial. I did great there - had 11 out of 12 Q's. I know y'all are expecting this one....only NQ was...drum roll.....Jackpot. Big surprise. But that Jackpot I was mentioning before (with the teeter) was also at this trial and I got that one!!!!
The end of October was our most recent CPE trial. I was 6 for 8 on this one. In 5 of my 6 Q's we got 1st place in 5 of the 6 Q's and in 3 of them I was the fastest dog of ALL that ran the course! In the other 2 I was the 2nd fastest dog overall! Amazing, in 2 of my runs I was running in the 18+ FEET PER SECOND range!
The two NQ's? Well, we split those. Joni was brain dead on the first day after a long long wait of over 5 hours between our 2nd and 3rd runs. Standard was our 3rd run and her brain just flat-lined for a few seconds. We were heading down a line of jumps towards a tunnel when it happened. All this time I was heading for the right entrance to to this tunnel. At the last minute Joni suddenly tried to call me off of that entrance and into the other one. What was she thinking? I went ahead and went into the right side entrance knowing that I was right! But when I came out of the tunnel Joni was there still insisting that it was the wrong end - so what did she do? She told me to go BACK into the tunnel! For a second I thought maybe she was right and I screwed up - I went back thru the tunnel and we continued on the course. But I was RIGHT! Joni putting me BACK into that tunnel was our off-course! Boy, for once it's nice to not be the reason we NQ'd! I know she felt like an idiot then, but hey, it happens!
The other NQ was my fault. I just love going fast so much that sometimes it's hard to stop! I get on the teeter and I go all the way up to the yellow section and stop and wait for the teeter to move. It goes down as I wait impatiently...and once it hits the ground I'm just DYING to start running again! So sometimes it just seems silly to take one more extra step and get a foot into that ridiculous (yet important!) yellow section. So I forgot - sue me. Guess these CPE judges are less impressed with my athletic abilities than the yellow contact rules. I'll be working on that for the next time!
So that's it for CPE so far for the year. We have 6 days of CPE trials coming up in the next month, so that'll be fun.
My AKC Trial Updates
We did alot of AKC trials also during this "Joni won't let me on the computer" time. I have some issues with AKC and some of their silly rules, but after a few times of testing them out on the rules, I have figured out that they're actually quite serious about them and won't bend any of them just because I think I'm being cute or inventive out there. What I've figured out is they don't particularly like if I drop an occasional bar, or if I decide I've done enough weaves and am ready to move onto the next obstacle. They also don't like me showing off my athletic ability by jumping on the table, and "boinging" off and jumping back on in a blink of an eye. Apparently the judge did NOT blink at that moment and saw it all.
First was the trials in May. The first weekend we were 2 for 5....yep, 2 Q's and 3NQ's out of the weekend. Not good. One NQ was that I didn't see a jump that Joni expected me to see and they got me for a refusal when almost ran past it - then saw it at the last second and then jumped it. One was me popping out of weave pole 10 when Joni glanced up to check out where the next jump was. I swear I thought she was ready to bolt for it - so I left also! Another was a dropped bar that mysteriously fell off when I went over it. Sheesh. Picky picky picky. But I finished my Novice Standard title at this trial.
A couple of weeks later we had a 3-day trial again. This was our first trial at an indoor soccer place with fake grass and boy, is this stuff great! I am SO AMAZINGLY FAST on this stuff! I was faster than Joni anticipated because all of our front crosses were turned into rear crosses since I was flying thru the course! They worked, though. I don't like them, but they worked. But the downside is that I'm too fast for myself! Yes! I was getting to places faster than I thought! I saw an obstacle coming up in a blur then - BAM - I'm there! I couldn't adjust fast enough a few times so they actually called that on me! WTF? Give me a break Did they SEE how fast I was running? I can hardly be expected to come to THAT fast of a stop and make a weave entrance!!! See, this is what I mean about AKC. They're very unforgiving. What a buncha mean people! I'm not sure I like AKC at all! I did get my Open JWW title at this trial, though.
We ended up with 2 Q's out of 6. Not good at all. Joni was beginning to not like AKC as much either, but insists that we keep doing it. Sigh. Guess one of us will have to get their act together!
Next AKC trial was in August. Well, we're up to a 50% Q rate this weekend. 2 Q's out of 4. My first Excellent JWW course and I missed the friggin' weave pole entrance. But it was an exceptionally TOUGH weave pole entrance and alot of dogs missed it also. Still...we all know I'm not like "most" dogs.....
I did get my next Excellent A JWW Q the next day, though! also got my Open Standard run - ran it great! The next day, however, would have been my last Open Standard leg and I ran that great also! But I dropped the bar on the last jump! Joni didn't even know. She was so happy with me and thought we had it! I wasn't sure how to break the news to her - I was so devastated and embarrassed! But halfway back to our seat someone told her and she didn't even believe them! She didn't believe it despite numerous people telling her until she saw it for herself on the video. I felt SO bad then! I don't even know how it happened! I was running so fast and we had run it perfectly! I think someone sneezed or something out there and made it fall!
So two weeks later we were off to another trial that we weren't scheduled to do, but Joni was determined to get me out of Open Standard before our next 3-day trial at the indoor soccer place. She thought having both runs in Excellent would be easier in a 2-ring trial, which made sense to me also! So we went to this next trial and we only ran Standard only. I got my Open Standard title that first day and the next day I got the first leg in Excellent A Standard! Good weekend for us!
Now we're in Excellent in everything and ready for the next trial.....only to end up with 1 Q and 5 NQ's. What a horrible weekend. Joni was to blame for most of this, but I'll take my share also on one or two of them. We did get our 2nd leg in Excellent A JWW's - but that's it. Out of the 5 NQ's I can fully take blame for ONE of them and Joni accepts full blame for 3 of them...the other one I'm not supposed to talk about since it was the judge's bad call that caused it. Nuff said about that. I'd like to bitch about it, but Joni has threatened my computer privileges (such as they are - hmph!) if I get us banned from AKC for voicing our shared opinion of this event.
Okay. My mistake was that I thought it'd be a cool move to jump on the table and bounce off immediately - showing off my awesome athletic abilities - and jump back on instantly. I could hear the crowd gasping and oohing and aahing when I did this....only to learn later that it was really gasps and groans of disappointment and dismay at my instant NQ! *@#$%. Nobody ever told me I couldn't do this! Apparently I was supposed to just "know" this rule. Whatever.
The 3 NQ's Joni was responsible for was just BLOCKING me or distracting me! She did a great front cross in front of the teeter -but misjudged it and was blocking my entrance. I tried to adjust, but going around her screwed up my forward momentum and I was only able to touch the teeter before going off the other side by the first contact. The next time she mis-judged where she was and blocked my weave entrance. I tried to improvise by going into the other side of the weave entrance, thinking that maybe the judge wouldn't notice. Hey - I was desperate! If I stopped it'd be a refusal! I'm TRYING here! Those AKC judges are pretty sharp sometimes, and they saw my slick move and called it. All I could do was try, right? The last one was the most absurd. I came flying off a jump and was just laser-locked into that weave entrance. Joni wasn't blocking it - it was a perfect entrance. Just as I got inches from it, Joni suddenly says "Jada, weave!". WTF did she think I was doing? I stopped to make sure I wasn't doing the wrong thing and was utterly confused for a second - only to find out she wanted me to do the friggin' weaves I was heading into. What an idiot she can be! Oh wait - let's let the judge call that one also. Joni, Joni, Joni. You've GOT to shut your mouth sometimes! You can't take me totally out of obstacle focus and into idiot handler focus!
I tell you what - she has GOT to get the VIDEO up of these runs! She's got them! I think she's just embarrassed about some of this stuff!
Looks like we're all caught up with my trials this year since I've been not allowed on the computer. Next Friday is our Wishbone Wag Team Agility event. Our team is called "Bad to the Bone" and is made up of a few of my best buddies: Charm, a Rat Terrier, and Benny, a big black Lab.
The weekend after that we have a trial on December 3-4-5 - then again on December 31, January 1-2. Hopefully we have some great runs!
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