CPE Trial Day 2

Today was another wonderful day of trialing! It started a few hours earlier than yesterday, so we were both a little bit groggy when we got there. After getting all set up and getting Bess settled in her crate I checked out the running order. It was Wildcard, Standard, Snooker, and then Jumpers. Oh boy, Wildcard first thing in the morning. This could well or it could be a redo of yesterday's Fullhouse run!

Today's Wildcard was a non-traditional one and we could actually get the jackpot/gamble out of the way whenever we wanted to and we didn't have to wait for the buzzer. I decided to just go for the jackpot right off and see how Bess did. The jackpot is a test of distance handling skills. There were two jackpots set up on the course. One was definitely more difficult being a tire jump, then a set of six weaves, and finally a tunnel. The handler had to stand behind a line and send the dog through the sequence and nail the whole thing. There was just no way that that was going to happen. So I picked the simpler jackpot of jump, tunnel, jump. Bess LOVES tunnels. I have no idea why since she's a big dog and has to crouch down to get into them, but she just loves the things! And I really can't complain!

I figured my best shot of getting it done was going to be having her just amped enough that she had a little zoomie in her. Just enough to carry her over the jump and into the tunnel. Once she got out of the tunnel it would be easy enough to call her back to me over the jump. I wasn't really sure that it wold work though, because we really haven't practiced distance work and I was going to be staying back a fair distance from her. But sure enough, we started the run and she literally DOVE into the tunnel and nailed the whole jackpot!! I was so impressed with her! They did have to readjust the tunnel after we were done because she had moved it in her excitement. The rest of the course was smooth sailing. Except that she just BARELY hit her down contact on the A Frame.

The next course was Standard and I knew that we could handle that one. Except that Bess had other plans. She had the sudden urge to pee while on the course. Which is a big no-no. And an automatic DQ. Oh well!

Snooker and Jumpers both went beautifully! Jumpers was the smoothest of our courses and we qualified in both of those runs as well as Wildcard.

So as of now, Bess only needs one qualifying Standard run and one qualifying Fullhouse run and she will have completed the entirety of her level 1 title! Right now she has completed two of the legs and now has two mini titles tacked onto her name!! Once she completes everything in level 1, she'll get one title that encompasses all of them! I'm so excited!!

There was also someone there taking pictures both days and I should be getting pictures in a little while! I tried getting some video of Bess and I today and it happened to be on the Standard run where she peed after the third obstacle. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that trying to video tape her is a bad luck charm. Each time that I've tried has been a really not good run.