Truckee 2009

What a great tournament!  It was too warm, and in the mornings it was like a sauna until the ground dried off, but we did very well, and made major strides with three new dogs!

Friday Evening: Cookie and Nyla ran their first-ever singles. This was a NAFA tournament so they were not official, however, the experience was invaluable. Nyla placed 4^th in singles and Teri won a ribbon. These dogs worked to get it all dialed in with maximum distractions, very different from practicing at Smith Ranch!

Saturday: Pearl ran for the first time in the lineup as a regular dog on Airborne. The lineup was Jake, Pearl, Brutus, Gypsy with Honey and Cookie as backup. I don’t remember all the details, but Pearl was a little distracted her first race, and our times were fine, she’d glance into the other lane regularly, but stayed on-task. But Jeff (her dad) came by to watch her race her second race, and poor Pearlie Girl would run down the left lane, then veer to the right, cross straight in front of the other team’s box and keep going out of the ring to find her dad. It reminded us of Max last year when DJ was racing him and Paula and Marvin tried to hide and watch him race. We finally pulled Pearl and put Honey in her place for the rest of that race. Jeff left, and Pearl finally dialed it in after that, and pretty much ran flawless for the rest of the day, and all of the next day. We might need to have Jeff attend a practice or two so Pearl will perform whether he’s there or not. The Patriots (Reno, Honey, Stella, and Daisy with Pearl and Nyla for backup) cleaned up, running flawless. Airborne took tail end award for the day, fourth of four teams in Div. 2. The Patriots took 1^st place in Multi-Breed Div 2.

Sunday:  We worked in the beginners, Cookie and Nyla. Cookie was backup on the Patriots, did well in warm-ups, and we put her in for two heats. She maintained her focus very well, we were impressed. Her only issue was dropping the ball a little early. So Carol and Cookie have homework to work on Cookie’s “hold”. Nyla did well on warm-ups and we put her in for a couple heats. We had an awesome judge who let Teri take a little extra time working with Nyla. Nyla’s focus on the ball was fantastic, but Teri’s homework after this weekend is getting a good recall on Nyla (who was full of the joy of racing).  Both Cookie and Nyla are going to be strong additions to our teams, and Carol and Teri did very well handling their dogs. On Sunday, Airborne placed third out of six teams, and Patriots came in first again. Same teams as on Saturday.

Both days were hot. Tami is thoroughly enjoying boxloading, and doing a great job. Carol did great boxloading too, this was her first “away” tournament.

So, our experienced dogs ran flawless (except for Gyp who, for some weird reason we’ll never know went around the jumps three times on her return on Saturday (I think it was right after a lane change and for some reason she returned to me over what used to be the lane). These dogs were smooth! Pearl got it dialed in the first day and ran fantastic. Keep in mind this is more distraction than Pearl has ever dealt with, it was a two ring tournament). Cookie and Nyla coped with their first time ever in this environment and managed very well. We learned where they need some strengthening, and we’re working on that now.