Back in the Ring

Rosey and I took the summer off from doing anything but playing and tugging. This is something that I did last summer as well, mainly because she really doesn't do well in the heat. I figured trying to beg convince her to run in the heat wasn't really going to help either one of us. At the beginning she seemed a only little jealous of Sam going to class, but as the weeks went on, she got more and more anxious when I left for class.

We started back at the beginning of September and our first classes back were a little rough. After the whole summer off, she was more eager to just run and play and less eager to play with me! With 3 weeks of working out the kinks, things got better, but we still have a few kinks to figure out. Unlucky for her, two hurricanes off the coast dumped tons of rain over the valley, so our weeks back should have been cooler, and were instead some of the hottest and most humid Arizona has ever seen in September!

Two weeks ago, we had our first trial (USDAA) back from the summer and although we only Qualified in one run, the whole weekend felt great. We had some awesome teamwork and she was happy to be running. Plus the one Q we did get was Grand Prix, which was something we've been working towards for the past year. (woohoo!)

This past weekend felt even better! It was AKC this weekend under Judge Kylie Bourke. With some tough, but really great flowing courses, I'm happy to say only 3 bars down over the entire weekend and one wrong course (all my fault with a poorly done rear cross). We managed 47 speed points this weekend with a QQ on Friday and a Q on Sunday in a really tough Standard run (only 30% Qualified in that class). Positives from the weekend: 2 classes with Rosey doing weaves nice and quick, and sticking everyone of her contacts (3/3 beautiful striding dog walk contacts! - we did work them in class this week). With a little more jump work to help with the bars, I think things can only get better AND faster. After our long journey together, this weekend had such a rewarding feeling to see the results and to know we have the potential to get better.

PACH count: 6/20 QQ and 258/750 speed points 
1/3 there!
Also, she earned her Master Agility title this weekend :) Now she's got some new letters after her name:
Prairielight Once Prairie Rose NA OAJ MXP AJP OF CGC PD APS APJ APG PKM

Tough course! Tricky parts that had most handlers were 3-4 (people didn't support the jump), wide turns at 6, the backside at 9 (options that worked was hang back at the teeter and push 9, or get ahead and blind cross 8 to the backside of 9; lots tried to rear cross the flat before 9 with mixed results and confused dogs), lots of dogs popping out of the weaves, LOTS of dogs that took the off course of #20 after the chute (we almost did too!). 

Love that face! So happy!