Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Next stop, Reno!

Next stop, Reno!  Okay, there is a stop for work in there first but I will hopefully survive that.  I haven't had so much fun packing my RV for a trip in a long time.  I'm quite sure packed enough food for 2 weeks so if anyone at nationals gets hungry or thirsty I can help with that.

We had our last lesson today.  It was lots of fun!  Nancy and Laura were there as usual but we had some ghosts from the past, Rob and Wings.  They have been out of commission for the last 5 months or so because Wings was busy having and raising new puppy agility stars.  You wouldn't know it though, they looked great today and I'm sure they'll do great at nationals.  We also had special guest stars Tori and Rev visiting, which was lots of fun.  Rev is so teeny!  I think Cassidy and Wings were both a bit self conscious about Rev's runway model weight.

I ran both Icon and Cassidy and was reminded why I never run both Icon and Cassidy in the same lesson, it was a bit hectic (and I had to rely on other people to keep Cassidy quiet when I was running Icon).  Icon and I could barely get get through 12 obstacles without an issue.  I really hope that at nationals there isn't a course with a tunnel under the dogwalk at the end where they're NOT supposed to turn away into the tunnel because I could 't get Icon NOT to take the tunnel.  But bad dress rehearsal, good show... right?  Cassidy was actually really good aside from a few bars here and there.  Cassidy says, "Bars?  I'm not supposed to touch them??  Honey badger don't care."

I really hope I do well with all the dogs at nationals, all for different reasons:

For Cassidy it's because she's been living with me since the end of November just so we can prepare to run at nationals.  Her mom will be there watching (which is pretty stressful!) so that's another reason I hope we do well.

For Apollo I'm sure this will be his last big event (yeah, I said that at 2010 invitationals as well too, but this time I'm pretty sure) so I really want to do the best we can do.  I know he'll give me his best, he always does!  Love my Polly!

For Icon this is his last nationals at 26" and how we do here will decide whether or not I go to Tryouts this year.  I'd really like to, but we'll see...  Icon has been showing classic ETS signs lately, well for quite a while now but it's only the last few months that I've acknowledged it.  It's your typical stuttering before spreads, after tunnels, when there are large spaces between jumps, etc.  It's very dependent on environment (surface, lighting, course design...) as well but it's definitely there when the conditions are right (or wrong, depending how you look at it).  After a particularly bad USDAA trial in January I tried to move Icon down to 20" for nationals but it was just past the closing date.  So nationals will likely be our swan song at 26".  So yeah, I'd like to do well. :)

9 comments:

  1. Oh, nooooo about the ETS! I wonder what's doing it after all this time? Older joints?

    Hope you all do well at nationals AND have a great time and find plenty of friends to share all that food with--you don't want to haul all that extra weight back with gas prices the way they are.

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  2. Thanks for letting us crash on Tuesday! We had a blast. See you guys soon for a fun weekend!!

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  3. ETS? Bummer! Icon will love jumping 20 inches, though. Wishing you and the pupsters best of luck and laughs in Reno. See you there!

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  4. I'm very sorry to hear this :(

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  5. Good luck at Nationals, and I hope it is your best showing ever, for all of the reasons you listed and more. We will be rooting for you.

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  6. I certainly understand wanting to put off acknowledging the problem, I went through that with cousin Steam. Sorry this is effecting you and Icon as well.

    And I think you did a very nice job of doing very well with all three dogs at Nationals. Congratulations!

    Merc has the same attitude about bars as Cassidy, sigh... :-)

    Jo and the Boys

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  7. It's hard to acknowledge that your dog "can't" do 26" - especially when they have so much talent. I'm a lot happier with Ten at 20" and 22" where she's pretty darn functional.

    Maybe this sounds funny, and maybe you don't feel this way - but I'm sorry for your loss. It is a loss, and I think it's nice when people acknowledge that. The up side is you probably have lots of time with him as your agility partner at 20" and of course he is a wonderful dog no matter what his jump height.

    Nancy, Ten, Ky and (almost) puppy Soul

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    1. Thanks guys,

      Jo, it was great seeing you, and sorry about Slider's bad call :(. It's not fun when it happens at a normal trial, but to have it happen at nationals really sucks. I don't think I can call Cassidy a honey badger anymore though, she really cared at nationals!

      Nancy, I do consider it a loss. When I got Icon I had no interst in international agility but I became addicted to it. It'll be sad not to do it anytmore. I know, there's WAO/IFCS where he could jump 22 (I think, not entirely sure about the cutoffs) and USDAA has the 'master's challengers' courses but it's not the same. But anyway, it's MY loss, not Icon's. He doesn't care where we do agility.

      Anyway, Since Icon did well at nationals I'm thinking of giving tryouts one more go. Maybe I'll enter Rampage too. I still have another week or so to decide...

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