Drama King

So Factor decided to hold out until the last possible opportunity at the show last weekend to complete his Novice Agility title. All we needed was one more clean run to complete our title and get out of Novice. We had 4 opportunities-one each day of the 4 day show and Factor waited until Sunday. Friday's run was very nice and I actually thought that he had Q'd when we finished. I was very excited but none of my friends were cheering so I knew something had to have happened. So we come off the course and a friend/instructor comes up to me and tells me that the judge called the upside of the dog walk contact. Meaning that Factor didn't touch the yellow side of contact when he was getting on. To say the least, I was bummed.

So on Saturday we tried it again, he had a beautiful run and as he went over the last jump (a double jump) he dropped his back foot and dropped the bar. I had tears welling up in my eyes I was so disappointed and the Kris (friend/instructor) came up to me and told me that the judge had called the upside of his teeter contact. I had missed this call also. So, I wasn't so upset that he had dropped the bar then.

Sunday was our last opportunity and I was very worried about his upside contacts now. Jan told me that there was nothing that I could do to fix them right now so I needed to put it out of my mind. It was a very nice course and I tried not to worry, but I kept my eye on each yellow contact to make sure that he put a paw in each one. He was a stinker in the weaves and wouldn't get in them right away but he completed them. He finished the course CLEANLY and everyone was cheering when we crossed the last jump, so I figured we had done it. I heard Kris say that she didn't want to be the first one to talk to me because she had been the one to give me the bad news the past two days so she didn't want me to think that we hadn't Q'd.

I was very happy and I think that Factor knew it because he got lots of turkey and played a bunch with his new toy. So it was a nice way to end our weekend, going home with a 2nd place ribbon along with a green Q ribbon.

Jan ran Sklyer and Zelma this weekend also. Skyler came home with 2 green ribbons from 2 jumpers runs. She was having a hard time with her contacts so no standard Q's. Zelma was also having some contact issues and some off courses in jumpers so she didn't have any Q's but she sure had a GREAT time.

You can check out pictures of Factor, Zelma and Skyler at www.greatdanephotos.com under the Hounds for the Holidays show and then under each dogs name.

We are entered in a NADAC show New Year's weekend in Burnsville so that should be a lot of fun and then back to AKC and ASCA in January.