Luke was amazing this weekend! He remained completely sound the entire trial and his face just shone with happiness. Many people commented to me that he looked like he was just bouncing with joy to be back in the ring.
Saturday was a bit of a comedy of errors, but Luke was enjoying himself so much that I just had to laugh. The first thing I noticed was that we had NO start line stay of any sort. Once that leash left Luke's neck he was off like a shot. I adjusted our start style after figuring this out and things got a lot better.
During our first two regular open classes I struggled just to keep up with him! Both classes had little minor "oops" moments basically stemming from not having been able to practice our handling skills for so long. Really, the whole day echoed that sentiment -- I could tell that we were both a little out of practice. I wasn't upset in the least, though, because we were both having so much fun just being back out there.
The only class we qualified in all day was weavers, but oh what a great run it was! It was the fifth class of the day but Luke was still exploding with energy. He flew through the tunnels and hit all of his weave entries spot on. We came in TEN SECONDS under the OPEN time! It just felt great, especially after our haphazzard earlier rounds.
Jumpers was the last class of the day and this caused me a little bit of nervousness because I was worried about Luke holding up all day and then being able to jump after doing five other classes. We only needed one more novice jumper Q to get his novice versatility title and this class has plagued us from the beginning! Long story short, Luke got sucked into the tunnel after the second jump, so a 10pt penalty kept us from completing this title on Saturday.
I let Luke sleep in bed with me Saturday night so that he'd be comfy and well-rested for another long day on Sunday. I spoil him so! lol It did him well, though, as he was all fired up and ready to go when we left the house that morning.
Our first open regular run of the day was almost magical. Aside from a very slight bobble at the weave entrance that we had to re-do, the run was completely flawless. Luke came in 16 seconds under time -- this Q earned him his open regular title! Less than a year into it and my dog has his first open title! I don't think I'll rush him into elite right away, though. I figure I should at least wait until he gets more of his open level titles, if not his open versatility. I also want to run him at proficient in elite to work towards the NATCH, which means he has to be completely sound and jumping 20".
We actually got our first elimination during our second regular run. He was just crazy from the very start. The weaves were the third obstacle but he was dead set on going to the dog walk. Three times I tried to get him back to starting the weaves and he kept going back to the dog walk. After the third time he actually barked at me! He's never done that on course before! I said to myself, "Okay, let's just have fun." We just made up our own little fun course and left the ring. I tried to avoid doing too many jumps but he took them on his own -- Luke wanted to jump this weekend!
We missed our chances Q again yesterday, so we still don't have any open level chances points. Oh well, it will come. This run was going really nicely but we cut a corner a little tight and Luke brought down the jump. Then, on top of that, he surprised me by NOT sucking into the tunnel and coming to me to do the layered jump (wrong). Go figure!
Luke completed his touch and go with almost six seconds to spare yesterday (and yes, got his contacts!), so I'm happy to see that the open time shouldn't be as hard to get as I thought. He was also six seconds under time in his tunnelers class and that was with a slight bobble! I honestly didn't know how the judge was going to call it because Luke started into the wrong tunnel at one point, reversed and continued on the correct course. Me, being as close as I was, saw that his back toes JUST touched the tunnel, so I didn't know which way the judge would go. She gave it to us, though, and he got another open tunnelers Q.
Finally.... Jumpers. The sixth class of the day; the 12th class of the weekend. I had no idea how much dog I had left, but it turns out he was still flying high. The course was simple and flowing with only a couple of crosses. Luke took off like a shot in front of me but did a great left turn when asked. I barely beat him to make a front cross in front of the tunnel and then I held my breath down the last line of four jumps. I didn't say ANYTHING and just hoped Luke would keep going and keep the jumps up as I trailed behind him trying to keep up.
HE DID IT! Luke crossed that last jump and I just yelled out, "You did it!" He got his last novice jumper Q for his novice jumper title -- to complete his novice versatility award! I was so afraid that we'd be stuck in novice jumpers forever. Plus with the recent lameness I didn't think we'd ever get our versatility. I was riding high on cloud nine all afternoon after that. Luke got the rest of his bag of liver treats as a reward -- at least a 1/4 of the bag! I'm sure he was wondering what all the fuss was about!
He'll get another break now because our next trial isn't until the end of January. I was originally hoping to take him to a trial in MN at the end of the month but didn't want to risk entering because of his injury. It turns out the trial is full now, but I still don't think I'd want to push him to go to an away trial again at this point. We'll take it easy, take another visit to the chiropractor in a few weeks and then start training in January for the next trial. I'm looking forward to finally getting to try our hand at the open level jumpers!