Gah!  Sometimes I just want to strangle my dog.    Well okay, not for real, but I came close this weekend!

We had another trial at Family Dog Center this weekend, only two weeks after the last!  I figured, if anything, that Luke might do a little better since he hasn't had too much of a break.  I even worked on his contact performance a couple of times in the week prior and thought that I might be getting through to him.

Luke's first run of the day was his first time ever going in elite regular.  It was absolutely wild and crazy.  My notes say, "Absolutely nuts.  Lots of barking, did not want to wait at the start line.  Jumped contacts and generally did his own thing."  And yes, that's it in a nut shell!  I'm used to be being awful for the first run of the day, but this was classic.  That run netted us 50 faults.  Wee!

He was still sassy for the second run but behaved much better.  He just BARELY hit his contacts -- I wasn't sure if the judge was going to give us the dog walk or not until I got the results back.  Unfortunately he brought down a bar on a tight rear cross (my fault!), but since I'm still running him in skilled, he got a 5 point Q!  His first ever in elite!

Touch-n-go was another nightmare run.  He took a tunnel out of turn and jumped both the dog walk and the a-frame for 30 faults.  It was getting less amusing as the day wore on!

The chances class (which we have yet to Q in at the open level!) had a very difficult distance test, but it didn't really matter since Luke had already leapt off the dog walk and gotten disqualified.

He redeamed himself with an absolutely beautiful jumper run, though!  It flowed so nicely and he actually did a start line stay for me.  He followed this up with a qualifying weavers run, but just barely!  He had an issue with the first set of six poles -- he wanted to just blast past them and I had a difficult time getting him in.  We did it, though, and he came in under time by only one second!

We did a non-scored Hoopers run at the end of the day so that everyone could give it a go before we add it to the next trial.  Luke and I have done phase one hoopers that runs like a jumpers course, but have never seen phase three.  It was a lot of fun and Luke actually came in SECOND above dogs who've actually done it before!  It was great and I'm really looking forward to adding that class in March.

Everyone went out to Carlos O'Kelly's after the trial and stayed there a bit too long.  Luke was fine in the car wearing his blanket, but I'm sure he was wondering what the heck was wrong with Mom when I got back in the car.  I was just a little giggle-y! 

We switched things around and started with jumpers on Sunday.  I was a little worried since Luke is a maniac first thing in the morning, but he actually was superb.  I got really good distance work (since there was no way I could keep up with him first thing!), but he pulled down one jump.  Darn it, we only need one more jumper Q to move up to elite!

Tunnelers was an absolutely picture perfect run in every way possible.  He didn't make even one bobble on course and he STAYED in front of the first tunnel until I released him!  His time was 19.62 and the elite Q time was 25.3!  I think we'll have our elite tunnelers title in no time at all!

Luke decided that contacts were for sissies in touch-n-go.  He took a flying leap off the dog walk and then did the same when we came around to the a-frame.  I decided that was it and that it wasn't amusing anymore.  I stopped, thanked the judge and took him off the course.  He got zero treats and put back into his kennel without any fuss.  I know he was wondering what the heck that was all about!

I made it distinctly clear that I wanted him to get his contact on the dog walk for chances and he managed, but we just couldn't get the distance!  I thought it was a sure thing since it was just sending out to a line of jumps about 20' away into a tunnel, but I pulled back too quickly and drew him away from the tunnel.  I had to cross the line to get him to go back, so yet again we can't get that elusive open chances Q!

I pulled Luke out of the Regular 1 class because yet again he was not listening in the least on the dog walk.  I reschooled it, got eliminated and then just had him take the a-frame on the way out.

It must have made somewhat of an impression on him.  Our regular 2 run was really, really nice and felt so good!  He got the dog walk, but I think we lost our connection when I did a rear cross at the a-frame -- he took a flying leap off it as I came up behind him and unfortunately it was right in front of the judge.  It was 11 seconds under the elite time, but with 10 penalties we missed a Q.

The next trial is back at FDC March 1 & 2.  I sent in my entry yesterday for the Crystal Lake, IL trial over Easter weekend.  It's going to be a busy spring!