It was the last day at the show. It was high to low in agility so Travis was scheduled to run early. Travis did not Q in standard. The course took you straight down the middle with a sharp left turn into a tunnel underneath the A-Frame. The problem is
that the handler is stuck on the right side and is forced to rear cross the jump prior to the turn to the tunnel. Rear crosses cause wider turns and more questions, so Travis ended up choosing the A-frame over the tunnel. And then he did a weird thing later in the course... he turned around in one of the tunnels and came out the same end he went in. In Jumpers, he placed 1st again with 20 MACH points. It was not a very smooth run and it literally came down to the last jump. The last few jumps were sort of a straight line, but he was angled in such away that it became a zig zag. The crowd had already given a sorry sigh about missing the last jump when Travis made a hard turn and just barely cleared the last jump for the Q.
In obedience, Katie had Utility 1 again where articles come second. Her heeling was great and for the 4th time in a row, she completed all of the her signals which can occasionally be a problem for her. Articles were also correct and it was strange again because the judge put both articles in relatively the same place - 11 and 12 o'clock. Everything was going very well and I was beginning to think that we might actually qualify, but I also knew that she had not successfully done her directed jumping for the other 3 days, so I was not holding my breath. Well, she didn't even go out on the first go out.... took about 1 stride and kind of gave the "do I have to look". I said "yes". So for part 2, she did go out, but again just came half way back before actually sitting. Definitely need to work on that.
that the handler is stuck on the right side and is forced to rear cross the jump prior to the turn to the tunnel. Rear crosses cause wider turns and more questions, so Travis ended up choosing the A-frame over the tunnel. And then he did a weird thing later in the course... he turned around in one of the tunnels and came out the same end he went in. In Jumpers, he placed 1st again with 20 MACH points. It was not a very smooth run and it literally came down to the last jump. The last few jumps were sort of a straight line, but he was angled in such away that it became a zig zag. The crowd had already given a sorry sigh about missing the last jump when Travis made a hard turn and just barely cleared the last jump for the Q.
In obedience, Katie had Utility 1 again where articles come second. Her heeling was great and for the 4th time in a row, she completed all of the her signals which can occasionally be a problem for her. Articles were also correct and it was strange again because the judge put both articles in relatively the same place - 11 and 12 o'clock. Everything was going very well and I was beginning to think that we might actually qualify, but I also knew that she had not successfully done her directed jumping for the other 3 days, so I was not holding my breath. Well, she didn't even go out on the first go out.... took about 1 stride and kind of gave the "do I have to look". I said "yes". So for part 2, she did go out, but again just came half way back before actually sitting. Definitely need to work on that. Open also went very well. She was very methodical and maybe even a little bored by day 4. I think in her mind she's thinking that it would be just so much easier to skip the work and go straight to the food jackpots. Its hard having to do 5 minutes of intense work prior to any reward. Anyways, Open came down to the last exercise, the broad jump. The broad jump is a silly exercise in my opinion. Its 4 - boards slightly raised, creating a 48 inch long jump. Well, she ticked the first board with her front feet, so that was an NQ. Again she performed perfect sits and downs and this time in the cold wind. 
Around 1 PM we started to pack it up (Stephen doing most of that work - Thanks, Snookums) and as you can see in the picture, the dogs do absolutely nothing. They are the superstars. We haul their stuff in, set it up to perfection, and take care of their every need.
I said goodbye to some of our new friends and encourage 2 ladies to come to the Perry show in April. Maybe we will see them one day.
We left at about 2:30 PM. Stephen drove until 10 or 11 PM or so and I drove until 3:45 AM. The drive home was much easier and we arrived at close to 7 AM. Definitely a worthwhile trip, we had a blast!
