Stephen, Travis, Katie, Reagan, Allie, and I headed for Fletcher (Asheville area) NC for another 3-day agility trial. Yes, I do compete a lot. Right now my excuse is that Travis and I are on a roll, so why the heck wouldn't I show him as much as possible. 2007 and 2008 have been the big pay off years. I started training Travis in 2001 and now its just time to enjoy all of the hard work. There is no more training to do. We know what we are doing. We just keep fit, practice for a few minutes once or twice a week, and we compete. Fun! Fun! My other excuse is that I keep reminding myself that this could be the last time I get to show Travis in Asheville (Decatur, Perry, Harriman, etc. etc.). I hope its not, but I am prepared for whatever.
We left Thursday afternoon and arrived at Red Gates RV Park in Hendersonville at around 8 PM. This is our last tent camping opportunity for the spring/summer. We have camped at this campground a few other times and Park managers look forward to seeing the greyhounds every year.
On Friday, Travis QQed with 4th places in both classes.
Friday's Standard Run
Friday's Jumpers - Just a really nice smooth run. Jumpers is so much fun.
We were done around noon, so we headed for DuPont State Forest to check out some waterfalls. We took all of the dogs on the 0.8 mile hike to Hooker falls.
We saw some wildlife........... yikes!
He kind of ruined my picture of Hooker Falls.... Oh, well.
Reagan made a little friend. How cute are these pictures?
Katie and Travis cooled off.
We then took the seniors back to the van and then hiked to Triple Falls with Reagan.
On Saturday, Travis QQed again. I don't think he placed in either class. In Standard, he was so slow to lie down on the table. It was pretty bad and we wasted about 10 seconds. In Jumpers, I found myself completely out of position at the end of the course. I was suppose to be on the far side of a particular jump with Travis coming to my left side. Instead, I was on the wrong side of the jump with Travis right next to me on my right side. This forced me to have to cross behind him to get back on the correct side which turned him towards the wrong jump. At the last second he realized I wanted to go straight so he veered off and took the tire jump at the most awkward angle. The tire jump does not displace like a bar jump does, so dogs can get hung up in the tire. I just stopped and cringed as he sailed through. He saved my butt and the Q.... good dog! I wish I had this run on video, but Stephen went hiking for the day, so he was not available.
Alas, the QQ streak ends at 8 in a row on Sunday...... not too shabby at all. Travis ran an awesome standard course, but unfortunately dropped a bar on the last jump.
Sunday Jumpers - This was a really fun course for handlers and dogs that like open room to run. It had several nice long lines for running and Travis placed first.
