Nari posing with all of her ribbons:
The red ribbon that she's kind of wearing is for taking 2nd place in the Grand Prix. She's wearing her cool coat in that picture. Some people came up to us and said she looked like a little super hero with it on during her practice jumps. It does kind of look like a little cape :)
Nari taking a very short break between runs - she's such a happy girl during trial weekends, always smiling.
Here she is relaxing in bed after a long day. She loves to lay up against the pillows.
Everyone loved watching Nari's Snooker runs because she is so sassy! She hates the slower speed we run for Snooker so she literally yells at me the entire time going 'Ahhh!', 'Ahhh!', 'Ahhh!' over and over and over... Makes me laugh every time, I love it. It was a pretty awesome trial, I love USDAA trials and I love watching the Masters Ring. Stuart Mah was there this time so I got to watch him run his BCs - he is so amazing! The judges liked Nari and one even told me that he was researching them online after I told him Nari's breed.
Here are some of the details:
Saturday
Advanced Standard - 1st and Q - this was our first time in Advanced Regular :)
Advanced Jumpers - NQ Nari got faulted for a dropped bar - I was still feeling a little dizzy from being sick so I gave her a late cue.
Advanced Snooker - 2nd and Q - this was our first time in Advanced Snooker :)
Starters Pairs Relay - 1st and Q and completed her SR title!
Grand Prix - 2nd and NQ - We were so close to getting a Q in the Grand Prix - they judge this with Masters rules and we got a fault because Nari paused to sniff the ground (I should have cued the jump sooner but I was pretty out of energy by then and careless with some cues) before doing one of the last jumps! So close!!
Starters Gamblers - 2nd and NQ - we totally missed the dogwalk - tunnel discrimination
Sunday
Steeplechase, Round 1 - 2nd and Q!! I was so excited about this one because this was Nari's first tournament Q!!!! I thought we weren't going to Q because she knocked a bar but we were fast enough that even with the knocked bar we made time!
Advanced Snooker - 1st and Q
Advanced Jumpers - 1st and Q
Advanced Standard - 1st and Q
Starters Gamblers - 1st and Q! The Joker had a tunnel-A-frame discrimination, similar to the one on Saturday. I took Aces advice and told myself that she could do it and just trusted that she would understand and she didn't even hesitate to do it! I was just so excited that she got another Gamblers Q :)
Monday
Steeplechase, Round 2 - E - I was not feeling that great in the morning and gave Nari a late cue and she went off course.
Advanced Snooker 1st - Q and she completed her AS title!
Advanced Standard 2nd - Q and she completed her ASA title!
Starters Gamblers 2nd - Q and she completed her SG title!
Advanced Jumpers - 1st and NQ - we had to do this run about 2 minutes after finishing our Gamblers and we were both pretty much out of it and couldn't focus. Nari started out slow but I got her going and gave a late cue and she went off course into a tunnel. I couldn't really blame her because it was in the 90's by then and that tunnel looked nice and shady.
What an amazing weekend!
ReplyDeleteDo you run Nari in Championship at 16"? How tall is she?
Kaiser is 14" and I'll more than likely end up doing Performance 12" with him. He doesn't seem happy doing courses at 16" and his confidence starts to waver. :o( He (barely) measured into the 12" class in NADAC and he's quite happy there, so I figure it's probably best to let him stay at 12" when we start running USDAA (next year, when Secret is old enough).
It was such a fun weekend, I love USDAA trials!!
ReplyDeleteYes, Nari runs in Championship at 16". She's just barely over 14", the judges' measurements range from 14" to ~14.3". She seems to be happy jumping 16", I've looked at the pictures of her jumping and she clears the jumps by several inches.
Oh I agree -- She clears them with ease, which is why I was wondering if she was taller.
ReplyDeleteKaiser often is clearing 20"/22" in his jumping photos, which is why I would think that he would be fine at 16" -- I've experimented in the last month at home and at first he was fine jumping 16", but then he started to go around stuff. Not good.
Ultimately, I've done zero jump work with him so far as grids and such -- The one time I tried, he completely shut down (even at 12"!). I think he suffers from a slight case of ETS (early take-off syndrome), which might be why he over-jumps so much. I figure I may as well leave well enough alone with him and let him jump 12" if he's happier there.
And really, USDAA is coming around and making Performance a bit more "equal" now, so it's no big deal. In my area, the Performance classes tend to be pretty big, especially for the small dogs.
I think there is great competition in both Performance and Championship down here. We have some former and current World team members around who run their dogs in both so it really doesn't matter that much. Starbuck is the same height as Nari but I think that I'm going to run her in Performance.
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