HALLOWEEN HOWLER NADAC TRIAL 2009

ONE Q and a FIRST IN STANDARD, and some learning opportunities!


This was the first course we ran. WHAT check out the tunnel/dogwalk discrimination. I looked at that when I got to the trial and wondered how that was going to happen. We trained that one night, it was aweful that night, and then I was working on the dog walk and getting contacts so I did not throw in any more of the discrimination with it. Whoops! Anyway, when I was coming back from that tunnel, I kept running straight into her line and did not turn to the dogwalk when I normally would, yelled tunnel, and the little sweetie did it. We had a super fast time, a Q and a first place. AND SHE GOT ALL HER CONTACTS!!!!-the whole reason we did the trial was to test that. As a bonus we got the weaves first try! Great start to the day.

Novice Standard Run Course 2
If you have not done NADAC before there are generally two standard runs, or at least there are at the ones I have been to. They run the first course then they reverse the course and run it again. So this was try two. I was worried again about the tunnel/dogwalk. Breeze was a little stressed this run, she would not play with the ball while we were waiting, and I brought her in and she was sniffing the ground. When I went to put her on the start line she would not lay down (her position at the start) and just tried to do a bow. YIKES!. So we go and she does awesome, at the dogwalk/tunnel discrimination I do a little RFP (which I have never shown her), and she got the dog walk. Whew!!! She got to the end of the dog walk and could not stick the contact and sort of bounced off. I looked at her and thought, my goal was to work the contacts so I just popped her back on, but I knew that was OK in NADAC but it also gave me the big E---not E for excellent, E for ELIMINATED, LOL. I did not know if she would recognize the hoop and drive for it at the end but she did fine. This time Breeze did her usual lately and missed the weaves the first time but did gorgeous as soon as I took her back and had her start again. Check out where the Aframe is facing, I am sure that made it much more tempting for Breeze to blow that contact but she did it wonderfully and actually she usually has a tendency to lay down at the bottom of the Aframe sideways, but with the tunnel in front it worked like when I put the ball down to release her too and it was the prettiest contact she has ever done!!!



Run Three JUMPERS!!!
After the stress signs Breeze showed for the last run I was glad we were doing jumpers. It looked like a SUPER SIMPLE, really flowey, really super easy course. When I walked it it still looked terrific. Breeze was not going to play with the ball on our way there so I took some food and started doing some tricks. That made her happy but when I said "speak" to see if I could get her happy, the gate steward started screaming at me. I did not think of it at the time but there were dogs all along the sides of the ring barking, so WHAT??? Anyway, Breeze went in and went to the start line, lay down and the minute I walked out, just a few feet she was up and looking very unsure. DRATS! I told her down, and then released her, well, she had moved a little too close to the first jump so she ran around it. I could have fixed it but at this point I just wanted to work on her stress, so I kept running. The rest of the runs we felt like one, when I was running I did not feel the difference between her and me, but this run, boy we did not feel like we were on the same page at all. So we finished, there was a little spinning, but if she had not gone around that first jump, or if I had fixed it we would have Q'd, but I deceided that was not the goal for today.

So why did Breeze stress? She has done that once or twice at trials before, and she has not done a lot of trials, so I do think it is something I need to figure out. We were sitting where it was hot, and the shade was not great. The only place we could find shade was by this RV and they had this little kid running all over it, he was a nice, cute kid, but kids make Breeze nervous, so I shielded her the best I could and after the second run I took her and left her in the car until the last run so she would not have to worry. I took Breeze out a lot and played with her and tried to give her down time. I was trying to use the ball which is her favorite thing before the runs, but on the third run I switched to treats which seemed to make her way happier before we went into the ring. So not sure what the deal was. Tomorrow we have jumpers and tunnelers so we will see.