Well we are heading into day three today at the USDAA Nationals. The weather has been fantastic for dog agility, mid 70’s! I have run 3

Encore as a 19 month old puppy at her first USDAA Nationals in 2005.

Encore as a 19 month old puppy at her first USDAA Nationals in 2005.

 classes with Encore and 4 with Feature (Feature didn’t get a bye into the semi finals in Steeplechase so had to run in the quarterfinals.  Encore has struggled.  She had a mysterious injury last month (so couldn’t work her in Greg Derrrett or Susan Salo’s workshops when they were at our place).  

 

We don’t know what happen to her but can only guess she ran into something one night in the dark.  Her only lameness was after a morning of work and she walked out of it immediately  I stopped working her for a few weeks because I knew she wasn’t “right”.   She has had many well qualified people look at her but yesterday started the day taking down 5 bars in a pretty uncomplicated jumpers round. Red alert for me, she has never had five bars in a class in her life! She has brought down very few bars all year.  

More body work and she came out in Snooker jumping like her old self, except this time I screw up. I changed my course after seeing my teammate, Terry Smorch run, and visualized what I wanted to do over an over. I executed perfectly but unfortunately my visualization had left on a jump:).  

On a brighter note Feature has run 4 very pretty rounds. I haven’t looked at the standings but I am pretty sure she would have placed in some of them.  She ticked the long jump in the first day’s European Standard but had a gorgeous round other than that. The quarterfinals in Steeplechase she won, but that is a bit hollow since a lot of the faster dogs had a bye into the semis.  Lynda and Favor also got through to the semis along with many other Say Yes students that are here.

So today we have the semi finals in Steeplechase as well as one team standard. Since my dogs have a bye through to the semis in Grand Prix our day will be over by 11:30 this morning. Maybe some time for some more shopping:)

Today I am grateful to see old friends as we all gather again at the USDAA Nationals.