Dull USDAA Class Results From This Weekend

SUMMARY: In which I enumerate what happened in the various classes in a not particularly interesting way. But maybe the summary could be of vague interest to others.

Summary of what needs work:

• Got several spins from Tika when she was ahead of me headed towards jumps. This almost never happens and tells me that I was too far behind and not quick enough with information. I was very slow this weekend (yes, I really was), and I REALLY need to start doing a bit of jogging and those sprints I keep talking about working on and lose that extra weight. Would also help in all the places where I can't even come close to matching Boost's speed. Just generally have to get back into AT LEAST the shape I was in a year ago and just got lazy.
• Boost ran past 2 or 3 weave entries.  Popped out of only one, I think.
• Tika, dang it, what to do about dogwalk and Aframe contacts? Afr's she usually gets (but no always) if I can be there--see 1st item--but dogwalks are a mess.
• Boost running past jumps while looking at me, not coming in for serps, and just not taking obstacles in front of her (including coming to a complete stop or turned to face me and backing in towards them) if I'm in the picture anywhere.
• Boost knocking bars--although she didn't do a LOT of bars this weekend; Sunday Jumpers had no bars down (but a runout, see preceding item), but Sat's Jumpers had 4 bars down.
• Tika knocked the first bar twice or maybe 3x. I started setting her back even farther than the 12' or so I've been using, and she didn't do it again. Not sure what the issue really was.

Summary of what worked well:

• Boost's contacts were solid. Left one Aframe early in gamblers, I think, but there was a distinct stop. (Although she does tend to veer towards me rather than aiming straight ahead.)
• Neither dog broke a start-line stay all weekend.
• Distance work was good for Tika (actually TOO good in Sat's gamble, where she went out to a REALLY HARD obstacle rather than to the gamble obstacle) and not too bad for boost.
• Wraps: Both dogs seem to have pretty good wrapping skills. Maybe it's because that's one of the few things that I can, and actually do, practice in my back yard.
• Tika's weaves, as usual. Not super-fast, but still decent and reliable.
• Boost's lead-out pivots, even ones where I stood offset (tired--forgetting term for that--horizontal lead-out pivot?), worked nicely for a change, no knocked bars or runouts.
• Both dogs looked like they were having a good time in the ring.

Dull details

Tika Saturday:

• Jumpers: Smooth but not quite fast enough to take 1st (1.3 secs too slow) or 2nd (.15 secs too slow). So a Q and 3rd for one top 10 pt.
• Gamblers: Enough opening points for 2nd place BUT, in the gamble, on the send to a near tunnel, she first sees a FAR tunnel and goes for that. I call her off it, but then, thinking I was out of time, stepped across the line to finish the gamble--turns out I had plenty of time left. Doh. So no Q, no top ten pts.
• Snooker: Get through a slightly tricky opening, good for 1st place, and then front cross in the wrong place in the closing and shove her into the SIDE of a jump, and the whole thing goes down. Yes, indeed, I DID do something stupid in Snooker!
• Standard: Trying to get enough speed for a win, I pushed way too hard on a jump and she knocked a bar on a turn, which right there meant no Q. So then I let up, didn't work it hard at all, and she took an off course.
• Grand Prix: Flew off the dogwalk big time, then no response on "Tika! COME!" and off course on the following obstacle.  I froze in place--body is all pointing where I wanted her to be, nowhere near where she went. Just locked on halfway down the dogwalk, apparently.
• Steeplechase: Pretty nice, took 2nd with no faults, and so a Q and on to Round 2 tomorrow.

Boost Saturday:

• Jumpers: Hit 4 bars and played "this jump?" on the last jump.
• Gamblers: Pretty good opening, did gamble no problem, Q and 7th place which in this huge class was enough for an actual top ten point!
• Snooker: "This jump?" on 2nd red, then knocked it, which immediately took us out of Super-Q contention; "this jump?" on 3rd red and finally took it, but out of time from the dilly-dallying before enough points for even a regular Q (missed by 1 point, sigh).
• Standard: Really a very lovely run, then knocked the next to the last bar. Aughh!
• Grand Prix: Eed on refusuals/runouts.
• Steeplechase: Ran past 2 jumps and had to go back for them, burning time; then crashed the broad jump big time, thought she had hurt herself, but she decided she wanted to finish, so we did, way over time.

Tika Sunday:

• Standard: Knocked the first bar, so no Q right there.
• Snooker: Knocked the first bar, so no top ten points right there.
• Relay: Tika and teammate both ran nicely; ended up in 3rd place with a Q.
• Gamblers: In the opening, FLEW off the aframe big time, dropping us from 1st place to 2nd; then because she was so far ahead, she came back and grabbed my feet, so I had trouble lining her up for the dogwalk and she ended up running PAST it, dropping us to 7th place. Did get the gamble and barely enough opening points. Embarrassing way to get a Q and not even close to top ten pts.
• Jumpers: Smooth and fast on a twisty course, 2nd place, Q, 3 top ten pts, just .3 secs behind the 1st place dog.
• Steeplechase round 2: What the heck, no Q at risk, just a check for some small amount of money. So really pushed it, she responded, we won very cleanly.

Boost Sunday:

• Standard: Knocked the 3rd bar, ran past the weaves, kept one elbow up on the table by about an inch for about 20 seconds before she relaxed enough to let it drop so we could go on.
• Snooker: Wasted lots of time in the opening doing "this jump?"; in closing, because I had to babysit a jump, I was in wrong position for the next one and she backjumped it. No Q again.
• Relay: Boost ran past a jump and I had to go back for it, but she and partner were very fast; we Qed and managed 7th out of 22 teams.
• Gamblers: Nice opening, did 4 out of 5 gamble obstacles perfectly and then scared me with the "this jump?" thing before the 5th, finally going over it with only a second to spare. A Q.
• Jumpers: Kept all her bars up but ran past one jump for a fault, no Q.

Tika Monday (all Performance DAM team events):

• Gamblers: Decent run, 3rd place and a "floating" Q. Teammate Brenn just a few points behind us.
• Jumpers: A couple of awkward places because I was behind her. 3rd place and another floating Q. Teammate knocked 2 bars but that's bearable in team.
• Standard: A couple of miscommunications and a runout, so wasted time plus 2 faults. No floating Q on this one, but at least we didn't E, and teammate did pretty good on this one.
• Snooker: Tika had a great run, won this one. Teammate not too far behind in 3rd place.
• Relay: Clean! Whew! Ended up 4th overall with a Q, just out of the medal places, drat. (Out of 9 Performance teams.)

Boost Monday (all DAM team events):

•  Gamblers: Bobbles in the opening, reducing points accrued; had a lovely bonus round and all we had to do was to get over the finish jump to avoid losing all the bonus points... and she ran past it. Teammate Beadle had same number of points; teammate Quik had a lot more. It wasn't a great round for us overall but not a disaster.
• Jumpers: Bar and a runout, but didn't E. Quik had a great run, placing 3rd; Beadle Eed but one E, especially in jumpers, isn't the end of the world.
• Standard: All three dogs ran clean or close to it (no Es, in other words), a very good thing in Team.
• Snooker: Ran past wvs in opening, futzing with getting over jumps in front of her, etc. Got through reasonably high point opening and fairly far into the closing before she both (a) ran out of time and (b) ran past jump #5 instead of taking it. Teammates were in similar ranges.
• Relay: Mostly clean! All 3 dogs ran well with just a couple of faults, solidifying our Qing position. Ended up 7th out of 21 teams, better than I might have expected.