Gold!

SUMMARY: More titles in Tika's amazing run of Qs. Boost had some good things.

Tika tried to be very consistent today:

• 3rd in Steeplechase round 2
• 3rd and Q in Jumpers
• 3rd and Q in Standard
• 3rd and Q in Grand Prix

But dropped off a bit:

• 4th, no Q, in gamblers (although she still had excellent opening points--a send that worked well with boost int he gamble didn't work with Tika, go figure)
• 4th and Q in Pairs Relay, last run of the weekend.

So Tika was 9 of 10 for Qs for the weekend.

I didn't realize until I got home that that final Q in Relay did two things:

• Completed Tika's Performance Relay Champion Silver (25 Qs)
• Completed Tika's Lifetime Achievement Award Gold!!  Woo hoo!  350 lifetime Qs in Masters, P3, and Tournaments. 

Never thought I'd get to LAA-Gold. (According to points listed on the USDAA web site, I count only about 200 dogs that have ever reached this level.)

Now I can think a little about LAA platinum, which very few dogs get--500 Qs. That's a lot of trials, a lot of Qing, and a lot of time during which Tika would need to stay sound and happy. I think that's pretty unlikely, though--the last 150 Qs took us a year and a half. What are the odds that Tika will still be hale & happy as she nears her 12th birthday, given her history? Time will tell--who knows!

Boost's weekend looked like this:

• Weaves: Never popped out early, missed entry only once.
• Contacts: Held them all in 2on/2off position even when I did weird things.
• Table down: Fast and stayed down (2 tables for the weekend).
• Start line stay: Solid until, once again, last run of the weekend, pairs, when she left early & the complexities cost us a Q.

And that's about what I can say about that. It does occur to me that, without working on fixing the problems, and continuing to pour entry fees and frustration into her agility so-called career, fits that definition of insanity that you've heard, i'm sure: Doing the same thing over and over and expected the results to be different.

She did, however, paint the tip of her tail blue and purple; quite a few dogs have been sporting colors at our trials lately.