CPE Day 2, Ah, Well

SUMMARY: Even fewer Qs, and no blue at all.

Welllll, Tika got six Qs in a row this weekend without even thinking about it but the wheels fell off the gocart today. She ended with only 7 of 10 (I had thought we had 8 until I just recounted), so only 2 of 5 today.

Boost also Qed in only 2 of 5 today. And NO blue ribbons! I can't blame it all on Chaps:

• In Snooker, I ran it successfully with Tika for a Q and then (doh!) ran it incorrectly with Boost (thinking, "huh, this doesn't seem to be the way I ran it with Tika"--and a moment later, the judge's whistle blew). Sheesh! Since I picked an easy-to-get-through course rather than a high-point course, Chaps won, Tika took 2nd, and Boost got nuthin'.
• Then in Standard, Chaps wasn't even entered and we still didn't get a blue ribbon--courtesy of each Merle Girl knocking a bar, so no Qs. We still took 3rd (Tika) and 4th (Boost) of 5 dogs. Brenn got the blue this time.
• In Colors, Tika knocked a bar for an NQ, so two runs in a row with a bar down; Boost  had a great run and I thought that Chaps couldn't possibly beat our time but, yes indeedy, Boost's time was 15.65 and Chaps' was 15.16. Curses! So a 2nd and a Q for Boost.
• In Jackpot, Tika just wasn't fast enough to get two dogwalks in the opening (halfway across when the whistle blew, so that's 5 points we missed) plus knocked a bar that we took twice (so minus 2 more points--and that's three classes in a row with a knocked bar). She did get the gamble for a Q and a 4th.
  But Boost was spot on, other than a couple of wider, slower turns trying to get her to the teeter in the opening. She nailed it! And she's really fast! She turned back to me on the approach to the gamble but I finally got her over the first jump and the rest was a breeze. I thought for SURE we had Chaps' number on this one.
  But, to hear Chaps' handler tell it, Chaps ignored her cues and did back-to-back tunnels all by himself in the opening that she hadn't planned on doing while she was trying to call him back to her, which actually turned out to work better than the course she had planned, and wouldn't you know it,  Chaps tied Boost at 49 points for highest in trial, but they were faster through the gamble for the 1st. If we'd had better turns to the teeter, we'd have picked up one more jump at the end for another point and the win, or possibly if boost would just dang go over jumps in front of her at the gamble. Jeez! We all talk about how Chaps seems to always know the right thing to do, but who knew that he could actually scout out the opposition and plan a gamblers opening on his own to get those high points!?
• Finally, Jumpers, and it was very sad. I sent Tika off to the far corner to take 2 jumps and then beat feet across the field--she took one and skipped the next one, so off course. Boost then knocked a bar and decided not to take a tunnel, of all things! And so then I stood there for about 10 seconds, calmly saying, "Tunnel", and "look--tunnel" while she bounced back and forth in front of me in a frenzy.

At least it *was* much cooler today than yesterday, although still really dusty. Here's about my 8th attempt to wipe the dust off the score table. And we were working there all the time, too!

Thank goodness Boost won something in the raffle--another water-bottle cover toy (slip in an empty water bottle and then the dogs love the crinkling noises when they bite on it) and an ice-bottle bolster: Fill and freeze a couple of bottles of water and put it in the dog's crate on hot days. Will have to try it and see whether the dogs like it the next time it looks to be pretty warm.