Night Trial Adventures

Well, after 10 hours of sleep I'm starting to feel slightly human again...night trials are very exhausting! Overall, it was a decent trial - not great Q-wise, but I think we had enough good moments to make up for some ugly ones. :)

Since it was her birthday, I'll start with Indy - she had a pretty good night. We started with weavers and she had a great run with a Q and first place. Since she's been popping out at the 10th pole in trials, I babysat the weaves a little more than usual, but no popping on Friday night. Her chances run was good, but she took the a-frame instead of the tunnel (very typical for her) and she was clean in jumpers, but a few wide turns caused us to be less than a second over time. Darn! Her regular run was also good up until the dog-walk at the very end, but she decided to take the tunnel instead (again, no surprise here).

So even though we only had one Q, again I'm really happy to see Indy running with some enthusiasm. I really wish that she would be as confident with the dog-walk in trials as she is in class, but I'm not sure if that will ever happen. In the meantime, I'm just trying to keep her happy and hope that at some point the confidence will come.



Now for Peyton...where to start!? He was just wild-wild-wild all night...it was like he was running on about 10 cups of coffee! We started with weavers and after a wild start he did very well, but took an off-course tunnel near the end so no Q. Our first run was probably our best run...I think it went downhill from there!

Our chances run was wild, our jumpers run was wild, and both rounds of regular were pretty wild too. Hey, at least we were consistent. :)

Compared to our last trial, I think our biggest problem this weekend was that I just couldn't get Peyton to relax. He was high as a kite all night and way too overstimulated to be able to *think* when we were running. I'm not sure if it was because we were at a new location, or maybe because we were crated next to one of the rings, but in hindsight I think I probably should have moved him to a more quiet area. I also think that our next night trial I should probably just take Peyton so I have more time to work with him...at this point, it's just too much to try to run Indy too and make sure that both of them get the attention they need.

On the handling front, *I* was a disaster. I just couldn't get where I needed to be to give him direction and as a result, I lost him in a lot of places that I don't think I would have if I was in the right position. I know he requires a lot more handling support in trials than in class, but I couldn't figure out how to get where I needed to be. I've also decided that I start to lose my sense of humor after around 11 pm, and since we didn't finish until almost 3 am, there were several runs where my frustration didn't help much. :)

I've always enjoyed night trials with Indy, but I'm not sold on the idea yet with Peyton. He requires a lot more thinking and work that I'm not sure I'm capable of giving so late at night (or early in the morning!).

On a good note, I did decide to work on some short lead-outs with him, and with the exception of the very last run, he held his stay pretty well. And with the exception of his first a-frame, he stopped on all of the other contacts.

After reviewing his videos, I don't think we were quite as bad as it felt at the time, but I definitely had more spotty dog than I could handle!