Super Spotty!

We're still trying to get caught up from our trip to Perry, but I thought I'd share a little video of some highlights of our runs. In short, Peyton was awesome! I think we probably had some of our best and most consistent runs ever in a trial.

On our first run Thursday morning, Peyton got his first Excellent JWW leg with 2nd place! That ended up being our only qualifying run, but it was a great one.

We had an awesome trip - fun runs, great friends, and one very happy spotty dog.

Perry Pics!

We got our pictures from Perry! These were taken by Gary Depp of "In Motion Photos" - they really got some really nice shots of my spotty boy and if I hadn't gone a little (err, a LOT) picture-happy at DACOF the weekend before, I would have ordered more.

Love this weaving shot!

Such a cute little jumper...

And finally, a rare photo of me! For anyone who trials, you will likely agree that often the pictures that include us handlers are comical, at best. In my case, I generally look lost, cross-eyed, and a maybe even a little drunk-ish. :) So it was nice to see a picture where I only look slightly disturbed. Not exactly sure what I'm saying here, but since it's the first jump and I'm already behind, I'm sure you can guess what I'm *thinking*...

Peyton OA!

I still can't believe it, but Peyton got his Open Standard title yesterday with another clean run and 1st place! I know he has a lot of potential, but I never ever in a million years thought we could go from Novice to Excellent Standard in just 7 runs. We had just one little bobble on this run which of course, was my fault - I need to remember to keep moving instead of stopping to watch the pretty spotty dog. :) 

We were the second dog to run at 8:30 in the morning - we should have probably called it a day and headed home, but noooo...I decided to stay for Novice JWW which didn't end up starting until 5:30 pm! I made the mistake of thinking that Peyton would be a little tired and we might have a chance of getting our Novice title, but he proved me wrong and we had probably our craziest run of the weekend with one very wild spotty boy and several off-courses. :) 

So overall, we went 4/4 in Standard and 0/4 in JWW this weekend. No complaints from me! It was a really fun trial, but I am so glad to be home - it will be nice to take some time off to recover and catch up on my growing to-do list! 

Peyton & I want to give all of our friends a big thank you for the kind words and encouragement! :)

Open Success!

Three days down, one to go! We had a great day today - started out with Novice Jumpers this morning and had a really nice run, but one knocked bar. I also managed to step on poor Peyton when I pulled him off the jump after the weaves - ouch!



Open standard was next and Peyton did awesome! He was clean and took 1st place - our 2nd leg in Open! I think I over-managed a few spots, but I wanted to make sure that he held his contacts - they were still a little messy, but a big improvement over yesterday. And no table faults today!



Poor spotty boy is exhausted! This is really a tough environment for him, but he's trying so hard and is being such a good boy. I'm looking forward to our runs tomorrow, but it will also be nice to head back home. :)

Peyton NA!

We're halfway through our 4 day Perry trial and so far it's going pretty well! Yesterday we started with Novice JWW and despite two knocked bars, Peyton was not nearly as wild as I expected he would be. His second run was Novice Standard and he qualified with 2nd place and got the third leg needed for his title - yay Peyton! The table continues to be our trouble spot (he had two refusals called), but the rest of his run was great.

Unfortunately, we had some cameraman challenges and only got the first part of his jumpers run on tape...



Today we (again) started with Novice JWW and Peyton was a *wild* spotty. He broke his start line stay and it just kind of went downhill from there. :) Actually it wasn't that bad, but I think I could have done a much better job of handling what could have been a pretty nice course.



Next up was Standard and we managed to get our first leg in open and 2nd place! We had just one refusal at the table; otherwise it was a really fun run. Maybe a little *too* much fun as we had another broken startline and a dogwalk that wasn't supposed to include a running contact. :) Really though that was my fault as I pushed him a little too much for a trial (I was thinking about the table, again).



So that's our update so far! We're having a good time - oh, and there's also a few other Dals running so it's been fun to see some other spotties in action! Tomorrow we start with Novice JWW again - ugh, I would much prefer to start with standard, but maybe tomorrow will be our day for jumpers. :)

Rather Ambitious

That's how I'm feeling at the moment. Starting tomorrow, Peyton and I will be trialing three out of the next four weekends. After spending way too much time debating over whether or I was asking for too much too soon, I finally decided to stop worrying and just go for it. :)

Tomorrow we'll be heading up to Ocala for a night trial. It's a games trial - tunnelers, weavers, and touch n' go - so it should be fun and will hopefully not run too late. Since our last night trial attempt was less than stellar, I'm going to make it a priority to work on keeping Peyton calm and relaxed. This will also hopefully be a good opportunity for us to work on some start-line stays and holding contacts.

Next we'll have DACOF which is over the Fourth of July weekend. As I mentioned before, this will definitely be a challenge...it's indoors, 3 rings running at once, and there will be 37 teams competing with 969 runs on Saturday and 646 on Sunday. Wow! It should be a fun event though and it's always fun to see lots of friends and familiar faces.

Then the following week we'll be heading to Perry, GA for a four day AKC trial. I'm still surprised that I decided to go considering how much I loathe long car trips! Seriously, I'm very impatient when it comes to driving and even though it's not *that* far, anything over 2 hours is far to me. :) On a good note, Peyton's BFF Riley will be going, as well as some of his other buds, so hopefully that will help his comfort level a little bit.

Training-wise, Peyton has been doing pretty well. And actually, when I'm where I need to be, he's awesome! He's just sticky enough that if I don't give him enough forward cues, I end up pulling him off the obstacle. And if I give him too much, I get really wide turns or an off-course. Hopefully one of these days I can find that nice balance of cues. :)

Poor Indy isn't going this weekend. I think it would have been a good trial for her, but after the last trial I decided that Peyton needs more than I can give him when I try to run Indy too. I feel really guilty, but I think she'll most likely enjoy a night away from the little spotted monster. However, that doesn't mean she won't give me sad faces...



Or her famous looks of disgust...either way, she sure knows how to work it!