Fri New Mexico Courses

Looks like I inadvertently labeled yesterday's courses (which were from Friday) Saturday's and I'll just label today's (the real Saturday's) Friday's Clear as mud? LOL

This course had some interesting lines that don't come across as technical on paper, but were a challenge to handlers. They were:
* #3 to the a-frame with that off-course tunnel sucked in quite a few dogs. Some had already made their choice and were hell bent on taking it and others were handling errors. Some pushed their dog into the exit side of the tunnel and others caused a refusal at the a-frame as they pulled too hard.
*#6 - the teeter was a unique line (I know, looks boring on paper!) as the dogs were focused on the a-frame and with a simple step in toward the dog from the handler, the majority of dogs changed their lead leg and redirected to the teeter.
* The #10 - #13 sequence was not one to take for granted and it first required a push over the #10 jump at an angle.
* From #14 - #16, most handlers hung back and did a rear cross at #15, even if they were ahead of their dog. I liked the angle that it created for the dog to the weaves, but wondered if a rear cross would/could have the same tight line with a little more speed.
* The surprise challenge was getting from the #17 jump down through to the #19 triple. Unfortunately, quite a few handlers were behind and forfeited a clean run when their dog passed by the triple when there handlers either called them too hard and pulled the dog off of the obstacle or the dog incurred a refusal when it went searching for its owner who was 2 obstacles back.


As for Excellent JWW, we started with an unusual place for the first obstacle and worked our way around the weave poles.

As expected, some dogs took the off course tunnel exit. However, I really wanted to point out how great several teams did on executing the weave pole entry.

While not impossible, the positioning required either a bit of handling or a dog who was comfortable finding the weave entry on their own. This group did a great job and I'd love to come back and practice the various ways the handlers did setup for this obstacle.

The off course #16 dog was a close call for several teams and the #14 jump required a bit of a push out or support. If this was lacking, dogs pulled in too early and incurred a refusal/runout call.

For me, the day was non-stop as I made sure both rings were always ready to walk, paperwork was in order and all of the other usual judgely stuff. A few nice perks were that we were done by 2:00 p.m. and the weather was wonderful! I actually think I have a bit of color from the sun!

Since we were done in a timely manner, I had a chance to go back into the quaint little Indian town just down the road and do a bit more browsing around. Later we met for dinner at a Mexican restaurant near 'the square' and had a WONDERFUL meal! I believe they're stopping tonight to get me tamales to take home with me tomorrow....I can't wait!

A bit of news from the home front, Dan got his first Double Q with Spot today! That puts Spot at 10 DQ's and 1100 points toward his MACH2. Maybe I'll put that down as a goal for 2010 : )