This past Saturday and Sunday (3/30 and 3/31) we set out to *hopefully* finish CCs PACH. She needed 1 QQ. That was it.
The NexLevel arena was a new venue for us, their first agility trial and the place was brand new (they were still expanding the parking lot!) Crating was tight and was by exercise equipment. I should have gotten a spin cycle session in. The area was safe, so working out of your car was good peace of mind and they had a great food truck called Oink & Moo BBQ for lunch. Saturday the rings were running behind - working the kinks out of a new place. I forgot to move CC up from Excellent FAST to Masters FAST so our first run of the day was a warmup! Then Standard - Ryka was first and aced it (as she usually does). CC knocked a bar, thus ending our hopes for a QQ at about 830 am. Jumpers - Again, Ryka was awesome and Qd, CC and I had an amazing run but she knocked a bar. Sunday: The trial ran "tall to small" - meaning the big dogs go first. I got to sleep in a bit which was great. I got there with plenty of time to watch the bigger dogs run the courses and my hopes sank. The courses had elements to them that have gotten me and CC for years. Mostly due to my timing. My friend Raquel was going to come and watch *because she had a good feeling*, but her car was at the tire place for hours. I told her not to stress out because we had to get through Standard first. I had people help hold the dogs as I had the ONLY 4 inch masters dogs. CC went first this time. And we Qd in Standard. Ryka also Qd in standard! Ok, now the pressure was on. Raquel was on her way and got stuck in traffic she got to the site just in time for the 12 inch class to run. She said "you got this". I watched team after team not qualify and to say I was nervous was an understatement. My friend Stef gave me great advice how to handle the opening and she said "you can do this". I told CC she was the best dog no matter what and off we went...I reached the finish jump and I heard lots of screaming...we did it. CC got her PACH After 6.5 years of trialing starting in Novice, lots of pitfalls, lots of learning, lots of training, taking months off for puppies, deaths of family and friends, vacations, wanting to give up, swearing we would NEVER double Q at all, seeing everyones celebrations (even Rykas) and thinking this will never happen to CC because we just cannot get it together...we got our PACH. |
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January 2021
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