Fletcher USDAA, Dock Diving, and a new family member

April/May is rapidly becoming a very busy time! The last two weekends we have been out at trials, and have 2 more this month.

April 24-25 was the USDAA trial in Fletcher, NC hosted by the Blue Ridge Agility Club (BRAC). They have now moved the USDAA trial to the indoor arena at the Western NC Agricultural Center, which we could not be happier about. The covered arena was better than no arena, but I really disliked the footing in that arena. It was hard, and had too many rocks. The indoor arena has a little softer footing, but not like running in sand, and rocks aren't as much of a problem.

Harley's performance was...well...a little subpar for us. We got blanked for Q's on Saturday, mostly due to contact issues. For some reason, Harley decided that the dog walk and a-frame down contacts weren't required! Still, we had fun, and placed 3rd in two of the classes. We nearly had a Q in Pairs, but our partner eliminated on a wrong course. We don't hold anything against them for it, as that is the inherent challenge of being paired with a stranger. I really like pairs, as you get to meet a fellow competitor that you might not have gotten to know otherwise. The point of pairs is to have fun with your partner, and Q's are a nice topping. Harley did an accommodating run with another dog and Q'd with them (An accommodating run is where a dog does not have a partner, so a dog from another pair will run with them. The accommodating dog does not get credit for the Q, and cannot run the same half of the course they already ran). So technically we did Q on Saturday, but don't get the credit for it :-) Our Snooker run was looking dead on....until Harley knocked the #2 jump in the closing sequence. We needed to get through #4 to Q.

Sunday started out as a continuation of Saturday. More contact issues in Standard. Finally we got some Q's at the end of the day. Harley had a decent Snooker run with some fast thinking for James since Harley took an incorrect obstacle. Also, during the weaves, Air Force 1 took off from the adjacent airport, which made Harley pop out of her weaves due to the noise! We adjusted, however, and ended up with 40 points (need 37 to Q). Last of the day was Jumpers, which is always Harley's best event. She was visibly slower (last run of a two day trial), but still managed an easy Q.

Fast forward to this past weekend, and we attended our first Dock Dogs trial! Hosted by Carolina Dock Dogs in Sanford, NC, this trial was close and convenient. Unfortunately, Harley broke one of her nails off the day before! We bandaged it up, put some silver nitrate on it to stop the bleeding. Fortunately, it didn't seem to bother her at all, and we decided to see how it went. If it had been an agility trial, we probably would've scratched, but dock diving is must less strenuous on the feet.

Also, we decided to enter Mo in the event, just to see how it went....We only entered him in wave 1. For each wave, you get 2 jumps, and the longest jump is your score. We haven't had a lot of time to work with Mo at the lake like we did with Harley, so he wasn't exactly excited about jumping. We got him to jump in the practice round, but he decided that he just wasn't going to jump when judged. Oh well. Despite his efforts, Mo managed to get his picture in Sunday's Sanford Herald!

Harley had 3 waves on Saturday. Harley jumped a personal best of 21'9" with Kristen in Wave 2! We decided to scratch on Wave 3, since we were worried about her foot.

Sunday was the last 2 waves, and then the finals afterwards. Harley jumped very well, and we ended up in the "Masters" division. Your longest jump places you in a division, and the top 6 dogs in each division compete in the finals. The Masters division is for a longest jump of 20' to 22'11". Harley did pretty well, and ended up placing 4th in the finals.

Coming up this weekend is our 2nd AKC trial in Pendleton, SC!

We would also like to welcome the latest addition to the Davis family - James' sister, Anne, delivered her first child, Quinn Carolina Francis, on May 4th at 11:09 AM. Congratulations! We'll be driving down there soon to see our new niece :-)