April AKC Trial - Sunday

Part 2 - read about Saturday's runs here.

We had just two runs on Sunday since FAST wasn't being offered, so the day went by much faster, but it certainly had it's own surprises.

We started off with Open Standard again, and this was a strange run - with a total of four tunnels! Somehow, I just had this feeling that Philip would mess up at least one of those... So off we went on the course - no problems to start with. When we got to the table, Philip ran up way too fast and flew right off of it, earning us a table fault. I got him back on it, and we continued the run back on track. Now, one of the multiple tunnels was the very last obstacle on the course, and with the way the approach worked out, I was on the outside of the curve (it's safer to be on the inside). The curve was more like an L than a C, so the wrong end wasn't too inviting and I hoped for the best, but of course Philip disagreed. He actually went out of his way to take the wrong end, ugh! This meant several things - for one he got a refusal for going past the plane of the entry, he also got a wrong course for going the wrong way, and lastly he tripped the finish line timer before finishing the course by running into the exit. I turned him around, got him to take it the right way, and basically expected an NQ for all the mistakes.

However, on my way out, someone congratulated me saying it was probably a Q. I asked why, and they said that one of each type of error was okay to have in Open, so we were probably fine, hmm... I went to my instructor, asking was she thought, and she said she wasn't sure, but yes - it was probably good, so I should go see the results. Our next run was coming up though, so I figured this could wait and went to get ready for Jumpers.

The Jumpers course was medium difficulty, but I felt confident - we were at a lower jump height and Philip did great the day before. We got to the start line and took off. Immediately, I messed up on of the front cross I had planned, and then another, but Philip was a trooper and went the right way both times. Then I heard it - the dreadful sound of his claws hitting the jump bar. Did it fall? I didn't have time to look back, so we kept on going. We crossed the last jump and I looked back on the course - the jump setter was running towards a jump, to fix a fallen bar... Oh, Philip, what am I going to do with him? As our instructor put it, I'll keep him :) Still, here we are with a yet another NQ in JWW for knocking a bar, this time at only 8" off the ground!

After the run, I finally went to see the results for the Standard course - we had an NQ, and one of each faults, oh well. I updated our instructor (Anne) on the results and went to pack up for the day. As I was coming back to pick up the crate, I see Anne coming towards me. "I saved your leg" she says. Huh? So it turns out that after I had told her about our results, another lady that overheard us thought about the whole one-of-each-error thing. The rules did indeed say that one of each error for a total of 3 was okay in Open, so why the NQ? Anne decided to go see our scribe sheet, and apparently there was an F (failure to perform, immediate NQ) on there as well, which is why we had an NQ. So she went to talk to the judge - where did the F come from? Answer - back in the days of non-electronic timers, the rules were that tripping the finish line early would earn you an F, but Anne didn't think that rule held for electronic timers. The judge told her to find it in the rule book as she wasn't aware, so Anne dug out the rule book and guess what - no F when electronic timers are used! So the judge was mistaken and would change our result to a Q! I waited while the poor secretary made a yet another change for my prince of a dog, reprinted the results yet again, and we happily walked away with a Q and a 1st place. All thanks to Anne!!! It's really great to have an awesome and knowledgeable instructor :)