Oye

Well, we went, we saw, we all came home in one piece! (Bay Team Regionals that is.)

We got to San Jose on Friday around 1ish. Got into the long rental car line and got my car (finally) and headed south for the 1 hour drive to Salinas. Jam, by the way, was the perfect "service dog." She sat on my lap the entire time and was a very good passenger. Anywho...we got to the hotel aroun 3ish, I got Jam's agility stuff out of the suitcase, changed my clothes and we headed to the show site. We were running in Masters Pairs which started at 5ish.

I had a fabulous partner for Pairs (Luka) so I was psyched. I chose the first half since I felt it was more "doable" for Jam. It did have the weaves on that half, but she's been doing them so well that I didn't think they'd be a problem. We started out beautifully, then got to the weaves. Grrrr. She popped out at 10 and I had a brainfart as to where to put her back in. We frittered away the time there, then finished up beautifully. BUT, as fast as Luka is, there was no way they could make up the time I had frittered. No Q for us. Pooh.

Saturday dawned foggy and misty. The fog stayed with us for a good portion of the day. I was a judge today, so poor Jammie had to sit in her crate under the scoretable and watch me all day long. I did go and visit her between rotations. I judged Round 1 of the GP and the Team/PVP Relay Finals. The GP course I felt was a bit on the easy side, and it showed. My Q rate was rather large! Good for all the folks who ran it and capitalized on it! I did have a lot of dogs missing the up contact on the dog walk however. I don't think I've ever called that many ups in any one trial. Very strange. Team/PVP Relay was fun! I did get ran into by a crazy BC, but thankfully I saw it coming and was able to brace myself. The entire time I was judging Relay, the other judges (there were a bunch of us) were ringside talking animatedly throughout. I told them afterwards that I didn't know which was more intimidating...having all the competitors watching me or the judges!

Sunday dawned a bit foggy, but it cleared pretty quickly. Jam and I were competitors today...yay! We started out with Steeplechase. She was a tad distracted the first 3 jumps, but then picked it up. And then came the danged weaves. This time she didn't enter correctly so I got her back in and she completed them, thank God! Then she ran very fast to finish, but pulled a bar. Needless to say, we didn't Q.

Next came Masters Gamblers. I really needed this Gamble and it was so doable! I had a plan, but then changed it midstream. We started out great...she was really running! We came out of a tunnel to a straight shot onto the dog walk...when IT happened. She must've taken a mis-step while charging across the walk because the next thing I knew she was scrambling to stay on, but couldn't, and came down hard off the top plank. I ran to her and she was just laying there with her eyes half closed, panting every so slightly. I picked her up to get her out of the ring and put her down to check her out. Others came around me to see how she was doing. After about 30 seconds - 1 minute, she got up, shook it off, and seemed perfectly OK! I got an Ascriptin from a friend and gave her half of one. I walked her out and she didn't show any signs of lameness. I was very hopeful, but worried.

Next was Masters Standard. I had others watch me trot her out and she didn't seem to have any issues, so I decided to run her. And run she did!! She did GREAT! We ended up Qing, so that was very nice. She had no issues with the dog walk and was her normal self. THANK GOODNESS!! When it was all over, I had the doggie massage/chiropracter person give her a treatment to ensure that she was OK. Thankfully, she didn't seem to have any ill effects from her fall. Whew!

I drove back up to San Jose that night (after a fun dinner with the other judges) and we flew out this morning for home. Again, Jam was the perfect passenger.

I must say that the Bay Team did a great job with the Regional. You could never tell that there were over 400 dogs there. The rotation schedule seemed to work like a charm and I had a good time. I even learned how to ride a Segway! :) THAT was fun!!

I also found out today that I now have a complete team for Nationals! A friend asked if I wanted to be on an all-Toller team...I was very interested, but one of the possible team members hadn't yet qualified. She had her chance to Q this weekend and thankfully, she did! All of the Tollers are 16 inchers, so it's a bit unusual. We're now in the process of thinking of a fun name. It's so nice to have that loose end tied up!

Jam and I have some work to do before Nationals...like proofing the weaves!...but I think we'll be just fine. As long as we don't take it too seriously, it'll all go well!