My first weekend off, I went camping with some agility friends, then the next weekend I headed off to New Brunswick to visit my mother. My sister Juanita and her husband were also there as was my sister Annette and her daughter Amber. Actually Annette, Amber and I shared a hotel room while Juanita and Joe stayed at his parents. My sister Karen and her daughters Alyssa and Kayla came over from Prince Edward Island during the week for a couple visits as well.
We took my Mum out shopping on Monday. Luckily, my parent's house had not yet sold so I was able to leave Tucker and Beckett at the house a couple times during the week. The agility demonstration was on Tues and although we had concerns with the weather, it was a great sucess. Wednesday evening, Annette, Amber and I went to the casino which was located next door to our hotel. We had a good evening. I won a whopping $21 but then I only played $5. Amber won $60 and she paid for our drinks and snacks after we had finished being high rollers. Thursday, Annette, Amber and I drove to the Gateway Village in Borden, PEI and met up with Karen and Kayla. We spent the morning shopping and had lunch together before heading back to Moncton.
On Friday, Annette and Amber went with Joe and Juanita to visit a winery and Hopewell Rocks, while I went to Riverside Agility with Beckett and Tucker. Beckett got his first official measurement recorded on his AAC card. We had a very nice weather that weekend for agility. Beckett got two qualifying scores, one in Advanced Standard (his second) and his first in Steeplechase. On Saturday night, there was a lobster supper. Karen and Kayla, who had joined me for the afternoon, stayed for the supper and then spent the night with me at the hotel as Annette and Amber had left for home that day. On Sunday, an agility friend, who was down visiting her family, drove all the way from Fredricton to cheer Beckett and me on. I spent another day in Moncton just visiting with my Mum before heading back home on Tuesday, 16 August.
Once back home, I had great plans of doing many tasks around the house that some how for the most part didn't get done. My parents house did sell so there were a couple visits to the lawyer's office to sign all the documents as well as doing a number of other calls and letters for my Mum's pensions and insurance benefits. I still have more of that to do.
On the Labour Day weekend, I went to Guides Canins in St Lazare, Quebec for the first time to do an agility trial there with Beckett. We went up on Friday and camped on site Friday and Saturday night. They have a wonderful facility that even includes hot showers in the training facility. Beckett got his second measurement needed to sign off his card so he now is officially a 16" Regular dog. The funny thing was that the same judge (from Nova Scotia) who measured him in New Brunswick was doing the measurements Saturday morning, so we had to wait until another judge showed up to get Beckett's recorded. There were no Q's during the weekend but some pretty awesome runs. Beckett's Advanced Jumpers was one of the fastest, even faster than many of the 22" dogs, but my handling caused two refusals on tunnels. He also had a 30 point opening in Advanced Snooker using all four reds, two sixes (a combination obstacle) and two sevens (which was 12 weaves).
I went back to work the Tuesday after Labour Day, boy, did 5 am come early but there was lots of work to keep me busy and the week went by pretty quick.
This past weekend, we went to the All Dogs trial. For me, this trial marks the end of summer as it is the last outdoor trial of the season for us. Beckett got an Advanced Gamblers Q, his second, so now we need one more to move up to Masters.
Beckett - Advanced Gamblers - ADSC Sep 2011
We also had an Advanced Snooker that made me think on feet. I had planned to do three 7's (the teeter) but when we were coming around to do the teeter a second time, Beckett took the one of the jumps of the number 6 combo, so I had to change my plan on the fly. We were doing good until, in the close, Beckett took the 6a jump in the wrong direction. That error came in handy for the Advanced Jumpers where the Snooker set up of the combination 5a, 5b, 5c, and the combination 6a, 6b and 6c was the same as obstacles 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 so I knew to use a false turn and his name between obstacles 5c and 6a to avoid the same problem. He had just an awesome Advanced Jumpers but he didn't like the rear cross that I did between two of the jumps and he spun incurring a refusal. The rest of the run was beautiful and he finished the course in a time of 29.18 seconds.
The problems we've been having on the A-frame and table just got worse. Beckett did have a little bit of Sheltitude this weekend and there are obviously some issues that we have to work on, but he sure is fun to run and he has a work ethic like you wouldn't believe. At our next trial, we'll see rubberized contacts for the first time, that should be interesting.
sounds like a fun summer of learning, loving, travelling and giving - great report thanks :)
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