Another Title
Friday The Thirteenth is powerless when Beasil is involved.
She got her first two legs toward her CD almost a year ago. It was clearly time to finish that title, now that she’d recovered from her spay and her hormones had returned to a more ‘normal’ level. Well, with Beasil ‘normal’ doesn’t always apply.
Last year’s second leg was in the same building at the Del Mar Fairgrounds -- that big white ‘tent’ between the two exhibit halls. Not an ideal venue with it’s porous asphalt floor that seems to hold onto every scent that has passed over it since the day it was built. But it’s only an 80 mile trip and we’d managed there before, so we entered.
Last year, Beasil’s Uncle Mack and Jeremy had been in our same class -- and took first place (naturally) while we managed to take third. (Mack’s been a busy boy since then, burning up Obedience rings everywhere, having finished his CD, CDX, UD, UDX and is nearly halfway to his OTCH.)
We always arrive plenty early when we’re entered in an event. Always allow for traffic, flat tire, parking, walking, setup, potty breaks, practice, a good run to take the edge off the Unbalanced Force, more practice....
But I’d resolved to be more relaxed this time and not arrive two hours before our class’s scheduled start time, which was ‘Immediately following’ the Open class, and since Open was scheduled to start at 11:05 I figured that 10:30 would be plenty early.
Oh, sure. Friday the Thirteenth and there’s no traffic. No flat tire. No parking problems, no problems at all. We arrived at 10:15, got set up and Utility was still going. Open class didn’t even start until after Noon and the Judge announced that the next classes would start after lunch.
Our class was pretty large: 14 entered, 13 showed. They split the class in two so that the group exercises would have enough room: a nice 7/6 split and we were in the first half. I’d already check to see what dogs would be next to us, just in case I needed hours to worry about it. (Please, doG, no snack dogs next to the Unbalanced Force.) Whew! A Chessie on one side and a Swissie on the other.
There were three Rottweilers entered in ‘B’, two in the first half and one in the second half. Beasil about the 4th or 5th dog in the ring for the individual exercises, the first Rottweiler.
I flipped her the last treat about 10 feet before we entered the ring and marched in and over to the starting spot.
“Do you have any questions?” No.
“Are you Ready?” Ready.
Off we went. It seemed to go pretty well, actually. Heel on lead was without incident, though I think we had a couple crooked sits. In Figure 8, I crowded the first (left) turn a bit. Stand for exam was flawless (Thanks to everyone who helped us practice!). Heel free was okay, but I spaced it a couple times, flashing back to the BH where you can give a ‘fuss’ command at the changes in pace. Duh!
Her recall was brisk (as usual) but a tad crooked on the sit, then a nice finish.
And then applause. Yeah, it was from the Rottweiler people. We’re good at encouraging each other. It felt like we’d passed so I just focused on breathing while we waited for the rest of the dogs in the class to finish so that we could get the group exercises behind us. I really didn’t watch much of the other competitors’ routines (other than to notice that the handler of the Malinois was really tall and that the other Rottweiler was very spirited). But that’s typical for Beasil and me -- we do our best and don’t even think about comparing ourselves to the rest of the bunch. That’s why there’s a judge!
We finished our group exercises and breathed a sigh of relief as the judge went down the line telling each competitor whether they’d qualified.
Then we waited while the second group of 6 did their thing.
They finished, the judge did some stuff at the table and then the qualifiers were called back into the ring. Funny, it seemed like only about half the dogs showed up.
The judge congratulated the qualifiers and then said “and in First Place, with a score of 195, we have dog and handler team number mpfflb.” I looked around, trying to see who stepped forward to accept the Big Blue Ribbon. Nobody. Finally, I had to ask “what number, please?”
Whole leash it.
First place on our third leg. Just like with Majik, 7 years ago.
I’ve always said “I’d rather be lucky than good”....
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We waited around to watch Novice B, where the only Rottweiler entered got distracted by the very aromatic asphalt. No problem -- the next day I heard that Kaiser and our friend Christina made up for it by taking the Big Blue Ribbon on their third leg, too! Congratulations, team!
Another Day,
Friday, March 13, 2009
