The first day was all team events plus Steeplechase Rd. 1. Mariah's PVP team "Trouble With Tribbles" did well and we ended up the weekend with a 7th place and a Q. Mariah was also one of the top individual scoring dogs in team! I guess her consistency pays off. Brisco's DAM team had a rougher start. Brisco ran well in all the events except jumpers. He came out of a tunnel and sliced a jump so tight that he hit the metal jump cup with the side of his face! He took down the jump upright and gave me quite a scare. I took a few seconds to make sure he didn't have any gashes or an eyeball hanging out... he seemed to be just fine, so we continued on, but got eliminated due to refusals (probably 2 of them while I was making sure he was ok). The best part of the day came with Steeplechase. Only Brisco was entered and he's in the extremely competitive 22" class. The course was a really nice, open course and Brisco did great! He ran clean and ended up in 3rd place once all 50+ 22" dogs had finished! There were times faster than his (running A-frames), but most of the faster dogs knocked bars or had refusals when they missed a jump in a serpentine sequence. I was very proud of my boy to do so well at Regionals!
On Saturday both dogs ran in Masters/PIII standard and Grand Prix. Mariah had an awesome standard run and was flying through the weave poles! I was so impressed I said "wow! awesome weaves girlie!" and must have stopped to watch or something because she popped out early looking at me like "what's that mom?!". The weaves were almost at the end, so I was rather ticked at myself for messing her up. That would have been her PS3 title. Oh well... Onto Grand Prix - Mariah definitely was the star there. It started with an ugly weave pole entrance, but if you shape the dog's path, it wasn't too bad. After that was a jump to a tunnel under the A-frame. Well, for some reason I was thinking they went straight from the weaves to the tunnel, so I did my front cross after the weaves as planned and told Mariah to take the tunnel. She went over the jump, then into the tunnel. I thought she took an off course since I was completly directing her to the jump, so I was bummed. I was waiting for the whistle, but never heard it! When I finished, I looked back and the jump was actually right so we had a clean run and a Q! Mariah must have known better - maybe she can read numbers... She was the only P12" dog to qualify so she got 1st and was headed to round 2! Brisco ran in Steeplechase Rd 2 at the end of the day. It was raining by the time we ran and we both got soaked! The tunnel vortex must have been stronger in that weather, because it sucked him right in giving us an off course and an E.
On Sunday we had standard, snooker and rd 2 Grand Prix. Mariah was sooo close to a clean standard run, but we had a refusal at the weaves. I probably pushed her out too hard. Brisco had the most creative off-course of the day and left both me and the judge standing there scratching our heads. The snooker course was an open, fast course with a tunnel and 6 weaves as the 7 pt obstacle. I decided to go for the super Q with Brisco and try all four 7s. The first red was across the field, so I sent him over it, then brought him around to the 7 pt. I told him "tunnel, left, weave" all at once and he went flying through the tunnel, came out turning left and nailed the weave pole entrance! I was quite a ways behind and was completely amazed that he nailed it, that I was caught flat footed watching! He popped out of the weaves wondering where I was and if he was doing it correctly. Oops - bad handler... I got him back in the weaves, but we didn't get any points that time. We got the other three 7s and made itthrough 5 in the closing. We didn't get the super Q, but we still got a Q. By the time we ran Grand Prix round 2, it had warmed back up quite a bit. Mariah was clean in the course, but I could tell she didn't like the heat since she was pretty slow. She ended up in 3rd place in rd 2 and was more than happy to head home after 3 days of agility to enjoy an elk marrow bone.
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