As you may have heard, the BC/Yukon Regional Championships were held last weekend in Matsqui (June 12th and 13th). Although we didn't do as well as previous years ( no podium placement this year), we still managed a few clean runs. There were some tears and laughter on my end, and Amigo had fun as always, which is the best part. The fact that she got loads of cookies all weekend didn't hurt either:)
The weather was pretty decent. Saturday was beautiful hot weather, Sunday had periods of heavy rain, but it mostly stayed dry.
Here's a breakdown of our runs:
Saturday started with Gamblers, which I like. I like to get all the "heebie jeebies" out and just let her run. She did beautifully in the opening, even completing 1 of the mini-gambles twice! But then I had to come along and F*#K it up by jumping over a jump that got in my way as we were heading towards the main gamble. Although disappointed that we couldn't try the main gamble ( which I KNEW she could do), I was happy with the opening score of 45 points. However, things went downhill from there. Because I had accidentally stepped over the jump during our run over to the main gamble, it was considered unsportsmanlike. Therefore, ALL our opening points were taken away. WTF?! Unsportsmanlike?! I didn't kick my dog or swear at the judge, I hopped over a jump instead of falling on my face, and our points were taken away?! You can see why sobbing ensued. After many tears and talking to numerous people, I ended up talking to the judge myself. Long story short, he cracked, and eventually awarded us our points back. I mean, it was only fair. If I has knocked over a jump, or impaled myself on a jump standard, that would be ok, no points taken away, but because instinct told me JUMP...DON'T FAll, our beautiful run was nixed. I don't think so. Amigo was sooooo good, and I know she didn't give one rats ass about our points, but this could be our last Regionals, and I don't want to have that memory in mind!
Anyways...next we did Standard, and at this point I was still distraught over our gamblers run, and my mind wasn't in the game, so we got an off course and she popped a pole in her weaves (side note: how come she always pops off side weaves at regionals? They never seem to be a problem anywhere else)!
Next came Jumpers. Our favourite. She nailed it! Clean and under time. Good for 75 points plus bonus time points.
Sunday:
Started off with Standard. Again off course, so we only got 80 points for that run. But still smooth and lovely, I didn't get my signal out fast enough.
Jumpers was GORGEOUS again. Clean and under time.
Gamblers our arch nemesis was last. The mini gambles were a little more difficult this day, but we got 1 mini gamble of A-frame and jump only to discover after our run that the scribe didn't write it down. Awesome. The Gamble Gods just didn't like us this weekend. I argued, but it's not like we were a few points off first place anyways, so it didn't matter. I was burnt and tired and ready to go home.
After the ups and downs of Regionals, I drove home recapping the weekends events. And do you know what I discovered? Amigo held ALL her sit stays the entire weekend!! Holy Amazing. That dog has never once held a sit-stay in competition. I was very pleased with her. What a weekend to decide to hold her sit-stay!
All in all, we ended up Qualifying for Nationals in Calgary. Everybody did super well this year, and we all left quite pleased with our furry kids.
Amigo placed in the ribbons in her 2 Jumpers runs (a second and third, I believe). Not bad for a dog that would be turning 13 in a week!
I hope she's still in great shape for next year. It's hard to believe that Beezer could compete in next year's Regionals if I actually started training him!
