USDAA Team trial report. The day I came back to reality.

Well, some sort of reality, I guess. Still high from his RI agility trial with his awesome performances winning P.G.P and P.S.J and looking REALLY good!

Then BANG, we fall down and crash to the ground, air popped out of our happy balloon. Am I being melodramatic? Perhaps, his first run doesn't look THAT bad. He Q'd in PGP and PSJ again, which gives him two tournament q's for next year, which is nice.

However, we have not done anything indoor on rubber mats since, um, March? April? He cringed at the sounds. The teeter BANGS loud, bars drop loud, leashes drop loud, chairs make different noises. He cringed, a lot on Saturday. It was SUCH a small, intimate trial that it was combined to one day, but because it was so small it was very quiet. That meant all the sounds that bother him were LOUD! Does that make sense? It was quiet, so sounds were loud. That SO doesn't make sense, does it, but it's true. When there is a huge buzz of activity, barking dogs, lots of voices and noises it all just blends together. When it's quiet, one simple think like a leash being dropped on the floor is sharp and he noticed. A LOT!!

So, we were a little bit of a mess. For me, it's just SO hard when I see him having trouble. He needs me to be more "there", yet I simply lose it!! Seriously, I lost my way TWICE on course!!! And that doesn't help him at all. And it means an elimination for that run. Which doesn't help our team. We didn't Q. My teammate was SO nice and kind, but that's my first time not getting a team Q. I have only done team three times before, but each time MY dogs did great and helped our team Q.

This time, it was all me and Spur for our NQ. Darn it.

Oh well, it was an eye opener. I need to get him out to some indoor facilities on rubber and do some training. He obviously still has worries that I need to work through. He did well and got better and his last two runs were actually pretty OK and our Relay (last run) we made no mistakes and he looked pretty good, so he can recover. He is resilient. I have said that before and it's true. He tries so hard and wants to do this and be good at it. I know he does. He gives it his all!!!!