The alarm goes off at 6 am and its a beautiful Sunday morning. Yesterdays runs, with blown weave poles and half-hearted contacts are but a distant memory, I am not even tempted to roll over and go back to sleep. Full of hope, I put aside the usual motivational tape and pop in a book on tape for the 1 1/2 hour drive to the trial.

I check in and pick up the course map for Excellent Standard. The Judge is a nice guy, very warm and friendly and runs "big" dogs, this should be a fun course to run. What! Wait a minute. What are all those jumps doing clumped around the AF?? Not to worry, I tell myself, it probably walks better then it looks on paper. Wrong. We keep bumping into each other during the walk. Nevertheless, I work out Plan A, Plan B and have Plan C (prayer) all set to go.

Olga gave me brief talk about focus yesterday so I did our usual warm up routine and then sitting Bailey in front of me,tried a little doggy hypnoses. Looking directly into his big brown eyes, I said take 3 deep breaths, in out,in out,in out. I love weave poles, weave poles are my friends...you get the picture (VBG) Not sure if it worked for him, but I was relaxed,

Finally we were up. I wanted handler focus so went just beyond the first jump and released him to the teeter. He blasts over the jump on to the teeter and holds the 2o2o. um that went well. Ok,tire,chute..he is really moving, no time for FC,OK hold my ground, pull out claw,then back cross, oh my god, it worked. OK stay calm, support the pinwheel,slide over and get ready to front cross. Yikes its working.Pull claw out to keep him off AF and into a very tight 180. My heart is pounding, he is coming around,stay calm don't celebrate yet. He is up and over the AF,holding a perfect 2o2o. Whose dog is this?? OK, tunnel, table,sit..whoops, down. I am bending over, do I dare stand up. H---- no, I don't care how novice it looks.

OK, back to the tunnel claw comes out to get the slight turn to the DW. Bailey is blazing over the DW, comes to a solid 2o2 off. Good boy!! come on Jean, work it, work it. OK, panel jump, 180 to the weaves step into the pocket,bring out the claw to shape the turn, He is in, gulp, he is staying in, do I front cross to the triple?? no one back crosses a triple..plenty of space, lets do it. The kid rockets out of the weaves, over the triple and follows my lead to the left over the last jump.

WE DID IT !! We are both are jumping up and down. A Q and First place, I can live with that.

Cheers,

Jean