Freddie and I were entered in the Contact Point USDAA trial this past weekend. It was a really great experience...lots of things discovered and learned! Eric filmed all 8 of our runs (I think you can view them on his website). I'll tell you, he is one busy guy! I don't know how he keeps it all straight with dogs running in both rings, and I never saw him get a break in the 2 days!

On Saturday we had Starters Standard, Pairs, and Snooker, and we entered Grand Prix and Steeplechase as well. On Sunday we had Starters Standard, Gamblers, and Jumpers.

For our Starters classes, we got a total of 4 Q's: Standard both days , Pairs, and Jumpers! Even though we didn't Q, I was really pleased with Snooker and Gamblers too. We had a knocked bar in #6 in the closing of Snooker, and in Gamblers, I had to "reset" Freddie at the weaves a couple of times when he overran the entry, so we ran out of time and were 2 points short. However, we did the Gamble, which was VERY cool...

In the Grand Prix, I sent Freddie to an offcourse tunnel fairly early on, so we were out. After looking at the video, I see that I didn't have Freddie sit on his teeter or A-frame (oops - Olga mentioned that to me, and I swear, I had no idea!). Other than that, though, a lot of the run was great!

In Steeplechase, I did a better job at not compromising our training...this resulted in some "resets" during the run, but in the end, it was clean, and not a bad time...I was really pleased.

Call me weird, but I was the happiest about:

1) He held every single start line!!! (this has been an issue from the very beginning! I know we will always have to work at this)....

2) He LIKES it....as much in a trial as in training.....if you knew my Gusdog, you'd understand why this is so wonderful...

3) I wasn't a nervous wreck...same disclaimer as #2!!!!!

4) The foundation work held true....exactly as advertised!

5) I am really glad we waited until now to trial. I wanted to feel confident and ready. Olga asked me yesterday if I'd been tempted to trial earlier. Honestly, I can say the answer is no. Although I "thought" about it, I didn't feel ready until now. It was definitely worth the wait.

I'm truly looking forward to the hard work and fun as our training progresses.

Thanks Olga.....from both of us! It was a blast!

Becky & Freddie