Doberman Club of Greater Milwaukee Trial-April 19-21, 2013

It was a 3 day trial and a great weekend, we stayed overnight on Friday and Saturday it was nice to be only a few minutes away from the trial.  Keegs is not the best dog to have as a roomie, he thought every noise was something he had to alert me to so not much sleep either night.  Hopefully he will do better at Nationals in early May.

On Friday none of us had the best runs; Kiah was stressed (me helping to stress her) and Keegs thought bouncing around the course was fun (at least I don't stress him out).  Saturday was better for both Kiah and Keegan; Kiah was a little less stressed and Keegs got his Open Standard title but we were 2 seconds over time with one fault so his score was 91.  Not the best but we will take it although I decided not to move him up for Sunday.

On Sunday Renee ran Kiah for me, she wanted to show me how to keep Kiah focused and what she does if not stressed by me.  I videoed it and it is at the end of this post.  I did do better with not stressing her in the next run so she ran much better (maybe I was too tired to be so stressed since I had so little sleep :-) ).  Keegs really did well on Sunday and he Q'd his run in open standard, no faults and 12 seconds under time which is awesome for us.  I did run faster and he stayed right with me, I have to trust him more.  A friend videoed it on her iphone but the file was pretty small so not the best quality but at least I have the run.  His video is attached also.

Here is Kiah and Renee.

Here is Keegs Q on Sunday:

April, 2013

Classes have started back up and it is good to be back.  Keegs has had two classes so far and is doing well.  I am learning to run with him and not wait.  We may be missing some jumps along the way but eventually he will pick up the "outs" to a jump as we learn to run better together.  He has done so well in such a short time trialing.

Kiah has had one class so far.  I was really nervous since this is a class with two new instructors and from what I had heard it was pretty intense class.  It turned out to be a lot of fun but the course was difficult so we learned a lot.  Kiah was great and fast, she had a great time and was still ready to play when we got home so she is feeling so much better.  She gets the last of her antibiotics tomorrow and I will take a urine sample in on Wednesday to see if she is clear of the UTI infection.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Since there were some issues when we started back trialing this year with both Kiah and Keegs I have restarted the focus training which I never should have stopped over the winter.  We have two trials at the end of the month and then it is Nationals in Indianapolis so we will see if the focus and classes are helping.  I would be nice to have Kiah in Masters and Keegs in Excellent for Nationals but also want them to have fun along the way and not push them too hard.  More later after their classes next week.........