Westfield Trial

Tom , Hailey, Roo, Smartie and Jerry at Naomi's Inn

Well this weekend was quite the interesting! We stayed at a quaint B&B about 20 mins from the trial in Springfield. It was very nice. Thanks to Marci for her wonderful hospitality. I would recommend her B&B if you are around the Springfield area. It was beautiful and the best part was it was PET FRIENDLY!!!








As for the drive to Massachusetts, it was horrible. We got stuck in traffic through Bridgeport and Hartford. By accident on the way home I got on 90 going the wrong way and we ended up hitting the Taconic instead of going the 90-91-84 route and it ended up being shorter and a much nicer drive. I love making "good" mistakes.

On to the trial.....


First off Congrats to Smartie on her FIRST "Q." She was truly amazing this weekend with her jumping and my dad was great too. She would have had two more "Q"s but dropped bars on the last jump of two runs.





Way to go Sailor and Meg receiving their first 2 "Q"s in USDAA. That nickname "Snailor" may not last too long!





Way to go Draco (one of my my instructor's dogs) for having a great first trial and "Q" and also my instructor for "SMOKING" the steeplechase!





As for Hailey she got a little zoomie but stayed in the ring under control. Her jumping is gorgeous and her sit stay in snooker was complimented by numerous competitors. She is going to be awesome. She held all of her criteria on the obstacles and I look forward to seeingher in Standard next trial.





As for Jerry and Roo who do not compete, Jerry because he is too young and Roo because she has a handicap and may not ever compete in USDAA, were the loudest most obnoxious dogs there. Jerry was such an instigator and got Roo and all the other dogs to bark like they were protecting a pot of gold when anyone came near our tent. We had to reconfigure our tenting to block their vision and attempt to keep them quiet. We were not very successful and are now in the process of purchasing more tarps and screens to block their expens completely.





Finally we will discuss Mr. Stubborn Tom. I cannot figure this dog out. We started off with pairs. We were paired with the same dog that Tom ran after in jumpers last week when they came in the ring and were tugging. So of course when the dog and handler came running toward us to pass the baton Tom went nuts. He went over to the dog and barked but I eventually got him back. He knocked the first bar because he blew the sit stay. He managed to get through the rest of the course perfectly but absolutely showed signs of the old Tom with space issues. I was very nervous for the rest of the day but he switched personalities and was amazing. We won the class for Gamblers with the most points and also the best time. This was our second "Q" in Gamblers and our first FIRST PLACE ribbon ever. HE was completely focused. Sunday was awful. He blew me off, took a wrong course and charged a dog from across the field and never even looked back when I called him. He didn't do anything harmful to the dog but bark but it was the most horrifying, embarrassing experience I have ever had with him. He flat out ignored me. I was seriously pulling him from jumpers (his last run) after that, but at the last moment I decided to run him and take it one obstacle at a time so we wouldn't be leaving on such a bad note. He was semi focused and again a competitor entered the ring and was tugging and Tom saw it but I was able to get his attention made him lay down and we exited the ring without finishing. Let's just say we will be working on his obstinate behavior a lot in the coming weeks to prepare for the next trial. Hope you enjoy the slide show of the pictures I took of Tom and Jerry's friends this weekend. There aren't any of Tom on course although you will see his brother War. I think they resemble each other a lot.

Westfield Pictures

Welcome Jillian

My cousin Moriah,her husband Bill and adopted daughter Lorelei welcomed an adopted baby girl into their family. The baby's name is Jillian Sun and was born April 4th. Everyone is back home in NY and we are anxiously waiting to meet her. Congratulations.

First Trial of the Year (Chatham)

Jerry "The Mighty Quinn" waiting at the gate

This weekend we opened up our trial season at the Y Agility Chatham Trial up in UP-UP-UPSTATE NY. ( I feel like I live upstate so you know what I mean.) We had a fabulous time. We rented a little cottage not too far from the site that was dog friendly and so myself- Tom, Jerry, my dad with Smartie, my friend Lauren aka "supervet" with her two dogs Hailey and Roo and another friend JoAnna and her mom and dog Nemo all shared a 3BR, 3Bath cottage that was transformed from an old barn to an awesome living space. Yes 5 adults and 6 dogs if you calculated correctly!





The dogs had a blast with 123 acres of meadow to roam and play, they were all in heaven and slept wonderfully both nights without too much noise. There were also several ponds that Smartie decided she needed to swim in (definitely a golden!) so she was not allowed off leash after her little swim adventure.

"Flying across the seesaw"

As for this weekend's stats- Smartie has improved greatly and won several placement ribbons but her biggest achievement was doing the dogwalk successfully and not refusing any obstacles. She also knocked down only a few bars which is so great too. My dad was a vry positive influence on her this weekend. He kept her happy and motivated.





Nemo had a good weekend too. Tom and Nemo were paired together in Pairs with Joanna and I of course and they missed qualifying by 0.44. What a bummer. We both ran it clean with only minor weave pole issues and with the most perfect baton exchange. We felt like true Olympians. We even practiced the exchange before we ran. At least we both had a good first run and since we didn't qualify we get to run together again until we do qualify.





This was Hailey and Lauren's first trial and Hailey exhibited some first trial jitters. Especially since we were lost Sat am and didn't get there until four minutes before she had to go into the ring and Lauren hadn't walked the course or really had anytime to study a map. Hailey did some obstacles and then jumped over into the next ring. Thankfully the dog there just finished running. Hailey had some nice jumps in the Jumpers class too. She is ready for next weekend!





Tom was so "fabulous" this weekend. He is truly a changed dog after last spring's drama in the ring. He held 98% of his criteria this weekend and ended up qualifying 4 out of 6 runs. However every run he ran was CLEAN- not one dropped bar, not one off course, not one missed contact.


The two runs we didn't Q in were because of time faults but when you take extra seconds to make sure your dog perfects every contact or when they have minor weave pole issues that is what you get.





Finally my Jerry was such a sport this weekend. Although he is still to young to compete, he gets so excited when we enter a trial arena and he sees the other dogs. He gets so hyped up. Fortunately this weekend they were doing some fun runs as a fundraiser and we could enter any dog so I put Jerry in two runs and he was great. No, he is nowhere near ready (because of age, maturity and skill) but we got to practice out in a real ring in trial atmosphere and he got to practice his sit-stay, some contacts and he got to RUN RUN RUN. That is what Jerry likes to do most is run.





My friend Michele who is a very skilled photographer borrowed my camera and took these awesome shots of my J-Monkey in action. I was a very lazy photographer this weekend and didn't take too many photos and because the dogs are so fast and I am not skilled in photo skills- the pics are not even worth sharing.

"I made my contact!"

Tom & Jerry Here I Come!

Natalie is gearing up for some serious running with Tom & Jerry. Her she is sporting her New Balance sneakers complete with reflectors. Too cute.