Evergreen Belgian Turvernen Club

Graham Wa., May 29, 30th, 2004

This was an outdoor trial on grass.  300 runs per day, and it was a rainy weekend again??!!  Outdoor trials in Seattle are risky until after July 4th as that is when summer weather arrives here, and lasts for 8 to 10 weeks!!  Summer is not an official season in Seattle, we just have a very long Spring and Fall. 

Saturday was our best day. Al ran perfectly, and was very fast.

Saturday Std. Course (Excellent A)

Al was really excited to run, and wouldn't hold his stay at the start line, and crept up to the first jump.  He knocked a bar which he never does, and the rest of the run was practice.  Al ran perfectly.  He was 32 seconds below course time and without the knocked bar would have placed first. If he had run in Excellent B he would have placed.  Except for the start line problem, Al ran the best he could on wet grass and a damp table.

Saturday JWW Course (Excellent B)

This is the kind of run that makes all the disappointments of runs that don't go well, worth it!!  Al and I ran  like we were capable of and it felt fantastic!!  Al absolutely loved this run.  There was one bobble after the weave poles where I ended up doing a rear cross when I had planned a front cross, but Al bailed me out, and he had a clean run. 

The results page shows how well his run went, and the competition including a dog with a MACH5??!!.  Al placed 4th beating 4 MACH dogs, (two with MACH2 titles).

Al was running on a wet field, and it was raining slightly, so I didn't have good footing.  But his speed was good for the conditions and he ran clean!!  Al earned his first 10 MACH points with this run.

Sunday Std. (ExcellentA)

Al was off his game this day, and decided to explore at the start line, getting a refusal at the first jump before we even started as he wandered out onto the course past the start line before we began our run.  He also had a very hard weave pole entry that I didn't set up properly and couldn't make the turn into the second pole.  The rest of the run was practice, but he did a fast down on a damp table, and finished with good speed and attitude.

Sunday JWW (Excellent B)

We were the 2nd 12" dog to run, and as the 8" dogs were finishing, the skies opened up and it absolutely poured down rain.  The judge held up the competition when the jumps were being switched to 12" and Al and I had to wait under a tent at the start line with 5 other dogs and the ring steward and a bunch of others trying to escape the rain.  We had to wait about 10 minutes.  When the rain stopped, Al was frazelled, but I decided to see how he would run anyway.  The field sloshed under your feet.  He didn't like it at all, and I think he smelled a couple of worms that he was interested in hunting along the course.  He did his best, even deciding that the tunnel that he thought would be fun, could be added to the course.  The W/C was his choice and it was fun, but it threw me off, and as we came out of the tunnel, when it was in sequence, I had a mental lapse and almost sent Al over the wrong jump!! We tried to get it right, but Al didn't have the room to recover, and we ended up missing it.  We ended up with 1 wrong course and 1 elimination fault for the missed jump.    Still it was a good effort after being stuck at the start line in a storm and at the end of a long weekend in rainy and wet conditions.