After a rainy and snowy April, we hope that May will bring us more pleasant weather!
We closed out April and welcomed May with a USDAA trial hosted by High Octane in Bethlehem, PA. Dandy qualified in Master Pairs Relay, Master Standard with 3rd place, Master Gamblers with 3rd place and Master Jumpers with 2nd place, which finished his JCH title (Jumpers Champion). He had one bar down in Steeplechase and got hung up in the weaves, so we did not make the cut to qualify. He had a beautiful Grand Prix run but missed his A-Frame contact so we did not qualify. I think that was the first time he actually missed an A-Frame…so it’s summer school for Dandy <g>. He seems to think he should join the trend to do running A-Frames but I disagree 
Tempo made his debut in Starters Standard. On Saturday, the dogwalk was the 2nd obstacle and he lost his balance across the top and had to bail. He landed gracefully on his feet, so we continued on and he was fine with the A-Frame and Seesaw, and also did great weaves. Tempo has only been on a full-height dogwalk about 4 times, and he’s never been on one outside. So our running in Standard is primarily to expose him to different equipment and to habituate to new environments. On Sunday, he was fine with the dogwalk as well as everything else, but he knocked one bar, so again we did not qualify. But I was very happy with his focus and how well he acclimated to all the new experiences. He did qualify in Starters Gamblers with a 1st place, he did a beautiful job with that class!
This weekend, we finally got outside to do some training. Next weekend, just one day of an AKC trial…Dandy in Excellent B, and Tempo making his AKC debut in Novice. Then we’ll be back to USDAA for the next several weeks.
