1 Q- no title

We needed 2 qualifying runs today to get the level 3 UKC Rally title, but only got 1 Q.  :-( 

The day started way too early at 6:45 so I could arrive in Dayton to register for "day of show" entries.  There were 2 trials today and after arriving at 8:30, the first trial didn't start till 10am and level 3 was after all the level 1 and 2 runs.  So we didn't get into the ring till nearly 1pm.  That was a LOT of waiting around, which Dazzle doesn't really like much. Plus the room the show was in was not air conditioned, so it was quite hot.  I chose to crate him in the non a/c area so that when it came time to show, it wouldn't feel even hotter by contrast.  In hind sight, I should have just gone for a drive or something, but I didn't know how long the level 1 and 2 were going to take.

Dazzle was clearly tired. After all the walking and crowd navigation at the largest Indiana gun show yesterday, throwing the ball for Dazzle this morning before we left (because I thought he needed it), all the practice time to keep him from getting bored and the late start, he did pretty well considering.  He had several moments of brilliance where he looked good, but his "down" seemed to not be working.  I had to use multiple cues to get him to lie down.  Wer managed a score of 90 and the only Q of the day.

After that, we had to wait for all the 1's and 2's to run again for the second trial.  It was, thankfully, in the air conditioned part of the building.  But we didn't go in the ring till about 5:30.  By that time, Dazzle was really tired and moved about as fast as a newfoundland dog after a full day of swimming.

My throat was sore from all the cheerleading I was doing to try to get him to speed up.  He was the total "anti-Malinois" :-)  He was often quite distracted and took LOTS of cues to get a response.  All he wanted to do this run was lie down, but of course the run had a sit on nearly every station. I chose to use food as the "motivator" just before we went into the ring and I'm sure that played a big part in his total LACK of motivation.  I was worried that with as tired as he was, trying to get him excited about a toy and then not letting him have it would not have gone well and a tantrum of leash pulling or barking would have likely ensued :-)

What caused the NQ was the fact that he tried to go THROUGH the panel jump instead of over it.  It was only 14 INCHES high, but he hit it so hard it nearly toppled over.  I don't know how he managed that and I didn't get video.  He didn't deserve to Q on that run anyway.  I think it was his worst ever!

Given how tired he was today and the fact that I would have to be there really early again to enter, and it will be in the non a/c part, I'm not going to bother going tomorrow.  Oh well, maybe next year.