USDAA Results

This weekend the USDAA Trial didn't go as well as I hoped, but we sure did learn a lot. We entered only one day of the 3 day trial and entered in the preferred class, since this was our first usdaa trial. If you want to see the course maps, they are posted below. Ther are in pdf form, so you will need acrobat reader to view...

Starters and P1 Standard
Starters and P1 Jumpers
Starters Gamblers
Pairs

Our first run was the standard run. She missed jump number 13 after the tunnel and when I was going to bring her back around she jumped it backwards. We didn't Q but we did placed second in the class.

Our next class was pairs we were teamed up with Steve and his Eskimo dog. I ran the first part of the run and we royally screwed it up. She missed the contact on the dog walk, which got me frustrated and then she took the dog walk out of turn and missed a jump. I didn't feel to bad though because Steve's dog knocked down some jump bars.

Our third class was the gamblers class. In the first 30 seconds of gamblers, you try to accumulate points, you need 18 to Q. You get 5 points for contacts 1 for jumps 3 for tunnels. One rule that I was unaware of is that you can only take 2 obstacles in a row if they are located in the gamble area. This lead me to take 3 obstacles without getting any points. I still got 26 points... Unfortunately, we didn't get the gamble. It was a discrimination gamble and after the first jump she was suppose to take the tunnel which was placed on the other side of the dog walk. She started to go on the dog walk, but I stopped her and she looked at me as I yelled tunnel a couple of times and then she decided to take the dog walk. Oh well, a good learning experience.

The last class was the jumpers class. This was a surprise. I gave the switch command after jump 4 to go to jump 5. I didn't yell jump and her turn was so short she missed the jump. When I tried to get her back, she back jumped again. Dejavue of the standard run.

Overall, I'm disappointed we didn't get any cues, but she did the weavepoles on the standard well and only missed one contact. So there is some improvement. Most of the faults as usual can be traced back to the handler.