After the incredible awesomeness that was my 2012, I had an irrational fear that 2013 would be proportionately bad. I know that makes no sense (hence the irrational part), but it felt like I would need to balance the scales, so to speak. After something hit my windshield and caused a 3ft long crack, I thought my fears had been validated. Thankfully though, I live in Florida, and that meant a new windshield from my insurance with no deductible. Whew! Safelite came out one Saturday morning, replaced the windshield in less than an hour, and viola! good as new. Actually better than new, since the new windshield has more tinting along the top and blocks the sun better.
Other than that, January has been filled with entertaining Trudy, going to work, and doing lots of agility. We started a different class on Wednesday nights which I have enjoyed, especially since we get home before 9 (we go to bed early around here). We went to one of my favorite trials, Dog On It, and enjoyed the fact that we didn't "need" to Q in anything, since we'd already gotten our ADCH. Funny thing is; it took us almost a year (albiet a limited number of competitions) to get three standard legs. Since then, we have gotten the last four all in a row! The mind does funny things when there is pressure to perform.
This past weekend, we returned to the world of AKC for a trial in Daytona. We drove back and forth both days, since it is close by, and that always makes me happy. I will avoid staying in a hotel if I can! The weather was gorgeous, and even a bit too warm, especially for January, but more than pleasant under cover. The club offered both games each day, and it was a surprisingly small entry, so we had four runs and were still home before 4pm both days! Very unlike most AKC trials, I wish they were all like that. The courses were generally boring; reminding me again of the stark contrast between AKC and USDAA. However, they allowed for distance and speed, and Xander enjoyed opening up and extending, sometimes a bit too much. Funny enough, we went off course in Time 2 Beat both days on what looked to be very easy courses, but I just could not keep up. Then we were having weird weave pole issues because of the lighting. The arena's patches of bright light and dark shadows, coupled with the fencing, created an optical illusion which caused countless dogs to miss entries or pop out early, Xander included. That was our only fault in standard Saturday, as that was the only ring affected. We had a gorgeous JWW run and won the class, and had a decent FAST run and won that class as well. On Sunday, we had a hideous standard run, but somehow managed not to NQ, and then redeemed ourselves with another win in JWW to earn a double Q, which brings the total to five. We also earned MXF leg number six with a first place, and then had a train wreck in Time 2 Beat. Overall, it was a fun weekend hanging out with friends and enjoying many runs and short days.
This coming weekend we will be at our home trial, so hooray for more agility within staying at home range. It is AKC again, and I will admit that since we have our ADCH, I am thinking about a MACH, and probably will enter more trials. Although we do have a schedule still filled with USDAA throughout February and March. Why not keep working on that Bronze ADCH too?!
Buster just reminded me that my birthday is coming up. Didn't I just have one of those?
