Baby it's cold outside

Wednesday afternoon I went out to do some errands. In the one hour that I was out and about, the temperature dropped 10 degrees. An arctic front is moving into the area. Spent the evening digging my winter clothes out from the back of the closet. Going to be a cold weekend at the show.

Saturday morning, it's pouring rain, which stopped briefly while I unloaded my car at the site. Barn is freezing inside. Found a spot in the back corner away from the drafts. Managed to walk Shane between downpours. What an ugly day.

First run of the day is Starters Pairs. Both of us screwed up. Shane jumped off the dog walk, of course. Next run is Starters Gamblers. I feel good because we can do it without any contact obstacles. Decided to go for the teeter for 5 points. Jumped off, of course. Got 4th place with a Q. Would have won if he had done the teeter. Last run was Starters Standard, and he jumped off all the obstacles. Total mess. Whatever. Have to run home to take Frank out to dinner for his birthday. See the DeMar Family Blog for details of our dinner.

Sunday is still cold and raining. Starters Standard is the first run of the day. We are almost last, so I walked Shane around the barn a few times hoping to wear him out. Also gave him Rescue Remedy. I decided to try front crosses to slow him down. He got the A Frame contact, but still jumped off the teeter and dog walk. Had the fastest time though! In fact, no 16 inch dogs qualified in either Standard run and Shane got 2nd place in both runs, even with jumping off all the contacts. The next two runs are Snooker and Jumpers. No more contacts for the day! I have hope.

Starters Snooker was all jumps and tunnels! We easily get 1st place and a Q. The closing was a giant circle and he just sailed around. Starters Jumpers was way too hard. No 16 inch dogs qualified. I stupidly said Come when I should have said Out, so he missed the tunnel entrance. Knocked a bar as well. Got the serpentine! Had the fastest time! 4.1 yps.

I don't know why I get so down. Shane's second USDAA show with two Q's. That's not bad. Received a lot of really good advice on how to work with Shane's contact problem. We'll just keep working on it. Have one more show to go before I decide what to do over New Year's. I've entered a NADAC show so I can train in the ring, but I haven't withdrawn from the USDAA show yet. I hate to waste time with a NADAC show if I don't have to. We'll see.

Sun came out! Still cold though. Frank made his famous meat sauce, so a steaming bowl of pasta and a glass of wine helped erase the disappointment of the weekend.