08/10/2024
Some highlights from Vegas run at the USBCHA National Nursery finals.
Thank you so much to everyone involved. In the weeks leading up to this trial I had received a lot of support and encouragement from many trainers, shepherds, farmers, family and friends.
Big thanks to everyone who turns gears at the USBCHA, and anyone else involved with the trial in any capacity. It was a spectacular event and despite the persisting entropy it truly ran smoother than any trial I’ve ever been to.
We didn’t get the scores we were hoping for this week. But, 28th overall out of 103 dogs at a competition of this level on a national stage, with a 14 month old dog, is hard to feel bad about.
Vega was the youngest dog there, as far as I know, by at least 8 months, and she’s only been here training with me for ~ 8 months. Many of these dogs had been training longer than she’s been alive. Just being here, getting to compete, and qualifying for both runs is enough for me to feel extremely grateful.
We had never been on a field NEARLY this big, and her (our) lack of outrun experience costed a lot of points. (Final scores were a combined score of both runs) This was the major factor in our lack of competitiveness, though I was so proud watching her figure out something completely new and high stakes without (too many) blunders and really looking like she belonged. The pen was a tough one (it was actually easy, just a royal fumble) but by then both of us were a little frazzled, and mistakes were made.
So aside from the coping rationalizations, we truly are in good spirits here. We got some stuff to work on, and we will be working on it starting this week.
Full run is here https://youtu.be/TsVheM1vyfs?feature=shared
