Close...

Had a good week-end with the dogs at a trial in Red Deer.

Darbi got a Reserve Certificate of Merit in the first open (5th place).  I thought she ran a great trial.  Her land blind was a little rough (it's our weakness right now), but she did great on the water blind and last series.  She also had a great set of opening marks on a HUGE test.  She was one placement away from a title...but we'll get there someday.  Entries were over 50 dogs, which is very large for an Alberta trial.

I scratched Miikka from the Opens as she is running weird.  But, I did run her as test dog on the water blind and water marks.  She had a very good blind (better than Darbi and Ollie I thought) and tried very hard on the marks!  She popped on the "go" bird (which is her thing now), but pinned the two retired marks!

Ollie got third in the Open the first day!  His water blind and water marks were not as good as Darbi's, but his first two series were amazing!  He was in great shape after the land blind in the second Open, but because of the big entries, the Open was being carried into today...so I scratched him.  I'm hitting the road back to Colorado this afternoon and decided I didn't want to spend another day at a trial.

I'm a little trialed out.

We're running another trial this week-end in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  Kenny will be taking over Darbi the rest of the year in hopes of qualifying her for the US National.  She needs two more points to qualify now that she has the win.  And Ollie needs one more point to qualify as well.  It will be extremely difficult, but here's hoping!