An extra long day.  Pat was going to follow me to the trial so she could run Painter, but she had not pre-entered so we had to be there 1/2 hour earlier so she could do a day of trial entry for him.  That meant I had to be up at 3:30 am and on the road at 4:30 am.  Well, I didn't exactly get up when the alarm clock started buzzing, but we were all loaded up in the van and pulled out of the drive way at 4:35.  A couple of quick potty/coffee stops and we pulled into the trial site at about 8:20 am.  It was raining on us the entire drive down there, and it continued to rain, drizzle, rain, drizzle all day. 

I had 5 dogs entered, Ruby, Zuli, Aren, Avery & Marseille.  Pat had Painter entered and Monica had Derby entered.  It did end up being a very good day for us.  Painter won the open stake of 18 for a 5 point major in his first trial in almost two years.  Then Derby won the special stake of 11 and followed it up with a Best of Breed win giving him 5 points towards his LCX title.

Out of the 5 dogs I had entered Ruby was best of Breed for one more point towards her LCX-2 leaving her only 4 points short of that goal.  Zuli ran like a clown but at least she had fun and got some good exercise while killing a few plastic bags.  Aren had a couple of nice runs, better than I've seen out of him in a good long while.  We'll certainly have to keep up with his chiropractic adjustments!  Avery ran nicely and ended up in a 4 way tie for 3rd place, but she messed up the run-off and took herself out of the running.  Marseille finished out of the ribbons as well. 

The results for my little girls was not unexpected as the course was another 'speed' course that we're seeing all the time now and on those long straights, the girls just can't keep up with the dogs that are twice their size.

We didn't get off the field until nealy 6:00 which resulted in arriving back home at 10:05 pm.  Those nearly 18 hour days can really sap your strength!

~~Joanne