We’re home now from Nationals. This morning I did the European jumpers course. Enzo did really well, just had one really wide turn where he actually ran out of the ring and around a post for the ring before coming back. I didn’t decelerate before the 180 turn. oops! Tooney went off course again! She definitely suffered from tunnel sucking this weekend. Don’t know what’s going on with her but I’m really happy with how Enzo was running with the exception of his contacts of course. It’s just bad timing that he decided to start blowing them the week before nationals! He was really fast and focused all weekend and paid attention on some pretty tough courses. I just need to keep working on my timing with turning cues to get him tighter. He did great for a 2.5 year old at his first nationals!

Oh and we also did a couple of private lessons with Melissa Heeter and got some interesting tips from her and some drills to work on.

I didn’t get a post out yesterday because after 6 runs in the heat, I was just wiped out, mentally and physically.

Yesterday, our first run was PNS semifinals. Enzo ran first again. He was pretty close on his dogwalk contact, completely leaped over his aframe contact, and then I pulled him off a jump for a refusal. Other than that though he had a pretty nice run. Even with the refusal, his time ended up being just .02 seconds behind the last dog to make it into the finals so without the refusal and the missed contact he could have made it in! Tooney’s run in PNS ended pretty early as she went off course after just 5 or 6 obstacles if that. Should have been an easy wrap but she just blasted off towards the aframe.

Next was Performance Speed Jumping. Enzo had a pretty nice run, with a couple wide turns but missed his aframe contact. Tooney had a clean run but a couple really wide turns so she didn’t end up with a great time. Enzo’s time was faster by 2 seconds. I checked the results this morning and Tooney ended up in 17th place and Enzo if he had been clean would have been in 13th so he still wouldn’t have made it into the finals.

Last run of the day was team standard. Enzo got his dogwalk contact this time but leapt over the aframe contact and then ran past the next jump and back jumped it. Tooney ended up missing her dogwalk contact but managed to stay on course this time.

Today was team gamblers. Both dogs did good this time but you can’t really mess up gamblers! The “gambler” this time was just after the buzzer point were doubled and you have to cross the finish jump before the closing time was over. Enzo got one of his aframe contacts but not the other. We’re really going to have to work this when we get home!

Tommorrow is our last run with European Jumpers!