First Outdoor Trial!

First outdoor trial of the season!  USDAA trial at a new site and I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was on dirt!  Sun+dirt is my favorite combination!  And thankfully it didn't rain :)  Big downside is that the site was very close to the railroad and apparently it is a busy railroad.  I think a train went by 2-3 times an hour in the morning, but did die down a bit towards the afternoon.  Thankfully sound sensitivity is still on Vito's "to do" list of anxieties!

And Vito had an AMAZING trial!  So much happiness, so much running :)

Vito even earned a gamblers Q!  Finally a gamble made for Vito :)  I was surprised at how low the Q rate was on this course, only 1 other 22in dog made it. So many turned the wrong way after the jump before the dogwalk (handler's were all far behind after the straight tunnel!), or curled in after the dogwalk.  The jump was a bit of a push out though vs what the map shows.

Snooker was next and a tricky course with the #7 obstacle consisting of a 4 jump combo.  Vito actually ran fast and was even turning wide so that it was harder to hang on to him!  We did 7-6-5 and all of the closing which earned enough points, but not fast enough for that elusive super Q, 3rd place instead.

Standard was a super flowy course and I'm not sure what happened at the start.  Vito didn't want to sit where I wanted him to so that he could slice the jump nicely and I just wasn't fully there.  I am surprised that he turned away from me, and I wasn't able to save the back jump.  But then he turned on the burners and ran again!  I had another brain far and the entire time he was weaving I couldn't think of where the next obstacle was.  Almost sent him the wrong way until I remembered :)  Sassy Toller on the table I think cheated on the down.  Judge didn't care since we already NQed.

Steeplechase started with the weaves with always slows Vito down and then of course we had to do them again.  But Vito was running nicely.  I am pretty sure I was the only big dog, and maybe only person of all? to handle the end from the right side of the tunnel.  I decided to push myself as Vito would much prefer me sprinting to hanging back and doing the rear cross.  Knocked the double, but due to many dogs biting the dust on the course Vito actually qualified with the time+faults scoring!