We traveled to TN for our last event before Evie has her babies, and Fleura ran hard as usual. She was BOB Sunday, and then ran off with the Pharaoh Hound, Saluki, Whippet, Ridgeback and Ibizan for Best in Field, and walked away with her sixth fancy ribbon. This ultimately gave her the necessary 40 points to finish her ASFA Field Championship. We also enjoyed meeting her sister, Fera, who is sweet as can be.
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We lucked out with amazing weather this year for Memorial Day weekend, and it was unseasonably cool and breezy. I was unable to attend the first day of the trial due to a family event, but we made the most of our one day. The Beezers had an absolute blast, with all three of mine catching the lure during one of their runs and having a good time with it. Aiden made absolute field confetti of it and Evie came happily recalling back with a bag over her head and around her neck, so it was sailing behind her like a cape. She was very pleased with herself. She put in some strong runs today and won FCh, earning her first LCM points, but couldn't quite pull through in BOB. She had some great corners, but Ayla had her on speed. They had to restart after Evie grabbed the lure and ran around in her special bunny cape, and she just got too wild. Dean was second also for some points and Aiden tied for 4/NBQ, but sadly lost the coin flip.
Fleura ran great and was her usual hardcore self, but the thing that I was most proud of was that she was so unphased by an incident that occurred on the field that could have ruined some dogs. She recovered immediately and just kept running, with no change in her positive attitude. I really admire those aspects of her temperament so much. She ultimately ended up with Best in Field, running with the Ibizan, Whippet, Pharaoh and Basenji, and there were some really great runs from the Ibizan and Whippet especially. I'm very proud of her! It was a super fun weekend, even with Sunday having pouring rain all day long. I got to hang out with my friends Karen, Kayla and Hiland, and the dogs all had a blast running together. There were some particularly stand out moments, like Azula jumping straight over Tigger, and poor Dean taking a faceplant at top speed. Overall, my Beezers did not have the greatest runs on this field, but I did come to the conclusion that Dean runs better muzzled. This field has a lot of visual barriers on all sides, and the more experienced dogs were definitely showing that they knew where the "bunny" wasn't going to go. With the muzzle on, Dean was just distracted enough by it to not think so hard about things and he ended up second place on Sunday for a point. We all stayed over at Kayla's house on Saturday night, which was a lot of fun and a nice change from car camping. The dogs loved it, and Azula was a gracious hostess, sharing her home with six other dogs (along with her semi-permanent resident, Evie).
Fleura had a great weekend, winning BOB both days for another 10 LCX points, and winning her third Best In Field on Saturday! We had a near oops, as she had a really beautiful run in prelims on Sunday (in the pouring rain - oof) and when I checked scores she was much lower than I expected her to be, as compared with other runs of the day. Obviously, I am not a judge, but I have been lure coursing long enough now that I usually feel like I have a decent idea of where my dogs will be in the scores. I didn't want to make a stir about it though, just because it felt out of line. Luckily, her breeder (who is a judge and whose dogs were the majority of her competition) came up and questioned it himself. He had seen the scores and then asked the judge who his prelim winner was, and the judge had replied "the little naked bitch in the third course", which is a pretty hilarious and accurate description of Fleura. Eddie had them recheck scores and, sure enough, there were a few miscalculations and Fleura's score went up a couple points to be the high score for prelims. It was a close call with her half-brother, Lucius, and she narrowly beat him by a point for BOB. In Best in Field on Saturday, she ran off with Azula the Ibizan (who won BIF on Sunday), and with a Pharaoh Hound and a Whippet. There were some absolutely beautiful runs, and Fleura and Azula were very well-matched especially. The Whippet had a nearly flawless run, but I believe Fleura bumped ahead just because she ran with a dog who matched her so well, and she was just that little bit faster this day. I was very proud of the squirt. She's really exactly the performance hound I hoped for. |
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