Had Cory entered in Open A for his last leg at Dayton today. Last night at Mom and Dad's I was doodling with both dogs downstairs after the game a little bit. I was about done and was heeling with Robbie but was wearing my Skechers Easy Walkers (big mistake). The have very thick curved soles, which is great cushion for standing on all day but not stable for pivots and keeping your feet underneath you. We came out of the about turn and I heard and felt something pop in my foot, then major pain, right in the area on my lateral left foot that I broke when I was 14. End of training for that night. Went home and iced it all night, then got up early this am to test it out. Last night and this am I really needed a cane or crutch to even get around the house. Decided to drive up anyway and give it a try. Got there and tried heeling for a minute or two with Cory using the crutch in the parking lot; he didn't seem bothered by it and I could definitely move faster with it, so I decided to give it a try. He started out a little distracted (likely because the judge decided as I was walking into the ring to start asking me about her dog's medical problems. AAAGH!), but then after the halt on the first leg he got more focused and had relatively decent attention through the rest of the pattern; he was forged through most of it, I think probably because I was leaning more due to the crutch. Drop was a little late and he finished to the left (around the crutch!) rather than to the right as I signaled, ended up a little lagged and crooked. Barked as he took off on the flat retrieve, pick up wasn't clean, front a little crooked. ROH no barking, fairly good but crooked front and mouthing on both retrieves. He was getting more and more cranked as we went along; on the broad jump he barked (maybe several times) and instead of fronting came all the way around behind me, jumped it again, then nailed his front and finish. Again the judge was very chatty and I could not get out of the ring to go get him his cookies. Overall, not bad given the fact that neither of us had ever worked with a crutch before. Going into the sits I was optimistic; however I was not real happy with how he set up- sloppy and dumpy on the sit and could not get him positioned as well as I would have liked. I was on pins and needles since at our last trial he had blown the leg and his title by lying down as we came back. As we started back he was still up, but I could see that he was looking around. As we came back into towards the ring, he was scratching and as I came into the ring he laid down. I was NOT pleased. I think the scratching was an excuse to get a better look at the newfie next to him. On the down, the judge told me he sat up, scratched and laid back down. I might add that in the 3 days since then I have not seen him scratch once.
Soooo....still need one more leg, damn him.
Judge: Cat Thompson
Heel Free-4
DOR-1
ROF-2.5
ROH-1
BJ-3.5
NQd both stays
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