Merlin qualified his first run of the weekend for MX leg #8 and 7 more MACH points. I noticed his jumping was a little off but I wasn't sure whether to attribute that to something being wrong or the surface (we don't hardly ever run on dirt). He seemed fine otherwise so I let it be, but when we went to run in JWW he came off the start line much slower than normal, and pulled off two jumps so I just made a hasty dash for the exit. I have to be careful about stopping mid-course with him, especially if he's already in a semi-worried state, because he can take simply stopping mid-course to be a failure. Current consensus is he pulled something in his groin area. I worry it is and has been the same issue for the past year or more and continues going undiagnosed or not fully treated/healed. I hope we figure it out soon, but until then he won't be doing any agility or obedience (it also affects his sits).
Rio was a bit overwhelmed by the environment by Saturday (the biggest trial he's ever done and the longest), but did earn his first OA leg with a first place on Friday. He was quite close to Q'ing on some other runs, so with it now warming up I hope to be able to help his "baby dog" skills blossom into Excellent level skills. :) Our main downfall on Saturday is a very loud, male gate steward had him freaked and we were not able to compose ourselves sufficiently before or during his run. We had the same gate steward on Sunday, so I tried a different approach to the situation and it seemed to work better but again, still not composed enough for us to be together as a team.
The brightest spot of my weekend was when Carolyn told me that the litter I was waiting on had been born - and there were LOTS of girls! :) The dam is CH Tartan Bay Flew To Freedom OA OAJ RN HIC CGC/TDI "Feisty". Feisty is a daughter of CH Bayshore's Under My Spell "Toby" (a son of BIS/BISS CH Borderfame Spellbound), out of the lovely BISS CH Brackenhill Flew By Ewe CD NA NAJ PT ROM "Devon". I had the pleasure of meeting Devon as well as Feisty's littermate Chance (CH Tartan Bay Let It Ride AX AXJ HIC) and half-sister Ella (CH Tartan Bay Supernatural NA NAJ HIC) this past October at the BCSA National. At the time, I hoped a Chance kid would be joining our family this past winter but it wasn't to be. However I was quite happy to hear plans were underway for Carolyn's co-owned litter sister of Chance to be bred the coming year. :)
Feisty was bred to CH Holther's That Old Black Magic NA NAJ NF HIC CGC "Mercer", a son of CH Jule Too Holther's Cap Feather "Cap", out of Aust CH Trumagik Star Gazing PT AD "Kisha". Mercer is also a littermate to Savannah (CH Holther's Garden of Good and Evil PT AX AXJ CGC/TDI). I haven't yet had the privilege to meet Mercer (aside from pictures and video) but I hope to at this year's National. :)
5 girls and 2 boys were born on 3/18, so if all goes well I will be flying to Connecticut 8 weeks from Saturday! :) I plan to do a bit of everything with my little Potion... conformation, obedience, herding, and of course my main love - agility! I will attempt to document training progress on here as well as lots of pic-spam (probably mostly pic-spam) as she grows!
I made a desktop background of the girls in the litter with the 5 day pictures... we'll see which one wants to move to Indiana! :)
