To my astonishment, Pico finished her excellent standard title pretty quickly! Or, maybe it was just the fact that we were entered in trials every single weekend throughout March and April!

In any case, she got her last excellent standard Q at the Louisville Cluster and got the second of the two excellent jumpers legs she needed! I was really pleased and happy with that, as her first and only exc jww Q came when I handed her off to a friend, who is quicker on her feet and a better handler. With me at the helm we had one bobble after another in jww and I thought maybe that class is not for us! But in Louisville she got leg number two, double Q’ing that day and her jww performance the next day was marred only by popping out of the poles early. So, the AXJ will come, sooner or later!

At our first trial after returning home, we got our first MX leg! Pretty cool! I do like jumpers, but at this stage of the game standard is clearly our forte. Pico sends nicely to contacts and a bit less handling is involved. Hopefully we will even things up with more practice.

Pico began her 2010 agility season with a bang! She finished her AKC Open Standard and Open JWW titles on the first day of her first trial of the year. We moved right to Excellent on day two and had very credible performances. We were one knocked bar away from a standard Q and I was extremely pleased with her JWW run as well.

Its basically going to be all agility, all the time for Pico, at least until and probably thru April. We’re concentrating on AKC agility, as I have no interest in going to Louisville for Cynosports, and I’d much rather she weave on 24″ poles.

It looks like there won’t be any dock diving until the end of April, though it should pick up fast with events in VA, MI, IN, WV and PA beckoning us. I really like having a split season for Pico, with agility half a year and dock diving the other half. It keeps her fresh for both activities, though as driven as she is, she could probably compete in either activity every single day, with no loss of enthusiasm.

In a few ways 2009 was kind of a rough year for Pico. She didnt get to do nearly as much dock diving as she’d hoped, and when she did, we were out of synch and never got past the mid 25′ range! However, I feel that this year I learned the most about that sport, and I am pretty optimistic about next year. But dock diving is going to have to wait a while.

In agility I finally stepped up to the plate and started training and Pico rewarded me with a series of Q’s. We will go into 2010 needing one leg in AKC open and jww to move on to excellent and I’m pretty confident we will wrap that up quickly.

Agility is going to be our main focus until late spring. There are a bunch of trials that are in a great indoor location in February and March. I have absolutely no interest in freezing, baking or getting rained on at outdoor trials, so we are doing indoor shows only! We’re also not going to be doing nearly as much USDAA. Their pigheaded stance on weave pole spacing and the fact that cynosports will be in the northeast has sent me right back to AKC agility! Who’d have thought that would happen!!

After a pretty long break from dock diving, Pico had her first full competition of the season this weekend in Hebron CT. Our long break was not intentional, and it seemed that every time we were set to go to a competition, something or other would rear its head. Most recently she was sidelined with a case of kennel cough right before the Dutchess County Fair event! What a nuisance!! I was particularly pissed when I found out that she most likely caught it at an agility trial we went to a week before!! Some jackass brought a sick dog to the trial and I am told Pico is not the only dog who caught it!!

In any case, Pico was absolutely thrilled to find herself back on the dock at an actual competition. Her jumps were quite nice, with most in the 24 foot range. She held on to her lead all weekend and won pro finals as well. We were also competing in EV to try and finish up her Top Gun title, which she did.  However I did not like the way she was landing in the water. She was clearly hitting the bottom of the pool each time, so when we got to 6′2″ I opted to scratch her from the rest of the competition.  To my surprise the only other dog still in the mix did not get 6′2″ so Pico ended up winning. Go figure!! Pico is now done with EV for good. I have reservations about it’s safety for some dogs, and Pico has more important things to do with her life than extreme vertical.  Things like agility which we have to get back to soon!!

Her next competition will be at the Bloomsburg County Fair in PA and unfortunately that will be her last dock dogs competition of the season, as there is nothing else on the calendar that we can get to. Fortunately, Bravo is going to be with us through a good portion of next year, so we will be back on the dock next season! Pico is very much looking forward to it, and, I have to admit, so am I.