Memorial Day weekend Quigley and I competed in Rally in two of the four Mission Circuit shows at the L.A. County Fairgrounds in Pomona. On Saturday our friends Bari and Carnegie came along to check out the show, and on Sunday they braved the ring for the first time in Novice A.

I don’t remember many details from Saturday (that’s what I get for not taking notes right away, or taking a photo of my score sheet!!!), except for some sniffing issues and one thing that I’m pretty proud of – in one run we were beaten by a single point by the person who has been my most admired Rally role model ever since I competed with Quigley in my first Rally trial 5 years ago. I still remember watching her and her dog in the ring, thinking “wow, we’ll never be that good.” We still aren’t quite that good – these two are an amazing team with an astounding level of precision – but to get a score that close, one the same course and in the same class, was more of a reward than that next RAE leg or green ribbon.

On Sunday we did better in Excellent than Advanced, but Quigley had a bit of a strange thing going on. He was heeling really, really close to me, sometimes touching my leg with his head and we got many one-point deductions, mainly for interfering with/touching the handler and out of position sits/fronts.

Scoreboard:

05/28/11
Excellent B, 89 points
Advanced B, 97 points

05/29/11
Excellent B, 92 points, 2nd place
Advanced B, 87 points