NADAC Debut

Zoe and I tried NADAC for the first time this past weekend and it was an unexpected success.  NADAC is a lot different than CPE...you need clean runs to earn Q's and the pace is much faster.  There are also fewer games.  So this venue really tests your distance skills and ability to control your dog.  

We started the morning with a run called Touch N Go, which is contact obstacles, hoops, and jumps.  Zoe had a lot of built up energy, so she shot ahead of me, blew her contacts (jumped off too high from the A frame), and got off course.  Oh yeah, and she ran out of the ring without me.  The next run, a regular standard run, she refused the dog walk and tried to run out of the ring again.  Eventually I collected her and we finished the last half of the course perfectly.  Even though the morning started off disasterous, we finished the 2nd run and ended on a good note.

Despite my fears, the third run, another standard course, went perfectly.  By this time, Zoe's energy cooled a bit and was much more focused.  We had no faults, so we earned a Q!  Chances was next, which as a short course with a distance challenge.  In this run, the dogs had to do a tunnel, hoop, and then the A frame with a tunnel as a distraction all with a few feet of distance.  Zoe loves the A frame, so this worked to our advantage and did everything perfectly, earning her 2nd Q.  

Next was Jumpers, which was an all jumps course.  Zoe ran around the first jump, so we lost some time.  But as soon as I got her back to the start, she did the course beautifully.  Despite the clean run, we lost too much time at the start and missed the Q by 1.78 seconds!  Even though we didn't Q, I was proud of her focus the rest of the run and hopefully next time it will be a Q.

The last course was Tunnelers, which is all tunnels.  This is a very fun course, but it was the 6th one of the day, so I was worried that Zoe would be worn out, which has been a problem in previous trials.  However, I got her revved up and she had fun with the tunnelers course and we earned a Q and a first place.  She ran really fast - 5.2 meters per second!  

All and all, NADAC was a great venue to try and we will continue to compete here.  It presented new challenges and showed what we need to work on.  Zoe really showed her potential and that titles will not be far from our reach.  She gained a lot of speed and confidence this weekend, which will also be a challenge as we try to maintain focus and control.  Most importantly, we had a ton of fun and found that, like CPE, the people were very nice, helpful, and supportive!