Great Weekend Report!

I'm happy to write that our weekend goals were achieved! Hooray! And we had some blue ribbons to boot - icing on the cake!
Moto was up and happy in Graduate Novice, which was my goal. He was a bit distracted at times but overall I was completely thrilled with his performance. The only thing holding us back from Open is that dratted awful lag on the fast, which has haunted us from day one. I need to get creative on this one now and I am not very creative. I almost sense it's a stubbornness issue with him. We'll begin working on it and see if I can get to the root of the problem. But everything else was just great and I couldn't be happier!
Pinch got his Rally Novice Title! He would've gotten a 100 both days except for me, his silly handler, denied him his blue ribbons. Saturday, I simply got lost and had to redo a sign. Still got 2nd place. Today, literally running into the ring after showing Moto cost us big-time. No time to walk the course and rushing in, I saw the "halt" but not the "down". We were to walk around our dog, and I did it with him in a sit. A big fat 10-point hit got us out of the ribbons. That was his only deduction, dangit. But the good thing is Pinch is really showing nicely and has no stress at all in the ring. If anything, he is too overzealous, which is a problem I will take.
Lastly, in typical form, Shiloh made his presence clearly known. On Saturday first place for Grad Novice was a beautiful set of bowls. They are the same pattern as the HIT dipping bowl set Shiloh won five years ago from this same show site. Today was the kicker, though. All Grad Novice qualifiers got a stuffed animal. By the time our class was done the only thing left were Teddy Bears - the exact same kind Shiloh won many years ago and was with him when he passed.
Even though it was for Moto, Shiloh's son, I just couldn't bring myself to see any other dog with his beloved Teddy bear. We gratefully received a beautiful tote bag and towel as first prize, and that was plenty good for us.
It was a wonderful weekend and a good time was had by me and the boys. And I took great comfort in knowing my beautiful Shiloh was smiling down from the Bridge on us.