Livin' The Life

Well, it happened... I left for college. The hardest part was, without a doubt in my mind, saying goodbye to Trixie

I've been here for two weeks and so far college has been quite the adjustment, but I'm finally starting to get into the flow of it. The agility withdrawal is crippling, especially since I get to see tons of videos on Facebook of other college students training and competing. I keep telling myself it's just a few weeks until I get to see Trix again and go to a show, but that doesn't make it any easier. What does is that college is tons of fun :) There's definitely something to be said for not being told what you should be doing and my independent self is loving that.

Also, as fate would have it there is actually a dog sports club at Cornell (who'd have thought, right?) so at least I get an agility fix every now and again even if I don't get to run myself. Not to mention I'm supposed to be actually writing about agility on this blog... I will, I promise!...Saturday!

The Summer Comes to a Close

This past weekend was Trixie and I's last trial before I start college next Tuesday. It was bittersweet to be sure. On the one hand we got QQ#10 for MACh3, QQQ#8 for our TQX, and finished her MXF(!!!) but on the other I left the ring knowing that it would be at least 2 months before I would even get to see Trixie again. Sad as I am, though, it's for the best. Trixie has been to so many shows this year that she really needs a break... especially since we entered the AKC Invitational this winter! To be sure there are still a lot of details up in the air at the moment, but getting the confirmation from Steve Herwig was still pretty exciting :)

Our busy summer schedule also helped us make some significant progress toward the title goals I set for the summer. Unfortunately a bunch of AKC trials got cancelled this summer so there weren't enough days for Trixie to finish her TQX ( I swear one day we'll earn it!), I didn't enter any obedience trials so earning her BN title didn't happen, and then Trixie measured into championship 14" in USDAA so we stopped accumulating Q's for her PDCH - other than that I think we got every title I wanted to.

Trixie finished her:
AKC Coursing Agility Title
AKC Time 2 Beat
AKC Master Excellent FAST
CPE C-ATCH

Not to mention qualifying for AKC agility nationals in Reno, NV and picking up a good bunch of Q's towards her C-ATCH2 and QQs for MACh3.

Scooter was also a super star and finished her level 4 strategy title in CPE agility and is 1 Q away from finishing level 4 altogether, which will in all likelihood be her last title since she won't come to live with me after I finish my freshman year in college.


Speaking of college... I arrived in Ithaca, NY today!

Move-in day isn't until Friday, but I'm still excited!

2014 USDAA New England Regionals: Day Three

When I woke up on Sunday I was totally pumped. Trixie and I were sitting first in the biathlon and I was feeling good about our chances to make the podium in both performance Grand Prix and Speed Jumping.

I knew that Trixie wouldn't have her first run until at least 11 so I let her sleep in  at the hotel while I walked down to the venue to walk master challenge standard.

Well I would definitely need a start line stay for this one - running with Trix from the beginning would almost certainly lead to her knocking #3 or her taking the off course tunnel.

The hardest part of this course was undoubtedly 7-10. MANY teams missed the weave entry and those that got it often had trouble with the pull through. Quite a few handlers had success rear crossing the weave poles and then leaving their dogs in the poles so they could get ahead for the threadle. The second most popular handling plan was handling 6-8 like a serpentine. The majority of teams that chose this approach actually picked up the A-frame and a fair amount missed the entry. I this this was more because handlers were rushing the entry or were too far behind to help show the dog the proper line.

To my surprise, not a SINGLE dog took the teeter after #14 - on paper it doesn't seem like an especially tempting off course, but when I walked the dog's path during the walkthrough it actually was.

Really, the last handling choice was how to handle the #19 backside. A good deal of handlers decided to take the longer path and send their dog to the right of #19 instead of the much shorter path to the left side of #19. What seemed to be the deciding factor in this decision was how far ahead of their dog a handler could get. A number of handlers that chose, as I did, to front cross on the landing side of #18 often did not support #17 strongly enough and so their dogs pulled off of it. Lateness was also a common problem that, obviously, lead to many a knocked bar.

Trixie and I really rose to the occasion and had one of our best runs to date. According to the judge's wheeling she ran it at 5.44 YPS - which seems a little high to me, but maybe I'm underestimating her :)

We took 1st place in this round, which meant we had won the overall performance biathlon. This was definitely the proudest I'd felt about a set of runs since our showing at the 2013 AKC Agility Invitational - especially considering how unsure I was about our readiness for this event.

After the biathlon I settled in for what I knew would be a super long wait for the grand prix finals. For whatever reason the club decided to award medals and ribbons and take win pictures between each jump height. My first thought was, awesome! how efficient is that? But it wasn't. I didn't realize that they intended to actually stop the ring and make the judge wait until all the awards (byes included!) had been handed out, ugh. Once I finally got to walk the course - 3.5 hours after MC standard - the club realized that continuing like that would mean that their day wouldn't end until 9 at night, so they changed to hand out awards until after all the heights had finished.

Definitely another course that'd require a lead out. The rest was pretty straight forward and there wasn't a ton to mess people up. What separated the podium placements was really just tight turns - especially in the opening.

Trix pulled off another wonderful run that earned us a spot on the podium and a silver medal :)

Almost immediately after that picture was taken I had to run into the ring to do the PSJ walkthrough.

So, yeah. It's steeplechase - basically lots of running and lots of fun! The only part of this course that was tricky was the 16-18 line. Sure, it was easy to get your dog to take the obstacles, but it wasn't obvious to the dog just where exactly they were going. Leaving the dog in the weave poles, assuming you had the dog on left, made it a very do-able proposition. Those that didn't make it to that cross had a VERY awkward time, even if they got the job done. Then there were some dogs that just didn't understand what was going on at all and never even saw the tunnel.

So I planned to lead out to #2, but that didn't happen. I just wasn't feelin' it, so I ran. Really fast. The cheering helped :)

We managed to make it to the podium with another silver medal :) I decided to leave before the picture though because it was already 5 and they hadn't even started championship dogs and I was leaving for Ithaca, NY that night. I don't think they did the awards ceremony until about 7 or 7:30, so it was a good call on my part. I did miss out on the prize money though, but fingers crossed they'll be awesome and mail it to me - I can dream, right?

Even though the days were long the people were so organized, the surface was perfect, and I really had a wonderful time and would love to go back next year, - fingers crossed that it works with my schedule! Anyone who's considering whether it's worth the trip, it definitely is. Don't even hesitate because it's that fantastic.

2014 USDAA New England Regionals: Day Two

This was the first day of the "actual" competition for us, and I was actually pretty nervous about how it might go. Steeplechase was one thing - Trix and I almost always Q'd in it and the courses were rarely too challenging - but Grand Prix and Master Challenge were quite another. We NQ'd in Grand Prix about as often as we Q'd in Steeplechase, somehow something or other always got in our way - basically we were infected with the *one little thing* bug. Ugh.

Master Challenge wasn't much better. The one time we had done it Trix pretty much imploded and we didn't even finish the course. For two weeks I went back and forth about whether to enter the biathlon. Actually, I almost missed the closing date altogether. Given our recent success with international style course elements at the Nancy Gyes and Anna Eiffert seminars, though, I decided to give it a try, what was the worst that could happen?

The day began with an awesome gift. I finally took the plunge and decided to take Trixie over to get her last measurement for her 14" championship height card. It sounds a little ridiculous to get so worked up about a measurement but when you have a dog that's received measurements everywhere from 13.5" to 16" (yes, 16") you get a little concerned. Luckily fate/god/flying spaghetti monster was on our side and Trixie measured at 13 and 3/4". YES. Better still the judge that measured her was a CMJ. Even then it was unclear whether she would actually be eligible for 14" because she had gotten a measurement over 14". After about a dozen emails to the USDAA discussing the matter a member of the measuring department confirmed that she would be issued a permanent card. The only bummer was that I had missed my opportunity to transfer her performance titles to the championship program back in January.... So we'd have to start over from the Starters class again :/ Well at least we weren't one leg away from a PDCH or anything.

From then on I was sure the day could only go well because the permanent measurement card had already made it worth the trip. I basically skipped over to the course map pile to see what we'd be facing that day.

Master Challenge jumpers was our first course - might as well start with the hardest, right?

I was pleasantly surprised by how do-able the course was. Sometimes MC courses are just ugly and don't have any flow to them at all. As a friend of mine so aptly put it "Sometimes USDAA's master challenge isn't international, it's just annoying." The only "annoying" piece - at least at first glance - was 6-7. How in the world was I going to get there? Sure, I could just jog Trix around #4, but what kind of flow is that? Thankfully this was a course that looked a lot better when it was set up than it did on paper.

There were two main ways that handlers approached getting their dogs from #6 to #7. Many, including myself, opted for a front cross on the landing side of #6, which actually worked quite nicely because #4 was a lot closer to #6 than it seemed on paper, so getting to 7 wasn't as hairy as I originally thought. Most handlers, though, chose the shorter path - they ran straight from 6-7. That method seemed like it involved a lot of hoping and praying to me, but some teams really did it beautifully.

Another tricky area of the course was the #4 backside. At first, I thought I'd front X on the landing side of #3 to present the backside, but I saw A LOT of dogs run for the weave poles. I was fortunate, however, to see Karen Holik run the course with her 14" sheltie, Ice, before I walked it and I noticed that she pushed to the backside of #4 by going the long way. I'd be lying if I said that it didn't completely blow my mind when I first saw it but the more I thought about it the more sense it made. The dogs just got such a nice entry to the weave poles that way and it gave the course a nice flow.

The rest of the course was actually straight forward and most handlers made the same decisions - a FX after 9, blind/FX after the tunnel, then keep the dog on left for the rest, perhaps with a RX at the end. What caused problems for people was #13. None of the dogs refused the jump, but most assumed that they were going to the tunnel afterward and so when they realized that they were not, in fact, headed in that direction, they took the bar down while adjusting their line. On the actual course it seemed like #13 was a little further back than it is in this diagram, meaning that handlers almost had to treat it like a backside jump.

Overall, this course was pretty rough and not a lot of dogs ran it clean - but Trixie and I did! Woot :D Not only that, we won the class. Once again Trix decided that start lines were for squares... *sigh* Of course I don't have any of this run on video, but that's okay.

Next up was steeplechase semifinals.

Yeah! A speed loop :D Sometimes a good sprint is just awesome and that's exactly what this course was. I front crossed only twice in 19 obstacles, but still loved it even though it was simple. 

The course ran beautifully and was very true to the map - except for 1-4 which ended up being a much straighter line than it looked on paper.

Trix finished 3rd. 2 seconds off of 1st and 0.5 seconds off of 2nd. For such a straight course I felt pretty good about those time disparities because Trix is usually much slower than other speedy dogs (read: shelties) when there's a course as straight as this. I hoped that finals would be a bit more technical to give us an edge.

Last up was grand prix round 1:

By this point it was about 3 o'clock and I was feeling pretty tired. Trixie and I had a bye into the grand prix final tomorrow so I figured I'd at least walk the course just so I could check it out. I ended up scratching Trix, though, because she tires pretty easily and I wanted her to be as on her game as possible for tomorrows runs. 

I dropped the dogs off at our hotel and then my mom and I went out for sushi - which was great.

*Food Porn Warning*

2014 New England USDAA Regional: Day One

On Friday I decided to enter Trixie in the local rounds of Performance Speed Jumping and Performance Grand Prix instead of the team competition because 5 runs in a day is a lot for her and I didn't want her to be tired for the next two days.

We ran in PSJ first.

I planned to front cross after #2 and then sprint around the course to #9 and then rear cross, then keep sprinting. Once we hit the weave poles the second time I was going to leave her in the poles and do a front cross on the takeoff side of #17 then rear the tunnel. The plan went awry from the beginning - Trix just didn't want to hold her startline, so I ended up having to run with her and then rear crossing #3. Our run smoothed out after that small snafu until we got to the weaves the second time. I completely forgot that I was supposed to move laterally until she had reached pole #7 and then I was just like "Ahhh I should be over there!" and then I ran over to where I wanted to cross. Of course, Trixie popped out of the weaves because I suddenly moved away from her. *smacks forehead* When I took her back to the beginning to start the weaves again to at least get a Q Trix weaved a couple poles backwards so we got an E *sigh*

A couple hours later I got to walk Grand Prix. I really liked this course because of its flow and especially because of the dog walk set up - it made it really easy for me to babysit her down contact while still effectively cuing the next parts of the course. Much like PSJ I hoped that I would be able to lead out to about halfway between #2 and #3 - but that didn't happen. Trix really didn't want to stay so I just had to be a little late to the front X. Luckily that was the end of our troubles and the rest of the run went really nicely. For some reason Trix's teeter was really slow, but then she picked it up after that. My favorite part about this run, though, was that she gave me a really nice deep contact hit on the dog walk - ok, for USDAA it was high, but considering that I usually look for a hit on the much larger AKC contact I'll take it! 

 

Trixie got a Q and 1st place - granted there were only 2 other dogs, but given our bad luck with GP I was happy to have the Q.

June Trials

Despite the rather long blogging hiatus Trixie and I have been quite busy with trialing. In the past month and a half (it's been that long?!) we racked up 3 QQs (2 of which were triple Qs!!), a bunch of USDAA Q's including a super Q and a PGP Q AND BYE! More exciting still, last weekend Trixie got the last two Q's she needed to finish her C-ATCH! I'm glad that we got that title out of the way because now I don't feel as obligated to show in CPE anymore and we can spend more time in the venues that I really love - USDAA and AKC.

Speaking of USDAA... we went out to the New England USDAA Regionals this past weekend that were held in North Smithfield, RI. It was further away than we'd normally go for a trial, about 7 hours, but I figured I could justify it because it was my birthday weekend :) And it was a fantastic weekend. Rhode Island is absolutely beautiful and the show site was wonderful. The turf was, by far, the nicest surface I've ever run on and Trixie really enjoyed it

Since so much happened this weekend I'm going to give each day it's own post, otherwise this one would be ridiculously long... But here are some pictures of our Friday hike in Newport, RI

Moving On

This past Sunday I graduated from high school  - yeah! Now I'm looking forward to a summer full of sun and agility, but in a bittersweet kind of way. As every day of summer passes I get closer to my year without agility.

I'm still not totally sure how I'll survive the year of withdrawal but there's definitely one thought that'll get me through it - a puppy! Trixie's going to turn 5 this December so it's almost time! I'm thinking that this coming summer will be the best time to get a dog - I'll have a handle on college life and will have enough time to lay a solid foundation. Of course, in order to get a puppy you have to be on a list, after you've found a breeder, after you've chosen a breed - all things I should probably do... Good thing I have the summer!

The Agility Marathon

Okay maybe it wasn't exactly a marathon, but we did 3 trials in the past 5 days and usually we do 1 trial day each weekend. Nevertheless everyone loved it.

On Tuesday I headed out to Lewisberry, PA (just south of Harrisburg) for the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club's national specialty agility trial. When I first got there I was a little disappointed because I didn't see ANY cavaliers - 'what's up with that?' I thought. Apparently I just wasn't looking closely enough. When the 12-8-4" dogs started to get ready to run in masters the cavaliers just started to come out of the woodwork, and then kept coming. Before Masters Jumpers all the Cavaliers came together to be in a picture. It was a little chaotic, but adorable - the best kind of chaos :)

Trixie got to tag along as an honorary Cavalier. Unfortunately the turf was pretty slippery and she had a lot of trouble with it. It seemed like every time she tried to open up and run she slipped :/ Of course, she was still a good girl and QQ'd with a 1st place in standard.

Scooter also had a good day and QQ'd for her 8th towards her PAX - yeah!! Her JWW run was slow - she got SCT - but her Standard run was awesome (17 points) Then the marathon continued a few days later at my club's agility trial. Usually I would only enter a show on Saturday, but Trixie loves the site, I want to support the club, it's close, I like agility,... clearly I have no problem coming up with excuses to enter agility trials :) Trixie kicked off the weekend with a really nice JWW run. She's really beginning to pick up some speed in JWW, long gone are the days when she'd jog through jumpers *knocks on wood*. She even picked up a placement (3rd) and was only off 1st place by less than 2 seconds, a huge improvement from being off 4th place by 6 seconds.

Scooter's JWW run was less than stellar and I had to run the outside of every line. After I picked up her score sheet I thought that it said she was over time by 1 second, I wasn't surprised because she basically walked. Later in the day, though, a fellow club member told me how hilarious she thought it was that Scooter got SCT EXACTLY and she clearly didn't want to do any more work than she needed to, she even got 3rd place to boot.

 Masters Standard was basically a giant loop. I didn't see any dogs take off courses or really have much trouble with anything. Any issues were on the order of being called over a bar, missing a weave entry, or taking an off course because the handler got behind. Trixie enjoyed herself and I got to go for a 39 second all out sprint - well 34 seconds minus the 5 seconds on the table :) QQ#3 for her and a 3rd place. 1st and 2nd were ahead of her by less than 0.5 seconds. Scooter randomly decided that she HAD to stop for about 8 seconds on the dogwalk AND the teeter *sigh* She still made time, got 5 PACh points and QQ#9, but didn't place. Still she *did* run when she wasn't on the contacts. I guess I'll take what she's willing to give me.

Day 2 of the weekend began at dawn. I literally was leaving the house before 6 because Scooter's JWW walkthrough began at 7. I thought about starching her from the day because she had had such slow times yesterday and thought she was probably still tired from her adventure on Tuesday. Despite my reservations I headed out before the sun was in the sky. To my surprise Scooter totally rocked. She got 15, ONE FIVE points in JWW. Of course I have no video of this amazing event, but she ran the entire course *happy dance* and got 1st place too. Trixie also had a fast run, again less than 2 seconds behind. I was happy with her placing 3rd because it was a much more open course and she tends to not be as fast on those for whatever reason.

By standard I was feeling pretty run down even though it wasn't even noon yet. I think Scooter drew on that because she walked until the end line. Luckily I was able to rally a bit for Trixie and we managed to get our third QQ of the week and get 2nd (0.22 behind 1st). I missed my walkthrough so I didn't exactly have the best plan for getting her to the table, but she got there.

Fun Filled Weekend

     This weekend Trixie and I headed out to Colts Neck, NJ for an AKC Coursing Ability Test (CAT). The weather was perfect, 70 and sunny. Not too hot, and definitely not too cold :) As an added bonus we didn't even have to leave the house until 8 and when I got there the trial was running about 30 minutes ahead so I didn't have to wait the full hour that I thought I'd have to.
     I had never been to this site before and was pleasantly surprised by just how beautiful it was. Usually dog shows are tucked away in some back corner of beaten down parks, but this one was definitely in the gorgeous category. There were three ponds, a small hiking trial, several baseball diamonds, and a nice looking rec center. Granted, the rec center was locked, but it was there. I was also surprised by the complete lack of fencing at the CAT. When I've gone in the past it's always been surrounded by some fairly sturdy looking orange fencing, but today there was nothing. Honestly I was kind of glad that it wasn't there because Trixie has a tendency to enter "psychotic mode" when she sees it because that type of fencing is only used at lure coursing.
     Though I didn't know anyone at the test, the group seemed as friendly and the inspector was more than willing to inspect Trixie far away from the other dogs who were running. To my surprise Trixie actually did a pretty good job of remaining calm around the other dogs, well... at least for a little while.

     When there we about three dogs left before Trixie I got her out of the crate to stretch her with some treats. Everything was going pretty smoothly until she realized what was going on. Cue the insanity.
    I have no idea why Trixie is so much crazier than ANY OTHER DOG at CATs, but she is and, admittedly, it's kinda fun to watch. Though I could do without all the stretch marks down my side from her frantically trying to get to the lure. Yeah, that'd be a nice change. Still, CATs aren't really about me and what I want. Mostly I do them so Trixie can get a chance to really run. Her recall isn't completely reliable so she doesn't get any opportunity to go full out anywhere but in coursing so I guess she just wants to make the most of it. The other major reason I choose to do coursing videos is because of something I heard from a Silvia Trkman video. When I was watching "33 Tips for More Speed," she talked about how the reason that many boys are better at things like running or throwing balls is because they usually do these things more than girls do. Consequently, they learn how to run much more efficiently. Silvia made the point that in this day and age of heavy leash use many dogs simply do not know how to run. When I heard this I laughed. It just seemed so silly that I hadn't understood this fundamental part of agility. After all, how are you supposed to turn in fast times on course if you're out there with a dog that doesn't know how to run properly?
     This weekend Trixie definitely showed me that she knows how to run. In the AM trial she finished off her CA title (and finished my first goal on the "Complete Before College" checklist!)

She also got her 1st out of 6 Q's she needs for her CAA title. I think she got a piece of the lure on that one :)

    And that right there is the other major reason to do coursing. Victoria Stilwell always said, "A tired dog is a happy dog." Definitely some words of wisdom right there. Trixie actually ended up sleeping for about 5 hours straight. Then she ate dinner and slept for another 10. Only her.     I was happy to see how her level of fitness had improved since her last CAT. Around this time last year Trixie was only able to run full out for the first 2/3rds of the course and then when she was done she basically collapsed from exhaustion and had to lie down for 5 minutes before she could get up and run around again. This time she ran the entire course at 100% and then when she was done she was still fighting to get back to the lure. Good to know that walking her 50+ miles a week is paying off.

     On Sunday I headed out to our training center to work on speeding up Trixie and Scooter's dogwalk and their weave poles. The setup I came up with had a tunnel on either end of the dogwalk, like what's below. It worked really well for both dogs - the tunnels helped keep Scooter motivated and prevented Trixie from jumping the contact zone.          The only minor snafu was that I *think* Trixie may have fallen off the first board of the dogwalk. I can't know because I didn't record the session *wags finger at self with disapproving look* but when I turned around I noticed that she was jogging behind me. Odd, right? I checked her out and she  started happily bouncing and barking when she remembered I had treats with me. Scooter's dogwalk REALLY improved. We only did about 4 reps just to keep it fun. Even in that small span of time she got to the point where she was *almost* sprinting, (yes, sprinting!) across the entire thing.  

     I came up with a similar plan for their weave poles. I completely opened the channels and had a tunnel on one end. I would have put one on both ends, but there wasn't really space and after having spent 10 minutes putting everything out I was feeling too lazy to move it all again.      Over time this drill should definitely speed them up, but for now it took a couple reps just to get them to actually sprint through the poles - they're just so used to collecting when they see them I guess.      The highlight of training today was getting to see how excited BOTH Scooter and Trixie were to work with me. Usually Scooter just likes to sleep but today she was really into it. Awesome end to an awesome weekend.

Goals for the Summer

This Saturday Scooter finished off a title that was a long time in the making, her ARChMX. For the non-rally obedience enthusiasts out there the ARChMX (APDT Rally Master Champion) requires 10 triple Q's from levels 1,2,3 after having earned the ARChEX (APDT Rally Master Champion Extraordinaire), ARChX (APDT Rally Champion Excellent), and ARCh (APDT Rally Champion).

Scooter and I got a pretty ribbon out of the deal - the green/white/blue one centered under her picture. I also got around to putting up Trixie's MACh2 ribbons, better late than never, right?

This title was one of MANY dog show goals that I'd always been meaning to get around to earning but hadn't actually scheduled the trials necessary to do so. With the prospect of leaving for college on the horizon I've begun to start to think seriously about what title oriented goals I want to have completed before I go away for the year. I've already decided that this  will be the last season that Scooter trials in anything - she's just so much happier on the couch ;) - and Trixie and I are going to be doing some serious retraining when I get back from my first year. Both dogs have dangling legs for at least 15-20 titles and I definitely have no intention of finishing all of them, but there are some that I want to have finished. After looking into the feasibility of scheduling, I've managed to compile a list of what I think can be finished before I leave for college in August.

The titles and how close we are:

Trixie:

AKC Coursing Ability Title: 2/3 Q's
AKC Beginner Novice: 1/3 Q's
AKC T2B: 14/15 Q's and 100/100 points
AKC Master Excellent FAST: 7/10 Q's
AKC Triple Qualifying Excellent: 5/10QQQ's

CPE C-ATCH: 35/40 Q's ( 9/10 STD, 5/5 J, 4/5 FH, 5/5 WC, 3/5 C, 4/5 JP, 5/5 SN)

USDAA Performance Dog Champion: 9/30 Q's
USDAA Master Performance Jumper: 1/5 Q's
USDAA Master Performance Gambler: 1/5 Q's
USDAA Master Performance Snooker: 1/5 Q's
USDAA Master Performance Relay: 0/5 Q's
USDAA Master Performance Standard: 1/5 Q's
USDAA Tournament Master: 7/10 Q's

Most of Trixie's title finishes were no-brainers. She's 5 Q's away from her CPE C-ATCH, so we should be able to complete that fairly painlessly. She's one Q away from her CA title and we've already scheduled two tests - honestly I like doing lure coursing more for the great cardio exercise than the title. The MXF should be doable. The TQX *might* be a challenge, still I think she's up for it :) I threw up the goal of a PDCH in USDAA just because I thought it was worth a shot. We've been having quite the unfortunate time with gamblers, but I'd like to see how close we can get. I also put finishing her beginner novice title up because there are some obedience trials on fridays, but I'm too much of an agility diehard to sacrifice a weekend of agility for some heeling ;)

Scooter:

AKC Coursing Ability Title: 1/3 Q's
AKC Master Jumpers Preferred: 9/10 Q's

CL4-R: 6/8 Q's
CL4-S: 4/8 Q's (2/4 Snooker, 2/4 Jackpot)

Wishful Thinking:

CPE C-ATCH: 9/40 Q's
AKC Preferred Agility Excellent (PAX): 7/20 QQ's

Scooter's list I had more trouble with. She's so far away from anything giant like a C-ATCH or a PAX that it's impossible for her to get both and honestly unlikely that she'd be able to finish either of the two. At the moment I'm feeling like I'll just get the Q's I can and enjoy running with her; we'll celebrate our successes and both get ice cream if we fail. This summer I plan on just enjoying the game and taking it all in stride.

2014 AKC Nationals

2014 AKC Nationals really snuck up on me. I’ve spent the past three months riding the high from placing in finals at the 2013 AKC Invitational in December and haven’t given any thought at all to what I hoped would come out of 2014 Nationals. That said, I was excited, thrilled, ecstatic even, to be going. As a competitive person I live for the pressure that can only be felt at competitions like these. The highs are higher and the lows are so much lower. I swear national finals are addictive. Once is just never enough.

And how could we not make the finals in Harrisburg? We’d just done it less than three months ago. I spent the entire weekend telling myself that we’d do it. But we didn’t. By 8 dogs and more than three seconds. Trixie and I were clean in all of the rounds and finished 27^th out of 276 12” dogs. True, we did beat some amazing teams, but to say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I knew that we were capable of so much more than what we did. After I got home I obsessively reviewed the runs to try and find where I’d lost those 3 seconds. Jumpers was fairly tight, but slow - more than 5 seconds off the leader. Our standard run was mostly nice, but the end line was really wide, costing us at least a second, maybe two. Hybrid had decent lines, but was slow, again more than 5 seconds off the leader.

When I had been packing my bags to leave Harrisburg I had several people tell me how well they’d thought we’d done. They said how impressive it was that I had accomplished what I had given the dog I was running, but if I wanted to compete at a higher level, I would need a different dog. I smiled and laughed like I agreed with them, but I didn’t.

At our local trials Trixie actually is one of the faster dogs, so I think of her as being fast, but she’s isn't. But that’s not her fault, it’s mine. I 100% believe that Trixie could become a really competitive dog, I just need to put in the time to get her there. When I initially trained her foundation I was so excited to get out and compete with her that I didn’t spend the time to perfect each obstacle; as long as she could do it it was ok with me. As a result her teeter is slow, her dogwalk contact is iffy, and she has little drive for jumps. Even her tunnel performances could use work. Long story short, the next few months will be training, retraining, and researching ways to get Trixie and me to that “next level.” Even though AKC Nationals didn’t go the way that I hoped they would, in a way I’m glad that we didn’t make finals. I’ve always felt that things that you don’t have to work for don’t mean anything. The more you work for something, the more it means when you get it and if I want finals again, I’ll have to work for it. 2014 AKC Nationals will definitely be the kick in the pants I needed to finally break every obstacle performance and start from scratch again.

On the plus side though one of my English Cocker friends took this great picture of Trixie and I together, so there's that :)

SOJAC AKC Trial

This weekend marked the first AKC trial of the year and our first AKC in three months. Unfortunately there's no video of anyone from this weekend because of an iPad mini snafu, but I should get the videos to post before the end of the week.

Day One

 I arrived bright and early at 7:30 Saturday morning for the first run, Masters Standard designed by Terry Culley, with Scooter. Standard was surprisingly short and straight, perfect for Scooter, but I would definitely need my running shoes with Trixie.

There really weren't many dogs that I saw that had a problem with this course. Some took the off course double jump after the chute and others dropped the bar of jump 14, but the majority of teams were successful.

With both dogs I planned to run with them from the start and then front cross before the weaves and keep them on my left until I fronted again after #13, to A) stay ahead of Scooter to keep her running and B) to avoid Trixie knocking #14 because trying to run the line after the A-frame like a serpentine felt awkward. For the last 3 obstacles I kept them on my left. Scooter did a decent amount of running and pulled off a Q/1st for her 9th MXP leg! Trixie also did a really nice job, had a bit of a scary moment getting on the dogwalk, but I guess the balance training we do paid off because she didn't seem to think there was any problem at all. The only minor bobble we had was after the table. For some reason she thought she was going back on the dogwalk or something, because she tried to get on my right. It probably only cost us about 0.2 seconds or so, but Trixie still placed 2nd by 0.53 seconds out of 36 qualifying teams and about 60 that entered.

Next up was Masters Jumpers designed by Howard Etzel.

Many a team had trouble with the wrap on #8. Quite a few dogs really wanted the #1 tunnel and just as many back-jumped, refused it, or knocked the bar. There weren't too many dogs that took the backside of #8  after #1 - mostly because handlers were pretty conscious about getting their dog's head after they came out, but those that weren't got the off course. The #19 tunnel was also a big problem, mostly for the larger dogs. As long as handlers were there in time to front cross and show the dog the proper entrance it worked out but otherwise dogs almost always took the wrong end of the tunnel orknocked #18.There were also the usual knocked bar on other areas on course, especially #14.

With Trixie I ran with her to the tunnel then front crossed and clapped to get her attention before proceeding to sprint to the weave poles. Next I sent her out to #5 and ran up to #8 to do a ketschker. Unfortunately, as I was running up to do the K-turn I realized that I'd never sprinted to a k turn before and didn't really pay attention to exactly where I should be turning before the jump, so I almost fell over on the bar. Luckily, Trixie didn't seem to notice and just kept going. The rest of the run went smoothly with a FC after #14 and after #18 and was good enough for Q/6th out of 60+ dogs and QQ#16 for MACh2 and her first for 2015 AKC nationals! Scooter decided she'd rather not run and wasted an unfortunate amount of time chasing imaginary flies, so noQ for her. *sigh*

Just for kicks I picked up the Masters FAST map because Trixie's working on her TQX/MXF and I'm trying to keep track of the judges that put up logical sends. Anymore I've been noticing quite a few judges that design sends that don't make any sense, and who wants to wake up early for that?

This one was designed by Lavonda Herring and gave the handlers an option between two different sends. To me this is the kind of send that  Master's FAST  is all about, completing a common skill (in this case a wrap back) at a significant distance. Personally I think the 7-5-3 send makes more sense to the dogs and would be easier to complete for both dog and handler, but the 3-5-7 is definitely do-able.

Day Two

Today we got to start with Masters Jumpers, designed by Terry Culley. A lot of dogs had a fantastic time running this course, literally. It wasn't uncommon to see dogs run it in 22, 21, or even 20 seconds flat! Most teams fronted after #3 and then rear-crossed on the flat after #7 and then fronted again after #14. Lots of handlers also threw in a FC after #17 too, but as long as they were fast or could send their dogs ahead they really didn't need it.

For both Scooter and Trixie I front crossed after #3, #7, #14 and #17 which made for some really pretty runs. The only change I would have made is that I wished I had left Trixie in the weaves and front crossed after #6, because the cross after #7 was late, not terrible, but definitely not in time. Still Trixie finished in 25 seconds for 13 points and 7th/60. Scooter also really brought her A-game and ran the whole way for a Q/1st and 8 points.

Our final run of the weekend was an interesting Masters Standard designed by Lavonda Herring. During the time I was a ring crew volunteer for the 16" dogs I saw at least 5 different ways to run the opening line.

Most people either led out or ran with their dogs and then front crossed after #2 and then again after the weave poles, but a lot of them were late and it wasn't very pretty. Others led out and pushed to the weaves and then pulled or front crossed to #4. About 10 people just kept their dog on their right the whole way, which worked as long as they could get at least a little ahead of their dogs in the weave poles. The method that seemed to work the best was rear crossing the weaves poles and then front crossing afterward.

A huge source of NQs on this course really wasn't the opening, but was that dogs were missing the A-frame contact. Because of where I was in the ring I really couldn't see if the dogs were legitimately missing them or if the judge was strict about calling them. I would suspect that they were real calls though because Trixie's A-frame didn't get called and it was rather high, but definitely in. Dogs probably just got too excited by the fast line and the handlers blind crossing there just put them a little over the top.

There were a few dogs that knocked #10,#11, and #13 and a few that took the tire after #10, but not many.

I opted for a front cross after #2 and #3 and then used a blind cross after the A-frame and again after the dog-walk. Trixie rocked it and was just under 40 seconds for 2nd place, QQ#17 for MACh2, and another double Q towards nationals.  The double blind cross plan was so fun too, definitely reason enough for me to consider training running contacts on my next dog :)  Scooter was the last dog of the trial and did a really nice job. She got her MXP title, QQ#5 for her PACh/PAX and 1st place too.

Then to top off a 7/8 Q trial weekend I found out that I won the worker raffle - I never win these things!! You could say I got a little too excited because I accidentally threw the pen I was writing with in the air when my friend came out and told me I won.

It shouldn't take took long for the dogs to rip the toys apart but it also came with a candle, some lotion and much needed poop bags - you can never have too many you know.

A New Beginning

Ah well I felt like a new year should begin in a new space.

http://theagilityaddict.wordpress.com/

Read on!