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.
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.
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.
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'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 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 27th 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 :)
