TBGSDC Trial

This weekend, Lonya and I had 2 days of AKC agility.

It was at a new trial site, which has potential to be a nice site (and pretty close to home).  The permanent rings aren't set up quite yet, and the footing in the rings we used was sketchy in some places.  But there were lots of shade trees and lots of pretty close parking.

The first thing we had to take care of was getting Lonya's permanent height card.  There were two "official" measuring people there on Saturday, so we could take care of it all in one day.  I had bought some chicken lunch meat to use for the measuring, hoping the chicken would trump having to be measured.  The woman judge (Rhonda Carter) measured us first.  Lonya took chicken from her and settled pretty quickly.  She was able to get a measurement pretty quickly, at 17.75".  The male AKC rep (don't know his name right off) took a little more time for her to settle, she's not around men very much.  She wouldn't take chicken from me with him there...but she did stop leaning in to me after a couple of minutes.  He measured her at 16.625, which is short...don't know if he read the wicket wrong or what.  I'm not sure if I should have questioned him or not...  I think the first measurement is closer to her true one (I have her at about 17.5).  But, both place her in the 16" height, so I was happy!!

Her first run (after a LONG wait) was in Jumpers With Weaves.  She ran SO well!  She's been popping out of the poles, so I wasn't sure what she'd do this weekend.  It was a nice course, but the footing wasn't great.  I think she was a bit tentative due to that (which is okay, I'm fine with a dog with some self preservation instincts!).  The trickiest part was avoiding an off course tunnel.  I had to call her off HARD, and she tucked the nubbin for a  minute.  But she recovered and finished strong.  She placed 2nd and got her second leg for her OAJ!



The Standard course was tricky, with several twisty areas and another off course tunnel looming.  Lonya's been jumping contacts, so I overhandled a bit on them, but she got them all!  I wish I had video of this run, but wasn't able to get it.  But, she ran steady and clean (with a couple of nice 180s).  She did bounce off the tire, but went through the hole.  It was the first obstacle, and I'm not sure if I had her set up quite correctly.  But, she got her first leg towards her OA!  And, she was the only dog in Open to qualify!!

On Sunday, we didn't qualify, but still had a good day!  Her JWW run was first.  The footing was again a bit tricky (it had finished raining about an hour or so before our run).  It was a really nice course!  Lonya was FAST and so I had to handle her at more of a distance, even layering a jump!  She almost ran by a jump, but fixed it last minute.  She didn't slow up when she hit the weaves, so skipped pole #2, but got it right when I fixed it.   She got a second refusal at the last jump, she was so far ahead of me that she turned back for me to catch up.  But, I was very pleased with this run overall.  The video isn't great, but I wanted to post it anyway.



Standard was a much nicer course than yesterday!  Lonya had a couple of baby dog moments.  She ran by the teeter the first time but fixed it and needed to repeat the weaves again.  Lots of dogs had problems in the area of the field where the weaves were, sniffing a lot.  This wasn't Lonya's issue...she was just being a twit!  She did have another nice call off the wrong side of the tunnel and she got all her contacts.

And I got a nice picture of her at the trial site!

Wish we were going back tomorrow, instead I have to work...

Weekend wrap up

We did two more days of CPE at Pasco Paws, Sat and Sun.

Lonya was just crazy on Sat, she was having fun, but really not doing what I asked her to!  She was really in to doing tunnels...lots of tunnels!  Her Standard run was a mess, she didn't hit any of her contacts, wasn't even close on her frame and flew off the teeter.  Her colors run was a little better...just a couple of extra tunnels!

Sunday she was a little better.   We started in Standard again.  Initially, she seemed like she was going to just go and do her own thing, so I got a little harsh with her.  Nothing horrible, just called her name a little gruffly.  She tucked tail for a second, then settled in to work WITH me...which is what I wanted.  She did her Aframe and teeter, but ran by the dogwalk.  It was raining during the run, so I didn't push it too much...I really just wanted her to run with me.  Jumpers was pretty nice, just some baby dog mistakes...running by a jump or two and backjumping them.

Sparrow had some really nice runs!  Saturday we ran Jackpot, Standard and FullHouse.

Her Jackpot was SO nice.  It was traditional, and I didn't think she would be able to get the gamble.  But, it had a nice opening for her, where she could get the opening points needed without too much difficulty.  The gamble was a tunnel, 180 into another tunnel, jump and table.  You could go at it from either side (there was a line on both sides), and you could start it whenever you wanted, but it had to be the last thing you did.  If you finished the gamble in the opening time (before the first buzzer rang), you got bonus points.  Otherwise, you had 10 seconds (I think) after the buzzer.  Sparrow actually almost got some bonus points!!  Not what I expected, but once I had enough in the open, I went for the gamble.  She was one of the few dogs that got it, I was very proud of her.  Many dogs missed that their handlers crossed at the first tunnel, or the handler stayed between tunnels one and two so the dog ran between.  Sparrow turned correctly exiting the tunnel, and I had ran past tunnel two and was able to look through the hole to see her and call her through...it worked!  She had a minor bobble going to the table, because her leash was in that chair.  Very happy with her!



Her Standard run was nice also, except I sent her to the wrong tunnel entrance.  My fault.  Full house was good too, she was very happy and peppy (she likes this cool weather!).  Again, I just ran to get enough points and get out of there...But it was a nice run.  She got 27 points and had a couple more seconds before her buzzer rang.



Sunday she Qd in colors, with a really nice run.  She actually placed above another dog who ran clean (doesn't happen all that often!)  Sunday standard...poor girl had to run in a downpour.  She did really well, and would have Qd had she not gotten spooked by the judge in her poncho.  Sparrow stopped to bark at her before weaving...which put us over time.  I had that run on video..but I accidently deleted it!  Oops!  And Jumpers, it was still rainy and she was a little scatterbrained.  She ran around a jump or two and in fixing them, we went over time again.

On Saturday, my friends gave me a very nice surprise gift.  They made Kal-El an honorary C-ATCH bar.  It was a total shock, and of course made me cry.  It really is great to have such a wonderful community of friends....

(The photos are the couple of Kal taken by Tein Tran...I wanted something to put above the bar in the photo)

Day 1 of Pasco Paws CPE

Today we had CPE agility at Pasco Paws.  Sparrow had 3 runs, Lonya had 2 (have to spread out the agility funds!)

Sparrow started out with Jackpot.  It was non traditional, which is usually good for us.  But, there was just too much real estate between the obstacles and we fell a few points short of the total we needed... I think it'll be Jackpot legs that we'll end up needing for our C-ATCH!

Standard was next for Sparrow.  Very twisty turny course, AKC Excellent like.  Sparrow doesn't like these types!  She actually did pretty well, until obstacle 16, when she was just done with being jerked around.  Screwing around getting her to jump 16 took too much time and she was over.  But, she did do a beautiful rear on the flat to the weaves....

Her last course of the day was Full House.  This one can give us trouble too, since it's a speed based class.  It was a NICE course, no contacts to slow us down.  I had a pretty good course in mind for Sparrow (which meant that Lonya was going to pretty much run the same thing...I don't remember two different courses very well...see the snooker runs from CPE Nationals for proof of this!)  She ran fast and happy!  We ended up with 32 points (which is high for her!) and 5 seconds to spare (never happens!).



Lonya's two runs were in Full House and Wild Card, level 2 in each.

Her Full House run was fun!  We pretty much did the same route as I did with Sparrow.  But, once we got to the end, I started to play around a bit and see what I could send her to.  She ended up with 34 points...I think I may have a dog that I won't struggle in Full House quite as much with! I can see how much more confident I am with Sparrow than I am with Lonya...that'll come in time I'm sure.





Her Wild Card run was actually first today.  And she was a little weasel!  I wanted to do some contacts, so I was going to have her do the dogwalk, even though it set us up for the less smooth ending.  But, I figured having to do the "harder" ending would be good for her also.   Lonya had other ideas...  She did the tunnel, jump instead!  I had walked the course a couple of times with this option, just in case my contact sucking dog decided to tunnel suck instead...  So, it ran pretty smoothly, just not what I planned!



We go back tomorrow.  Again, 3 runs for Sparrow, 2 for Lonya