The Weekend Report: Agility in the Cow Palace

I kicked off my agility season much earlier than usual. John was headed out of town for a "boys" ski trip (and I don't ski anyway), so I figured I would use the free time to get in a little agility fun. I had never signed up for this particular trial before because I usually take a long winter break from competition. That way weather isn't a factor in getting to the trials. I had only signed up for Sunday and I was very glad! Friday night into Saturday was frozen rain mixed with snow, so not the best conditions for a long drive. Anyway, this trial was held at the Maryland State Fair Grounds in the building they use for showing cattle, hence the name Cow Palace. It was a big, huge warehouse style building with concrete floors that the dog club covered with matting. The one oddity is that right in the middle of the two rings are the support columns for the roof. These get wrapped in padding just in case one of us handlers gets a bit clumsy. The judges design their courses as best they can to keep the columns unobtrusive. Another factor that makes this trial quite different is that in addition to our agility trial, there was a huge Pet Expo going on. This meant we had a much larger audience than usual. It also meant lots and lots of shopping!!! There was a dock diving competition set up, huge pool and all. Let me tell you, if you ever thought dogs get excited about their chance to run an agility course, it pales in comparison to the dogs queued up for their turn to jump in the pool. They were barking fools, tugging as hard as they could to get up that ladder and onto the deck.

 Agility-wise, Jimmy and I had a 50/50 day. We did not qualify in our Standard run. Jimmy ran right past the up ramp of the dogwalk. I guess my handling pushed him just a bit too far out and he thought I was sending him to something else. Oh, well. He also had a very iffy contact on the down side. The judge didn't call it but I'm pretty sure he jumped completely over the yellow safety zone.

Here's the run:





A little bit later was Jumpers. Jimmy was pretty excited for his turn and he ran like the wind! He was the fastest dog of all the 8 inchers, Regular class or Preferred. He completed the course in 28.41 seconds. It wasn't until I got home and was logging the run stats in my notebook that I realized that Jumpers leg finished off Jimmy's Masters Jumpers Preferred(MJP) title! This means I didn't pick up the new title ribbon that would have gone along with that accomplishment. Oops! There's a little bit of mischief at play!

Here's Jimmy:





And course maps for those so inclined:

Tracking Jimmy's PACH progress:
Very 1st Double-Q: Saturday 06/21/2014
Masters JWW legs: 10...MJP Title 01/25/15
Masters STD legs: 13...MXP Title!10/24/14
Double Q's: 7
PACH Points: 535

We are once again trying to qualify for the AKC National Championship. It will be in Tulsa, OK in 2016, so a very long way from home, but I want to qualify to have the option to go. Jimmy will be aging out of agility before I know it, so we need to go for the gusto while we still can. The AKC upped the anti just a bit, needing one more double-q, and another 100 points over the 2014 requirements. Still very doable but we'll have to attend plenty of trials.

AKC Nationals 2016:
Double-Q's: 0 (out of 5 needed)
Points: 17 (out of 600 needed)....
Masters Legs: 1 (out of 20 needed)