The Weekend Report - Two New Titles!

Jimmy and I had a GREAT agility weekend! We Q'd in 3 out of our 4 runs. That alone is wonderful, but two of the runs resulted in new titles to make it even sweeter. Saturday morning started with Excellent A Standard where we needed one more leg to finish our AX title. That always amps up the nerves for me, so I tried very hard not to focus on that. It was a fairly easy course (esp. compared to what we train on in class), with some subtle challenges you needed to take into account. Jimmy was up for the game and we ran a nice smooth course. He gave me a very good table! So we had our 3rd leg to finish his AX title and he even earned a 1st place ribbon. It seemed like it took a really long time to earn this title but looking back through my agility journal it turns out it took seven tries, so really not too bad. And in the three successful legs, they were all 1st places! What a good boy! As it turns out it was Open Standard that got me so far behind in STD compared to Jumpers. It took 17 tries to finish my Open STD title, yikes!

Next was Excellent B Jumpers (JWW) where we were trying for leg #9 of our Master Jumpers title. With most of my nerves calmed from the STD run, this run went by in a successful blur. So we now had 9 out of the 10 legs needed. Checking the results list I was pleased to see Jimmy's run was fairly speedy and although he did not place in the ribbons (top 4 dogs) he was #6, so very respectable!

Sunday started with Standard again, where Jimmy had been moved up to the Excellent B level. It was a trickier course and unfortunately Jimmy took out the top bar of the triple jump. The rest of his run was clean with another beautiful table performance.

The last run for the weekend was for leg #10 of our Master Jumpers. Once again, I tried not to let a potential titling leg monkey with my mojo! The judge presented us with an easy course (thank you!). We had 44 seconds to get it done and Jimmy ran clean in a hair over 29 seconds. Woohoo! We had our MXJ title! When I went to pick up my Q ribbon, I was pleasantly surprised to see we had even earned a 4th place ribbon. It is very hard to beat those speedy shelties, so any time I place in the B class is a thrill! Looking through my journal, it took only 13 tries to get my 10 legs, and out of those we had one 2nd place and three 4th places. I am pretty proud of those stats and how hard Jimmy tries.

Between the two JWW runs, we added another 28 MACH points to our tally. Also, now that I have moved up to the B class in Standard, I can now start working on the 20 Double-Q's also needed for our MACH, as well as earning points when we Q in STD.

 His registered name now looks like: Fine Creek's Sharp Dressed Man MXJ AX NF HT CGC .

Go, Jimmy, Go!




Tracking Jimmy's MACH progress:
Excellent B JWW legs: 10 (out of 10 needed for his MXJ) Now he's working on his MXJ2!
Excellent B STD legs: 0 (out of 10 needed for his MX) But at least we are now in B class!
Double Q's: 0 (out of 20 double-Q's needed for a MACH)
MACH Points: 129 (out of 750 speed points needed for a MACH)

Jimmy's Excellent Adventure!

Jimmy was a very EXCELLENT boy this weekend! It was a two day trial held by the Elkhound Club in a nice building (great soccer turf!) in Fredericksburg, Va.

Saturday's first run was Open FAST and unfortunately we didn't get the Send, so of course, we could not Q.

Next was Excellent A Jumpers, where Jimmy put in a stellar performance. He took first place and earned his second JWW leg.

Late in the day, Open Standard finally came around. Alas, no table....and it was all downhill from there. Enough said.

Today's Open FAST had the same outcome. Mainly my fault because I didn't realize I could send him in from a spot that probably would have worked. I learned something....

Excellent JWW was again my next run. And again Jimmy did a great job! I had thought it might have been fast enough for another first, but as it turned out it was actually a third place. But since it's the Q I wanted, I am still very happy! This was leg number three and Jimmy's Excellent JWW title! WOOHOO! He did it in just four tries and in less than a year of trialing! I am proud of my little boy!

And to make this even sweeter, Jimmy's breeder, Anne, and her husband, drove up to watch. I was so glad we Q'd to make the drive worthwhile for them!

Jimmy's Open Standard run had the judge in giggles and most likely the audience as well. The start was a jump to a dogwalk/tunnel discrimination. Jimmy was *supposed* to take the dogwalk. Despite a very definite clue from me, he thought the tunnel looked more fun. In he went, so I tried to correct, and in he went again, and then AGAIN. He was having a blast circling through. Fourth time around he finally did the dogwalk. I guess he was getting dizzy and decided to move on! He next refused the teeter, something he is a tad prone to. He did get on the table, but since he was already NQ'd, I didn't pressure him for the sit, just asked for a stay. The rest of the run went well. The Aframe/tunnel discrimination near the end posed no problem at all. I guess he was tired of the tunnel by then.....

It was definitely a very EXCELLENT adventure this weekend!