The Weekend Report: Still Trying!

Logging another one of our attempts at getting a double-Q....alas no luck once again! Sigh! I am beginning to think trialing just one day out of the weekend isn't enough for us to find our mojo! So often our weekend trials would end with success in 3 out of 4 runs. So now, with only one day and two runs, we aren't getting enough tries for a double-Q. I'll put this theory to the test at the end of the month when I do both days of the Pembroke Welsh Corgi trial.

Here are the maps:

The day started with Standard (map on the left) and the first obstacle was the tire. Tires are magnetized and break apart if the dog whacks it too hard. That is then considered a fault. Well, right off the bat, Jimmy broke the tire. When I put him in his stay, I had a niggling feeling I had set him just a bit too close, but didn't adjust him. Obviously I should have trusted my instinct! Then, oddly, the judge didn't call it. But I was thrown for a loop by the tire and made my own course mistake so we were very definitely NQ'd! If the rest of our run had been clean, I still would have told the judge about the tire. I never like to take a Q I didn't truly earn.

The Jumpers run had a few odd angles but otherwise went well and fast. Jimmy qualified and earned the blue ribbon! Still a speedy boy at 10!

I have gotten incredibly lazy about videos and for that I do apologize. These weekend reports aren't much without that! I'll share a few pretty flowers from my garden just to add a bit of color to this post....

Tracking Jimmy's PACH 2 progress:
Very 1st Double-Q: Sunday 5/1/2016

QQ#20: 
Masters JWW legs: 58...MJP Title 01/25/15 MJPB 10/11/15 MJPS Title
Masters STD legs: 52...MXP Title!10/24/14 MXPB 04/30/17 MXPS Title
Double Q's: 15(out of 20 needed)
PACH Points: 1600 plus more! I have lost count!

The Weekend Report - A Blue Ribbon!

This weekend was a two day agility trial given by the Carroll Kennel Club. It was held in Westminster, Md.
Just like the last trial I went to there, they had the convenient running order of Masters/Excellent JWW then Masters/Excellent Standard. This way I didn't have to wait through the Novice and Open classes. And it was small to tall each day, making it go even faster since I run a "small" dog. Of course, to get there well in advance of the 8 AM start time, to have plenty of settle in time, I left home at about 5:30 AM both days. Arrrgghhhh!

First, there were no Double-Qs to be had yet again this weekend. For some reason, both Jumpers runs had a weird bobble where Jimmy went around a jump he should have gone over. That's unusual for him. It could be his view of the jump was cluttered by background scenery such as other jumps, white walls, etc., and he just missed it. On Sunday, my body language was a bit iffy and I think I pulled him off of the jump. Whatever it was, we kept all of the bars up but just didn't quite succeed. As they say, "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades".

Our Standard runs, on the other hand, went well! Saturday's STD looked to be tricky in a subtle and not-so-subtle way, but it ran great! Jimmy Q'ed and came in in 5th place! Sunday's STD was again quite fun and fairly easy as long as we kept the bars up! Jimmy did a great job! When I went to look at the score sheet posted on the wall, I couldn't find Jimmy's name. I was like, well, where is he?! I thought we Q'ed! That's because it never occurred to me to look at the placements. And there was Jimmy's name in the top spot! Woohoo! A first place is a very rare occurance! It takes just the right mix of the usual speedier dogs not entered, and the usual speedier dogs disqualifying themselves! There were two faster dogs, but luckily for me, they didn't Q this time.

So, if we aren't going to get a double-Q, then Q'ing in STD is preferred as it brings more points. Since points are the big thing I need to get to the AKC Nationals next March, I am glad my Q's came in the Standard runs! We netted another 41 points. There's still a long way to go to qualify, but this helped!

Here's Sunday's Blue Ribbon Standard run.....




Course maps for those interested (anyone?).......

 And just a small note about Jimmy's A/C fear. He was still not happy about going in the building. But this time he was willing to try the warm-up jump. That hasn't happened since he had his scare. So another step forward in our quest to have Jim fully happy again. I'm still using the smelly raw tripe before the run and it's still working its magic.

Finally, this was the last agility trial to be held at this location. I guess the owner wants to get away from "going to the dogs".  They had replaced the flooring in the upper building with something too slippery, which reduced the location to being a one-ring trial. Now, they are getting ready to do the same in the lower building. Thus ends an era.....I am not sure how they think they will fill all those weekends w/o the dogs.....
The trials have all relocated to a new sports center, one much closer to home for me. Score! One thing I will miss however, is the beautiful drive through Maryland farmland getting to the site. Here's the view from yesterday morning.....

The Weekend Report - Making a Bit of Progress...and a Birthday Remembered....

This weekend was the Pembroke Welsh Corgi Club of the Potomac's agility trial held in Frederick, Md. This is the closest trial site to my house, only a 45 minute drive. Woohoo! I didn't even leave home until 8AM and the trial was running small dogs to tall!

When we last joined Jimmy's journey to his MACH, he was having fear issues due to the A/C roaring to life over his head and freaking him out! He's now taken that fear to yet another building. He planted his feet and did not want to enter! I didn't give him a choice however so in we went. I had left him in the car for as close to his run as possible and I brought his raw tripe that helped so much last time. While he was still quite apprehensive, he managed to be more interested in the tripe than worrying about the scary building. Standard was our first run of the day. We took off and had a good run going. We made it through the tricky parts and were in the home stretch......only to have Jimmy take out the very last jump. Sigh.

Here's that run......





Next, of course comes our Jumpers run...We are about three out from heading into the ring, when the skies overhead open up a loud deluge of heavy rain (see add'l note below :-) ) on the metal roof. This scares the crap out of Jimmy! Where a moment before he was only nervous, now he was petrified! I seriously considered scratching our run, but decided to give it a try. It was a very tricky course with a speedy dog and despite the rain noise, Jimmy ran well and qualified! What a good boy!

Here's that run.....




Of course we need those all important double-Q's but I'll take a single Q!

Sunday was pretty much a repeat of Saturday. Jimmy was scared and didn't want to go in the building. He faced his fears by eating lots of tripe. I can say he was less apprehensive on Sunday as he was offering nose touches and paw shakes to get the tripe at a faster rate. He even managed a bossy bark or two when he wanted more tripe. In Standard, instead of taking out the last jump, he took out the very first jump. That was really my fault as I changed our start from the usual sit/stay to a stand/stay and he crashed the double jump. But, hey, if you are going to take out a jump, the first one is great because then you can try things you would otherwise not risk! I cheered Jimmy along throughout the rest of his run, egging him to go fast. The Jumpers run was fun with a couple of tricky spots. I almost lost Jimmy to an off-course jump, but managed to redirect him at the last second! So once again, a Q but no double-Q. We really need the big points we earn from qualifying in Standard because two successful Jumpers runs netted us just 25 points. That's not much of a step forward toward the 500 points we need for the AKC Nationals....

Here are the course maps for the two videos above.....

Click to enlarge

Now up above, I mentioned heavy rain. Well, the funny thing was, I had been crating out of my car for the morning, before it got too hot. All my windows were fully open! LOL! I'm third in line to run, my car is nowhere near the building, and the skies just cracked open! Even after my run was over, it was pouring so hard I didn't want to run that far, getting drenched in the process. I had my shade panels over the whole car/windows, so I was hoping that most of the rain would be deflected. At least the sunroof was closed! When it finally stops raining maybe a half hour later, I go check on my car.....And it is SOAKING wet! There are puddles on the floor, in all the window switches, even on the ledge in front of my speedometer! The dog beds are wet as is a towel and blanket. Fortunately, this isn't the kind of thing that pisses me off. It just made me laugh. It's only water and it will dry out....But when I drove to the trial Sunday morning, I got out, and even after sitting on a towel, my butt and back were quite damp!

And finally, before ending this post, I want to send birthday wishes across the Rainbow Bridge to my old friend Dylan, who was born on this day in 1986. Gone ten years but very definitely not forgotten!
You can click here  and here  to read about my buddy.

Amazing how a little dog can change the course of your life!

Tracking Jimmy's MACH progress:
Masters JWW legs: 35  Now he's working on his MXJ4!
Masters STD legs: 20 We earned our MX2 and are working on MX3 now.
Double Q's: 14 (out of 20 double-Q's needed for a MACH.... 70 Percent! The snowball is headed downhill!)
MACH Points: 846 (out of 750 speed points needed for a MACH...... We've got our points and then some!)

AKC Nationals 2014:
Double-Q's: 6 (out of 4 needed)
Points: 285 (out of 500 needed)
Masters Legs: 18 (out of 20 needed)

The Weekend Report - The Dirty Dozen! - Plus a word on my recent Giveaway!

Before I launch into reporting on a great weekend of agility, I want to mention that the winner of my giveaway for Jackie's book has never contacted me. I am going to give it through today and if I still haven't heard anything, I'll select a new winner tomorrow, so check back just in case.......

This weekend was three days of agility held by the Shetland Sheepdog Club of Greater Baltimore. It was held in a very nice indoor soccer center in Frederick, Maryland. Not only was it relatively close to home, but Friday and Saturday, the running order was Tall to Small, so it meant I didn't even have to get up at the crack of dawn to be there. And on Sunday, when you are ready to have some time at home, it was Small to Tall and we were headed home by 2PM.

Friday, Jimmy and I pulled off a Double-Q. The courses weren't easy so I was very pleased with our success. Jimmy was even speedy enough on the Standard course to pull in a 3rd place finish, beating out about 40 other 12 inchers. There was a weird incident where one of the judges had what I will call a temper tantrum over ring conflicts. A very strange outburst indeed, and it was quite the talk of the weekend.

Saturday was a no Q day. In the Standard run, I walked out and put Jimmy in his usual Sit/Stay so I could lead out past the first jump. As I was doing it, I thought to myself I didn't like how he was sitting. He was a bit crooked and at a bit of an angle. I didn't want to manhandle him in to a better position as his mood seemed odd, so I let it go. Well, wouldn't you know he crashed the first jump! And of course he ran the rest of it beautifully! So that was totally my fault for not acting on the instinct that was screaming in my head! The Jumpers course a bit later was a tough one. We cruised through the hard stuff, but in the home stretch, Jimmy took out a triple jump. So close.

Sunday, the Standard run got off to a rocky start and I have to give Jimmy credit for saving my bad handling plan. There was a very tough sequence in the middle and we cruised through that and made it to the end cleanly. Our time was a bit long due to my messy start, but, hey, it was a Q! The Jumpers course was either a rear cross extravaganza or a  twirling front cross ballet. I opted for the ballet as it means straighter approaches over the jumps and less chance of taking out a bar. Either way, this course made you RUN! Doing so many front crosses added time to the run but with a double Q on the line, I didn't care. We made it out cleanly! Yay! Two double-Qs for the weekend, WOOHOO! We now have a full one dozen QQs!

Some weekends I just don't feel like bugging anyone with my video camera so no visuals for this trial. However, I will leave you with another very bad pun.......

After three days of agility, I can certainly say......

We were all very TIREd!!!

Tracking Jimmy's MACH progress:
Excellent B JWW legs: 29  Now he's working on his MXJ3!
Excellent B STD legs: 18. We earned our MX and are working on MX2 now.
Double Q's: 12 (out of 20 double-Q's needed for a MACH.... 60 Percent! We're more than halfway there!)
MACH Points: 733 (out of 750 speed points needed for a MACH...... 97 Percent!)

Time 2 Beat legs: 6 (out of 15 needed for his T2B) 48 points (out of 100 needed) 


AKC Nationals 2014:
Double-Q's: 4 (out of 4 needed)
Points: 172 (out of 500 needed)
Masters Legs: 10 (out of 20 needed)

The Weekend Report - The Glass is Half Full!

This weekend Jimmy and I had an agility trial both days. It was held by the Capital Dog Training Club.

Saturday we had a lot of success! I won't give a blow by blow as I will just share the video. For our Standard run, Jimmy even ran quickly enough to place 3rd! He was speedy in Jumpers, too, and came in a very respectable 7th.

Here's the Standard....




Here's the Jumpers.....



Since both these runs were clean and successful, we earned Double-Q #10 toward our Championship! Our glass is officially half full!

Sunday, success wasn't as easy to come by, and it was totally MY fault. It was a pretty tough Standard course, and I overworked a triple jump to a left turn into the weave poles. I pushed Jimmy a bit too far out and when he turned toward the weave poles, he skipped the first pole. Sigh. And of course, the rest, including a very difficult ending sequence was clean.......Our Jumpers run was a thing of beauty, speedy and clean. Jimmy placed third, and earned 16 speed points,  an impressive feat! So no Double-Q for Sunday....The club also offered a class called Time 2 Beat. It was at the very end of the day, so I had to wait at least a couple of hours for our run. Jimmy took out the very first jump, so we were cooked before we even got going! It was one of those things I just had to laugh off. Oh, the irony!

All in all, I was pleased with our efforts!

Tracking Jimmy's MACH progress:
Excellent B JWW legs: 27  Now he's working on his MXJ3!
Excellent B STD legs: 16. We earned our MX and are working on MX2 now.
Double Q's: 10 (out of 20 double-Q's needed for a MACH.... 50 Percent! We're halfway there!)
MACH Points: 672 (out of 750 speed points needed for a MACH...... 89 Percent!)

Time 2 Beat legs: 6 (out of 15 needed for his T2B) 48 points (out of 100 needed) 


AKC Nationals 2014:
Double-Q's: 2 (out of 4 needed)
Points: 111 (out of 500 needed)
Masters Legs: 6 (out of 20 needed)

The Weekend Report - Whew! A Double-Q!

So this weekend was my final trial weekend of the year. It was at a new location, an equestrian center in Fredericksburg, Va. We were in one of the large indoor horse arenas. It was a tad dusty, mainly along the edges, the rings being pretty welled watered down. Of course, this meant many good smells to distract the more nasal-based dogs.

The first class of the day was Standard. It was a nice course. The judge spread out across the space provided. There really weren't too many traps although I almost botched getting Jimmy over the Aframe. Jimmy gave me a nice table and all the bars stayed up! Woohoo! We started our day off with a Q! And when the results were posted, I couldn't believe my eyes! Jimmy earned a 2nd place!

The day was running Tall to Small, so we had a bit of a wait for Jumpers. Once again, it wasn't too tricky. There was one spot heading to the tunnel where Jimmy could decide he wanted the wrong end of the tunnel, but luck was on my side.  Again the bars stayed up, and we had a Q! We weren't speedy enough to place in the ribbons but Jimmy came in a very respectable 6th place. When you consider the competition we are up against, Jimmy always does very well in the speed department.

I am sure my smile could have been seen from the moon when we qualified in Jumpers! This broke the long drought on double-q-ing! I won't say I've conquered my ring nerves yet, but I have been working hard on the mental side of the game.

I hung around for another hour in order to play Time to Beat. It was a fun course similar to the JWW run with a teeter and a serpentine thrown in. Unfortunately, when my turn started, the dog just in front of me pooped on his way out of the ring. So, even though I was already three obstacles into my run, the judge made me stop. Jimmy was very confused at this. Once the mess was cleaned up, I got to start again, but my mojo was gone. Jimmy dropped the very first bar as we started again. The judge took pity on me, and let me try to start again. But karma would have none of it, and Jimmy took out one of the bars in the serpentine. So I just cheered him on through the weaves, and in the home stretch, encouraged him to run the line as fast as possible, again cheering him on. In a run where I was Qing, I would never risk talking/cheering while we were running!

I actually signed up for both trial days of the weekend.  However, in dog training, you are always supposed to stop a training session on a positive, successful note, quitting with the dog still wanting more. I took this to heart and decided not to drive back for Sunday. This way my year ends with the positive, happy feeling of a double-Q.


Tracking Jimmy's MACH progress:
Excellent B JWW legs: 14 (out of 10 needed for his MXJ) Now he's working on his MXJ2!
Excellent B STD legs: 5 (out of 10 needed for his MX) Halfway to our MX!
Double Q's: 3 (out of 20 double-Q's needed for a MACH)
MACH Points: 270 (out of 750 speed points needed for a MACH)

Time 2 Beat legs: 3 (out of 15 needed for his T2B) 24 points (out of 100 needed)