The Weekend Report - One of Each But....

This weekend was an agility trial given by the Hyattsville Dog Training Club. I loved how they ran this one ring trial! They ran all the Excellent/Masters level dogs in Jumpers first. They switched to Standard and again ran just the Excellent and Masters level dogs. So if your dogs were all in the upper levels, you didn't have to wait nearly as long as the usual running order of Excellent/Masters, then Open, then Novice, then switch to the other. And if you were a newby, running in Novice, you didn't have to arrive nearly as early. Of course if you had an advanced dog and a Novice dog, your day was going to be long no matter how they ordered things.

Now, on to my report....As the title says, I got one of each. I got a Jumpers Q and I got a Standard Q. Unfortunately, one came on Saturday and one came on Sunday, so it wasn't the needed double-Q. There is happy news in there though. Jimmy's fears ( the noise phobia from several trials back) have eased some more. While he still didn't want to walk into the area around the ring, once there and eating more raw tripe, he calmed quickly. He even felt enough like his old self to sass me into feeding the tripe faster and he barked enthusiastically at the dog running in front of us. Both of those are very good signs indeed!

Saturday was just one bar down in Jumpers. The Standard run was a good speedy effort and we managed to earn the third place ribbon! Yay, Jimmy. We missed second place by a mere 1/2 second.

Here are the maps:

Click to enlarge

Sunday, Jumpers was the one that went well. The bars stayed up and our time was pretty fast so we netted 18 more points. While we weren't in the ribbons, we did a very respectable 7th. Standard was a very unusual course, and quite tricky. There were many places things could go wrong. The first half was definitely easier then the second half, where unfortunately, Jimmy took out a bar as we headed into the home stretch. I have a feeling I did not work the turn well enough to give Jimmy the angle he needed for a clean jump. Big sigh........I wish I had video to see what I did wrong. I haven't been too good about getting my camera out and handed off to someone. With trying to ease Jimmy's fears, I just don't have the focus for that.

Here are the maps:

Click to enlarge

The two qualifying legs from this weekend also finished off our 20 legs needed for the AKC Nationals qualifications. So now, we are down to needing just points....lots of them yet.

So, while this wasn't our best performance, I have to be happy that Jimmy is slowly coming out of his noise phobia funk. And you can't ever complain about finishing in the ribbons! Now, we just need to get our groove back when it comes to our teamwork.

Tracking Jimmy's MACH progress:
Masters JWW legs: 36  Now he's working on his MXJ4!
Masters STD legs: 21 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: 889 (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: 320 (out of 500 needed)
Masters Legs: 20 (out of 20 needed)


With a full weekend of agility, I am way behind in what's going on on everyone's blogs. Hopefully, I can do some catching up during the week!

The Weekend Report - Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Well, yesterday was the Potomac Valley Golden Retriever Club agility trial held in Westminster, MD. This trial was run small to tall so it made for a nice short day. Gotta love that! Unfortunately, that's all there was to love...well, other than Jimmy, in a general sense! We had no success in either run, so it was a big double-NQ!

Standard was first. I knew where I would find trouble on the course and sure enough, I did! It was the dogwalk, to a jump, to the far end of a tunnel. Clustered into that same area was the table, as well. I was so concerned about, a) Jimmy hauling down the dogwalk toward the off-course end of the tunnel and/or blowing his contact and b) in trying to work the end of the dogwalk, that I might actually get an off-course table, that I ended up getting a refusal at the jump he was supposed to take because my handling sucked!  Jimmy was a bit annoyed at me for all the confusion, so he did not want to get on the table. After a couple of tries, he did get on, I praised him profusely, and we ran the rest of the course cleanly.

Jumpers was not too long a wait. It was not a very difficult course. Unfortunately, Jimmy took out the top bar of the triple. I am pretty sure it was my fault as I think I told him to go to the tunnel while he was still in the air over the jump. Saying anything over a jump is a very good way to get a bar as it calls Jimmy's attention to me and his feet drop just enough....Since I am on the quest for Double-Q's, not qualifying in STD means not qualifying in JWW really isn't too upsetting other than missing out on a few speed points.

Here's the STD run.....I did not get video of JWWs.




Tracking Jimmy's MACH progress:
Excellent B JWW legs: 20 (out of 10 needed for his MXJ) Now he's working on his MXJ3!
Excellent B STD legs: 7 (out of 10 needed for his MX) Better than halfway to our MX!
Double Q's: 5 (out of 20 double-Q's needed for a MACH.... 25 Percent!)
MACH Points: 386 (out of 750 speed points needed for a MACH...... 51 Percent!)

Time 2 Beat legs: 4 (out of 15 needed for his T2B) 32 points (out of 100 needed) 

Jimmy Enjoying Westminster

Jimmy is yet another Cardi who enjoys a good TV program. We watched a bit of the WKC show while we were down in Myrtle Beach. Jimmy gets very excited and very vocal watching dogs (any animal really...) on the tube. Since we were in a condo, I had to keep changing the channel to calm him down. He was cheering way too loud with so many neighbors in close proximity!

And a belated CONGRATULATIONS to Janet, Scout and Cheryl! What a thrill that must have been!