I tried out a new trial location for this report. While most people I know have gone to this site many times before, it was just outside my distance range, plus, until this year, it did not have A/C in the agility ring building, just the crating room. The venue is called Bella Vista and the trial was given by the Northern Virginia Brittany Club. It took just about a full two hours to get there, located a good distance north of Gettysburg, PA. That's a lot of driving in one day but, boy, oh BOY! Was it ever worth it this time!
We had a fabulously successful weekend! I had signed us up for four runs, regular Standard and Jumpers, and the trickier Premier Standard and Jumpers. I'll have to apologize up front, there are no videos. I didn't know too many people (not the usual gang here!) and I didn't want to bug anyone for video help.
I have the maps of course. And also a photo of our results.... Since it has been a few days since the trial (last Thursday), I'm not even going try a blow by blow description. I just know I was pleasantly surprised as run after run, Jimmy kept qualifying! When we got down to the fourth and final run, regular Jumpers, I didn't think our luck could possibly hold. But lo and behold, it did! And Jimmy had earned double-Q #19!!!! We are now on the very cusp of finishing his big PACH2 title (Preferred Agility Champion 2). Every trial from now on could be the one! So now I must have someone video us from here on out! Don't want to miss having that on camera!
It was such a lucky day, I even won one of the workers raffles, a Starbucks card! Woohoo! I think I probably should have played the lottery that day!
Tracking Jimmy's PACH 2 progress: Very 1st Double-Q: Sunday 5/1/2016
QQ#20: Masters JWW legs: 63...MJP Title 01/25/15 MJPB 10/11/15 MJPS Title Masters STD legs: 58...MXP Title!10/24/14 MXPB 04/30/17 MXPS Title Double Q's: 19 (out of 20 needed) PACH Points: Way more than we need! I have lost count!
I did what is becoming a usual Friday activity and went to an agility trial at our normal location. This time it was given by the Hyattsville Dog Training Club. I signed up for four runs. The two regular classes, Standard and Jumpers, and then the Premier versions as well.
The day started with Premier Standard and then shifted to regular Standard. Here are the two maps so you can see a side by side comparison of the similarities and differences....
The more difficult Premier is on the left. We were doing fine until the #8 to #9 jumps. There was just a bit too much space between those two jumps and Jimmy felt sure we should be going anywhere but to #9. He ran right past it and we were toast! I didn't get video so I don't remember if we made anymore mistakes, but I don't think so.
Our regular Standard run was a breeze in comparison! There were still lots of odd lines and angles but after Premier, I am sure Jimmy thought this one was easy. We qualified and earned the blue ribbon! Yay, Jimmy.
Next up, Premier Jumpers. Here are the side by side maps.....
Interestingly, this course had no back side jumps. Premier usually has at least one. Standard had it at #2. It was tricky and we were doing well until a very difficult weave pole entry at #14. Jimmy did not want to go in the weaves as you can see in the video. He decided it was the tunnel and off he went! #16 tunnel to #17 jump didn't work either but by then of course we were already disqualified and I didn't care! After so many years of the more straight forward Standard and Jumpers, Jimmy really thinks I am nuts with some of the places I want him to go. I can see the look on his face...."You're CRAZY lady!"
And finally the regular Jumpers course....This was not an easy one! Lots of odd angles and turns that were tough to guide Jimmy through. I got lost at #12 to #13, running up a bit too far. Luckily I was able to correct it before we got a refusal or off course fault. All the dogs absolutely LOVED the tunnel to tunnel finish. They all hauled through leaving their people in the dust! Fortunately, we had a Q and that gave us double-Q #18! Woohoo! Two more to go.....
Tracking Jimmy's PACH 2 progress: Very 1st Double-Q: Sunday 5/1/2016
QQ#20: Masters JWW legs: 62...MJP Title 01/25/15 MJPB 10/11/15 MJPS Title Masters STD legs: 57...MXP Title!10/24/14 MXPB 04/30/17 MXPS Title Double Q's: 18 (out of 20 needed) PACH Points: Way more than we need! I have lost count!
At long last, Jimmy and I have broken out of our funk, and gotten back on track! This weekend was one of our favorite trials, the Pembroke Welsh Corgi Club of the Potomac's annual event. I have been doing less agility, usually signing up for only one day, but for this trial, I made sure to sign up for Saturday and Sunday! I am SO glad I did. The courses were challenging and fun, and Jimmy and I seemed to have our timing back. We qualified in all four runs over the weekend, bringing in double-Q #16 and double-Q #17 toward our PACH2 championship title! Whew and yay! I have video of three out of four of the runs, plus stick around to watch something very fun and special at the end of this post.
Map #1 for our Saturday morning Standard run....(photos from my phone so not so great)
And the video.....
Followed by Jumpers....the map...
The video....
Both these runs were successful with a bit of good luck thrown in. I heard Jimmy tick a couple of the jump bars pretty hard, but luckily the bars didn't fall! This was double-Q #16 toward the 20 we need.
On to Sunday...
It started with Standard once again....the map...
The video.....
Of course the last run was another Jumpers run, but I only have the map. I didn't ask anyone to help with the video.
Qualifying in the Jumpers run gave us our second double-Q of the weekend and #17 toward our title. Plus another 97 points all combined for the weekend, but we have many more of those than we need already. We had good, healthy competition this trial so we didn't earn the blue ribbon quite so often, but that's OK! I was thrilled to just double qualify! Here is our pretty rainbow of colors.....
At most trials, I have the only Cardigan Corgi. There are usually several Pembrokes, and at this trial there are tons of Pemmies. But this time quite a few of my Cardigan friends showed up. All told, there were seven Cardis running. Saturday's Standard run had Cardigans winning three of the four placement ribbons! How cool is that?!
Now, at the beginning of this post I told you to stick around for something fun and special. At this trial our judges were Barbara Bounds and Oksana Syrkin. But really, in Oksana's place should have been judge Pam Johnson. Sadly, Pam is very ill and in the hospital, so Oksana was filling in for her. There has been a push to help raise funds for Pam. As we all know in this day and age, being sick is very expensive, especially when you are too sick to work. So the judges volunteered to run one of the agility courses themselves to help bring in donations.
Our dogs are much more proficient at running these course, but it sure is fun to watch people try!
Here is Oksana's run on the course from my first map above....
And then Barbara's turn....same course...
Over the course of the weekend, the judges and competitors managed to raise about $1000. Not too bad! Here's wishing Pam a speedy recovery. We all hope to see her back in the agility ring as soon as she feels better!
Tracking Jimmy's PACH 2 progress: Very 1st Double-Q: Sunday 5/1/2016
QQ#20: Masters JWW legs: 61...MJP Title 01/25/15 MJPB 10/11/15 MJPS Title Masters STD legs: 55...MXP Title!10/24/14 MXPB 04/30/17 MXPS Title Double Q's: 17(out of 20 needed) PACH Points: 1760 plus more! I have lost count!
I spent the weekend out in the mountains playing agility and letting the political events of the past week drain from my mind. It was two days of GORGEOUS weather, fun and challenging courses, friends, fresh air, and time with my dogs. It was truly wonderful!
Saturday started with our Jumpers run. The map on the left is our course.....
And here is how it looked on video.......
This was a nice clean run and added 16 more points to our pot. It was also speedy enough for 1st place, running it in just 30.5 seconds.
We had a nice long break before our next run so we walked around the farm a bit.
So much open space! It feels so freeing when you live in a tightly packed suburbia. The farm's name is Walnut Hill Farm due to many walnut trees (duh!) up by the main house, but if it were mine, I would have to name it Almost Heaven. It has so much beauty!
I'm afraid I didn't take anymore video so I'll just give a brief run through of the rest of my weekend runs. Standard on Saturday required some fast footwork. It is hard to beat Jimmy to the end of an almost straight tunnel. It was another clean run, but a speedy little cocker spaniel beat us by about a half a second! (And we beat her in our earlier Jumpers run by just .33 of a second!) So we earned 27 points (27 seconds under time for the course) and a nice red 2nd place ribbon. This was double-Q #10 toward our PACH2. Halfway there!
Sunday's maps:
Again the day started with Jumpers. It had a tricky start. Normally I put Jimmy in a sit/stay and lead out past the first obstacle. I never take off running with him at the very start. But the course was such that I needed to stay back, send him over the first jump, u-turn back to jump #2 and shoot him into a tunnel. I was worried we would botch this but he read it just fine and we were off! This was a challenging course and so much fun! That same little cocker from Saturday managed to beat us by a tiny margin, so we got 2nd place and 16 points.
Standard was another run fast course! Jimmy nailed his dogwalk contact thankfully and we were on our way to a clean run. This time Jimmy was the faster dog, and we took the blue and 27 points! Jimmy and the cocker were very evenly matched little runners! This gave us double-Q #11.
It was funny that my points were the same both days! 16 in JWW and 27 in STD for a grand total of 87 points for the weekend. Not bad!
This trial was given by the Capital City Cocker Club and they always give very pretty ribbons!
Now I'll leave you with one last silly picture. This is a farm after all and parking in a horse field has its risks!
AKC Nationals 2017: Perry, GA Double-Q's: 14 (out of 7 needed) Points: 829 (out of 550 needed) We qualified on 07/09/2016 !!!
Tracking Jimmy's PACH 2 progress: Very 1st Double-Q: Sunday 5/1/2016
QQ#20: Masters JWW legs: 52...MJP Title 01/25/15 MJPB 10/11/15 MJPS Title 10/23/16 Masters STD legs: 44...MXP Title!10/24/14 MXPB 10/11/15 Double Q's: 11 (out of 20 needed) PACH Points: 1395
Jimmy and I had another agility trial this weekend given by the Mattaponi Kennel Club. They chose a new location for their trial. Door to door, it was just 20 minutes from my house. Plus it was Tall to Small in the running order so I didn't even need to set an alarm clock! It just doesn't get any better than this! It was a really nice indoor soccer building with lots of crating space, good climate control, great bathroom facilities (that's important!), and nice grounds for walking the dogs. There was only one caveat, the turf was slippery for the fast dogs. Sharp turns often resulted in face plants. That is something no one wants their dog to experience!
We had a pretty good weekend, Q'ing in 3 out of 4 of our runs! Saturday our Standard run had a bar down, and because of the bar down, Jimmy also missed his weave entry which was the next obstacle. The footing made an odd thunk each time he landed and I think it weirded him out just a bit. By the time Jumpers came around, he had gained a bit of confidence. He put in a speedy run, but was edged out of 1st place by less than a second. His run was speedy enough to earn 19 points.
We came back on Sunday to try again. Jimmy was much happier and raring to go! We put in a nice, clean Standard run and earned 28 points!
Here's the video:
I didn't video Jumpers but again we had a nice clean run, earning the blue ribbon and another 19 points. Plus this was double-Q # 9 toward our PACH 2 title.
If I kept my count correctly, the Jumpers legs I earned this weekend should have qualified for Jimmy's MASTER SILVER JUMPER WITH WEAVES PREFERRED title (MJPS). That's 50 succesful Jumpers legs!
We are off for the next couple of weekends and will trial again in mid-November!
AKC Nationals 2017: Perry, GA Double-Q's: 12 (out of 7 needed) Points: 742 (out of 550 needed) We qualified on 07/09/2016 !!!
Tracking Jimmy's PACH 2 progress: Very 1st Double-Q: Sunday 5/1/2016
QQ#20: Masters JWW legs: 50...MJP Title 01/25/15 MJPB 10/11/15 MJPS Title 10/23/16 Masters STD legs: 42...MXP Title!10/24/14 MXPB 10/11/15 Double Q's: 9 (out of 20 needed) PACH Points: 1308
This weekend was an agility trial given by the local Pembroke Welsh Corgi club. While you always find a lot of corgis at any agility trial, this one really brings them in!
Saturday started with our Standard run and Jimmy did an excellent job! It wasn't too tricky.
Here's the video:
As is often the case for my speedy boy, if he runs cleanly and qualifies, he gets first place. This course was generously measured by the judge who gave us plenty of time to get it done. This meant Jimmy earned 33 points as he was 33 seconds under than the judge's maximum time for the course.
A bit later came our Jumpers run. I got lazy about getting it on video and I could so kick myself! Jimmy and I had a personal best with this run. It has never happened before and is very unlikely to happen again! Jimmy's time on this run was faster than every Pembroke that ran and was the fastest of all the 8 inch dogs. Usually a couple of the super-speedy Pems beat Jimmy by at least a couple of seconds. When you consider Cardigans are significantly heavier than Pembrokes, Jimmy really has to work quite hard at getting his bulk moving. He weighs in at 35 pounds and most Pems are only around the low 20s. That's a big difference! But this time my little freight train really got going and completed this run in just 28.50! I am always extra happy when we come in under 30 seconds so this run was amazing for us! There's no ribbon or award that goes with this accomplishment, just a very big high for me! You ROCK, Jimmy!
Sunday started again with Standard. I got a bit discombobulated doing a front cross after the teeter, nearly blocking Jimmy's entrance to the chute, but he saved me there. Unfortunately, Jimmy dropped a bar a bit further along and that ended our Q for this run. Our Jumpers run later was clean and speedy, just under 30 seconds, but not even close to Saturday's performance. The fastest Pem in this run finished in something like 25 seconds. His/her feet must have been on fire! Sorry but no video at all on Sunday.
And just as a historical little tidbit, at agility trials when you check-in, you get a sticker with your identifying number for that day. You must wear it when you run and if not, you could be disqualified! I've never heard of that happening, but those are the rules. Well, the AKC has finally done away with that requirement as of July 31st. Here's a blurry photo of what is my very last sticker. The 8 indicates the jump height and we were the 31st dog in that class.
AKC Nationals 2017: Perry, GA Double-Q's: 11 (out of 7 needed) Points: 646 (out of 550 needed) We qualified on 07/09/2016 !!!
Tracking Jimmy's PACH 2 progress: Very 1st Double-Q: Sunday 5/1/2016
QQ#20:
Masters JWW legs: 45...MJP Title 01/25/15 MJPB 10/11/15 Masters STD legs: 41...MXP Title!10/24/14 MXPB 10/11/15 Double Q's: 8 (out of 20 needed) PACH Points: 792(We are starting with all the points we need, so I'm not even going to track them!)
This past weekend was an agility trial given by the Blue Ridge Dog Training Club. This was a one ring trial which usually means a very long day. However they arrange the running order nicely so the Novice and Open classes go first in both Standard and Jumpers. That way the beginner dogs are finished before the Excellent/Masters dogs even start. No getting up at 5AM for this trial! Woohoo! I arrived at 10 on Saturday and 11 on Sunday and I was still had plenty of time to settle in.
Saturday was a great day for us! Jimmy qualified in both of his runs so it was Double-Q #7 toward his PACH#2. Even better, the 30 points we earned in our Standard run was enough to push us over the total needed to qualify for next year's National Championship! Woohoo!!!!! I knew we would get there, but it is very nice to be all set this early in the year. We had until November 30th to meet the requirements, so we are done in plenty of time!
I was lazy about my video camera so I am afraid this will be a rather dull post. Here are Saturday's maps. The trickiest part of our Standard run (blue map) was where you see the two tunnels underneath the dogwalk on the right side of the map. The dogs ran across the dogwalk to a left turn into the tunnel, and then they needed to go into the far end of the 2nd tunnel. I can't beat Jimmy to the end of a tunnel placed like that, he's faster than I am! So steering him into the correct end of the next tunnel was not pretty but we got it done without a refusal called.
I guess I used up all my good karma on Saturday, and on Sunday we had no success at all! That hasn't happened in a while, but since I was still riding on the buzz of qualifying for the NAC, it was not a big deal. Here are Sunday's maps. In our Standard run (yellow map), Jimmy taking the wrong end of a tunnel ended our Q. If you look at the top of the map, you see a tunnel, then the dogwalk, then another tunnel. On that 2nd tunnel, the dog must enter the end further from where the dogwalk comes down. Of course, as the dogs run down the slope of the dogwalk, they often "lock on" to the tunnel end that is staring them in the face. For us, the contact zone at the bottom of the dogwalk is always a challenge, especially when a tempting tunnel is nearby. I knew I would have to get Jimmy's attention as he exited the dogwalk to keep him from just barrelling into the wrong end. But I also needed to be sure I didn't cause him to blow his contact. Amazingly, I did manage to get his attention and turn him toward the other (correct) end. But in his little doggy brain, he was already positive it should be the other (wrong) end. Even though I had him turned, we did a bit of a jig together, Jimmy trying to dodge through my legs to get to the wrong end,. Unfortunately he was successful, and darted past me to disqualify us. It is said that it is always the handler's fault, but for this one it was all on Jimmy! I just laughed. The rest of the run was clean, of course! In Jumpers it was the handler's fault! I didn't do a good job lining Jimmy up for the weave pole entrance and he went in at the 2nd pole. Totally on me!
Since I don't like a post without pictures, I have this.....A lot of the clubs give out dog toys as part of the perks for entering their trial. You never know what will be in the mix they put out. Going for its uniqueness, I chose this. There has to be a Hump Day joke in there somewhere!
AKC Nationals 2017: Perry, GA Double-Q's: 10 (out of 7 needed) Points: 573 (out of 550 needed) We qualified on 07/09/2016 !!!
Tracking Jimmy's PACH 2 progress: Very 1st Double-Q: Sunday 5/1/2016
QQ#20: Masters JWW legs: 43...MJP Title 01/25/15 MJPB 10/11/15 Masters STD legs: 40...MXP Title!10/24/14 MXPB 10/11/15 Double Q's: 7 (out of 20 needed) PACH Points: 792(We are starting with all the points we need, so I'm not even going to track them!)
This weekend was another agility trial given by the Potomac Valley Golden Retrieve Club. Jimmy definitely had his game on, as we qualified in all four runs with all 1st places! That hasn't happened since last October. We had great judges who designed fun, fast courses.
I had both my Standard runs caught on camera.
This is Saturday's:
And, for Sunday, first the map. This was a very challenging course with many places to lose your dog to an off-course obstacle. It was closely spaced and was especially hard for the bigger dogs with their longer strides. The two worst spots were Jump #11 to Table #12, and the Weave Poles #14 to Jump #15 which was actually a backside.
Here's Jimmy doing a great job on a tough course:
AKC Nationals 2017: Perry, GA Double-Q's: 9 (out of 7 needed) Points: 524 (out of 550 needed)
Tracking Jimmy's PACH 2 progress: Very 1st Double-Q: Sunday 5/1/2016
QQ#20: Masters JWW legs: 42...MJP Title 01/25/15 MJPB 10/11/15 Masters STD legs: 39...MXP Title!10/24/14 MXPB 10/11/15 Double Q's: 6 (out of 20 needed) PACH Points: 792(We are starting with all the points we need, so I'm not even going to track them!)
This past weekend, Jimmy and I attended just one day of an agility trial given by the Mattaponi Kennel Club. It was held in the same building that a few years ago gave Jimmy quite a bad scare. I didn't know whether Jimmy would still hold on to that fear so I only signed up for one day. I was very happy to see he cruised right into the building without hesitation. He didn't seem at all afraid so I do believe he has let that incident go. YAY! Thankfully, the A/C vents on the ceiling weren't noisy this time so his fear was not renewed. I was a tad worried about that all day.
The courses were fun, fast, and fairly easy. Jimmy cruised through both Standard and Jumpers without much trouble, other than a couple of poor handling incidents by me. Fortunately they didn''t cost us the Q, so we had another nice Double-Q to put toward our National Championship qualifications (and PACH2). We also earned another 47 points!
Jimmy's breeder, Anne, came for a visit and kindly ran the video camera for us.
Here's our Standard run. I get a good chuckle watching myself run. I am certainly not the most graceful handler out there. Jimmy is a saint for following my lead so well.
And Jumpers....Pardon my butt being in your face as I leash Jimmy afterwards! LOL!
AKC Nationals 2017: Perry, GA Double-Q's: 7 (out of 7 needed) Points: 426 (out of 550 needed)
Tracking Jimmy's PACH 2 progress: Very 1st Double-Q: Sunday 5/1/2016
QQ#20: Masters JWW legs: 41...MJP Title 01/25/15 MJPB 10/11/15 Masters STD legs: 37...MXP Title!10/24/14 MXPB 10/11/15 Double Q's: 4 (out of 20 needed) PACH Points: 792(We are starting with all the points we need, so I'm not even going to track them!)
This weekend report holds so much news it is hitting the stands a couple days several days late! This trial was held by the Capital Dog Training Club.
The best news of the weekend is that Jimmy seemed like his normal speedy self and after a full weekend of agility didn't seem sore or gimpy. No bars went down this weekend so he seems to be jumping just fine! Yay!
The first news segment is that this weekend Jimmy and I tried the new Premiere class AKC recently started offering. It is much more challenging than the normal Masters level classes, with faster speeds expected, harder weave entries, back-side jumps, just generally all around more challenging for both the dog and the handler. I tried both the Standard and the Jumpers versions and of course I video'd the one I did not qualify in, go figure. It was definitely handler errors that did us in and you can really see the moment when I got disgusted with myself. LOL! It was still very fun and I truly wasn't worried about qualifying. This particular game leads to yet another big title but the requirements are steep enough I don't planning on earning it. We will just dabble....
Here are the maps so you can see the challenges.....
Our Standard run went south after the weave poles. I lagged back too far and couldn't get in a side change soon enough, so I then couldn't get Jimmy to the backside of jump # 8, which then messed up #9. This was the one tough area and we didn't make it through. Oh, well, the rest was great. Here's the video....it's noisy so turn down your speakers first!
Our next run was Standard. This run was similar to the Premiere version with a few differences. Jimmy stuck to his dogwalk contact like a good boy and we went on to finish successfully! First place and 29 more points toward our tiny 2017 AKC Nationals pot.
Jumpers came next and although it really wasn't too difficult, I didn't support one of the last jumps well enough and Jimmy skipped it. I was annoyed with myself! When I got out of the ring, I learned Jimmy had actually popped out of the weaves too early, so I was off the hook! LOL!
Maps:
And finally came the Premiere Jumpers run. It had some tricky spots and those had Jimmy barking at me in frustration. He couldn't believe I knew where I was going! But he was a good by and jerked his way through the odd twists and turns. I got lazy and didn't ask anyone to video us. Of course that guarantees a Q. Oops! Jimmy was the only dog in his height class so we got the blue ribbon by default. There were not a lot of Q's across all the heights, so Jim did a very good job!
After Premiere JWW was over, the club offered a very special class for the "veterans". Our older dogs were given a chance to go back in the ring and play. Although it was open to dogs 7 and older, I think everyone who entered had a dog in their teens or very close. There wasn't a dry eye in the place as the old partners took one more turn around the ring, albeit a short run. I think the oldest dog was 15 and there was even a Pembroke Corgi in a cart (the bars were removed from the jumps). That one really had everyone choked up! Of course, I entered Wilson! Despite his recent practice, he was so excited he ran right past the first three jumps. He had a blast and really thought it was the real thing. He wanted a treat at the end!
I have video!
He got a very pretty ribbon for his efforts......
I made him model it when he got home.....He wasn't thrilled. LOL!
Sunday had a couple of challenging Standard and Jumpers courses (I did not sign up for the Premiere ones on Sunday, too much money for all those entry fees!)
Maps:
Standard was first, and for us the biggest challenge was the dogwalk through #3-#6. I needed Jimmy to stick his dogwalk contact, not take #4 before #3 and get going toward #6 correctly.
I've got video! (Thanks Chris!) Jimmy did a nice fast job and earned a 2nd place ribbon.
Jumpers was an interesting run, circling around the weaves and coming back to them near the end. My moves got a bit off cue on #8 to #9 and Jimmy saved my butt! Yay! He kept moving and didn't back jump #9. We made it through the rest successfully and there we had it! Double-Q # 19!!!! Every trial from here on will be an attempt at Jimmy's big PACH title. This is similar to his MACH but achieved at one jump height lower. So now I'll have ring nerves even worse than usual!
So we had success on four out of six runs, 3 blue ribbons, one red ribbon and a beautiful Veteran's ribbon for Wilson. Plus lots of good friends to visit with. All in all, a pretty great weekend!
And, yes, this huge post ate up any chances of a Wordless Wednesday post. There's just never enough time it seems.
Tracking Jimmy's PACH progress: Very 1st Double-Q: Saturday 06/21/2014 Masters JWW legs: 34...MJP Title 01/25/15 MJPB 10/11/15 Masters STD legs: 31...MXP Title!10/24/14 MXPB 10/11/15 Double Q's: 19 !!! PACH Points:1492 AKC Nationals 2017: Perry, GA Double-Q's: 2 (out of 7 needed) Points: 131 (out of 550 needed)
This weekend, Jimmy and I were back at the farm out in Reva, Virginia. The weather forecast was for "occassional" rain on Saturday, but mostly just overcast. Well, occasional turned into "steady" rain. There were lots of muddy dogs and cars by the end of the day!
At the start of each class, there is a judge's briefing. They go over the safety rules each time, ask if anyone sees any course design that might be too risky to the dogs, etc. This is also the time when the dog club that is hosting the trial has a chance to give announcements. This weekend they wanted us to know of a few "Don'ts".....Such as..."If the animal isn't yours, don't feed it!" There are horses and a couple of pet pigs close by, and it seems the pigs were sick from all the snacks they received at the last trial. Oops!
Here are those cute little piggies....pretty hard to resist.....When you stop by the stall to say Hi, they run over squealing and wagging their little piggy tails just like a dog. Freaking adorable! This variety only gets to about 50 pounds, so a really good pet size.
Lula and Dixie
My hand is added for scale.
The next Don't was "Don't walk your dogs along the treeline next to the barn, or on the hills behind the barn" and this was because a family of black bears had moved in....A momma and two cubs plus her yearling from the previous year. Unfortunately I didn't see this, but the yearling was spotted moseying through the field where we all park our cars (but not too close, at the back of the field) and then tried to cross one of the horse paddocks. He was quickly run out of town by the resident horses! LOL!
Fortunately, the rain (and the bears!) did not effect our success level! The judges designed some very fun and flowing courses that were really fairly easy.
Here are Saturday's maps:
Jimmy qualified in both runs, pulling off Double-Q #17 toward our PACH title.
This club gives very pretty ribbons!
Sunday was a much cooler and beautifully sunny day. You could see many of the dogs were feeling extra "up" for the event, loving cool temps as they do.
Jumpers was our first run of the day. It was a lot of fun and Jimmy did a great job, earning first place! For the Standard run, it was a dogwalk to the tunnel, which I knew from past experience would be our make or break moment. Unfortunately, it was a break, totally my fault due to a bad handling decision causing Jimmy to blow his dogwalk contact (the yellow zone at the bottom of the down plank). The rest was fast and furious and, of course, clean! Oh, well, no double-q for Sunday. We need three more to get our title and are down to just two more trial days this year so the PACH will be waiting for the spring trials.
Another fun weekend of agility! One of these days I must get back to using the video camera so I can prove it!
Saturday was a very successful day, racking up Double-Q #16 toward the 20 we need for our PACH title. Jimmy earned a 2nd place in Standard, getting his butt handed to him by his arch-rival and girl dog, Twist. I thought we were moving fast, but she beat our time by almost 4 seconds! That's an eternity in agility!
In Jumpers, we had a nice speedy run, earning 23 points and first place. It was one of those runs that just feel right!
Saturday's maps:
Sunday, the Standard run was going well until the tire. During our walk-thru, I told myself the tire needed more support than it looked like. I guess I psyched myself out because sure enough, that's where we went wrong! After that, as someone else said, the rest was a train wreck. We were both so discombobulated, lots more mistakes happened. It was really pretty funny!
The Jumpers course went better. With no double-Q on the line, I was more relaxed and didn't over-think it. I ran it just for fun, trying things that I wouldn't normally do. I rear-crossed everything! Not one front-cross as is my usual instinct and it ran wonderfully! A Sheltie we don't see too often was running in our class, and if he qualifies, he WINS! And so he did. There's no out running a drivey dog 15 pounds lighter than a Cardigan!
In other agility news, Jimmy held onto his ranking as the #2 fastest 8 inch Preferred* Cardigan for the 3rd quarter. Go, Jimmy, Go!
*Preferred refers to the class Jimmy runs in. There is the Regular class where he would jump a 12 inch jump which is the height he earned his MACH at, and then the Preferred class allows the dogs to jump one jump height lower than they measure into. This is the class he will earn his PACH in. 8 and 12 inches doesn't sound very high, I know, but when you only measure 12 inches at the withers, it's not so low to the dog!
And another photo from my hike in the Shenandoah National Park:
