The Weekend Report: Traveling at the Speed of Sheltie!

This weekend was another agility trial, the last one until June. This one was given by the Sheltie club and it was at this trial one year ago that Jimmy achieved his agility championship title, his MACH. While we did not have any double-Q success, we had a very fun weekend and great Jumpers runs! Our Standard runs continue to be a comedy of new errors each time.

Saturday started with our Standard run and by the 4th obstacle we were already out of the running, but I didn't realize it until I left the ring. Jimmy blew his dogwalk contact but I didn't see the judge's hand go up indicating the error. The rest ran well and I thought we had qualified. Alas, someone mentioned it to me right as I stepped out of the ring. Bubble burst!

Our Jumper's run was much more successful (no pesky contact equipment for Jimmy to  NQ on!). Just a nice fast run around the ring and no mistakes! There was a cocker spaniel that beat our time by just a fraction of a second so we earned 2nd place.

Maps:

Sunday also started with Standard. It was a jump, jump, to a tunnel / dogwalk discrimination. The dogwalk was the correct choice, but the #2 jump pointed more toward the tunnel, and Jimmy does love a good tunnel. I tried so hard to not get the tunnel, that Jimmy didn't even take the dogwalk! LOL! He ran right past both and went in the exit end of the tunnel. My over-compensation disqualified us! I just went with it, sent Jimmy over the dogwalk, and kept going. Because I knew we were NQ'ed, I ran with complete abandon, trying moves I would be too scared to try with a Q still on the line. I cheered Jimmy on, I walked way off from his table, threw in some blind crosses I would not have risked. It was SO much fun and Jimmy was faster than ever and made no more mistakes. If only I had the nerve to run him like this all the time! There's a lesson here for sure!

And finally, Jumpers again. This one explains the title of this post. It was designed to be extra fast, and Jimmy did not disappoint! I had to change my handling in a couple of spots because we were moving so fast, I couldn't get where I needed to be. Fortunately it worked well and Jimmy qualified! Yay! But even more amazing, he earned 1st place. There is a Sheltie we run against sometimes and he is so speedy that if he qualifies we don't stand a chance of beating him. But amazingly this time we beat him, by a mere one quarter  of a second! Jimmy really was blazing up that course, traveling at the speed of light Sheltie!

Maps:

I was lazy about getting my video camera out, so I apologize for the lack of video.

Tracking Jimmy's PACH progress:

Very 1st Double-Q: Saturday 06/21/2014
Masters JWW legs: 16...MJP Title 01/25/15
Masters STD legs: 16...MXP Title!10/24/14
Double Q's: 9
PACH Points: 732

AKC Nationals 2016:
Double-Q's: 2 (out of 5 needed)
Points: 214 (out of 600 needed)....
Masters Legs: 10 (out of 20 needed)