Wednesday we are leaving for the DOCNA Championships in Prescott, AZ. I am competing with Skye, Katrina is competing with Baby, and my daughter Katelyn is competing as a JH with Acesy her Papillon and Flicka, her grandmother's lab. My son is going along for the ride and still had no interest in agility. We are also taking along our young border collies - Ice, Rush and Rip, so it will be a dog filled adventure. We are towing the travel trailer and will be camping at the trial site.
Last year, Katrina went to the first DOCNA Champs and she took 1st place in the North American Challenge event with Baby.
The weather is supposed to be in the low 80's, and the trial is indoors on dirt, so hopefully I wont have the slow version of Skye-boy due to heat. I'll post an update when we return.
Chaos Crew
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Skye's AKC weekend at Castle Rock Sept 2008
We did the 3 day AKC show at the DougCo fairgrounds this past weekend. It was the first time we did an Excellent Only Friday which was cool. Friday we did Exc A Std, and we were the only 20" dog that qualified - I think there were about 17 dogs?! This earned our AX title and let me move up to Exc. "B". We missed the JWW run with an off-course tunnel that was just too tempting to Skye-boy. I was in position, but he had made up his mind beforehand - I should have suspected it and called harder to get the wrap - lesson learned there!
So starting Saturday, I am now in the land of Excellent B with all the other 20" dogs out there. Welcome to competing against 50 dogs every run! Our standard run was NQ'd with a wrong end of the tunnel entry. I had planned a FC that I talked myself out of which was a mistake. We did Q our JWW course though with an 8th place. We also missed our Open Fast run with a questionable jumped contact call.
Sunday was great with an 8th place Q in a tricky standard course (see course maps below for Sunday), followed by a Q in the Open Fast course outside, and then finally a 9th place Q in that JWW course. Our FIRST DOUBLE Q!!
Overall the courses were challenging, which made them that much more enjoyable - there was maybe a 20% Q rate. Lots of wraps, serpentine's, get arounds, and offcourse potential. Skye hit every set of weaves successfully too, which is Huge.
Greg & Skyeboy
So starting Saturday, I am now in the land of Excellent B with all the other 20" dogs out there. Welcome to competing against 50 dogs every run! Our standard run was NQ'd with a wrong end of the tunnel entry. I had planned a FC that I talked myself out of which was a mistake. We did Q our JWW course though with an 8th place. We also missed our Open Fast run with a questionable jumped contact call.
Sunday was great with an 8th place Q in a tricky standard course (see course maps below for Sunday), followed by a Q in the Open Fast course outside, and then finally a 9th place Q in that JWW course. Our FIRST DOUBLE Q!!
Overall the courses were challenging, which made them that much more enjoyable - there was maybe a 20% Q rate. Lots of wraps, serpentine's, get arounds, and offcourse potential. Skye hit every set of weaves successfully too, which is Huge.
Greg & Skyeboy
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Devil eyes
This past week we have had some spectacular "moon rises", which is called the Harvest Moon this month. As it came over the horizon, it was glowing red/orange and huge. I decided to try and get a picture or two but waited too long and it had risen enough that it wasnt red any more. While taking pics of the moon, I had Ramsey and Rip out with me. Check out the devil eyes when I didnt use the flash.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
DOCNA at Paws 4 Friendship, Sept 6-7 2008 and random thoughts.
Our club hosted its 3rd annual September DOCNA show this past weekend. Its a lot of work but seemed to go off very smoothly this time.
Skye and I got 9 Q's in 11 runs. We missed our first run of the weekend with a jumped contact in the gamble, and our second run with an offcourse (Skye just cant resist a dogwalk. "But dad, it was right there, so close to that tunnel you wanted me to go in"). After we worked out those kinks, it was smooth sailing the rest of the weekend. Yea to team Skysydgeon for a blazing first place Intern Trigility run. Go Team! We were only 1 second behind the "dream team" in Specialist.
We Q'd the North America Challenge with a blazing time, but placed behind Leslie & Pirate due to a 5pt fault.
Along the way, we finished our Intern Jumpers title and Intern Standard title. Now we get to play in Specialist for everything except Gamblers.
Some thoughts about the trial - we were not completely full, probably around 3/4ths full, but each day still went fairly long. I think what we are seeing more of is people running dogs that really aren't ready to run. When you have a novice dog with attention/focus issues, and you get them wandering around the course, a typical 40 second run then turns into a minute 40 seconds. Repeat this behavior for 10 dogs, over 5 or 6 runs a day, and you just wasted an hour. We also saw dogs pee on course, and then the handler continue their run afterward. I wish they would have been immediately whistled off. Dog potties on course and you are done! Sheesh.
Skye and I got 9 Q's in 11 runs. We missed our first run of the weekend with a jumped contact in the gamble, and our second run with an offcourse (Skye just cant resist a dogwalk. "But dad, it was right there, so close to that tunnel you wanted me to go in"). After we worked out those kinks, it was smooth sailing the rest of the weekend. Yea to team Skysydgeon for a blazing first place Intern Trigility run. Go Team! We were only 1 second behind the "dream team" in Specialist.
We Q'd the North America Challenge with a blazing time, but placed behind Leslie & Pirate due to a 5pt fault.
Along the way, we finished our Intern Jumpers title and Intern Standard title. Now we get to play in Specialist for everything except Gamblers.
Some thoughts about the trial - we were not completely full, probably around 3/4ths full, but each day still went fairly long. I think what we are seeing more of is people running dogs that really aren't ready to run. When you have a novice dog with attention/focus issues, and you get them wandering around the course, a typical 40 second run then turns into a minute 40 seconds. Repeat this behavior for 10 dogs, over 5 or 6 runs a day, and you just wasted an hour. We also saw dogs pee on course, and then the handler continue their run afterward. I wish they would have been immediately whistled off. Dog potties on course and you are done! Sheesh.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Rip weigh-in today
I weighed Rip today and he's at 40.5lbs now. I weighed him last week too and he was 39.5lbs. As a comparison, my Skye-boy weighs 44lbs and is 21.25" at the withers.
Still need to check on Rip's height.
Still need to check on Rip's height.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Rip and his sister Rush
Here's a shot of Rip and his sister, though she looks like she's planning a getaway.
Skye enjoying Ice cleaning his eyes
When Ice-man comes up to Skye, its usually to lick his face and clean his eyes. Skye will usually grumble and complain and show teeth as this is not his favorite activity. Katrina had the camera out when Ice decided to clean Skye's face and here's what it looked like:
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