Chaos Crew

Chaos Crew

Monday, July 20, 2009

Wow what an AKC weekend.


Skye and I had an awesome weekend at the 3 day MHGRC (Mile High Golden Retriever) AKC trial at Castle Rock.
In a first for me, we went 6/6, earning 3 double Q's in the process.

This puts us at 7 QQs for 2010 Nationals, so we are qualified on the double Q front, but I still need about 100 points to reach the required 400.

We also earned our MX title this weekend! Very cool!

We are now standing at 10 QQs, so halfway to MACH. I am very happy with our progress towards our MACH, as we only got into Exc B in both Std and JWW last October.

In another first, Skye and I participated in a demo run of "Run and Done" or RAD, a new class that AKC is trying out. This was the first run of this class anywhere in the country. About 55 dogs participated. It's similar to USDAA's Steeplechase, in that the course is designed for speed, and you may need to do either the weaves or the AFrame twice. It's also open to entry regardless of what level you normally compete at (ie Novice and Open may enter).
We unfortunately had an offcourse jump after #3, but were otherwise clean in this run - it was pretty cool.
Here is the course we ran:


In another 1st, I decided to have Rip measured by our local AKC judge Beth G. while at the trial. The poor boy was so scared & stiff. We have a wicket at home and I have tried before to get him use to it with no success. We tried treats and massage and such but the boy just would not relax. She took a measurement that she knew was not right - at 19.5 inches. We were talking about tips to get a real measurement and how to get him use to this for a little while, and he did relax a bit so without him really knowing, she measured him again and got 21.5 inches (though the measure form had 19.5 written already). I am sure the 21.5 is much closer to reality as I've gotten 21" at home. Of course, at USDAA that will put him in the 26" jumping group. I havent tried jumping him that high, but he really is built for it, with his long/lean body. I may have to give it a try.


Finally, in a segment I will call "Oh, Come On!" (OCO)....
I mentioned above that I got Skye's MX this weekend. I usually am not too excited about the ribbons, but I wanted to get this title ribbon. I didnt see any in the self serve area so I asked, and they pointed me to them. Oh, Come ON!!! This cheezy, cheap-ass 8" strip of purple and white is my MX:


I mean really, there were over 1800 runs this weekend, and I paid an average $14 per run, so they took in over $25,000 for this trial. Yes, you have facility rental, judges, food worker coupons, and a host of other charges (I know, we run trials), but this is what you are going to pass off as title ribbons?? Cheap!

Back to your regularly scheduled program....

5 comments:

Sara said...

Wow - what a great weekend! Congratulations!

Uh yea, that's a really lame ribbon. I got a fancy rosette ribbon on a $12 Q run at a 245 entry CPE trial.

Elayne said...

Congrats on your weekend! I don't care that much about ribbons either especially for every little placement or title but it is nice to get a rosette for the bigger accomplishments.

I've been shaping Strummer to stand still under the wicket and that's been working a lot better than luring with treats. I don't even have an actual wicket to train with, I've been using a variety of things-a roll of drawings, long metal scale, short plastic scale, anything I can find and I hold the thing horizontal in the air perpendicular to me and shaped him to stand still under it. I've been using coworkers to act as judges too. He was perfect at his first USDAA measurement and came in at 20 3/4" after coming in at 21" while squirming when he was measured for DOCNA before I had trained him.

On the other hand if you're sure he's well over 21" you can send in your temp. USDAA card without any measurements and put him down for the 26" class. I did that for Lola since it was obvious she was over 21" and I didn't see the point of wasting time having her measured.

Jackie said...

Congratulations on your fabulous weekend. You must be thrilled. I wish I had made it up to see some of the runs. I'm glad you posted the RAD course since I was really interested. It looks like fun (for someone that knows how).

I'm totally with you on the ribbon. For a major title they could pony up a couple of bucks and make it something worth looking at.

Greg S said...

Elayne, I think I will try shaping rather than luring. I was trying to lure with treats and he ducked away from the wicket like it had previously bitten him. I am not yet convinced that he is considerably over 21", but I need to get him more comfortable with the process before I will really know. Our wicked is basically a wooden dowel that slides on a metal ruler - it hardly looks intimidating to me.

Morganne said...

I got this HUGE New Title ribbon for one of Summit's titles last year in Utah. As I was walking back to my tent carrying this 2 foot long rosette, I had several people ask me if we MACHed!