AKC Report and Nationals is almost here!

First, I got this cool picture of Rip at our last AKC trial this past weekend - I like his intense look and how he's tucked his front paws up tight to get over the bar.

So last weekend we attended a very local (10 minutes from home) AKC trial hosted by a new club. They did a great job and had a nice judge, great ribbons, "Q" cookies and gave out patches if you got a double Q. Lots of nice touches.

Skye had a very successful weekend, and missed going 4/4 by just 1 weave pole. He had a nice clean Jumpers run on Saturday, and in Standard he somehow came out the wrong side of the weaves at pole 11. Still, it was a nice run, but they dont count that way!

On Sunday, we ran a couple nice courses and got a Double Q! This was a good feeling going into the AKC Nationals.

Rip ran as well, and though we did not get any Q's this time, we still had some good runs. Both of his Open JWW runs were great with just 1 bar down in each.

In Standard on Saturday, he really launched the dogwalk which was the 4th obstacle in. I pulled him from the course as I can't let this keep happening in competition.

Saturday after the trial we practiced more 2o2o performances on the dogwalk, and it did translate better at the trial on Sunday, as in his Standard run he hit both the dogwalk and aframe contacts nicely, though wouldn't you figure, he launched his teeter! It's always something with this boy, but once we get it together, watch out!

So we have a big snowstorm tonight and into tomorrow, just to mess up getting ready for the AKC Nationals. I will be running both Skye and Baby (wife's dog) at Nationals, since she is hurt with a hamstring pull. I am really looking forward to it. There are a lot of Colorado competitors going - something like 50+. Really, if I just ran clean, that would be great!

Quick Day 1 update of the AKC trial

While I am thinking of it, I should take note of today's runs.

In addition to running Skye and Rip today, I also got to run Baby since Katrina is hurt (and hurt pretty bad with a torn hamstring muscle).

The day started too early, as is usually the case with agility trials. Because Katrina is using crutches, I had to do all the morning 'chores' we do to get ready to go, and this put us behind leaving the house by about 20 minutes. Then about a half hour from home, the truck made a weird noise that I discovered was the passenger side front wheel trying to come off. 4 of the 8 lugs had snapped clear off, one of the lug nuts was gone, and one had backed itself halfway off. This left just 2 lugnuts holding the wheel on, and they were not doing a good job at it. I decided it was too dangerous to continue like this, so I tightened the lugs, swiped one from the back wheel so that the front would at least have 4, and limbered home. We traded out the truck for the Magnum and stuffed the 4 dogs and our stuff in there and off we went again.

All the shenanigans put us arriving at the trial close to 8:30 so I had missed my walkthrough for Skye's class - I watched some dogs run it and decided it wasn't a very complex course, so I moved us to the end of the running order and ran him. It was a little slow, but we actually Q'd this Standard course!

Almost right after that, I got to walk Baby's Exc. JWW course and run her. We had a great run and got a Q and 4th place (out of about 35).

As it turns out, we could have gone home right then and the results of the day wouldn't have been affected. Doh!!

I ran Skye in the same JWW course as I had just run Baby, and his run was good but he knocked 1 bar, so NQ, and no double Q today. Then I ran Baby in the Standard course that I had already run Skye in, and I slipped a little after the table, causing me to be out of position and having Baby go in the wrong end of a tunnel. NQ for her and no double Q.

At the end of the day, it was Mr Exciting's turn. Rip ran his Open JWW course first. Not a bad run, but he knocked the 2nd bar, so it was not going to be a Q right from the start. He again popped his weaves at pole 10, but I just went on as the run was toast already. I HAVE to move my practice weaves back to the front yard and make sure he goes through them a couple times a day.

The last run of the day was Rip's Novice Standard. Same story, different day unfortunately. He again jumped both his dogwalk and aframe contacts. Ugh, I have worked to fix this with a stop (2o2o) in training, but with not much training getting done the last 2 weeks after his neuter surgery, he just reverted back to the leaping behavior. I am getting pretty frustrated at this, and know I am going to have to step up his understanding of the criteria, and pull him from Standard runs when he leaps.

So, tomorrow only Skye and Baby will be running - the trial was full so Rip only got in Saturday.

Rip gets neutered tomorrow....

Rip is now just about 2 1/2 years old. I had always intended to get him neutered, and wanted to wait until I was sure he was done growing. My original plan was to have it done somewhere around his 2nd birthday, but the timing didn't work out, so now it's his time.

Katrina is going to take him in tomorrow, along with our one other un-neutered male "Flame" and they will both get done the same day.

Rip only has 1 testicle that "dropped" when he was a puppy, so the other is in his abdomen somewhere. I hope they dont have trouble locating it, and it doesn't affect the surgery too much.

He is entered in an AKC trial for 1 day on the 14th, so hopefully he will be healed up by then or he will just have to skip it and get the next one.