The title of this post could also be called "I HATE Random Draw Trials"
We did 1 day of an AKC trial two weeks ago. I really don't like this facility and have avoided it the last couple years. It's really too small to hold a 2 ring trial as there is very little crating space, and it also gets very dusty in there. To top it off, it Really smells like a horse arena here. The club that host this is not an agility club - their focus is conformation and obedience and therefore they don't have the best equipment. They are one of the few clubs that have not made the move to rubberized equipment.
Anyway, enough complaining, I did the 1 day in my quest to earn enough points to be able to attend AKC Nationals in Tulsa this coming March. Going into this show, both dogs needed fifty-some points.
As it turned out, it was a very good decision to attend this 1 day! Rip was running great and pulled off his most points ever in a JWW run, getting 17 points and 4th place of the 60+ dogs. Skye also had a nice run and Q'd this too getting 14 points.
Then we had Standard. Skye ran it first and he did run very nice, but jumped his dogwalk contact. Rip ran almost last in the class. He did great - a little slow on his contacts, but generally very nice and Q'd it for 20 points and 6th place. Another Double Q for Mr. Rip!
Thus at the end of the day, Rip now needs just 14 more points for nationals, and Skye needs 43!
In November, there are 2 one-ring random draw trials. One of them is 10 minutes from home - I did not get into this one (well, I am 27 dogs down in the waitlist for two days, and 60+ days down for the third day). I did get into the other random draw that is an hour and a half from home.
I am already scheduled for a 2 day trial the first weekend in November, and then two weeks after that we the other 2 day show. I certainly think that 8 runs will be plenty to get those last few points we need.
Here are Rip's runs
Chaos Crew
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Cynosport Photo Festivus
I purchased the set of photos that were shot by Great Dane photos. They got quite a few of Rip and only a couple of Skye for some reason. I love outdoor agility pictures - the color and crispness are great and beat any indoor photos hands down.
Here are a few of my favorites.
Here are a few of my favorites.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
USDAA Cynosport "Nationals" 2012
I'm a bit late in writing about my experience at this year's USDAA Cynosport event that took place a week ago. I am fortunate that the event was held just outside of Denver this year, which means I could commute in each day and got to sleep in my own bed. Last year we drove 3 days each way to Kentucky and back to attend our first Cynosport event.
Turns out, the downside to this plan was delivered in the form of nasty traffic and a trip that approached almost 2 hours each way - not something I would repeat! There were a couple days when we did not get home until after 8PM, but it could have been worse, as we had friends who were still running agility then!
The facility in Commerce City was really nice and the rings with the artificial turf surfaces were great. We did have some overnight rains that made the grass rings wet - so wet that ring 5 was never used at all, and the other two grass rings were not used the first day.
For the team events, Rip was teamed with my friend Julie with Rift, and my friend Dale with Chili Pepper. Skye was originally teamed with Sarah and Ayr, but a week before the event, Ayr had an equilibrium issue and ended up having to pull from the event. My wife was in the same situation with Ice, as her teammate's dog had a muscle pull and ended up not running either, so as fate would have it, Skye and Ice ended up on a team with each other again as we did a time or two this year.
When the team events were done, we unfortunately ended up in the middle of the pack with both teams. Rip's team had 3 "E"s, though none by Mr Rip. We had a decent Snooker run with 42 points, a so-so Gamblers run as we were less than a second over time in the close, and then we managed to get through very tough Jumpers and Standard courses, though not without some faults in each.
Rip's best run of the weekend came in the Grand Prix Quarterfinals, where he had a very nice clean run for 21st place, moving us into the Semifinals. In the Semi's, he did not read my signal for the threadle and we ended up with an offcourse, but other than that he really ran great. In the Steeplechase Quarterfinals, we had knocked a bar and then he sliced the broad jump so we did not make it to the next round.
On Skye's team, we ended up with an "E" in jumpers from Skye, and an "E" in Standard from Ice, which put us way out of the running. We did have great runs otherwise and had we not had the "E"s, our times would have put our team in 10th which would have made the finals, but alas that was not meant to be.
In Performance Grand Prix, Skye knocked the first bar. That really sucks to have your chances over on the first obstacle of Grand Prix. He followed that up with a "Skye special" maneuver, where he cuts me off to take the tunnel at the AFrame/Tunnel discrimination. We left the course after that.
Skye had a bye into the semifinal round of Perf. Steeplechase. I couldn't believe it - Skye again knocked the first bar for this run! Un-freakin-believeable. So since he is not blazing fast, that extra 5 penalty points put us out of the running to make finals. In reality, there are a number of dogs running in the P22" group that are very fast and even with our best effort, I don't think we could ever make the Perf. Steeplechase finals.
Skye is a great first agility dog and has accomplished a lot, but I am considering this being his last Cynosport event unless I elect to enter him in the Veterans Overall class next year as he will be 9yrs old then. I will have to evaluate this over the coming year, but I do expect to run him a lot less than Rip.
I have started putting together a "highlights" type video, but don't know when I will get to finish it, so for now, here are a few of our runs from the show:
Turns out, the downside to this plan was delivered in the form of nasty traffic and a trip that approached almost 2 hours each way - not something I would repeat! There were a couple days when we did not get home until after 8PM, but it could have been worse, as we had friends who were still running agility then!
The facility in Commerce City was really nice and the rings with the artificial turf surfaces were great. We did have some overnight rains that made the grass rings wet - so wet that ring 5 was never used at all, and the other two grass rings were not used the first day.
For the team events, Rip was teamed with my friend Julie with Rift, and my friend Dale with Chili Pepper. Skye was originally teamed with Sarah and Ayr, but a week before the event, Ayr had an equilibrium issue and ended up having to pull from the event. My wife was in the same situation with Ice, as her teammate's dog had a muscle pull and ended up not running either, so as fate would have it, Skye and Ice ended up on a team with each other again as we did a time or two this year.
When the team events were done, we unfortunately ended up in the middle of the pack with both teams. Rip's team had 3 "E"s, though none by Mr Rip. We had a decent Snooker run with 42 points, a so-so Gamblers run as we were less than a second over time in the close, and then we managed to get through very tough Jumpers and Standard courses, though not without some faults in each.
Rip's best run of the weekend came in the Grand Prix Quarterfinals, where he had a very nice clean run for 21st place, moving us into the Semifinals. In the Semi's, he did not read my signal for the threadle and we ended up with an offcourse, but other than that he really ran great. In the Steeplechase Quarterfinals, we had knocked a bar and then he sliced the broad jump so we did not make it to the next round.
On Skye's team, we ended up with an "E" in jumpers from Skye, and an "E" in Standard from Ice, which put us way out of the running. We did have great runs otherwise and had we not had the "E"s, our times would have put our team in 10th which would have made the finals, but alas that was not meant to be.
In Performance Grand Prix, Skye knocked the first bar. That really sucks to have your chances over on the first obstacle of Grand Prix. He followed that up with a "Skye special" maneuver, where he cuts me off to take the tunnel at the AFrame/Tunnel discrimination. We left the course after that.
Skye had a bye into the semifinal round of Perf. Steeplechase. I couldn't believe it - Skye again knocked the first bar for this run! Un-freakin-believeable. So since he is not blazing fast, that extra 5 penalty points put us out of the running to make finals. In reality, there are a number of dogs running in the P22" group that are very fast and even with our best effort, I don't think we could ever make the Perf. Steeplechase finals.
Skye is a great first agility dog and has accomplished a lot, but I am considering this being his last Cynosport event unless I elect to enter him in the Veterans Overall class next year as he will be 9yrs old then. I will have to evaluate this over the coming year, but I do expect to run him a lot less than Rip.
I have started putting together a "highlights" type video, but don't know when I will get to finish it, so for now, here are a few of our runs from the show:
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