Laramie USDAA for Skye and Rip

We took the travel trailer up to Laramie WY again this year for their annual USDAA trial. This show always runs a couple Masters classes on Friday afternoon, which works out fine since we have a 3.5 hour drive up, so we wouldn't be able to drive up on Saturday morning anyway. The trip up was pretty uneventful, unlike Jackie's trip! We haul in what seems like half the household, with our 4 dogs and 4 wire crates and 4 fans, chairs, coolers, bedding, etc. This is a nice relaxing trial as it's only 1 ring, so no conflicts, and the arena is out in the country surrounded only by University of Wyoming agriculture buildings and hundreds of sheep (Hellllooooo Border Collies!). The only real downside here is the flies. Lots of flies. Flies crawling on you all the time. 


Here are some of Rip's videos. (I am having some computer trouble so havent been able to compile Skye's videos yet)





So we started the day with Gamblers, and I didn't do it right for either dog. I dont have the map, but it was seemingly straightforward - take a jump and send to a U shaped tunnel, and upon tunnel exit, pass back between the jump and the tunnel and take a distance teeter, and finish with a jump. It really didnt look very difficult. I started the gamble with both dogs on my left - worked great for Rip, but Skye took the wrong end of the tunnel. Skye then got the rest of the gamble just fine. Rip came out of the tunnel and flew back over the starting jump.  


Next we did Steeplechase. Rip had a pretty nice run but he did miss his contact on the first pass of the AFrame and then ended up knocking a bar, so we did not make it into round 2. His time was pretty good at 33 seconds. Skye had a decent, clean run, though he was a bit slow due to the heat. I think he ran it in 39 seconds - so Rip was 6 seconds ahead of him!


The last of Friday's runs was Snooker. Rip did well - we were going for 5-6-7-6 in the opening but he hit the third Red jump, so we went to the other and ended up with 5-6-7 opening, and in the closing it was going great, but Rip knocked a bar in the #6 combo so our 35 points wasnt enough points to Q. Skye ran the course great doing the 5-6-7-6 opening and went all the way through the closing, so he ended up with another Super Q! I've pretty much found that I need to run the same plan with both dogs or I will get mixed up. 


Saturday started with Standard - Skye had a great run and got 1st place in his small group of P3 dogs! 
I've really been wanting to get Rip out of Advanced Standard - it seems like we have had wayyyyy to many tries at getting Q's in Adv. Std without success - we only had 1 Q going into the show. So, maybe trying too hard, or caring too much factors into the NQ's as well - there is definitely something to be said about that as when you try to run more cautious, you DO end up making mistakes.
So here we go - the run is going great and Rip sticks his dogwalk contact nicely. We near the end and I am impatient and pull him off a jump before the AFrame - no problem though as no refusals are called on jumps, so I put him back over it, and then he launches his AFrame contact. Ugh. Followed by hitting the bar on the jump after the frame. There goes try #1.


Next came Grand Prix - this felt like a long course and the wheeling showed it as 194 yards. Yikes! It had a couple tricky spots for a dog like Rip who loves to suck to tunnels. 
Rip ran that course like a champ and ignored those offcourses and got a Q! He took about 5th place. There were not a lot of dogs that qualified on that longass course. 
Skye then ran the course and he also did great - he ran it in about the same amount of time Rip did and got a Q & 2nd place! Both dogs got their first Grand Prix/Perf Grand Prix Q's for next year's qualification period!


Last for Saturday was Jumpers. This was a pretty tricky course with some weird angles and a box with a 270 and offcourse potential. Rip ended up getting caught by the offcourse after jump #5, and Skye was pretty slow but dropped a bar, so neither dog got a Jumpers Q this time around.


Sunday had Standard, Pairs, Round2 of Steeplechase and a bonus round of Snooker.


As it turned out, Sunday was Rip's day! I tried not to overthink his Standard run and just run it. Everything went great and we got a freakin Standard Q baby! The dogwalk was the 2nd to last obstacle and the course put you a little behind on it, and I must have told him to "Touch!" while he was on the up-ramp! Good boy stuck that contact!


Skye ran really well and I thought we had Q'd the P3 Standard, but then I found out after that he actually missed his dogwalk contact. It was a popular fault because of the way the course was designed.


We ran Pairs - Rip was paired with Julie & Rift and we did great. Rift is Ice's brother. This was our second try together and this time our only fault was a bar that Rip knocked, but our time was plenty fast to get the Q. This was also Rip's Master Pairs title!


Skye ran pairs with my wife & Baby. Unfortunately Katrina didnt notice that Baby missed the weave entry so when she continued to the next obstacle, she was whistled. Last time we paired, it was me who messed it up, and this was her turn. 
The bummer is, I am trying to get Skye's PDCH-Bronze title, and all we need are Gambler and Pairs legs, and we got neither at this show.


Skye got to play in Round 2 of P-Steeplechase. He was running pretty slow, so I didn't expect too much, but he did run clean. Shar & Tar'n ran after us and they had a bobble at the weave entry, but even with that, they still ended up 1.5 secs ahead, so Skye got 2nd place. Still good for $8 :)


Finally we got to play the bonus Snooker. As Rip still needs all his Super Qs, I tend to try and come up with a high point plan that will give us a chance. He's not the fastest dog, so I usually can't go for all 7's and make it through the closing, but again we had the option of 4 reds and I was going for 7-7-6-3 I believe. Rip was actually going for something different though! I did a long leadout and planned to call him over a red and through the tunnels so we could take the teeter in the back. Rip was coming to me and I flinched and he veered into the #3 tunnel. So, plan change, we did #3, then did the 7, then 6, and instead of #3 as planned, Rip did the #2 tunnel, but that was OK, we continued through the close. The buzzer went while the #7 teeter was tipping down, so we didnt get those points. No Super Q, but we did get the regular Q anyway.


For Skye, I ran a 7-7-6 opening and we got through the closing. The 16" & 22" groups got combined in performance and 1 super Q was given out - it went to my wife & Baby who did 4 reds. 


All in all a very successful trial. So glad to get an Advanced Standard leg for Rip, and also really glad to get each dog a Grand Prix Q!


I am not happy about how many bars Rip knocked this weekend. Some were probably my fault, and some were his fault. I may have to go back to staggering his jump heights in practice again - I will see after this weekend's 3-day USDAA show that is going to be at the same nice indoor soccer facility where the RM Regional was held. I also have to continue my work on contacts for both dogs. Skye did really well only missing 1 dogwalk contact all weekend. Rip did well on his dogwalks, hitting them all, but did miss a couple AFrames. We are not quite there yet!

RM Regional - one more video

I was able to get Rip's Team Relay from Alan Tay (Powerpups) which is great since we had video recording issues.

Mary Ellen & Maizy had 1 bar, Rufus popped his weaves - and Susan says he NEVER does that, and then Rip had 1 bar, but no offcourse!
Wow look at that Maizy go!

Double Q's and the Meeks!

This past weekend we competed at the 3 day FRAAD AKC trial. This is a fun trial because it's one of our few shows that includes the FAST class. It was 3 rings, with 2 indoors and 1 outdoor, which can make for some conflicts, but it wasn't really an issue for us.

We had a really successful show, except for that darn FAST class! I also got to run Meeker - which I will talk about later.

Friday
Rip put together three really nice runs. He is in Exc. A for STD and Exc. B for JWW. His standard run was great - he ran fast, motivated and listened really well. Unfortunately we knocked the panel jump so no Q, but still a great run with a time that would have been 3rd place in the Exc B class of 50+ dogs.
He also ran a really fast JWW run - it was his kind of course with a lot of areas to use his stride. I called too early for a wrap jump and made him knock the jump before it though, so no Q's, but very happy with the runs. Rip ran both STD and JWW more than 3 seconds faster than Skye did. I am starting to see some of his speed actually come out on course.
We ran Open FAST at the end of the day and he got the Q to earn our Open FAST title! That puts us in Excellent for all classes, yeah!

Skye continued his good consistent running on Friday and earned us another Double Q - this is the 5th one needed to qualify for Nationals.

Rip STD


Rip JWW




Saturday
Rip put it together and got Q's in both Exc A STD and in Exc JWW! His first 'virtual' double Q! We still need 1 more Exc A qualifier to get into B for Standard. He was just a touch behind Skye in JWW, and about 1.5 seconds ahead of Skye in STD.

Skye ran Saturday's courses great too and earned yet another Double Q - the last one we needed for Nationals. We still need a little over 100 points more, but that should not be an issue.
In the JWW course on Saturday, I believe I put 7 front crosses in for Skye to keep him running motivated and it worked, putting him just ahead of Rip.
The Standard course had a tunnel under the AFrame that caused a lot of dogs to turn the wrong way upon exiting (including Rip) so I ran and FrontCrossed for Skye which turned him correctly. This course also had a weird intentional back-jump combination, where obstacle 15 & 16 were the same jump - take it one way for 15, turn around and take it the other way for 16. We did it without issue.

Skye JWW


Rip STD


Skye STD


Sunday
Finally, Skye was going for the perfect double Q weekend after getting the Q in JWW. So close! After the dogwalk, we were to wrap a jump and go back to a tunnel under the dogwalk - but Skye had spotted a different jump and headed in a direction to cut me off before the jump - I pushed back to the correct jump and told him to wrap but his approach was off and he knocked the bar. The rest of the run was great.

Rip ran two really nice runs again, with 1 mistake in each. In JWW, I got momentarily lost and he saved my butt when I realized I was about to pull him off the correct jump, but then I rushed a front cross and cut into his path, causing him to knock the 2nd to last bar.
In Standard, I got out of position after bailing on a cross before the AFrame. This put me behind, causing me to rear a jump after the frame, and then rear into the weaves. He hit the weave entry but skipped a pole, so NQ.

FAST
The Excellent FAST courses this weekend all had the same theme - some kind of approach to a tunnel where you had to get the dog into the difficult end. Skye and I failed the challenge all 3 times - ugh!!
Rip had his first 2 tries at Excellent FAST but did not get the Q's. Sunday's was as close as you can get without actually Qing it - he got the distance piece, but turned around on the AFrame after a bad approach. I stood for a moment trying to remember if I could put him back on it, then the buzzer went and it took us 5 seconds to get over the finish jump, which put our points total at 59 - just 1 shy of qualifying!

"The Meeks"
On Saturday and Sunday I ran Meeker for one of our students, Liz, who was injured. Meeker is a big fun Aussie who jumps 24". I have run him in class before, and he stayed with us one time when Liz was on vacation, so we do have a little bond.
Meeker ran great for me, and we actually went 3/4, earning her a Double Q on Sunday. Our only NQ run was caused by Meeks hitting the triple (and knocking it flat!). He is such a good dog and runs well for others. He does already have his MACH 2, so he is definitely well trained.

Meeker STD

Fire Alarm Practice aka USDAA Loveland

We went to the annual USDAA trial in Loveland again this year and were greeted by a warm (81 degrees) windy Saturday followed by a coldfront with snow on Sunday.
Maybe 15 minutes into the trial, Ice was running Gamblers when the fire alarms went off in the arena. Katrina ended up finishing the run as the buzzer had gone off signaling time to do the gamble, and Ice got it, and we grabbed the dogs and went outside with everyone. Seems a burned batch of popcorn at the concession stand was the culprit.
If that wasn't "fun" enough, on Sunday morning at the hotel, at about 6:50am, I had taken Skye and Rip out to the truck so that we could pack up the room. While I was out there, the fire alarms went off at the hotel! I was really glad that my timing was such that my dogs didnt have to hear that (Rip would have absolutely FREAKED I am sure). However, my cardkey would not let me back into the room, so Katrina came out on her own with Baby and Ice shortly after - they were not too happy, but we were at least the closest hotel room to the exit.

So, aside from that, we had a really successful showing at the trial.

Rip managed to get his first Advanced Standard Q, along with a coveted Grand Prix Q, a Master Gamblers Q and a Master Snooker Q! He would have had a Steeplechase Q as well if I didnt push him and cause a jumped AF contact.

Skye got two Q's in P3 Standard, a Q in P3 Pairs, a Q in P3 Jumpers and another Super Q in Snooker.

Rip knocked only 2 bars this weekend - one in our first run, an Adv. Standard where you had to call for the AF/Tunnel discrimination and I must have called over the bar. The other bar came in his last run, Adv. Jumpers when he hit the top of the triple.  He hit all contacts except when I pushed too much in Steeplechase.
Rip's weave speed is really hit or miss. I will be doing much more weave practice for speed. I am waiting for him to 'click' with his footwork - that is what is keeping his speed down, as he is not consistent with footwork and sometimes appears to be stumbling over himself through the weaves. He *can* single-step them - I've seen it in practice and on rare occasion in competition.

Skye ran very well for the most part, and though our Q's were almost always 1st places, I know he was not giving me all the speed he can. He had a 'duh' moment in Gamblers when I attempted to send him to a jump/tunnel and he veered off to the right. Whaa? Not sure what he thought I was saying. In his Standard run on Saturday, he bashed his chin when jumping up on the table. It makes me cringe a bit watching the video, though he finished the run with a Q & 2nd?!?. The following run was Grand Prix and he fell off the dogwalk at the start of the downplank, so that wasnt so good. We still need 2 Grand Prix legs for Nationals.

Here are some of the videos - the camera was acting up this weekend, so I dont have video of some runs, and some I just dont feel like posting :)

Rip
Rip did great in his first ever Master Snooker run - only 1 point away from a Super Q. I had 7 seconds left and could have gone for the 4th red (easy to say in hindsight!)



Advanced Jumpers - pretty good run with 1 bar. I thought it ran well up till the last couple jumps that went wide.



Master Gamblers - a Q, though slow in the weaves and he popped his first set of poles.



Adv. Standard - this is the Q run - I made him stick his contacts. Pretty good run on a very long course.



Adv. Standard - the NQ due to the bar before discrimination. I was happy with this run.



Skye

Standard - Q and 1st place



Snooker - Super Q and 1st place. Same plan I ran for Rip, though Rip did it 3 seconds faster.



Jumpers - Q and 1st place



Standard - Q and 2nd place. This is the run where he smashed his face on the table. You've been warned ;)



Pairs - Q and 2nd I think. Skye knocked a bar in this one.

Rip and Skye runs from Latigo AKC