Rip gets his AXJ!

I am finally getting around to writing about our 3 day AKC show from last weekend. It was at Latigo, which is not my favorite facility but is certainly the closest to home at just 10 minutes away, so I always sign up for trials when they are available. It was really cold in the building on Friday and Saturday, since the arena is not heated. This isn't great for me, but the dogs definitely love it!

This was a random draw trial, which I typically dont enter as I dont like the whole concept of maybe or maybe not getting in, but it was also the same judge (Lisa Selthofer) I had when Skye got his MACH, and she has some neat courses, so this was added incentive to get into the trial.

On Friday, they were running FAST class for all levels, along with Excellent Standard and JWW. Rip was only entered in Open FAST and Exc. A JWW. Skye got to play in all classes.

Skye ran FAST first and it was a neat tunnel/tunnel/tunnel distance challenge - he got the Q. I usually try to come up with a plan to get all 80 points if I can. For Skye, my plan was to get 77 points, which we did, but we were a couple seconds over time so ended up with 74 points I believe.
Rip ran basically the same course, though his distance in Open is 10ft instead of 15ft. Rip also got the distance challenge, and my plan for him was to get 79 points. We did that, but again were a couple seconds over the buzzer so ended up with 76 points I think.
Here is the course map:

Here are their videos:
Skye


Rip




We then ran Standard. Only Skye was running since when we entered this trial, Rip was still in Open STD.
Skye was running fast, but we had a bobble after the AFrame and he went directly to the dogwalk instead of over the jump first.

Skye Exc. STD Friday:



For JWW, Skye ran first since he is in EXC B and Rip is in EXC A.
Both dogs Q'd the JWW course - it was a fun course to run and Rip was about 2/10ths faster than Skye. Skye had a better read on the jump before the tunnel. I only have video of Rip for this one:
Rip Exc JWW Friday:



Saturday was a great day for both dogs as they each got a Double Q, though Rip's was a Double Q in Exc. A.
Rip earned his AXJ title with his really great jumpers run. Rip ran this course about 1.2 seconds faster than Skye did, and I thought that Skye ran it really well. We were about 2 seconds off the fastest time. They were very close on time in the Standard course, though I felt they both ran the first half of the course very conservatively.

Rip Exc. A JWW Saturday



Skye Exc. B JWW Saturday



Rip Exc. A STD Saturday



Skye Exc. B STD Saturday



I dont yet have the video from Sunday's runs, but they were not quite as good as Saturday. I ended up with a Q for Skye in JWW and no Q's for Rip. I made the same handling mistake for both dogs in Standard. It was a Tire / Jump / Chute sequence after the table, and I drove both dogs too much before the sharp turn to the chute and they both ran around the back of it! I should have noticed that this required deceleration for the turn.

In Rip's JWW, I took my eyes off him briefly which then caused him to go behind me into the wrong end of a tunnel. It was an otherwise nice run.

Here are the Sunday courses:

Overall this was a really good trial for us. Rip did not miss any contacts and I believe he only dropped 1 bar the whole weekend. Skye was running fast and motivated and listened for his contacts with the exception of Sunday's STD.

Runs from the CKC show last week

Here are Rip's runs. Two of his standard runs were mostly missed so I didnt include them.

AKC at the Denver Stockshow

This is Colorado's biggest AKC show - it's 4 days long, and is combined with the CKC Cluster - including Rally, Obedience and Confirmation. It's held at the big Denver Stockshow facility and is 3 rings of indoor agility.


We played 3 of the 4 days. Unfortunately, my work needed me to fly to California just before the trial, so though  I had planned my flight to get back to Denver at 6:30pm Thursday, which should get me home by 8pm, the flight-delay gods were working against me and imposed delay after delay. I ultimately got home just before midnight, and that left me just 5 hours before needing to get back up to leave for the show!


We got there in time to get checked in and do the first walkthroughs. This was Rip's first trial entered in Excellent A for both Std and JWW, which is probably easier with less conflicts than being spread about the classes. 


Skye ran Standard first and we had a pretty good run for a Q! Nice way to start off the show. He then got to run in Exc. FAST.  This weekend we did not manage to get any Exc. FAST Q's - it just wasnt meant to be.  We ran JWW near the end of the day and unfortunately Skye dropped a bar, and then popped out of the weaves - its unusual for him to drop bars, but not all that uncommon to get a weave pop!


Rip got to run JWW first, and he ran awesome for his first ever Excellent JWW Q! Its so great to see him able to get through a course without knocking bars now. He ran well in Standard, though did not get the Q. I dont recall what the issue was on this run - we did not get any Standard Q's this weekend in Excellent, but he was really close. I believe the issues along the way were a skipped weavepole, a misread for an offcourse, and a missed dogwalk contact. Generally though, he ran very well with good focus and handled these courses like the champ that he's going to be!


Rip also had a great weekend in FAST - we came into the show with just 1 Novice FAST Q, since we almost never see the game in Colorado. So, on Saturday and on Sunday Rip got nearly all the points including the easy distance challenges and 1st place in both. That let us move up to Open FAST for Sunday. He got to run against his girlfriend Vega (among others) and Vega beat us since we were slightly over time, which subtracted points from our 79 point total. Vega took 1st and Rip took 2nd. He is a far better distance dog than Skye is, and I hope that trend continues into Excellent.


For Skye, he got a Q in JWW on Saturday, setting us up for another chance at a double Q. This time, in Standard he knocked the top bar of the triple. Bummer with the bars for Skye this weekend!


Rip did not Q JWW or STD on Saturday or Sunday, though on Sunday he ran perfectly in JWW except for one bar on a jump coming out of a tunnel - it was just a tough turn with speed. Cool thing is, he and Skye ran 1/100th of a second apart - 29.92 vs 29.93.


Skye had finally pulled it together on Sunday and Q'd both JWW and STD for a double Q! This was after a disaster of a FAST run in the morning.


My blooper of the weekend came in Rip's STD run first thing in the morning Sunday. There was a tire/jump/jump pinwheel before turning to the teeter. I planned a front cross before the teeter, which I did, and found myself straddling the teeter plank and moving forward. I had to put my hands on the teeter and push off it to avoid falling up the teeter. Of course, Rip wasnt able to take it, and got a refusal. I put him back on and we continued - he had a really great run except for my blooper! 


I will post videos soon