AKC report from last week, Cairn Terrier Show

This is a little late, but I better post for my own records!

I only ran Skye at the Cairn terrier club trial. Rip is still on his 'probation' period from contact retraining - though watch for Mr Rip to give those contacts a try at our DOCNA trial!

The short version is, we had a great weekend. Skye went 5/6 getting two more Double Q's, which puts us at 18 now - just 2 to go!
On Friday, in our first run (JWW) he came out of the weaves early at pole 11, exiting on the wrong side. That was our only fault of the weekend. Skye was running fast and energetic on Friday. We had a great Standard run as "fast Skyeboy" ended up taking 4th place of the 50 twenty inch dogs.

Saturday was a warm day - I think it was already about 70 degrees at 7am when I arrived. Skye runs slower when its warm, so he wasnt quite on fire like the day before, but still, he ran focused and got those two Q's.

On Sunday, we had a clean JWW run to start the day, though in STD Skye tried to blow our run - but the agility Gods were looking out for us. We should have been called for the AFrame contact, but apparently I had positioned myself just right between the judge and Skye, so she didnt see the launch. Then, coming off the table, he should have come to me and gone in the tunnel like I was aiming toward with my hand and feet. Instead, he thought I meant to go behind me, where my butt was pointing, and take the dogwalk. I gave a little primal scream and got his attention, keeping him off the DW and getting him into the tunnel. Yea! We finished Sunday with a stolen Double Q !

Greg & Skyeboy

Skye goes for his APD at USDAA in Pueblo

Well we didn't get our APD this weekend, but I am happy with the runs we had.
Skye needs one more gamble Q to get his APD and we had two attempts this passed weekend.

Saturday's gamble really was one we should have had. It was a jump, push out to a tunnel straight ahead, and coming out of the tunnel, turn to the teeter. Skye has a great distance teeter, but I stopped supporting the tunnel too soon and pulled him right off of it.

Sunday's gamble was more challenging, and I was focused on the 'hard part' of turning the dog coming out of a tunnel into another tunnel under the DW, and keeping them off the 2 jumps that were straight ahead of the dog. I focused on that part so much, I didnt give enough pressure to make sure he went into the first tunnel, and he instead climbed the dogwalk. Ah well, we really didnt get an attempt at that gamble.

I only entered Skye in a few other runs this weekend.
We did snooker both days. This was the first time I ran snooker and didnt actually need a Super Q, so in our first snooker, I ran conservative, like a 5+7+3 course, and got a Q with 3rd place (getting through #6 in the closing).
On Sunday's snooker, I thought we could get all 7's in time (teeter + jump combo), so decided to go for it - and we got it and got through the closing for a 1st and another Super Q!

Our other runs were on Saturday - Jumpers to start the day off. The ground was still wet, and Skye took 2 bars, so NQ. The other run was Standard, and we had a very nice run for a Q & 1st.

So, I've debated, with myself mostly, about going for Super Q's in snooker when you dont need them. I know some people will always go for 7's for the challenge it presents, and some will just make a course that flows. I think that if I needed a Super Q, and knew that my competitors didnt try their hardest, and I got the SQ, it wouldnt be worth as much. It's more satisfying to get it when everyone else is giving 100%. Sometimes slower dogs will get a course that is better for them, and the faster dogs will offcourse. So, I think I will still run my future snooker courses trying to get as many points as I can. Now, if someone was to actually ask me to not go for it, would I? Hmmm.