Skye and Rip do AKC at Latigo, July 2011

This past weekend was a 2 day local trial at the Latigo Trails facility, which is the one only 10 minutes from home.

The judge, Terry Culley, had some really fun and challenging courses. Sometimes AKC courses seem considerably easier than USDAA, but that was not the case this weekend, especially on Saturday where only 5 dogs out of about 30 in the Exc. 20B group Q'd the standard course. That was followed up by only 9 dogs Q'ing the the Exc 20B JWW course!

Skye actually managed to get a Double Q on Saturday with a 3rd in Std and a 6th in JWW!

Rip had a really nice fast Std run in Exc-A, but he "bunny hopped" his teeter and got called (rightfully so!) - I think he may have thought it was the dogwalk. His time was faster than the 1st place dog in 20B which is cool.

I then had a first-ever with Rip in JWW - and not a good first either. He got spooked by the judge and wouldn't run the course. He took the 2nd jump and was looking at the judge who was standing near jump #3 and veered off, refusing to go anywhere near #3 and going away from me, just really freaked for some reason. I suppose the reason is he is a border collie, and sometimes they freak out! So I left after 2 jumps with Rip, pretty disappointed that we didnt get to try the course.

On Sunday, neither dog had a really good Standard run. I decided to push Skye a little, and he knocked the top bar of the triple and then came out of the weaves at about pole 4 after the triple, in order to catch up to me! He then missed both his AF and DW contacts. Jeeze.
For Rip, because of the bad experience in JWW on Saturday, I decided to "run with" from the start to keep it a positive experience - I didnt want any repeat of him being scared. Normally I would have taken a small leadout and front crossed between #3 & 4, but instead I did a rear cross, and Rip didnt cross tight and took an offcourse, skipping the triple and heading into the weaves. We continued and he then missed his AF contact as well. I made him hold his DW. I MUST remember to hold criteria on both dogs - gotta quit letting them get away with missing these contacts as they have really solid 2O2O in practice.

In JWW, both dogs ran really well. Skye got a Q & 8th place - about 50% of dogs Q'd the JWW course in the 20B group. Rip had a great run but did drop 1 bar as I decelerated too soon. He ran it 1.5 seconds faster than Skye did.

Here are some of Skye and Rip's runs:




Finally, I got to run Xena, a neat fast Aussie owned by Lana, as Lana had pulled a leg muscle on Saturday and couldnt run. This was my first time running Xena, though she is in class with Skye so she knows me.

Xena ran great for me. We took 1st in Open Standard and earned her Open Std Title!  I then ran her in Open JWW and she also got 1st & Q'd, though we did have a little refusal bobble in that one.

Here is Xena's Standard run:

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

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

AKC at the not-so-cold Latigo

January at Latigo is always a risk - one year it was about 5 degrees out, and not a whole lot warmer inside. We got lucky with a little bit of a warmup leading up to the trial (Friday was 60 degrees) and then about 50+ on Saturday, and maybe 45 on Sunday, so not so bad really, though it felt warmer outside in the sun than in the arena!

This was our first AKC show since the Thanksgiving trial at the same location. I thought the judge's courses were good with challenging aspects, but very fair for the most part.

On Saturday, Skye had one of those hardly-ever situations where the course turned left but he went right. That resulted in a backjump, but the rest of the standard course went well. I saw on the tape that I did not rotate soon enough for him to know where we were going.

He ran a nice Jumpers run though, so we got a Q for the day.

Rip had a good standard run and hit all his contacts. His AFrame especially is nowhere close to what I want for a finished product - he gets to the top and comes down very slowly, but better than a big launch I suppose. No trouble with the chute this trial, and the rest was clean for a Q - yeah!

Rip ran his first ever Exc. JWW course and did a really great job. There was an offcourse trap right before the weaves that got a lot of dogs, including Rip, but still it was a great run and even with the offcourse, he was within .7 seconds of Skye's time.

For Sunday, we again started with Standard. This time Skye ran fast and clean and even managed to get 3rd place! Sweet.

We ran a jumpers course that was going to force me into two consecutive rear crosses, along with 3 front crosses. I botched the second rear cross, pushing Skye off the jump, so we didn't get any Double Q's this weekend, but still ended up 50% overall - cant really complain.

Rip's Standard run was not great - he did some sightseeing at the top of the AFrame and was a bit distracted in the beginning of the run. He took an offcourse tire, and then came off the table after the weaves. We finished the second half of the run much better than the first. I was shocked to find out that even with those 2 faults, it was still a Q, which earned us Rip's Open Standard title!

In his Exc. JWW run, we really ran a great run. So proud of his focus and jumping. The last jump was the triple, and the top bar came down, but still, what a great run. A big "awwwww" was heard from the crowd when the bar fell. Rip was only about 2.5 seconds off the 1st place time, which I am really happy with, since he was pretty wide on a number of turns, (worth about a second or so), and I am trying to speed up his weaves, which would be worth another second.

So Rip also went 50% and earned his title so we are now in Excellent for Std and JWW.  Our next show is 'CKC' - a big event in Denver in a couple weeks at the stockshow. We are doing 3 days, including FAST, and a demo run of T2B which should be fun.

It was great hanging out with a whole bunch of folks from FAAD - I think we had 10 students entered in this trial, and even more came to watch and support - such a great group!

Should I stay or should I go now?

Skye and I qualified for the 2011 AKC National Agility Championships that are going to be held in Lexington, Virginia in April. I've been debating with myself if I want to make the commitment to drive all that way. It's 1500 miles away.

The Pros:
Skye has been running great lately - fast and motivated, and we have been very consistent. He got his MACH this year.
He's in him prime, age-wise.
Qualifying is not easy, so who knows if we will qualify for the following year's Nationals.
You never know what next year could bring - dogs get injured, etc. Hate to have regrets that I 'should have gone'.

The Cons:
It's really far away - almost 3 days drive each way, plus 3 days for the event. It will end up being very expensive for 5 runs. (Skye is NOT flying!)
We did not have a good Nationals experience this year - Skye was stressed and then I was stressed. Many popped weave poles.
Katrina did not qualify with Baby, so not sure she would even want to go.
Skye is not fast enough to be really competitive - so best we could hope for is probably a top 30 finish if we ran clean.
Likely not a lot of Colorado people going since it is so far.
Have to drive across Kansas ! LOL


SO, lots to think about. The event opened for entry Dec. 1st, and will close on Jan 19th.
http://www.akc.org/events/agility/national_agility_championship/

Perception is not reality

This was interesting - Skye's Excellent JWW and Rip's Open JWW courses from Sunday (see post below) had the same first 10 or so obstacles.
This is a great example of how perception is not always reality.
I felt like Skye was really flying through this opening, and that Rip was going slow. I decided to put them side by side to see, and I was amazed to see that they were basically running neck and neck until the weaves. Skye has better weaves so he got a stride on Rip there.
I know that Rip does have a lot more speed that he only uses occasionally, and I expect as he gets more confident, he will get much faster. Skye was giving me probably the speed that he can - I dont expect that he would run this faster.

Thanksgiving AKC Fun!

(This is an older picture of Rip that I just bought this weekend as it was on sale)

There's a local (10 minutes away) 3day AKC trial after Thanksgiving every year that I like to attend. The downside is the arena is not heated, and is often affectionately called things like The Icebox, The Arctic, The Meat Locker, etc. This weekend was no exception - you could definitely see your breath in the mornings as we had temps in the teens, though it warmed up enough to not need your coat by the afternoon.

Skye and Rip had a really good showing at this trial.
Friday is Excellent only, so Rip was only along for the ride. Skye had two really good runs, and Q'd JWW with about 8th place, though he was called for his AFrame contact on an otherwise nice and fast Standard run. Skye loves to run in the cold!

On Saturday, I had a perfect day with the boys - both went 2 for 2! I again had fast running Skye and he placed 3rd in Standard (about 30 dogs in the 20" group this weekend). He followed it up with a really nice JWW run, I think about 7th place.

At our last AKC trial, Rip had finally moved to Open Standard, though he already had 1 qualifier in Open Jumpers. So, on Saturday he got his first open Standard Q with a nice run, though slow on his contacts (better than launched!). He also had a nice JWW run for a Q, but he ran cautiously - he has a LOT more speed to give me.

On Sunday, we weren't quite as successful, but it was still a good day. Skye missed his dogwalk contact so that run turned to a training run, and I pushed him and he did well. I mishandled the last 3 obstacles and caused him to spin and end up taking the finish jump from the back side! He was having a really fast run up to that point. In JWW, there was an interesting sequence from the weaves over 3 jumps to a tunnel, with the offcourse side staring right at the dog. I was out of position for my planned line and tried to throw in a last minute front cross that didnt work as I was too far past the jump and I pulled Skye off the jump instead.

Rip missed the same dogwalk contact in his Open Standard run. When I gave him a big 'Oh No', he then went around the chute - so we just ran for fun and finished it upbeat. The last run of the day for us was Rip's Open JWW, and he nailed it! He had a great run, and now he has his Open JWW Title. Next trial we will be trying Excellent A JWW!
I have video that I will post soon.

MACH Skye!

What a bad blogger I have been.... It's been a week now since Skye earned his MACH at the Mile Hi Golden Retriever show. On Friday, we got a double Q to put us at 19 total, so the pressure was on. Saturday we ran Standard first and were clean. Jumpers was going great, but after a turn from the weaves Skye dropped a bar. I could hear the big "ohhhhhhh" from the crowd to confirm that the bar went down.

Sunday, we started with Jumpers and Skye had a great clean run. The Standard course for Sunday was challenging and I wondered if we could pull it off - I decided to try and breath and go at it with a clear head, and he ran Great and got the MACH! Yeah baby!
Here's the video of that JWW and STD.

So nice to get the MACH title and be able to just run and not worry about double Qs for a while!

MACH Fail

I forgot that I never went back and updated my blog on my MACH progress from last weekend's AKC show.

It turned out to be rather uneventful, complete with Zero double Q's for the 3 days. Something simple went amok each day, and for the first time in who knows, I did not get a single Q in JWW.

These were my JWW runs:
Friday - 1 dropped bar
Saturday - 1 refusal
Sunday - 1 missed weave entry.

For Standard, we did manage to get 1 Q.
Friday - 1 refusal
Saturday - The Q day!
Sunday - 1 popped weave

He was running well for me, and maybe going for the double Qs actually caused me to overhandle or not run as I would.

We also got to play FAST, and we did get 1 Q in Exc. B Fast. We got the distance challenge on another FAST run, but it was outside in the rain and mud with bad footing for both of us, and he dropped the triple jump, and missed an AF contact, so we just missed the minimum points required. I didnt know about the AF contact until I saw the scribe sheet - I could have gone back and redone it!

Ah well, out next AKC show is mid July. Its also a 3 day, and currently I am only in for Friday, and am on the waitlist for Sat & Sun.
Greg

Possible MACH this weekend!

Skye and I are doing 3 days of AKC agility this weekend starting tomorrow.

He's laying here next to me asleep, but his feet are dream running, though its more likely to be chasing a dream rabbit than doing agility!

We have 18 Double Q's, so technically its possible to get our MACH - our last two trials gave us two double Q's per trial, so we are on a bit of a roll, but that roll can easily slam into the brick wall of NQs, so I will be cautiously optimistic.

Looking back at my records, Skye and I ran our very first AKC run in November 2007. I got my very first Double Q in September 2008.

So here's to a good AKC weekend!

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

Video from AKC last weekend

Here are Skye's runs from last weekend:

Here are two of Rip's runs:

AKC at Castle Rock, April 2010

Here is a cool picture of Rip from his first USDAA trial last October. I was going through Ken Gee's unpurchased photo box and found that one that I had not seen before, so I had to get it!

So, we were at the AKC trial at Castle Rock this weekend, on Saturday and Sunday.
Skye brought his focus this weekend and we managed to Q all our runs, going 4/4 and getting 2 more Double Q's, bringing us ever closer to getting our MACH. He ran fast on Saturday, not quite as fast on Sunday, but still very good. I was happy with his performance on these fairly tough courses.

Some may recall our weave issues from AKC Nationals. Though I didn't mention our trip to a USDAA trial two weekends ago, since getting back from Nationals, he has done his weaves correctly all 13 times he's been given an opportunity to do so! That makes me a little crazy - why couldn't he do them at Nationals? I dont know, but he's doing fine now, so lets go with it.

Rip had a typical Rip weekend, getting no Q's but having a good time trying. He's much closer to success in his JWW runs than Standard. On Saturday in JWW, he popped out of the weaves twice, so we moved on and finished the course. He seemed a bit distracted and un-energetic, but we did have to wait from 7am until 2pm before he got to run his first run. In his STD on Saturday, we had the typical jumped contacts, along with odd distractions causing him to come off the table and head in the opposite direction I was going and other things.

Sunday was a little better - he dropped one bar (again) in JWW on an otherwise nice run. Thats about 5 or 6 runs in JWW where his only issue has been 1 bar. In Standard, he tried much harder and was so close to actually getting a Q. He remembered that we have been working a 2-on-2-off on the dogwalk, and stopped nicely at the end, but by the time we got to the AFrame, he had forgotten again and missed that contact. The rest of his run was clean with no redo's or crazyness.
At least he did not run by any contacts this weekend, and he kept all the bars up except for the one in Sundays JWW.

These were the Excellent courses from Sunday. There were only 15 Q's out of the 75 20" dogs in Standard.




I've decided not to enter Rip in any trials for the next two months so I can really focus on getting a solid 2on2off performance (with speed, no creeping!) and also to do a lot more proofing on his weaves to keep those pop-outs to a minimum. He hits his entries every time, but does tend to then pop out or go slow like he's worried about them. We'll get there!

Greg & Skyeboy & Rip

Belated AKC Nationals report

Its been a little over a week since AKC Nationals wrapped up.

My first Nationals was an experience, mixed with "the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat" as the beginning of the weekend sports programs used to say.

As you know, I was running Baby for Katrina, as well as running Skye. Running Baby was a lot of fun, and we were really sooo close to being right there with the best of them. In Friday's State team tournament, Baby and I managed to be 4th place for Colorado (there were just over 50 Colorado dogs). She ran really well for me - we would have been in 1st for Colorado except for her missing a weave entry (which she never does).

On Saturday, the day started with Standard and we had a beautiful run. Unfortunately, Katrina had to tell me that we got called for the dogwalk contact.
Saturday afternoon's JWW was the only run where Baby did not run connected for me - she was searching around for Katrina while we were warming up, and then she did it a few times while running too. This caused a refusal since she wasn't paying attention! Baby's final run on Sunday in the Hybrid round went great and was a clean run. Overall, she placed I think 96th of 225 dogs, due to a fault in 2 of her 3 runs. Without those faults, she would have been in the top 25.

So, for me and Skye, it was not a good experience. He went 0/5, with all but 1 run being a zero point run. Weaves were the biggest issue - he would meander out about pole 4 looking at me, and wouldn't weave when I put him back in - this was in 4/5 runs. The one run he actually did weave correctly was the run where he knocked a bar, jumped a contact and got a refusal. We finished just barely above the people who did not show up :-\ . Pretty depressing. When we got home, I put him through the weaves out front and he did them super fast without a problem with a ball for reward. Who knows what was going on - I just know it's not an experience I will repeat with him.

I've been considering mostly retiring him from agility after his MACH and Perf. ADCH titles are earned, both of which we are close to earning. My initial thoughts about retiring him stem from his reactive behavior with other dogs. He really has to be managed and kept out of other dogs space - he will lunge at them, and sometimes bark his fool head off depending on the dog. It's something I really hate, and can make it stressful when we are in a cramped area getting ready for our turn. This is totally not an issue with Rip, which is how it should be. Skye also does not like to run when its warm - he will just shut down and go in slow motion. So.... add those issues to my Nationals experience, and I think just focusing on Rip going forward will be more rewarding for me, and probably less stressful for Skye. I will decide when the time comes.

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.

Skye and Rip's CKC report.

Skye and Rip did 2 days of the big 4 day CKC AKC trial this past weekend. I think if the venue were closer, I would take advantage of the 4 days, but getting up at 4:45am two days in a row is all I can handle!

There were a number if "Firsts" for us - Rip ran his first FAST runs ever. One of the distance bonuses had an aframe, which he launched with authority, and the other was a jump-tunnel sequence that I think he could do with MY eyes shut. He went 1 of 2 for Q's in FAST, with a 2nd place (pretty good since I didnt really have a plan when I got to the line).

On Saturday, I again had trouble with Rip popping out of the weaves. He's managed to hit every entry presented to him, but on many occasions he's come out of them. I talked to Katrina about it and she commented on how I appear unconfident that he will get them, so that could be feeding into the problem. On Sunday, I just ran him and drove the weaves as though he will get them no problem, and he DID all three times.

He had a great Open JWW run on Sunday with a 2nd place and his first Open JWW Q. He missed both Standards, once with a jumped AFrame and once with a jumped Dogwalk. Note to self, next time train a STOP on the contact first, then train a running...

Skye was pretty consistent with 4/6 Q's. My non-distance dog managed to get Q's in BOTH of his Excellent FAST runs this weekend, and that completes our Exc. A FAST title, so we move to B whenever they offer it again. Sunday's distance challenge was a flip into a tunnel off the dogwalk, away from the handler. Only 5 total Excellent dogs (all heights) got the challenge, and only 3 of the 20" dogs got it. Skye got 1st place in that one!

In Saturday's Standard run, we got a mystery call while Skye was down on the table. I saw the judges hands go up at about the count of 3 - made no sense and messed with my head so I made a couple handling mistakes after that which caused the panel jump to be knocked. If I was otherwise clean I would have pursued the call with the judge, but at that point it didnt matter. Maybe she thought I had touched Skye when trying to get the table down? Dont know.
*lesson* - dont watch the judge , just run as though you are NOT being judged!!

And my Blooper moment of the weekend, on Sunday, I ran smack into a jump wing after rotating for a front cross. Remarkably the bar did not fall, but it put me behind and caused Skye to come off a jump. It was otherwise a nice run!

Rips runs from AKC PPOC

Here are Rip's runs from last weekend:

Latigo AKC Trial - we have Heat, sort-of...

(Love this pic of Rip floating over the dogwalk)

Rip and Skye played AKC agility at our nearby facility, Latigo Trails, this weekend. Latigo is only 10 minutes from home, so I rarely pass up an opportunity to trial there. They told us they would have finally installed heat in the arena this winter, but they were only able to install some radiant heat over the small bleachers. It was appreciated, as we had an area to sit and warm up, but the rest of the arena probably never hit 40 degrees all weekend. Burrrrr! Maybe by our March trial...

Anyway, it was an OK weekend performance-wise. Skye went 2/4, getting Q's in both his JWW runs, but no Q's in Standard this weekend. Saturday's standard was not good, and I ended up pulling him from the course at the table which was obstacle #8. He had popped his weaves, then entered pole 2 when I made him redo, and then he fell off the side of the dogwalk since he was looking at the judge and not where he was going. Then on the table, he popped up before the count was done, so Mr. No Focus was pulled before we could embarrass ourselves any further.

Skye's Standard run on Sunday was much better, with the only fault being the AFrame contact. I have a training issue to work on with regards to contacts where there is a tunnel between me and the contact. Skye has a tendency to come off the side of the obstacle when I am not right there next to it - I really need to set this up and proof it in training.

So, I am bummed that we did not get a Double Q this weekend, but you gotta be happy with a steady 50% Q rate.

Mr Rip had a fun time this weekend. He always runs with such enthusiasm and seems to have a great time just doing agility. He only got 1 Q in his 4 runs, but it was a Standard Q for once. I am also happy to say he only dropped 1 bar all weekend. He had a great Open Jumpers run on Sunday with just that 1 bar down. His other Open JWW run on Saturday wasn't bad, but he did pop his weaves and then have a run-by on a jump followed by a couple offcourse jumps. He DID hit a really tough weave entry that almost no novice dogs hit on Saturday.

We do have A LOT to work on of course, and trialing makes this more apparent. I had another episode of Rip running by the dogwalk, just like I had in his previous trial. He did that on Saturday. I also had him pop out of the weaves on both of Saturday's runs. He is popping out when I pass him - so many more reps needed there with reinforcing of him staying in the poles and doing his job. I am also seeing a deteriorated performance in his teeter. He is leaping when it hits the ground. He didn't get called on this, but it's not his performance, and it is getting worse.

Finally, just like I have done on his dogwalk, I am going to have to introduce a stop at the bottom of the AFrame until he understands what his job is. He missed a Standard Q on Saturday by leaping the AFrame again. He's probably missed 5 or 6 Q's in Standard by leaping contacts, though now its the frame instead of dogwalk.

So, in addition to our normal training, we will be stepping up training of:

Teeter leapage

AFrame stop

Weave pops

Dogwalk runby

Videos to follow.

Rip's runs from AKC at Latigo

Here are Rip's 3 runs that were taped from this weekend's trial.