Gracie's Pretty Awesome Weekend!

Gracie had another agility trial this past weekend.  This time it was a little closer to home and at one of our favorite venues: On The Run.  Last winter/spring Gracie did really well at OTR.  Switching to Soccerblast threw us off.  I'm glad the OTR season is back and would happily never trial anywhere else with Gracie again!

We entered two days with three runs each day: standard, time 2 beat, and jumpers.  They were in that order both days.

Saturday STD: I was nervous.  Our first run when we hadn't trialed here in quite a while.  Plus it was excellent standard which we still haven't qualified in.  The weave entry was weird with a sharp turn off the dog walk to the weaves.  Gracie missed the entry but fixed it on our second try.  Between nerves and needing to redo the weaves, I forgot my front cross after the weaves and my impromptu rear cross sent Gracie around the chute.  Oops!  The rest of the course was clean, but I almost messed her up in a couple places.  The good news: she did the table!  With no sniffing!

After that run I knew I needed to focus and be there for my dog in the ring.  So I told Gracie, "You get your weaves and I won't screw you up.  Deal?"  That seemed to work for most the rest of the weekend.  I also thought this a good time to work on visualizing.  So between walking and running the courses I found somewhere to sit and close my eyes and visualize the course and my plan.  I definitely need to keep that up!

Saturday T2B: Sat. was all about sharp turns to the weave poles.  Gracie got it this time, and I remembered my front cross after the weaves.  I did find a spot in this course and one other over the weekend, that I didn't get to where I wanted to be for a front cross and had to switch to a rear (which I had also walked and was prepared for).  It worked out both times, but it's something I need to look at closer.  Gracie qualified with 5 points!

Saturday Jumpers: Jumper went very well except for one little detour to go sniff something.  No refusal incurred, just wasted time.  The straight away at the end was fun!  Gracie qualified with half a second to spare, so no MACH points this time. 

Sunday Standard: Much less nervous and much more focused today.  The run overall went really well.  Gracie even did a down on the table!  We just got one little refusal after the chute.  She came out of the chute looking at me and I didn't give her enough of a cue to get her looking forward to the next jump so she went past it.  Had I run on the other side of the chute it might have worked better, but I was worried about crashing into Gracie.  Oh well, another thing to work on.

Sunday Time 2 Beat: We really do like T2B!  It was a really nice run!  Gracie got 7 points, and when she's up against all those speedy border collies like at this trial, I think that's pretty impressive!  Gracie is now 3 Qs and 102 points away from her T2B title!

Sunday Jumpers:  One tiny call off in this run, otherwise it was just beautiful!  Gracie qualified and got 4 MACH points!

Gracie did an amazing job this weekend!  She qualified in 4 out of 6 runs! 

I'm so proud of her!  Also, my mom deserves a very big thank you for helping us at every run.  The ring gate area can get rather crowded, so I don't know if we would have made it without her!  Unfortunately I missed the deadline for the Jan. OTR trial, so we may not be back there until Feb.  I am thinking about trying a USDAA trial there though.  I've still got some time to decide on that.  Got to get back to some rally and maybe some obedience for her too!  Happy agility!

Gidget Back in the Agility Ring!

Dec. 6-8 was a very busy weekend for us.  On that Fri. we started moving!  We didn't move far, just to a bigger apartment down the hall, but it still took a lot of work!  Of course, before I knew what our moving date was, I signed Gidget up for a CPE trial to get her back in the agility ring.  So Gidget and Gracie spent most of Fri. at the animal hospital I work at while AJ and I worked on moving.  I picked them up around 10pm and we went to bed.  Gidget and I got up bright and early the next day for our trial.  We got there just in time for Gidget to get measured and then we sat around for hours waiting for the two classes I signed Gidget up for.

Full house was up first.  I signed Gidget up for this one so we could go out and just have fun!  There was one point that we were headed towards the gates and Gidget thought it was over, but I got her back to earn a few more points before it was really over.  Gidget took 1st place with 32 points!

Standard was the other class Gidget was entered in.  Gidget's in level 3 so it was a pretty easy course.  I'm not complaining, I think that was good for us.  A nice easy positive experience in the ring.  It went really well too!  The one spot that had us heading for the gates did not have Gidget thinking the run was over!  She had a really nice tight turn heading back the other direction!  Another 1st place Q for Gidget!

I decided to start Gidget back up in CPE for several reasons.  It was cheaper so there was much less "wasting money" pressure (if only I were rich, then that thought would never cross my mind).  The CPE crowd is fun and pretty laid back.  Gidget's in level 3 so the courses are easier.  There are games where a specific course doesn't matter.  All things that would help keep this a fun, happy experience for both of us.

I was pretty happy with myself as well.  I didn't get terribly nervous and I didn't get frustrated with Gidget (not that I had reason to).  I'd like to eventually get Gidget back into AKC but for now I think we need to keep practicing being happy and having fun at trials!  Happy agility!

November in La Crosse

Gracie and I were at a trial in La Crosse one last time... almost a month ago now.  Yup, very behind on my trial updates.  There have been a couple challenges in class I've wanted to write about too, just too busy!

T2B was up first again.  Gracie wasn't at her top speed by any means, but she was solid.  She qualified and no one else did!  The dogs that NQ'd were all slower than Gracie too.  So our very first 10 point T2B Q!  Gracie is halfway to having all the T2B Qs she needs for her title, but is quite a ways off from the 150 points needed.  She has 36 points so far.  Not worried about getting there eventually!

STD was up next.  All was looking good until the last two poles of the weaves.  Went back and repeated them successfully (after taking a bonus jump on the way back around).  The table was right after the weaves.  A dog shortly before us had peed on the table and they cleaned it up with stinky cleaner.  Just what Gracie needed when she's already having table trouble!  Needless to say, she refused to get on the table so we moved on.  That last stretch of the run was really pretty, made up for the not so good stuff.  I like the beginning of this video.  Gracie and I ended up having to wait for quite a bit for adjusting timers and something else.  At first you can see how stressed Gracie is, lots of tongue flicks (calming signals!) and just not wanting to focus on me.  I keep working with her though, and by the time we're just about ready to start I have her focused and playing with me (without treats!)  Yet when we lined back up, she didn't want to sit for some reason.  Oh well, it's fun to see all the same.

Last but not least, JWW.  I messed up Gracie on this one.  I took a tunnel entrance for granted and she took the other end.  Bad handler!  I don't know for sure what I did or didn't do, you can't see me on the video.  (My dad, the guy who's worked in the TV industry for years now, can't seem to film an agility run properly and has trouble with my camera.)  It turned out though that Gracie was accidently entered in Exc instead of Mas and I missed it on our confirmations!  So I'm saying I subconsciously new this and messed her up on purpose so we wouldn't get in trouble.  Besides that one little blip it was a lovely run!

So now that I'm caught up, Gidget has her first agility trial since May this weekend.  We're also moving this weekend so who knows how the trial will go.  Our goal is definitely fun!  Though it'd be nice not to have any obstacle issues either.  The following weekend is Gracie's next trial.  We've had a little time to work on our table troubles, but we could use a little more.  I would really like to qualify in Exc Std sometime soon!  We're switching trial locations again though so I'll have to focus on low stress.  I'll be pretty happy if she completes the weaves, holds her A-frame bottom, and we don't get into any trouble while waiting our turn.  Happy agility!