Gamblers was up first. I had no idea how she'd handle a distance challenge as this isn't something we've worked on. She managed this challenge just fine! I timed the opening almost perfectly (would have been even better had Gracie not stopped to sniff some fuzz) so that I was ready to set her up for a nice line to the teeter which was the first part of the challenge. Then I had to layer a jump and send her to two jumps straight ahead of her. Managed that no problem too! Gracie got a 1st place Q! Off to a good start!
Standard was up next. The only issue there was Gracie went around the table before getting on (it is a big table!). Other than that the run went perfectly and Gracie got another Q!
Steeplechase was up next. That was fun! We like Steeplechase/T2B type courses. Only problem on this one was that Gracie had to weave twice (she's not the fastest weaver) and there was fuzz that had to be sniffed near the weaves. So Gracie ran clean, but was too slow to Q.
Last run of the day was Snooker. Gracie was getting pretty tired by this point and was rather pokey. Had she had more energy though, we may not have avoided off course options quite so well. We went for 7-7-7 and ran cleanly, but went over time so we didn't get the last 7 points of the closing. She still got a 2nd place Q!
Sunday was an easier day for us, though Gracie may not have been awake for her first run. It took us three tries to get the weaves! That cost us our Q (at least I'm pretty sure that's what it was). Gracie went around the table again before getting on, but this time it was a big, almost zoomy circle! At least she has a fairly quick down once she is on the table.
After that run the horrible, evil death cold started catching up with me. I felt worse and worse as the day went on. I was gate steward a couple times, it got very uncomfortable yelling names by the end, and I was scheduled to work the very last class of the day. I thought about going home, but I really wanted to stick around for Gracie's jumpers run and I knew it'd be hard to replace a worker (I was timing) for the last class of the day. So I stuck it out, and I'm glad I did... for Gracie's run at least.
Jumpers was a fun course with no weaves. Gracie was much more awake this time and was running fairly quickly, near her top speeds for jumpers courses. It was a fun course and I'm bummed I don't have video of it. She got a 3rd place Q and I nearly keeled over with a coughing fit when we got back to her kennel.
There were a couple things I didn't like about the trial. The large dogs were almost all Border Collies, Gracie stuck out like a sore thumb. That's no deal breaker, but a little variety is nice. A lot of the Border Collie handlers did spend a lot of time yelling, that was less pleasant to watch, but if I ran a crazy fast BC I'd probably understand better. There were also some really awesome Border Collie teams, including a couple world team members which were very fun to watch! The other thing I didn't like was how many height changes there were! I was a bar setter a couple times on Sat. First they go up, and then down, then up again, and down some more. I got to thinking, "When will it end?!" Even more confusing were all the A-frame changes (there had to have been at least 3 different heights) and the doubles. Some heights had parallel doubles, some had ascending doubles, performance didn't get doubles at all, there were some classes with two doubles where one was ascending and one wasn't. So confusing! Not to mention, USDAA's non traditional jump heights meant you couldn't use the preset double, you had to set up 2 single jumps and make sure they were the right distance apart and make sure the messed up wing wasn't used because it just didn't work for the double! Considering how confusing it was, everything really went fairly smoothly. I'll volunteer again, but may avoid bar setting for Masters!
There's another USDAA trial at the end of March that we may try. Depends on what AKC trials we can get into. And I think Gidget and I are ready to try an AKC agility trial again! Happy agility!
It was fun to see you! USDAA jump height changes and equipment setups were always interesting. But then they went ahead and made the 2 additional jump heights this year, 14 and 18, for the tiniest range of dogs that will actually fit it. I don't think anyone knows what they were thinking. But I love the courses :)
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