Monday, July 14, 2008

Results from Saturday & Sunday's Trials

Agility Rule #10: For every great day of agility is an equally not so good day of agility. Not that we really had a bad day, just not a Q day. Kaylie had a wrong tunnel entrance on her Standard run (she did take the tunnel entrance that the teeter was pointing RIGHT at!) But alas, that was the wrong end. And then on her Jumpers run, I just turned a nano second too soon and pulled her off a jump. Both runs were awesome despite these 2 mistakes. And then Conor's FAST run was just that -- F A S T. And just wrong. But he had fun.

Agility Rule #11: Never let negative random thoughts pop into your head regarding your agility abilities. I got to the show site a little early Saturday. I got set up, sat down to look at the course maps, and for some reason a thought popped into my head: It had been a long time since we had NOT Q'd in Jumpers. We've Q'd in just about every Jumpers run we've done this year -- for some reason I thought to myself that all good things do have to come to an end. WHY did I think that??? I don't know. And of course what happens? We didn't Q. Hmmmm.

On Sunday, Kaylie's Standard run was pretty darn awesome. There were several traps, and we made it through them up until the end. The weave poles were in a corner that wasn't really used all weekend, and were pretty close to the ring gates. We had to do a tight wrap from the weaves to the A-frame, then to the right of the A-frame was a curved tunnel. I ended up kind of tripping right at the end of the weave poles because the ground was pretty lumpy, which pulled her out of the weave poles. This actually happened to a lot of teams. So not sure if it was the uneven ground, or the fact that the weave poles were really close to the ring gate or that too many people turned towards the A-frame before the dog finished the weaves. If the weaves didn't get people, it was the tunnel entrance -- most dogs headed straight to the jump that was right in front of the A-frame. But we had a great run despite the mess up at the weaves. Then came our Jumpers run. I knew my mistake from the day before was thinking my run on Jumpers Q's had to run out, so I knew I HAD to Q on this one. And we did. There were several traps which I handled very conservatively to make sure we did it right, so that did cause us to run a little slower (we were only 10 seconds under time), but at least it was a Q, and good enough for 3rd place. YAY! Then on to Conor's first ever Standard run. Boy oh boy. Instead of going through the tire jump, he ran under it. He flew across the dog walk, but at least he did hit the contacts. Next was a tunnel to the teeter. I crossed at the far end of the tunnel to direct him to the teeter, but I swear, I didn't see him come out of the tunnel. I looked up and saw him flying in the air off the teeter!!!!! He was just this big ball of fluff flying through the air. Goof ball. I think he missed the next few obstacles -- he was going so darn fast, I just don't know. Then we got to the table. Whew -- we got 5 seconds to catch our breath!! Then he actually finished the rest of the course perfectly. So he can do it!! His next trial will be the end of August, so we have some time to work on that team work concept. :)

We headed home super early Monday morning. It was a beautiful morning, and I just had to stop and take some pictures at Lake Powell. I found a scenic spot where we could stop. Here are Kaylie and Conor enjoying the view of the lake.
We even saw a cute little bunny hanging out by a bush. He didn't seem phased at all by the wonder doggies.

1 comment:

Diamond Girl said...

I can't wait to see Conor in a trial. Those BCs need a fast dog to beat them!

Kaylie - The True Wonder Dog

At our last DOCNA (Dogs on Course in North America) agility trial in Prescott, Kaylie did fantastic! We are trying to be the first team to earn the MEX (Merit of Excellence) who started in the Beginner level. We are getting VERY close. All the other teams that have earned the MEX were grandfathered in at higher levels. Kaylie was just starting her agility career when DOCNA was created, so we had no choice but to start at the beginning. And as it is, I believe there are under 20 teams that have even earned the MEX to this point.

Well, going into the trial at Prescott, we needed 2 Specialist Gamblers legs and 2 Specialist Standard legs. In DOCNA, there are two types of Gamblers runs -- Traditional and Strategic Timed Gamblers. Unfortunately, we have only earned 3 Traditional Gamblers legs -- one from the Beginner class, one from the Intern class and one from the Specialist class. All the other Gamblers legs have come from the Strategic Time Gamblers. So, I knew going in that the chance of getting that Traditional Gamblers leg on Saturday was slim. We walked into the ring, and I knew Kaylie was on fire and ready to go. The Gamblers class is usually the first class of the trial, and Kaylie is usually absolutely wild in the first run. Well, this was no different. She was incredibly fast, and I was not -- I kept getting in her way, and things just fell apart. At 30 seconds, the buzzer rang, which meant I had to get to the gamble portion of the course. I sent her over the jump to the tunnel -- she took the wrong end of the tunnel, then came right back to me over the wrong jump and that was the end of that. No MEX for us this weekend. BUT, she did qualify in the two Standard runs she needed, getting First place both times, and she got her Strategic Timed Gamblers leg on Sunday, earning a Second place. Wooo hooo Kaylie!!! Out of 10 runs over the weekend, we qualified in 8 of them, placing 1st, 2nd or 3rd in all but one run -- our Jumpers run on Sunday. I got lost on the course and just got confused. Luckily, Kaylie can read the numbers on the cones (that's the only explanation I can come up with) because she ran the right course despite my mess ups! Hence the name "Wonder Dog." So we still Q'd, but got 6th place. Still, not too bad!!

So, our next DOCNA trial will be in Pinetop the end of August. Hopefully we'll get our MEX there! Just one Gambler leg to go.