Sunday, November 2, 2008

Double Q #6 and Rally News


I'm a little behind in keeping up with the Wonder Dogs! Things get pretty busy this time of year. Anyway -- Kaylie and I competed at the Valle Del Sol Golden Retriever Club AKC agility trial last weekend, and earned our 6th Double Q!! On Saturday, we missed the weave pole entrance on our Jumpers run, so we NQ'd on that, but we did Q in our Standard Run. And then on Sunday we Q'd in both Jumpers and Standard! YAY!!

Today Conor and I competed in an APDT Rally trial at the World Cynosport Games. Conor did great, and got 1st Place and finished his Rally Level 1 title. Since we finished that title, we were allowed to enter Rally Level 2. I had NO idea we could do that, so I really wasn't prepared. But I figured what the heck. We were there -- we had nothing to lose. We did so-so -- there were some exercises that I had NEVER even practiced with him before, like angled recalls and doing a down from a distance. But he did qualify, and ended up in 4th Place. Not too bad for the little man!! Conor also earned a special award for being the Youngest Highest Scoring Dog.
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1 comment:

Diamond Girl said...

you've been very busy! Nice work!!! Congrats!

November 2, 2008 at 8:05 PM

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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.