Friday, January 16, 2009

First Day of Wags for Wishes



Well, today definitely wasn't one of our best agility days. My first run of the day was Conor's FAST class. It actually was a very good run, and he ended up qualifying, with a 3rd place. But unfortunately it went down hill from there. Next was Conor's Jumpers run, which actually wasn't all that bad, but there were enough small mistakes to not qualify. Next was Kaylie's Standard run. I'm not sure where this dog came from -- it definitely wasn't Kaylie. First she took a wrong jump, then she popped out of the weaves and then she jumped off the teeter. After that was Kaylie's Jumper's run. It started off great, everything was going as planned, and then I got in her way -- it was a tricky exit out of the weave poles to the next jump, and I just got in her way, which caused a refusal. That's all it took to NQ. Last but not least was Conor's Standard run. The first obstacle was the tire jump, which we've been having issues with. I thought I'd try setting him up right in front of it, but alas, he still went under it. He was actually doing quite well after that, but for some reason just couldn't get the weave poles. Oh well. The funniest part of this run was the broad jump. He's never seen a broad jump in an agility run, so I wasn't even sure how he was going to handle it. He ended up jumping so high and so far over the jump, that he practically landed right next to the last jump of the run. He ended up going past that last jump and then back jumped it, so that was all it took to NQ on that. He did have lots of fun though!! He's definitely one dog that thoroughly enjoys doing agility. The pups are pooped now -- and so am I! I think I will go take a nap before dinner time, like Kaylie is.
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1 comment:

Diamond Girl said...

HILARIOUS about the broad jump!

Sounds like Frankie may have convinced Kaylie to take up doping.

January 17, 2009 at 2:27 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.