Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Agility and More

We had another DOCNA agility trial last weekend. Kaylie again was entered in just a few runs, while I concentrated more on working on the teamwork between me and Conor. Conor actually ended up doing very well, and finished a couple more titles. And of course Ms. Kaylie had some great runs too.

Here are the results from that DOCNA trial:

Kaylie:
Standard #1 - 4th Place
Standard #2 - 4th Place
Gamblers - 5th Place
Conor:
Standard #1 - 1st Place -- Finished Beginner Standard title
Jumpers - 1st Place
Traditional Gamblers - 2nd Place
Strategic Timed Gamblers - 1st Place - Finished Intern Gamblers title
Trigility - 2nd Place - Finished Beginners Trigility title

Overall it was a very good trial, and Conor is doing great.
This weekend Kaylie & Conor are entered in an ASCA obedience trial. Kaylie will be in Utility and Conor has one more chance to get a great score in Novice to secure a spot in the Obedience Finals. We've been working real hard, and we're ready. Yesterday we were at the park with my friend Terri and her doggie Chase to practice. After all the hard work, the doggies let loose and got to run and have fun.

Conor playing keep away from Chase.

What a great looking group of dogs!

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1 comment:

Terri said...

Of course great group of dogs - Chase takes after his Uncle and Auntie!

April 14, 2009 at 4:23 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.