Saturday, May 23, 2009

DOCNA Championships - Here We Come!!

Yay!! I finally got one of my goals for the summer completed -- getting Conor qualified for the DOCNA Championships. We had a trial this morning where we got two chances to qualify. Our first round was going fantastic until the second to last obstacle. We had a 12-set of weave poles then the finishing jump. Just before the end of the weaves, Conor popped out and then flew over the jump before I could get him back to re-try the weaves. BUMMER!!! I didn't realize we would get a second chance today, as I was also signed up for tomorrow. But instead of having to come back tomorrow, we were given the chance to just do it today. A new course was set with new challenges. This course had a couple of tunnel/A-frame discrimination challenges, and after our last trial in Pinetop, I was a little concerned he'd fly into the tunnel again. But he was a good little man this time and his only mistake this time was a knocked bar. YAY!!! So now he gets to go to his first Championships. I MUST work on my sprinting skills this summer so I can keep up with that little silver bullet.

No comments:

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.