Thursday, September 9, 2010

Agility Season Has Started

The dogs and I headed north this weekend for a DOCNA agility trial in Pinetop.  We had perfect weather, which is a first for a Pinetop trial!  We left somewhat early Friday morning and stopped off at Willow Springs Lake to walk around.  Kaylie really, really wanted to jump in and go swimming, but I didn't want to travel with a wet dog.  Pablo also came along too - this was his first big outing.  One thing about this little guy - he just fits right in and goes with the flow.  He was no trouble at all, and got to meet lots of new people and new dogs.  Everyone just loved the little guy. 


Anyway, Kaylie and Conor did fantastic at this trial.  It was a great warm up for the Championships, which will be in a couple of weeks.  Here are the results from the trial:

Kaylie

Saturday
Snakes N Ladders         Q   3rd Place
Standard 1                     NQ (missed dog walk contact)
Strategic Time Gambler   Q   1st Place
Traditional Gambler        NQ



Sunday
Standard 2                     Q  2nd Place
Standard 3                     Q  2nd Place
Strategic Time Gambler   Q  4th Place
Trigility                            Q  2nd Place

Conor

Saturday
Jumpers                        Q  1st Place
Snakes N Ladders         Q  1st Place
Standard 1                   NQ
Strategic Time Gamble  NQ
Traditional Gamble       NQ

Sunday
Standard 2                   Q   1st Place
Strategic Time Gamble  Q  2nd Place
Trigility                         Q  1st Place


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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.