McKenzie Cascade Dog Fanciers AKC Agility 9/10-9/11/11 (day 2)

MCDF trial, day 2

Nice thing about local trials?  Arriving late. :)  We didn't get to the trial site until almost 7:30am, for us that's late!  We did arrive in time for the briefing though, and had a pleasant surprise.  HP took High in Trial Working Group for Saturday!  Yay for giant ribbons!

After congrats from all our friends, first up was Standard.

Standard Excellent B

Another nice course.  Things went well for the most part.  Through the tire and on to the dogwalk easily, then a turn tunnel command.  I had to sprint to the front of that tunnel, so I could get HP's attention before the weaves.  Lots of dogs were blasting out of the tunnel and overshooting the weaves.  He came out, sighted in on me, and I gave him the "Weave!" command.  Beautiful.  Over 5/6/7 and in to the tunnel.  Nailed the teeter, then the table.   Next was the most complicated section.  11/12/13 was set up as sort of a serpentine.  I decided to work it on the left side, sent him over 11, pulled him back over 12 with a threadle, then sent him over 13 and rear crossed.  Then comes that sucky NQ that I caused.  I was a little behind due to the rear cross, sent him over 14, and then had a brainless moment.  I sent him over #5, earning us an off course.  Poor guy, he did EXACTLY what I asked of him.  It was completely my fault.  Oh well, we just continued on and finished the course.  It was a gorgeous run, and our only NQ of the weekend.  I swear my dog needs a new handler sometimes. :)

Here is the video:

Jumpers with Weaves, Excellent B

Another fast/fun jumpers course!

This course looked like it would be a blast, lots of running, very motivational and fun for the dogs.  We ran it as: over #1, then a 180 over 2/3 with a landing side front cross in front of #3, 4/5/6, front cross between 6/7, and then run like crazy for the end.  The only tricky part left was the deceleration cue at jump #18 so that he could nail his weave entry and not overshoot it.  Another Q for the weekend, 8 MACH points and MXJ leg #6.

Sorry, no video available of this run.

Totals for the day 1 Q, 8 MACH points.

Totals for the weekend 1 QQ, and  24 MACH points.

MACH totals: 143/750 points and 3 double Q's

McKenzie Cascade Dog Fanciers AKC Agility 9/10-9/11/11

Ok, I admit it, I'm a terrible blogger.  I haven't updated anything since June!  Admittedly, HP and I usually take it easy during the July/August months due to the heat, we only did one trial (CPE only) during July and one CPE trial in August.  Work has gotten crazy busy lately, usually leaving me pretty exhausted by the time I get home in the evenings.  When you're tired, blogging takes a back seat.  So anyway, on to this weekend's trial.


MCDF trial, day 1

Luckily, I was able to drop by on Thursday and set up crating space for myself and Kennedy.  This meant that we didn't have to arrive super-early on Saturday.  Showed up at 6:50 and the gates were still locked.  Odd, but they got them unlocked rather quickly.  I got HP and Lexi set up, then worked the FAST classes, since we weren't running FAST.  I was hoping things would move along really quickly, as we had a record heat advisory in the valley, and HP does NOT do hot weather.

Standard Excellent B

New judge this weekend.  Jan Skurzynski.  All I can say is what an awesome judge.  Great courses, nice course times, very encouraging, very fun overall.

Fun course.  A few tricky areas, but overall looks to be a good course.  My plan for this course was to start on the left side of the chute, stay on that side through the teeter (#4), do a turn command from 4 to 5, pick him up and hit the weaves (which he nailed), on the left for weaves and 7/8/9, front cross between 9-10, on the right for 11-12-13, because of the several nice off-course options to the table, I used a threadle move to pull him into me and send him to the table, sent him into the tunnel and handled 16-20 on the right and a little ahead of him.  He was completely on, did an awesome job, and we picked up a Q.  Gave us MX leg #9, and 12 MACH points.

Here is the video of this run:

Since this was a one judge trial, we spent the time between Excellent Jumpers trying to keep cool.  Temps were in the nineties, so I had cool coats and fans going,

Jumpers with Weaves, Excellent B

Again, a nice course, and looked to be FUN and FAST as well.

Plan for this one was pretty straightforward.  Running start, handle 2-3 as a 180, with a landing side front cross, straight up 4-5-6-7 to the weaves at 8, over 9, handle 10-11 as a 180 with another landing side front cross, then 12-13, with a front cross between 13-14 (which I was late on, but we've been having issues with his rear crosses when it's hot, he stops and looks at me like I'm stupid), over 15-16-17 then a wrap to jump #18.  Fun, fun, fun jumpers course.  We Q'd, giving us MXJ leg #5, and 4 MACH points.

Here is the video of this run:

Totals for the day 1 QQ, 16 MACH points.

MACH totals: 135/750 points and 3 double Q's