Mt. Hood Doberman Club AKC trial, 11/19/11-11/21/11

Mt. Hood Doberman Club AKC trial, 11/19/11-11/21/11

This weekend we attended the Mt. Hood Doberman Club AKC trial in Ridgefield, WA.  My initial plan was to drive up Saturday morning, but Mr. Weatherman was calling for a possibility of ice on Saturday morning.  Plan change meant driving up Friday evening, and checking in early at the La Quinta.  What a great dog-friendly hotel!  They don't charge a pet fee, don't care how big your dogs are, and our "Executive King Suite" was huge!  I would definitely stay there again.

Saturday, November 19th

We arrived bright and early to grab some crate space.  Unfortunately it was a small to tall day, so our first run wasn't even until mid-afternoon!  I decided to work a class to help out, and they needed a gate due to the person that signed up being late.  Boy was working an experience I won't repeat.  I normally try to work at most of the clubs we run, I feel like we, as exhibitors, should all help out when we can.  All I will say about this experience is:  Note to trial secretaries and clubs, if you yell at your workers for doing their job, they will not want to work for you again.  There are a few clubs I will not work for due to being berated about working, how the job is done, etc.  This is not fair to your workers, they are VOLUNTEERING.  There is no incentive to volunteer if you're going to be yelled at.  That's all I'm going to say about that.

Excellent B Standard

Our judge for Standard was Beverly Morgan Lewis.  I've met her before at trials when she's running her own dogs and always found her to be a pleasant person, but never run under her as a judge.  Turns out, her courses were nice, open, and very large dog friendly.

For this course, the plan was to start on the right, over the first two jumps and into the tunnel, over #4 and a swing through the "three sided box" and over 5 (the triple).  A pull back to the dogwalk, then a pull to the double (#8), teeter, then a front cross before #10.  A hard pull around and into the weaves.  Over the A-frame and on to the table.  Front cross before the pinwheel (14/15/16/17) and a front cross between 17 and the chute.  Then run for the finish. 

Worked out very well for us.  We ended with a Q and 14 MACH points.


Excellent B Jumpers with Weaves

Nancy Davis set this course up.  Again lined up on the right, with a fairly straight shot into the tunnel.  Front cross between #5 and the weave poles.  FC between #8/9, another between #12/13.  I intended to do another FC between 13/14, but forgot and ended up doing a rear to swing him around to 15.  From there it was a straight shot into the tunnel and then over the final jump.

Another Q and 7 MACH points.

Total for the day, QQ and 21 MACH points!

Back to the hotel for a relaxing night of the boxers hogging the king bed. :P

Sunday, November 20th

Tall to small today, so we knew we'd be done early!

Excellent B Standard

Nice course by Nancy Davis.  Our plan was to start on the right, decel cue for the 180 (#3-#4), rear cross between 5/6, over the dogwalk, weaves, then tunnel.  Stay to the left of the A-frame with a strong pull 11-12 to avoid the off-course chute. Teeter to table, moving out towards the triple to avoid an off-course, then FC between 17/18 to get the sharp right to the finish (#19).

Plan worked well, another Q and 13 MACH points.

Excellent B Jumpers with Weaves

Looked to be a pretty jumpers course, smooth and flowing.  When I was planning our course, I noticed that there were several nice places for rear crosses.  We'd been having trouble with rear crosses lately, my cruddy timing was causing HP to pull off, earning us a refusal.  We'd been working a lot on his "go on" command, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and do mostly rear crosses with this course. 

The plan was to line up on the left side, rear cross between 3/4, rear cross between 8/9, front cross after the weaves, then another rear between 15/16.  It worked!  He was driving ahead well, moving nicely, even when I almost forgot the course at number 6!  (You'll notice a slight pause on the video).  I was stoked.  It earned us a Q and 11 MACH points.

Total for the day:  QQ and 24 MACH points.

Total for the weekend:  2 QQs and 45 MACH points.

MACH totals so far:  6 QQs and 223 MACH points!

We stayed to grab a couple of the photos taken by Joe Camp.  He had captured a cute "out of chute" series from one of the runs.  It's nice to see my boy looking so happy as he runs. :)

WAG CPE trial, Benton County Fairgrounds, 11/13/11

WAG CPE trial, Benton County Fairgrounds, 11/13/11

Because I had to work Saturday, I could only enter 1 day of the WAG CPE trial.  We left early Sunday morning, at 6am, to drive to Corvallis, OR, about an hour away.  We arrived at 7am, grabbed some crate space, and set up for the day. 

This weekend's judge was Barrett (Todd) Benson.  Never having run under him before, I wasn't sure what to expect.  What a nice guy, and super great courses is what we got. :)

Fullhouse, Level 5

Above is the map.  We are in level 5, so we needed 25 points (jumps are 1pt, circles 3pts, contacts/weaves 5pts), AND we are required to have 3 jumps, 2 circles, and 1 contact/weave minimum.

Above is my plan for the course.  Starting at the tire, into the tunnel, turn back to the A-frame, jump with a wrap back to the A-frame (again), then jump, dog walk, jump, tunnel, jump, tunnel, weaves.  We would have enough points if we made it through #9, but it's always good to go for a little extra in Fullhouse.  We made it through everything but the weaves, with the buzzer buzzing before we finished them, requiring us to go to the table.  No problem though, we met all the requirements and ended up with 31 points and a Q.

Colors, Level 5

Next up was Colors.  Rules are that you pick one of two mini/nested courses.  I walked both squares and circles, but ended up choosing circles due to the fact that it was smoother and more flowing.  Pretty straight forward, with a front cross between 4/5, a rear cross between 5/6, and a front cross between 6/7.  We ran it cleanly, ending with a Q and completing our Level 5 Colors requirements.

Standard, Level 5

I was really happy about this course. The plan was lead out for a front cross between 1/2, tight turn into #3 tunnel, around and over the teeter, into the tunnel with a sharp wrap on to the dog walk, over 10/11, with a rear cross between 11/12, and around to the weaves.  This is where it all went to pieces.  HP popped his weaves twice.....no idea why.  He got them on the third try, but we had already NQ'd. :(  We finished the course (he ran by the A-frame after a too strong call off, but we circled around and did it again).  Darn, we could have used that Standard Q.  Oh well.

Wildcard, Level 5

Last run of the day: Wildcard.  Rules are that within the course there are three areas where a choice is offered.  In level 5, you have to take two "B" choices, and one "A" choice.  My choices for this run were #2 - B, #5 - B, #9 - A.  Worked out well, short and sweet run, ending with a Q that fulfills our Level 5 Wildcard requirements and earned us our CL5-H title. 

3/4 Q's for the day, not too shabby!

Rogue Canine Agility Trial, AKC, October 29-30, 2011

We were back down to Medford this weekend for another RCA agility trial.  Kennedy and I had decided to carpool for this trial.  Thank goodness for roof racks and roof boxes!  We would never have otherwise fit all the stuff.  Poor Lexi had to stay home this weekend due to still being in heat.  Off to Medford with a boxer, a great dane, and 2 poms!  We arrived late, around 10:30, and quickly hit the sack to be ready for the next morning.

Saturday, October 29th
This weekend we were running under judges we were familiar with, and had been very pleased with their courses before.  This weekend was no exception.  First up standard.

Excellent B Standard

Nice course by Debbie Wheeler. We started on the left in order to the get line 1-4, nice 180, then back along the length of the ring.  Front cross between 8/9, another between 14/15, rear cross at tunnel 18, and this is where I messed us up.  I tried to front between 18/19, got in his way, and he missed his weave entry.  Bleh, all my fault.  NQ for that run, even though HP ran well.

Excellent B Jumpers with Weaves

Another nice course.  Pinwheel out to a FC between 4/5, another pinwheel, then a rear cross between 9/10 (I was thrilled we got this, he needed a little encouragement to move forward ahead of me but he did it!), then we had a weave problem again.  He missed the entry, then began popping again after the first pole.  Odd for him, he doesn't usually pop the weaves.  We decided to move on and just finish the run, since we already NQ'd.  He knocked a bar at 16, we rearcrossed 19/20 and were done.

 

Due to his weirdness with the weavepoles, I decided to have him adjusted by a chiropractor at the end of the day.  I also gave him a good rubdown and stretch at the hotel.  Maybe tomorrow would be better.

Sunday, October 30

Excellent B Standard

We were hoping day 2 would be better than day 1.

First area of concern was 2-3, when they are going through a chute, they can't see where they are going and I was concerned that HP would come out of the chute and take the off-course jump right in front of it.  To counteract that, I peeled off as soon as he entered the chute, did a landing side front cross on #3, calling his name as soon as I saw his head exit the chute.  This worked really well, resulting in a nice turn to #3.  The next area of concern was getting the proper end of the tunnel after the teeter.  I used a threadle arm, called him, and though he looked at the other end, came in and took the proper side.  #10 to the weaves was another area that was getting a lot of dogs, I decided to handle it with a deceleration cue, and calling his name, to get the tight turn.  I didn't cue him early enough and he almost took the off-course jump, but we managed to save it.  A FC between 11/12 and I thought we were home free.  Unfortunately, the person prepping the ring that weekend had dragged it so that the corners were deep, loose dirt.  As he took off for jump 16, he slipped a little and knocked a bar. :(  Another NQ on an otherwise beautiful run.

Excellent B Jumpers with Weaves

Well, maybe we could salvage our weekend with the last run.  I started on the right, then front crossed between #2/3, around the pinwheel, with a rear cross between 6/7 (Yay successful rear cross!!), swing around into the weaves, then a FC after the weaves.  I was a little worried about 1415/16, but using a deceleration cue and calling him to me worked really well to get him into #15 tunnel.  Rear cross at 18/19 and a Q.  MXJ leg #8 and 5 MACH points.  Well, at least the weekend wasn't a total bust.

Totals for the weekend 1 Q, and 5 MACH points.

MACH totals: 178/750 points and 4 QQ's, almost 1/4th of the way to our MACH!