I think I'm going to make less ambitious goals for my blog posts. The busy life of a veterinarian doesn't leave a whole lot of time for blogging. Harry Potter, Lexi, and myself did attend the Columbia River Agility Club (CRAC) AKC trial last weekend. HP was the only one running, Lexi was there for atmosphere. I love this venue, indoors and on dirt, but crating space is limited. We arrived early and grabbed one of the last set up spaces along with my friend Kennedy and her Great Dane, Vegas.
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| Harry Potter waiting to run |
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| Lexi's first weekend in her "big girl" soft crate |
So we goofed off, chatted with friends, tried going to the park (where HP was too interested in the ducks and Lexi was too interested in everything else but me). Finally time to run.
First course of the day was ExB Standard:
Unfortunately I knew from the first tunnel that it was going to be a slog. For some reason HP was running REALLY slowly. I felt like I was dragging him around the course, which is very much not the usual way we run. He was accurate, and we did Q, but it was painful. Time was 62.65 (SCT 68), YPS was 2.91. Yes, 2.91. He normally averages somewhere between 3.5-4.0. Well, it was still a Q, and earned us our first 5 MACH points. Yay for MACH points!
Second run of the day was ExA Jumpers with Weaves:
This one was unfortunately a disaster. While it looked a little difficult on paper, it walked quite nicely. We need only one more ExA JWW leg to get into ExB and start accumulating MACH points in JWW, and those elusive double Q's. That's why I was so disappointed with our performance. I set HP up in at start stay, released him, he went over jump #1 then pulled into me and started sniffing. He never sniffs! After that I knew the run was blown, but figured we'd finish the run at least. I should have just quit while I was ahead. After that refusal, we also got one between 7 & 8 because he didn't drive ahead of me so I could get in a rear cross, then we got an off course at 18, when he took the 7 jump instead (totally my fault, I mishandled it because I was so disgusted). Big, fat NQ on that one.
I was a little PO'd after our lackluster performance. Then I was reminded that HP had raided a canister of cheeseballs the night before and eaten quite a few of them. Maybe it was an off day due to an upset tummy. Well, we'd be back again to try Sunday (due to my having to work Saturday).
Sunday, April 3rd
This day started out a lot better. Because it was small to tall again, we didn't even bother showing up until after 9am. It was still a lot of waiting around, but not as much as Friday.
ExB Standard
So after a pokey standard and a crash and burn jumpers on Friday, I was hoping for something better today. I really liked the judges this weekend, as they planned courses with good flow, but several challenges. There were some definite opportunities for off-courses on this course.
We were definitely faster than Friday. We Q'd with a time of 56.09 (SCT 65), and a YPS of 3.12. Not as fast as usual but still better than Friday. Gained us 8 MACH points for a total of 13 MACH points for the weekend. And at least I hadn't felt like I was dragging him through the course.
ExA Jumpers with Weaves
Again we were trying for that last elusive jumpers A leg. This course looked pretty nice. My plan was a lead out, with a front cross between 3 & 4, I'm not sure if I got in his way, or if I didn't cue him soon enough but he went in the second pole on his weaves. I restarted him, then he popped out of pole 10. We restarted once again and he got them. This was the first time we've had weave problems for a couple trials now, so I'm not sure what's up with that. After the weaves he also took the off course jump #20 instead of pulling with me to #5. We really pulled it together after that one though, with him running accurately and fast for the rest of the course. Oh well, another NQ in ExA jumpers.
Maybe we'll get that AXJ at our next trial on the 23rd/24th.
MACH totals: 13 MACH points, 0 Double Q's
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