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!