This trial was a little busier than most in the respect that the trial only took six hours on Saturday and five hours on Sunday. So that’s six runs in six hours or less per dog. Since Slugger is in three runs a day and in a different level than Sparkie we ended up with lots of conflicts. It was pretty hectic but Sparkie loved it. She wanted another fun run both days since there was so much time left. But no such luck.
Here is a view from between the two rings back toward the RV. The front of the RV is just barely seen to the very left of the picture. But the mountains are so pretty all 360 degrees around the field.
The first Regular run Saturday Wazzu was blazing! But unfortunately we knocked a bar on our way out. I’m starting to notice a trend. I think in the first six years of agility Wazzu knocked a total of two bars. Now she is knocking one or two a day – and ticking many more. I’m going to have to keep a close eye on that. Her second Regular run she wasn’t as fast but she did Q.
She had a nice Jumpers run and nice Touch N Go run but was one second over in Weavers – darn!! The Chances course was the same as we had in Marietta, GA that all three dogs messed up. But both girls did it just perfectly today!
I don’t complain about calls because as well all know – you win some, you lose some and it all balances out. But the call today was totally absurd! Sparkie had the fastest Touch N Go time of any dog but the judge called her on the dogwalk. This wasn’t even close! Sparkie had all four paws in the yellow – it was as clear as clear could be! Of course we didn’t complain at all at the trial, but this was the most ridiculous call I've seen in my agility career. Both girls ended up 4/6.
Slugger was so fast Saturday. He got 1st place in Jumpers. Only one dog (a Border Collie) in all of Novice beat him – he was really scooting coming in at just a hair over 18 seconds! He tried the same speed in Regular but he was in the ring with lots of people, dogs, crates and tents right near the ring. The dogwalk led right near the edge of the ring. For the first time in his entire life he jumped off the dogwalk – not coming close to the yellow – and ran right into the crowd. He totally ignored all the dogs and went to the people looking for someone to kiss. Needless to say, that was the end of that run! He wasn’t as fast in his Weavers run but he was fast enough to make time!
Sunday was even warmer than Saturday – and got warmer much faster. And to top it off it was April Fools Day. I really thought this one judge had set the courses as an April Fools joke – but she was serious! Amazingly enough both girls Q’d as well as did little Slugger! But the second round was too tough – it was probably the most difficult Regular course we’ve ever seen. Only a couple dogs Q’d and they weren’t ours that’s for sure. The Chances run was extremely hard as well with only a couple dogs Q’ing – but this time Sparkie was one of the stars.
Unfortunately for Wazzu the clocks just weren’t her friends today. We missed time on three runs - .05, .23, and .37. Arg – so close yet so far! But even though we didn’t get the much desired Q we had a good time together. Wazzu was smiling and happy but she was just too hot. But we were laughing and smiling together on course and were happy to be out there together. Poor little Slugger ran super fast on his Tunnelers run but came out of one tunnel into a bunch of blank space (he was supposed to do a 180) and just stood there. It probably took Mike 5-6 seconds to get him going again. He missed time by .99.
But overall, we all had a great time. We are so proud of little Slugger who hasn’t practiced or taken lessons since he was 8 months old – and didn’t compete for most of his life. Somehow he is figuring this game out. He gets really excited for his turn now too – so cute. And of course we are very proud of the girls for giving it everything they have on every run.
It was sad saying goodbye to all our Phoenix friends but we know we will be seeing most of them again at Champs in September.
Since the trial day ended so early we got to our campground at a very decent time and got all settled in. From first glance it seems like a nice little campground – but definitely out in the middle of nowhere! We didn’t see any sign of a town for miles and miles and miles. In fact, all we saw for many miles was just deserted desert. Guess we have some exploring to do.
Debbie
3/31/07 - 4/1/07
PS For those of you interested in agility let me try to show a couple pictures and explain the Regular Round two course - just the distance portion. The first picture shows part of the course but the whole distance portion. The second picture is a closer up of the line and the correct jumps. So, using the first picture, the dogs came from the second jump on the right (they had just done a-frame, then a pinwheel consisting of the yellow jump, a jump not visible and then the blue jump). Then they had to go out to the tunnel. It's hard to see but there is a distance line from the close side of the a-frame to the close side of the jump in the near middle of the picture and it is angling away from the jumps on the left (see 2nd picture for easier view of the line). The line then goes from the opposite side of the jump down to the dogwalk (next to the left end of the blue tunnel.) After the dog exits the yellow tunnel they have to take the first jump your see to the far left of the screen - handlers must stay to the right of the line. Most dogs took the jump next to the line where the handler was because the handler had to be moving to the right to get around the jump. People that tried to stay way back from the line to begin with, their dogs pulled to them as they exited the tunnel and the dog either stepped over the line or did the jump next to the line. People that pushed out toward the line then had to come back around the jump and at the last second the dogs pulled off the correct jump and did the jump near the line (that's what happened to me and Wazzu). Pretending the dogs did the correct jump to the left they then had to continue on out to the left (going further still from the line) to another jump and then even FURTHER out to a third jump. But to make it even more difficult the handler had to be pulling to the right to get the dog onto the dogwalk and not do the tunnel. Even more difficult was because of the sun angle the dogwalk ramp was in the shadow of the tunnel and was almost impossible to see. VERY FEW dogs made it that far though. Of the dogs that did make the first and second jumps the large majority pulled in to the red jump (which is to the right of the line on the way to the tunnel) - that's what Sparkie did. Of the very few dogs that did make all three jumps all but two took the tunnel. So only two dogs made it successfully. And remember this wasn't Chances - just supposedly a fairly easy distance test. Not in this case!!
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