After a week of rain, the weather brightened today as did all our moods. It was a perfect day for agility. We actually found a day where it was cool enough for Wazzu and yet not so cool that I was cold! A great day indeed.
This trial is being put on by the Ups N Downs Agility Club and is being held at Skydance Ranch in Oceanside, CA. The views from the ranch are really beautiful.
I'm not sure what they were growing but they had a lot of workers out there picking something most of the day.
The property, besides being someone's home, is used for dog sports and horse boarding and sports. I didn't count the stalls but I'm guessing there were probably 40 indoor stalls as well as an indoor area. This is one of the horses that was being boarded there.
The barn where the horses are kept is above the agility field. Here you can see the agility field and the farming fields in the background.
We were parked in such a way that we could see out the window to the agility field so we could usually figure out when our next class was starting.
The field is just slightly sloped but not bad at all. However, it was very bumpy and the surface was a bit "squishy" so you did have to be very careful. I found myself spending much more time during the walk-thrus planning my route than the dog's route.
Probably one of the biggest variations we see between clubs is the hospitality table. The last few trials we've attended have had so much food out that you wouldn't need to eat the entire week following the trial. I don't often succeed but I try to choose the healthy things to eat. So this club really made me laugh. They had breakfast items out. You could choose either a whole donut or half a banana! How did this make sense? Bananas are cheaper and are better for you. But even I can't get full on half a banana....so you guessed it, I had the unhealthy donut - much to Wazzu's delight! No wonder Americans are overweight.
Sparkie picked up right where she left off at the last trial. Her results weren't as good but she was certainly running just as well. Her two Regular runs were spectacular. The Jumpers course seemed to be set a little unusual with a number of "flat" jumps. But Sparkie handled it all just perfectly. There was a spot on the course where the dog had done three straight obstacles in a row: jump, tunnel, jump. Then they were to turn to the right - away from the fourth obstacle straight ahead. Mike forgot to call Sparkie and she sped straight ahead thus going off course. But they got back on track and finished very happy. Sparkie didn't get her Chances run but it was in no way her fault. It just called for a skill she has never been taught. In fact, it called for a skill most dogs hadn't been taught, as very few dogs succeeded on this course. But poor little Sparkie tried so hard to figure out what Mike was wanting her to do. You could see her thinking and thinking but she just couldn't figure it out. But Mike did some fun stuff with her to make her think she'd figured it out - and then she got lots of cheese, so all was good.
Little Slugger was in top form...most of the time. He had his little head bop move going today - so cute! His Regular run was super fast other than his weaves which were a bit slow but he did them correctly. I just can't get over how cute he is when he is concentrating so hard and bopping that little head up and down as he tries to run fast. He started off super fast in his Jumpers run as well. But when he got to the first turn he got distracted by something (as a lot of the novice dogs did at this spot). Unfortunately Mike felt as though he needed to touch Slugger to get his attention back. Once he did that, Slugger's full attention was back on agility and he did the remainder of the course as fast as he's ever done any course. It was so fun to watch. We are very proud of him.
Wazzu was excited to do agility today! Even though she didn't get her Chances run today (it was just too hard for us...and most others as well) she probably ran as well as she has ever run. She even did her weaves super fast. Moving her back to Novice was the best thing I think I could have done for her agility-wise. Now that she only has to do six weaves she is loving agility again. I was worried about my footing on this surface but it didn't really matter as Wazzu let me pretty much stand still and she went out and did all her courses at such distance. It was really fun and gave me a little glimpse of what I hope it will be like to run Boogie someday. Wazzu was beating course time in Regular by over 30 seconds and had the fastest time of any dog. I know it's just Novice but even so - that is FAST!!
Her last run of the day really made me laugh. There had been a gopher on the course that kept popping its head out of its hole. It seemed to be getting very brave so just before Wazzu's turn they held us up and the judge went over and covered the hole. But you can't fool Wazzu that easily! She was again running with great speed and great distance. However, I had such a hard time not laughing as she ran. Every single time she would pass a patch of dirt, not just her eyes but her entire head would turn and look to see if there might be a gopher popping up. I was surprised she could do so well on the course when her mind was obviously on gophers. Such a silly Wazzu!
To match her great speed and happy face, Wazzu brought a huge smile to my face as well today. We reached a goal that, a couple years ago, I thought would not be possible. Once it became evident that Wazzu was such a consistent dog I had made a goal of earning 10,000 points in her career. We were well on our way, when suddenly Wazzu got extremely ill a year and a half ago. At that point we were just hoping she would live and we totally forgot about our agility goal for quite some time. So for her to reach that goal today in grand style was so fun. Even though the run itself was perfect - for me it was the journey....not the actual monumental run.
We don't know anyone here very well at all so there was no celebration - not even within our own little family as Mike wasn't feeling well. But when we get back up to the PNW I hope to celebrate with our friends and family.
So here's to you my sweet Wazzu puppy. Thanks for the really fun ride. I'll keep letting you playing as long as you're happy doing so!
Just before we all left on Saturday, they announced that everyone should park facing out in the morning as it is forecasted to rain (hard) all night and all day tomorrow. They also said they'd have a large tractor with a heavy duty chain to pull people out should they get stuck.
Sure enough, about five minutes after the last dog finished running, the rain started coming down...hard. And wind - we were rocking and we could see canopies blowing over. It was a nasty night. I couldn't sleep as I was so worried about us getting stuck. That happened to us once at an agility trial and it was an expensive tow.
But by morning the rain had stopped. We immediately saw the difference between southern California folks and PNW folks. Just the forecast of rain caused most people to stay home! I'm not kidding - only about 10% of the dogs showed up on Sunday. That was fine with us as we wanted to get done and get to the RV park before it closed for the evening.
As it turned out, while it wasn't warm, it didn't rain at all while we were running. I really couldn't believe how few dogs were there. But it definitely did help things move along during the day.
Sparkie was running very nicely again today. She has been so fun to watch recently. While her Regular runs were beautiful, her Chances run was spectacular. It wasn't that it was an extremely difficult Chances run but Sparkie ran it so smoothly she made it look like something she could have done in her sleep. Hmmm, I wonder if she does agility in her dreams? I would imagine so. Mike and Sparkie had a great weekend and had a lot of fun together.
Slugger was so fun today. In his Regular run he was a head bopping agility pro! He ran the most perfect line and get this...he even collected at speed and did the weaves perfectly. Mike and I are absolutely positive this is the best run we will ever see out of Slugger. He was head bopping fast, without a wasted step at any turn, and did his weaves so nicely. Way to go, Bumpkin!
Slugger's other run was, well, interesting. It's rare we enter him in Chances but he was entered in that today. We thought even though it would be really hard for him that just maybe he could do it. The first thing you had to do in this course was to call the dog off the A-frame after the first two jumps. Slugger's favorite obstacle by far is the A-frame so Mike was worried about this. But Slugger did that perfectly. After going in a tunnel the dog then had to go out and do three jumps. The first jump was at quite a distance which we thought would be beyond Slugger's capability. We couldn't believe it - he went out to the jump! Yippee. He runs right up to the jump and stops in his tracks. He just stands there smelling the bar. Huh? Mike is telling him to jump and he's just sniffing and sniffing. Mike's waving his arm to get Slugger to go over but Slugger just walks entirely around the jump smelling the bar. When he got all the way around then he just stopped and stood there like he totally forgot where he was or what he was supposed to be doing. So Mike went out to him and tapped him on the head saying "hello in there!" It's like that tap brought Slugger back into the present and he then continued on and did the rest of the course just fine. You just never know what to expect from our little Slugger!
Wazzu was super happy again today. She was doing distance like it was her favorite part of agility. It was a blast....and astonishing to me. She sure let the cat out of the bag this weekend. All these years she's been making me think she doesn't know how to do distance. But she sure showed me this weekend that she can do it - I guess she just usually doesn't want to do it. So I'm really excited for our Chances run as it doesn't look all that difficult compared to most. So she does the first two jumps and I called her off the A-frame by saying "here." But she takes me totally literally and comes right to me. NO!! I just wanted her to come toward me but then do the jump. Now I have to try and get her back out to the jump. So I'm telling her to go out to the jump. She looks around and heads back to the jump she came from. NO!! She looks all around and heads over to the A-frame. NO!! She looks around, wanders to the opposite side of the jump. Oh no! Please don't backjump. She continues walking around and FINALLY takes the correct jump. Then she takes off like a rocket and does the directional and distance portions of the challenge like it was baby stuff. Gads, she sure makes me work hard for these Chances Q!
The last run of the day was Wazzu's Jumpers run. She made the crowd (what little was left) roar. It’s not usually a good thing when people laugh, by the way! So like with her other runs, Wazzu was doing beautiful distance. Just as she went to take off for one of the jumps, a gopher popped his head out of the hole…right in front of the jump!! Wazzu was flying so fast, but her instincts told her to get the gopher. So she jerked her head down (but was going too fast to stop), the gopher zoomed down into the hole, and Wazzu knocked a bar. Amazingly enough, she continued on and still ended up with the fastest time of any dog. What a girl.
The second we got off the course we ran to the RV and drove out of the parking lot - and we didn't get stuck. We stopped in the street to hook up the car. Just as Mike stepped into the RV the sky opened up. Talk about good timing!!
It was a really fun weekend for all....except poor Boogie. But he was a really sport. Someday he'll get to play too - we can hardly wait!
Debbie
1/26-27/08
No comments:
Post a Comment