MHGRC AKC trial April 11-13

So it was a bit hard to play in QQ land after having so much fun in USDAA last weekend. I love playing agility no matter what venue. However, in USDAA it is so much fun to push for speed without having to worry about playing it safe because you have a QQ on the line.

Well Friday was Excellent only so only Sage got to play. She had a wrong course in both her standard and jumpers runs. Her standard run was actually very nice but somehow we had a miscommunication and she spun in the wrong direction upon landing and then back-jumped. I probably could have done more to save it but was busy thinking, "Why did she think I was going to rear-cross?" Oh well. Here is the video.



On Saturday Sage was 3 for 3! She qualified in FAST with a 4th place and earned her XF title. She qualified in Standard with a 3rd place and qualified in JWW with another 3rd place. Wow!!! This brings her to 7 QQ (and thousands of Mach points but we won't go there;-)
I was really happy with both her standard and Jumpers runs - especially since Jumpers was a bit technical in the middle. FAST was ok and she did great on the Send Bonus. However, after the Send she missed a wp entry and so I wasted many minutes determined to get her in the weaves when I really should have just gone on to the finish since she already had plenty of points to qualify. Here are the videos of Standard and Jumpers.





On Sunday, Sage had a pretty nice run going in Standard and then she missed her A-frame contact (fyi- Sage does not have independent contacts. I didn't know enough to train them and her contact behavior is dependent on my position. So if I get too far behind her and can't be there to cue 2O/2O, she can miss the contact zone. Good thing I can run fast and usually have no problem meeting her at the end of the A-frame or DW). Now Summit-man does have independent contacts which is a good thing since there is no possible way for me to beat him to the end of a DW.

Here is the video of Sage's Sunday Jumpers run. It was a very nice run and fast. She had a great time and placed 6th (out of 58 dogs). Second through 6th place were all separated by 100's of a second. Talk about CLOSE!


Ok, now to report on the Summit-man....
He had some brilliant moments out there on the course and he had some YEEEHAW moments. Especially when it came to having to assume a control position on the table (well at least he doesn't slide off the end now). He argued with me on the table one too many times in a standard run and so had to leave the course;-(
He had two GREAT jumpers runs. Saturday's jumpers run was very nice and smooth. I wish I had a video of it but Don missed it. Sundays jumpers run was nice. He had a refusal on a jump (caused by his handler) and he dropped a bar (caused by his handler). Hmm.... maybe Mr. Summit needs a new handler????
Here is the video of Sunday's Jumpers run.



It was a super-fun weekend! The Golden Retriever club did an awsome job of organizing such a huge (over 900 entries) three-ring trial.