A SUPER agility weekend

Summit and I were down in Castle Rock, Colorado for a three day AKC trial. In short, out of the total six runs, he came home with FIVE 1st places and TWO double Qualifiers. I am so pleased with our consistency this weekend and the bars all stayed up!

The courses were nice and flowing but challenging. I liked all three judges this weekend and enjoyed the different style of challenges in each of their courses. I'm happy with my handling in all classes except Sunday's Standard run (I OVER handled a tunnel end discrimination and ended up pulling Summit off the tunnel completely). 

Here are the videos. The courses had challenging lines with potential wrong courses. Places where the dog really opened up and extended and then had to collect again for the more technical sequences. In several courses, having independent weave poles (so handler could get downstream ahead of the dog) was critical with a fast dog.

Friday's jumpers run. The last sequence (the turn to the double and last 4 jumps) was challenging. The 4 jumps were off set in a zig zag and if the handler wasn't in the right position, the dogs either missed the second to last jump or the finish jump. Thankfully, I've worked a lot of the APHS zig zag exercises.



This was a really fun course and FAST. Summit's time was 35 seconds. Quite a few dogs missed the teal jump before the panel (it was off set enough the handler didn't set a good line, the dogs didn't take it). Quite a few dogs also popped out of the weave poles since they were weaving into the wall.



Saturday Jumpers with weaves. I liked the opening in this Jumpers course. The second jump (#3) of the 180 was off-set a couple feet so you had to push out more than a typical 180. Also, lot's of wrong course options after the weave poles; especially the line after the weaves. I had to use no motion as Summit took the yellow jump (3rd jump after the weaves) until he landed and I got his head. If the handler turned their shoulders too soon, the dogs continued on that line and took the jump in their path instead of turning and taking the orange jump. The ending was fun and I love how Summit read the wrap and turned over the bar. It would have been even more perfect if I hadn't BENT OVER! (must stand up straight when cueing wraps).



Saturday's Standard run. I really don't like long lead outs like this but I didn't like any other options but the LOP. Again, if you couldn't leave your dog in the weaves to get ahead and set a LOM to the table, the dogs had two wrong course options - the aframe and the chute. Many took the aframe if the handler was behind. Since I could leave Summit on the dogwalk, I chose to move laterally and FC the jump before the aframe (I wanted to be on the other side). But a pull worked well there too but then the handler couldn't get the FC after the tunnel and so FC'd the end of the teeter.



Sunday's jumpers course. The beginning was tough. MANY dogs missed the weave entry. I liked both the double FC (landing side of yellow and landing side of red) as well as a rear at the weaves. I chose to FC the yellow to shape my dog's path to slice the red so he landed seeing the weaves. He came over the yellow with a little too much extension and so landed a bit behind me and I had to wrap him around but it did set a really nice line to the weavepoles. Must practice this more.
The rest of the course was a bit strange (outer circle followed by inner circle). Some wrong course opportunities but most faults were bars as dogs were in extension the entire time. I am very happy to see Summit keeping those bars up.

We are leaving Thursday morning for Salt Lake City, Utah (Farmington) for the USDAA Rocky Mountain Regional competition. Summit has a fun DAM team with Donna/Indy (BC) and Kat/Whim (JRT). Should be a lot of fun!