FRAAD AKC Trial - September 2008

Both Sage and Summit has some great runs last weekend. Sage qualified in all her jumpers runs but blew the DW contact in standard so no QQ's.

Summit had some nice standard runs in Ex. A but no Qs. He qualified in Open jumpers (his first leg in Open jumpers!) with a 1st place by 5 seconds. This course had a difficult and tight serpentine and many dogs did not get the middle jump or took the wrong end of the tunnel. Summit's Saturday jumpers run was also very smooth but I sent him over the wrong jump at the end by moving forward too quickly rather than waiting until he turned toward me out of the tunnel.

Here is a video of both jumpers runs.

Saturday



Sunday




The Excellent jumpers course on Sunday was very similar to Open with the same serpentine. This is how I handled it with Sage.


Sage took 3rd place with that jumpers run (out of 52 dogs).

MHAC/RMBHC AKC trial

It was a lovely weekend for an outdoor trial. The early Fall weather was crisp and cool. Not too warm. In fact, maybe the weather was too perfect....

Saturday Mr. Summit was POSESSED! Or else he's been drinking my coffee in the morning. We had jumpers first thing in the morning (never good to have jumpers first). I think we had a wrong course and I know there were several dropped bars. Hmmm... then followed his debut in Excellent A Standard. More craziness but the second half of the course was very nice.

Sunday I had my dog back. He had a lovely standard run in the morning (one dropped bar and one refusal) but nailed a particularly difficult wp entrance that many Excellent B dogs failed. You had to send your dog into a box at a diagonal and turn them into the wp while layering a jump. I do not like to layer but going into the box pushed your dog over the wrong jump. I was very happy with Summit's performance. At the end, I pulled him off a jump as he came out of the chute. I was in such a hurry to get ahead of him for a turn after a straight line of jumps. It turned out that I didn't need the distance after all and he had a nice turn to the finish jump.



His Jumpers run that afternoon was very nice. I love watching videos of the runs afterwards. I really thought I had decelerated and moved laterally to cue relative collection and the turn. Watching the video, I was very late with my lateral motion and there was no deceleration at all. Combined with my location and inside arm, I cued my dog to take the red jump. After the weavepoles, the run went very well. Summit collected and had some really nice turns.



Sage and I did not have as good a weekend as we usually do. First Sage's handler gets LOST on Saturday's Jumpers run. It was a lovely course with very nice flow! How the heck could one get lost on a course like that? Anyway, standard went better that afternoon... however Sage blew both her contacts. Not surprising since her 20/20 has been disintegrating quite rapidly over the past 6 months. I have been going back and forth debating whether to retrain her for running or modified running over both obstacles. Meanwhile, I've just been managing them in trials. She often strides through the yellow on the AF but will miss the DW contact about 60 percent of the time. More on that later when I've figured out what I want to do.
Sunday's standard run she blew the a-frame contact. She had a nice jumpers run that afternoon. She missed her wp entry but her time would have put her in second place in the Ex. B class. I didn't think she was running that fast but she had some very nice tight turns. I have to say, I am very pleased with how we are working together as a team on the course. She is reading my motion, position, and hand cues extremely well and I've been able to limit the verbal commands I use with her!

A Tired Bode

Just had to share this picture that Jen sent of Bode after a morning training session followed by a hike on Mt. Sanitas. I would say this is one tired puppers!

Sage qualifies for USDAA Nationals!!!!

Both dogs did very well at FRAC's USDAA trial this past weekend. The big news is Sage earned that last Steeplechase Q to finish qualifying for the 2008 USDAA nationals! She had a blazing fast Grand Prix run (clean) and earned a 4th place. She also earned two Masters Jumpers Q's (6th and 7th place) and a Master's pairs Q with Judy and Sisu.

Summit qualified in Steeplechase on Friday and in round two on Sunday had a blazing fast run earning 4th place in the finals (with a dropped bar)! I only entered him in Steeplechase for fun and so that he would get to have a run on Friday (which was Master's classes only). He had a beautiful smooth Advanced Jumpers run but dropped one bar. He qualified in Advanced Standard with a nice run and 2nd place and was one point short of qualifying in Snooker.

Judy and I camped at the site which the dogs' loved since they could run around and play in the evenings.

The other big news is that Sisu earned her MAD!!!! She needed one last Masters Standard leg and got it with a typical fast and furious run Sisu-style on Sunday. Judy was so happy that she accidentally threw Sisu's special toy up on the roof of the arena. Luckily, a very nice cowboy who worked at the fairgrounds was kind enough to put an extension ladder on the bed of his pickup truck and climb up to the roof to retrieve Sisu's big red ball.

It was a very fun weekend and FRAC put on an excellent trial with the best worker lunches I have ever had.

Summit earns his OA title!

Summit had two very nice Open Standard runs this past weekend at the MHGRC trial with a score of 95 and 100 and a 1st and 2nd place earning his Open Agility title. He also qualified in Ex. A FAST with a second place.

His 3/4 brother, Bode, was at the trial and Jen got a cute picture of the two siblings. Bode is 9 weeks old.



Sage had some nice runs also. No QQ's but her Q rate was about 50 %. I did end up scratching her from two FAST runs as it was just too hot and I had ring conflicts. It was a very nice trial even with the record-breaking HOT temperatures.

Swimming

Throw the toy!

The original plan was to hike, but with the temperatures in the high 90's and 100's, we decided a trip to the lake would be just the thing! Summit's 7 mos. old cousin decided to join us. I took my camera and got some great shots of Dash and Summit.

Meanwhile, Jen is flying out to Ontario, Canada this afternoon to pick up her new puppy, Bode. He is a Tru x Divot puppy (Tru is Summit's mom and Divot is Summit's great-uncle). Bode is very cute and reminds me a lot of Summit. He is a "thinker" and really crazy about his toys. I can't wait to see the little puppers when they return.

Next weekend is the AKC trial in Latigo!

Dash racing back with her frisbee

Look what Summit "caught" in the lake!

The cousins posing for a picture

USDAA Rocky Mountain Regionals

This was my first Regional competition. Since Sage is already qualified in DAM team and since I didn't want to risk re-injuring her shoulder, I did not enter her in the Regional. I am confident I made the right decision but I really missed running my girlie and she would have done so well on many of the courses. I would really have liked to seen how she would have done on the Team Snooker and Team Jumpers - two very challenging but fun courses.

Summit was entered in DAM team and the regular classes. Since I have never entered him in a tournament before at the local level, he was not qualified to run in Steeplechase or Grand Prix at the Regional. But between all the Team classes, regular classes, and my being responsible for hospitality at this trial, I am glad I was only running one dog.

On Friday, Summit qualified with a first place in Starters Jumpers and earned his AD title! This was the last leg we were waiting for to get his title. The course was very nice and not so wide-open with straight lines. It was actually the more technical Starters Jumpers course I have seen and which is why we did so well. Summit collected nicely and had tight turns. He had a lovely run in Advanced Standard except for taking the tunnel (4 times!) instead of the dw (note to self - train verbal tunnel/contact cues for discriminations).

He had some nice runs in Team Standard and Team Jumpers but did not run clean. This was the first time he has run Master's level courses in competition and I thought he did very well. They were some tough courses too.

Saturday Summit had a blazing-fast smooth Advanced Standard run but dropped ONE bar! He did well in the Team classes and even made it to the closing in the very tough Team Snooker course. He dropped the bar on the #4 jump but many Masters-level dogs did not make it that far. However, the highlight of our day was the 60-foot lead out I did. It was the best way to handle that Snooker course by starting with the farthest red. Summit not only held his stay but recalled to heel without taking any of the "options" on the way. What a good boy!

Sunday, I could tell my little guy was mentally tired. He only had three runs on Sunday but I had already decided to scratch him from Starters Snooker. He had a little meltdown in Team Relay and he had no collection in his Advanced Standard run and dropped two bars. This was a very big weekend for such a young dog. Three rings with many runs per day. It was hot and humid and luckily, we had the lake near by so he could swim. There were also a lot of conflicts so many time he would finish a run and immediately we would go to another ring to start another run.

Brad was there on Friday and Saturday taking pictures and got some really great shots of Summit in the weavepoles.

Group IV Terrier Club AKC trial - Memorial Day weekend

So off the Salt Lake City for the 3-day trial at the beautiful Lynnleah Farm. This is one of my favorite trial sites. Next year I plan on attending all of the USDAA trials that are held at The Farm.

Sage had some really nice runs on Friday and Saturday (no QQ's). By Sunday, she was popping out of WP again and dropping bars. She also refused the practice jump right before the last class of the day on Sunday. So Ms. Sage is taking some time off to heal. She has another appt. with Dr. Jay next Thursday. I have pulled her from the USDAA Regionals over the 4th of July weekend.

Summit qualified in Open FAST on Friday and moved up to Excellent A FAST on Saturday. He fell off the DW during the Send portion so did not Q. I took him through several tunnels to finish the course. There were like 10 dogs who fell off the DW that day. The judge at one point went over and looked at it. I was told it was slick but I never did have a chance to look feel it.

Sunday Summit earned his first Q in Excellent A Fast! He also earned his first Q in Open Jumpers. He had some really nice runs this whole weekend.

I am learning that when I relax and not try and "race" Summit, he keeps the bars up. He is so fast that I think I need to hurry up and get somewhere on the course and when I start becoming frantic, he flattens out. So what I think about when I go to the line with him is Relax.....

Landing gear UP!

Sage

Sage saw Dr. Jay that following Thursday (the soonest I could get her in as he was out of town). Sage had a tendon popped out in her shoulder and was "stuck" somewhere (my "chiro speak" is not very good). So she had limited mobility in her left shoulder. This explained the dropped bars and wp popping. It was pretty bad but he got it to pop back in and said she was good. We were travelling to Salt Lake City the next day for a three-day AKC trial and he said she should be fine but keep a good eye on her.

Poor girlie!

USDAA Pueblo, Colorado

I'm a bad blogger! I'm way behind in updates....

Sage started off the weekend popping out of her weavepoles and dropping bars. Very unusual for her. Sage is a lovely jumper and might drop a single bar every 5 trials or so. She's also pretty consistent weaver. On Sunday in Master's Standard, she dropped two bars on the course and popped out of the wp again. I pulled her from the rest of her classes and made an appt. with her chiropractor for that following week.

Summit did very well. We had good startline stays all weekend. He qualified in Starters Gamblers twice, Snooker, and pairs. He earned his Starters Pairs title and moved up to Advanced. He only needed that one jumpers leg to earn his AD but he dropped the first bar (the course was jump - tunnel!). He did not qualify in any of his Advanced Standard classes but only had minor faults - handler-caused.

Jennifer's husband, Brad, was there taking pictures and did a wonderful job!

I love this picture of Summit's sliding teeter!