Deep Dirt Isn't a Corgi's Friend

Have I mentioned that Dally's legs are really like 3-4" tall? And when you add in some deep, heavy red dirt in a horse arena, it makes for slower going than expected. And that's what I ran into with running Dally at the Greater Kingsport Kennel Club trial in White Pine, Tenn. And, of course, Saturday and Sunday was running small to tall, so Dally was the second dog on that deep dirt. While the "small dog people" were walking the Standard course, we were really trying to walk the dog's path so we could try to pack down the dirt. While it didn't seem to affect LaMesa much, it did affect Dally.

In Standard, Dally handled the course like a rock star. I tried to keep her as tight for the wraps as possible to save precious seconds. I run so much more relaxed with Dally than LaMesa, and you can tell in this run. She ended up winning this with 11 PACH points (not as much as she normally can get in Standard).



We didn't get a video of our Jumpers run (Jodi was running immediately after me with Maya as the first 8" and I didn't want her to stress about it), but we were clean. I felt like she ran it pretty well and maybe a little faster than her Standard run. However, she stopped the clock at 54.43 and the SCT was 54--a Q and first place, but no PACH points. That was a bit of a bummer. Oh well, QQ #10 for PACH2.

Sunday's Standard course was very doable for me and Dally, but I mishandled the flip off the dog walk into the first tunnel, causing her to come off and wonder where I wanted her to go next (I swear my toes and body was facing that tunnel opening). I think Laura English was thinking real hard about raising her hand...and I wish she hadn't. :-( A refusal knocked out a possible Q. But, I was proud of how I handled the double blind cross at the beginning--I'm getting more and more comfortable using those with Dally and they work.


Again in Jumpers, no video, but we attacked it with gusto--I wanted to go balls to the wall to try to get some more points. I figured we didn't have a QQ on the line, but I wanted points. I handled that tight wrap with Dally like how I handled LaMesa, with a blind and then a wrap to the triple before the weaves and it worked again. This time we came out of there with a Q and 9 points.

I went into this trial hoping for a good amount of points for AKC Nationals, so I was disappointed to only get 20 total with Dally. I know, any points and any QQs are great...I just need to cool it with my expectations. We have 133 more points to get for AKC Nationals and three weekends to do it (starting with this coming weekend), so we'll just keep plugging through, keeping those tight wraps and running for fun and speed, and see where we sit in a few weeks...

Vallhund's First MACH Points!

I'm sorry this is a week late, but I'm finally writing the wrap-up from the Greater Kingsport Kennel Club AKC Agility Trial in White Pine, Tenn., the weekend of Oct. 12-13.

We'll start with LaMesa and her exciting first day. The Standard course had it's hard parts, but was doable. I just wanted LaMesa to listen to me through the whole thing, and she did! She had a beautiful running contact on the dog walk, wrapped nicely around the jump after the A-frame, and kept up with her rhythm through the weave poles. On the third to last jump I heard her hit it and was so disappointed if she knocked the bar, but luckily I looked back after we finished the run and saw it was still up. Yay! We ended up winning the 8-inch Regular and getting our first MACH points together--23 points!



Going into our Jumpers run, I was fighting back thoughts of "Could we get our first QQ today?" That type of thinking always comes back to bite me in the butt. I just have this fear it will be years before LaMesa and I can put together two consistent, clean runs in one day.

I walked this Jumpers course different ways for LaMesa, but I felt comfortable with the opening moves. I don't know why she popped out after the tenth pole--both of our paces were even. The rest of the course was nice--I was even able to get in a blind cross! Minus the knocked triple and the missed last jump (no clue why she does that every once in a while). I twisted my ankle at the last jump, which made my movements awkward, but that was after she missed the jump.



As good as our Standard run was on Saturday, it wasn't as good on Sunday. I don't have the video, but she started off so riled up and crazy! She took the first few jumps, then the table instead of the weaves. Then she popped out of the weaves again. After that, she was good--nailed a tight flip from the dog walk into the tunnel.

Jumpers I thought we could get more points here. There was so many ways I could have handled jumps 4-6 (rear crosses, multiple fronts, ketschker, blinds) but I loved the way I handled that segment with Dally, so I did the same with LaMesa. Unfortunately, she knocked #6 from being too tight I think. But she nailed her weaves and everything else, so I had to be happy with that run. I had hoped we'd be just as lucky with that jump as we were in standard on Saturday with that jump, but, nope, it was on the ground. Oh well.


I was happy with how LaMesa handled the deep dirt on Saturday. She seems to really excel in horse arenas such as this, compared to the smaller rings at Queen City. We're still melding as a team, but I'm happy we now only have 726 MACH points (and 20 QQs) to go! Hahaha

Next time, we'll wrap up Dally's weekend through the deep red dirt...