Playing Around with Invitational Courses

The Stump Kids and I have been on a little vacation from all things agility with the weather, move, etc.

But Thursday night, we headed over to Goose Creek Dog Sports to do a little training with my friend Camille and her Miniature Poodle James Brown and Papillon Gus. I expected to have to set up some sort course (which I am not that good at doing), or just doing some jump grids and weaves. But, I was excited to see that the jumpers course that was used for the 2013 AKC Invitational Championship!

It seems like LaMesa does better with the more difficult courses because we have to really work together. Maybe it's because I am more in tune with her and how to run her on the tighter, difficult courses? Or maybe because those types of courses don't really call for a lot of all-out speed, which can start to get to LaMesa's head. Whatever it is, it works. I worked her over this course multiple times, starting off by working different sections here and there, mostly with rear crosses.

When I worked Dally on the course, I had a lot of blinds, with one rear thrown in, and those worked great with her because she was on fire. I don't typically school a course over and over with Dally any more, but if it's something that I know we'd benefit from by working different parts and seeing what I can do to make our course more efficient, I will.

Anyway, I finally decided it'd be fun to video me running LaMesa on this course. By this time, we had really worked on a lot of things, so she was tired, which might explain the knocked bar. I do wonder about running the opening with a Ketschker on the wrap, like I heard some people ran at the Invitational, but for LaMesa's size, I think the wrap was more efficient. I ran it with a wrap with Dally, too.

So what do you think:



I love how she likes to run these types of courses.

I'd love to try to get her qualified for the 2014 AKC Invitational--if we can get more consistent at the trials (nail all 12 weaves the first time, keep the bars up, and listen to me), we might have a chance. I won't be able to trial a whole bunch the first part of this year, which means the last half of Invitational qualifying, but we'll give it a good college try.

Happy Stump Kids, glad to be back to agility!! (That's Dally wearing
her Back on Track blanket, I'll post on that in the next few days.)

This Weekend: Tough Courses = Challenging Runs

I thought I'd tried something a little different after our agility trials. I'm going to try to save the course maps, take a photo, and share them with you. I'd like to do one post with the course maps, then another with the videos and wrap-ups of those runs.

Let me know what you think! 

Anyway, this weekend we were at the Hamilton Dog Training Club's trial for another fun weekend at an indoor soccer facility. Dally loves this place, and so do I. However, the judges chosen were tough judges--this trial didn't fill for this first time in a while because of the reputation of these judges. But I wasn't deterred--I like a challenge. I just wish I was more successful this weekend. 

The Stump Kids and I walked away with only 2 Qs, and they were both in Masters Jumpers and both with Dally. 

Here are the courses, starting with Standard on Saturday and the two Jumpers courses (sorry, I can't find Sunday's Standard):