The trials and tribulations of training a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and Swedish Vallhund for agility.
Showing posts with label AKC Agility Trial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AKC Agility Trial. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Monday, June 30, 2014
Catching Up with the Stump Kids: LaMesa & the Hoosier
LaMesa has been making such strides lately...if only we can put it all together! It's always "just that one little thing" when it comes to getting our first QQ. We hit that a few times during the Hoosier Kennel Club trial.
Over the trial, she went 2-for-2 in Novice FAST to earn her title! The sends had tunnels to jumps, so it was easy to just send her and let her run. The way she handled the FAST classes this year (way more points earned than needed) makes me think I really should work with her distance work more and do more competing in FAST. I need to take advantage of her speed more than I do right now.
In her Masters classes, it was just a matter me directing her to the correct obstacles, such as in this Standard class:
But then we redeemed ourselves with this first place run in Jumpers:
On Sunday she won her Standard class and I kept trying to battle the thoughts of "Just go clean for our first QQ" and I think we did our best. Unfortunately she dropped one back toe on the last bar of the triple at the end, causing it to go down. :-(
LaMesa showed a lot of promise this weekend, which excites me. We're now taking a break from agility trials until August. The break should be good for me and Dally, but I don't think LaMesa really cares--she'd rather go all the time anywhere!
Over the trial, she went 2-for-2 in Novice FAST to earn her title! The sends had tunnels to jumps, so it was easy to just send her and let her run. The way she handled the FAST classes this year (way more points earned than needed) makes me think I really should work with her distance work more and do more competing in FAST. I need to take advantage of her speed more than I do right now.
In her Masters classes, it was just a matter me directing her to the correct obstacles, such as in this Standard class:
But then we redeemed ourselves with this first place run in Jumpers:
On Sunday she won her Standard class and I kept trying to battle the thoughts of "Just go clean for our first QQ" and I think we did our best. Unfortunately she dropped one back toe on the last bar of the triple at the end, causing it to go down. :-(
LaMesa showed a lot of promise this weekend, which excites me. We're now taking a break from agility trials until August. The break should be good for me and Dally, but I don't think LaMesa really cares--she'd rather go all the time anywhere!
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Catching Up with the Stump Kids: Dally & the Hoosier
It's been a busy few weeks for me as the head of the Stump Kids. We hit up a couple of agility trials at the end of May and first part of June, hoping to finish Dally's PACH2 and do one last little push for LaMesa's rankings with the Swedish Vallhunds.
Neither goal was accomplished.
But, oh well!
At the Derby City Agility Association trial May 31-June 1, we battled a rather warm facility, which didn't bode well for Dally when it comes to her speed. Dally ended up earning 2 QQs, but not very many points (32 total), but that was OK. The courses by Jim and Judy Smotrel were fun, with the Jumpers course at the end of the trial a nice, flowy course that had it's challenges. LaMesa earned a Masters Jumpers leg and 11 points on Saturday. Dally ended up earning her MXJP6 on Saturday as well!
Then the next weekend we headed up to Indianapolis for the Hoosier Kennel Club AKC Agility Trial, my dad's dog club which I help organize and put together. Going into the trial, Dally only needed 1 QQ and 60 points for her PACH2. However, I think she decided she just wanted to earn Jumpers Qs to work on her MXJP7 because that's all she qualified in...Jumpers. All three days. Not even an Open FAST Q. :-/ Ohhhhh Dally...how you like to keep me on my toes!
It was always a little something in Standard with Dally at this trial. Yet, I loved the courses designed by David Hirsch and Linda Robertson.
Because we didn't qualify in standard all three days, I used Jumpers as a way to just push for points. Dally ran really well and I think both of us had fun.
Now, with Open FAST, just a reminder we only do FAST once a year, and it's at this trial. Dally doesn't work very well at a distance from me, so I wasn't expecting much. If we didn't get the send, we'd continue on to finish the course quickly, just laughing along the way, so that way she didn't feel any stress about it. If we don't get our OFP, oh well.
Here are some of Dally's runs from the weekend:
Next up I'll share LaMesa's weekend at the Hoosier Kennel Club AKC Agility Trial.
Neither goal was accomplished.
But, oh well!
At the Derby City Agility Association trial May 31-June 1, we battled a rather warm facility, which didn't bode well for Dally when it comes to her speed. Dally ended up earning 2 QQs, but not very many points (32 total), but that was OK. The courses by Jim and Judy Smotrel were fun, with the Jumpers course at the end of the trial a nice, flowy course that had it's challenges. LaMesa earned a Masters Jumpers leg and 11 points on Saturday. Dally ended up earning her MXJP6 on Saturday as well!
Then the next weekend we headed up to Indianapolis for the Hoosier Kennel Club AKC Agility Trial, my dad's dog club which I help organize and put together. Going into the trial, Dally only needed 1 QQ and 60 points for her PACH2. However, I think she decided she just wanted to earn Jumpers Qs to work on her MXJP7 because that's all she qualified in...Jumpers. All three days. Not even an Open FAST Q. :-/ Ohhhhh Dally...how you like to keep me on my toes!
It was always a little something in Standard with Dally at this trial. Yet, I loved the courses designed by David Hirsch and Linda Robertson.
Because we didn't qualify in standard all three days, I used Jumpers as a way to just push for points. Dally ran really well and I think both of us had fun.
Now, with Open FAST, just a reminder we only do FAST once a year, and it's at this trial. Dally doesn't work very well at a distance from me, so I wasn't expecting much. If we didn't get the send, we'd continue on to finish the course quickly, just laughing along the way, so that way she didn't feel any stress about it. If we don't get our OFP, oh well.
Here are some of Dally's runs from the weekend:
Next up I'll share LaMesa's weekend at the Hoosier Kennel Club AKC Agility Trial.
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Dally Keeps Me Grounded: Border Terrier Trial at Queen City
Ohhh Dally. God loves a Corgi, doesn't he? They make sure to keep you honest and grounded.
First let me preface this by saying I was a little worried about how she would handle our first trial back from Nationals. After her spook-out moment in Hybrid, I had people warn me that this might be something that affects her at future trials now, so I was concerned about what kind of dog I'd have for this trial. Luckily, I knew she loves running at Queen City, so I had hoped whatever afflicted her in Pennsylvania stayed in Pennsylvania. I just wanted us to run and have fun.
On Saturday our Jumpers run was awesome! She hasn't run that fast in a long time, and she streaked to first place with a 34 second run, over a Papillon! That's a pretty big deal for us any more. She ran so fast, my friends didn't get a chance to video us! But it was a fun run! Before our Standard run, though, she came out of her crate a little stiff. Thankfully she was wearing her Back on Track blanket and just getting her out for a walk to stretch her stumps did the trick to loosen her up just in time. She wasn't as fast as I would have liked her to be, but she was consistent in her speed, at least. I did have to remind her she needed to stop on the table. (Side note: Nationals doesn't use a table, so sometimes it's hard for dogs to remember to stop on the table for their first trial back.)
Feeling like I had the "old Dally" back that was happy to run, I set my sights on trying to finish our PACH2 in the next couple of trials. We went into the weekend needing 5 QQs, plus about 100+ points. After our QQ on Saturday, I felt confident...maybe too confident.
Her Jumpers run was great...consistent speed, and a happy dog. I was able to get in all my blind crosses with great timing, and she kept her forward motion because I was never in her way.
But then came her Standard run. Everything was just fine, until we got to the weaves. I walked this different ways and decided I wanted to try pushing her to the correct side of the pinwheel. I felt this was more encouraging to her than a front cross, and I assumed she'd follow my lead. Well...she decided that Peter Liu mislabeled the course and she changed it. I had everything going correctly--my body, feet, shoulders, voice was telling her one way, and even with me calling her loudly, she chose the other way. She even sped up for the off-course! When I asked friends what I did wrong, Melanie said "You did nothing wrong...she's a Corgi and she's ornery and she didn't want to listen to you. I've never seen a dog speed up for an off-course even after being called off!" While we didn't get the whole course, you see the naughty Corgi part. After that mistake, I decided we were running all-out for the rest of the course.
Corgis definitely have minds of their own! Just when I'm starting to feel confident, Dally knows how to bring me back to the ground. Gotta love her for that!!
Friday, March 21, 2014
6 Year Trial Anniversary for Team Dally: Greater Louisville Training Club
This past weekend at the Greater Louisville Training Club's Kentuckiana Cluster, Dally and I celebrated our 6-year AKC trial anniversary. It's hard to imagine that 6 years ago we debuted and now we're getting ready to hit our third straight AKC National Agility Championships!!
The Cluster has always been hot and cold for me and Dally…we have yet to QQ there. It seems like after our debut, where we went 3-for-3 for our first ever Qs, we do well to Q once a day.
And that continued this year. It was a long day for us--it went tall to small, and even though it's a 3-ring trial, it still makes for long days. I was lucky to not have to be there early, unlike Merinda and my other friends, but we still arrived around 1:30 and still waited until 5:30 just to walk our first course, which happened to be Masters Jumpers. Then within an hour we were also walking the Masters Standard. It was wait…then hurry!! We were done by 7:30 and on the road. Still exhausting.
Saturday's courses were fun, though. We tackled Tim Pinneri's Jumpers course just fine. I like courses that start with tunnels because it's a good way to rev Dally up early. Serpentines are a strong thing for Dally because she and I are able to do the straight line, which saves yardage. We Qd and finished 5th in a tough 4 Inches class and 10 PACH points.
The Masters Standard course was manageable, but for some reason Dally skipped a pole in the middle of the weaves--that was a first. So we finished strong and fast, just to have fun.
(Yes, we were the last dog of the entire day…how much does that suck??)
Sunday was a little better--we arrived around 1 and were actually done by 5:30. A lot of people were leaving early because of bad winter weather coming, which helped with the timing. Again, we started with Jumpers, which saw Dally Q with 4 PACH points. She was a little slower, but she kept things going. In Standard I swore we had our first QQ, but the judge raised his hand on a jump and it was noted as a refusal on the scribe sheet. I'm still not sure what she did, because he didn't raise his hands like she knocked the bar, No one knows exactly what happened still…it's a little irritating.
Oh well, that's agility right? We came out of it with 14 total PACH points and a good warm-up for Nationals. We hadn't trialed since November, so I was nervous about how rusty we were. Maybe the slowness was some of Dally's rust…I don't know. But I think we'll be OK for Nationals.
Here's LaMesa's trial wrap-up, including a little surprise... ;-)
The Cluster has always been hot and cold for me and Dally…we have yet to QQ there. It seems like after our debut, where we went 3-for-3 for our first ever Qs, we do well to Q once a day.
And that continued this year. It was a long day for us--it went tall to small, and even though it's a 3-ring trial, it still makes for long days. I was lucky to not have to be there early, unlike Merinda and my other friends, but we still arrived around 1:30 and still waited until 5:30 just to walk our first course, which happened to be Masters Jumpers. Then within an hour we were also walking the Masters Standard. It was wait…then hurry!! We were done by 7:30 and on the road. Still exhausting.
Saturday's courses were fun, though. We tackled Tim Pinneri's Jumpers course just fine. I like courses that start with tunnels because it's a good way to rev Dally up early. Serpentines are a strong thing for Dally because she and I are able to do the straight line, which saves yardage. We Qd and finished 5th in a tough 4 Inches class and 10 PACH points.
The Masters Standard course was manageable, but for some reason Dally skipped a pole in the middle of the weaves--that was a first. So we finished strong and fast, just to have fun.
(Yes, we were the last dog of the entire day…how much does that suck??)
Sunday was a little better--we arrived around 1 and were actually done by 5:30. A lot of people were leaving early because of bad winter weather coming, which helped with the timing. Again, we started with Jumpers, which saw Dally Q with 4 PACH points. She was a little slower, but she kept things going. In Standard I swore we had our first QQ, but the judge raised his hand on a jump and it was noted as a refusal on the scribe sheet. I'm still not sure what she did, because he didn't raise his hands like she knocked the bar, No one knows exactly what happened still…it's a little irritating.
Oh well, that's agility right? We came out of it with 14 total PACH points and a good warm-up for Nationals. We hadn't trialed since November, so I was nervous about how rusty we were. Maybe the slowness was some of Dally's rust…I don't know. But I think we'll be OK for Nationals.
Here's LaMesa's trial wrap-up, including a little surprise... ;-)
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