Olympic Kennel Club Agility Trial
Enumclaw, Wa., August 14,15, 2004
Judges: Greg Beck, Mark Ouska
Outdoors on grass. 600 runs per day. The weather was Hot on Saturday, with temps in the mid 80's and muggy for Seattle. On Sunday it was hotter, brilliant sunshine, and temps in the high 80's, probably around 89 degrees. This was an agility trial at a Major All breed conformation show. It is quite a busy scene, with lots of people watching who had no clue of how to behave around an agility course when dogs are running. I had a small problem with a family that had three young children. Al and I were dozing/sweating in the shade tent and three kids literally stormed our shade tent and without asking, tried to pet Al (He's so cute!!!) Al snarled at them when they tried to reach over his head and snapped in the air to let them know they weren't welcome! I had to do some diplomacy for everyone, but mostly for Al, and eventually, everybody made friends. The kids learned how to approach a dog they don't know, Al let them pet him, although he would rather not have let them have the pleasure of touching him. Everyone went away happy. Al was happy because they just "went away."
This was Al's best Agility Weekend ever. He loved the courses, although they were difficult. He ran well, and he came home with several Q's and Placements, and he won a Ribbon that is longer than he is!!
Standard Course 1 (Excellent B):
The first run of the weekend seems to be a warm up. Al is really psyched to go and run. It is cooler in the mornings and he has lots of energy. In this run, Al gave me a good sit and stay and the start line and waited until I called him over the jump at the start line. Now that is progress. I think he is starting to get it??!! Nah! That's impossible.
He was off the start line like a rocket!! Fast to the A Frame with enough time for a little sight seeing at the top. He also did a fast crawl down the A frame, which I am going to have to work on I can see. We haven't been practicing. He did a nice attentive front cross into the weave poles and had great weaves. Everything was going great. Tunnel, teeter, and over a couple of jumps and then it kind of fell apart for one jump. Al started to look up at me before the first jump of two parallel jumps that reversed his direction of travel 180 degrees. Al couldn't see the next jump after the one in front of him and as a result he was looking up at me to get a signal to tell him what was next. In looking up and at the speed we were traveling, Al missed the jump? I also didn't help him out as I moved away from the jump I wanted him to go over, and also I lowered one shoulder away from the jump. He got all the signals he needed to short cut the jump and earn a refusal, and a wrong course with the back jump that he did very well. Sorry Al. Next time I will use the "False Turn" that Sally has taught us.
Al ran the remainder of the course very well, doing a fast sit on the table and a couple of tight handling sequences. There was one more fault, where Al was looking up at me to get a signal, and as a result he had a refusal at the second to last jump, which he did properly and without a back jump, and then finished the course. Al was delighted with himself and I was happy to have had a nice run with him too. A couple of bobbles, both of which I could have avoided, but a nice run to start the weekend.
Al's time was 61.68 seconds. The SCT was 73 seconds ( 168 yds.)
This was a really unusual course. It looked more like a NADAC games course as in the middle were two parallel straight tunnels, with a set of weave poles between them. Unusual, but it turned out to be really fun to run.
It was Hot! I was sweating like a basketball player in the 3rd quarter. Al gave me a good start line again. He held his sit until I said OK. Then we were off. He wasn't fast at the start. There were some tight sections and a lot of handling, but Al worked through it. Then we arrived at the tunnel, weave poles, tunnel sequence, which Al did perfectly, and really liked. By then he was really paying attention, and we did some nice front crosses and finished the course. It was a clean run!! Al partied at the finish line.
Al finished in Fourth Place! His time was 37.82 seconds. The SCT was 46 seconds (148 yds.) He earned 8 MACH Points. The First Place dog only beat Al by 2 seconds.
International Sweepstakes Class Standard Course (Mini)
I'm very excited about what happened on this run. If you could only save moments or runs like this and use them when you really need them!! This is Al's perfect run!!! I know he can run like this all the time. In practice he does, and I know we can begin to consistently run like this in competition. This run proves it can be done. This is a good example of how Al can run and hopefully will be running when we have worked out all the bugs. What happened in this ISC run is a very good sign and a good window on Al's potential.
The best part about this run is how much Al loved it during and after. I could hardly get a hold of him after the finish line. He was jumping up all around me. In fact I think he even almost jumped onto my back!! I love how he roared into the weave poles at full speed and did them with confidence, Twice!!. I also love the way he was beating me with his tail as I carried him out of the ring!!
During the walk through for this event, I ran the course as hard as I could with my virtual dog Al. My time was 45 seconds, and I was going as fast as I thought Al could run it. I was huffing and puffing when I had finished. I also had reason to believe that if Al ran hard, we could get the course under the SCT of 56 seconds.
The scoring for this run doesn't really matter to me because it was the what happened on the course that counts. But for the record, Al placed Third in the Mini Class.
When we ran the course, Al's time was 40.44 seconds. The Standard Course Times was 56 seconds (168 yds.). Al made me run harder, and he ran harder than I thought he would by 5 seconds.
The two dogs that were faster than Al.
MACH 5 Lacie-Nancy Taylor (34.06)
MACH Gidget-Cathy Sheeran (35.33)
Al was faster than 2004 AKC National Agility Champion MACH 5 Tigger (whom I have held in my arms!!) and MACH Miss Kadie.
I have been told that NADAC courses are very similar in nature to the ISC courses. If that is true, Al and I are going to love doing NADAC sometime in the future!!
Standard Course 2 (Excellent B):
This was another nice run by Al. He gave me a good start, letting me lead out past the first jump before I called him. He sat quickly and held it??!! This gave me a chance to get out in front of a fast straight 4 jump sequence. If he hadn't held the start line we would have had a bobble for sure. Plus Al let me do a rear cross at the end of the opening sequence, and although it was to the left, he didn't spin, and just went on over the next jump. Then it was into some tighter handling. A-Frame, Tunnel, and a little sniff of something on the way over the Teeter. He got his contacts. Two jumps and then the table. He did a great down on the table after thinking about it, and how great he was, for about a second or two. Then it was off the table, to a hard entry into the weave poles. I rushed him and could have set it up better, because the front cross was pretty bad. But the judge didn't call a refusal, and then we were off through the poles which were pretty good given that he had to accelerate through them as he was stopped just before he entered them.
Al did the rest of the course with speed and finished with a clean run. The videographer had to drop the camera near the end of his run, as she was also filming MACH Miss Kadie right after me, so the end of the dog walk and the two jumps that followed aren't on the tape. Al got them all.
Al placed Fourth with his clean run. His time was 58.8 seconds. The SCT was 69 seconds (160 yds.) He earned 10 MACH points. There were 16 dogs in Excellent B 12".
This had been a long hot weekend, and we were both tired. I had been building courses on both days and was fried. The temp was in the high 80's. Al had spent too much time waiting for me or watching for me, and had used a lot of his energy just being alone. He didn't like it.
The JWW course had the potential of giving us a Double Q for the day, but as soon as I brought Al up to the Start line, I could see that he wasn't getting excited. In fact I couldn't get him to sit even though I tried a couple of times. In the end, this just wasn't our course.
We ran over the start line together and through the opening sequence OK, but Al just wasn't charging and had thought about putting his head down. He was paying attention though. We got into the weave poles, and I should have worked them harder by cheering him through them, because he needed some help. I didn't and although I shouldn't have too, had I done something more to help him feel like he was doing great, then he probably wouldn't have bailed out of the weave poles at the 3rd from last pole. It happened. I should have done more. It also didn't help that the leash runner who was a young boy from the local 4H club came rushing out onto the course to fetch Al's leash right in front of him at the exact moment he popped out of the poles. I'm sure that Al's energy level, his focus, and the boy moving toward him were all factors in this. I just wish I had worked harder for him as he went through them so he might have completed the task.
Now that we didn't have to worry about getting a Double Q we went on. Al went on I was disappointed and as a result I didn't work a couple of jumps in the final sequence hard enough and Al managed to find a shortcut by one of them on his way to the finish line.
Even though I was disappointed that we didn't get through the course, Al was still very happy about life. Things will start to come together someday soon. We had a big party at the finish line. He's a great little guy. He gave me everything he had.
International Sweepstakes Class Jumpers with Weaves (Mini)
I Love the ISC courses!!! This one was completely crazy and almost impossible to do, and you had to do it running as fast as you could run.
This course had 3 tunnels nested next to each other right in the middle of the course, and you had to devise a way to get from one end to the other and have the dog go in the correct tunnel at the other end (One was correct, one was wrong). It was insane. It seemed impossible to do, but we gave it a try. The ISC courses are so much fun, because there is no pressure other than the desire to get through them. Here, everyone is cheering and laughing and screaming for joy with you when it goes right or wrong.
On this course one of the competitors with a Midi sized dog couldn't get ahead of the dog after the first tunnel entrance so in order to get to the other end before the dog, he jumped over two tunnels and in his rush, tripped over the second tunnel and landed on his face on top of the third tunnel. The dog came out of the first tunnel, saw his handler draped over the third tunnel like laundry, and obeyed the command to go into the tunnel. The only problem was it was the wrong one!!!! We all could hardly stop laughing. Rules? Forget them, let's have fun!!!
Al ran this course beautifully. He was so ready to go that I couldn't hold him at the start line and he ran by the first jump before I could get him back. A refusal, which wasn't a big problem because you can have refusals in ISC and still get a Q. Two jumps and then it was the jump right before the weave poles. I'm very proud of this, because I found a way to give Al a clear look at the weave poles, by doing a rear cross behind jump 4. A lot of people missed the weave pole entry because they stayed between the poles and the jump and the dogs didn't have time or room to find the entry. Way to go Al. He had fast poles the first time through, and then it was on to the tunnel nightmare!! Had I moved away from the third tunnel entry a couple of more steps, I know I could have gotten Al into the third tunnel without first having him shove his nose into the second one thus earning a Wrong Course and an Non Q. My mistake. I didn't give him enough room. After that Al was perfect. He ran hard. Did great crosses, and roared through the weave poles a second time. Then he dashed to the finish.
Al almost had a Q, had he not put his nose in the 2nd tunnel. It doesn't matter though because Al and I had a great time doing the run, and he was fast and attentive!!
The results. Al had the second fastest time of the Mini dogs. The SCT was 34 seconds. Al's time was 40.06 seconds. There were no Qualifying runs in the Mini class. No dogs were under course time. In the Midi class no dogs Qualified and none were under course time. 4 Maxi Class dogs qualified and of those only two were under the SCT.
This was a totally fun experience. I highly recommend it to anybody with a fast dog. What I like best about it is everybody is relaxed and willing to try something just for fun, and the courses are never disappointing or set up so that the dogs don't get a chance to run hard. Everybody is laughing, cheering, jeering, and screaming for joy!! Even the spectators.
Conclusion: This was a great weekend. Al had two Qs in Excellent B, earned 18 MACH points, and finished 3rd in International Sweepstakes Class Standard Course. Most of all, Al loved running this weekend, and it was fun doing it with him.
