SnoKing Agility Club Trial – May 1st, 2nd, 2004
This was an indoor trial at Auburn Washington on dirt. Al was entered in both the Std. and JWW events on both days, and Grace both events but just on Saturday. Al couldn’t have done better with 2 First Placements. He earned the final leg of his Excellent A Jumpers With Weaves Title on Sunday. He ran in Excellent A three times and had three First Place finishes.
Grace also had an excellent one day trial on Saturday, when she had another 1st place finish and earned the final leg of her first Agility Title in Novice Preferred Jumpers with Weaves. She’s on a roll. Three Trials in a row, with three 1st place finishes!!
Two titles in one weekend!! Way to go Al and Grace!!! Thanks for the great weekend!!
600 runs per day, 2 rings.
The little man gave everything he had with an excellent run. We had a perfect run until the down contact of the dog walk. I thought Al had missed it by an inch and stupidly decided to look at the Judge to see if she called a fault. She didn’t call it to my amazement, although several other dogs had also benefited from a large “strike zone”.
In the fraction of a second when I turned my head toward the judge by looking over my shoulder, I lost the distance I needed to do a front cross after the tunnel exit and as a result I put Al in a position where he had a great opportunity to take an extra jump and a non qualifying run!! Oops!! What I should have done once we got off the game plan would have been to find a way to do a front cross at the end of the weave poles to get back on track, but I didn’t have the presence of mind. Al had a great run regardless. Fast and great weaves!! He was faster than everyone, even though he did an extra jump!!
Al had a great run. It had been hot and muggy in the afternoon and he had played a lot between runs, and as a result I didn’t feel like he really put out!. The run was smooth, but I wasn’t getting him to really drive on like he had been doing. I felt he was at 70 -80% of what he normally would be.
During the whole run I felt like I was a full obstacle ahead of him. (Oh, so this is how it is supposed to feel!!!)
Despite his seeming lack of drive, Al came in first in Excellent A 12”. His time was 38.02 seconds (4.42 yards/second) was 12 seconds below course time. There were no other qualifiers at Al’s height. Of all Excellent A dogs of all heights, there was only 1 dog faster. A 16” Sheltie with a time of 36.33 seconds (1.69 seconds faster).
Al’s result compared to the Excellent B dogs would have qualified, and given him 6th place. There were 12 dogs that Qualified at 12”in Excellent B.
Today was going to be a down on the table and Al and I were going to see if he had overcome the dreaded “Table Problems”. Al was really great while we were getting ready, and very calmly did sit stays in the area outside the ring. As soon as his eyes saw the course as we walked out I knew we were in trouble. He was sooo enthusiastic about getting started that he was pulling on the leash. He wouldn’t do a sit stay, and I knew that as soon as the leash came off he was going to bolt through the tire at the start line with me in chase. A recipe for disaster again!!. After a lot of fussing around, I said what the hell, and pushed him back as I took off his leash and collar.
The race was on. Al won. I chased him to the second jump and because I was behind him I was unable to do a front cross to send him over the correct jump, so I watched him take the next jump he saw since he figured he could do that and then let me catch up to him.(Hey Dad! Look What I did!!) I couldn’t call him off and as a result he had a wrong course.
Everything else on this run couldn’t have gone better. It was perfect, and Al did fast weave poles with some excellent footwork at a good distance from me that had everyone in the Gallery cheering and screaming as he went through!! Nice run Al, but now the start line is killing us!!
Al ran at 3.05 Yds/second. Without the wrong course he would have placed second.
Al ran fabulously!! We had trouble with a stay at the start line again, but I was still able to do a front cross in front of the first tunnel that I didn’t think that I would be able to do when we left the line. I also walked the course differently than I finally ran it, which added a lot of anxiety, and in the end I don’t think made Al any faster. I had planned to be on Al’s left through the weave poles and changed my mind so he ran them with me on his right. I also planned to do a rear cross, front cross, front cross to finish, and changed it before I ran to a rear cross , rear cross. He spun on both rear crosses so I don’t think he was any faster than if I had done what I originally planned. Still he really scooted along, was very happy, and did great weave poles and liked the room I gave him.
When we finished I wasn’t even sure that we had not had a wrong course because I was so muddle headed.
Al Qualified Again taking 1st Place!! He had earned another Title!!!
I'm really proud of Al because he had 3 Excellent A JWW runs and earned his AXJ Title with 3 First Place finishes!! You can't do it any faster, and the 12 " class is the most competitive. I couldn’t have imagined it would be possible a few months ago, but he did it!!
There were 36 Excellent A dogs entered. Al had the third fastest time of all dogs. Al’s time was 10 seconds below course time and he ran at 4.13 yards/second. The fastest Excellent A dog was a 24” Border Collie with a time of 34.07 seconds. The next fastest time was our friend and classmate Skye a 16” Aussie with a time of 34.60 seconds. Al’s time was 35.16 seconds.
If Al were to have run in Excellent B his result would have Qualified in 9th place in the very competitive 12” class. He would have placed 3rd in the 16” class.
