Yakima Valley Kennel Club
Yakima, Wa.
October 16,17, 2004
Judges: Laura English, Joan Mullen
600 Runs per day, outdoors on grass; however, the entry was much smaller with about 300 runs each day.
We were hoping that we might get the 4th Double Qualifying score (Double Q) in order to qualify for the American Kennel Club/Eukanuba National Agility Championships in Tampa Florida in January '05. We had until the end of October to complete the qualifying requirements, and we only had this event and two others to compete in if we were to have a chance at getting our elusive 4th Double Q.
We were also fighting the weather, as it had quickly changed from summer to fall, which in the Northwest means it rains from the beginning of October until the following July 4th. This also meant that Al would have to compete outside in the cold and wet, which he doesn't like, and quite frankly, neither do I!!
To summarize: Al did it!! On Sunday he came through big time with a Second place finish in the Standard Course and Qualified in the rain!! And this was on a course that only the top 4 dogs in the class received a qualifying score. I think 16 dogs failed to qualify in the 12" Excellent B class. The course was deceptively tricky and difficult.
In the afternoon between rainstorms, Al had a great jumpers run and placed 3rd!! This gave us our 4th Double Q which qualified Al to compete in the AKC/Eukanuba National Agility Championships!!
Our day had started at 3:50AM and was followed by a 3 hour drive over the Cascades in the dark and a rain storm to arrive by 7AM for breakfast and an 8AM walk-through. Al slept the whole way all cuddled up in his Roadie safety harness and his favorite bed, covered by his favorite Snuggle Sack; and strapped in to a seat belt.
When we started the walk-through there were not many happy faces. It was 8AM, and the rain of the night before had stopped. The ground was wet, and so were the feet of all the competitors without rubber footwear, or Gore-Tex. Worse; the course had numerous very difficult challenges that just seemed to make everyone either mad or anxious.
For Al and I the hardest challenge was going to be the entry to the Weave Poles. The entry was almost a 180 Degree turn into the poles after jumping a jump, but the position of the jump had the dog landing in a position where they had to go "out" to get the weave pole entry, and if you pushed them "out" too far, then you had a dummy jump looking your dog in the face. I along with everyone else thought this was really a "dirty" trick, and as it turned out it was, because almost no dogs qualified, and no dogs over 16 inches qualified!! If you got through the other challenges, the Weave Pole entry got you.
When Al ran the course I sat him at the Start line, but he immediately sat up after I took off the leash so I put the leash back on and sat him quickly and started to lead out, but Al stood and started to go, so I started to run knowing what was coming, and we were off. It was not a great start. Al was really running hard from the start. I did a front cross in front of the chute, which worked well, then he did his contact (briefly) on the A Frame, avoiding trap #1 with a tunnel right beside the A Frame up contact, then he got his contact on the Dog Walk, over a jump and facing trap#2, which was a tunnel right in front of the dog after it landed the jump. I somehow managed to keep Al out of the tunnel, and then we got the Tire and then I did a rear cross after Al did a jump, and the little guy turned the right way (left) and did it without a spin, and then went into the tunnel. So to this point we were clean!! Al was running hard. This was the hardest part of the course. A fast straight tunnel, which wouldn't allow me to front cross Al as he exited ( Collision for sure) so I had to rear cross the next jump and call Al off Trap #3 which was the off course jump right before the weave poles. Al listened to me, and although he spun, we still had a chance to get the weave poles. This is where I blew it for us. I over-worked the entry and essentially pushed Al onto the far side of the poles so he entered on the wrong side. I left him no room to do what he knew what he had to do. As a result we had a refusal, and an NQ. Had I trusted Al, we would have been clean. Al went on and did the sit on the table, then we did a rear cross at the Tire, and then he did something he hasn't done in a long time, which was he bailed off the Teeter. If we had been clean to this point I think I probably would have tried harder to keep him on the teeter, but I didn't. We finished the run, and I was very Happy what he had shown me. It was a good run, with good attention, and good speed. A nice start to the weekend!
Al's time was 53.95 seconds. The Standard Course Time (SCT) was 70 seconds (162 yards).
I didn't like the course at all!!
This was a fun course!! I liked it from the moment I began to walk it. It started with a tunnel, and a start line that allowed you to place the dog almost anywhere you wanted.
When we ran it, I set Al up so that I could get well out ahead of him after he charged into the tunnel, then I could do a front cross and we would run hard to the other end of the course. Everything went as planned, but Al wasn't in high gear although he was running fast enough. It was also at a pace where he wasn't waiting for me to tell him what was next. I did slow him up once with a late front cross before a jump just before the Weave Poles. Al did fast poles, then went into the correct end of a tunnel that had two open ends waiting for him, then we came to a jump and another jump that was 90 degrees to the left with not much room in between. I think I squeezed Al again, and didn't shape the turn over the jump properly, and Clank!! Al knocked a jump bar down!!??? I can't think of a bar that he has knocked down in competition since he was in Novice!! Al doesn't knock bars, period, but he did. It had to be my fault!!
We went on and finished the course, although we weren't going at full speed. I decided to experiment, and we did a couple of rear crosses just before the finish line; which Al did without spinning. Al was slower due the rear crosses, but it was good practice. He also may have felt a little pain after knocking the bar too, and as a result lost some drive, but I think the slow down was due to the uncertainty of the rear crosses, because he was looking up at me.
It was a nice run for the little guy. Had he not knocked a bar, he would have placed Third.
Al's time was 35.66 seconds. The Standard Course Time (SCT) was 44 seconds (144 yards).
Al Qualifies For The AKC National Agility Championship!!
This was a deceptive course. It had several discrimination challenges, and a tunnel (#10) that was designed so the dog would beat you out of it so you had to work your dog from behind (a new experience for most of us) or find a way to stay with the dog. This is called run like hell and pray. If you got past this point you had to play catch up for 2 jumps and then turn your dog hard to the left before it crashed into the perimeter fencing for the ring and then hope it saw and jumped through the tire. A really difficult sequence. Luckily, because of the rain, it was a sit on the table; and since it was small dogs first we had a chance to go through the chute while it was relatively dry.
Al did great. He gave me a start line, did his contacts, followed me through my small bobble where I crowded him at jump 7, and then miraculously, he flew out of tunnel 9 and listened to me and took tunnel 10 instead of charging up the Dog Walk, which many dogs did. Because I worked tunnel 10 hard, I couldn't get ahead of Al, so I ran jumps 11 and 12 on the outside (which I hadn't planned to do) but it worked, and then Al and I did something I've never ever tried with him before. #13 was a tire and I had to do a rear cross at the tire, and it worked!! Al went on and did the chute (with a shake to dry off) the table with an obedient sit (in the rain) and then an OK A Frame, good weave poles and we were done!!
Al Qualified placing 2nd. His time was 57.76 seconds. The Standard Course Time (SCT) was 74 seconds (172 yards)
This was the most fun we have had on an AKC JWW course all year. The judge was Joan Mullen who is one of the Judges at the AKC/Eukanuba National Agility Championships for this year. If she is setting the JWW courses at Nationals, everyone there will have a great time!! This was a course that let the dogs run. There were some challenges, but everything that challenged the dog was because the dogs were running at speed and in places at a distance from the handler.
I decided that our best chance for a double Q was to run like hell!! It worked!! Al loved it!! In the process, I also almost became "laundry" doing a front cross late between jumps 7 and 8 and would have been very angry with myself if I had knocked down the bar!! Luckily, I just glanced the jump standard and everything stayed up!!. This was a very fun run, and for the first time, it felt like Al was on the end of an elastic leash, and he was being pushed and pulled from me as we ran around the course!! It was very cool.
Al Qualified placing 3rd, and earned his 4th Double Q. His time was 31.81 seconds. The Standard Course Time (SCT) was 43 seconds (140 yards)
