Al Gets to Join the "24" Club!!

If you don't know what this means don't worry,  I'll explain. 

The "24" Club is for Agility Dogs that have run an AKC Excellent B Jumpers with Weaves agility course, and Qualified, in a time of 24.99 seconds (or less). 

I've been pushing and pushing Al every run this year, and he has responded by running faster than he has ever run before.  He is also having way more fun doing it as fast as he can. 

On October 2, 2005 at the Hurricane Ridge Kennel Club Agility Trial, Al had his two fastest runs ever on a Jumpers with Weaves course.  How do you get two JWW runs in one day with the same dog?  Some people might ask that question, and the answer is you get a re-run, giving you a second time through the course.  It is called "Running For Time".

It was a cold and windy morning, and we started our first run at about 8:45 AM, and Al was so excited to run that he flew through the course in a time of just under 27.5 seconds!!  When we came to the last jump he gave it his all, and he really jumped!  The result was a jump that could have cleared a 20 or 24 inch bar, and as a result, he never broke the light beam that would have normally turned off the clock!!  When I had finished the run and I had picked Al up, I noticed that the clock was still running??!!  What the!!!..  I yelled the clock is still running (along with a bunch of other people) and the timer finally hit the panic button, and the clock stopped at 30 something seconds. 

There was a lot of confusion and the situation was brought to the attention of the Judge.  According to the rules, I was entitled to run the course again for time if I chose to, or I could take the time that was on the clock.  When I  ran the course the first time I felt there were a couple of bobbles that had cost us time, and I did a front cross after the tunnel that slowed us down, so I  had already decided that I would run the course again if the Judge agreed to it.  She did, so we had a chance to do the course again.  This isn't the first time this has happened.  Since this spring we have had 3 other similar occurances , and have had two reruns.  If given the chance I'll always run Al again!  He loves it, and it is good practice. 

20 dogs later, Al and I were at the line again.  I had him all bundled up until we went in the ring because it was really cold!!  We had been the first 12 inch dog, and now we were the last.  My friends were at the far side of the ring, wearing day glow red hunting toques, and looked like they were ready to go duck hunting after the trial. 

Al and I waited for the course to clear, the Judge ran over and gave me a warning about knocking bars intentionally, and then said that "she had seen this dog jump and she didn't think it would be a problem!! "

She ran back to her spot, and then I put Al down, took off his collar and leash, and we were off.  Everybody that was watching got into it, and I could hear a lot of cheering going on, and the further we got into the course the louder it got!  Al loved it!!  He was on a mission and there was no stopping him.  All I had to do was stay out of his way!!.  

When we made the final jump the clock stopped and our run was 24.84 seconds!!!!  Everybody was yelling and cheering.  Al was very, very excited, and we had improved our time!!   The first run was 27.42 seconds (from the tape) and our second run was 2.58 seconds faster!!.  I would have been ecstatic with the 27.42 time on the first run as I was hoping that someday we would be running in the 28 second range and never imagined that this year Al would get into the 27's, and here little Al had skipped the progression and gone directly to an unheard of time of 24 seconds!! 

I'm so proud of my little man!!

As an aside, Al placed 2nd after the re-run.  There were over 220 dogs entered in this trial and only 6 dogs in all the height divisions had faster times, and it wasn't by much!!  Al was only beaten on time by 5 super fast dogs run by Barb Davis.  Barb's 12" Sheltie Rock_It, Barb Davis's 24" Border Collie Zesty, and another fast 24" BC from Karin Haderly, and PJ, Shimmer and Pistol (all 16 inch Shelties) run by Barb Davis.  No 20 Inch dogs were faster. 

Barb Davis if you don't know it is a 5 time AKC World Team Member with Shimmer and  has been coaching me this year, and I take classes from Jeff Blake who has a really fast Lab and a super fast BC.