#agility trial

[theadventurek9]

Ryker had his first taste of an agility trial last weekend. He tried very hard and was a good boy. He did two jumpers runs and one FEO run during gamblers where we focused on contacts. This is a location he is pretty familiar with though does not have a lot of experience doing agility on the grass here.

His focus was pretty great and he did good startline stays. His ability to follow my handling was pretty good, my handling was a bit off for a few things and I didn't support him enough.

We got off courses in both jumpers rounds, but overall it was understandable errors and they weren't crazy run aways minus one tunnel sucking moment.

For his FEO run he struggled with his contacts. He stopped too early on his dog walk and then broke. Had him repeat once and he finally got it and I got to reward him. He did do a mild run off the teeter but did it great the second time. So we have a lot more contact work to do.

Overall it's how I expected. Needs more work before really doing trials but he has a good head for doing things in a trial once his skills are more ready.

[fayeandknight]

I am so incredibly proud of Forte and myself.

We got our first Q in Jumpers!

We NQed our Standard run because he stepped on the broad jump and hopped off the table. But he stayed in the ring, didn't visit anyone, and didn't pee on anything. He recalled and was redirected well.

Then we promptly came outside so he could pee on something, lol.

We took a break for a course change and Forte happily rolled around the grass while I told him what a good dog he is.

I didn't run in Time to Beat so my instructor volunteered me to run the timer while she scribed. It was pretty cool to work "behind the scenes" so to speak. I also did gate calls for Open.

When it was time for Jumpers I feel like he and I were both less overwhelmed by all the activity. He did run past weaves at first but we're allowed a retry in Novice. We earned our very first Q! We also got first place in our height class

[blueboyluca]

And here’s the other run.

[ocala-is-calling]

She had a bath and is all fluffed up ✨️

[wyrddogs]

Agility stars ✨✨✨

Kermit did Novice JWW and completed it with great professionalism and enthusiasm, and to a great big cheer from the people watching. Which is great because when we worked the practice jump he watched me without moving, so I was somewhat worried I'd be running the actual course myself. XD

But no, my man pulled through and had a great time. I let him eat his hot dogs from the bag, which is his highest reward. He was strutting his stuff on the way back to the car.

Zaku did Novice JWW FEO and Novice Standard FEO. He was a total rockstar.

I decided to try out running all of JWW except for the weaves because we aren't ready yet. He blasted through at Mach 5 and was totally on point right up until a turn in front of a tunnel, where he abruptly forgot his name and crashed right in... and didn't come out the other side. Oh no... I looked into the tunnel and there he was, upside down, all four feet in the air. Wriggling. Got a good laugh out of the judge and volunteers and used up the rest of our time. When I finally got him out we took the last two jumps and called it good.

For Standard we did jump-tunnel-A frame, play break, then jump-tunnel-jump-table. Absolute professional. Again going Mach 5. Judge told me he's a very lovely young dog.

I did get a gentle reprimand from the judge because I'm an idiot and forgot no squeaky toys in the ring. So for our second run I had to bring Zaku's beloved squishie (the one the same size as my head) because it was the only non-squeaky toy in my car. I did present squishie wrong and got nailed, but that was my fault. Can't blame the boy for being excited to see his squishie.

I am very, very, very proud of the boys. Definitely need to finish Zaku's weaves and get the teeter and dog walk out of the way, then we'll be golden.

[sheepdogsandsidesaddle]

Something is wrong with my dog and I'm trying not to totally spiral about it. Just have to make it to the AM to text my vet.

[lloonlloon]

0.20s over time aaaa but I love snooker

[caniscorvidae]

up, over, and FEET

[theadventurek9]

I think I have Aayla's retirement plan solidified for obedience and rally. I've spent a lot of time talking with friends and I really think it's time.

She is starting to appear a little more stiff in the mornings and is starting to struggle more and more with weird phases of utility.

AKC

Aayla is entered in a trial in two weeks for UB/OB, if she does very very well I may try and finish the year out to see if she can get her UDX. Yet I would expect her to have a utility Q rate of higher than 50% so that means over the next two weeks she needs to Q 3/5 times she has between this weekend and in two weeks. If she doesn't, then she is retired from AKC obedience and I will not enter her again.

I will then start entering her in rally only to get her RACH. She needs 9 more 3Qs, and she should be able to get that by May of next year. Then she will be retired from AKC rally. She really loves rally and I don't mind doing rally longer with her.

ASCA

I have a trial this weekend and then nationals planned. Aayla will most likely get her OTCh at a pretrial at nationals and compete in utility finals as her last obedience finals. I will not continue on to Superdog next year. After that I will not long travel for any obedience and we will only compete locally at her home training ring until she gets her UDX, then she will be 100% retired from obedience.

Aayla will continue in Rally until she gets her RTCH title. Depending on how she is doing I may be trying to qualify for rally finals next year, if we get in we will attend nationals for one last time for Rally and maybe Nosework/tracking. Then she will be retired from ASCA Rally.

----

All of these are the longest she will go in these sports. I am prepared to retire her sooner if needed. We have Nosework to pick up and I hope to find someone to help with tracking.

She loves training and working still and it's breaking my heart that it's her body that is slowing her down.

[fayeandknight]

We NQed both our runs yesterday. In standard he dropped a bar and in jumpers we got a wrong course because I couldn't cue him away from the weaves fast enough. But I'm still really proud of us.

I honestly did not expect to get a Q at all between both days so that we got one feels huge. Also I got a lot of compliments on our runs from random folks which was flattering.

I did get friendly with a lady who is part of the club and ended up being ring steward for her last Q in excellent. She runs a Giant Schnauzer and it was really awesome to see. Later she introduced me around and people were shocked to find out Forte is my A dog. I explained that I'd practiced with a corgi mix but due to COVID we never went to trial.

Ended up winning the NQ raffle which was nice, got chocolate (yum) and a West Paw lick mat/slow feeder.

All in all it was a good first experience and I'm excited to see where the journey takes us. But I was so tired I fell asleep right after dinner last night, lol. So definitely glad I didn't sign up for three days.

[border-collie]

The biggest thing that sold me on herding? Everyone was wearing hiking boots so I KNOW it's my kind of crowd 😂

[abirddogmoment]

it's so funny i spent sooooo much time being embarrassed about Mav's normal dog behaviours (e.g. worming in the grass, pulling on leash, soliciting pets) and then he would do something objectively hilarious and embarrassing in front of a crowd of people (e.g. heeling away with the judge during an obedience trial) and it was like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[pfhwrittes]

might write myself a very niche little fic about dog sports….

[whatisshelties]

I have no idea how Mud did at the NASDA trial today, but he GOT TO FIND RATS!!!! That's all he really cared about. All I really cared about too, tbh.

I know we NQd at least one run because he worked a distraction for more than 5 seconds. I vaguely remember reading that rule, but forgot. That's one of those things you read and doesn't sink in until you get an NQ for it.

Advice I received on another run was to work on having him be less aggressive with the quarry as in the upper levels they start to dock points for that and it ends up costing Qs. Many upper level competitors run in a muzzle because apparently that makes it so you can't do whatever with it that they don't want done with it. (Though Mud dislodges things with his paws, so a muzzle won't fix that....)

Problem with training him is there's no opportunities to train this. He was rough with the distraction boxes, which is another lack of practice thing, but he called off them easy. But yeah, I would need a quarry box loaded with a rat because that's when he REALLY cares about it. They do like to see that intense prey drive, but then they also want to see more control. I can think of how I train this to keep the intensity without the roughness. I think it involves a toy reward vs a food reward. I'd really like to to not read as 'scent work' like for him since it's critter related. It also involves being quicker to call him off vs letting him get a hold on the hide. I actually have to reward him for finding instead of letting roughing up the hide be the reward.

Also, this was probably the longest dog show day I've had competing in ages. They told us briefing at 8:45 am. They ran what sounded like record numbers for the region of Shed Dog and Lost Item first, then started rat classes. I didn't run our first runs until almost 5pm. I didn't leave the site until 6pm.

[twobigears]

mmm gotta say, so far there has been no noticeable drama in the MN agility people and while i know it’s far more likely that i just haven’t seen it yet because dog people are dog people…it’s nice

[thelittlespanielthatcould]

Kovu got called a show off by the agility instructor for the 2nd week in a row. There was a sub today so this was a completely different instructor btw he's just Like That