2010 October GCOC Trial Recap

This past weekend was Harley and Mo's second trip to Columbia since AKC started allowing mixed breeds to compete. You might remember, our first Columbia trial was the very weekend AKC opened to mixed breeds and we had a very warm reception. Since then, we've been very welcomed at every trial we've attended, and this was no exception.

Also, Columbia is outdoors in a covered arena, making photography conditions much better. As a result, we finally have some action shots of Mo on the course! The beautiful weather all weekend was also very helpful for both pictures and performance - sunny with cool-mild temperatures.

Trial Recap: CPA AKC September 4-6 Charlotte

We had the pleasure of celebrating Labor Day weekend at Carolina Piedmont Agility's AKC trial in Charlotte. Since it was a holiday weekend and both Kristen and I had Monday off from work, we competed in all 3 days. Another milestone was we started Mo running 2 classes a day - we had been just doing 1 class a day just to see how he performed in a trial setting. He's been doing so well, we thought it was time to up his workload slightly.


The event was at the Charlotte Sports Center, the same site as CPA's July 4th trial. Greg, president of CPA, really listened to all the feedback, positive and otherwise, from the July trial and what resulted was a very smooth operation. Crating was much more spacious and organized, and the vendors easier to get to. The running surface was superb, as always. The sports center has artificial turf with embedded rubber pellets, giving excellent grip and cushion.


The weekend ended up being VERY productive for both Harley and Mo, and we had a great time hanging out with all our friends.


With all the runs in the weekend, I'll just go over the hightlights:


SATURDAY 9/4
Excellent A Standard - Harley - Harley had a great run on her first Excellent Standard course. She had earned her Open Standard title at the end of her last trial (Greensboro). Best way to start the day, with a 2nd place & Q! [video]

Open FAST - Harley - Harley continued her streak with another 2nd & Q in FAST. The send was a gracious jump-tunnel-jump combo in flow, which Harley nailed. [video]


Mo - Mo had some difficulty his first day. A wrong course in JWW, and some issues on the dog walk kept us Q-less. That's all part of being a novice dog though! Plenty of things to work on!


SUNDAY 9/5
Open FAST - Harley - Despite a hard send bonus (A-Frame-Jump-Jump), Harley nailed it, and finished up her last Open class with a 3rd place! All Excellent from now on! [video]


Excellent A JWW- Harley  - Harley was being a little slow on this course, which ended up being a very good thing. A very tight, twisty course led many of the faster dogs off course, or knocking bars. She still came well under time, and most importantly clean for the Q and a 1st place! [video]


Novice FAST- Mo - Mo had his favorite obstacle in the send bonus - the A-Frame - which made things pretty easy! He burned up the course, earning 72 points in 23 seconds(!) for a 1st place. [video]


MONDAY 9/6
Excellent A JWW- Harley - Harley was clean and accurate on her JWW run, earning a 2nd place & Q. [video]


Excellent A Standard- Harley - Harley traditionally has had trouble in Standard, but not this weekend! I think we're finally getting all the wrinkles out, and she's becoming more and more consistent. Harley blazed through the course for a 1st and Q! While it doesn't really count until we get into Excellent B, it was a double-q for the day in Standard and JWW! [video]


Novice JWW- Mo - Mo capped off his weekend with a stellar JWW run. He had one refusal (which, in my opinion, was a debatable call). Regardless, you get 2 refusals in novice, so it was still a Q! And a 1st place! [video]

A very successful weekend bounty!

With all that, Harley only has 1 more leg in Standard and JWW to earn her Excellent A title. Once that's completed, we can start working towards our Excellent B title and a MACH! A MACH title is very hard to accomplish - it requires 20 double q's and 750 MACH points. A dog earns MACH points by each second they are under the Standard Course Time (SCT) in Standard or JWW. We were very happy with Mo's performance, despite an odd fear of the dog walk in the Standard ring. It seemed to be something with that particular dog walk, since he did the one at DogHaven just fine Sunday night, and went over it backwards just fine on Monday. We're very happy with his progress so far, with 1 leg in each class!

Our next trial is October 3rd in Columbia, SC. See you all then!

Titling Progress: Harley
ExcA Standard (AX) - 2/3 legs 
ExcA JWW (AXJ) - 2/3 legs
Open FAST (XF) - 3/3 legs ** NEW TITLE


Titling Progress: Mo
Novice Standard (NA) - 1/3 legs
Novice JWW (NAJ) - 1/3 legs
Novice FAST (NF) - 1/3 legs

Trial Recap: CPA AKC August 22 in Greensboro

I just plain forgot about recapping our last trial, so this is going to be short since we have another trial coming up this weekend!

Briefly, Harley got 2 1st places, Qing in Standard and Jumpers to get her Open titles in both. Other than that, some handler mistakes NQ'd us from our other runs.
Harley's JWW Run
Harley's Standard Run

Mo had 2 great runs, but FAST was a little much for him (gotta work on those outs!), and he did an off course on the Standard run.

This weekend is Carolina Piedmont Agility's Charlotte trial. It's at the same location as the July 4th trial, which has a great surface (Charlotte Sports Center) . Wish us luck!


Titling Progress: Harley
Open Standard (OA) - 3/3 legs ** NEW TITLEOpen JWW (OAJ) - 3/3 legs ** NEW TITLE
Open FAST (OF) - 1/3 legs


Titling Progress: Mo
Novice Standard (NA) - 1/3 legs
Novice JWW (NAJ) - 0/3 legs
Novice FAST (NF) - 0/3 legs

Trial Recap: GMKC AKC July 14th in Concord

We have come to the Greater Monroe Kennel Club's Concord many times before, but always as spectators. After AKC opened their doors to mixed breeds earlier this year, we were excited to attend this trial that was so close to home.

Our excitement turned into minor frustration, as the stories of the running surface from friends and how it affects large dogs turned out to be true.

GMKC rents an artificial turf surface from the Cabarrus Arena and Events Center. We've ran on artificial turf before, with great success. This turf was different: it's basically just fake plastic grass over concrete. No padding, and no traction. This is a big problem for the larger dogs with speed. Harley's just under 60 pounds, and turns on a dime. This weekend, however, every time she made a hard cut, her legs came out from under her and took a spill. Even Mo, who is about 15 pounds lighter than Harley, took a slide after turning coming out of a tunnel on the novice course. We saw many other large dogs doing the same.

Harley had a tough time adjusting. We tried a few different things on her paws to gain traction (coke, paw wax, and finally anti-slip grooming spray...Thanks Bob & Darius!). The anti-slip spray turned out to be the best, but not before Harley lost some of her confidence while running on it. Thankfully, Harley's last run went well, so it was good to end on a good note.

I'm not going to dwell on sour grapes, but I think we'll be holding Harley out of the trials here unless they make modifications to the surface. Mo seemed to do well, so we'll probably still enter him, but it's just not worth the risk of injury to Harley.

In other news, this was Mo's first trial at his full height! We entered him in 16" preferred in Charlotte just to see how he would do. Given his success there, we raised the bar (literally!) and started practicing at 20" in the weeks afterwards. He adjusted quickly, and so we entered him in the 20" class for this trial. He knocked one bar, but other than that, I think he did very well!

Saturday 8/14
Open Standard - Harley - Kristen and Harley were doing very well until Harley left waaay early for the triple. What resulted was her crashing the bar, and sliding across the slick surface. The rest of the run went well, but Harley seemed a little more timid for the remainder of the run. Looking at the results, if we had gotten the triple, She would've placed 1st by 7 seconds! Oh well....

Novice Standard - Mo - James and Mo had a very crisp run! Mo's contacts were spot on, and despite some lag laying down on the table and having to redo the last poll of the weaves, he was fast and accurate. He had a slip coming out of the tunnel near the end, but recovered well and finished in 2nd with a Q! [video]

Open JWW - Harley - Kristen tried some paw wax on Harley's paws to get some traction, but to no avail. Harley looked visibly slower, trying to compensate for the turf's slickness. She took a nasty spill trying to make a cut after the double, and then decided that she didn't want to go over one of the single bar jumps, so she decided to shortcut and go under it. Kristen didn't want to make Harley go back and fix it, so the run ended with a refusal and a missed obstacle.

Sunday 8/15
Open JWW - Harley - James' game plan was to try to be ultra-conservative, and try to slow Harley's speed down as much as possible to maintain her traction. Bob & Darius were also kind enough to give us some Anti-Slip spray that's used for confirmation dogs when they show on slick surfaces. Unfortunately, Harley just isn't used to going slow. The anti-slip spray seemed to work, but Harley looked like she still didn't trust her feet to stick. She dropped the bar on the triple again, but the rest of the run, despite awkward handling, was ok.

Novice JWW - Mo - Kristen took Mo out on the jumpers course, and had to do some in-course adjustments, as Mo was running much faster than he usually does! It put her slightly out of position, and an awkward cross made Mo drop a bar. Other than that, the run was very fast and clean.

Open Standard - Harley - James' plan on this was just to stick with what we know, and just see how it goes. We appied the anti-slip spray right before going in, and that seemed to make a difference. Harley seemed more comfortable with her footing, and was more confident with speed. The run went without a hitch, and we were relieved to end with such a good result. Harley earned a 2nd & Q, but more importantly, gained her confidence back. [video]

Titling Progress: Harley
Open Standard (OA) - 2/3 legs
Open JWW (OAJ) - 2/3 legs
Open FAST (OF) - 1/3 legs


Titling Progress: Mo
Novice Standard (NA) - 1/3 legs
Novice JWW (NAJ) - 0/3 legs
Novice FAST (NF) - 0/3 legs

Who Can Run Your Dog?

While we were in class the other night, a classmate of ours asked me to run her dog for her, just to see if he would run for me. I was more than happy to oblige, as I like seeing how different it can be to run a dog not your own. Her dog ran for me just fine, despite not having a full grasp on his commands.

Kristen and I were talking about it later, and it raises a good question: If someone else had to run your dog, would your dog run for them? There's several reasons why you might want to try it, and when to try it.

First off, for dogs that are beginners or are still training for their first competition, it may not be the best idea. Consistency is key when you're training, and you might confuse the dog by running with someone unfamiliar with their idiosyncrasies. In addition, your verbal/non-verbal commands are very important when starting out. Every command should be consistent from run to run in order to build up. Once your dog has a firm grasp of what they are supposed to do, then you might want to see if someone else will run them.

You might be surprised by your dogs reactions to a new handler. One dog I ran a while back stopped halfway through the course, looked at me with a very confused look, then raced back to his owner as if he just realized his owner wasn't running with him. I've seen other dogs that just outright refuse to run for another handler. I am not saying a dog that won't run with someone else is badly trained; I just think it's to your advantage that they could.

You never know when your dog's ability to run with anyone can come in handy. For example, say you sprain your ankle on the first run of a 3 day trial. Would be sad to just not run them the rest of the weekend, losing both your entrance fees and your dog's enjoyment of the sport. Having a friend that can step in is invaluable. However, if someone is to run your dog on at least a semi-regular basis, it would be best for them to train with your dog.

Watching your dog run with a different handler is very surreal, and valuable for your own knowledge. It gives you a different perspective on how your dog moves which may lead to trying something differently. My wife and I run both of our dogs equally. But even when we see someone other than ourselves run them, it really is informative (and entertaining!).

Lastly - it's so much fun running someone else's dog! If you have a big dog, try running a small dog, or vice versa. You'll learn very quickly that for an experienced dog, it is mostly about body language, and that you'll only need the most basic of verbal commands (i.e. contact bottoms, release commands, etc) for a decent run. You'll find yourself paying more attention to your run than you might with your own dog since you don't know all the little body language intricacies that comes with a team that has worked together a long time.

The most important part is make sure you, your dog, and whoever else's dog has fun! That's what it's all about in the end anyway!

Trial Recap: Carolina Piedmont Agility AKC Trial in Charlotte, NC

This past weekend was our first hometown trial in a loooong time. Carolina Piedmont Agility (CPA) hosted their AKC trial on July 4th weekend at the Charlotte Sports Center. We are more than happy to enter trials in July that are hosted indoors in A/C, especially if it is close to home! We've come to enjoy the trials that CPA hosts, as they are always well run and know what competitors expect out of a great trial site.

Many people came into the trial with reservations about the running surface. Indoor turf has not earned itself a great reputation in the agility community, especially in this area. I mainly attribute this to the turf surface at another local trial site that has drawn the ire of large dog owners due to the turf's lack of grip, resulting in dogs slipping. I, however, had no reservations about the Charlotte Sports Center turf - I play on it regularly in a soccer league! It's cleat-friendly and is infused with small tiny rubber pellets that A) give dogs a nice grip since their claws can really dig in for traction, and B) it has a nice "spring" to it so you don't feel like you're running on carpet over concrete.

Needless to say, we were excited about a local, indoor trial at a great facility. But that was only a small part of why we were excited: This would be the first trial for our youngest dog, Mo! Mo started training in late November at Dog Haven under Deb Knowles. We decided that we would try to enter him in this trial, as he turned 15 months old on July 1st (AKC regulations state that a dog must be older than 15 months to compete).

We also decided that we would only enter him in 2 classes, 1 each day. It's always an adventure when your dog goes to its first trial. You never know how they are going to react when they get into the ring for the first time. There are so many other things going on, it makes it very different from the controlled environment we have at our weekly classes. While Mo has been coming to trials with Harley for over a year now, we wanted to ease him into competition. Part of this was also entering him in "Preferred."  AKC Preferred classes allow a dog to run in a jump height below what they measure. Mo measures 21" at the withers, which would put him in the 20" height class. We're working him up to to 20 inches, but in the mean time we decided that running 16" Preferred would be best, and we can build up from there.

Without further ado, here are the results!

Saturday 7/3
Open JWW - Harley - Harley opened her weekend with a BEAUTIFUL run. She was fast, accurate, and clean, earning a 1st place & Q. [video]


Novice FAST - Harley - Oops. We forgot to move Harley up into Open after titling in the last trial...Oh well. We ran this just for fun and, it turns out, infamy. Our run was going very well, racking up 78 out of a possible 80 points. All that was left was the last jump which stops the timer. James was paying too much attention to directing Harley and not enough attention to where he was on the course that he put himself on a collision course with the final jump. Luckily it doesn't effect our run, as that jump is only used to stop the timer and has no bearing on whether or not you Q. Plus, Harley jumped the jump simultaneously to me knocking it down, so the time difference would've been negligible. We ended up in 2nd place (1st place tied with points, but had a faster time) and a Q. Be sure to check out the video!


Novice Standard - Harley - Same as above, we forgot to move her into Open. Regardless, Harley steamed through the course, earning a 1st  & Q!


Novice Standard - Mo - The big debut! Mo did extremely well for his first run at trial. He was un-phased by the change in environment and ran exactly how he would've in practice. He had beautiful downs on the contacts, and ran clean with no bars down. To our surprise, Mo ended up in 2nd place & Q, only 0.40 seconds behind 1st place! [video]



Sunday
Open Standard - Harley - AKC allows dogs to move up, so on Sunday we moved Harley up from Novice to where she was supposed to be: Open. Kristen had a nice clean run with Harley. Harley was a little slow on the table getting to a sit, but no faults led to a 2nd place & Q!


Open FAST - Harley - A difficult send bonus doomed this run (A-Frame - tunnel - A-Frame). Otherwise, the run was a success!


Open JWW - Harley - A nice start then led to an off-course. This particular course was VERY tight, and a lot of dogs and handlers were having problems with it.


Novice JWW - Mo - Mo had a small refusal on the 3rd jump (he just went around it), but James recomposed him and finished the rest of the course clean. Novice dogs get 2 refusals, so Mo Q'd and came in 3rd place! [video]

So all in all, a great success. We're very proud of Mo earning 2 Q's his first trial, and he showed us that he can handle the pressure of a trial environment very well. Harley was her usual consistent self, earning several Q ribbons. We are looking forward to CPA's next trial at the Sports Center.

I also want to say thanks to our parents for coming out to see us on Saturday, and a special thanks to Deb for all her hard work getting Mo (and us!) ready for his first trial.

Trial Recap: Fletcher AKC May 29th

Just a quick recap this time...work has kept Kristen and I very busy!

Leaving for Blue Ridge Agility Club's AKC trial in Fletcher, we had one main goal: Get 2 Q's in Standard for our Novice title. We really wanted Harley to be in all Open classes at our hometown trial in Charlotte on July 4th weekend, and this was our last chance.

Saturday
Novice Standard - James ran this one with Harley and had some scary close jumps. Harley nearly nicked the bar on the double and final jump. In typical Harley-jumping form, she tucks her back feet in and clears the bars when she jumps too early. Some of the jumps on this run were just a little too close for comfort. Nonetheless, she was clean, and we ended up placing first & Q! (youtube)

Open JWW - Kristen had some bad luck....Harley dropped the 2nd bar in the course. Apart from that, the run was beautiful and clean.

Novice FAST - James ran for an impressive 74 points with 7 seconds to spare. We came up 1 point short of first place, but walked away with a Q and our NF title! James was kicking himself since he had plenty of time to go pick up a couple more points for first, but it's the Q that counts. (youtube)

Sunday
Novice Standard - Kristen had a flawless run, earning a 1st & Q and Harley's final Novice title, NA! (youtube)


Open JWW - This run almost started with disaster. After a 2 jump lead out, James looked back and Harley was sniffing the ground and wouldn't respond to her release command! I walked back trying to get her attention, and suddenly as I neared the first jump, she started to go! Although it wasn't as smooth as planned, the run was clean, and Harley earned another 1st & Q.


Open FAST - Kristen showed superior planning, racking up 78 points for a 1st & Q in our first Open FAST run! This beat her previous personal best of 77 points, and continues our 100% Q-Rate in FAST. (youtube)


For convenience, I created a youtube playlist with our runs from the weekend. The lighting in the outdoor ring was too much for the camcorder to handle, so I only posted video from our indoor runs.

Titling Progress:
Novice Standard (NA) - 3/3 legs ** New Title!
Novice FAST (NF) - 3/3 legs ** New Title!
Open JWW (OAJ) - 1/3 legs
Open FAST (OF) - 1/3 legs

CDCA Pendleton Trial

Harley's 2nd AKC trial was a success! We were down at the Canaan Dog Club of America (CDCA) trial in Pendleton, SC. The trial site was wonderful - large indoor arena with ample crating space. Here's the breakdown:

Saturday:
Novice JWW: Harley flew through the course in an impressive 21.50 seconds for a 1st & Q.
Novice Standard: Harley blew her A-Frame contact on what would've been a qualifying run!
Novice FAST: Despite the judge and/or scribe miscalculating our score, we still managed a 1st & Q with 62 points (should've been 77).

Sunday
Novice JWW: Harley sailed through the course in 23.05 seconds for another 1st & Q. This was her 3rd Novice JWW leg, so we earned our first AKC title (NJ)!
Novice Standard: We continue our bad luck with Standard. Harley jumped the bottom contact of the dog walk, which was the 2nd to last obstacle. We already had a refusal, but that would've still been enough for a Q.

So all in all, pretty successful weekend. Our Standard runs were pretty frustrating, but we know what we have to work on. BRAC's AKC trial in Fletcher is in less than 3 weeks, so we'll prepare for that. With any luck, we'll pick up the last 2 Novice Standard legs there (fingers crossed) so we'll be in all Open classes for our hometown trial in July!

Fletcher USDAA, Dock Diving, and a new family member

April/May is rapidly becoming a very busy time! The last two weekends we have been out at trials, and have 2 more this month.

April 24-25 was the USDAA trial in Fletcher, NC hosted by the Blue Ridge Agility Club (BRAC). They have now moved the USDAA trial to the indoor arena at the Western NC Agricultural Center, which we could not be happier about. The covered arena was better than no arena, but I really disliked the footing in that arena. It was hard, and had too many rocks. The indoor arena has a little softer footing, but not like running in sand, and rocks aren't as much of a problem.

Harley's performance was...well...a little subpar for us. We got blanked for Q's on Saturday, mostly due to contact issues. For some reason, Harley decided that the dog walk and a-frame down contacts weren't required! Still, we had fun, and placed 3rd in two of the classes. We nearly had a Q in Pairs, but our partner eliminated on a wrong course. We don't hold anything against them for it, as that is the inherent challenge of being paired with a stranger. I really like pairs, as you get to meet a fellow competitor that you might not have gotten to know otherwise. The point of pairs is to have fun with your partner, and Q's are a nice topping. Harley did an accommodating run with another dog and Q'd with them (An accommodating run is where a dog does not have a partner, so a dog from another pair will run with them. The accommodating dog does not get credit for the Q, and cannot run the same half of the course they already ran). So technically we did Q on Saturday, but don't get the credit for it :-) Our Snooker run was looking dead on....until Harley knocked the #2 jump in the closing sequence. We needed to get through #4 to Q.

Sunday started out as a continuation of Saturday. More contact issues in Standard. Finally we got some Q's at the end of the day. Harley had a decent Snooker run with some fast thinking for James since Harley took an incorrect obstacle. Also, during the weaves, Air Force 1 took off from the adjacent airport, which made Harley pop out of her weaves due to the noise! We adjusted, however, and ended up with 40 points (need 37 to Q). Last of the day was Jumpers, which is always Harley's best event. She was visibly slower (last run of a two day trial), but still managed an easy Q.

Fast forward to this past weekend, and we attended our first Dock Dogs trial! Hosted by Carolina Dock Dogs in Sanford, NC, this trial was close and convenient. Unfortunately, Harley broke one of her nails off the day before! We bandaged it up, put some silver nitrate on it to stop the bleeding. Fortunately, it didn't seem to bother her at all, and we decided to see how it went. If it had been an agility trial, we probably would've scratched, but dock diving is must less strenuous on the feet.

Also, we decided to enter Mo in the event, just to see how it went....We only entered him in wave 1. For each wave, you get 2 jumps, and the longest jump is your score. We haven't had a lot of time to work with Mo at the lake like we did with Harley, so he wasn't exactly excited about jumping. We got him to jump in the practice round, but he decided that he just wasn't going to jump when judged. Oh well. Despite his efforts, Mo managed to get his picture in Sunday's Sanford Herald!

Harley had 3 waves on Saturday. Harley jumped a personal best of 21'9" with Kristen in Wave 2! We decided to scratch on Wave 3, since we were worried about her foot.

Sunday was the last 2 waves, and then the finals afterwards. Harley jumped very well, and we ended up in the "Masters" division. Your longest jump places you in a division, and the top 6 dogs in each division compete in the finals. The Masters division is for a longest jump of 20' to 22'11". Harley did pretty well, and ended up placing 4th in the finals.

Coming up this weekend is our 2nd AKC trial in Pendleton, SC!

We would also like to welcome the latest addition to the Davis family - James' sister, Anne, delivered her first child, Quinn Carolina Francis, on May 4th at 11:09 AM. Congratulations! We'll be driving down there soon to see our new niece :-)

2010 April GCOC Trial Recap

Our first AKC trial was quite a success! April 1st marked the first date where AKC clubs could allow mixed breed dogs to compete in agility, obedience and rally. The Greater Columbia Obedience Club (GCOC) opened the doors to mixed breeds with welcoming grace in their April 9-11 trial.

Kristen and I were so grateful to have so many friends at the trial with us to mentor us in our first AKC event. As we anticipated, Harley did very well, and showed people exactly what mixed breeds can accomplish!

Harley had 3 runs on Saturday - Novice Standard, Novice JWW (Jumpers With Weaves), and Novice FAST (Fifteen and Send Timed).

Kristen took Harley on the Standard run. The run was looking beautiful until we realized our oversight coming into the trial: The table. In USDAA, the pause table is always, always, ALWAYS a down. The judge's count does not start until the dog is completely down. In AKC, the judge announces during the briefing whether the table will be a Sit or a Down. Unfortunately for us, we've trained Harley to do an automatic down when she gets on the table. This by itself is not bad, however we never worked with Harley to getting her up into a sit from a down. When Kristen tried to get her into a sit, Harley jumped up on her 3 times, earning a disqualification (Harley thought Kristen was telling her to give hugs!). The rest of the run was flawless!

James handled Harley's JWW run. Harley charged mercilessly through the course like she had something to prove. It was a perfect clean run, besting the course in 20 seconds. It would be a 2nd place finish with our first AKC Q!

For Harley's FAST run, Kristen got some much-needed counseling from our friends Laura and Christine on the rules. FAST is all about racking up points. Each obstacle has an assigned point value on the course, and there's a "bonus" combo where the dog has to take the obstacles at a distance (5-7 feet in Novice). You have a set amount of time to obtain the required points. In her run, we had 32 seconds to amass 50 points. A buzzer sounds at the end of time, and if you have not gone over the end obstacle, you get negative 1 point for each second you spend getting to the end jump. Kristen and Harley put up an impressive 77 points in 28 seconds! Harley again placed 2nd, missing first by 1 point!

Sunday was just 2 runs: Standard and JWW. Kristen and I traded off and she took Jumpers and I took Standard. Jumpers was first in the day, but didn't turn out to be all sunshine. A small handler miscalculation took Harley off-course, and the rest of the course was history. We were both bummed, but in the end, we're here to have fun!

After waiting all day, we finally had the chance to redeem ourselves. Remembering the table incident the previous day, we had been working with Harley all day training her to come up to a sit from a down. While not 100%, she was very close to having it down pat. We flew through the course and reached the table halfway through. Sure enough, she did her automatic down on the table and the moment of truth arrived: I said "Up" with a hand signal, and sure enough, Harley went immediately into a sit! We finished off the run with no faults, earning us 2nd place and Q!

So you might be thinking to yourself, if she did so well, why is she always coming in 2nd? There's a perfectly good answer to that, one that we are not ashamed of. Anna Eifert and her dog Nevian were in town to give a seminar. They decided to enter the trial, and since they don't usually compete in AKC, they had to start in Novice. As you can see in this video, Nevian, the dog who placed 1st to our 2nd each time, is quite the accomplished dog. We were humbled just to be competing with a world-class level dog and it showed us how special Harley is by being closely competitive with them!

So that was our first AKC trial! As you can see below, there was a good turn out of mixed breeds, and AKC gave us a commemorative ribbon to mark the event.

Our First AKC Trial: Columbia GCOC

We're heading down to Columbia this weekend for the Greater Columbia Obedience Club's AKC agility trial! This is an important milestone as it marks our first trial in AKC with our mixed-breed star, Harley!

It will definitely be a little weird being back in Novice level. For those of you who are unfamiliar, each organization has its own titles. Harley competes in PIII level (the highest Performance level) in USDAA. However, since she has not competed in AKC, we have to start at the bottom and work ourselves up. Most organizations will not let you enter a higher level even if you have achieved a similar level in another organization until you fulfill their title requirements. Main reason is that each organization has slightly different rules, judges, and regulations that might not be completely compatible with their own titling requirements and standards.

Expect updates on our facebook page throughout the weekend.

So it's Novice-A for us! Look out, AKC. Here we come!

LCDA Charleston Trial Recap

February 27-28th was Harley's trial down in Charleston, SC. Harley did very well the first day, earning qualifying scores in several events, most importantly the tournament events.

The Cynosport World Games are coming up this October in Louisville, KY, and this trial was an important step along the way. To qualify to enter a Cynosport tournament event, one must earn 2 qualifying scores in that event (except for Dog Agility Masters Team/Performace Versatility Pairs, which only requires 1 qualifying score). Coming into Charleston, we had 1 Q in Performance Grand Prix and 1 Q in Performance Speed Jumping. We needed a Q in each to guarantee our trip to Louisville. Read on to see if we made it...

Saturday

PIII Snooker - Harley usually does very well in Snooker. It's been her handlers that alway bungle it up! Not so with this run. Harley scored an impressive 52 points (If you know snooker rules, it was 4 reds and the points were 1+7+1+7+1+3+1+4+2+3+4+5+6+7 = 52). Best part was that she placed 1st and got her first SuperQ! 3 SuperQ's are needed to earn a PIII title in snooker, and we were dry up to this point, not for lack of trying. The thing about SuperQ's is that you have to be aggressive in your plan. It's not enough just to qualify. A SuperQ is earned when you place in the top 15% of a height class of at least 7 dogs (there are other rules about less than 7). You have to start running for the most points you can get instead of trying to be conservative and get the minimum 37 points required for a qualifying score. We've struggled recently with this, and going all out has cost us. Snooker is very unforgiving!


PIII Gamblers - Harley always does very well in her Gamblers opening. She racks up a lot of points very quickly. However, the closing came to bite us again. We placed 3rd overall, but no Q. We're still working on her distance work, and there's a lot more work to be done.


PIII Standard - As is always the case with our standard runs, something went wrong. Harley uncharacteristically dropped a bar, then proceed to look at her dad while not doing the weave polls (which was more dad's fault for not hiding well enough while video taping!). We ended with a respectable 3rd.

Performance Grand Prix  - With all Harley's troubles in standard, she sure doesn't show it in this tournament event (which has all the standard obstacles minus the pause table). She flew through this course to a first place and a Q! This was doubly important - A) This now qualifies us to enter PGP at Cynosport later this year, and B) a 1st place finish earns us a first round bye at regionals this June!

Performance Speed Jumping - Harley turned in another impressive performance, earning a 3rd place and a Q! This completes our goal for qualifying in each tournament event for Cynosport!


Sunday
In brief, Sunday was not as good as our Saturday showing. Harley was a little tired, and her runs showed it. She was making mistakes, and ended up not earning a Q in any of the events. She did, however, earn LOTS of 3rd places! Four, to be exact.

That's it for this trial. Our next trial isn't until April when we enter our first AKC trial! This will be the first month that mixed breeds are allowed at competition, and we are looking forward to showing our stuff!

Summarized Results:
Saturday

 - Performance Grand Prix - 1st and Q
 - PIII Snooker - 1st and Q

 - Perfomance Speed Jumping Round 1 - 3rd and Q

 - PIII Standard - 3rd
 - PIII Gamblers - 3rd

Sunday
 - PIII Standard - 3rd

 - PIII Jumpers - 3rd

 - PIII Gamblers - 3rd

 - Perfomance Speed Jumping Round 2 - Eliminated

 - PIII Snooker - 3rd

Slo-Mo's Ancestry

This was already on our facebook page, but we forgot to cross post it here for posterity. For Kristen's birthday, she received a DNA ancestry test for our puppy Mo. We know Mo's a mixed breed, but we were never quite sure what mix. Obviously a border collie mix, but what are the other parts???

Because Mo is a mixed breed, this ancestry is measured in levels. Mixed breeds rarely have anything listed in  level 1 (75%). They would have to have a purebred parent. Each subsequent level designates a smaller percentage.

Mo's highest level is 3 (20-36%): Collie (doesn't specify which type of collie but we all know)
level 4 (10-19%) breeds are: German Shepherd, Italian Greyhound, Siberian Husky
level 4 (less than 10%) breeds are: American Eskimo, English Setter

So what we learned from all this is that Mo is a Mutt with a capital M, and we're ok with that. Yes, we were hoping for something more conclusive, but at least it's conclusive that he is a mutt.

The best that we can do when people ask us what he is, is border collie mix.

Winter Weather Blues

Apologies for the recent drought of posts. Here's a couple reasons:

• Really bad luck with weather. Harley's agility class was cancelled this week for the second week in a row (first for snow, now for rain). Even worse, Mo's Beginner II class was cancelled for the THIRD week in a row due to weather. Lastly, the Show-and-Go we were going to attend this weekend was cancelled due to poor field conditions. That's what days and days of rain can do....
• Kristen got a new job! Probably not news for most of you, but it's a big change. She's now working for Wood Designs doing graphics. While working at the vet had it's perks and we still love the people there, it was time for a change. As a result of her new hours, it's now easier for us to take off for the weekend for a trial without having to worry about work schedules!
• OK, I admit. We're also lazy. 

I know all 4 of us are itching to get back out there once mother nature starts cooperating. As of right now, we're attending the Low Country Dog Agility trial February 27th. Wish us luck!

Carolina Piedmont Agility USDAA Trial Recap

We've just wrapped up the trial weekend in Raleigh at CPA's USDAA trial. The venue was great! Hunt Horse Arena is a superb location for an agility trial. It fits 3 rings in the indoor heated arena, albeit it's a tight squeeze. A two ring show would be more comfortable, but with the amount of entries, 3 rings were really needed.


I'm really impressed with CPA. They are just starting out in the world of trialing, and they are getting everything right. We learned on Sunday that this was the largest USDAA trial EVER held in NC. This was only their 2nd trial, and there looks to be many more to come. Kudos to Greg Fontaine, Carolina Piedmont Agility, and everyone involved.


Now to Harley's performance!


Day 1

P3 Snooker (Kristen) - Not too tough of a course. Kristen and Harley were doing VERY well and looked like they were headed for a sure Q. Unfortunately, the practice jump was right next to the weave poles. In the closing, Harley got distracted by something that direction and popped out of the poles. Snooker requires 37 points to qualify, and we ended with 33 points. Had we gotten through the weave poles, it would've been worth 5 points and our Q. Oh well...



P3 Pairs (James) - This is a class Harley traditionally does very well at, and this was not an exception. We had a great partner who did their half flawlessly. Despite an awkward baton exchange area that got the best of a lot of pairs, it went very smoothly. Harley was on-target and fast, but unfortunately she missed her weave pole entry. I think it was probably that she had too much speed going in, and just overshot it. Regardless, it was a 5 point fault. Great thing about pairs is that Qing is time+faults so as long as you're still under course time, you're good. We Q'd, and just barely missed 3rd place. 0.05 seconds sooner and we could've had it!

P3 Gamblers (James) - Harley's string of Non-Q's continued, highlighting our need to keep working on our distance work. James had a nice send over a jump to a far tunnel, but unfortunately stepped over the gamble line. Our opening would've had plenty of points, but the closing is always the challenge. Even had I not stepped over the line, Harley took the wrong jump after the tunnel. C'est la vie.


P3 Standard (Kristen) -  This was our most important class this weekend, as our last P2 title was on the line! Harley was running a little slow, but ran clean. We were concerned that she might not make the course time, but our worries were unfounded as we ended up placing 1st and Q!


Performance Speed Jumping Round 1 (Kristen) - The Steeplechase/PSJ course was very challenging for many dogs that entered. Since Harley was running pretty slow in her P3 Standard run, Kristen tried jazzing Harley up before her run with her favorite toy: a racquetball. Her strategy proved to be a successful one as Harley was noticeably faster. But it's not just speed that counts....it's accuracy. Harley was dead on! She earned a Q, and advanced to the next round on Day 2.


Day 2

P3 Gamblers (Kristen) - Harley's first run of the day. This run started out FANTASTIC....until the timer realized that they hadn't started the timer (very important in Gamblers). D'oh! So Kristen had to start over. Graciously, the judge said that as long as she did the same course, she'd give us the points even if we faulted. The restart did not go as well as the first run, but she did do the complete gamble, but missed the A-Frame contact. Despite not Qing, we were very happy with this, since she's starting to "get" distance work and not be velcroed to our side for the entire run. It's a process of learning, and she's showing signs of great improvement!

Performance National Qualifier (James) - This course was fast and fun! James had the pressure on to Q since Kristen already Q'd on Saturday in Performance Speed Jumping. These two tournament classes are important since Q's in these count towards qualifying for the Cynosport World Games. Harley did beautifully and Q'd with ease. She didn't place, but Q's are what counts. The only place that counts is 1st since that gives you a first-round bye at regionals (we earned one of these last year).

Performance Speed Jumping Round 2 (Kristen) - With our Round 1 Q in hand, this run is for the money! PSJ round 2 placements determine prize money for places 1st-3rd in each height class, with 1st obviously getting the most. Harley did well, but with so many good dogs and the fact that Harley was getting tired, she just wasn't fast enough to place. We ended up in 6th.


P2 Standard (James) - Since we earned our PS2 title the previous day, this run was just for fun since it won't count towards anything. Despite being late in the day and both of us being tired, Harley had a nearly clean run. Her only fault? She jumped off the pause table. While I'm very happy this didn't count, it was frustrating since we've worked very hard the last couple months to "fix" her table. All weekend she was doing a beautiful automatic down. For some reason or another, she hopped on the table and hopped right off. When she got back on, the down was automatic. Despite not Qing, Harley placed 1st (nobody else Q'd in our height class either). That's what I love about USDAA: You don't have to Q to place!


P3 Snooker (James) - Last run of a very long day! I took a very risky snooker plan and hoped it worked. Since it's the last class of the day, I knew Harley wouldn't be as energetic, so I wanted to avoid the weave poles (the #6 obstacle was a combo jump to weave poles). So I did all 7 point obstacles. Problem is that the 7 point obstacle was not very close to the required red jumps! Harley and I sprinted all over the field and made up some impressive ground (I actually had to warn the judge at the start that my path was coming right towards her! She thanked me for telling her, and moved to a better position so I wouldn't barrel right into her..). The strategy worked, and we got all three 7-point obstacles and made it through obstacle 6 in the closing for a total of 44 points (need 37 to Q). We were hoping for a "SuperQ" but were bested by 2 other dogs that managed to get 48 points. We ended with a 3rd place and a Q.

---

Summarized Results:
Saturday
 - PII Standard - 1st & Q
 - PIII Pairs - Q (Did not place)
 - PIII Gamblers - Did not place
 - Perfomance Speed Jumping Round 1 - Q (Did not place)
 - PIII Snooker - Did not place

Sunday
 - PII Standard - 1st
 - PIII Gamblers - Did not place
 - Performance National Qualifier - Q (Did not place)
 - Perfomance Speed Jumping Round 2 - 6th
 - PIII Snooker - 3rd & Q


NEW TITLES:
PS2 - Performance II Standard
PD2 - Performance Dog II

Major AKC & USDAA Announcements

Just about to leave for our trial in Raleigh and got some VERY good news!

1. USDAA just announced the venue for the 2010 Cynosport World Games. This year it will be held at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, KY October 13-17!

From USDAA:

We are pleased to announce that we have received a Letter of Commitment from the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville to host the Cynosport World Games on October 13 - 17, 2010.  Options are also being offered for 2011 and/or 2012.

The facility is home to the Kentucky State Fair and the Kentuckiana Cluster of Dog Shows and has ample RV and general parking, and includes both indoor and outdoor areas for competition and other use.  Much of the competition and the finals will be held in the Broadbent Arena on packed dirt and will be streamed live via the Internet. 

We are working diligently with the facility, local sports commission and hotels to secure room blocks at favorable rates.

The City of Louisville has undergone a great transformation as a destination of choice, and we are certain competitors and guests alike will enjoy their time in Louisville.

Further details will be annouced as they become available.

2. AKC just made a major announcement about changes to their Mixed Breed program!

• They have decided that Mixed Breeds may compete in any agility, rally, or obedience event. Initially, Mixed Breed classes were only available at events that were not also holding an all-breed event (Conformation).
• Mixed Breeds will now compete with their Purebreds friends instead of in a separately. 
• Mixed Breed titles shall be the same as their Purebred friends. There will NOT be separate titles for Mixed Breeds.

Both news items are very important, but I am especially happy about the AKC changes. I'm glad to see that they acted so quickly to feedback from the community, and, in my opinion, made changes for the better.

This Weekend: Carolina Piedmont Agility Trial (Raleigh NC)

Wish us luck this weekend as we travel to Raleigh to compete in Carolina Piedmont Agility's USDAA trial! Given the recent cold weather, our host had the wisdom to hold this trial in a heated horse arena, so we will be very comfortable!

Looks like Harley has 2 titles she can earn this weekend: Performance Standard II (PS2) and, by extension, Performance Dog II (PD2). PD2 is an accumulative title that's earned when you have 3 Q's in each of the 3 non-standard Performance II  classes (Snooker, Gamblers, and Jumpers), and your PS2 title. We have all the non-standard Q's required already, so by earning a Q in PII Standard, we can obtain both titles at once! Let's hope I didn't just jinx our chances...

Hopefully we can also pick up a couple tournament Q's so we can qualify for nationals again this year! Expect updates via our Facebook, and a full recap post when we get back.

Trialing Tips: Gear for Home Base

Your first trial, if it's anything like ours, will be nerve-racking, fun, and an overall learning experience. We've bought a lot of gear over the years and I thought  I would share what worked, and what didn't turn out that well.

I'm going to turn this into a somewhat on-going series, so as not to bombard you with all the information in one disorganized post.

Let's focus on what I'll refer to as "Home Base." Home Base is your center of operations at a trial. It's where you obsess over the course maps, take a nap, seek shelter, and eat!

TENTS
We have found that there's only one way to go: Get an "Easy-Up" tent. It doesn't have to be the Easy-Up brand, but any tent where you don't have to connect polls together is a great time saver. Trust me, after spending 7+ hours each day at a trial, you want to spend the least amount of time de-constructing your tent as possible.

We got our 10x10 "Quest" brand tent for a modest $70-80 at Dicks Sporting Goods. We got this after picking up a cheap $40 Coleman shade tent at Target. I love Coleman and think it's a great brand, but there were 23 polls to put together and took at least 20 minutes to setup, with help. Our Quest tent sets up in less than 5 minutes if we're in a hurry. They also sell accessories like shade and wind side panels. These are essential if you're trialing in any kind of hot, sunny weather. Shade is not a luxury, it's a necessity to keep your dogs from overheating.

Make sure you stake your tent to the ground in case of wind. We usually leave our tent at the trial site overnight, but I always take the canopy off and store it (your dog crate makes a great storage place if you're leaving that too). Our first trial with the Quest tent we left the canopy on, and a storm destroyed the tent during the night.

EVERYTHING UNDER THE TENT
What you bring to keep under your tent is important to how comfortable you want to be. Here's what we usually bring:

• Collapsible Soft-Sided Dog Crate - duh!
• Floor mat - great to lie down on and not get dirty!
• Cooler for drinks - save your back and get the one with wheels and a handle!
• Chairs
• Ryobi Battery-powered Fan - expensive, but worth it. These push a lot of air. In hot weather, our sole fan is dedicated to our dog's crates. Humans will get the second fan :-)
• Folding camper table - unbelievably useful

Arrange your tent so you can keep watch on your stuff, mainly the dogs. Also keep in mind that a trial is a great social event, so don't try and isolate yourselves. Talk with your tent neighbors! Answer interested spectator questions!  Most importantly, volunteer to work a ring whenever possible. It's a great learning experience for beginners, it really helps the trial move quickly, and there are some perks: usually there's free food, drinks, volunteer raffles (1 ticket for each class volunteered) and possibly other prizes.

That's it for now.

Puppy Class Nearing an End

Mo has just one week left in his Beginner I agility class at Dog Haven, and he has certainly made the most of his time there. He has learned a lot, and has progressed quickly. We've now been introduced to all the fundamental agility obstacles (jump, tunnel, a-frame, teeter, broad jump, weave polls, dog walk, tire jump, pause table) as well as some good footwork obstacles (agility ladder, booja board) that you don't see in competition. 

However, I think one of the best results of the class is how much WE have learned.

When you run one dog, you get very accustomed to their running style, how they respond to cues, and their interaction with you as you run. I've ran other dogs before, but they've all been somewhat similar to Harley's style of running. Little adjustments, but nothing major.

Mo is a completely different case. Deb, our trainer, says he definitely runs like a border collie does. Where Harley can make hair-pin turns at almost full speed, Mo makes wide arcing turns. These differences highlight an important aspect of class: the dog is not the only one training. Handlers have to train their minds to think of how their dog will run a particular set of obstacles.

This understanding between person and dog takes a while and prospers most when on a regular training schedule. It's the main reason someone can't just run another handler's dog in competition. While some dogs will certainly run with a different handler, if no prior work has been done with the dog and handler, the handler is really just winging it and hoping the run is clean and the dog listens. It gets even more confusing for the dog if the handler isn't briefed on what the owner calls each obstacle. A good example: an agility friend of ours has a very accomplished Doberman whose verbal commands are all Italian! 


Coming full circle, these beginning classes have been hugely beneficial to both Mo and his handlers. The best thing about beginner class coming to an end is that the next class will be arriving shortly!