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

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 :-)

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

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.

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!

Fletcher: Trialing in the Mountain Snow

This weekend's trial in Fletcher started out with frustration. A snow storm descended upon western NC on Friday night as we were traveling. What would normally be a 2 1/2 hour drive turned out to be much, much longer.

The roads were bad, but passable within a safe speed. We were doing well until 3 miles from I-26 we were stopped due to a tractor-trailer accident. After an hour and a half wait, we got going slowly and decided to re-route off the highway to get to I-26 where I was convinced that since it was an interstate, the roads would've been pre-salted and possibly plowed once or twice.

I was wrong. Not long after getting on I-26, we got behind another accident approaching the gorge near Saluda. This time we had 2 hours to entertain ourselves. We found out that another tractor trailer had jack-knifed across the interstate.

After getting going again, things were looking good. People were starting to realize how to drive in the snow, and as a result, traffic was relatively smooth considering the conditions. Then came the THIRD stoppage. This time we were TWO MILES from our exit, and it was 1:45 AM. After about 2 hours, I got out and started talking with other people. Turns out that there was another tractor-trailer jack-knife, and that the police had now closed the interstate until it was all cleared, and they could plow everything. Hour after hour passed. Finally at 5:30AM we started moving. 10 minutes later we were at the exit.

We pulled off, and much to our displeasure, the exit was blocked. Two tractor-trailers had attempted to go up the exit ramp, and subsequently got stuck. (Are you noticing a theme here?) After waiting about 20 minutes to see if anything was going to happen, we turned around on the ramp and got back on the interstate hoping that the next exit was free. As we went through the underpass, we noticed the exit ramp was free. Having been driving for just under 11 hours, laws be damned, we went up the exit ramp backwards.

When we finally checked in to the hotel, it was 6:20AM. The trial check-in starts at 7. So we slept for 40 minutes and headed over to the site. Upon arriving we found out that the trial start had been delayed for 2 hours due to weather. So we had to sit around for another 2 hours.

Once things finally got started, we started having fun. Saturday we were entered in PII Standard, PIII Snooker, Performance Speed Jumping, PIII Pairs and PIII Gamblers. Snooker was short and not-so-sweet. We got eliminated on our first set of obstacles. Our pairs run was clean, earning a 2nd Place & Qualifying. Unfortunately, we already have a Q in PIII with the pair we ran with, so it won't count towards our PIII title (it can apply to other titles down the road). Harley did well in Gamblers, but came up short on the closing gamble. Our Standard run was excellent, earning a 2nd & Qualifying, which means we only have 1 Q left before getting our standard title! A fault on her Speed Jumping run left us out of the running for round 2.

Sunday started earlier than Saturday despite being slightly delayed due to the icy road conditions. We had 3 runs, none for Q's. Another good Gamblers run, but still came up short on the gamble (need to do more distance practice!). Harley faulted her weave entrance in her Standard run, and proceeded to do the same in Performance Grand Prix (in addition to an off course that was totally my fault). Having only 3 runs, we left for home early. Thankfully the trip home took the usual 2 1/2 hours.

Reflecting, we learned a few lessons and what to work on. While we didn't perform as well as we hoped, it was the best we could do considering the lack of sleep and conditions. We're planning on attending CPA's trial this January in Raleigh, so we'll see if we can get our weave poll issues and distance work improved by then!

Lastly, Harley, Slo-Mo, Jazzmine, India, Shai, Bruno, Pepe and their 2 two-legged friends would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season!

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Summarized Results:
Saturday
 - PII Standard - 2nd and Q
 - PIII Pairs - 2nd and Q
 - PIII Gamblers - Did not place
 - Perfomance Speed Jumping - Did not place
 - PIII Snooker - Eliminated

Sunday
 - PII Standard - Did not place
 - PIII Gamblers - Did not place
 - Performance Grand Prix - Eliminated

Keeping Track of Titles

When we started in agility, there was so many things we not only had to learn, but also to keep track of!

Titles are a big part of competing in agility. Most competitors will tell you how excited they were when they earned their first title with a dog.

For those of you who might not know much about agility (yet!), a "title" is a certification of sorts - It says that you have completed all the requirements set forth by an organization. After completing all the requirements, the dog is awarded the title. Usually titles have a 2-4 letter abbreviation. Dogs earning titles like USDAA's ADCh (and the Performance equivalent APD)  and AKC's "MACH" are highly regarded and respected in the agility community, as the road to earning those titles is long and hard. When a dog earns a title, it is proudly appended to that dogs name. For example, our dog Harley's full name is currently "Harley Davis PJ3 PK2 PR2 PG2 PS1 PD1."

While you're racking up the Q's, it does become hard to keep track of all that information, especially when you have more than one dog! Here are several recommendations:

• Agility Record Book is a free, open source software product that keeps track of pretty much anything you can think of with agility. It supports requirements from most agility organizations (USDAA, AKC, NADAC, CPE, etc) and helps organize your future trials as well.
• If software is not for you, then consider the old fashion way: Pen and Paper. Many trial vendors offer agility record keeping binders. They're relatively cheap, but not as cheap as free. You also have to be diligent about keeping track of your runs - it's easy to fall behind and lose track!
• Make a cheat sheet. I wrote my own spreadsheet that's printer-friendly so I can take it to trials and quickly mark off Q's I earn during the weekend. I made mine to be quick to update, and SIMPLE. Here's a link of my USDAA cheat sheet on google docs. It doesn't keep track of course times or placements, but it doesn't need to. It's just a quick cheat sheet, and to be usable, it needed to be simple. Note: I hastily converted the link above from an ODS file, so it's not as pretty on google docs as the original on my computer.
• As a reader added, some organizations have online portals to access your dog's information online. As far as I know, AKC and USDAA both offer this feature. USDAA charges a $20 subscription fee for 2 years of access. I gladly pay that much for access, and to support my organization of choice.

User Suggestions:

• From Elizabeth Z:
  

  I use the "Manage my Dogs" feature on www.akc.org and this way I can verify (after about a 3 week period following a trial) my dogs titles and Q's earned. I always check the site before I enter the next trial so I know for sure what we are striving for as far as titles go. I then have the green Q ribbons to know what we got for that particular trial.
  You can also follow your friends dogs too, who are registered with the AKC, with their online record keeper.
  I used to go by the ribbons on the wall. I would drape them in the orders recieved and then I could see when there was a new title ribbon or notice when a Q was needed. This got to be too long.....it circled my ceiling and soon needed another room! I had to box up the ribbon idea and look for something easier.

• Comments: I did the same thing when I started. Keeping track of so many ribbons is tedious, and not a very good record keeping practice.

If you have any suggestions on how you manage your dog's information, post a comment and I'll add it to be above list!

This Weekend: Fletcher

This weekend, we are headed off to one of our favorite places to trial: Fletcher, NC! The Blue Ridge Agility Club always knows how to put on a good trial, and we're hoping to continue the success we had at their trial last May (1st place in Performance Grand Prix that gave us our first round bye at SE Regionals, which lead to our qualifying for Nationals).

This will be the first time we've competed at the indoor arena at the Western NC Ag Center. Given the cold temperatures expected this weekend, it will certainly be nice to be indoors. Our trainer, Deb, will also be making the trip with her dog Ike, so we can bug her with our obsessive handling analyses instead of always bothering Susette. :-)

In other news: Carolina Piedmont Agility just announced some of their future trial dates for USDAA and AKC. In addition to the January USDAA trial in Raleigh, they will be hosting TWO AKC trials in Charlotte at the Charlotte Sports Center. Both trials are after April, when the new Mixed Breed classes can be offered, and it's been confirmed that they will be holding Mixed Breed classes. The Charlotte Sports Center is a great venue, and has a great indoor playing surface. I should know - I played indoor soccer there for many years in high school & college. It's great to see more trials in the popping up in the Charlotte area!

Wish us luck this weekend!

Davidson News Story!

Our good friends at DavidsonNews.net has posted another story about Harley!

Brenda Barger has become a great fan of Harley and has been posting updates about Harley and our agility accomplishments in her semi-weekly "Around Davidson" column. We greatly appreciate not only the exposure she has given to Harley, but also to the sport of agility.

Here's a listing of all the stories so far:

• Watching Harley jump, a Blackburn baby, grads (6/23/2009)
  
• Popcorn rally, Alaska travels, dog jumping and more (10/1/2009)
• Honors for Cubmaster Christopher, June Kimmel, and Harley (12/10/2009)
  

Distance Work

Tonight's class highlighted an issue that Kristen and I were all too aware of: Distance work. 


Admittedly, Harley is a very clingy dog by nature. She's not clingy in the regular kind of way. She's quite independent, and is completely happy doing her own thing. However, when you're doing anything WITH her, she wants us to be close. As a rescue dog, I can understand where she comes from. She's shy, and doesn't like strangers to approach. When she's near us, she's in her comfort zone. Agility has been a sport where she can come out of her shell - most people we train and trial with don't believe us when we tell her she's shy.

That is what makes distance work so hard for her. Thankfully, tonight's lesson gave us a crash course on how to motivate her to send out to jumps.

For those of you who might not know what I mean by distance work, here's a short summary: While running a course, a handler's job is to try and pick the most efficient route for both dog and self. Most of the time this is pretty straight forward, but if you have a fast dog, it's challenging. Practicing distance work allows you to put more distance between you and your dog while maintaining control of their direction through verbal commands and body language. By adding distance, you can make your route shorter, which helps keep pace with a fast dog.

There are classes in most venues that require distance work: USDAA has Gamblers, AKC has the FAST class, NADAC requires distance tests in some of it's standard courses, and there are probably several others in other venues I haven't come across. Since we primarily run USDAA, we are most familiar with the game Gamblers. Simplified, a Gamblers run consists of 2 parts: opening and closing. In the opening, you have x number of seconds to get as many points as possible (each type of obstacle is designated a point value). At the end of this time, a buzzer sounds and you have y number of seconds to complete a closing sequence. This sequence is numbered, must be taken in order, and the handler must remain on the opposite side of a line on the ground, about 5-10 feet in Starter/PIs. Failure to complete the obstacles or stepping over the line results in a fault, and a non-qualifying score. As you progress from Starters/PI to Masters/PIII, the distance between the line and the obstacles increases. You can see now how valuable distance work becomes!

Kristen, Harley and I have progressed in Gamblers to PIII, the highest competitive level, admittedly by mostly sheer luck of the course designs. Harley's distance work has been inconsistent at best, and getting better at this has been a training goal of ours for quite some time.

Deb setup a very nice course to gradually get our dogs to learn the 'out' command. When handling at a distance, using a word to tell the dog to leave you is a must. This word, like all the agility obstacle commands, needs to be consistent every time you say it. In Deb's course, she set up a tight double-pinwheel with 7 jumps (shown below). The dog would complete the pinwheels in a figure-8, while the handler attempted to stay on one half of the course while using their 'out' command to send the dog to the outer jumps before turning back towards the handler. The handler's objective was to not cross over the red line draw below. After a few repetitions to pattern the dogs to the course, the pinwheel would become larger. More repetitions, and then larger more.

Harley's first go at it was a bit embarrassing. She just didn't know what we were asking her to do. She'd start the pinwheel, and at the 'out' command, she'd just stop running and start casually walking towards us. After I admitted failure, Kristen tried with similar results. Finally after supporting her a bit more, blocking her return route with a wing fence, and breaking out the ultimate motivator (the blue racquetball), the course sunk in. This then allowed us to start moving the jumpers further apart. Using our out command, she got better and better. I was surprised at how fast she was catching on! By the end of class, she was reliably sending out to jumps on a full-blown course that incorporated the double pinwheel at the center.

There was a magic moment near the end of class when Harley started to come back to me and I yelled 'OUT!' while pointing to a jump. Harley then altered her course and took the jump. Why do I think this was a magic moment? Because she thought about coming toward me, recognized the command, and changed her direction accordingly. This told me that she didn't merely memorize the course, but she was learning and recognizing the command.

Training Pop Quiz: Does this mean mission accomplished? Harley is now an expert? NO! While she is beginning to learn the out command, there's a lot of work to be done to hone and maintain this skill. Harley now knows what to do on that specific course. The hard work comes in generalizing the command so Harley can apply it in a variety of different courses and obstacles (Gamblers course designers frequently like to put contact obstacles in their closing sequences).

Looks like I'll need to start building some more jumps so we can do our homework!

Cynosport Pictures

We've been inundated with requests for pictures from our trip to Cynosport. After getting settled, we finally got around to getting them posted!

2009 Cynosport Games

Mo Starts Puppy Agility Class

Fresh from our trip to Arizona, we started puppy agility class at Dog Haven with Mo!

For those of you who are interested in starting agility, we'll try and give you a good picture of what to expect here. It certainly is a humbling experience going through the beginner class now that we've been trialing with our other dog, Harley, for several years now. As an added bonus, we had several friends in the class with us (Susette & Archie, Katie & Rosy, with Laura co-teaching with Deb!)

First class is all about acclimating dogs to the obstacles. There are a lot of different obstacles you will encounter on an agility course, and it takes time for you dog to 1) get used to what the heck they are and 2) consistently perform the obstacle correctly on command. The best advice is to GO SLOW!!!! Don't do too much too fast. Don't expect your dog to start agility and be in a trial next month. Training too hard could lead to injury due to unsafe execution of obstacles, or your dog could just burn out and decide "I hate this agility class mom and dad make me go to!"

This class we focused on leg awareness exercises, and acclimation to jumps, weave polls, and the A-Frame.

The leg-awareness exercises included walking over polls, and going through the agility ladder. Each of these are designed to make your dog aware of where they are putting their feet. This is important when they have to negotiate a dog walk or teeter, where it is very narrow, and they have to hit the contact zone.

Mo was definitely scared of the A-Frame at first. With a scared dog, DON'T FORCE IT! Take it slow so that they learn to enjoy the tasks at hand. Forcing it creates a negative experience and will make them not want to continue. Mo is proof of this. After taking it slow, he was LOVING the frame by the end of class.

Weave Polls are the hardest thing to teach a dog to do. Think about it: a dog has to enter the weaves with its left shoulder, then know to weave in and out of each poll and not skipping any. This is not something a dog naturally knows how to do! It takes a LOT of work to get good, consistent weaves. In this class, we started going through the weaves in a V-Channel. Each weave poll is angled so when you look down the center, it looks like a V. The dogs walk through the center. This method gets them used to picking up their feet going through the polls, and learning to go straight through the polls.

After instruction, we had some free play time at the end of class to practice. All in all, it felt great to be back to square one with a new dog! Laura did a wonderful job taking duties as a first time instructor under Deb. We're looking forward to next week!

Arizona & The Cynosport World Games

Just returned from our trip out west to the Cynosport World Games in Scottsdale, AZ. What an experience! We were very fortunate for Laura (James' sister) and her son Ewan to accompany us from Iowa.

We left on Wednesday, November 11th flying to Phoenix with a layover in Dallas/Ft Worth. Harley did very well in the airport and on the plane, although the Charlotte ticket counter gave us a little trouble. After picking up our rental car and getting to the hotel, it was already 12:30 AM (2:30 ET) and we had to be at the trial site at 7:00!

Thursday's itinerary included our Performance National Standard agility run and dock diving. Cynosport certainly tests your handling and course memorization as everyone walks in the morning, but you and your dog might not run it until hours later. Luckily for James, our scheduled run time was only about 1.5 hours after the walk-through.

The course was tough, and as such, I decided to be cautious and conservative in my plan. When we ran, I found myself VERY nervous, and it showed. Harley was a good sport and kept with me, but dropped the second to last jump bar, which I can only blame myself for since I didn't put her in a good position. I tried doing a rear-cross after the weaves (18) but realized Harley didn't have enough momentum yet, and my rear made her jump early. She landed on the bar (19). As always, I congratulated Harley at the finish for a great run. The dropped bar had put us just short of advancing to the Semifinals.

The Splash Dogs Dock Diving competition started shortly after our agility run. We did 3 'waves' during the course of the day, and each wave includes 2 jumps, the higher of which determines your score. We posted consistent jumps around the 18 and 19 foot marks, with our longest jump being 20 feet 6 inches.

Friday was Kristen's turn on the Performance Speed Jumping Semifinals course. Unlike the previous day, our run was not as close to the walk-through. Kristen walked the course around 8:00am, and her run was not scheduled until 2:20pm! Despite the long wait, Kristen kept the course fresh in her mind by watching other competitors' runs throughout the day. Harley did very well again, but missed her weave poll entry. She didn't get any faults for it, but the time taken to reset her back in the weaves put us outside of the top dogs. Only the top eight dogs in each height class advanced, and the slowest time of the eight in our height was 25 seconds!

We had 3 more waves of Dock Diving on Friday, and each jump was around the 17 to 19 foot mark. Harley made an impression on the announcer, who frequently remarked on her good form and how beautiful she was.

Saturday was a down day. We did one dock diving wave in the morning and then decided to drive out to the Grand Canyon as neither of us had ever been. The drive from Scottsdale was about 3.5 hours though the desert and mountains near Flagstaff. To our surprise, we drove through a snow flurry! It had been in the 70's in Scottsdale, and we were a bit unprepared for how cold it would be at the Grand Canyon. Despite the cold temperatures, the views were breathtaking. Our only regrets were not having more time to wander (we got there an hour before sunset) and not bringing warmer clothes!

Sunday went very quickly. James ran the European Jumpers course. Harley didn't do very well as she was very distracted during the run. I can't blame her - it had been a long week and she was doing much more than she would do at a normal trial.

We did qualify for the Dock Diving finals on Sunday, but unfortunately we couldn't compete since we had to catch our flight home.

After our run, we packed up everything and headed to the airport. After 2 long flights, we picked up our puppy, Mo, from my parents' house. We finally made it home at 12:30am, just in time to go to sleep and go to work the next morning!

Even though we didn't advance past the first rounds, we throughly enjoyed ourselves. USDAA knows how to put on a great trial and treat the competitors right! We hope to qualify again this coming year, especially since it was announced that the Cynosport Games would be heading east to either Philadelphia or somewhere in Kentucky.

Our next trial is in December, wish us luck!