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: 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!

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.

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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

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!