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