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
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
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
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
Monday, May 10, 2010
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!
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!
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