Q - less, not this time

This weekend Beckett and I trialled again at AARF. The weather was warm but extremely windy and since we had snow during the week, it made for very sloppy conditions so other than for pee breaks we didn't go outside much.  We had five runs, two Masters Standards, a Masters Gamblers, a Steeplechase and a Masters Jumpers.

First up was a Masters Standard. Beckett ran just awesome; we were in sync for the whole run except for one little bobble. I didn't tell him to "Go tunnel" while he was still in the chute so he curled back towards me as he came out and then began to spin which gave us a refusal on the tunnel. It was the first time we were not eliminated in a Master Standard though and I was very happy with a 5 fault run especially since he was nearly 10 seconds under time.

Next up was our Gamblers event, I didn't much like the opening I had planned. It had us trying a mini-gamble right off the start line. Beckett wouldn't send out to a tunnel so I ran the mini with him hoping he would pattern it and do it the second time. No luck and he even flew off the teeter the second time around. The main gamble was a jump, tunnel, weave, jump combination. Beckett got the jump and the tunnel, they were nearly right on the line so no reason for him not to get them but he wouldn't stay out to the weaves. As I called him back to send him out again to the weaves, I said "tunnel" and guess what he did. Even the judge said, "Well you said tunnel".

Next was our second Masters Standard. I think he was still wound up from the Gamblers. I'll let you make your own opinion on how that went.

Masters Standard - March 2012

The next event was Steeplechase, where there are no refusals and weaves are judged at the Starters level. Luckily for us this Steeplechase had two sets of weaves and not two A-frames since we usually run out of time when there are two A-frames. Beckett ran fairly well, a few spins, one missed weave entry and a little pokey coming down the frame.  The standard course time was 50 seconds, Beckett ran it clean in 47.41 seconds. Good thing he was clean as even 5 faults would have put us over time.

The last run of the day was Jumpers. It walked nice except that there was a lot of places were you had to rear cross. I knew that if they weren't timed perfectly that Beckett would spin and maybe incur a refusal, so I tried to walk it putting in a front cross wherever I could. The course time was 47 seconds and Beckett ran it in 37.53 for his second Q of the event and his first Masters Q. Now we can say he really is a Masters level agility dog.

It was a long day and a long drive home. But both Tucker and Beckett enjoyed Beckett's winnings when we got home, two very large milk bones.