Agility Summer

I took the month of August off as my vacation this year and in addition to visiting my Mum and doing some camping, we also did some agility trials.

First up was Riverside Agility in Shediac River, New Brunswick.  It was kind of funny that I went all the way to New Brunswick and it turned out that the judge for the trial was from Ontario. I knew Lynda from when I used to live near Barrie as she and her husband Dan were often judges for trials in that area. Riverside Agility is just like the name says right on the Shediac River. If the tide is in you can swim your dogs; but if the tide is out, it's not recommended as they might cut their pads on the broken mussel shells.

Ring crew setting bars

Robin-Ann and Logan

I had mentioned to Robin-Ann, the difficulty we were having getting a Masters Standard Q. Well, first up was a Standard run, and guess what New Brunswick was lucky for us and we got our first Master Standard Q. It wasn't pretty, Beckett started spinning coming out of the chute and I was sure he would have been called for a refusal on the tunnel but I guess he straightened out in time and we were well under the course time.

Beckett's First Master Standard Q

The next trial we did was at Guides Canins in St Lazare Quebec.  They allow you to tent camp on site for $5 per person per night. Guides Canins is training facility and the training hall has showers and washrooms and you can even set up your tent inside if you want which is great if the weather is bad. The trial actually runs all week with events in the evening every night and then runs right through the Labour Day weekend. I went on Friday and stayed three nights, running agility on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Looking toward the Masters rings

My tent site at Guides Canins

Starters ring was right in front of my tent site

At Guides Canins, we got our second Masters Standard Q and we also got two Steeplechase Q's as well. This Standard course ran really nice and I was very happy with Beckett. In the first Standard run of the day, he had leaped from the dog walk so we had to do some training in the ring; it paid off.

Beckett's second Master Standard Q

Our last agility trial of the summer was this past weekend at All Dogs Sports Club in North Gower. I was only there on Saturday seeing as how I was going back to work today, I decided to take a lazy day on Sunday. On Saturday, we had a severe thunderstorm watch and just as the trial started the thunder, lightning and rain started and a three-hour delay was called.  Some of us crazy people stuck around though and during a break in the weather got our first two runs in, a Snooker and a Jumpers. Beckett got his second Masters Snooker Q. Once everyone else had a chance to run these two events, the trial continued but with delays throughout the day for rain. The second last event of the day was a Steeplechase, having Q'd in three Steeplechase at Riverside Agility and Guides Canins, Beckett had a total of 9 Steeplechase Q's; you need ten for the Steeplechase title. He had been running pretty well all day but had incurred refusals due to spinning in both Jumpers and the Standard. Luckily in Steeplechase there are no refusals and he didn't spin too much in the Steeplechase and we Q'd. He was well under time running the course in 42.34 seconds while the standard course time was 52 seconds.

Beckett's 10th Steeplechase Q for his title of Masters Steeplechase Dog of Canada.

So all in all we had a very good agility summer. Beckett now only needs one more Master Standard Q for his Masters Agility Dog title, and two more Snooker for his Masters Snooker dog title. Those Masters Gamblers Q's are still eluding us but I'm sure they will come.