Monday, March 4, 2013

First Q

Yesterday we went to our first trial of 2013. I thought Beckett might be absolutely wild since we hadn't trialled since Nov 2012 but he actually ran quite well. Our first event was a Master Standard. It walked nicely so I hoped that Beckett would do all right; he did more than all right, he Q'd. He did a bit more spinning than I would have liked but we didn't incur any refusals for them. It's something we'll have to work on though as a spin like that did cost us a Snooker Q later in the day, where we got a refusal on the second part of obstacle 5 of the close and we needed to get through obstacle 6 to Q.

Beckett ran this standard in 46.72 seconds and the standard course time was 65 seconds. He was running at 4.05 yards per second which is pretty good for Beckett.




Next up was a Masters Gamblers run. I didn't think Beckett would get it as we are still working on a good get-out so when I saw the main gamble with the line from 2 to 3, I was sure we would have our work cut out for us. Beckett dropped a bar on the double jump in the mini so we couldn't get those points. When the buzzer went to end the opening I was sure we didn't have enough points. Beckett did the teeter no problem as we have worked  a lot on a teeter going away and he came nicely over jump 2, then he barked and spun as I tried to get him out over 3. Well, he eventually did get over 3 and when I told him to get out over 4, he did get out but went too far down the line and actually went over 4 in the wrong direction. It turned out we had 29 points in the opening but we were way over time for the Main Gamble and in any case, Beckett didn't do 4 in the right direction.



The next run was the Master Snooker. We had a really nice opening and the close was going great until Beckett decided to spin between the two jumps of obstacle 5.  They weren't that far apart and I wasn't trying to rear cross so I don't know what happened there.

Our next Standard ran pretty well. At one point you had to send your dog into a tunnel that went under the dog walk and they had to stay out to a jump. Beckett came between the jump and the dog walk and started to get on the dog walk, so an off course and elimination. We had another off course later in the run when I did a front cross and Beckett rather than taking a jump went around it. My cross was probably too wide again.  The Standard course time was 57 seconds and even with the two off courses, Beckett ran the course in 46.93 seconds.

Our last event was another Master Gambler.  It had a flip or a get-out to the weaves in the Main Gamble so again I didn't think it was one that Beckett would do. We went in with the view of doing a good opening so I sat Beckett on the start line lined up with obstacle "a" of the mini and led out to the tire, obstacle "c" of the mini, called Beckett to me and then did a front cross to get him over obstacle "b" of the mini. A pretty easy 14 points. We did the 4 point obstacle and the tire and headed to the weaves, then to the jump followed by the teeter and the jump on the other side of the teeter.  My plan was to do the teeter and jump twice but as I turned Beckett back to the teeter, I saw that the teeter hadn't dropped. I post turned Beckett around and waited for the teeter to drop and carried on with our plan which was the tunnel, jump and dog walk. Beckett just touched the contact zone on the dog walk when the buzzer sounded. Beckett got the tunnel and jump of the main gamble but wouldn't turn away to get the weaves so we didn't get the Q. But we did have the nice opening that I planned getting a total of 35 points.

So all in all I was pretty pleased with our first trial of 2013. To top it off, we won a volunteer prize, a fleece and fur tug toy which will be a birthday present for Keltic. The tug toy is green with red fox fur, perfect for Keltic.  Our next trial is at Dream Fields on St Patrick's Day, Keltic's birthday.



5 comments:

  1. Lovely run, nice weave entries and weaves! He'll not be long in settling down, spinning maybe down to first comp tad excited.

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    1. Vonnie, I've been told I have a habit of flinging my arm. I have try and be more steady and not throw it up so high. If you watch the video, you'll see he spins when my arm goes up tp try and send him out.

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  2. Beautiful run! Sounds like you had a fun day.

    At least Beckett only spins around once, then gets back on course. Once Chewy starts spinning, he can't stop himself. I'm sure my movement causes it, I'm learning....slowly, how to handle him. You've done a great job with Beckett! He obviously loves his agility.

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    1. He does spin a lot when I have to stop on the Gamble line. I've taken to telling him to line up and once he's at my side I give a few seconds to calm down. Sometimes it works, sometimes as soon as I tell him to do anything he's off and spinning again.

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  3. Q or no Q, Beckett is always fun to watch, and I'm sure fun to run too :-)

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