Monday, November 25, 2013

First and Last

Well, we went to a trial on Sunday, the last for 2013 and for the first time in many years, I ran two dogs. Hard to believe that the last time I ran two dogs was in 2009, some days it doesn't seem so long ago but at other times it seems like an eternity.

Keltic ran in the first three events and Beckett ran in four.   At Absolute Agility, one day is Advanced and Masters runs and the next day is Starter and Masters runs.  For the next little while Beckett's runs will be determined by what is offered on the day the Starter events are offered since it's a little more than an hours drive from my place and I don't want drive down on both days in the winter.

Keltic's first event was a Jumpers, he ran really nice but had an off-course when he took the wrong tunnel mouth but I was happy as he did the tire without hesitation.  Our second event was a Snooker, I planned an opening using the teeter and the tire just to see what he would do. For the tire, since there are no refusals in Starter Snooker, if he ran under it, I could put him back through it, so basically we could practice it without getting whistled off.  For the teeter, I thought it would be good practice too as it was his first time at this venue.  Didn't really need the tire practice, as you can see; but the teeter was another story. He was spooked by the banging and didn't want to do it the next time around. I thought we needed the dog walk to Q but I had counted my opening points wrong so was very pleasantly surprised to find that he had Q'd; I probably forgot to add the 3 points for the red jumps.


Keltic's last run was a Standard, I hoped that he had gotten over the teeter by doing it the second time in the Snooker but no; he was worse. He got on the teeter and wouldn't move, I tried everything to coax him forward. Finally I grabbed him just so he wouldn't bail and continued to coax him, then the judge said "push him by his bum" which I did. I gave him a few cuddles for doing the teeter and we carried on with the run.  The rest of his run was very nice.  We were well over time and, of course, I was faulted for touching my dog but when you're not going to Q anyway it's a good thing to help them through the difficult parts.

Next it was Beckett's turn. I had entered Beckett in a Master Snooker, Masters Gamblers and two Masters Standards. They were the first four Masters events, I did that so I could get home at a reasonable time even though I did take Monday off work.

First up was a Standard.  The Standard had one line of jumps that was quite a zig zag, I thought Beckett would do it but he started spinning a bit and by the time we got to the fourth jump in the line he was really spinning.  I thought for sure we had faulted at least three of them but we had only faulted the last jump of the line. I guess we were far enough away from the jumps or Beckett was spinning less than I thought. Next up was a Gamble, that I wasn't even sure Beckett would do the first three as he had to stay out to do the weaves after a jump, he did that beautifully but then you had to send back between the weaves and the jump out to another jump. Beckett would not go out to the jump, he kept trying to take the jump near us, I don't even think he saw the other jump. Next was Masters Snooker, I planned what I hoped would be smooth course for Beckett.

Masters Snooker

We did red jump, the obstacle 6 combination, red jump, teeter, red jump, teeter then red jump followed by the weaves. I front crossed that last red jump so Beckett would be weaving toward the start finish line so then I just had to do an "again weave" to begin to run the close. We were able to finish the whole course in 53.53 seconds, we only needed to get through obstacle 6 in the close to Q. I wasn't sure we were going to have time as to get from 5 to 6a, I went between jumps and the tunnel mouth to send him around to the backside of the 6a jump; usually as Beckett tends to spin right in front of me so it can take some time to get across the ring like that but this time he was quite good. Our last run was another Standard, I had promised Beckett a cheeseburger for a Standard Q; it's been awhile since his last Standard Q (March 2013) and I was hoping a bribe would work. Not sure if he understood but Beckett did get another Standard Q so he and Keltic enjoyed a cheeseburger for dinner when we got home.

Cheeseburgers for me and the boys

So for our last trial of 2013, Beckett did very well qualifying in two out of four runs and Keltic got his first AAC qualifying score.

Keltic and his first Q ribbon!



7 comments:

  1. Congrats to all and especially Keltic for his first Q!

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  2. Well done and onwards and upwards. Have a terrific Tuesday.
    Best wishes Molly

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  3. Congrats on the Q. It doesn't look like the bang scared him. It looks more like the tipping point was the problem.

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  4. different teeters sure can cause problems for sensitive shelties. Why can't they make them all the same?

    You guys did great! Love the cheeseburger reward.

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  5. How cute is Keltic in the picture :) Oh it's great fun running two dogs :)

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  6. Congratulations! What super results, I can tell Keltic is very pleased! Double the happiness for you!
    Pippa :)

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