Monday, January 26, 2015

First Trial of the New Year

Keltic and I went to the Starter and Advanced trial at Dogz this past Sunday. Dogz has the use of an equestrian arena this year and are able to host some evening trials and to rent out some time.  Since Keltic needs just one more Starter Standard Q to get his Agility Dog of Canada title, we thought we would give this trial a go as there were two Starter Standards.at this evening trial.

 In the first Standard, Keltic took a flying leap off the A-frame. I made him do it again and again, I was just about to put him back on when the buzzer went for time so we left the ring after completing only five obstacles, the A-frame was number 6 and we didn't actually finish it.

In the second Standard, the A-frame was much further into the course but there were 12 weaves. I was pretty sure that he would pop out of them at some point.

Starter Standard 2

He broke his start line but I was able to get him back into a sit and then he waited for his release. He did the tire nicely and turned into the tunnel quickly. As I thought with the weaves, he didn't want to do them. They are certainly a skill we need to work on more. After the double, he went to the tunnel and then did a great job on the teeter.  Then it was onto the table, thankfully, he no longer has to lay down, just stay on the table. Then we had a nice run, tunnel, chute, A-frame, (where I let him run off), tunnel and then the jumps at the back of the course with no problem. The dog walk, he again ran off and missed the contact, nearly had it though.


So we still have some areas to work on, it never ends. Weaves, we can work on over the winter but contacts are harder, we can do some contact work on the stairs but it just doesn't match up to doing the real obstacle. I may try to retrain as I did with Beckett and let him do running contacts but he has to learn that sometimes I need him to slow down.

But we had fun at our first trial of 2015, Keltic seems not to be phased by much and unlike many dogs he didn't sniff and run around checking things out, all those horsey smells. Our next trial will be at the same locale but it will be Beckett's turn to have some fun. And so the agility year of 2015 has started.





4 comments:

  1. Wow, you guys are at it early theis year...had to laugh at the video....he did them weaves till you gave up..HE WON!

    The Mad Scots

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  2. OMD we could feel the excitement.. Have a terrific Tuesday.
    Best wishes Molly

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  3. Keltic is soooooo adorable! I love how he's all bouncy.

    He's going to figure out his weaves and contacts, and when you do, you two will be unstoppable!

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  4. You all are lucky you can train in the ring. We cant train in the ring and if they even think you are training, you get whistled out. I think that is why UKI , that was started in the US a couple of years ago, is so pupular. You just have to say your run is a training run before entering the ring.

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