Thursday, June 6, 2019

RPod Adventure - Regional Agility Championships

Beckett

Keltic
For my second RPod adventure, I headed off to our Ontario East Regional Agility Championship. This trip I did all by myself, hitched up and towed the RPod to Harrowsmith, Ontario. I took the secondary roads rather than the highway so it was also a nice scenic drive.  I traveled with the battery disconnected and all of the water and anything else that could be was frozen so that I didn't need the fridge on either. The trip went well but the bit of trouble happened on arrival at the trial campground site.  We have had so much rain this spring that when I drove on the field to set up the trailer, my Ford Escape got stuck in the mud.  I waited 3 and half hours for CAA to send the tow truck. They cancelled the first call since I don't have an RV package. Once the driver did show up, I asked him if he could get the trailer out too and I would pay extra. The tow truck driver managed to get the trailer hitched up again; I had unhitched as another competitor was going to try with his truck but he couldn't get in to hitch up either. The tow truck driver pulled both my car and trailer out at the same time, when I asked how much I owed him, he just put out his hand and said to have a nice day.

I got myself set up, but this time I parked my little Pod on the asphalt. I didn't have the wheel up on the Lynx levelers properly and when I was putting down the tongue jack the trailer rolled back a bit but the chocks stopped the trailer but now the tongue jack was on the ground.  This caused a little problem when I went to hitch up again as not I couldn't get the receiver high enough to get the ball under it. Another competitor helped me out, he put two large pieces of wood under the tongue with the jack as high as it would go, then cranked the tongue jack back up until we could get some blocks of wood under it.


So I've learned some valuable lessons on this trip, the Ford Escape does not go off road and make sure the trailer is even up on the levelers and well chocked before unhitching. I also learned not to cook inside without the fan on.


I used a solar panel on this trip and it did work well, keeping the battery charged. I used the lights quite sparingly but after all I was only at the trailer in the evening.  The propane worked for the fridge and I even drove home with the fridge on propane.

Beckett and Keltic did well at the championships and both qualified for Nationals. You need 350 points to qualify. Keltic got 411 points and Beckett got 396.  Beckett came third in his height division 8" double drop veterans and Keltic came fourth in his height class 12" veterans.

8" Double Drop Veterans Podium

12" Veterans Podium
I almost thought I might have to pull Beckett, on the first day he refused a tunnel in Jumpers, twice and nearly walked the course finishing nearly 12 seconds over time.  I had him massaged by one of the canine health practitioners and he ran much better after a couple massages and an ice pack on his shoulder on Saturday night. In his last event, also a Jumpers, he ran clean and was 12 seconds under time.

Keltic had his first ever clean Masters Standard round. I thought he had missed the dog walk contact but was surprised to see no faults recorded on his score sheet. This clean run nearly 24 seconds under the standard course time was only good enough for 4th place in the class, that's how tough the competition was.

Beckett with his ribbons and prizes

Keltic with his ribbons and prizes


Competitors swag
The boys got nice prize bags for placing, but I think they just enjoy the treats.  The competitors got a nice bag too and it had a collapsible drinking bowl, treat bag and gel pack in it as well as some other small items and some roll over treats for the dogs.

So that's Regionals over for 2019. I wasn't planning on doing Regionals next year as it will be further away from me but I heard a rumour that next years Nationals may be down east; if that's the case, we might just have to try and qualify again next year. This year even though Nationals is in Ontario, we won't be going; I will be going down east to the Arsenault Family Reunion.

5 comments:

  1. Well. First off, CONGRATS on all the ribbons!! That's quite the haul! And boy your adventures with the POD seem fun, if a little scary. I think I'd like a trailer, it was darn cold in our tent this week! I worry about being able to hitch up on my own though.. do you find that hard?

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    1. With a back-up camera hitching up is the easy part. The Ford back-up camera has a dashed black line in the center, I just line it up to the receiver and back up, when the ball disappears under the receiver, I'm in place. Usually only takes a couple of tries. Backing up the trailer is harder but I'm learning.

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    2. Ooooh...that Ford backup camera thing sounds PERFECT!

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  2. Bummer about getting stuck in the mud and that was one SuperNice tow truck driver! Congratulations, Beckett and Keltic!

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  3. Sounds like you all did well. You with learning about camping, and the dogs' agility. Nice to have some helpers!

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