Nationals Recap

Last weekend, we went to the Agility Association of Canada (AAC) National Agility Championship. Keltic only got to play on Friday at the sanctioned trial events since he missed qualifying for Nationals by 0.4 points. Quite a heart breaker but as someone said he saved me money and the stress of running two dogs.  Keltic got to run two Masters Jumpers courses and was able to get his first Masters qualifying score with a very nice clean run. There was only one spot where I thought we might have had a refusal but another competitor, who is also an AAC judge, told me Keltic stopped but never had any backward motion. I thought all those tunnels in the middle would cause an off course but they didn't.

Beckett had two Steeplechase runs on Friday. Since Steeplechase is time plus faults, he managed to get a Q with a bar down (5 faults) but didn't Q on a clean run since we spent a lot of time getting the second set of weaves done and were over time. But that run was still good enough for third place and qualified us to run in the Steeplechase final on Sunday. More on that later.

They had so many dogs in the Steeplechase that they didn't finish running until about 8:30 pm and had to run under the lights of the grand stand. They also had to postpone the opening ceremonies until Saturday morning.

Some of the Nationals rings

Opening Ceremony

Judges in kilts

Saturday was the first competition day of Nationals. Over the two days of Nationals, we would run six courses, two Standards, two Jumpers and two Gambles. Our rotation on Saturday was Jumpers, Gamblers and last the Standard.  We didn't get a clean round in either Standard or the Jumpers, we had one refusal on the weaves in the Standard and two refusals in the Jumpers course.   We had a decent opening in the Gamble but could not get the main Gamble. We finished the day in 13th place out of 18 dogs in the double drop 8" veteran class.

Saturday night was the banquet. It was quite well organized and the meal was good too. I had the salmon.  They had highland dancers and step dancers for the entertainment.

Step Dancers

Highland Dancers

Complete Dance Troupe

It made for a late evening though. We left at about 8 pm. Getting home around 9 pm, it was off to bed after the dogs had been fed, Sunday would be another early day.

On Sunday, our rotation was Standard, Gamblers, then Jumpers. It was good to get the Standard done before it was too hot. The Standard had the weaves divided into two sets of six. Beckett was having problems with weaves over the weekend and sure enough he faulted the second set of six, we also got a refusal on one of the tunnels. Again in Gamblers we had a nice opening and Beckett did the first four obstacles of the Gamble before running out of time. I was quite happy about that.  Last up was our Jumpers, since we were in the Steeplechase finals they had moved Beckett up in the running order so we would have time to rest.  We had a beautiful clean round in Jumpers.  The standard course time was 49 seconds so we were over 10 seconds under time.

Finally, we had Steeplechase to run, there were a minimum of three dogs in each height class. Beckett and another Sheltie named Brigid ran very close in time in the sanctioned event but the third dog Cinn, an Icelandic Sheepdog was very fast in comparison.  I expected him to win. Beckett ran first since he qualified third and we set the time to beat. Beckett popped the first set of weaves at the tenth but we finished them before moving on. We ran the rest of the run clean even if parts of it weren't really pretty; Beckett even stayed in the second set of weaves. I didn't see Brigid's or Cinn's run; all I heard for Cinn's run was that he took 20 faults for not completing the weaves.  Maybe the handler thought he had done them but had put the dog back in at the wrong pole or in the wrong direction but in any case even a fast dog has a hard time making up 20 faults.  Beckett and I got first place, beating Brigid by only 2/100's of a second.

Overall I was  a bit disappointed. We finished in 13th place out of 18 dogs but there was some tough competition. That clean Jumpers run over 10 seconds under time was only good enough for 8th place. I did do the "what if" scenario, and if we hadn't had the weave issue, then we would have had a clean first Standard run. If we had run that clean, we would have ended up in 10 place overall and made the podium. But we had some nice runs and got to run Steeplechase with everyone watching. What a blast that was; I could hear people from the standings cheering us on.  Beckett gave me all he had over the weekend and that's all you can ask.

Keltic and his first Masters ribbons

Regionals Round-up

This past weekend we went to the AAC Eastern Ontario Regional Agility Championships.  They were held in Harrowsmith, Ontario which is about two and half hours from Ottawa so we went on Thursday afternoon and stayed in a hotel about 20 minutes from the trial site. We arrived at the trial site at about 12:45 and helped offloading equipment until about 5 pm.  We, then, headed off to check in at our hotel and get something to eat.

Friday was warm-ups and a sanctioned AAC trial. I hadn't entered the warm-ups so I had the morning to set up and walk the dogs. Our events didn't start until noon. Beckett had a Masters Standard run and Keltic had a Steeplechase run. Beckett had a beautiful clean Standard, for first place with a Q; that also won me $15 as the top dog in his height class, that paid for pizza on Saturday night. Thanks, Beckett.  Keltic was eliminated in his Steeplechase but had some nice moments, like getting an off-side weave entry even though he didn't stay in the weaves.

The weekend abode

Saturday morning started early with a general walk through of the day's courses. Our first course was Gamblers. Since I only had about 12 dogs between Keltic and Beckett I brought both of them down to the ring, I really didn't need to do that as it takes about a minute per dog to run the Gamblers event.  This first Gamblers was really hard, not many dogs got it. You had to have good independent weave entries.

Gamblers 1

The main Gamble is in the top right corner and consists of six weaves, then the tunnel on the far right, followed by another six weaves and then the two jumps labelled 4 and 5. Many dogs did the first set of weaves and then were sucked into the tunnel at the top. Beckett was nearly one of those but I was able to call him off but then he wouldn't go out to the far tunnel. Keltic wouldn't even do the first set of weaves.  In Gamblers, you accumulate points by doing obstacles for 40 seconds and then if you can do the main gamble in the time allotted, usually about 20 to 25 seconds, you gain an additional 35 points.

Our next event on Saturday was the Standard. Unfortunately, right off the start Keltic got an off course by putting a paw on the A-frame, that incurred 20 faults.  He only got 5 more course faults for popping out of the weaves and he also had some time faults on the course but for him a rather good run.

Standard 1

Beckett had a clean run right until obstacle 12, I did my front cross too close to the jump and pushed him to back side of the jump for an off course and 20 faults.  In the Standard event you start with 100 points and then they deduct the faults to give you a point score.

Our last run of the day was Jumpers. It walked quite nicely and ran rather smoothly too.

Jumpers 1

Keltic knocked down the bar on jump 2 for five faults and Beckett incurred a refusal for 5 faults on jump 8 when he came in between jump 7 and 8. I probably didn't support him enough.  In Jumpers, you start with 75 points and they deduct your faults so both dogs got 70 points in this event. Keltic actually ran faster than Becket but then he is younger and ran first all day Saturday.

Keltic finished day 1 with just over 170 points and Beckett had just over 190 so we had our work cut out for us if we wanted to qualify for Nationals as you need 350 points. Beckett could qualify even if his second day runs were about the same but Keltic and I had to improve.

On day 2 we started with the Standard event and as the running orders were changed up Specials and Vets went first and Beckett got to run before Keltic all day.

Standard 2

Becket had super awesome run with only one spin after jump 15 which didn't cost us anything but a bit of time.  He was clean and about 28 seconds under the course time so we got 100 points plus points for every second he was under time. Keltic didn't have an off course in this event but did incur 25 course faults and time faults as well so he only got 69 points for this event.

Next up was Gamblers, I had done some figuring and realized Beckett only needed 31 points to qualify for Nationals.

Gamblers 2

Beckett got one of the mini gambles (the one marked A and B) in our opening, did some spinning at the top right tunnel losing some time but we still got 36 points in the opening.  This main gamble was one my dogs should have been able to do but neither one would go out to the tunnel. Keltic only got 29 points in his opening having knocked the bar on the obstacle marked A, had he not knocked that bar he would have had two more points. This will be important later.

Our last run of the day and for Regionals was jumpers, I had walked this course with very nearly a front cross after every second or third obstacle.

Jumpers 2

Beckett went in and we nailed it.  Fast and clean, maybe I was relaxed knowing Beckett had already qualified and was just going for broke.  We ran the course in just over 41 seconds; the allowable course time was 59 seconds. Keltic, I thought after the Gamble had to be clean and 12 seconds under time but my math was a little off. Keltic went clean as well but not as fast as Beckett. Keltic's time was 43.18 and he only had 49 seconds for the allowable course time. I thought we were about 6 points short of qualifying; well, Keltic ended up with a score of 349.6. He missed qualifying for National by only 0.4 points.  Had he left up the bar in Gamble, in the first Jumpers or not put a foot on the A-frame in the first Standard he would be going to his first Nationals.

Beckett qualified for Nationals with a score of  455.33 and Beckett moved up in the standings in his height class from 4th to second.  That's our best ever placement.  It's hard to move up as all the dogs usually have their strengths.  Keltic got third place in his height class but I am most proud of his first place finish in Jumpers 2.

Beckett - 2nd place - 8 " Double Drop Veterans

Keltic - 3rd place - 12" Specials

We had a  great weekend. The rain held off until near the end of the event. The venue had great crating in the shade. The volunteers, organizers, sponsors, vendors and fellow competitors make it a wonderful event. Yes, Lyne, you have to come experience it first hand.

Beckett and his ribbons

Keltic and his ribbons

First

This really should have been my first post of 2018 but since I didn't get my act together to do a Christmas post this one had to wait.

New Year's Day saw the arrival of the first new addition to our family.  My niece and her husband had their second child, a little boy they named Kieran Paul.  A brother for Thexan David who is only 18 months. Boy, will they have their hands full for awhile. Kieran was scheduled to be born on 2 January so it was still a bit of a surprise for the rest of us when we found out he was born on the 1st, turned out Amber had been asked to go in a day early for her C-section.

Kieran is the first of three that we will add to the family in 2018. Another niece is having a little boy in February, it will be her second as well. Also one of my nephews and his wife will be having their first baby in March.

Nothing beats the news of a new baby but we also did our first agility trial of 2018 this past weekend.

This was the really nice set up they had for the photo booth, so how could I resist getting a picture of the boys.

We had a good day, each boy got three runs. Keltic had two advanced standard and one masters Gambler.  Keltic didn't get any Q's but both of his advanced standard runs went well. He only had five faults in the first one, a refusal on  a tunnel (obstacle 7); I was probably crowding his space a bit.

Advanced Standard 1

He had 5.16 faults in his second standard, a refusal on the weaves for 5 faults and the other 0.16 faults were time faults. We had to do the weaves three times to get them done so I'm surprised we weren't even more over time although he was really moving on the rest of the course. I was happy that he did target on both dog walks and there was no going under the tire.

Beckett had two Master Snooker and a Master Jumpers. Beckett got two Snooker Q's; the first one ran beautifully, the second I thought we faulted the weaves in the close but there was no whistle so we must have been outside the refusal zone. In any case, we only needed to get through obstacle 5 to have enough points for the Q and the weaves were part of obstacle 6. In Jumpers, I blew it for Beckett.  I didn't support him well enough to go out to obstacle 4 and he came by the inside of it but other than that it was a beautiful run.

Master Jumper 1

I was very pleased with how the day went. Both Beckett and Keltic ran well given how little training we have done and due to my injured Achilles tendon that we haven't trialled since August 2017 . On that note, my ankle held up, I felt it stretch a few times while running and it is sore today but a good sore if you know what I mean. We don't have another trial until March now so time to practice a bit and for the ankle to heal even more.

So looking forward to more family additions and more trials in 2018.