Agility Summer

I took the month of August off as my vacation this year and in addition to visiting my Mum and doing some camping, we also did some agility trials.

First up was Riverside Agility in Shediac River, New Brunswick.  It was kind of funny that I went all the way to New Brunswick and it turned out that the judge for the trial was from Ontario. I knew Lynda from when I used to live near Barrie as she and her husband Dan were often judges for trials in that area. Riverside Agility is just like the name says right on the Shediac River. If the tide is in you can swim your dogs; but if the tide is out, it's not recommended as they might cut their pads on the broken mussel shells.

Ring crew setting bars

Robin-Ann and Logan

I had mentioned to Robin-Ann, the difficulty we were having getting a Masters Standard Q. Well, first up was a Standard run, and guess what New Brunswick was lucky for us and we got our first Master Standard Q. It wasn't pretty, Beckett started spinning coming out of the chute and I was sure he would have been called for a refusal on the tunnel but I guess he straightened out in time and we were well under the course time.

Beckett's First Master Standard Q

The next trial we did was at Guides Canins in St Lazare Quebec.  They allow you to tent camp on site for $5 per person per night. Guides Canins is training facility and the training hall has showers and washrooms and you can even set up your tent inside if you want which is great if the weather is bad. The trial actually runs all week with events in the evening every night and then runs right through the Labour Day weekend. I went on Friday and stayed three nights, running agility on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Looking toward the Masters rings

My tent site at Guides Canins

Starters ring was right in front of my tent site

At Guides Canins, we got our second Masters Standard Q and we also got two Steeplechase Q's as well. This Standard course ran really nice and I was very happy with Beckett. In the first Standard run of the day, he had leaped from the dog walk so we had to do some training in the ring; it paid off.

Beckett's second Master Standard Q

Our last agility trial of the summer was this past weekend at All Dogs Sports Club in North Gower. I was only there on Saturday seeing as how I was going back to work today, I decided to take a lazy day on Sunday. On Saturday, we had a severe thunderstorm watch and just as the trial started the thunder, lightning and rain started and a three-hour delay was called.  Some of us crazy people stuck around though and during a break in the weather got our first two runs in, a Snooker and a Jumpers. Beckett got his second Masters Snooker Q. Once everyone else had a chance to run these two events, the trial continued but with delays throughout the day for rain. The second last event of the day was a Steeplechase, having Q'd in three Steeplechase at Riverside Agility and Guides Canins, Beckett had a total of 9 Steeplechase Q's; you need ten for the Steeplechase title. He had been running pretty well all day but had incurred refusals due to spinning in both Jumpers and the Standard. Luckily in Steeplechase there are no refusals and he didn't spin too much in the Steeplechase and we Q'd. He was well under time running the course in 42.34 seconds while the standard course time was 52 seconds.

Beckett's 10th Steeplechase Q for his title of Masters Steeplechase Dog of Canada.

So all in all we had a very good agility summer. Beckett now only needs one more Master Standard Q for his Masters Agility Dog title, and two more Snooker for his Masters Snooker dog title. Those Masters Gamblers Q's are still eluding us but I'm sure they will come.

Sunset Ceremony

One thing about living in the capitol, is that there is always something going on in the city. Most of the outdoor activities are usually dog-friendly although there are always some areas that are off limits.

Last night, a friend and I went to the annual Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sunset Ceremony. It's an outdoor show that is free and is very dog-friendly so Beckett and Keltic came along for the show. The show is held at an outdoor arena near the RCMP stables, when we were walking in to the grounds an RCMP officer came over to see Keltic.

Last night's performance included the Sky Hawks, the parachute team from the Canadian Forces, some highland dancers, an assembled Pipes and Drums band, a local rock band and , of course, the highlight of the show, was the Musical Ride.

Sky Hawks - can you see them?

On Target

Spinning downwards

Another landing

Beckett was quite content to sit between our chairs and just chill out. Keltic on the other hand wanted some attention. Luckily I had brought some hot dogs and the lady next to us entertained him as well.

Beckett - older and wiser

Horsing around

Keltic - the little rascal

The Musical Ride is always fun to see. It's too bad some people can't just sit still and watch the show and I'm not just talking about kids here, some adults and teenagers must have walked by our spot two or three times during this hour and half show. But we still had a good view from where we were.

Taking center stage

Riding formations

The Charge

On Parade

The ceremony ends with the singing of God Save the Queen, O Canada and the lowering of the flag.

Sunset

We hung around after the show to let some of the crowd clear out. Keltic was a real hit as one person after another came over to see him and pet him. He took it all in stride, he is real people person, I mean people dog. It was a nice evening. I really should get out to more of the activities there are to do around town.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

We went to the All Dogs Sport Club's agility trial this past weekend. It is one of the few outdoor trials that we go to. They, along with the Ottawa Valley Border Collie Club, host one weekend trial in June and one in September. Saturday was supposed to be cloudy with sunny periods with a high of 23 degrees C so I decided to take all three dogs along with me.  It was hotter than expected and by the third event, Tucker was whining at me to get out of the heat and I had forgotten to bring his cool coat. Fortunately, it had rained the night before and the ground was still damp so for most of the rest of the day Tucker just hung out in the screen room laying on the cool ground rather than in his crate. Keltic was little party animal, happily greeting all the people and dogs he met with one exception, he didn't much care for an Aussie puppy that he met named Jive.

Beckett ran in five events on Saturday and he was hot and I don't mean he was overheated. While we didn't get any qualifying scores, he ran extremely well in all of his runs. In our first event, Snooker, he had a bar down (his only bar down all day) at the last obstacle of our opening and so we were out with not enough points to Q. We were really in sync though and I'm sure had he not knocked the bar we would have finished the close with lots of time to spare. In Jumpers, I momentarily forgot the course (it had run so smooth, I thought we missed part) so I stopped rotating and he took the obstacle in front, just like he was supposed to do. In Steeplechase, one missed contact took us over time but again I felt he had run very well. The course time was 40 seconds and Beckett ran it in 36.95 seconds, since he is slow on the A-frame that was a good time for him but the five faults put us over the course time. In the Standard run, the judge had set only 6 weaves which meant of course at Masters level we had to take them twice as there must be a minimum of 12 weaves at Masters. We got the first entry but on the second entry, I wasn't in a good position and he missed the entry. I don't even think he saw the weaves.

Master Gamblers

In Gamblers, I had Beckett try a mini gamble which was a teeter angled away from the line and then out to a tire; all the practices with him going away from me on a teeter paid off. The main gamble required a flip away, which I didn't think he would do but he surprised me in getting the third obstacle but didn't then take the tunnel right in front but came back to me on the line. We didn't actually flip to the third obstacle, instead after sending him to the tunnel, I called him back to me on the line so that we sent him over jump 2 on a slice.

So Saturday, although he ran great and I could feel that we were really in sync most of the time, was a bit of a disappointment.

Sunday was another day. Sunday was forecasted to be even hotter so I left Tucker at home with the AC on and a neighbour to check on him during the day. On Sunday, Beckett had four runs, a Gamble, a Jumpers, a Standard and a Snooker. The Gamble had a similiar flip to a jump. This time I guess I hadn't set him up as nice and he didn't get out to the second jump. As it turned out we didn't have enough points to qualify; I'm sure that the scribe failed to write down the points from the second time we did the weaves as there was only one 5 point indicated on our score sheet. In Jumpers, I came out of the ring disappointed as on the second last obstacle, a tunnel, Beckett started to spin and I was sure we had a refusal but maybe he stopped spinning just in time as there was no refusal called. Next up was our Standard. Beckett was the second dog in the ring. I noticed the first dog doing the tunnel at the end of the field. I quickly pulled out my course map, I had walked the course wrong. I'm not great at thinking on my feet and instinctively I did what I had walked. That put me on the left side of Beckett with the tunnel to his right and trying to push him out to the tunnel didn't work and we got a refusal. The rest of the run was nice so if I hadn't of screwed up, he likely would have Q'd.

Our last run was a Yin and Yang Snooker. I had never seen a Snooker like that before; two of the other competitors, who are also judges, wondered if it was even within the rules.  What it was, was there were two closing courses, a white course and a black course, hence Yin and Yang.  You could do obstacles from either the black or white course in your opening but in the close had to follow the numbers of either the black or white course but here's where it may have been outside the rules, if you faulted an obstacle on your colour course, you could go to the same numbered obstacle on the other coloured course and continue now on that coloured close.

Yin Yang Snooker

Beckett didn't do exactly what I planned, taking the jump of white obstacle 5 when I had planned to do obstacle 6, a tunnel; but I quickly revised that plan and put him in the second part of obstacle five, a tunnel. The rest of the run went as planned. We did the white course as our close. Beckett only needed to get through obstacle 6 to qualify; a good thing as he missed his weave entry, like many of the other dogs. I guess they just had too much speed coming out of the tunnel. And so with that we had finished the day with 2 Q's, his fifth Masters Jumpers and first Masters Snooker. I was glad I had not entered him in  the fifth event of the day as by now it was so hot (and now I mean the temperature) that Beckett ran out of the Snooker ring and to the first shady spot he found, a friend's sun shelter.

So while our Q rate doesn't show it, we had a great trial. Beckett was really hot; both Standards had course time of 60 seconds and Beckett ran each of them in about 45 seconds. Just hope the weather isn't as hot at Regionals in two weeks.