Advanced Gamblers

 

Liam and I went to an agility trial yesterday. I always say any trial where we have a Q is a good trial. They are especially good when Liam gets a Q (qualifying score). That boy tries so hard and I do think he enjoys agility.  Yesterday's trial was at a location where I know he does not like the teeter at all! Our first run was a Gamblers where you get to plan your own opening run and the Main Gamble was the A-frame and two jumps so I decided we would not even try to do the teeter or the dog walk.  The dog walk has the same angle as the teeter so dogs often think it might be the teeter. 

I planned our opening going up the right hand side of the ring. We did the 4 point jump, the tunnel to the left, back again through the tunnel to the 4 point jump. I had intended to push Liam to the backside of the jump so he would be jumping towards the A-frame but he was too fast for me and took it on a slice which worked out just fine. After the A-frame, it was off to try the back mini gamble (labelled a,b,c). Liam did the tunnel, came in towards me and when I sent him back out he took the jump on the side labelled B, then he back jumped the side labelled b. You can only do an obstacle twice for points in the opening so now we couldn't get the mini gamble. In any case, I had him do the tunnel under the dog walk twice and then the buzzer for the end of the opening time went. I got him back and over the A-frame, I really didn't expect him to stay out to the first jump but he did and he also stayed out for the second jump which really surprised me. I wasn't sure we had made time as he stuttered stepped to both jumps and I wasn't even sure if I'd had stepped over the gamble line or not. The Gamble line ended at the dog walk, sometimes judges will tell you that the line goes to infinity but for this course the judge said the line ended at the dog walk so you had to treat it like a handler's box. With a handler's box, you can't cross any of the lines until the dog is past the point of faulting so for a jump, when their 4 feet are past the jump bar. I was so excited that he did the gamble that I thought I might have crossed the line while he was still jumping.

Luckily, I hadn't. Liam got a qualifying score with 25 points in the opening; he needs 16 as a Veteran dog. And he was well under the Gamble time, in fact even was he still in Specials, it still would have been a Q

Our next two runs were Standard agility runs. In the first run, the dog walk was the second obstacle. Liam didn't want to do it at all thinking it might be the teeter. The dogs can wear a flat collar now so I just put my finger in the collar and talked him over it. Our time ended before we got to the teeter so we didn't get to try that. In the second run, the teeter was the 6th obstacle. Liam again did not want to do it, so again I put my finger in his collar and coaxed him up and over. We got a round of applause when he finally did the teeter. For both Standards, the parts of the runs he did do, he did very well and he only had one jump down in all three runs. 

I'm not exactly sure how to work with him about this teeter, he does other teeters pretty well. I am going to try and weight mine so it drops faster and put a piece of plywood under the end so it bangs a bit on the drop.

But all in all, it was a good trial. We didn't have to get up too early, we were home before dinner time, the weather was good and Liam got a qualifying score. One more Advanced Gambler Q and he'll be in Masters Gamblers. 

Leaping Liam

Liam turned five in June, where did the time go? Anyway, with the Agility Association of Canada because Liam has been in Specials for over a year I could move him to the Veterans class at five. This means he gets more time or needs fewer points for his qualifying scores.

I ran Liam at a trial as a Veteran just days after he turned five. In the two Standard courses he ran, he was well under the veteran time, but had he been still in Specials he would have been over time in both runs. We didn't get a qualifying score but did have one really nice run with only five faults for refusing a tunnel.

This past Sunday we went to another trial. It was stinking hot and in the afternoon, it poured rain. They delayed the trial until the worst of the rain was over so we didn't have to run in the rain but we sure were soaked. Liam was in four events, a Standard, a Gamblers, a Snooker and a Jumpers. In his first run, the Std, we had a beautiful run, clean until the dogwalk, the second last obstacle when Liam decided to bail off of it. I think he thought it was the teeter again; as he sometimes gets spooked by unfamiliar teeters. Our next run was a Gamblers; as a veteran, Liam now only needs 16 points in his opening and gets more time to do the Main Gamble at the end. Liam knocked one bar on this run but we got 24 points in our opening. On to the main gamble, marked 1, 2 and 3 at the bottom of the picture, Liam did the jump and the first tunnel beautifully but he stopped at the second tunnel, after some verbal encouragement I got him to take the tunnel. I thought we had a refusal so was surprised to see that we had a qualifying score.  Liam's first Advanced qualifying score.

Advanced Gamblers

Our next run was a Snooker, this is a very unforgiving game as you can get whistled off very quickly. I had planned to do R4 (a red jump), then tunnel 6 to R2 where I would do obstacle 7, the same tunnel twice, followed by R1 and obstacle 7 again before running the close, obstacles 2 through 7 as numbered.  We got the first red jump done and obstacle 6, then Liam knocked the bar on R2 so we had to go on to another R (red) jump. We went for R3 and did obstacle 7. I then thought that by doing R1 and 7 again we would be back on my plan for points but again Liam knocked the bar. Most of the close as you can see in the picture is jumps and I was sure he would knock another bar before we had enough points. But Liam ran the close beautifully, I was just sending him in the tunnel the second time for obstacle 7 when the buzzer for time sounded. As a veteran, Liam only needed 32 points and we got 35. The red jumps are worth one point and the number of the other obstacles is the point value. Liam's second Advanced Qualifying score.

Advanced Snooker

Our last run was a Jumpers, it walked really nicely and it was a good course for Liam with not too many straight on jumps, most were angled or he had to take the backside that he likes to do anyway. We had a really nice run; I thought we had another qualifying score. Then the gatekeeper told me he had dropped a bar, the judge told me later that it was really late dropping, that Liam was already on the ground when the bar dropped. It was a bit disappointing but we were happy with the day anyway. I always say any day with a Q is a good day and overall Liam ran well.  Snooker was a bit of a mess but in his other runs he only knocked two bars.

So Leaping Liam is enjoying being a veteran dog, our next trials won't be until the fall, possibly even not until winter as I'll be away when the next outdoor trials near me are being held.

Oh and I should mention that Liam also went to a real Hoopers trial and managed to get two qualifying runs there too. Unfortunately, the trial host isn't planning to run any more trials this year. It's too bad as they just revised the rules and fewer points are now needed for titles so Liam probably could have gotten his first Hoopers titles with another couple runs.

Advanced Standard Qualifying Score

Liam got an Advanced Standard Qualifying Score, a Q, this weekend.  I was a little bummed when I saw the course maps and saw that he had to get two weave entries on each course. In Advanced, they have to do 12 weaves. I thought, oh well, it's good practice. In his first run, he did get one of the weave entries but also came around the first jump to take the backside of it, something he doesn't usually do, but other than that the run was pretty good. The second run was nearly the reverse but the weaves were moved a bit.

I knew I couldn't lead out too much or he would just run around the tire. This was a pretty good course for Liam not too many jumps in a row and those that were there weren't in a straight line. I knew our problems would be the weave entries and keeping jumps up, especially 9 and 10 and 15 and 16. Liam broke his start line but did the tire and since I hadn't planned to lead out much I wasn't caught out of place. We were clean going to 9, I handled the jumps with a front cross between 9 and 10 which gave him an angled approach to 10. Then a front cross after 10, that meant he was doing off side weaves and so had a better chance of getting the entry. It also meant that I could push him into the tunnel at 12; the handlers that opted to do onside weaves ended up with their dog going into the wrong end of the tunnel. Liam got the second weave entry and was still clean going to the dog walk and the final jump but I know that it was still possible to fault. He didn't, he got the dog walk contact and left up the final bar.  

I gave Liam a jackpot without knowing if we were over time or not as he works hard at his agility.  He was under time and not just by a second or two but by over 9 seconds. Considering, he stops to take nearly every jump that was really a nice run.  

Unfortunately, the club's Q ribbons are on backorder so we had to take our official photo with a first place ribbon. Liam didn't care as he got more hot dogs and Charlie Bears for the picture taking.

A satisfied grin

Starter Games Dog of Canada

Liam and I went to an agility trial yesterday, the first in quite a while since we were away on an East Coast adventure. I'll blog about that trip soon.

I entered Liam in four events, two Advanced Standards, one Advanced Jumpers and one Starter Snooker. Our first event was an Advanced Standard, it was a train wreck. Liam knocked about every second bar, refused a tunnel and missed his weave entry. I was quite disappointed and wondered why with his eye sight issue that we were still doing agility. 

Next up was another Advanced Standard, Liam did much better in this run. He only had 5 faults for knocking one bar. Our third run was a Starter Snooker. Liam needed a qualifying run in this event to get his Starter Games title. 

It was a good course for Liam. No contacts, only six weaves, and not too spread out. I did worry about all the jumps. In Starters Snooker, there's no refusals called so we would just be wasting time if he argued about doing the tunnels or the weaves.  You have to get 37 points in 60 seconds to get a qualifying score. All the red jumps are marked with a 1 and they're worth one point. The point value of other obstacles is their number. I planned to do red jump by the start line (marked with a d), then the number 7 jump, red jump by the weaves, then the weaves, red jump in the middle, then again to number 7 going right into the number 2 tunnel to start the close. With that opening I needed to get through to obstacle 5 to have enough points.

It all went as planned, Liam was actually rather fast especially for him and we finished the course in 36.50 seconds. He kept all the bars up, didn't argue about doing any tunnels and got his weave entries. We finished the whole close, that's obstacles 2 through 7 for a total of 50 points.

Doesn't he look proud of himself! Our last event was an Advanced Jumpers. There were so few dogs in Starters and Advanced that I basically had to put Liam in his crate and walk that course right away. We had the qualifying score I wanted so I was pretty relaxed. Liam did well in the Jumpers, he kept up all the bars but decided to do the backside of one jump for an off course but he was running pretty well and would have made time. 

So we ended the day ready to keep playing at agility. Liam likes to play and even if he'll never be a great agility champion, he tries hard. 

Downs and Ups

I think I've posted before that Liam has an eyesight issue that makes it hard for him to judge his take off point for jumps. It's believed that either the dog is near sighted or has a depth perception issue. I think Liam is near sighted. 

When we first started competing in agility he always tried to go to the back side of a jump. I think because then he was close to the jump and could now see it clearly. With time and letting him figure out what worked best for him he became better at doing the jumps from the correct side. In Dec, we were at a trial, and he reverted to going to the backside of most jumps. Needless to say, I was very discouraged, he tries so hard, and he does love to play, but I decided we needed a little break, and I didn't register for the January trial. I made up my mind if he did the same thing at this past weekend's trial we wouldn't register for any more indoor trials.

Yesterday, Liam did very well. He did all his contacts although his two on two off wasn't really there, he did his weaves, got the entries and didn't pop out and, for the most part, took the correct side of the jumps. In his first event, an Advanced Standard, he took down the bar on the last jump but other than that it was a very nice run for him. 

The next Standard wasn't as good. Liam got a refusal on a tunnel and an off course for taking the backside of a jump when he should have taken the front side. He still had nice contacts and didn't hesitate on the scary teeter.

Our last event was a Starter Snooker, since there was no teeter and no weaves, I knew Liam should be able to do this if he could only keep the bars up. Snooker is a game where you have to successfully take a red jump before taking another obstacle, you have to do this three times using a different red each time and then you run the numbered obstacles 2 through 7, and at Starters you have to accumulate 37 points in 60 seconds or less to qualify. We did red, then the A-Frame, obstacle 6, then red, then tunnel obstacle 7 then a red and the tunnel again before beginning the close. My only worry was getting Liam by the frame and to tunnel numbered 2. But he was a very good boy, he came with me and kept all the bars up. 

Liam - Starter Snooker Video

We got a qualifying score with 50 points. Liam now only needs one more Snooker for his Starter Games title. 

So, it was a shame about the one bar down but good news about all the bars he kept up. Liam and I will keep trying and having fun playing agility, although we are thinking about giving Hoopers a try. 

Tunnel, Tunnel, Tunnel

Well, I got home from my river cruise last week, but more about that trip later, this post is about the our last outdoor agility trial of the season. I entered Liam in three events, a Starter Gamblers, and two Advanced Standards. 

Starter Gamblers

When I saw the main Gamble, I knew Liam could do this one. For those that don't know, Liam has an eyesight issue that makes it hard for him to judge his take off point for jumps. As a result, he stutter-steps or comes to a complete halt before jumping. This, of course, uses up valuable time which in the main gamble is really limited. 

We started with the progressive mini gamble, the tire, the dog walk and the tunnel. I thought Liam had missed the dog walk contact but knew that even if he only did the tunnel with me behind the line that would be 8 points just for the tunnel. As Liam came out of the tunnel, I heard the judge call 18, so he must have had a toenail in the yellow contact zone. I tried to get him back in the tunnel from behind the line but had to cross the line to get him in the tunnel for another 4 points. I then went up the middle doing the jump, A-frame and the jump before tunnel 3 of the main gamble. I had planned to do tunnel 3 twice going back to the jump before the A-frame but during the judge's briefing, a question from another competitor reminded me that we could do the main gamble obstacles backwards, so I decided to do the tunnels in reverse order. We did the panel jump after tunnel 1 and I was trying to get Liam into the weaves when the buzzer sounded. I put him back into the tunnels and just kept running and shouting tunnel, tunnel, tunnel. We had 18 seconds to do the main gamble, we did it in under 12 seconds. A 35 point opening for our second Starter Gamblers qualifying score.  Liam now moves to Advanced Gamblers and now needs two Starter Snooker Q's for his Starter Games title. 

His next two events were his first Advanced events. Liam ran really well, although it helped that there was no long line of jumps on the courses and in some cases, we were doing the backsides of jumps which helps Liam figure out his take off point. In our first Advanced event, we missed our weave entry and Liam bailed off the dog walk, perhaps thinking it was the teeter, but his run was nice, and we were nearly 12 seconds under the standard course time. In our second Standard run, I thought Liam might bail on the teeter, but he did all of his contacts nicely; his only fault was missing again the weave entry. Independent weave entries are in the cards for our practices now. Liam still ran well and was nearly 10 seconds under the course time. Liam won't ever be the fastest dog on course but if he can keep the bars up and listen as well as he did this past weekend we should do fine with agility. 

Advanced Standard 1

Advanced Standard 2

Our next trial will be indoors in Nov. I registered Liam for two Advanced Standards and one Starter Snooker. Hopefully we'll have another good day of agility.

Wordless Wednesday - Liam - Agility Dog of Canada

Liam - ADC (first title)

Score sheet

 

Oh So Close!

Usually when you post that something was "oh so close" it means you missed it but not at the agility trial we went to on 10 Sep. I entered Liam in two events and he got two qualifying scores, his first two Q's.  He was so close in both he never even got a jackpot of treats after his runs because I thought we were either over time or had faulted.

Our first run was a Gamblers, where you do what you want to collect points and then when the buzzer sounds you have to send your dog to do a set series of obstacles, in this case, a jump, a tunnel and another jump (marked 1, 2 and 3 on the course map below).

Starter Gamblers

I started with the jump at the bottom left of the course map. Liam didn't do it, he came around and I didn't bother to try and get him back over it. He did do the teeter and jump mini gamble with me behind the line. We then did the jump in the top left corner, I wanted him to come to me and do the jump just above the tunnel so we could do that mini gamble. Liam decided to do the tunnel instead. I put him over the jump and then sent him back through the tunnel so we did get that mini gamble after all.  I tried to get him out to do the three jumps in the top right corner, I think we did them all once, then the buzzer sounded.  Trying to get him up to do the main gamble was fun as he kept jumping and bouncing around in front of me. When I had him set up for the first jump, he hesitated for quite awhile before taking the jump, the rest of the gamble was easy peasy, Liam loves tunnels. I thought we were over time doing the gamble, you only had 26 seconds. But when the results were posted we had a Q with 0.10 seconds to spare. I thought that was close.

The next run was a Starter Jumpers. Liam has an issue called early take off syndrome, he has a hard time judging where to jump from; he does well at home but stutter steps at new venues. 

Starter Jumpers

In this run, I didn't lead out from jump 1 just in case he decided again not to do the jump. The first part of the course ran nicely for us but I thought we had a refusal at jump 9. I sent him to the tunnel and then did a cross to get in position for the jump. Liam should have been on my left side coming out of the tunnel but he decided when he came out and come over to my right hand side. I turned to get him over jump 9 so I thought we had faulted the jump. We finished the course with Liam doing some stutter stepping over the back line of jumps. He did the tire very nicely and read my cross to go in the tunnel and took the last jump fairly well. I thought we would be over time because of me having to get him set up again for jump nine and the time it took him to do a number of the jumps so again he didn't get a jackpot of treats. Then the results came out and he was the only one in his height class to get a qualifying score but could it have been closer; in this event he had only 0.06 seconds to spare.

Liam and his Q's

Don't worry he did get a jackpot of hot dogs but he had to share with Teddy. I hope with more exposure to different agility venues his jumping will improve, it has improved at home quite a lot.

 

Just Jump

So in this crazy time, I have lots of time at home so I decided to paint my outdoor agility jumps.  I bought most of them off eBay many years ago and have always taped them which had to be done every other year.  I'm hoping the paint will last longer.

I did an online order at Home Depot for paint and coloured electrical tape. I had to wait nearly three days for the order so luckily this wasn't urgent work.  I ordered this spray paint in red and black as it said it adhered to plastic so we'll see.

It was hard to get the the old tape off. In some cases I just gave up and painted over the remnants of the tape. The jumps look fine from a distance but up close they're a bit messy.  I also retaped my tire too but didn't have enough tape to do a really good job of it. I also learned that it is hard to mask off the jump bars to get nice lines, the paint bleeds under the tape.  On the last jump bars I did, I masked them first with electrical tape then paper and painters tape which worked a little better. 

I worked out of the garage, making a little spray booth with a garbage bag and my saw horses. It worked pretty well, there's spray paint on the garage floor but does it really matter.  Once I had spray painted the first of the uprights, I realized I couldn't lay them down on the floor so I have to come up with a drying rack. I used beer bottles for that.

First Jump

First two jumps

All three jumps

I had a little blood shed doing these jumps when I pinched my finger trying to get the jump cup off of the upright.  The PVC is sharp where the joint has been cut. It's not as bad as it looks, at first, I didn't even think that it had broken the skin but then it started to bleed.

Ouch

Jump Cups

We set up the back yard with the newly painted jumps. As I was painting the jumps, I realized that red, black and white had been Beckett's colours so I re-dedicated the backyard as Beckett's Field.

No one has yet to run in Beckett's Field, the Agility Association of Canada (AAC) has started a virtual Jumpers League. Keltic and I ran two events last weekend before I had painted the jumps.  The link below is to our run on the second event we did. The AAC hasn't put out anything yet on the next event.  Last week was free, the next time you have to pay to see the courses and, if you want to have your run judged.  Pretty neat what we can do with today's technology.

AAC Level III Jumpers 2

I ordered a new rubber skin for my teeter just before the lock down happened. I haven't received it yet but they said delivery was six to eight weeks, hopefully by then my brother-in-law will be able to help me re-board the teeter.

Short Season

We started the Spring 2017 season off with a trial at Absolute Agility. I had entered both Beckett and Keltic in three events.  Beckett had two Snooker runs and one Master Jumpers; Keltic had a Master Jumpers and then later in the day two Advanced Standards.  We got there early but the event was running late because the facility had been nearly flooded out by the spring thaw; lots of effort by the arena crew and with the sump pumps running they kept most of the arena dry. Courses still had to be modified to avoid the muddy parts of the arena. I only went on Sunday and people said things were already much better.

Beckett ran very well. He Q'd the first snooker run and if I had run the second snooker run they way I walked it he would have Q'd the second run too. I got myself in a position where I had to rear cross a tunnel and Beckett, with eyes in the back of his head, turned around in the tunnel and came back out the entrance for a refusal and a whistle from the judge.  He ran a very nice Master Jumpers too but I stopped too abruptly thinking he had committed to a tunnel but Beckett stopped too and spun getting a refusal on an otherwise clean run.

I had started out just fine but as the day wore on my Achilles tendon began to bother me. Next up was Keltic, in the second Master Jumpers.  He ran beautifully but I didn't pick him after tunnel #  12 and he got sucked into the decoy tunnel for an elimination.  My Achilles tendon by now was very painful, I did some volunteer jobs leash running and bar setting and it got progressively worse so I decided that was it. No use rupturing it I thought, as that would take ages to heal.  Poor Keltic, we arrived at 9:30 in the morning and his 34 second run was at about 4pm; all day in a crate for that.

Master Jumpers 2

 This was the course as the judge designed it but because of the muddy parts of the arena all the courses had to be flipped and tweaked. One of judges didn't have the opportunity to re-do the course maps so we had to make do with the original ones and trace them out on the backside.  The hand drawn maps gave you the flow but the tweaking in the ring meant you couldn't really decide on your handling until you walked it.

Mirror Master Jumpers 2

We had our next trial the very next Friday, only four days later. I spent the evenings icing my tendon and hoping I'd be able to run.  I had entered Beckett in 4 Steeplechase runs and Keltic in two Gamblers. Beckett needed two qualifying scores for his Silver Expert title which in Steeplechase is 50 qualifying scores. I ran the first run and my tendon did not feel great at all but we got a Q. I decided to wrap it. I had brought sports tape but forgot scissors so I used vet wrap. I hoped he would do it with only two runs but in the next run I handled one jump badly and Beckett back jumped it. The tendon felt much better wrapped. On to Steeplechase 3, this one looked nice and it ran well for us, the place where Beckett began to spin, I knew would happen. If I had been a little faster I could have gotten in a blind cross there and avoided that spinning.

Expert Silver Steeplechase Title

I pulled out of Steeplechase 4 so that I could rest my ankle a bit and so that Keltic would get his runs. Keltic ran well; I even ran out of things I had planned to do in the first opening.  The first Gamble I knew he wouldn't stay out with me on the other side of the dogwalk, but he did do a nice dogwalk so maybe the winter training was not in vain. The second Gamble we had a chance, if he would just go to the tunnel but no, he wouldn't. I have to work on getting him calm in order to do the gamble, you see when I sit him down he goes right out the first obstacle without hesitation.

Keltic Master Gamblers runs

So that's it for the 2017 spring season, I had hoped to do more before the Regional Championships in June but I have to be able to run to play agility so it's better to let the tendon heal.

Silver Award of Merit

We finished last year with Beckett only needing two more qualifying scores in Masters Standard for his Expert Silver Standard and his Silver Award of Merit.

For the first trial of 2017,  I entered him in four Masters Standards in hopes that we could get two of them.  Our first run was beautiful, we were in sync, it flowed, we danced; until the second last obstacle, the dog walk, I didn't tell Beckett to target and although he was slowing down he managed to miss the yellow contact zone.

I was really bummed as now I thought that things would go from bad to worse. It only takes that one little thing to throw you off your game.  I tried not to let it get to me as we still had three more runs to go.

Our second standard wasn't as nice. I came out of the ring thinking perhaps we had two refusals.  To make sure Beckett got out to the tunnel (obstacle 11), I pushed past the bottom of the A-frame and he came with me right into the pocket between the two obstacles but then scooted over to get into the tunnel. Then on the second weave entry, he came to a complete stop, I thought he only turned his head before he entered and did the weaves, but I wasn't sure.  I was very surprised to see that it was a Q. Poor Beckett didn't even get a jackpot for that Q.

Now we only needed one more Q, it was getting late and we had to be back the following morning for Keltic's turn.  Master Standard 3 was the course that I had liked the best when I first looked at them and I hoped that Beckett would like it too.

I worried a bit about the first few jumps and getting him into that first tunnel without any spinning.  He didn't, the only spinning we got was when my front cross after the A-frame was late. I was very nearly in his way for the weaves but Beckett saved the day with his awesome weave entry. Beckett certainly was rewarded for this run with real chicken, not just the chicken hot dogs he normally gets.

I was tired, my leg was sore, Beckett was even limping a little; we had done what we came to do so we pulled from out last run and went home.  But I think Beckett would have Q'd the last run too.

Video Silver Award of Merit run

I never thought when I started agility that I would be able to even put a championship on one of my dogs, now I have a great little dog who has his Silver Award of Merit for 25 Standard Q's and 50 Games Q's all at the Masters level.  

Way to go, Beckett!

Reflections on the 2016 AAC Nationals

Last week, I attended the 2016 AAC National Agility Championships with Beckett. Keltic had qualified to go too but I wanted to focus on Beckett and didn't think Keltic was really ready for that level of competition. This year's championship was held in Montreal, Quebec, only a two and half hour drive from my home. It was held at a school, outdoors on artificial turf.  That caused quite a few people to decide not to attend as turf can get really hot with the hot summer weather. I decided that if Beckett showed signs of discomfort we would withdraw so that was another reason that I did not enter Keltic; losing entry fees for one dog would be bad enough. Of course, we had probably the hottest weekend of the summer. I did find the turf to be hot, very hot in fact, but not burning hot. Several dogs did burn their pads but I would expect it was due to them doing very tight turns or that they had tender pads and were predisposed to that type of injury anyway even if the surface had been dry grass.

The facility was very nice. The soccer field area was completely fenced and surrounded treed park areas and asphalt trails for the shade tenting areas. There were also fountains around the park and a couple in the soccer field that they also had hoses connected to, so there was water available for soaking cool coats, filling wading pools for the dogs and misting tents for people and dogs. The soccer fields were also lighted which came into play on Saturday as due to delays, some dogs were still running at 9:30 pm. There was even an off-leash dog park, that some of the organizers didn't even know about, that we found on Saturday.

Tent City (Photo credit: Leslie Cameron)

The trip to Nationals started with a bit of a panic due the fact that the hotel I had booked way back in January had changed their pet policy from two dogs per room, no weight limit, to one dog up to 10 lbs and then only in one room at the hotel. I managed to get another booking at the hotel that was one of the event sponsors. Three others were also affected by this policy change, two other competitors and a friend of mine who was coming to spectate. Choice Hotels Customer Care was good though, they gave me a $150 discount since the new hotel was more expensive and they gave me 16,000 reward points. It turned out just fine, the new hotel was closer and most competitors were staying there so there was lots of people to chat with in the hotel restaurant in the evenings.

Our accommodations

I arrived on site Wednesday to set up. Most times you can drive up near to the crating area to offload.  The facility had a great turn-around area where that could have been done but they wouldn't let us drive up so I got Beckett on leash and dragged the shade tent about 600 m to one of the crating areas. I found some people I knew and decided that was far enough. I had planned to walk around to select a site. The site we got worked out just fine, close to one of the gates for the soccer fields, we could see some of the rings through the fence, equidistant from two rows of portapotties (kind of important don't you know) and close to the information tent and vendors row.   After setting up and registering, we left and went to check in at the hotel. My roommate and I just decided just to eat at the hotel restaurant. It took a while as there was only one wait staff and she was also doing room service

Thursday afternoon, we had two warm-up runs, two Steeplechase. My favourite event with Beckett as there are no refusals so spinning only loses time. We had one bit of spinning on a tunnel in the first run and a really nice run for the second. Beckett got a qualifying score in both runs and came in 7th place in both runs as well. There was a Steeplechase finals to be held on Sunday but I didn't know if that would be good enough to win us a spot.  We ate again at the hotel but the hotel had not learned from the night before and there was still only one wait staff. He gave us our drinks for free since we had waited so long.

Competitor's view of ring 5

Friday, the championships began. We had two runs in the morning, a Standard and a Gamblers. One run, a Jumpers, was scheduled for 6pm.  Gamblers is not our thing, Beckett did a lot of spinning in this event, as a result we only had a 28 point opening. Next up in our Standard, we had one refusal for spinning on a tunnel and one bar down for 10 faults.  In Nationals, in the Standard and the Jumpers you start with points and your faults are deducted. The Standard is worth a 100 points and the Jumpers 75 points.  If you are clean, points are added for every second you are under the standard course time. As an example if you are clean in a Standard and are 8 seconds under time you would get 108 points for that event. In Gamblers, you earn points and if you get the main gamble get 35 bonus points and get points for every second under time, so if you had 40 opening points, got the main gamble for 35 points and were two seconds under time, you would have 77 points. Highest scoring dog after the six events wins the championship. There are overall placements down to 10th place as well as individual event awards. Our performance in the first two events didn't place us all that high in the 10" Special class. Now we had to wait for the Jumpers run that was supposed to be at 6pm. The events had started late and they kept getting more and more delayed as the day went on; there  was even an individual event ribbon ceremony in the afternoon while our dogs sat in their crates in the heat. Some people took the long break as an opportunity to go back to the hotel which in hindsight was a very good idea.  We didn't start the walk-throughs for Jumpers until about 7pm and I didn't run until about 8:30 pm.  Beckett was spinny, I had walked the course with about 9 front crosses and, for three of them, I just couldn't get to where I needed to be. I know enough to stop when he spins and get him back on line, so we finished with a clean run, still a few seconds under time. But the extra time we took cost us as we ended up in 16th place on that run. We got back to the hotel just after 9 pm and ordered in pizza.  We over-estimated how much we could eat and had a whole pizza left, which we had for lunch the next two days. It was good pizza so that worked out just fine.

Beckett running at Nationals (Photo credit: Tamara Gallant)

Saturday we had the second Gamblers and Jumpers courses.  Again Gamblers is not our thing, we did a little better for opening points getting 31 points and Beckett did go out the first obstacle of the Gamble but I could not get him to complete the main gamble in the time allowed. The Jumpers run was beautiful, we were clean and under time, I hoped that we would place in this event and we did getting 9th place.  Saturday was the banquet. The organizers had planned a great banquet with little gift bags of dog treats and candy (for humans) and napkin rings made with heart-shaped dog cookies. The caterers had prepared a wonderful meal and there was lots to go around, they even had enough for people to go for seconds. We had roasted pork, beef, baked potatoes, vegetable rice, salads, rolls with butter. For dessert, there were Nationals cupcakes that were made by a 15 year-old.

Jumpers 2 and Score Sheet

Our placement ribbon (Photo by: Elaine McLean)

Sunday, they divided each of the height classes into the top 15 and all the rest. There was only one run to do which was the second Standard. The "rest" ran by height class first thing in the morning and the top 15 of the Specials and Vets ran later in the morning and the top 15 of the Regular height classes were show cased running one ring at a time in the afternoon. Beckett wasn't in the top 15 so to be safe we went early in the morning as there were no walk-throughs shown on the program, only again to have some delays. We had a beautiful Standard, a great way to end our Nationals runs. I was a little close to the weaves but Beckett got his weave entry anyway. I came out of the ring sure we had a clean run but my friend said we got five faults and I knew it had to be on the dog walk. It must have been a very close call as I can usually see if he misses the contact zone. Bad luck, had we hit the yellow bit, he would have had 7th place based on his time. We did make the Steeplechase finals. They had live streaming for some of the events over the weekend and Steeplechase was one of those events. It was the last event of the day and they ran all the dogs, one jump height after another in one ring so everyone could watch. It was really cool to hear the announcer say your name as you entered the ring: "Now entering the ring Beckett, a Shetland Sheepdog, handled by Helen Stewart".  I messed up our weave entry but we finished clean in 42 seconds, not fast the mistake at the weaves cost us 3 to 4 seconds.  It was also cool to hear people cheering you on down the last stretch, I don't think Beckett has ever seen me so far in front of him but he stayed on his line and did all the jumps. Maybe I should remember that, as Fred says, if you aren't ahead of your dog, you aren't flying.

Standard 2 and Score Sheet

This year there was an event that was started at last year's Nationals; it is a 3-dog team event. You register a team of three dogs and handlers, the handlers have to be members of the AAC.  They record the scores from your runs counting only the top score although each dog has to count for two of the scores at the end of the scoring. The top team wins $1200, the second place team $600 and the third place team $300. It doesn't cost anything to enter other than your AAC membership. Beckett was on a team we called " This, That and The Other". There are also small prizes for Best Name and Best Costume. Our team came in 35th of 92 teams, not too bad.  I thought we had great costumes but we didn't make the cut in the costume contest, a team with only t-shirts did. The team that won the costume contest had a little white convertible car that their dogs rode in, that was really cute. We had t-shirts and headboppers for us, tires and mini cowboy hats for our dogs to wear. I guess you had to see the photo we had for our team to really understand the dog's costume.

Photo designed by Leslie Cameron

In costume, t-shirts and dog tires designed by Leslie

I wanted to wait for the ribbon ceremony for the aggregate placements as I had many friends who had made it to the podium including my roommate and her dog but I had set a deadline for my departure of 6:30 pm. At 6:38 pm, when they had not yet started the ribbons I decided to leave, after all there was the two and half hour drive home.  I still had some stuff to pack up so had to make two trips down to the car, I heard the start of the ribbon ceremonies when I packed up Beckett's crate and made that last walk to the car with him to begin our trip home.

The 2016 Nationals was over for us, they were fantastic despite the heat. I hope god-willing we'll be able to go to the 2018 Nationals where Beckett will definitely run as a veteran dog and perhaps even Keltic will get a chance to show his stuff. The 2017 Nationals are being held in British Columbia and that's just too far for us to travel.

Nationals Swag

New agility t-shirts

Eastern Ontario Regional Agility Championships

This past weekend we went to the AAC Eastern Ontario Regional Championships. I entered both Beckett and Keltic. We didn't go to last years as the Regional Championships are also the qualifier for Nationals and since Nationals were being held out in western Canada, too far to drive; I decided to give Regionals a pass too. I entered Keltic this year as he was 4 in March by the same age Beckett had already been to two Regional events.  I wasn't too sure that Keltic was ready.

We arrived Thursday afternoon and got our shade tent all set up before heading to check in at our hotel.  After feeding the boys, we went out to dinner at an excellent Indian restaurant.  If you are ever in Kingston Ontario, check out Saber's Taste of India.

The next day was the sanctioned events, which are separate from the regional championship. I had entered Beckett in Steeplechase and Standard, and Keltic in Master Jumpers and Master Snooker.  When I took Beckett out of his crate I noticed he was limping; he seemed to walk it off but I didn't want to take any chances and I withdrew him from his events. That left me with only Keltic to run, I momentarily forgot the Jumpers course so we kind of crashed and burned there, then in Snooker I tried to get him to weave which Keltic didn't want to do, so I tried to go on to the next red jump but Keltic wanted to do the tunnel. Tweet went the judge's whistle and we were done, three obstacles and only one point. Needless to say I was very disappointed with the first day and worried about the championships.

That night I gave Beckett some warm massages and he seemed to be somewhat better. I decided that we would go event by event and if he was noticeably limping I would withdraw him from the championships.  Our first event the next day was a Standard, Beckett ran clean although we had some spinning that was luckily done outside of the refusal zones.  I watched Beckett as he walked toward me after the run and I didn't notice any limping. Keltic managed to get through the run with only 10 faults for two refusals. Amazingly, when I sent him into the weaves the second time, he got in an stayed in. I was very happy with that run.

Next up was Gamblers, Beckett had a 35 point opening and if he hadn't argued so much about the tunnel (obstacle 2 of the gamble) and the jump (obstacle 3 of the gamble), he would have gotten the main gamble as he was on the dog walk when the buzzer sounded. Keltic got a 31 point opening but wouldn't go out at all to obstacle 3.

Our last run on the Saturday was Jumpers, Beckett was clean and yet again Keltic amazed me by only getting two refusals, mostly because I couldn't keep up.

Time out chair- we really didn't need it.

When they posted Saturday's results I was very happy to see that Beckett was sitting in third place overall but was flabbergasted to see Keltic sitting in 6th place overall and that he had gotten sixth place in that Gamblers event just based on points. Beckett didn't show any signs of limping but I still gave him another warm massage back at the hotel. Cryopaks are now part of our agility bag.  We had Greek take-out on Saturday night and ate out on the back patio at the hotel that was nice as we could have a drink and not worry about driving.

On Sunday, the weather was nasty. It poured rain in the morning. I was lucky to get the dogs out for their morning business and to get the car packed up before it really poured. We did our general walk through and first event in the rain.  We had Gamblers first, the weaves were the distance obstacle, I knew neither would get that so we concentrated on opening points. Beckett was spinny and refused nearly every tunnel, luckily in gamblers you are just wasting time. Keltic was better and beat Beckett by two points.

Next up was our second Jumpers, Beckett was clean. he was running well and I was able to rear-cross without  him spinning on me. Keltic had two refusals, one because again I couldn't keep up and the other due to his inexperience. I did the same rear cross between jump 15 and 16 and where Beckett saw jump 17, Keltic read the rear cross all right but came by the jump without taking it.

Last event was Standard, Beckett only needed 38 points to qualifying for Nationals but for the aggregate results he would have to have a nice run as everyone in the top 4 was pretty close. We didn't have a stellar run getting 3 refusals for 15 faults which gave us 85 points for the run.  Keltic managed to get his weave entry but popped the weaves, he went in the second time and stayed in, he finished the run with only 5 faults, getting 95 points, again beating Beckett.. He had needed about 75 to qualify for Nationals.

4th place for Beckett and receiving Keltic's National Qualifier ribbon

I was really happy with our results overall, although a little disappointed with the Beckett's last Standard run; I changed my plan from what I had walked and I'm sure that threw us off our game. Beckett placed in 5 of 6 events and got 4th place for 10" Specials, he had gotten 5th place in 16" Regulars in 2014 so we moved up just a little.  Keltic had not only qualified for Nationals but had placed in 3 of 6 events; not bad considering I had only entered him for the experience.