Awesome Agility Weekend

We went to Paws 4 Fun Agility's first trial this past weekend. They are a new club in the area and are located only about an hours drive from my house. They also host the K9 Kup that Keltic and I take part in, This is their first year at this location, last year they used fields that belonged to another club for the K9 Kup so they didn't host any sanctioned competitions. I wasn't sure about entering this trial as we were just getting back from our vacation and neither Beckett or Keltic had done any agility in weeks, nearly a month for Keltic. I thought they might be absolutely crazy.

Saturday was Advanced and Starter events. I entered Keltic in Advanced Gambler, Starter Standard and Starter Snooker. First up was Advanced Gambler, I thought this run would be just to give Keltic a run where he could just blow off some energy. Surprisingly he ran well and although he didn't do the mini gamble, he did the final Gambler, where he had to get out to a jump, stay out to take a tunnel and then on to a final jump. It was his first Advanced Gamblers Q.

The next run was the Starter Std, I thought he had missed all of his contacts, the little monkey made no effort what so ever to slow down when I said target. It turned out that he had at least touched every contact zone. The only faults he had was for getting off the table. Something caught his attention when he got on the table and he just had to get off and sniff. He did get the best run for all regular dogs in this event as he had the fewest faults.

Next was the Starter Snooker, Keltic needed a Q in this run for his Starter Games title. I planned a course that used all four reds and was fairly smooth and I just hoped he wouldn't take down any bars. We did the first red and I got him in the tunnel. The judge was standing near the end of the tunnel, I think that helped Keltic get a little better line for the next jump. I told him to target on the dog walk and this time the monkey leaped off. The rest of the course ran really nice. The dog walk was the last obstacle of the close, I hoped that he would hit the yellow, if he didn't we would be one point short for a Q. This time Keltic was a good boy and slowed down when I told him to target and waited until I gave him his release to get off the dog walk.

Keltic - Starter Snooker Q

We had to wait until the next day to get our title ribbon as the club forgot to bring the box with the title ribbons to the field. I was okay with that since I was back on Sunday for Beckett's runs.

I told Beckett that he had to live up to his little brother but Beckett had other ideas and wasn't about to let Keltic show him up. Beckett's first run was a Standard, it wasn't very pretty. I had changed shoes from the day before and they didn't have a lot of grip on the wet grass. As a result, I got behind Beckett a couple times so he started spinning but luckily each time he did we had enough space to get him set up again for the next obstacle without incurring any refusals. Pretty or not it was a Q, the course was 172 yards and the course time was 59 seconds and Beckett ran it in 46.51. 

The next run was another Standard. This one ran really nice. There were places where I could have done a better job in handling. Before the dog walk I called Beckett in a bit too hard and the front cross before the A-frame was late but both times Beckett saved me. This course wheeled a 177 yards with a course time of 61 seconds. Beckett ran the course in 40.32 seconds. Two runs, two Q's, one last run to go.

The last run was a Masters Snooker. We like Snooker but it is very unforgiving in the close anyway, as soon as you fault you're done. But in the opening there are no refusals so we can try things that I wouldn't do in a Standard course. I planned for Beckett a course with two sets of weaves in the opening so we started on the far side and did obstacle 3 then the back red to the weaves, then the red jump near the 7 obstacle and back to the weaves then on to the close. It ran great. Beckett did the course I had planned in 48.92 seconds getting 45 points. You need to accumulate at least 40 points in a 55 seconds to Q.

What a weekend! Six runs, five Q's, five best runs! Keltic got his first title and with a five fault Std, his second agility title looks like it won't be too far away. Beckett now only needs one more Standard Q for his Bronze Expert Standard title and for Bronze Award of Merit. Looking forward to this weekend.

Summer by the Sea

 After Nationals, we headed off to Shediac for two weeks holiday by the sea. I had rented one cottage for a week and once my sister decided to come with me, we extended our time and rented another cottage for the second week.

The first cottage I have rented now for three summers. It is walking distance from the marina where there is a gift shop, an ice cream shop and two restaurants. It is also not far from the beach that is just outside of  Parlee Beach Provincial Park and because it is outside of the park you can take dogs there. The first week was pretty busy with various comings and goings of my sisters, nieces, nephew and brother-in-law. Annette and I did go on a cruise of Shediac Bay.

Point du Chene wharf

Cruising

Returning to the Point Du Chene wharf

We also went to Hopewell Rocks. It's a dog friendly attraction in New Brunswick. It is located in the Bay of Fundy where you have some of the world's highest tides so that at low tide you can walk on the ocean floor.

My nieces

The Flower Pots

Me with Beckett and Keltic

Sisters and nieces

We also had some time to walk on the beach and enjoy dinners out. And, in between activities, we also visited with my Mum.

Seafood casserole

Mandarin Salad

Beckett visits with Grandma

Annette and Mum

Amber and Annette

Keltic - the water isn't too bad

Beckett - Frisbeeholic

The next week after changing cottages, Annette and I had some time to do some other tourist-type things. We went to Le Pays de la Sagouine (Roughly translated as "country of the wise woman"), the Bouctouche Dunes, the Irving Plantation and Memorial Chapel.

La Sagouine is a character created by author Antoinne Maillet. La Sagouine and other characters created by the author embody the spirit of the Acadian culture. The books and the plays are world famous in francophone regions. Le Pays de la Sagouine is a tourist attraction in Bouctouche where the characters from the books come to life. Daily from June to September, there is music and theatrical skits on the little island called Ile de Puces (Flea island), except for an English presentation everything is in French. I understood about 60% of what was said but had to translate for my sister still the music is fun and the characters are funny.

Le Pays de la Sagouine

Dorys in the water of Bouctouche Bay

Acadian  Flag vests

The Acadian Flag

Just a taste of the music

We also went to the Bouctouche Dunes and the Irving Plantation. The Irvings are a very wealthy family in New Brunswick, the patriarch Kenneth C Irving (known as KC) was born  in Bouctouche. The family still has connections there and KC and his wife are buried in the cemetery by the chapel on the grounds of the plantation. The Bouctouche Dunes is a nature center  funded by the Irving family. The dunes are 12 km long and you are welcome to use the beach; there are changing rooms and washrooms at the information center but most people just do the boardwalk. The boardwalk was nearly twice as long a few years ago but in 2010, winter storms destroyed over a kilometre of the boardwalk.

KC Irving Memorial Chapel

Interior of the Chapel

Gardens in the Irving Plantation

Boardwalk at the Bouctouche Dunes

Bouctouche Dunes

Boardwalk

Annette and I also had another evening on the beach with the dogs. It was at low tide so you could walk out and play on the sand bars. Beckett enjoyed playing Frisbee and Keltic enjoying chasing birds and a large motorized kite.

On one of our visits to see Mum, we stopped and walked the Riverfront Park trail. It's a trail that runs on both sides of the Petitcodiac river, we did the Riverview side but it also runs along the river on the Moncton side too.

The second last night of our holiday after visiting with Mum we stayed in town and had dinner so we could see the Twilight Teaser, a small taste of the air show that was on that weekend which was being staged along the water front. Part of the Twilight Teaser included some fireworks dropped by a hang glider and then by two acrobatic planes.

Twilight Teaser Fireworks

Our last day was a visit to Mum and to the cemetery where my Dad is buried. It always seems that the time goes by so quickly, you just arrive and it's time to go home.

We didn't get a good day for us to have a beach day so after getting back to my place and taking a day to relax, Annette and I went to the local water park Calypso.

I'm still on vacation but I go back to work next Monday. It will certainly be hard to get up on Monday morning.

Beckett's Nationals Adventure

Well, Beckett's been there and back again on his first AAC National Championship adventure. The drive down was an adventure in itself. I have a small utility trailer to use when I have lots of stuff to take on camping trips or other long trips.  The night before we left, I went to hitch up the trailer and one of the tires was flat. No big deal, I used my compressor and pumped it up, the next morning it was fine so off we went. It was a nice day for a drive, we stopped after about two hours on the road to see how things were doing and everything was alright. We stopped for supper in Edmunston NB and when we came out another driver told us that the trailer tire was flat. Luckily I had thrown the compressor in the car so we pumped it up again and hit the road. We stopped to check the tire often and it seemed fine. We made it to Fredericton where we would spend the night. It's only about an hour and a half from Sussex. The next morning the tire was flat again so again we pumped it up.

Other people had stopped at the Blue Canoe restaurant and posted pictures of their dogs so I decided we would do the same.  At the Blue Canoe, we used the air pump at the gas station, now we could hear hissing from the tire. We took our pictures quickly and hit the road again for Sussex hoping that the tire would hold out.

Beckett and Keltic at the Blue Canoe

 

We got to Sussex and made an appointment at Canadian Tire to get the tire repaired or replaced. They got us in after lunch and had the trailer repaired with two new tires in about 20 minutes.

We got to the trial site and registered. We also got the keys for our rooms at the local university. We set up our space near friends from the Ottawa area.



Our set up for Nationals

The next day was warm-ups and pre-events. Beckett only had one Steeplechase event to run, when I registered, I was sure both Steeplechase were scheduled on the same day. We were lucky though we ran before the rain started and we got a qualifying score. It was Beckett's 23rd Q so now we only need two more for his Bronze Expert title. Things were starting off great.

The next morning saw the start of the Nationals events. We had Gamblers and then Standard to run the first day. Beckett was spinning a lot in the Gambler so we didn't get through the opening I planned and we didn't get the main gamble either. That was fine it was just the first event. Our Standard went well except for taking down the double jump;  I was happy with how he ran, a 5 fault run is pretty good. We also had our second Steepechase run. It had been pouring rain and the ground was muddy. Beckett was nearly the 100th dog in the ring. Even though we ran a cautious but clean run both of us slipped a little. Beckett's time was just over 40 seconds and we only had a standard course time of 42 seconds. That was his 24th Q, now only one to go for his title.

The next day we would run Jumpers and Gamblers. We had a decent jumpers run but I ran to close to the jump he was supposed to serp and he pushed to the back of the jump for an off course. The rest of the run was nice but 20 faults put us way down in the standings for that event. The next event Gamblers was a tough one. I didn't even think Beckett would go out the distance obstacle in the main Gamble. Our opening was good, he almost did the first mini and did the second mini gamble twice. He surprised me and did get out to the jump of the main gamble but then took the jump on the line rather than getting out the dog walk.

On the last day of Nationals, we had a jumpers and a standard run. The jumpers was going nice until I found myself out of place after a front cross. I called Beckett off a jump thinking he was going off course, turned out he was right and I was wrong and I caused us 5 faults for the refusal. I decided to go for it in our last run the Standard, after all we had nothing to lose. We got a refusal on the broad jump right off the bat, then an off course when he took the tunnel instead of the A-frame and a refusal on the weave entry. On the good side, he did stay out to do the jump after the tunnel under the dog walk and got the broad jump which we don't see all that often. I think we have only seen it once before.

 

 

I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed in our Nationals performance, while I didn't really expect to place I had hoped to better our Regionals score where we had a score of 465 points; at Nationals we ended up with only 364 points.Trying to focus on the positive, most of the errors were mine and Beckett actually ran well. I am considering moving him to Specials though so he doesn't have to jump as high and will no longer see the double jump. There are indications he's slowing down some so maybe the lower jump height would help. Next year, Nationals will be out in Burnaby BC, too far for us to travel so by the time they are back out east Beckett could be nearly a veteran dog so another reason to think about letting him jump the lower height.

 

 

 

Looking forward already to the next time when both Beckett and Keltic will have a Nationals Adventure. More on our east coast holiday in another post.









K9 Kup

Once again this year, Keltic and I are running in a house league called the K9 Kup. The team we were on last year, Snow Dogs Unharnessed divided in two and added some new members, so now we have Snow Dogs Unharnessed and Snowdogs Unharnessed Too. Some of my agility friends have joined me in having honorary snow dogs. Now in addition to the huskies and australian shepherds, there is a keeshund, a border collie, a sheltie (Keltic), a duck toller, a collie and a mini poodle.

Both teams together
 

Snow Dogs Unharnessed

We've had two K9 Kup events so far and two more to go, unfortunately Keltic and I will miss the next event as we'll just be coming back from New Brunswick. At each event, we run three courses, a Standard and two games courses. At the last K9 Kup we ran Snooker and Steeplechase as the games. Keltic ran rather well, he even got his weave entry in the Standard and stayed in the weaves.

The best four runs from each team are added up to determine the team's placment. We got a third place and a fourth place in the first two events, Standard and Snooker.  Keltic's runs counted toward both of those placements. The score from the last event hadn't yet been tabulated at the end of the match so it will be awarded at the next K9 Kup. Snow Dogs Unharnessed was sitting in second place in our Divsion after the first K9 Kup.

Keltic - K9 Kup Standard

 

In the Standard, Keltic did very well even getting on the table that they had forgotten to lower without a problem. Too bad his Mum didn't tell him to target on the dog walk.

Keltic - K9 Kup Snooker

 

In Snooker, he did pretty good but he was just a little excited, perhaps because my course isn't as flowy as it should have been. At the first red (the first obstacle), I thought he was going right on by the backside so I turned too much to get him over. That meant I wasn't heading for the double jump on the correct line so, of course, Keltic knocked the bar.

 

Keltic - K9 Kup Steeplechase

 

Keltic got distracted by something on this course, not sure what, but once he came back he ran nicely. This might have been a Q in K9 Kup standards as they use Starter Jumpers times. It likely wouldn't be a Q in the AAC, since the event is considered a Masters event, the times are much tighter.

 

 

Looking forward to our next K9 Kup. Keltic will have been in  two AAC trials by then and if we are lucky he may have to carry a handicap in his next K9 Kup. Any dog with their starter agility title has a handicap since they have demonstrated some skill in agility and K9 Kup is trying to encourage newcomers to the sport.

 



 



Busy, Busy

Oh my, have we been busy. We went to the Canada Cup and the day after I got home I took off on a trip for work. I went to Alexandria, Va again just across the river from Washington DC.

Canada Cup was another awesome agility weekend.  The weather was perfect; in fact it was quite chilly on Friday morning. I was nervous on our first run thinking maybe we weren`t up to the competition but Beckett did great. We have to work on tighter turns and I need to get fitter, as I`m sure that if I could run faster Beckett would run faster.  Beckett and I didn`t make any finals, we missed out by just 1.7 seconds for Steeplechase and were quite close in Grand Prix. The competition is very tough as even clean runs didn`t put us in the top 10. Keltic did fine too. He needs more work to understand the crosses and turns; we also need to work on his jumping skills too. And I need to remember the courses, poor Keltic, on his way to a clean run and I forget the course. I drove back from Guelph on Sunday night. I kind of hoped I could make it all the way but it was just too far and I had to stop for the night in Kingston which is about 2 and half hours away from home.

After getting home on Monday morning, I unpacked the car, did laundry and repacked for my trip to Washington. I also packed up the dog`s things as they  would be staying at my sister`s place. That evening, I went to dinner at my sister`s place as our aunt was visiting from England. That made things easier as I brought the dogs with me to dinner so the next morning I was able to get up and go straight to the airport.

I arrived in Alexandria at about 9:30 am, I was able to check in early at the hotel and as a result got to the meeting location just as they were breaking for lunch. It was hot and muggy most of the week. I had only brought one pair of shorts and one pair of capris. I went out shopping while I was there and was lucky enough to find four pairs of shorts at the Gap Outlet store and, a bonus, everything was on sale. Our meetings ended earlier than expected so we had a day to see the sights in Washington before flying home Friday evening.

Old Town waterfront

Chart House restaurant, the blue building.

We went out to dinner on Wednesday night to the Chart House restaurant which is right down on the water front. It was a tad pricey but the food was excellent. Afterwards while waiting for the trolley we saw this man playing wine glasses filled with water.

I did get a chance to see some of DC again.  Right near our hotel was the George Washington Masonic Memorial. Unfortunately, it's only open from 10 am to 4 pm so I didn't get the chance to go inside. We did go to the Holocaust Museum (very sobering) and walked the National Mall. We tried to go up the Washington Monument but same day tickets mean lining up at 7:30 am so we really missed out on those. Most tickets are booked online months in advance.

George Washington Masonic Memorial

The White House - front view

Washington Monument

Now that I`m home I`m dealing with all kinds of things that need to be done before I head done east for Nationals and on vacation. The air conditioner needs to be serviced, it's not working right. I need to get into the bank to sign my new mortgage. Still trying to get quotes to have a new sun room built, I've been trying since May. I have one quote and one ball park estimate that are miles apart so I guess I'll need a third quote so probably won't see construction this fall. And to top that off, my computer crashed and was repaired but it didn't seem to help much. I'm working mostly off my laptop and tablet, the computer is just so slow.

Can't wait for Nationals and my vacation, I so need the time off.