Snookered

We went to our first outdoor agility trial of the season yesterday.  It was overcast with a breeze but not too cold. You needed a jacket when you weren't running but it was warm enough to run without one. I brought Teddy along so he didn't have to stay home by himself yet again. I don't think he much cared for the collapsible crate, next time I'll bring the really big crate and they can both hang out together. 

Liam was in four events starting with an Advanced Gamblers. In Gamble, you plan your own opening to collect points, each type of obstacle has a point value. The judge can include mini gambles that you can do from behind a line to earn double the points.We had an opening that included a send to a tunnel, Liam got it twice. The main Gamble also had a send to a tunnel but Liam thought "been there, done that" and incurred a refusal on the tunnel. 

Our next event was an Advanced Snooker, if you've read my blog for while, you know Liam has an eyesight issue that makes it hard for him to judge the take off point for a jump and consequently he takes down quite a few jumps. In this Advanced Snooker, obstacles 5 and 6 were combinations and both used the same jump as part of the combination. Obstacle 7 was the teeter and I knew Liam was unlikely to do it so I had to plan a course that gave him the points he needed before we had to do number 7.

Advanced Snooker

I had planned a bit of a risky course. I was using obstacle 5 twice and obstacle 6 once before running the closing of the course, obstacles 2 through 7 as numbered. Liam needed to complete obstacle 5 successfully in the close to have enough points for a qualifying score. That meant he had to do jump 5b four times without knocking the bar, and really he couldn't knock any bars or we wouldn't have enough points. We had a nice clean run and Liam had just put his feet on the teeter when the buzzer sounded for time. He needed 32 points for a qualifying score and we got 39. It was the only event of the day where he didn't knock a bar down.

Our next event was a Standard run. Liam refused the dog walk so again I put my finger in his collar and just coaxed him along, no pressure, just verbal encouragement.  We didn't get to the teeter before the time ran out so after the trial was over for the day I asked one of the club members if I could put Liam on the teeter. He did it just fine, once on leash and once by himself. I should ask at the end of every trial if I can do that. Our last event was an Advanced Jumpers, it didn't look nice on the course map but walked and ran fairly nicely for Liam and me. Some of the handlers of fast dogs had issues with off courses because the dogs didn't turn tightly. Liam seemed rather pokey but our time was quite respectable, we had an allowed course time of 60 seconds and we ran the course in 47.89 seconds but unfortunately we had one bar down.

I think Liam was a little snookered by the time we did Jumpers but we did have our Snooker Q so I was happy with that. Liam now has two Advanced Gambles and two Advanced Snooker, one more Q in each of those games and he'll move to Masters.  

The trial ran quickly as there were two judges and they used two rings so no waiting around for course builds and walk throughs. We were home by around 3:30 pm usually it's much closer to dinner time. Our next agility trial is on 6 June, and we have a virtual Hoopers trial on 30 May.

There was a photographer at the trial. She takes nice photos. I am planning to buy some but it's so hard to chose. Which would you chose? Link to Liam's pictures below.

Znlens Photos - Liam

Don't Blink!

Where Liam and I went for the Hoopers trial, they use surveillance cameras so that means you can buy  videos of your runs. Since we haven't been doing Hoopers for very long, I bought photos, which I've already posted, and I also bought the videos of our runs.

In dog agility, runs usually allow about a minute and half, but most times dogs are much faster; I would say on average though you get about a minute in the ring. In Hoopers, you get points for a clean run as long as you are under 90 seconds. I don't think I saw a dog go that slow. Liam's slowest run was just over 22 seconds and his fastest run just over 17 seconds.

Don't blink, you might miss it!

If the videos aren't available in your browser, I've added a link to the YouTube videos of the same runs. Just click the link below.

Video of Liam Beginner Hoopers

Video of Liam Beginner Tungo

Video of Liam Beginner Parkour

Wordless Wednesday - Hoopers Photos

 

Whoop Hoop de Do!

Liam and I went to Guides Canins for a Hoopers trial yesterday. Guides Canins is about an hour and half away from me; it's not a bad drive as it's all highway, although my GPS wanted me to go cross country. I used to go there and camp when I was running agility with my other dogs but with Liam's eyesight I hadn't made the trip in years, not since before COVID. They've built a new facility in that time and it is spectacular. They have an indoor turf building, an indoor/outdoor dock diving pool, two large classrooms, offices, grooming rooms, and gender neutral bathrooms.   

Turf Hall

Entry to Dock Diving Pool

Dock Diving Pool

Classroom

This trip, we just went for part of the day so I left Teddy home.  We had to leave just before 7 am to get there in time to set up and give Liam some time for a walk before the trial started. We timed it right and  arrived just as they were opening the building. 

We ran 3 events. At the Beginner level, there are only 3 games, Hoopers, Tungo and Parkour; we ran one of each. In all of them you just follow the numbers and you can run with your dog but the judge will include distance challenges that are indicated by lines or by a handlers box. All of our runs included challenge lines. You earn points for getting a clean run but you can earn additional bonus points for being able to do the course from behind the challenge line or from within a handlers box. You might be able to see the line in this photo of us walking the course, they are marked with white tape.

Walking the Course

If you use the furthest line, there's 15 bonus points awarded to a clean run, the next line gave 10 extra points and the closest line gives you 5 extra points. A clean run under 45 seconds gets you 10 points and from 45 seconds but under 90 seconds gives you 5 points. But even slower dogs, if you can work the distances, can get good scores.

It takes 50 points in Beginners to get a title. Liam only needed 10 points in Parkour and Tungo to get his Beginner title in those games. I was pretty sure we could go clean but I wasn't sure how he would run in a new place and with so much distance between obstacles as we train in a smaller venue. I walked the courses using the 10 point distance line but in all of our runs I had to cross that line so we only got 15 points for each of our runs. Enough for his Beginner Tungo Dog of Canada and Beginner Parkour Dog of Canada. 

Now we move up to Novice in those games. Our next trial will be a virtual one and hopefully he'll get his Beginner Hoopers title then as we now have 35 points in that game.  There's also an overall title once you have all the titles at a particular level, so getting our Beginner Hoopers qualifying score actually will get us two more titles. 

We'll have to work on getting more distance though as the distance challenges just get harder as you move up. 

But we're still celebrating so whoop hoop de doo!  

Easter Turkeys?

Our little neighbourhood has a FB group and while I was having my breakfast this morning there was a message with photos of wild turkeys on the street.  I thought that the turkeys wouldn't have stuck around so I didn't go look. When I went upstairs to get dressed, there was a turkey sitting on my garage roof. One of the neighbours, who were still out watching, took this picture.

There were five turkeys in all, two big toms and three females.

By the time I got dressed, the turkeys weren't out front anymore. I thought they had just wandered away down the street, especially as there weren't any people watching anymore either; but to my surprise they were now in my backyard. 

The dogs still hadn't noticed them so I was able to get a video without any barking. Now that the turkeys were wandering around the yard, it didn't take too long for the dogs to notice them.

Easter Turkeys Video

Then there was lots of barking and running around to get the best view of these wild things in the yard. The turkeys looked like they were getting comfortable in the yard so I cautiously went out and started to throw dog toys in their direction. Three flew up to the rooftops of the townhouses behind me, two flew up on my shed and then over the back fence. Not sure where they went after that but we didn't see them on our morning walk.

I can tell you one thing, Easter Turkeys don't leave chocolate like the Easter Bunny!