What didn't happen this past weekend. We had rain and more rain, a fire in one of the barns on the venue grounds, a drunk guy barking at the dogs and racing around on his bicycle who had to be taken away by police but for all that we had a really good agility weekend.
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| Awards tent |
I arrived on Thursday afternoon and checked into my hotel, my roommate had to pull her dog due to injury but that turned out okay as Beckett enjoyed having his own bed. After dinner, I went down to the Regional's site and helped set up the ring fences and selected spots for our shade tents. It was pouring rain so I didn't bother to set up just staked out tarps. I was soaked when I got back to the hotel. Thankfully, I packed my rubber boots.
Friday morning, I went down to set up my screen tent and get ready for the afternoon's sanctioned agility trial. We hadn't entered the warm-up events so after we were all set up we headed off for a quick bite to eat. I entered all four events that afternoon, Standard, Gamblers, Jumpers and Steeplechase. We got a Q in Steeplechase, Beckett's 14th, only 11 more to go for his Expert Bronze Steeplechase title. The highlight and a bit a disappointment for the day was Gamblers.
Our opening was a serpentine using the single jump to the tire and the spread jump to the a-frame, then on to the four point jump and the tunnel, back to the four point to the single jumps and then to the weaves followed by the teeter followed by another set of weaves. The opening went really nice. At the main Gamble, I waited for Beckett to settle before starting and he did obstacle 1, 2 and 3 beautifully. I then waited for Beckett to settle again and sent him out to four again he went and did four and five without hesitation. I asked if the closing gamble buzzer was set for mini Regular dogs but no one was sure. There were no double scribe sheets and I left for the day before the results were posted, hoping that we had got the gamble in time as that would have been Beckett's Master Gamblers title and his ATChC. But it turned out, we were nearly 2 seconds over time. I probably shouldn't have taken so much time to settle him for obstacle one since I would have been able to move along with him for the tunnel. It was disappointing but we'll get that last Q soon, I'm sure.
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| View of the rings |
Saturday, and the start of the Regional agility championship, it was still cloudy and we had some drizzle on and off but not like the heavy drizzle we had had on Friday but the grounds were already soaked and many places had standing water. First, up was our Standard run, Beckett got 25 faults for a refusal and an off-course both at the same spot. It was a turn out to tunnel off the dog walk, a move he's done many a time. He turned all right but then spun, got the refusal for the tunnel, put his feet back on the dog walk and got the off-course before he finally took the tunnel. The rest of the run was nice, although I did sit him after the tunnel to calm him down. All that and we were still under time. Our next run was Gamblers, the opening didn't quite go as planned and we only got 24 opening points.
I started the main gamble down the line towards obstacle four and sent Beckett to the tunnel, he did obstacle four. I tried again to send him to the tunnel and this time he went, amazingly he stayed out and did obstacle two, the jump, and even more amazingly went right back out and did obstacle 3 but the buzzer went as he was coming out of the tunnel. Perhaps if I had not been so far down the gamble line he might not have taken the jump and we would have gotten the gamble in time. Our last event for the day was a Jumpers, Beckett knocked a bar for 5 faults.
So we ended the day a little disappointed as I knew we would have to do better on Sunday or we would not even qualify.
Sunday, we had sun, a few clouds and nice breeze, great agility weather as in the shade it was nice and cool so the dogs didn't have to be out in the heat all day. This day started for us with the second Jumpers round. Beckett had a great run with only 5 faults caused by a front cross that was a little late. Our second event was a Gamblers, we planned an opening that would give us a minimum of 30 points.
I set him up on the line trying to get him out to the tunnel and jump mini but Beckett chose to do the dog walk, that was okay, we just carried on with our plan from there. We did the tunnel, weaves, tire, back to the weaves, the two jumps, then the four point jump twice, followed by the single jump that is part of the mini gamble to the a-frame, followed by the two single jumps. I was just about to put Beckett back on the A-frame when the buzzer went. Using the 4 point jump, I turned him on to the teeter, then once he had touched the contact, gave him his release and started yelling "Go, Go, Go". He did both jumps, came back to me for the tunnel and did the last jump without hesitation. So we got our opening points, the 35 point bonus, as well as a time bonus for a total of 75.37 points. Now, I knew that we could have a less than perfect Standard and still qualify for Nationals; you need 350 points. And our Standard was less than perfect, a fly-off on the teeter, lucky it didn't happen in the Gamble, two knocked bars and a refusal for a total of 25 faults.
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| Beckett with his Qualifiers ribbon and 5th place individual event ribbon |
So all in all we had a great Regionals weekend, although we didn't achieve my personal goal which was to improve on his score from last year. Last year he had 411.68 points and he finished 7th out of 12 dogs, this year he only had 389.37 points but he finished 8th out of 18 dogs. Last year, he was only 6 points out of 6th place; this year, he was 78 points out of 6th place. I'm not too concerned with the placement but would have liked to see an improvement in our score. But on the other hand, I'm very happy about his Gamblers, we've been working on sending out from the line and layering and it appears to have paid off as Beckett got all three Gamblers this weekend, even if he was over time on two of them.
We also had the added bonus of meeting Beckett's sister Hannah. Can't say they were overly excited to see each other but there was a little sniffing.
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| Hannah and Beckett |
Now we have next year to look forward to as Nationals are to be out east so we will plan on going for sure.
