K9 Kup

This year, Keltic played agility in a house league for mainly Starter and pre-Starter dogs called K9 Kup.  He was on a team called the Sibe Tribe. The team was made up of 6 Siberian Huskies, two Australian Shepherds, a Keeshund and Keltic, a Sheltie.   The K9 Kup has four events over the season which runs from June to Oct. At each event, there are three courses, a Standard and two of the games, Steeplechase, Gamblers, Jumpers and Snooker.  Every dog runs all three courses and then the best four runs from the team count for the placements but if your team places all the dogs receive a ribbon.

The Sibe Tribe

When we started the season, Keltic wasn't doing any weaves so each time there were weaves on course, we would just have to skip them and take the 20 faults. That meant that our scores usually didn't count for the team. Our two Steeplechase runs did count though as since it is time plus faults and we didn't waste any time trying to get the weaves done, our times were quite respectable.

We worked on our weaves and at this last K9 Kup for the 2013 season, I was going to try to have Keltic get his weaves. The courses this time were a Standard, a Jumpers and a Snooker. First up for us was Jumpers. It ran very fast, Keltic didn't miss a jump and went straight on like a flash to the tunnels.  We will have to work on "go" as when he came out of the last tunnel, he turned back towards me rather than going on to the tire.  I got him turned around and he did the tire and I'm pretty sure it wasn't faulted.

Jumpers

Next up for us was Snooker, we did red jump, A-frame, red jump, A-frame, red jump, tire and started our close (obstacles 2 to 7 in numerical order).  We got to the weaves with lots of time left. How do I know, because I had time to send Keltic 4 times into the weaves. The first time he very nearly got it as he only popped out at about the 10th pole. It was alright that we didn't get the weaves though as we had our 37 points at the A-frame.

Snooker

Our last event of the day was the Standard and I was glad to see only 6 weaves.  I was pretty sure after Steeplechase that he would do six.  Our Standard run was great, although he self released from the A-frame and teeter, wouldn't go down on the table and he wouldn't weave! I had to call and send him through the six poles, but we had a clean run even with all of that. So nice that the dogs don't have to down on the table any more or we might have been over time.

Standard

I was very happy with our runs. I'm sure some of them counted for the team score but I didn't get to see the final results.  The Sibe Tribe took first place in our Division in all of the events this year and first place over all in the 2013 K9 Kup.

The champs!

It was fun to have Keltic be an honorary Siberian Husky. He was even included on the team's T-shirt.

Do you see? That's Keltic on the sled.

Keltic might be a good little agility dog after all. He seems to like to run, hasn't had any issues with zoomies, has gotten more focused over the summer and hasn't showed any signs of spinning. Did you hear that Beckett.  Keltic only jumped 10" at K9 Kup.  I registered him at 16" for his first AAC trial, we'll see how things go at that height and will make the decision later on if he stays as a Regular dog or moves to Specials.

Go Keltic Go!

Q - less, not this time

This weekend Beckett and I trialled again at AARF. The weather was warm but extremely windy and since we had snow during the week, it made for very sloppy conditions so other than for pee breaks we didn't go outside much.  We had five runs, two Masters Standards, a Masters Gamblers, a Steeplechase and a Masters Jumpers.

First up was a Masters Standard. Beckett ran just awesome; we were in sync for the whole run except for one little bobble. I didn't tell him to "Go tunnel" while he was still in the chute so he curled back towards me as he came out and then began to spin which gave us a refusal on the tunnel. It was the first time we were not eliminated in a Master Standard though and I was very happy with a 5 fault run especially since he was nearly 10 seconds under time.

Next up was our Gamblers event, I didn't much like the opening I had planned. It had us trying a mini-gamble right off the start line. Beckett wouldn't send out to a tunnel so I ran the mini with him hoping he would pattern it and do it the second time. No luck and he even flew off the teeter the second time around. The main gamble was a jump, tunnel, weave, jump combination. Beckett got the jump and the tunnel, they were nearly right on the line so no reason for him not to get them but he wouldn't stay out to the weaves. As I called him back to send him out again to the weaves, I said "tunnel" and guess what he did. Even the judge said, "Well you said tunnel".

Next was our second Masters Standard. I think he was still wound up from the Gamblers. I'll let you make your own opinion on how that went.

Masters Standard - March 2012

The next event was Steeplechase, where there are no refusals and weaves are judged at the Starters level. Luckily for us this Steeplechase had two sets of weaves and not two A-frames since we usually run out of time when there are two A-frames. Beckett ran fairly well, a few spins, one missed weave entry and a little pokey coming down the frame.  The standard course time was 50 seconds, Beckett ran it clean in 47.41 seconds. Good thing he was clean as even 5 faults would have put us over time.

The last run of the day was Jumpers. It walked nice except that there was a lot of places were you had to rear cross. I knew that if they weren't timed perfectly that Beckett would spin and maybe incur a refusal, so I tried to walk it putting in a front cross wherever I could. The course time was 47 seconds and Beckett ran it in 37.53 for his second Q of the event and his first Masters Q. Now we can say he really is a Masters level agility dog.

It was a long day and a long drive home. But both Tucker and Beckett enjoyed Beckett's winnings when we got home, two very large milk bones.

A Senior's Moment

While I was home this summer, we did an agility demonstration at the nursing home where my mother resides.  A woman from a local agility club, whose husband works at the residence, was kind enough to help me out with her Australian Shepherd, Gaffer.  She was also able to help out with equipment and brought two tunnels and some additional jumps. 

Tina and Gaffer

The weather in New Brunswick hadn't been great this summer and we wondered if we were even going to be able to hold the demonstration. Tuesday was scheduled for the demo with Wednesday as a rain date.  The weather on Tuesday wasn't great. But with the forecast for Wednesday getting worse, we decided to set up on Tuesday and hope for the best. We set up on the front lawn so that seating for the residents could be on two side walks and some people could also watch from their rooms or from the corridor joining Canterbury and Monarch Halls. We were lucky, and although it was rather fresh, the rain held off.

Audience at Monarch Hall

We each took turns and did some runs with our dogs. Mistakes got the most laughs and the end of each run was greeted with applause. We then tried a down and back race. That didn't work out too well as Gaffer didn't like having another dog on course with him. 

Beckett and Gaffer head to head racing.

I had also taught Beckett to jump through hoops so that I could get some people out to hold them so they would be more a part of the demonstration. I should really see for next time if I can cover them with tissue and have him break through when he jumps.

Agility Demo at Monarch Hall

My niece, Amber videoed for us but I didn't make sure of the video setting or tell her how to zoom so the quality isn't all that great.

Catching Frisbees was also a hit!

Beckett jumping.

Even Tucker got excited to show off his stuff and did a few jumps, some weaves and a tunnel.  Maybe it was the thought of Beckett getting all the hot dogs that had him agitated. Anyway, I think everyone enjoyed the dogs and the staff said they would like to have a demonstration every year. It would be really nice to have a teeter and a few more dogs. We had fun and it was probably something a little different to the normal activities for the residents. I hope we can do a demonstration next year too.