Masters Jumpers Dog of Canada

 Well, the little dog who could, came out to play agility this weekend. We went to our first agility trial since the lockdown this Saturday. There were many precautions like you had to wear a mask except when you were in your own crating area or when you were running your course, no spectators were allowed in the park, and there was hand sanitizer everywhere.

The trial site was over an hour away, an hour and forty minutes according to my GPS so we left the house at 5:40 am as our first run was to start with the walk-through at 8:15 am. Well, there's no traffic at that time of day and we arrived at ten after 7 but that gave me time to leisurely set up and to walk all the dogs.  The weather forecast was for a sunny and warm day so I just brought my beach shelter and sport umbrella.

I had entered Keltic in two Jumpers runs and one Standard run. First up was Jumpers, he needed one qualifying score for his Master Jumpers title. I liked how the first course walked and I thought that if Keltic would just run we would have a good chance but since we hadn't run since March, other than doing the Fun At Home League that the AAC had started, I wasn't sure what he would do.

I wasn't sure I could lead out with the tire as the first obstacle, so I didn't; but I still got to the end of the tunnel before Keltic came out and so got my cross in. The run was going really well until the tunnel at 14, I heard Keltic fall inside the tunnel, I was sure he was going to come back out the same way he went in but he didn't, he just came out walking.  He looked fine and when I called to him he started to run again so we went on to finish. Keltic did the course in 41.3 seconds, the allowed course time for medium veterans was 50 seconds, so there it was his Masters Jumpers title. There's no video of the run since I didn't want to give my phone to anyone.  

Our next run was also a Jumpers, again Keltic ran really well. I was late doing a front cross on jump 12 and Keltic came around with me but we were well away from obstacle 13 so once I got him back on the right side of me, we finished the run for another qualifying score, a "Q" to spare. Keltic finished this course in 44.46 seconds, the allowed course time was 55 seconds. He actually made the Medium Regular time of 46 seconds but then again he's only jumping 8" rather than 16".  I still thought he was running well. I had been thinking of retiring him, maybe all he needed was a rest. Anyway, there are no indoor trials this winter so we'll see what happens next Spring.  

Our last run was a Standard, Keltic again ran well and I was really happy with the run as he did all of his weaves and never argued about doing the entry, unfortunately we had an off course tunnel.

So the dog I thought would never get a Masters title, now has two.  We'll see what next year brings.

This trial was hosted by the Hilltop Agility Club in memory of one of their life members, Pat DeRonde, who sadly passed away in July.

Liam and Teddy had a good time walking around and enjoying hotdogs and other treats. Both were very good in their crates. Liam enjoyed meeting many other dogs and even some puppies. We had an awesome autumn day, it was even a little too hot by lunch time, but that's far better than being cold and wet.  One more trial this weekend and that's it for 2020. There's no titles on the line so we'll just go and have some fun. Our runs are later in the day and the trial site is closer so it's not another early morning.

Virtual Agility

So in these crazy times, all of our agility competitions have been cancelled so the Agility Association of Canada started a virtual Fun At Home Agility League. You just need three jumps and a tunnel, it's supposed to be a 15 ft tunnel but a 10 ft one works too. The space required is 40 ft by 40 ft but you can get by with less. My problem is the slope of my yard and the trees. Every week there are two jumpers courses at each of three different levels. You can buy any or all the courses or you can buy the courses you'd like and judging too.  You submit your videos to a FaceBook group.

Usually I buy the two level 3 courses and judging, this week I bought all the courses but no judging as I'd like to work a bit more with Teddy and it takes up quite a bit of time to walk the courses, then warm up Keltic and have him run the course.  The courses are so nested that I really can only do one a day as otherwise I would get super confused. 

The videos are from the courses from the week before last. Keltic ran well, I didn't. This was a mulligan run after we had already run the course. No handler or dog was hurt in the video.

Keltic Fun At Home

The next day I let Teddy have a chance on this course before learning the next course.  He did really well considering how little training we've actually done.  Level 3 is approximately Masters level. This week as I said I bought all the courses so I'll see how he does on Level 1 which is closer to Starters.  

Teddy Fun At Home

Keltic has earned his Level III Novice Jumpers title the week before last. This past week although he was clean he was over time on both of his runs.  This week we'll focus on some training.  

A Q for You!

This past weekend Keltic and I went to our first agility trial for 2020. There were lots of hugs from friends in the agility community and a few tears too.

Keltic has had the worst luck in Master Jumpers, having had many runs with only one refusal or a bar down. I thought with Jumpers being our first run and not having done much practicing over the holidays that he would be wild.  I'm sure Beckett was there in spirit and helped out sending us positive vibes for a clean run.

We stepped to the line prepared just to have fun.  Even if Keltic didn't let me lead out as far as I would have liked, I still got my blind cross in between obstacles 3 and 4.  It wasn't a perfect run by any means but all the bars stayed up, there were no refusals and I remembered the course.  The standard course time for medium veterans was 55 seconds, Keltic finished the course in 36.01 seconds. A time that would have made Beckett proud and so Keltic got his first Master Jumpers Q in his first trial and first run after his brother went to Rainbow Bridge. It was like Beckett said to Keltic and me, "Here is a gift of a Q for you!" Tucker and Ceilidh both sent rainbows to Beckett but that's a little hard to do in the middle of winter.

The next run was Steeplechase, Beckett's favourite event.  I had to blind cross the tunnel after obstacle 4 and 17 to try and get Keltic to do onside weaves. He's better at onside weaves than offside; it didn't help, he still didn't get the entry but weaves are judged at Starters level in Steeplechase so all we were losing was time. I sent him into the weaves again, the first time he did all 12 weaves, the next time through he popped at 10 and I had to get him to do the final two poles.  Again we had no bars down, no missed contacts but I thought we would be over time.  Surprisingly, Keltic got another Q. The standard course time for medium veterans was 70 seconds, Keltic finished in 65.65 seconds, close but still under time.

We had two more runs afterwards, two Standards, both with offside weaves. I decided to give Keltic a chance to do the offside weaves. He didn't get the entry but he also didn't argue about it and did do the weaves on the offside when I sent him back in; I've always had to change sides before to get him to complete the weaves. He did get all of his contacts and didn't knock a single bar all day.

So the agility season of 2020 has started off well, hopefully that will carry over to Regionals in the spring and Keltic will qualify for Nationals.

GOAL!

We had our first agility trial for 2019 this past weekend.  Both boys ran very well and we achieved our agility goals for the year. My goal with Beckett was Expert Silver Jumpers and with that Silver Versatility.  That was a pretty easy goal as we finished 2018 needing only one qualifying score.  For Keltic, the goal was to get his first Masters Q.... in any event! Not really as easy as it sounds as he's been in Masters games for quite awhile now and some little bobble always seemed to happen that prevented us from getting a Q.

At this trial, I put Keltic in the first three events two Masters Gamblers and one Masters Snooker. He didn't Q in either Gamble but he ran really well for me; he almost got the second Gamble but once again would not go to the distance obstacle.  Then it was the Masters Snooker; I don't think I'd ever entered him in Snooker before, as last year I was working to get Beckett's Expert Silver Snooker. Any way, luckily this Snooker course had no weaves and no dog walk which made me think Keltic really had a good chance at a Q.

Masters Snooker 1

I originally planned to run the two of red jumps nearest the teeter using the teeter as our obstacle of choice followed by a red jump then the A-frame as our opening but a friend pointed out there was a better line to jump 2 to start the close if I finished the opening with the teeter.  So that's what we did, a red jump, then the A-frame, followed by red, teeter, red, and teeter then the close. Keltic needed to finish obstacle 6 to get a qualifying score.  The course ran beautifully until I got myself out of position after 6 and as a result did a blind cross which Keltic didn't read, leaving him on the wrong side of me for the teeter.  We got a refusal for the teeter but we had already Q'd with 41 points. We finished our run in just over 47 seconds and you have 55 seconds to collect 40 points. We would have had plenty of time to have done the teeter.

Keltic - Masters Snooker Q, his first Masters Q

Next up was Beckett, he had one Masters Snooker and two Master Jumpers events to run.  Snooker was just a warm up event for him as we arrived at about 11:45 am and it now was close to 5 pm.  Beckett ran well in Snooker getting a Q but that's not the Q I really wanted. The next event was a Jumpers, it walked really nice and ran really nice too but Beckett had the very last bar down. 

Masters Jumpers 1

It was late and I did think about going home.  The second Jumpers course while nice was a little more technical and quite similar to the first. I worried that with so few dogs in the event I would forget which course I was running and incur an off course.  I told Beckett if he was going to knock a bar to knock an early one so we could relax and run the course.

Masters Jumpers 2

I shouldn't have worried so much, Beckett ran beautifully and I didn't forget the course.  That was Masters Jumpers Q number 25 which gave Beckett his Silver Expert Jumpers and, because Beckett has three other Silver titles, his Silver Versatility title. Although we did it the hard way with Steeplechase as one of our Silver titles; in Steeplechase, you need 50 qualifying scores for Silver Expert.

Video of Beckett's Masters Jumpers runs

Beckett - Silver Expert Jumpers and Silver Versatility

What an extraordinary way to start off our 2019 agility season!  Now though I have to come up with new goals for the year. For Keltic that's pretty easy,  a Masters Snooker title.  But for Beckett, he's a long way from any other title, so maybe it's just time to have fun and see where any Q's take us.

First Advanced Q

Well it's been awhile but I was kind of disappointed at our last agility trial and didn't feel too much like writing. Our last trial was the Saturday of Easter weekend. We had entered six Steeplechase runs, four for Beckett and two with Keltic. It was a beautiful spring day, we haven't had many of those yet. We had a nice drive the trial site and arrived in plenty of time to set up and walk around; the venue is an equestrian centre with many large paddocks to walk the dogs in.

Beckett and I were the second dog on course, I no sooner took off when I felt something pop. I had pulled a hamstring muscle in the same leg that had the calf muscle tear last year. I tried to run the course but couldn't keep up with Beckett. The next run was Keltic's,again I couldn't keep up so rather than make things worse, I scratched Beckett from the rest of his runs. Keltic, since he had run with someone else last summer, I decided I would ask a friend to run him for me in his second run. I probably could have put him in all of Beckett's events but since Keltic has decided he can't weave, there wasn't much point. Keltic ran really well for Jack; at first I didn't think he was going to go but he took off and stayed with Jack throughout the course. After Keltic's second run, we packed up and made the nearly two hour drive home, sitting that long was a little painful. I withdrew from our May trial and am hoping that the leg will be healed by the time of the Regional Championships in June.

The trial the weekend before Easter had much better results. Keltic had two qualifying scores, one in Advanced Jumpers, his first Advanced Q and one in Starter Standard, his first Std Q. It wasn't a pretty Q since because he won't weave on his own I have to guide him through them. The course time was 78 seconds and we took over 74 to complete the course; he should be around the 50 to 60 second range. He also had a good Starter Snooker run, we finished our opening and were running the close; we just needed for Keltic to complete the teeter for the Q but Keltic decided he had done enough teeters;  he put his front feet on the teeter and just stopped. Keltic needs that one Snooker Q for his Starter Games title and two more Standard for his Agility Dog of Canada title but until he's weaving again, I won't be putting him in a Standard.

Video of Keltic's Advanced Jumpers Q

Beckett had not a bad weekend. He got a Steeplechase Q, his 22nd. Part of the reason why the injury Easter weekend was so disappointing as Beckett only needs three more Steeplechase for his Bronze Expert Steeplechase title and I had thought it might be possible to have finished that title. Beckett had a 5 fault Standard and a Standard that was a total train wreck.
 

The leg is feeling better but I haven't tried to run yet.  We start classes outdoors the week of 12 May so we'll see, until then we will be taking it easy.

Wordy Wednesday

Well this past weekend, we finally got the 2014 agility season under way.  We were supposed to have a trial the first weekend of March but stomach flu followed by a kidney stone made it impossible for me to run.  Feeling much better now, thankfully. I hope never to have another kidney stone, stomach flu is bad enough.

This weekend we trialled at Dream Fields which is the closest facility to us but it's still a 45 minute drive in good weather. Well, wouldn't you know it Saturday morning we were having a spring snow storm with a snowfall warning of 15 cm having been issued. I didn't have to be at Dream Fields until 2pm but I decided to go early and have my lunch there; so after clearing the driveway I took off at about 10:30 am with Keltic. Beckett stayed home.  We arrived in good time as the roads weren't all that bad. Spring snow is wet and with the traffic on the roads it melted quickly so the roads were pretty clear.

Keltic was entered in four Starter events, Jumpers, two Standards and a Gamblers.  He did extremely well for a little guy who hasn't practiced much.  He has decided he can't do weaves and that one teeter a trial is his limit, so our Standards were a bust but those are things we can work on. His Jumpers run was just awesome. He ran the course in 26.65 seconds, 4.85 yards per second. I thought that would have been good enough for first place but a little black dog named Widget beat him by less than half a second.

Video of Keltic's Starter Jumpers

Keltic also had an awesome Gamblers run.  I may have stepped over the line for the mini gamble of tunnel, dog walk, tunnel but the judge gave us the points for it. Keltic did that mini pretty well but then wouldn't stay out to do the two jumps that were the other mini Gamble.  I finished the opening in good position and walked to the gamble line letting Keltic settle down. It worked! He was off like a flash and I don't think I could have called him off that tunnel.  

Video of Keltic Starter Gamblers

Both of these qualifying scores were his second in each of these game events so now Keltic moves to Advanced in those events. And he now only needs one more Snooker Q for his Starter Games title.  

On Sunday, Beckett had four events. I didn't enter the first two events of the day so we got to sleep in a little as our events didn't start until after 10 am although they always tell you to arrive at least an hour before. I figured they couldn't get that far ahead after only two events.  Beckett had a two Masters Standards, a Masters Snooker and a Steeplechase to run.  Beckett's first Master Standard was a train wreck. He knocked two jumps, took an off-course at the a-frame (we were supposed to be doing the chute there), then took a tumble from the A-frame and then a non completion on a tunnel when I did my blind cross too soon.  

Video of Beckett's Master Standard 1

Master Standard 2 was much better but I didn't handle the tunnel dog walk discrimination well and Beckett took the tunnel. You can see after he rounds the jump he's pointing directly toward the tunnel and I don't give him anything but a verbal to which he obviously wasn't listening. I should know that as he is so attune to my body language.

Video of Beckett Master Standard 2

Next was Snooker, Beckett ran well but knocked a bar on obstacle six.  I wasn't using my head. I should have tried for the fourth red jump but as I had done three red jumps, I started the close. Beckett decided not to do obstacle 2, the tunnel but rather obstacle 3, the single jump in the wrong direction. Tweet went the judge's whistle, we were done.

Our last event was Steeplechase, no video, I'm afraid.  People were starting to pack up, as Steeplechase was the second last event.  I told Beckett he could redeem us, he loves Steeplechase and so do I with no refusals we can just go for it and if we're fast enough can usually make up five faults.  And that's what happened, a beautifully smooth fast run with one bar down. The course time was 46 seconds, Beckett ran the course in 37.06 seconds so with our five faults we had a score of 42.06. I was very happy with his time as many of the 22" dogs (border collies included) were running it in around 36 seconds so my little Beckett boy was close on their heels. That is our 21st Steeplechase qualifying score, four more and Beckett gets his Bronze Steeplechase title. 

So all in all it was a good weekend, I was feeling great, Keltic did awesome, Beckett did awesome and  more importantly wasn't hurt by his fall and we had fun.  The other thing that was really nice. You might remember our blog post about an agility competitor who passed away at a Dream Fields trial. Well, her partner, Dave, was at the trial this weekend running their dogs. He decided that the dogs enjoy agility so much he should give it a try so here he is basically a Starter handler trying to run Masters courses with these dogs. It was beautiful to see, he got a big round of applause after each run and while he found the Jumpers course too much to remember, he did manage a couple Qs in Steeplechase. That's how agility should be run for the joy of being with our dogs.  Life is too short to worry about the small stuff.

Expert Bronze Jumper

At the trial this past weekend, Beckett got his Expert Bronze Jumpers title and he certainly didn't do it the easy way. I put him on the start line and started to lead out to a position past obstacle 2 to block a decoy jump.  Little did I know that Mr Sneaky Pants decided to surprise me and come out meet me at the same position. I was kind of startled to say the least to see him come up by my side.  The thought crossed my mind that maybe he had not even done the first two jumps but then I thought oh well, if he didn't we've already faulted, lets just have fun with the rest of the course.  I wasn't even sure that we hadn't faulted obstacle three; but I see now in the video that he never really approached three so no faults there. The course didn't run as smooth as I would have liked but it was much smoother than it looked on the course map. I was sure again when he was spinning before the tunnel in the back corner that we had faulted but you can see the judge in the video and she didn't call any faults.  I was so sure we had faulted that course that as you can see I gave Beckett a finger wagging at the end of the run and he only got a few hot dogs for his efforts. When they handed out the ribbons, I was waiting to just go get a cookie and they didn't call his name until "and first with a Q, Beckett and Helen"; I had to say "did you say Beckett". He even got the best run of mini Regular dogs and won a stuffed dinosaur.

Beckett with his ribbons and prizes

Beckett's Master Jumpers Run

Master Jumpers Course

Beckett's last run of the day was a very nice Steeplechase. Not sure why he spun a bit on the back tunnel. I think we have to work on "go" as well as rear crosses this winter as there was no reason for the spinning on the tire. Oh right, he has obstacle commitment issues. Beckett now only needs 5 more Q's for his Bronze Expert Steeplechase. The steeplechase run was also the best run for the mini Regular dogs and he won the little pink bunny; isn't it cute. Beckett got jack-potted with hot dogs big time to make up for the scarce reward he got after Jumpers.

Beckett - Steeplechase Q

We also ran two Standards. The first one was very nice. Beckett's speed in the weaves surprised me a bit and I didn't get my front cross in so we got faulted for a refusal on the jump after the weaves. The second Standard, we had an off-course and were eliminated.  He had to go past the dog walk to a tunnel  and chose to get on the dog walk instead but I didn't run in as far as I had planned so really didn't give him all the information he needed to make the correct choice.   So we are still five Q's from his Bronze Award of Merit but I'm sure those Q's will come.

Canada Cup 2013 - Part 1

The Canada Cup is an annual event hosted by Adrian and Susan Royackers on their property in Ariss, Ontario. It draws competitors from all over Canada and the United States.

I've wanted to go to the Canada Cup for many years but in the past I would have had to go as a spectator as dogs have to jump their regular jump height and Ceilidh and Tucker both jumped as Specials. This year, since we weren't going to Nationals and because a friend also decided to go, I entered Beckett. I hoped we wouldn't be totally outclassed by the level of competition and that we'd be at least in the middle of the pack.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon, 27 June in Guelph and headed out to Royackers to set up our screen tent so that would be one less thing to worry about in the morning. We set up the tent, even though with the weather forecast of rain and lots of it, we had been told that the event would likely be conducted indoors. I was totally impressed with the venue from the top field, to the pond, to the outdoor ring. The fields were like golf fairways, impeccably groomed.

Beckett playing Frisbee and Keltic running off to visit yet again

The pond

The dock

The top field with RV parking just off to the right

View of the pond from the top field

 In three of the events, Grand Prix, Steeplechase and Jumpers, there are two preliminary rounds with the top 45% of dogs moving on to the finals. The other two events are Snooker and Gamblers with the winners being decided by the single run. There is also one event for veteran dogs, a jumpers challenge.

I only entered Beckett in the Grand Prix, Steeplechase and Jumpers as your entry fee ensured you two runs and because the registration form said that the rules for the Snooker and Gamblers would be announced on the day of the event so I wasn't sure what to make of that. The rules at Canada Cup are a bit different than those of the Agility Association of Canada. For one there are no refusals called; we like that, as having a dog that sometimes gets a bit spinny, it was nice that we were only losing time. As well, most things were only accorded 5 faults, teeter fly-offs were 10 faults and non-completion of an obstacle was 20 faults.  The placements in each event, other than the two games, was determined by time plus faults so a fast dog could afford to make a small error.

Friday, 28 June, we arrived at Royackers in time for the general briefing and afterwards set up our crates in one of the buildings that were connected to the indoor arena. It was nice that we did not have to go outside to get our dogs as it poured rain for much of the day.  We got to watch most of the Snooker runs, which were really amazing, as the only way to win was to go for four 7's and get the full closing for a perfect Snooker.

Our first event was Grand Prix. We had never run a Grand Prix event before, it was a lot of fun.  It has all the obstacles you would find in a Standard event but the courses, I found, flowed smoother and weaves were judged at Starter or Novice level like Steeplechase.  In this first run, Beckett had two bars down and as a result he didn't place very high but being his first run, I was just glad he hadn't come in last.

YouTube link to Beckett's Grand Prix 1 Run

Our next event was Steeplechase which is one of our favourite events because even in the AAC, there are no refusals called.  I felt really in sync with Beckett on this run and we finished the clean run in a time of 33.61 seconds which was good enough for 5th place.

YouTube Link to Steeplechase 1 - Beckett

Fifth place finish for Beckett

Our last event of the day was Jumpers. We had a clean round in this event too;  it was not spectacularly fast and we finished in 10th place. There were 20 dogs in our height class so I thought unless we did much better the next day that we probably only had a chance to make the Steeplechase finals.

YouTube Link - Jumpers 1 - Beckett

I was very happy with how Beckett was running, two clean runs and he was right in the thick of things.

Since it had rained so much they made the announcement at the end of day that Saturday's events would be indoors too. It was a very long day, we headed back to the hotel to feed the dogs and then went out for dinner ourselves. The next morning came far too early but since we weren't in the Games event, we didn't have to be in a big rush to get back to Royackers.

One Trick Puppy

Beckett got his third Advanced Gambler Qualifying score this weekend so he will now be in Masters Gamblers.  That should be exciting but I'm sure we will find that we have a lot more training to do as you'll see in the video all of his Advanced Gamblers Q's were essentially the same, so maybe he's a one trick puppy.  He actually should have had the first gamble at this trial too, but because I waited for him to stop spinning on his own, we didn't get the gamble in time. The first gamble was out to the far end of a tunnel, 12 weaves and a jump, the buzzer went when Beckett was taking off for the jump.  I've been working on a line up command to bring him in back at my side when he starts to spin, but I never even thought to give it a try.

One Trick Puppy

He did quite well in his first Advanced Standard of the trial but refused the table. He refused the table in the next Standard as well, it was curious. A friend watched our Advanced Jumpers where he spun and refused a jump as I started a rear cross; she said as soon as I decelerated he began to spin.  So now we have something else to train and that will be to get him to go to the table no matter what I do.

Advanced Standard Runs

We also got another Advanced Snooker Q at this trial. We ran a very nice jumpers course for our Snooker as the only contact on the course was an A-frame and it was the number 7 obstacle. I did four reds, two 5's, one 6 (both were two jump, tunnel combinations) and one 4 (a two jump combo) before starting the close with Beckett. We ran out of time at the A-frame but still had 44 points, a qualifying score is 37 points.

Our next trials are in Nov with one again at Dream Fields and one at Absolute Agility. Beckett now needs only one Advanced Standard for his Advanced Agility Dog title; and one Snooker and two Advanced Jumpers for his Advanced Games Dog title. I'm hoping we can finish them up this year.

Beckett tries to take me out!!

I arrived back home on Thursday evening from visiting my parents down in New Brunswick. My sister and brother-in-law picked me up at the airport.  I was glad to get home to see Tucker and Beckett. I was off on Friday and I had planned to sleep in but the boys had better ideas and in any case there was the Royal wedding to watch on TV so we were up at 6am.  I stayed up all night to watch Charles and Diana's wedding but I'm not as young as I once was.

After watching the wedding, I took the dogs for a walk, checked the mail that had built up for a week, finished unpacking and starting packing to head to Kingston for an agility trial.  We headed out to Kingston after lunch. We went to the soccer dome to set up, watch some friends runs and went out to dinner with a couple friends before heading to my youngest sister's place.

Beckett was in four runs this weekend; a starter jumpers, a starter snooker, an advanced standard and his first Steeplechase.  We only got one qualifying score in the Snooker but I was very happy with how he ran this weekend.  He made all of his contacts but we have to work on weave entries at speed as I don't think he made one of them.

Starters Jumpers

Starters Snooker

With the Starters Snooker Q, Beckett now only needs one more Starters Jumpers qualifying score for his Starter Games Dog of Canada title, perhaps next weekend at Dream Fields.  We were so hoping for a nice red and gold title ribbon from Morning Star but another blue and white one from Dream Fields will be nice too. 

I'm not sure but I think Beckett was out to get me this weekend. He nearly took me out at the knees in the Jumpers run and then tried to give me a heart attack in Snooker. He sure is exciting to run that's for sure. :-)

Wordless Wednesday

Fun Trial Advanced Standard



Red Gate Fun Trial - Apr 2011

Last weekend, we attended another fun trial at Red Gate arena. For a change, the weather cooperated and we had a beautiful spring day; it was so nice to be able to take the dogs outside between runs and not to be freezing all day.

The runs this time were a Standard course and a Jumpers course. In the Standard, I did the Advanced course and then the Masters. Only the first Advanced Standard run was videoed but that turned out to be a good thing as I wasn't happy with most of the Masters run. But then I did go out planning to work on contacts rather than worry too much about the course.  I'll post a video of that some other time.

For the jumpers, we ran the Advanced course both times as I wanted to see if I could get Beckett to do two straight tunnels (obstacles 15 and 16) without having to be right with him.

Advanced Jumpers - Red Gate Fun Trial

You'll see in the video that I don't go as far between the tunnels each time we run. We had never practiced this before and I wondered if he would just come between the tunnels to meet me. 

We also practiced a lead out at the beginning. The opening of the Advanced course was the same as the Masters. My position was critical and since our results were mixed, this will be something we practice more, as obviously I need more work on determining my position.

I really enjoy the fun trials at Red Gate as even when the weather is messy at least we're indoors. I wish Larry and Irene hosted more but next month's fun trial ends the season until the fall.