Whoop Whoop

I've been doing Hoopers classes with Liam for about a year now. Canine Hoopers Canada (CHC) has been doing virtual trials since there aren't a lot of qualified judges yet and so they can build the organization by getting people to play who otherwise wouldn't be able to. For the first time, they included a smaller space option that could be done at the facility where we take our classes. There were six events, two of each of the games. I entered Liam in one of each, two other students also entered so we got together Friday evening to set up and run the courses. 

With CHC, you can run the courses with your dog like you do in agility and get a qualifying score. Each qualifying score is awarded points and titles are point based. Each course will have distance challenges using either a Challenge line (CL) or a Distance Handler Box (DHB). If you have a clean run and have successfully completed a distance challenge you are awarded extra points, so the titles will come faster if you can work at a distance. 

Our first run was a Hoopers course. It had two Challenge Lines, a 10 point line and an easier 5 point line. Not sure you can see the lines in the image, the 10 point line runs across from the number 2, the 5 point line is just above the number 1. I didn't think Liam would be able to get out to the barrel at obstacle 6 and 13 with me behind the 10 point line so I ran it from behind the 5 point line. You can click on the link below to see our run. I did try it from the 10 point line, twice, and while Liam did go out the the barrel for obstacle 6, he wouldn't go back out again for obstacle 13. 

Beginner Hoopers 1

Our next run was a Parkour, very similar to Hoopers but it uses all the equipment permitted by CHC so there was a gate and a bottomless tunnel as well as barrels and hoops. This course had a handlers box; the judge had allowed two options for extra points, run the whole course from the box or just get the first three obstacles while you were in the box. You can't send your dog from the box to the first obstacle to start the course so your dog does need a sit stay to let you lead out to the box. Let me tell you getting obstacle three while in the box was harder than it looked as Liam wanted to wrap the barrel or he took obstacle 4 turning in the wrong direction. 

Beginner Parkour 1

Our last run was one called TunGO, it uses just barrels, tunnels and gates, with a hoop as the starting obstacle. The other students, who were with me, were doing all six runs so it was getting rather late. As a result, I decided to not even try this one from the distance lines but just run it with Liam.  Again the distance lines are not really visible in the picture. The 5 point line runs from obstacle 3 to obstacle 6. The 10 point line is about half way back from that towards obstacles 2 and 7. Perhaps you'll see them in the video as we were using red and blue plastic tubing. 

Beginner TunGo 1 

You're allowed to practice the courses at a virtual trial, For our Hoopers and TunGO runs, it was the first time Liam did either course. I did try the Hoopers two more times afterwards to try and do it from the ten point Challenge Line. For the Parkour, Liam was a little high and we had to start this one three times before we got a good run. You only submit what you think are clean runs to be judged. I uploaded our runs to YouTube and put the link to each run on the virtual trial's FaceBook group and waited for them to be judged.

Whoop, whoop, Liam got a clean run on each of our courses! We also got a 5 point bonus in the Hoopers course and a 5 point bonus for the Parkour. I wasn't sure about that one, I had to move out of the box so quickly to keep him in line for the next barrel that I thought I might have stepped out too soon. 

So whoop whoop, now Liam is on his way for his Hoopers titles. For those who've seen him run agility, look how smooth and steady he runs the courses. Now we just have to work more on our distance skills. For those agility handlers out there, come give CHC a try, your agility dog will learn the obstacles quickly, they know the body language already and you can work on  distance over time. 

First

This really should have been my first post of 2018 but since I didn't get my act together to do a Christmas post this one had to wait.

New Year's Day saw the arrival of the first new addition to our family.  My niece and her husband had their second child, a little boy they named Kieran Paul.  A brother for Thexan David who is only 18 months. Boy, will they have their hands full for awhile. Kieran was scheduled to be born on 2 January so it was still a bit of a surprise for the rest of us when we found out he was born on the 1st, turned out Amber had been asked to go in a day early for her C-section.

Kieran is the first of three that we will add to the family in 2018. Another niece is having a little boy in February, it will be her second as well. Also one of my nephews and his wife will be having their first baby in March.

Nothing beats the news of a new baby but we also did our first agility trial of 2018 this past weekend.

This was the really nice set up they had for the photo booth, so how could I resist getting a picture of the boys.

We had a good day, each boy got three runs. Keltic had two advanced standard and one masters Gambler.  Keltic didn't get any Q's but both of his advanced standard runs went well. He only had five faults in the first one, a refusal on  a tunnel (obstacle 7); I was probably crowding his space a bit.

Advanced Standard 1

He had 5.16 faults in his second standard, a refusal on the weaves for 5 faults and the other 0.16 faults were time faults. We had to do the weaves three times to get them done so I'm surprised we weren't even more over time although he was really moving on the rest of the course. I was happy that he did target on both dog walks and there was no going under the tire.

Beckett had two Master Snooker and a Master Jumpers. Beckett got two Snooker Q's; the first one ran beautifully, the second I thought we faulted the weaves in the close but there was no whistle so we must have been outside the refusal zone. In any case, we only needed to get through obstacle 5 to have enough points for the Q and the weaves were part of obstacle 6. In Jumpers, I blew it for Beckett.  I didn't support him well enough to go out to obstacle 4 and he came by the inside of it but other than that it was a beautiful run.

Master Jumper 1

I was very pleased with how the day went. Both Beckett and Keltic ran well given how little training we have done and due to my injured Achilles tendon that we haven't trialled since August 2017 . On that note, my ankle held up, I felt it stretch a few times while running and it is sore today but a good sore if you know what I mean. We don't have another trial until March now so time to practice a bit and for the ankle to heal even more.

So looking forward to more family additions and more trials in 2018.