First and Last

Well, we went to a trial on Sunday, the last for 2013 and for the first time in many years, I ran two dogs. Hard to believe that the last time I ran two dogs was in 2009, some days it doesn't seem so long ago but at other times it seems like an eternity.

Keltic ran in the first three events and Beckett ran in four.   At Absolute Agility, one day is Advanced and Masters runs and the next day is Starter and Masters runs.  For the next little while Beckett's runs will be determined by what is offered on the day the Starter events are offered since it's a little more than an hours drive from my place and I don't want drive down on both days in the winter.

Keltic's first event was a Jumpers, he ran really nice but had an off-course when he took the wrong tunnel mouth but I was happy as he did the tire without hesitation.  Our second event was a Snooker, I planned an opening using the teeter and the tire just to see what he would do. For the tire, since there are no refusals in Starter Snooker, if he ran under it, I could put him back through it, so basically we could practice it without getting whistled off.  For the teeter, I thought it would be good practice too as it was his first time at this venue.  Didn't really need the tire practice, as you can see; but the teeter was another story. He was spooked by the banging and didn't want to do it the next time around. I thought we needed the dog walk to Q but I had counted my opening points wrong so was very pleasantly surprised to find that he had Q'd; I probably forgot to add the 3 points for the red jumps.

Video of Keltic's Starter Snooker

Keltic's last run was a Standard, I hoped that he had gotten over the teeter by doing it the second time in the Snooker but no; he was worse. He got on the teeter and wouldn't move, I tried everything to coax him forward. Finally I grabbed him just so he wouldn't bail and continued to coax him, then the judge said "push him by his bum" which I did. I gave him a few cuddles for doing the teeter and we carried on with the run.  The rest of his run was very nice.  We were well over time and, of course, I was faulted for touching my dog but when you're not going to Q anyway it's a good thing to help them through the difficult parts.

Next it was Beckett's turn. I had entered Beckett in a Master Snooker, Masters Gamblers and two Masters Standards. They were the first four Masters events, I did that so I could get home at a reasonable time even though I did take Monday off work.

First up was a Standard.  The Standard had one line of jumps that was quite a zig zag, I thought Beckett would do it but he started spinning a bit and by the time we got to the fourth jump in the line he was really spinning.  I thought for sure we had faulted at least three of them but we had only faulted the last jump of the line. I guess we were far enough away from the jumps or Beckett was spinning less than I thought. Next up was a Gamble, that I wasn't even sure Beckett would do the first three as he had to stay out to do the weaves after a jump, he did that beautifully but then you had to send back between the weaves and the jump out to another jump. Beckett would not go out to the jump, he kept trying to take the jump near us, I don't even think he saw the other jump. Next was Masters Snooker, I planned what I hoped would be smooth course for Beckett.

Masters Snooker

We did red jump, the obstacle 6 combination, red jump, teeter, red jump, teeter then red jump followed by the weaves. I front crossed that last red jump so Beckett would be weaving toward the start finish line so then I just had to do an "again weave" to begin to run the close. We were able to finish the whole course in 53.53 seconds, we only needed to get through obstacle 6 in the close to Q. I wasn't sure we were going to have time as to get from 5 to 6a, I went between jumps and the tunnel mouth to send him around to the backside of the 6a jump; usually as Beckett tends to spin right in front of me so it can take some time to get across the ring like that but this time he was quite good. Our last run was another Standard, I had promised Beckett a cheeseburger for a Standard Q; it's been awhile since his last Standard Q (March 2013) and I was hoping a bribe would work. Not sure if he understood but Beckett did get another Standard Q so he and Keltic enjoyed a cheeseburger for dinner when we got home.

Cheeseburgers for me and the boys

So for our last trial of 2013, Beckett did very well qualifying in two out of four runs and Keltic got his first AAC qualifying score.

Keltic and his first Q ribbon!

Wordless Wednesday

Parcel from Across the Pond

Oh my dog, Beckett and me gots a parcel today from our friend Pippa and her peoples!  Mums says they live a long way away in Scot land, a place that Mums has visited afore she gots me and Beckett. We tried to open da parcel urselves but in de end Mums had to helps us.

Mums took out all the gifts from the box and then read the letter that Pippa wrote to us.  I was very cited to hear from Pippa but eben more cited to get to da stuffies. I chose da red robin stuffie as Mum's always buys black and white stuffies for Beckett so he gets da penguin stuffie. How did you know that Pippa?

Me, Keltic trying to get my stuffie and I just had to start chewing on it already. Beckett, da Mama's boy waited til Mums said he could get his stuffie but he was more interested in da cookies

Yes, der was shortbread cookies in the present but Mums says we cants have any.  Mums is not a great cook, although we likes eberything she makes. Shortbread, however, is one of her favourite cookies, she makes a big batch ebery Christmas.

The gifts that Pippa sent to Mums

Mums put all da pins on her banner in special places. The SSPCA pin went up beside her other SPCA pin. Da thistle pin went beside da maple leaf pin which was made from da old copper dat was on da roof of our Parleyment buildings and da Aberdeen flag pin went up besides her other Scottish place pins.

SPCA pins

Scottish place pins, Brodie, Balmoral, Glenfinnan, Culloden and now Aberdeen

Thistle pin with maple leaf pin

Pin banner

 Getting da parcel made it an extra special evenin.  We luves our pressies, thank you Pippa and please thanks your peoples too.

Lots of licks from me, Keltic, and from Beckett and Mums too

Mish Mash Monday

It's been one of those days!

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.