State Titles Novice Agility Qualifying Run (and 1st Novice Agility Pass)

State Titles 2010

This weekend saw our 1st attempt at a State Agility Trial. I must admit that after the last few weeks I was REALLY nervous about running Selby.

We got there to find that Amos was only entered for Saturday - so he would be spectator for the evening.

Selby's 1st run was in Novice jumping. It looked like it was going to be a really hard course and I was worried about her taking the ring rope. Turns out she had a fantastic run and got round the really tricky bits well. Just one bar down (the only one for the whole weekend!) and that was my fault for crossing too close and making her shorten up.

Open Jumping - a bit tough for us but good for the extra run. Selby took the tunnel at distance but was surprised to find me so far away when she came out and got pretty flustered.

Last run of the night - Novice Agility. First Agility pass WooHoo!!!! What a time to do it :) Not the smoothest run but you can't argue with a pass!

After a long night it was back to the trial at 7am, this time with Amos ready to run.

Novice Jumping - A good 1st attempt for Amos, he just popped out the wrong end of the tunnel, but all else was good. Selby just got a refusal on 1 jump - soo close :(

Open Jumping - Another tricky course and not such good handling but good for the weave practice.

Novice Agility - YAY Amos! Who would have thought it! 1st trial and he weaves AND passes AND comes 4th!!! Both dogs now against each other in the finals. Selby popped out of the weaves.

Finals - WOW so nervous. They only ran 1 ring at a time so everyone was watching which was really intimidating.

Amos got to go 1st and sadly ran around jump no 2 and took it from the back. He also ran off after something at the back of the ring and missed the weaves. But overall pretty stoked at his 1st trial :)

Was SOOOO nervous running Selby. After being concerned about her going out of the ring on the 1st night, it never occurred to me she would do it on this course, but she did! just kept running and took the rope instead of the jump :( She also found the back of the ring interesting and came off the table. Best part of the whole weekend was her weaves though. It was a really hard entry off the A-Frame on an angle - and she NAILED it!!!!! was stoked with her.

Overall I was really happy with our 1st attempt at a major competition with heats and finals. A great prep and confidence boost for the Nationals coming up in a few weeks

Big thanks to Robyn Evans for the great pics :)

Amos

Amos belongs to my flatmate Andrea. She has been training him here as well as up in Geraldton where they lived for a few months last year. For now I will be running him at trials which is SOO much fun. He is a joy to run and so eager to please and do whatever you want of him. When Andrea started training him Amos was the class clown. And boy he made up laugh. His favourite pasttime was running laps of the training grounds!!

Lately he has settled more with training and has really become clued in to what is expected and just loves agility. I hope that Andrea will take over running him at trials soon, but in the meantime I am having a ball

Ok - haven't added anything for a while. We have been in a few trials and started in ADAA for the 1st time. Unfortunately I entered classes that were way too hard for us and it all went a bit wrong. As a result I got stressed, Selby got stressed and the combined effort was a complete loss of confidence. I won't post the videos, although they weren't all dreadful.

Decided to take a step back and refocus on a few things. We had been doing so much work on weaves that Selby decided that that was all she had to do! Start lines and contacts went completely out the window so have left the weaves and gone back to those for a bit (she is weaving really well, although still only if I am on her right)

Pulled out of Cloverdale which I think was a good decision, I went down to watch and it's really close to the road so the extra stress of that probably wouldn't have helped. Also pulled out of 1 night of the ADAA trial so that I could go down to training. What a good decision. It was sooo much better than the last few - and Selby did the most amazing A-Frame ever!

The Saturday at ADAA was better than the previous trial and far more positive. It was also the 1st time I ran Amos - my flatmates KC Cav. Left early and found out 2 weeks later that Amos got a 2nd and Selby a 3rd at this trial (although neither with clear rounds). Things were starting to look up :)

ACWA Fundraising Trial Feb 17

Ok so there was a trial Jan 29th but it was pretty disastrous so I won't put those videos up! (Who puts weaves at the start line anyway!!)

Last Wednesday was another ACWA fundraiser - this time Agility. Whilst we didn't go clear I was pretty pleased with Selby's run. I got the best lead-out I have had in a really long time and was happy with the middle of the course. Selby got a bit excited and came off the table and I pushed her too far over after the A-frame which pushed her into the wrong side of the weaves. As a result I stopped her, which she hates, and she snapped at me so after 1 attempt at weaving I pulled her off the course. WEAVES WEAVES WEAVES :( Got to work on them.

WooHoo Selby's a star!!

Just got back on Tuesday morning from 4 weeks overseas. Jet lag and the heat meant it was a very short training session Tuesday night so we went into Wednesday's jumping trial with very low expectations. Well I did anyway, Selby had other ideas. I was sure she knocked the 3rd bar but we got a surprise at the presentations to find out that she had not only gone clear for her 2nd pass, but had also gained 1st place again. What a star.
Best thing was how well Selby was running with me, following my lead, not even looking like biting my hand and running a beautiful smooth course. Pity I had such low expectations I didn't get it filmed :(
Now for the next trial Friday night - Agility and Jumping this time - will be interesting to see how we go at weaving, who knows maybe the time off has helped with them too! (Can only hope)
One more pass in Jumping and Selby will have her 1st title. That would be fantastic except then I'd have to try to negotiate excellent courses!

The Encouragement Award

Tonight was ACWAs Christmas wind-up. We haven't trained for a few weeks but went along for a laugh. After a nice run in the restrained recall Selby was a little bit too wound up for the tunnel challenge (a shame as she nailed it last year!).
We got a lovely surprise when the club awards were presented and Selby and I were given this years' Encouragement Award. I missed most of the speech due to inattention but the bits I did catch were mostly about Selby's increased control and her managing to complete a trail without running away!! And how did Selby celebrate - by running away at all 3 runs in the relay challenge after the awards presentation :) That's my puppy for you! It really was great to get the award though and we'll take that into next year.