On the first weekend in June, we "did it all" at the American Pit Bull Terrier Club of New England's UKC conformation show and weight pull in Westfield, MA. They offered a great, affordable package deal for all 4 shows plus both pulls that I couldn't resist. Running from one ring to another to keep up with the schedule is a bit hectic, but worth it for a chance at Total Dog. ;-) It was a wicked heat wave, and we were all thankful that the weight pull trial was held under cover in one of the fairground barns. We were not so lucky in conformation, but at least there was a frequent breeze. On the down side, the wind continually blew thick clouds of pollen off the tall pines. Allergy sufferers were not faring well by day two of this! Tripp did wonderfully despite the heat, moving well in the show ring, and working with his usual gusto in weight pull. Now that he is going for WP Championship, we follow a different strategy, building points rather than earning basic qualifying legs. The point schedule goes by increments of weight pulled - on wheeled carts, 10x the dog's body weight = 5 points, 15x his weight = 10 points, and then it jumps to 25x his weight for 15 points, and so on. Darn it, what happened to 20x? (Weight requirements are different for track systems and snow sleds, but the increments are comparable.) I'm slightly irked by this, because Tripp can do 20x under the right conditions, but I don't forsee 25x ever being reasonable for him. I know to never say never, but I will bet that we're stuck at 10 points max per trial. At that rate, I'm not sure if we'll ever make title (UWPCH requires 100 points) unless there's an upsurge in local trials - Tripp could very well be retired before we see 8 or more trials in the area! LOL Oh well, we'll keep trying anyway, having fun on the journey whether we reach the destination or not. :-) Anyway, what this point schedule means is that if Tripp pulls 15 times his weight, he will earn 10 points - but if he pulls, say, 17 times his weight he won't earn anything extra, so basically the effort is pointless. So now at trials our goal weight will be 15x and we'll likely end at that to conserve energy. This should be easy enough for Tripp as he's just beginning to make an effort at that weight! LOL Although I did wonder if he'd make it that far in last weekend's heat. Luckily he weighed in at only 48 lbs (I'm pretty sure their scale was off, but no complaints here! hehehe) so he "only" had to pull less than 750# to hit 15x. I expected to need closer to 800, so one less pull was fine by me. Tripp too, I'm sure! I will say it was an educational weekend... Part of my concern over hitting our goal weight in WP was the number of pulls required to get that far. The down side to Tripp weighing in light was that he got stuck in a lower weight class with the "little" dogs, which meant moving up weight increments just one block at a time. I knew you were allowed 2 "passes" - the choice of skipping 1 or 2 move ups - but was under the impression that this rule was over the entire trial. That still would be more reps than I wanted Tripp to do in severe heat. But hallelujah, come to find out, the rule is 2 passes only between pulls - you can skip 2 increments after your first pull, then do your second, then skip 2 more, then pull again, and so on. That was the best news I got all day! And we did exactly that. We entered at the highest weight allowed for Tripp's class, skipped all that we could, and ended up only needing to do 4 pulls to hit our goal weight on both days. Tripp says that was plenty, now bring on the A/C! ;-) But WP was not the end of things. We also had two conformation shows each day. While Tripp looked great out there for the most part, we were somewhat less successful, taking Reserve CH in all 4 shows. Basically, runner up. (Well, at least he made good point fodder for our competition. LOL) I wasn't entirely disappointed at first, since he did win that placement over another Poodle, so I still expected to earn Total Dog for our competitive win plus performance Q. That was really all I wanted anyway. Alas, my education continued, this time not particularly to my pleasure. Turns out he actually must win his class (or take a group placement) to be eligible. In other words, Reserve counts for nothing, so that was just some expensive handling practice after all. Total Dog is slightly tougher to earn than I thought, no wonder it is so coveted! On the bright side, I should be even prouder that Tripp has earned it twice already, with limited showing. We'll keep trying for more. Why stop now? No matter if UKC says Tripp is a Total Dog on a given day, or not... he will always be that and more to all of us who know him. He is The Ultimate Versatile Poodle! My Total Dog. :-)
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I know, I'm weird. Most people dream of visiting some tropical island somewhere... me, I've always wanted to go to Canada. After 30-something years, that dream has finally come true. I can't quite cross it entirely off my bucket list, however, as I was too busy with a dog show to actually see any sights. Well darn, I guess I'll just have to go back... ;-) Northeastern weather even in mid-April, though usually nice, can still bring stubborn remanents of winter. Lucky us, Mother Nature decided to bring sleet & snow on our departure day. We hesitantly ventured forward anyway, and though the drive was slow, we made it to Quebec safely. A fairly new club, the Association Canine Canadienne Multisports, hosted a weekend UKC dog show in Sherbrooke - just over the border, a little more than 3 hours from here (in good weather) - which included Conformation, Rally Obedience, AND Weight Pull! Official WP trials have been scarce enough lately, but to find a show that holds more than one performance event is rare, esp. in this area. I could not pass up the opportunity to attend. Saturday we started with WP under judge Robin Clark, who was wonderful. And I'm not just saying that because she later commented that Tripp was the best dog there! (There were other good pullers, but Tripp really gets in the zone.) I planned to do minimal pulls - just enough to qualify - since we had a very full weekend and Tripp is not quite back to top condition yet. I was ready to quit at 560 lbs (one pull more than we needed to Q), but everyone begged us to continue since he was pulling easily and in excellent form, plus they wanted to show off this great sport for the audience, as well as prove the versatility of the Poodle breed. I completely agreed with those points and, after making sure Tripp was indeed good to go, continued on with one more pull. We ended at 700 lbs. - over 13 times his body weight. From there we went on to prepare for conformation. Mary King was our judge, and we had some nice competition; just a few puppies - Tripp was the only CH entered, but at least he wasn't the only Poodle, and the others were lovely. It was anyone's game out there. Though we didn't win today, Ms. King gave us a wonderful critique - actually apologizing profusely for not placing us! She absolutely adored Tripp, but due to his curled tail which is considered a "major fault" in the standard (despite being mainly cosmetic), she had to go by the book and put up the less faulted dog. Well gee, I certainly understand that! I had to tell her several times not to feel bad - I was actually thrilled for our opponant, as this was her very first show with practically no experience and a young dog - what a fantastic introduction for her! It's always more satisfying to beat competition, and not get what I call a default win. She went on to earn a group placement as well! I'm so happy for her. And I was just excited to be back in the show ring (after what? 2-3 years?) with Tripp looking awesome out there, and such great feedback from the judge topped it off. Sunday was our busiest day, with Rally added to the schedule. Once again WP was our first activity. Tripp remained in near perfect form, with plenty of enthusiasm, but we stopped at 560 lbs today to conserve energy. This was more than enough weight for another Q, which finally completed Tripp's UWP title! It was a long wait for that one, as he'd earned his first leg when he was just over a year old! (To think back then I thought putting more than 500 lbs behind my dog was unimaginable. Ha! And now that's barely an effort for him. Mr. Tough Guy. This amazing Poodle continues to prove that it's all about attitude and condition.) We continued on to Rally, with Mary King judging this as well. It wasn't the best start. In Trial 1, level 2, I somehow managed to miss a sign even during walkthroughs. Too focused on my dog (even the invisible one) I blew right passed a sign on my right shortly after an about turn. Hmm, well that explains why there was such a big gap of nothingness there! LOL I sure kicked myself for that one. Tripp did well, this one was all me. So NQ, which automatically gave us one less opportunity for a leg towards his Excellent title (which requires 10 double Qs in level 2 & 3 in the same trial). Level 3 went better for the most part. At least we did everything we were supposed to! Tripp had several imperfections due to distractions - did I mention this show was held in conjunction with a BIG animal expo, with hundreds (thousands?) of people, tons of noise, pony rides, and kiddy bounce houses all just outside the rings. Not to mention the show photographer set up literally next to the Rally ring, intermittently squeeking toys during a shoot, and of course all the smells of cats, birds, reptiles, etc. along with the other show dogs being groomed nearby! Thank God they set up the Agility and Frisbee dogs on the opposite side of the convention center!!! Despite all this, Tripp managed to pull off a score of 97, only being docked for excessive sniffing during the honor down stay. Truthfully, he was totally obsessing and crept way out of position, so that score was very generous! Improvement continued in Trial 2, level 2. While Tripp still was not as accurate as I prefer, he did do a great job considering the environment on top of not having much recent practice in the sport. Amazingly we earned a perfect score of 100. This brought us to just ONE point away from Rally Championship! So close! By level 3, our final competition, we were both pretty tired! My feet were ready to fall off. Tripp still did wonderfully and finished with a 99. That made his UROC title! Yippee!!! It also gave us a QQ, bringing us halfway to URX. We will continue on to that goal. Somewhere in the middle of all this, we entered conformation too, under judge Tina Camp. Another great, fair, helpful judge. Once again we got a wonderful critique after ring time, and she just loved Trippy (who did a good job sucking up to her, hehehe.) This time, much to my surprise, we won Best of Breed! Tripp moved very well and that was the deciding factor. (She "could care less" about his tail. ;-) We didn't get anything in Group, but our Breed win qualified us for the coveted Total Dog award!! This will be Tripp's second Total Dog, which is earned by a conformation win plus a qualifying score in performance within the same show/trial. I have but one regret for the weekend... I forgot to have an official photo taken! How could I? (Exhaustion, that's how. ;-) I was a little bummed that the club didn't offer new title ribbons, but a picture with the judges and Tripp's prizes would've made up for that somewhat. Posing alone at home just isn't the same. Oh, I still got a nice pic of course, but I do kick myself for not capturing that moment IN the moment. Oh well. C'est la vie! At the last minute, I decided to enter Tripp in the CDSP Obedience trial on Mar. 30 (the day before Easter) at BoGee Agility & Sport Center in Raymond, NH. Not only were we rusty from slacking off all winter, but we have limited Obedience experience to begin with. (It is quite different from Rally, although that's a wonderful foundation.) This would be our first CDSP trial, with only one workshop under our belt. I still picked up on some new rules (thankfully before our ring time!). Judge Charlene Swainamer was extremely nice and helpful. CDSP is similar to traditional AKC Obedience, with a few differences in exercises. In some ways it is more challenging, but it is also more casual and fun. Praise is allowed during most exercises, and a treat is even ok at very specific points (rules on this are very strict). Check out http://www.companiondogsportsprogram.com for information on this fantastic venue. I really wasn't sure how we'd do in the ring. The way I figured it, this would be considered more of a practice run for other upcoming trials. Of course I always hope for a Q! As usual, everyone loved Mr. Flashypants Tripp. He was pretty silly and certainly not perfect in the ring, but he had a few moments of brilliance, and overall did quite well all things considered. We ended with a score of 197.5, tied for first place! This calls for a "runoff" where the competitors repeat the heeling pattern and best score/time wins. Tripp continued his imperfections, as well as got itchy half way through. LOL The other team had a beautiful, nearly flawless run and certainly deserved the win. :-) Unfortunately we weren't able to compete in the second trial, as there was much holiday preparation to be done at home. It was a great morning though and I can't wait to continue in CDSP. Tripp will go far! We all know Tripp is an agility rock star... at least in his mind. ;-) Unfortunately he's stuck with me as a handler, so we haven't gotten very far in trials. Agility Qs have not been at all easy to come by, compared to Rally Obedience for instance, which is more my forte as a trainer. But we still have fun out there - and Tripp obviously intensely adores it. We've been out of agility classes for a while now, so my handling this weekend was falling below par again. I just wanted to give it one more try before winter break, and getting even rustier! Tripp just needed one more Q in USDAA Gamblers for his Starters level title. That's all I wanted for Christmas - an agility title. That, and no injuries. Well, the latter did not look promising when Tripp approached the dogwalk too fast and misstepped. Off he tumbled and all I could think was something got hurt. But he was more embarrassed than anything and continued the run with as much drive as ever. Thank God, no apparent injuries resulted - he is running and jumping in the same good form as before. Surely an extra long warm up and cool down helped, followed by massage and stretching. And extra napping! LOL After that mishap, however, the former did not look promising either. No way, I figured, would we collect enough points to Q at that point. We continued on through a tunnel then tried the weave poles, which Tripp missed - I pulled him out to try for a jump, but our time was up. He finished the gamble with no trouble, but I did not expect a Q. Oh well, I was too busy worrying about him still (even though he was moving just fine - yes I'm paranoid). Scores were soon posted, and lo and behold, we Qed!! But how?? Thanks to Tripp for making up his own course and taking the teeter a 2nd time, that gave us just enough points to qualify! Smart boy. I must say, too, that when he wasn't falling off that darn dogwalk, Tripp had beautiful form on all the other obstacles. One of these days we'll get it all in one trial - good form, responsiveness, no mishaps, and good handling! Hey, I can dream, at least. ;-) |
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Sunday
Finish Forward Dogs Weight Pull Fun Match
The competitive pull which followed is based on UKC rules. We are hoping that a newly formed club will soon be able to offer sanctioned UKC weight pull trials in the area. These fun pulls in Maine have been proving a local interest in the sport and are establishing a base of competitors, so things are looking promising. It has been a long time since I've seen any trials offered in New England, and the few that I've seen in the past were often far away and rarely had a "great" venue. I would be so excited to see a UKC weight pull trial offered at a wonderful facility like Finish Forward Dogs. Here's hoping! Maybe one of these days we will actually get to finish Tripp's UWP title! And who knows, maybe more...
I never considered going beyond level one title into championship competition. It requires so much more from the dog, as far as amount of weight pulled. I figured Tripp's winter performance this year was a fluke; surely he wouldn't pull over a thousand pounds again - I probably wouldn't even let him try. So much for that - Tripp gave a repeat performance, pulling the same 1040 lbs. with very little trouble! No consequences followed. In fact, I swear his gait improves after doing weight pull.
Once again I paid no attention to the amount of weight he was pulling; rather, I watched his behavior and physical response. He actually did better this time, physically - while he was also fine after our previous match, and still working eagerly, he was obviously tired and muscles maxed out. However even after our last pull at this weekend's match, his muscles were nice and loose and remained so. Of course I cooled him down well and massaged him throughout the day. I'm sure he could've pulled more, but I wanted to end on a positive note. He was just a tad slower on the final pull, and worked hard to finish, so I was not going to push it. There was no reason to continue anyway, as he was the "last dog standing" so to speak - he took 1st place with that final pull, hauling 20 times his body weight. Incredible! That would've been worth 10 championship points if I understand the rulebook correctly. If he continues this trend I might consider aiming for UWPCH... although that is still a lofty goal, with so few trialing opportunities.
Regardless of any titling possibilities, we will continue doing weight pull as long as we can. Even if it's only in the backyard and once or twice a year at this fantastic FUN match. :-)
Well, first of all, Tripp got "repoodified"! The blue beard came off (so we wouldn't get kicked out of the AKC trial for color) and after shaping up that body he's almost show worthy again. :-) He still needs a bit of growth in some places, but considering I shaved him only 3 months ago, he looks amazing. I know, he always looks good anyway. LOL
Souhegan Kennel Club offered a great deal on non-regular classes, so I took the chance to enter Wild Card for fun and practice, as well as Beginner Novice. Obviously I hoped for a Q (when don't I?), but went in with only the expectation of learning what it's all about, how we would do, and whether we'd enjoy regular Obedience. Sure enough we did, so I think we will keep at it. :-) It's quite a change from Rally, and we have lots to learn, but it was still fun - seemingly for both of us! And Tripp did very well and was mostly calm.
First up: Wild Card Novice
Wild Card is a non-regular class which allows the handler to choose one exercise to receive a perfect score on; performing it is optional. I of course performed all the exercises - I chose the first one as our wild card, figuring Tripp would be "wildest" then. Handlers are also permitted unlimited praise during each exercise, although repeated commands are still faulted. The rest of the class is performed as in regular Obedience trials, with the same standards of performance. The Novice exercises are: heel on leash & figure 8 (around 2 human "posts"), stand for exam, heel free (off leash), recall (come sit at front, then finish to heel position), long sit (1 minute), and long down (3 minutes).
The class proved to be a great warm up (lucky for us it was scheduled as our first run) and I learned a lot. I wish I could've taken notes in the ring! The judge was super nice and helpful; very supportive of this newbie. Tripp was faulted a few times for poor position and being distracted (but, Mom, there's a Poodle in the next ring!), but as expected most of the points off were due to my handling. My funniest fault was due to forgetting that there was a finish after the recall - I got excited at Tripp's beautiful performance and waved my arms, ready to say yes and release him. Oops! LOL That in turn threw Tripp off and caused him to flip into a very crooked heel position. But most of my other faults were subtle incorrect movements and positioning of myself (some of which I didn't even know there were rules on.) Of course, actually knowing the rules and scoring system would make a big difference, but I do still need work on my handling. Much as I love Rally, including it's casuality, it's perpetuated my sloppy handling and inprecise training. And there's nothing wrong with that - until you start Obedience trials, which are all about precision.
Overall we did much better than I anticipated in Wild Card Novice... 188, not bad at all! I was surprised to score as well as we did, being so green. Even without the Wild Card option, we would've been docked only 5 additional points, so still would've Qed with a 183! (A Qualifying score is 170.) Obviously talking to Tripp in the ring made a difference though, so doubt he'd do as well if I remained silent throughout, as in a regular Novice trial. But who knows. We may find out some day! ;-)
Next: Beginner Novice
Beginner Novice is a new offering in AKC Obedience. The exercises are: heel on leash, figure 8, sit for exam, sit stay (while handler walks around ring), and a recall (no finish required). This is a great optional titling class, with exercises & rules somewhere between Rally and Novice Obedience. Rally signs are used for the heeling pattern, instead of the judge telling you where to go, everything's on-leash, and there are no group exercises. It's a nice stepping stone for those like me coming from Rally. It was still pretty tough, allowing only one verbal praise per exercise (much quieter than I've ever been! LOL) and standards of performance the same as regular Obedience - precision positioning, etc.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect, having no experience beyond the one run-thru day, but there was no way to know until we tried! Amazingly, we finished with a very respectable 193 and 1st place. Our first Obedience leg! I'm excited to continue.
Here we go, chasing more titles... :-)
Truly, it was unusual behavior for Tripp in the obedience ring, and actually he did well in the first class, earning a 99 & 1st place, but then it seems he spotted the a-frame (even though it was against the wall and behind fencing) and went into agility mode. From then on he was breaking position and barking like mad. Lucky for us, UKC apparently has no rules against barking (AKC does). Somehow, even with all those faults, we managed to score a 95 in the second class. Our 3rd class went slightly better, with the same behaviors but fewer incidents, and we scored a 98 & 3rd place. I was still not impressed with all the barking & running around and asked Tripp to please behave for our final ring time. He listened and gave a nice performance, though it took much willpower! He reeeally wanted to take off again, but stayed with me, and of course that intensity made for an extra flashy run. We ended with a perfect 100 & 1st place, which was earned by a time tie-breaker. Competition was stiff with many great teams scoring high. Tripp was just quicker.
For special awards, the club as usual offered High in Trial for both trials that day, as well as High Combined, which is the first I recall seeing offered for rally. It is for the highest combined score in levels 2 & 3. In the morning trial, another excellent team took HIT with their perfect score, but to my surprise Tripp & I won High Combined. (I actually had to ask what it was. LOL) Well this is something new! Very cool. Incidentally, our combined score was 194 out of a possible 200. The same awards were offered at the conclusion of the afternoon trial, and I sat vaguely listening to the judge announcing the winner for HIT & HC - the same winner as last time... Wait, what? Who me? You mean both?? Very, very cool! :-) We nailed both awards for the same trial. So, we hit a couple bumps, but it was a really nice finish to the day. Oh yes, our afternoon HC score was 198. Not bad, not bad at all!
As of this event, our rally championship point tally stands at 82 points - we need 100 for UROC title. (Points are earned based on score - 1 pt. for a 91, 2 pts. for a 92, and so on.) We have surpassed the required points in each level (must have at least 40 in level 2 & 20 in level 3), so we can earn the remainder from either one, although I will likely continue entering both to work towards URX, which requires 10 double Qs (we have 4 so far)... although that will depend on next year's show schedule and finances.
My fleeting hope of making rank in UKC's Rally All-Stars was dashed earlier in the year. This is an annual list of the top 50 highest scoring teams in the country. It is divided for each level. We made level 3 rank in late winter with our first trial, but come spring we were quickly bumped off by teams who apparently have far more opportunities for competition. Unfortunately we are not so lucky here, with only a few trials to attend in the region. As it currently stands, the #1 team (a Poodle, by the way) has over 500 points (I am baffled at how they accomplished that - must compete every weekend!), although the lowest at the moment is only 46 in level 2 and 50 in level 3. Perhaps there is hope yet... We are up to 47 points now in level 2 and 51 in level 3. So just maybe we'll make the list again, at least briefly. However, this was likely our last trial of the year, so I'm sure more active competitors will take the lead. Oh well. It was a cheap thrill while we had it.
Here is our win photo, with his haul of ribbons from the day!
Marshland Obedience Club
Sept. 29, 2012
Judge: Barb Burri
UKC Rally Obedience
Trial 1 - Level 2: 95
Level 3: 99, 1st place
High Combined score
Trial 2 - Level 2: 100, 1st place
Level 3: 98, 3rd place
High Combined score
Highest Scoring Dog in Trial
I included details of our performance (and my frustration ;-) in the video description.
For best viewing, and reading about the day, go to http://youtu.be/Z7Wae7ofP_Y.
The event was nice - several vendors, including a fellow creative groomer who I got to chat with for quite a while, and of course several other local businesses and lots of rescue groups. Tripp as usual enjoyed meeting everyone and soaked up all the admiration directed his way (both at the event and even more later at a rest stop)! The dog park (MDOG) looked very interesting, complete with swimming pool (we didn't go in the park, just glanced from afar) and I was proud of Tripp - he did really well with most of the dogs that greeted him - even the males! I don't think his obsessiveness over dogs will ever decrease, but I'll take less machoism any time.
There was a handful of other training demonstrations at the festival, as well as fun pet contests throughout the day. We performed our group routine with the PomPoms, and then our solo act. I made some recent tweaks to it - mostly to reduce the excess jumping - so lots of new stuff in there. Also a good charge of winging it, as I forgot some of my intended changes, LOL. Plus there were inevitable moments of distraction. But that's one nice thing about freestyle - only you know what the routine is, so if you mess up most people don't know the difference (well, except when the dog just stands there staring at other dogs outside the ring, haha). Overall I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Still needs work, but it's getting there. :-)
Unfortunately I did not get video of the Poms (though someone else did - I will add it here if/when she gets it on youtube), but Robin (our other Parti Poodle dancer) filmed Tripp & I in the ring. So glad, as when we were out there I thought we did much worse than we look upon playback. Of course, I usually feel that way - Miss Perfectionist. LOL
Pardon the sound - it was very windy!
p.s. A nice incentive that I learned about after the fact was that the event was sponsoring our demos by offering a donation to WCFO, the freestyle organization which Tripp is titled in. That made the trip even more worthwhile. :-)
Quite some time ago, I entered us in the ACNH trial at American K9 Country on 8/5. Entries fill quickly, as this club's prices are low (for AKC), so you must enter early. I had only done one other AKC agility trial last year (our very first trial, also ACNH) and enjoyed it, but had no serious plans to pursue it. However, now that we are taking a break from creative grooming, I decided to try it again. I do like that, while still challenging, you don't need an absolutely clean run to Q, as in USDAA, plus the jumps are a tad lower, so it's easier on Tripp's body. He certainly had no trouble navigating these courses, and didn't drop a single bar on the jumps. Not that he was without faults...
First up was regular agility class. Overall, we had a nice run. Tripp did go off course once (which loses points, but still qualifying), unfortunately, being amped up at the beginning, he blew the contact off the dogwalk. (Contact zones are required to prevent the dog from jumping off too soon/high and risking injury.) As a safety violation, that was an automatic failure, so we NQed. He still was a hit - so many people asked "who's that dog?" and complimented our run. One person exclaimed, "he's a rockstar!" LOL Yes, he is one awesome boy.
After a nice break, we were back in the ring for Jumpers class. This is a fast course with no contact obstacles; just jumps, tunnels and weave poles. Here, you do need a clean run to Q. Standard course time was set at 40 seconds. Tripp was the very last dog of the day, and he was raring to go - into the ring that is. He zipped through the course beautifully, without fault, and we earned our first leg/Q - in only 19.65 seconds! See, they saved the best for last. ;-)
I also put Tripp's Jumpers run in slo-mo... because watching him once just isn't enough. ;-)
The heat was already bearing down when we arrived at the show at 8 am. I packed a spray bottle of water to mist Tripp's coat to help cool him down (a trick I learned at agility trials), and seemed to use it almost continually throughout the day on Saturday. I even misted myself a few times! The judges were well aware of how hard the weather would be on the performing dogs, so I do wonder if they went easy on the scoring just a bit. As Tripp and I navigated the course I ticked off in my mind all the single point faults he might've deserved. Lots of positioning imperfections, although I must remember that while precision obedience is what I want, it is not required in rally. Still, AKC judges are usually a bit stricter - I joke that they must've stolen this one from UKC. LOL Perhaps the nitpicking was all in my head - he does indeed look better on video than I remember it - but I was not imagining the need to keep on him constantly to stay in position, esp. at the jump. It took all his willpower not to go into agility mode, and that does show in the video. I seriously thought I was going to lose him there, but he came back to heel when called and I'm very proud - we worked hard on that. Even a couple times later in the course it felt like he wanted to take off. But of course as always his charisma outshines the minor faults, so he looks good regardless. ;-)
I still don't know how, but we managed to score a 98!! I really expected lower 90s, at least. Not that I cared about score for once - I just wanted a Q and to finish that RA title that has eluded us for so long. But I certainly am not complaining. I was very happily surprised to get a 98, along with first place, which came with a $15 cash prize! I've said it before and I'll say it again - now that's the way to earn a title!
It wasn't until noon that our freestyle demos began. Oh boy, was it hot by then! Apparently somebody at the show had already collasped and I saw them being hauled away to an ambulance! Needless to say, we spent lots of time in the shade, taking it easy, with lots of water for everyone. I even bought one of those cooling neck ties that you soak in water for Tripp to wear (I figured any little bit helps). No, I don't think I'm capable of taking him to a show without buying him something. Believe me, I spent far more than that $15 prize on the neckerchief and a bunch of treats. Oh well, he's worth it.... and it was all stuff we were in need of. Well, ok, so maybe he didn't need another antler to chew on, but everything else was a practical purchase, really. ;-)
I can't say everything went smoothly with the freestyle performances, but we got through them without melting and the crowd was pleased, so that's the important thing. For some reason the sound system didn't play the music well - the base notes came through but the lyrics were barely audible. Unfortunately this caused us to miss most of our cues in the Poms' group performance. We even thought it was the wrong music at first as it sounded so different without the words coming through - I swore it sounded like "oompa" music. LOL We tried adjusting the volume, but it was the same even with my solo performance which followed the Poms - however I know the song well enough that I could hit most of the cues. (I actually rarely practice with the music at home.)
The dogs of course all moved at a slower pace... but for that matter I think we humans did too! But we are all very proud of our canine companions for performing for us at all in that heat. What good dogs. Tripp was extra tired after an already busy day, but agility nut that he is, he was still happy to jump over my head in our solo perfomance. Although you'll notice his groundwork is much less enthusiastic. At least we finished the whole thing this time. ;-) He crashed out after that, but was up and at 'em the next morning and ready for Sunday's events...
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