We had a great trial this past weekend, and here's the promised full recap!
We started off with Novice JWW on Saturday, and as has been common lately, Philip knocked a bar on one of the jumps, earning us a yet another NQ on JWW. It's getting a little repetitive to write that about our JWW courses, but that is what he wishes to do. Our next run was much more exciting - Novice Standard. It was a beautiful course, not too hard, but not too easy either, and Philip nailed it perfectly, finishing his third Q, and getting his Novice Agility title! I was beyond excited after this run, my little guy is all grown up, getting a title :) He also got 1st place in that run, and we got 3 ribbons - a blue one for first place, a green one for qualifying, and a pretty multi-colored one (purple/black/teal) for the new title.
Of course, finishing the title meant that Philip could move on to Open Standard, so I filled out the paperwork and we were set for our very first Open run the next day, though I was nervous just thinking about it. Sunday started off interesting - we signed up for a local fundraiser walk which was taking place that morning, so we got up at 7am and headed over to the park where the fundraiser was taking place. We had a whole team of Corgis and friends assembled for the walk, and we raised lots of money for the Humane Society benefiting from this fundraiser - a great deed for a great cause! We walked 2.5 miles along with hundreds of other dogs and their owners, and then hung out at the park a bit before heading over to the trial site.
When we got to the trial, I think both of us were a bit tired, but luckily we still had a couple hours before our turn to run. I put Philip up in the shade and went to check in and look at the course maps. My jaw practically dropped when I saw the Open Standard course we would have to run. It included several tight turns, tricky off-course obstacles, and a tunnel under the dog walk with one pass onto the walk, and another into the tunnel. How in the world was I going to make Philip do all this?! I walked the course once it was set up and I was absolutely sure this would be a miserable fail, but what did we have to lose? After all, the worst thing that could happen is an NQ.
Soon our turn came, and we took off on the course - into the chute to start, over a couple of jumps, and onto the dog walk. I did a funky front cross before the dog walk, and saw Philip think about the tunnel, but he took the walk after I pushed him out further, first danger avoided. After the walk was a jump and a set of 12 weave poles - we've been doing 6 for a long time, I was sure Philip would mess up, but he practically laughed at me as he zoomed right through it - wow! Then we had a 180-degree loop of jumps, made sure not to take any wrong ones, went over the A-Frame, another jump, and onto the table. So far so good, you'd never think this dog just finished Novice! From the table we did another 180 through a tire and a jump, and onto the teeter. Philip walked it confidently (a rarity lately), and happily pranced over another 180 of jumps. We then had another approach to the dog walk and tunnel, but this time we needed to take the tunnel. This was a super close call, but somehow I managed an awkward front cross, and got Philip into the tunnel, and then over the last jump! So there we were, with a beautiful clean run and our first Q in Open Standard! What's even more amazing is that Philip was the only dog in his jump height to Q in that run, so we even got first place :)
Last but not least we had Novice JWW left. While in Novice, we've been doing JWW followed by Standard, and I had a theory that Philip was doing so badly in JWW because it was always the first run of the day. This time it switched due to being in Open Standard, plus the course looked really nice and easy (especially compared to the Open Standard), so I has my hopes up. Philip took off nicely, but messed up the weaves entry, so I called him back and redid it - no biggie. He then tried to take a wrong turn, I called him off, and then he almost immediately attempted another wrong turn, this time crossing my path unexpectedly. This forced me to kind of jump over him and I kicked him right on the head, poor guy! That definitely stopped him before taking a wrong obstacle though :) The rest of the run was clear, we had finished without knocking a bar off! You are probably expecting me to say that we got that ever-elusive Q in this run... I thought so too, but came to find the results with an NQ for Philip, marking 1 wrong course. You aren't allowed a wrong course in JWW, which is what caused an NQ, but where did it come from? I was confused, and so I went to the judge for clarification. The result - Philip had back weaved the poles when I was getting him back to restart them! How could I forget? Of course, when I had called him back, he turned right around and weaved! I was so mad at myself, if only I had remembered this one little rule, I would have stepped to the side and gotten him out, but no, my mistake caused us to NQ :(
So there you have it, an eventful trial that ended with two more Standard Qs and still no progress in JWW. I better remember the weaves thing for next time, and let's hope all the bars stay up. Our next trial is this weekend, in just a few days. It'll be interesting to see what comes first - Excellent Standard, or Open Jumpers. We have 2 Qs to go for each...
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Novice Standard!
I'll do a full recap of this weekend's trial on Monday, but I have very exciting news to share today!
Philip got his last needed Q in Standard, so that completes our Novice Agility title and we've moved up to Open Standard for tomorrow! Yay!!!
Sill in Novice for JWW, but we'll get there :)
Philip got his last needed Q in Standard, so that completes our Novice Agility title and we've moved up to Open Standard for tomorrow! Yay!!!
Sill in Novice for JWW, but we'll get there :)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Agility Pictures
Photography has been my hobby for a long time, and I never miss a good opportunity for fun photo shoots, so I've been taking my camera to the trials with me. Of course, I can't take pictures of myself running with Philip, but I thought I'd share some shots of other dogs running the courses.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Why Agility
I've been asked several times why and how I got into Agility. The short answer is, believe it or not, by random luck! The long answer is, well, it's long :)
I've been obsessed with dogs even since I can remember - I was one of those children that wanted to hug every doggie on the street and bring them all home. I also got into reading about dog training early on, for some reason it just fascinated me. At some point in middle school, my family finally gave into getting me a dog, and I got my hands on training an actual dog rather than just reading about it. When I had to move for school, the family dog stayed back at home, and I was back to theoretical learning and no hands-on practice.
In college, I decided to volunteer at a local no-kill dog shelter to get my dog fix. I applied my self-taught methods and learned lots of new ones. Lucky for me, I met and got to know one of the long time volunteers there, who saw my potential, and taught me so much about dogs, I couldn't possibly tell you all about it. He even let me work with the "lead only" dogs - these were difficult dogs with issues like aggression, biting, fear, etc. It was hard work, but I loved it, and am so thankful to have had that opportunity!
When time came that I could finally get my own dog, I started my research. Somewhere along the way, I ran across the various dog sports, and thought it could be fun to try one. When I finally settled on getting Philip, I had decided that I would give either Herding or Agility a go, just to see what it's like.
Yet again, by pure luck, Herding wasn't readily available, while an Agility training opportunity practically fell into my lap. I knew next to nothing about the sport at this point, but I took the opportunity. It would be something fun to do with my dog, and he was reaching the right age for the sport, so why not, right?
Philip took to training like he was born for it. Other handlers had trouble teaching their dogs going over a jump or through a tunnel, while mine pranced through the obstacles, and made it look like he's been doing it all life long. Not to say we didn't have problems, but he certainly made it look easy in comparison! Again, I was lucky to have a dog that made the beginning process so easy for me. After a few classes, I realized that both Philip and I had a ton of fun learning Agility, and so I decided we'd continue the training.
The class I was enrolled in at the time was more for fun, so when faced with continuing training, the trainer suggested that I go to another local instructor, who teaches purely competition-focused Agility classes. Lucky for me, this instructor wasn't too far from me and is amazing - she competes with her own dogs, and the classes are very well structured (I'll tell you about our classes another time).
All in all, the whole experience has been simply amazing, and so, by pure luck, I was training Philip to compete. Several months later we entered our first trial. It's been an amazingly fun and rewarding experience, I never looked back, I love Agility! As for Philip, you only need to see the expression on his face when we enter the class, and how impatiently he waits for his turn, he most certainly loves it too!
I've been obsessed with dogs even since I can remember - I was one of those children that wanted to hug every doggie on the street and bring them all home. I also got into reading about dog training early on, for some reason it just fascinated me. At some point in middle school, my family finally gave into getting me a dog, and I got my hands on training an actual dog rather than just reading about it. When I had to move for school, the family dog stayed back at home, and I was back to theoretical learning and no hands-on practice.
In college, I decided to volunteer at a local no-kill dog shelter to get my dog fix. I applied my self-taught methods and learned lots of new ones. Lucky for me, I met and got to know one of the long time volunteers there, who saw my potential, and taught me so much about dogs, I couldn't possibly tell you all about it. He even let me work with the "lead only" dogs - these were difficult dogs with issues like aggression, biting, fear, etc. It was hard work, but I loved it, and am so thankful to have had that opportunity!
When time came that I could finally get my own dog, I started my research. Somewhere along the way, I ran across the various dog sports, and thought it could be fun to try one. When I finally settled on getting Philip, I had decided that I would give either Herding or Agility a go, just to see what it's like.
Yet again, by pure luck, Herding wasn't readily available, while an Agility training opportunity practically fell into my lap. I knew next to nothing about the sport at this point, but I took the opportunity. It would be something fun to do with my dog, and he was reaching the right age for the sport, so why not, right?
Philip took to training like he was born for it. Other handlers had trouble teaching their dogs going over a jump or through a tunnel, while mine pranced through the obstacles, and made it look like he's been doing it all life long. Not to say we didn't have problems, but he certainly made it look easy in comparison! Again, I was lucky to have a dog that made the beginning process so easy for me. After a few classes, I realized that both Philip and I had a ton of fun learning Agility, and so I decided we'd continue the training.
The class I was enrolled in at the time was more for fun, so when faced with continuing training, the trainer suggested that I go to another local instructor, who teaches purely competition-focused Agility classes. Lucky for me, this instructor wasn't too far from me and is amazing - she competes with her own dogs, and the classes are very well structured (I'll tell you about our classes another time).
All in all, the whole experience has been simply amazing, and so, by pure luck, I was training Philip to compete. Several months later we entered our first trial. It's been an amazingly fun and rewarding experience, I never looked back, I love Agility! As for Philip, you only need to see the expression on his face when we enter the class, and how impatiently he waits for his turn, he most certainly loves it too!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
March AKC Trial 1
Whew, we just got done with a long weekend of Agility! Talk about a slow day at the trial - Novice dogs were supposed to be on around 2pm both days, instead we started past 4pm, and been coming home around 6pm. Wow, I'm sure glad that's over with! Now on to the recap of the weekend, sorry - no funny stories this time.
Saturday's first run was JWW, and Philip took off running super fast. I could hardly keep up, even our instructor commented on how fast he was after we finished. Unfortunately though, he knocked a bar with all that momentum, so NQ for us. The second run was STD and a pretty nice straight forward course. Philip didn't pretend to be a lightning in this one and had a very nice clean run, taking a Q and first place!
I had hoped Sunday would move along a bit faster, but we actually ended up starting our runs even later. I was worn out by then, and some dog stole Philip's treats while I wasn't looking :( Nevertheless, we took on the JWW course. Not such a good run - Philip took a wrong jump before the weaves and knocked a bar on another jump. He wasn't paying much attention to me in general, and I didn't even have treats to encourage him afterwards - poor guy. I tried to pick up the mood for the Standard run, and after strolling slowly at first, and hesitating before the table, Philip picked up a bit of speed and finished nicely. Clean run and first place - another Q in standard! I improvised and rewarded him with an empty water bottle for a toy - he was in bliss!
All in all, we got 2 Qs in Standard this weekend, so we only have one more to go before moving on to Open in that. I hope that'll happen at the next trial, I'm pretty excited! Still 2 more left in JWW, but we are working on it - gotta pick those short little legs up :) I never thought he's be doing better in standard than in jumpers!
Saturday's first run was JWW, and Philip took off running super fast. I could hardly keep up, even our instructor commented on how fast he was after we finished. Unfortunately though, he knocked a bar with all that momentum, so NQ for us. The second run was STD and a pretty nice straight forward course. Philip didn't pretend to be a lightning in this one and had a very nice clean run, taking a Q and first place!
I had hoped Sunday would move along a bit faster, but we actually ended up starting our runs even later. I was worn out by then, and some dog stole Philip's treats while I wasn't looking :( Nevertheless, we took on the JWW course. Not such a good run - Philip took a wrong jump before the weaves and knocked a bar on another jump. He wasn't paying much attention to me in general, and I didn't even have treats to encourage him afterwards - poor guy. I tried to pick up the mood for the Standard run, and after strolling slowly at first, and hesitating before the table, Philip picked up a bit of speed and finished nicely. Clean run and first place - another Q in standard! I improvised and rewarded him with an empty water bottle for a toy - he was in bliss!
All in all, we got 2 Qs in Standard this weekend, so we only have one more to go before moving on to Open in that. I hope that'll happen at the next trial, I'm pretty excited! Still 2 more left in JWW, but we are working on it - gotta pick those short little legs up :) I never thought he's be doing better in standard than in jumpers!
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