Скачать или смотреть AKC Agility (Novice FAST, Novice JWW, Novice Standard) 02-21-14

Wheee! This was Lucky's AKC agility debut. He did really well- better than I expected. That said, I'm REALLY glad we started off with CPE first! While everyone was really nice, I think CPE is probably a lot more forgiving of first timer zoomies and wandering out of the gates!

Our first run was Novice FAST (Fifteen and Send Time), which is great, since it's the only AKC event where he can knock down bars and still qualify. I was worried about him knocking bars running at 24". He runs 20 in CPE pretty easily, but the extra 4 inches makes a big difference and we haven't been practicing at 24 that long.

FAST is pretty much CPE Traditional Gamblers- so you make up your own course and all you have to do is get enough points (50 in novice) AND complete the 'Send'- the bit inside the tape. Lucky isn't great at distance work, but it's a really short distance and only 2 obstacles at the novice level, so this is pretty doable for us.

He started off beautifully- see him take that #6 (which was not bi-directional, hence the funky turn). Everything is dead solid until the 0:40 mark where I totally bobbled getting him on my right side and slowed him down. I probably should have done a front cross or just left him on my left side until the jump and done a rear cross.

Still, Lucky was perfect. He just needs a better handler! The buzzer sounded just as he went in the weave polls, so we didn't get credit for them, but he was really nice doing them. We ended up about 5 seconds over time (and you lose a point per second over). That left him with 58 points, which was good enough for a Q and 3rd place.

Overall? He was great. We just need to get a wee bit faster. I think I'd still choose that same course for us if I had to do it over- he's capable of finishing it in the time allowed if I don't screw us up.

Next up (0:57) was Jumpers with Weaves (JWW). This was by far our worst run of the weekend. We both brain farted all over the place. I don't know if I should be happy or sad that about half of our performance is missing from the video.

I think I was screwing around with his leash too much at the start, wondering if I should just toss it like I do in CPE or whatever. Anyway, he sits there like a perfect little angel until I tell him 'Over!' to start the run. At which point, he sprints straight to the table, I'm pretty sure looking for his leash.

We now have a new rule- we do not play with our leash AT ALL! I'd been letting him play tug with it which I really shouldn't have, particularly since we do obedience and rally too- and he really shouldn't be tugging on his leash. But I'm bad at saying 'no', so we'd been leash tugging on the agility field. We will not be in the future!

After that, it was just all bad. He knocked the very first bar, so at that point, we were not qualifying regardless. Then he got his focus and was having a decent run- yay! His weave polls were very solid. So of course it was time for me to brain fart and almost run into the tunnel. Then I paid no attention to him coming OUT of the tunnel so we blew past the green jump and then we knocked another bar heading for the finish.

Heh- I think the bad start threw us both off and we never really recovered. On the plus side, he didn't pee on anything and he stayed in the ring. So it really could have been much worse!

We followed that up with our best run of the weekend, his first Novice Standard run (1:50). He had a perfect run and took second place. He was a tiny bit sniffy and still wanting to look around a little bit, but he was definitely finding his groove.

He was perfect on the table (2:19), which had had me a little worried because he can be a goober about the table in CPE. Also, while we've practiced it at home, we hadn't done it with someone counting down for us. But he was perfect- and holy cow, he takes up the whole table!

His weaves were perfection (2:30). He's actually getting some 'bounce' in his step there. We've been trying to practice weaves a few times every day and it's really starting to pay off.

He finished up with the broad jump- another one we don't do often but practiced for at home. I was a little worried it might throw him off, but nope! Perfect run!

It was a great way to wrap up his first ever AKC trial. I liked the arena too- Lone Hickory Arena in Yadkinville. It was fully enclosed and heated, which was especially nice the first day when we had some nasty thunderstorms. I do like the Piedmont Saddle club's single big ring, which accommodates a more spread out course. But there's a whole lot to be said for having walls when it's raining!