Tuesday, February 22, 2011

ACI trial in Indy


Our first trial of 2011 was in Indy. It was held at Pawsitive Partners, which is a place that we used to train at when we lived in the area. It was great seeing old friends and instructors. I also got a chance to meet some new people and their wonderful dogs. :)

We drove up Friday evening, which is not the best situation for me and the girlz. We don't get much sleep in a hotel room if the girlz are not sufficiently physically tired. They usually run better if we drive the morning of the trial. They sleep better after a full day of agility. So, needless to say we did not sleep much Friday night. Too many hotel noises.

We arrived at the trial around 8 am Saturday morning. The trial schedule was as follows for both days: Excellent, Excellent, Open, Novice, Open, Novice. Both Darby and Brindi are in the Open classes. It was well after 2:30 pm on Saturday before we ran. And by the time we ran the facility was like a ghost town. Even my friends in excellent left before our last run of the day. That sucked.

Anyhow...

Saturday Brindi ran standard first. She's been having teeter issues for a while now. I don't think she's completed a teeter at a trial since summer last year. It's killing me! She will complete the teeter in practice, but will not do it during a trial. I really thought she was going to complete it at this trial, but alas she bailed! After that she missed the last weave pole and then we just ran for fun. She completed all the tricky tasks of the course like a pro. That darn teeter!

Next up was Darby. Darby ran well until the weave poles, which is when she noticed that there was a judge out on the course. :) Darby was unable to complete the weave poles after 3 tries. She needed to complete them on the first try, but she had up to 3 tries before we had to move on. After that she missed a few jumps, but did well otherwise.

Next up was Jumpers with Weaves. Brindi was up first. Brindi started out very well, if not a little too enthusiastic :) She got a wild hair and ran off a bit. I was worried about the 180 the judge had in the course. But Brindi had no problems with it! She finished the course, but had a wrong course or 3 and some refusals too. After that run it was a sprint to get Brindi her treats and back in her crate and get Darby ready for her turn. There were about 5 dogs running in between Brindi and Darby. Needless to say I had barely caught my breath before it was Darby's turn to run. Darby did well, did not get her weaves the first time, but did the second. She ran around a couple of jumps, which we went back to complete. Darby also did the 180 without any problems! So proud of my girlz! And thankful to our trainer for having us practice those in class :)

It was around 5 or so by the time we finished Saturday. A VERY long day of WAITING!!
We all got some well deserved sleep Saturday evening. I didn't rush to get to the trial on Sunday, but we were there by 9 am. I enjoy watching all the excellent people run and visiting with agility friends, but it's kind of hard when they all leave as soon as their runs are over. I like to have my friends watch us run, so I can get some feedback too. You know?

Sunday went a little faster than Saturday, but not much faster. We probably ran at about 1:30 or 2 pm. Brindi ran her standard course first. I was going to try and help her over the teeter. I think that if she can succeed at completing the teeter at a trial she will be more confident and be able to complete it on her own next time. Well, she bailed too fast. I couldn't grab her. So, we went on. She did all the rest of the obstacles very well. I think she might have taken a wrong course and had a refusal or 2, but it really didn't matter. She ran like she was having fun, and that is really important to me.

Darby was next up. She was in a goofy mood for this run. She was doing the course great and then it was time for the table. She jumped up on the table and proceeded to scratch her ear. Weird. Luckily, AKC rules only require the dog to be on the table for a count of 5. They can be in any position as long as they stay on the table. Darby gave the judge and the remaining participants at the trial a little bit of entertainment. Then Darby got the weaves on her first try!! After the weaves was a tunnel. I started thinking that we were going to Q after she got her weaves, the rest of the course was easy sailing. That's what I get for thinking. After the weaves I sent Darby to the tunnel, where she proceeded to run smack dab into the middle of the tunnel. Seriously, there was an audible "THUD". Darby bounced of the tunnel, kind of shook her head and then went into the entrance of the tunnel. That got some giggles from the judge and spectators too. I was dumbfounded. After that, our run kind of fell to pieces. I still don't know what happened at the tunnel. It was a yellow tunnel. The judge thinks that maybe Darby saw the tunnel bags and thought the opening was in between them. IDK.

Our last run of the weekend was a fast and difficult jumpers course. Brindi was up first. The first 2 obstacles were 180 jumps. I'd never really seen that before and wasn't for sure how to handle it. So, I put Brindi in a stay and led out past the first jump, thinking of getting a front cross into the 2nd jump. Brindi did not see it that way. She got the first jump, bypassed the 2nd jump and went into the nearby tunnel. Brindi is a sucker for tunnels. That was a wrong course, so we just ran the course for fun after that. She did pretty good on the rest of the course.

Darby was up next (5 dogs in between). I decided to start the run with her and pull her around jumps 1 and 2, this worked well for her, but then I was not in the right position for the next few jumps, which caused her to spin. Darn it! She ran the course well, except for missing a few jumps on the first try.

All in all I'm very proud of my girlz. They did very good for their first trial of the year. And I feel bad for not handling them correctly. I know if I had thought out how I needed to handle them they would have done better. But, I think this year is going to be great!

And, I'm buying a used teeter from a friend. Brindi will soon be doing the teeter with confidence!!!