Spring Columbia, SC AKC Results

This past weekend we traveled to Columbia South Carolina for an AKC Trial. I usually don't travel that far for an agility trial but my mother in law lives there, so it is a great way to combine trips.

It was a large trial with 2 rings running at all times. There were over 1200 runs with 288 dogs entered in the trial. It ran very smoothly though and I was out of there by 3:00pm each day. Saturday there were thunderstorms and the thunder bothered some dogs, but luckily, it was under shelter so we didn't get wet. It was held in the Horse barn at State fair grounds in Columbia. Sunday was the weather was beautiful, a little cool for some, but it allowed us to keep the dogs crated in the car.

The weekend went very well. My goal for the trial, of course, was to get contacts and weaves. I also wanted to monitor her excitement, but more on that later. Clover did not miss one contact and she finished all her weaves, although it took a lot of coaxing!

Here are our the results....


If you would like to see all the results, check here.

Our first run was the Novice standard. I actually did contact familiarization. Contact familiarization is where Novice dogs and handlers can take their dog and walk them over the contacts, on leash, once, so they can get familiar with it. AKC is the only venue that does that. This is the first time that Clover and I have ever done it. When we did, she tried to jump off the end of the dog walk. But, she was still on leash and she couldn't get too far! I think it helped because she hit all of her contacts on the run. She didn't hold the 2 on 2 off as long as I would have liked but she hit them. I had to restart her in the weaves about 4 times, but the times are so generous in AKC Novice, we still Q'ed and placed Third. Speaking of times, the electronic timer failed when we ran the standard course on Saturday so we had to run again for time. Since we Q'ed on the first run, they didn't care if we missed contacts, etc on the second run, so it was like a practice run. We were very relaxed and Clover did very well. She hit the weave poles faster, even though I still had to restart her a couple of times. Here is what the actual run looked like...


The second run on Saturday, held in the other ring, was the Jumpers with weaves. I already have the novice title, but I forgot to move us up before the deadline. I am glad I didn't move up. It gave us time to work on 6 weave poles. I will probably enter open jumpers with weaves next AKC trial.



She ran the course very well except, of course, for the weave poles, she blew right by them after exiting the tunnel. I had to restart her a couple of times. But we still made it well under time.

On Sunday we ran the Jumpers with weaves first. She did pretty well, I had to bring her back for one jump and restart her on the weave poles about 4 times, but she did Q.

The last run of the trial for us was the worst. The run was going fine until we hit the table. She left The table early and caught me unaware and went straight to the wrong end of the tunnel, and before I knew it she was over the broad jump and went straight into the shoot when she was suppose to turn and do the A frame. She left on the 5 count, but was still early, I'm sure I moved or something. It was just another sign that she was really hyped up. also, At the tunnel after the A frame Clover turned and decided to take the dog walk instead of going straight and taking the Jump! It was another opportunity to practice a contact and she did a great 2 on and 2 off contact stay!

Of course I had to start her over a few times on the weave poles. Other than all of that, it was a great run ;-)

If you have been following the last couple of weeks, Clover does very well in practice on weaves and contacts, but trials are a different story. This weekend I tried to watch her more carefully about how excited she gets. I was amazed at how hyper she is getting before going into the ring. She actually barked before and after her jumpers run on Sunday. Clover has never barked when doing agility! I am convinced that almost all of the problems are due to her being to excited. I have a private lesson tonight and we are going to work on adrenaline training with her to see if we can get her to focus that energy!

We are entered in a USDAA Trial this weekend, it will be interesting to see if she behaves any differently on home turf next weekend. I will be chief course builder for this trial. It is being held at teamworks, so it will be familiar ground for clover. I am entered in 3 runs each day.