The last competition Agility class of the year.

It was a very cool nippy night at competition agility class. Being the last class of the evening, at 8:30 pm made it feel even more nippy. I was pretty comfortable though because I dressed accordingly. This is the last class until next year.

For the class we ran another AKC nationals course. It didn't seem like a tough course until we ran it. There were lots of continuous crosses in it. Clover was her typical self in the weave poles.

I was talking to Michele and mentioned that the judge said that Clover keeps her head up when she goes through the weaves. Michele said I should try to train clover to keep her head down in the weaves by making very short weave poles. clover would have to keep her head down in order to get through them and it would train her to keep her head down.

There is no Course of the week this week because of thanksgiving.

Clover, the film star

On Sunday clover and I left the trial early because we wanted to attend the Carrboro film festival to see Clover's run. It was one of 22 films that were shown out of 88 films that were submitted. There were 4 categories, high school, collegiate and emerging film maker. The two awards that Clover's Run was eligible for were the audience choice award and the Emerging film maker award. a doc "A soldiers Story" was the winner of the emerging film maker award, which is strange since the maker had won an Oscar for documentary film. I wouldn't consider that an emerging film maker! It was a big budget film, where Clover's run was done entirely by one person! ...and they were competing against each other. The audience award was the film voted best by the audience, in other words, who ever had the most people come to see it! It was a very interesting evening.

Fall Teamworks trial results

The teamworks NADAC trial this weekend was a blast. The weather was absolutely wonderful! I served as Chief Course Builder, so I went out on Friday night to help setup tents and the first courses for Saturday morning. The judge, M Cerise of Tucson AZ, actually came out on Friday night to verify the courses.

This is a one judge, 2 ring trial. We always run the non-contact classes in the sand ring and the contact classes in the Grass ring. We alternate from ring to ring. That gives us a little time to set up the course while they are running in the other ring.

I got to teamworks about 7:15 on Saturday morning and numbered the courses. We didn't start running until about 8:30. We started with the jumpers runs. Clover and I ran the elite jumpers course. It was a great error free run...

Clover ran the 130 yd run in 19.72 seconds. The standard course time was 25.96 seconds. We placed first in our class.


The next class was a regular run.

Clover did a good job, I was just a little slow at the command and she turned off the teeter and went into the tunnel under the A-frame. We didn't Q but we still placed second in the class.

The next class of the day was tunnelers. Clover had a clean run and Q'ed. It was a 146 yard run with a standard course time 39.2 seconds. Clover ran it in 20.62 seconds.

The next class was the elite chances class. We didn't Q. Because clover missed the first discrimination challenge and took the wrong tunnel.

The most interesting class of the day for me was the weavers class. We have only run weavers 2 times before but have never Q'ed because of Clover's unpredictable weaves. In this course, it was tunnel, 6 weave poles, 3 tunnels, 12 weave poles and 3 more tunnels. Clover did great with the 6 weave poles because they were right after a straight tunnel. when we got to the next weave poles, I had to start her 2 times but she finished them and we completed the course fine. Since I had to restart her, we were 9 seconds over time and didn't Q.

The Touch and Go class was great. I thought clover rushed the contacts a little, but we Q'ed. We ran it in 28.79 seconds. It was a 136 yard course with a standard course time of 35.22.

Overall, I was happy with the day. We had a 50% Qualifying rate.

Sunday was another beautiful day. We ran in reverse order. we ran tunnelers first to let the frost melt on the contacts in the grass ring.

Our tunnelers run was great. It was a clean run and she ran it in 16.08 seconds. It had a standard course time of 23 seconds and we placed second.

The second run of the day was a touch and go. I wanted to work on contacts, so I held the contacts. I must have held them a little to long because I didn't make time. It didn't make any difference though because clover took an off course at the last tunnels. She went straight and I was not able to turn her in time. I did learn that I can't hold the contacts as long.

the last run of the day was a weavers run. The run was a little more disappointing than the day before. There were 3 tunnels before the first set of 12 weave poles. I was unable to calm her down enough for her to complete the weave poles and I took her off the course.

I left in the middle of the day to go to the Carrboro film festival to see Clover's run. Mike took over as chief course builder.

Clover's run at Carborro Film Festival

Wednesday night was my night to help run COW. It was a beautiful night. I set up a nested course Michele created for a show-n-go. It was a good a course. There were quite a few people that showed up, but I still had ample time to run Clover.

As I was running Clover in the grass ring, I noticed she started limping again on her left front foot. I stopped working her and decided not to do anything with her because of the trial this coming weekend. It seems to be the same as last weekend where it appears as though she stubbed her toe. I don't think it is anything serious, but if I notice her limping again within the next week or 2 I may take her in.

This weekend is the teamworks NADAC trial. I am chief course builder and have Clover registered for all her eligible runs. Although I will have to leave early on Sunday because of the Carrboro Film festival. Clover's run is one of the films featured. (for more information check out May 5 entry)

Competition agility class - Class 3

There is not a lot to report on the competition class that was held last night. The class was held in the sand ring and we ran a standard course. I focused mostly on getting clover through the weave poles. I had to restart her almost all the time. We were using the Max 200 21 inch solid weave poles and not the new 22 in AKC weave poles. I think that may have made a difference.

Michelle was selling some of her old weave poles since she had to purchase new ones for AKC, so I bought a set of six. I now have complete set of 12 weave poles at home and hope that it will help in training clover.

YAC Fall AKC Agility trial

This past weekend was the Fall Youngsville Agility Club trial held at Teamworks. I was chief course builder but wasn't able to make it to the elite classes that were held on Friday because I had to work. I did go to Teamworks on Thursday though and helped move equipment to it's general location.

Saturday was a gorgeous day. I actually got a little sunburn. We ran both rings, jumpers with weaves was held in the sand ring and the standard courses were run in the grass ring. I had clover entered in novice because of her poor weave performance. In the jumpers with weaves class I had to restart her once, but she then finished clean. In the second class Clover started and finished the weaves cleanly. She finished cleanly on the new set of 22" weave poles. I was so shocked that she did them clean, that we got an off course. But we still double cued because it was novice class.

It was a long day. The running order was first all the elite classes, then open and then novice. So I had to wait until the end of the day before we ran. It was about 6:30 before I got home.

Sunday was a complete opposite of of Saturday. It was cold and it rained the entire time. We received 1.5 inches of rain during the trial on Sunday. we did run the elite standard in the grass ring but it turned to complete mud so we ran the rest of the trial in the sand ring.

It was hard for me to focus on the course's when I ran today. I moved up to open because clover did so well yesterday with the weaves. On the first run, the jumpers with weaves, only tried to start clover in the weaves 2 times and then went on . The rain was just so miserable. I can't even tell you what went on in the second run. I know she didn't finish her weaves and we got an off course.

It was an interesting trial because of the beautiful weather on Saturday and the misery of Sunday.

Kira's Twelve

Kira, Clovers adopted sister turns 12 today. Happy birthday! Kira has had her health problems in the past few years, especially with her Megaesophagus. Megaesophagus is an uncommon disease of unknown cause, genetic in young dogs, in which the esophagus loses muscle tone, causing regurgitation. This is why we can only feed her soft food and we have to feed her on a step stool, so gravity can help pull her food down. She then has to sit for 10 minutes after feeding so her food doesn't come back up.

In spite of that and the 5 pills a feeding she gets, she seems to be a very happy dog and is still doing her hospital therapy work at Wake Med. She seems to be very good right now, and often perks up when the weather cools down. On some of those hot Carolina nights she can be pretty miserable.

Last night was competition agility class. I went a couple of hours early and worked on repairing jumps. There were about 8 or so that had a jump cups that came off, so I glued new cups on... All in preperation for the Youngsville Agility trial at Teamworks this week end. I am serving as Chief Course builder, so I want to make sure all the equipment is in good working order. It will be a 1 judge trial but we will be using 2 rings. The jumpers course will be in the sand ring and regular classes in the grass ring.

AKC has changed the rules for a lot of the agility equipment this year. The weave poles changed quite a bit. The poles are now 4 inches taller, the base must be covered in a none slip surface and the base supports can not be on the side that the dog is on during weaving. Michelle purchased a new set and we tried them out in class tonight. The spacing is 22 inches also. In the past Clover and I have always worked with 21 inch spacing. These weave poles are designed to give a lot more. They seem to almost pivot at the base a little bit, so the rock back and forth about a foot when the dog goes through them. They seemed to be designed this way, maybe to provide less stress to the dog.

In compittion class Michelle had a nationals course set up. It was an interesting course because it had a lot of 180 degree turns in it. Looking at the course, it was one that would have a lot of qualifying scores in it, but the times would be all over the map because it would really matter how tight and fast your dog could make turns. We worked mostly on getting the tight turns by using different directional commands and the timing of those commands.

Clover did pretty well with the new weaves. It was almost a 270 Degree turn into the weaves. She missed the first time but I blame myself for not pushing her out far enough to get a straight entry. I focused on the new weaves with Clover. Michelle seemed to think that Clover was much more comfortable with the 22 inch weaves and was able to get a rythum faster. It was harder for me to see that since I was running her. We will see if they make any difference this weekend at the AKC Trial.

Michelle seems convinced that Clover seems more comfortable with them. I