NADAC Trial - November

Success! This weekend at the NADAC trials in Vancleave, Darla got her Jumpers title, a leg on her Novice Weavers title (and 4th place) and two Hoopers legs!

This was our first try at Hoopers.... I'm sure they both would have done better if their handler had more experience! Bless their hearts, they followed my strange commands anyway. Maybe next time we'll get better times because I've figured out what I'm suppose to be doing. Sure was fun though!



Guy moved up to Open Standard and got his title with three first places. We still have a bugaboo with tunnels under the dog walk, but he did his obstacle discrimination and hit those weaves like a real agility dog!

Guy also got a leg in Weavers with a 2nd place and a leg in Hoopers.

Can't wait for the next trial in February. This is a great venue - worth more than a hundred training classes because you are in a trial atmosphere and you can help them through a problem.

Now, if I could just walk......soooooo sore this morning from all that running.

TOO MUCH FUN!

OMG! NADAC is what agility should be all about - fun for both dog and handler!

I took just Guy on Friday.... it was our first NADAC trial and we didn't know what all those classes were or the rules , so I thought I'd just stick to standard and jumpers. The courses were just so much fun - wide open running, great for a green dog.

Guy Q'd in both his Standard runs. They run it one way in round 1, then backwards in round 2. He knocked a bar on his second round but still got 5 out of the 10 pts possible and no disqualifying faults. You need 30 pts to get a Nov title.

Guy backjumped in Jumpers, so not Q, but was very fast and had a ball.

It was so much fun, I brought Darla on Sat. Unlike AKC, you can enter the day of the show - which is fantastic!

Darla Q's all three of her runs - 2 standard course for 20 pts and one jumpers for 10 pts. Her jumpers course time was amazing....5.38 yards per second! Me, I was gasping for breath!

Here a video of her run... She took off so fast, I thought "Holy Crap, whose dog is this!"



Today (Sunday), Darla Q'd her first round for 10 pts and her NAC title! Second round was wild and she just started bouncing around the ring, over to the scrib table...having a ball... not like her at all, but she was having FUN!

Guy had a wrong course first round, but came back in the second round for a Q and 10 pts to finish his NAC title!

I watched all the other classes.... looked like so much fun, too. They are having another trial in November and we are GOING! Gonna enter all those other classes too, this time!

Trying A New Venue

This weekend, I've got Guy entered in three days of NADAC trials. Never tried it before and was only brave enough to enter Standard and Jumpers. I want to see what the others are before I try it. The good news is you can enter the day of trial, so if Touch and Go and Hoopers looks like fun, then I can enter him one of the other days.

I'll be videoing a run or two... I always have high hopes for the perfect run, but with Guy, who knows?? It could turn out to be an episode of America's Funniest Home Videos!

Swamp Dog Debacle

This Friday and Sat, we went over to Kiln, MS to the Swamp Dog's Trial. Again, I had them in Novice FAST. It was a HARD send bonus... teeter to the off side tunnel. First a deceleration obstacle - the teeter, handler had no choice but to be to the left of the teeter at around 7 ft...no way were mine going to go away from me to the other end of the tunnel... about another 5 feet!

Okay, I know they are going to drift to me, no chance of a Q here, so I'll try Guy over the A frame. He has started sightseeing at the top at class, so we'll see what happens....Guy also drifted, went in the wrong end and I sent him up the A frame. Once at the top, he came to a dead stop and just took it all in... ...thought he'd never get all the way down!

Sightseeing

Darla does everything but the bonus...she drifted to me and went in the wrong end of the tunnel.... but I told her she was brilliant and she was happy.

My good girl, Darla

Saturday was another hard bonus, another deceleration obstacle for my dogs - the chute to a panel jump. I knew Darla would get through the chute, but would drift back to me... you are 12 ft from them when they come out of the chute and 9 ft from the panel... so I just ran in and directed her over the panel, losing the bonus. She did everything else I asked of her, was brilliant and quite happy with herself.

Guy was another story and provided the comedy spot of the day. First, he's not been good with the chute, except at home with my short chute...BUT he did go in and didn't back out. Success! Once in the chute, a snail could have gone faster, but, bless his little heart, he did it! I told him to jump, he trotted over to the panel, stopped, looked over it...........

Hmmm, should I jump this?

....then the crazy dog decides to take a shortcut through the wing bars!

A Ridgeback does not fit through the wing bars. His head and shoulders went through then hung up on his butt! A look of horror crossed his face when he realized the wing was stuck on his hinny and was following him. He took off bucking, jumping and panicked - OMG, the jump has attacked me!!!! The whole panel jump crashed along behind him until he finally twisted out of it...

Poor baby....but it was so funny, it was hard to control my laughter. He went over to the rails looking for someone to save him from the big, bad jump. I called him, told him he was alright....He came with the look of "Mama, save me" on his face. Then I asked him to go over some jumps and do the teeter and by the time he crossed the finish line, he was back to his happy self.

Guess the lesson here is we don't take shortcuts through wings anymore!

Learning Lessons

An Agility Trial is nothing more than an event to tell you what else you need to train for. Once you figure that out, you will no longer be worried about Q'ing and if you do, it's just icing on the cake.

4 weeks ago, Darla, Guy and I went over to the Mississippi Mavericks trial in Gulfport. (It was hot, hot, hot!) I just had them in Novice FAST, since Darla isn't ready for Open weaves and Guy isn't ready for Novice standard class. Since FAST has elements of standard, ie some contacts, I thought it would be good practice. I wasn't going to enter anything else, because I was afraid it would be hot. My dogs don't like being hot and I certainly don't!

Darla at the start

Once we got into the arena, their noses were glued to the dirt. I don't know what it was but it completely overwhelmed Guy. Darla was distracted and would have gotten her first leg, but she was hampered by a handler who didn't keep up with the time! Had I not opted for one last tunnel, she would have made it with 51 points. Instead, I sent her to a dark red tunnel... she doesn't like red tunnels - don't ask me why... so it took her too long in there and she crossed the line after the buzzer and had lost 3 points... one under a Q score. Great dog....shame about the handler! :-/

Darla at the finish

Guy's brain was over come by the smell and he just couldn't get going, but did manage the send bonus, after which, the rest of his brains fell out and I took him off the course. :-/

Okay, lesson here is we must work on "Leave it" and more focus on me. Second lesson is play to your dog's strengths when figuring out your course!

I wanted to get a practice tunnel to use here at home. I went to Affordable Agility and checked their sales pages... I wound up with 2 tunnels, each 9 ft long, extra large - great for training puppies! The bonus is they can join together, via extra material and velcro pads to make an 18 ft tunnel. They also have their own velco straps, are lightweight and so easy to transport.

I also bought a practice chute. It's got it's own pop up barrel and a short chute that has elastic and velcro pads to attach to the barrel. The barrel has it's own tie downs and pins for stabilizing on the ground. It's really been helpful to get Guy to do the chute.... that's been a bugaboo for us. It, too, is handy to pack and carry along.

These two items are so easy to pack and go. We just used them at an agility demo we did at a Pets In The Park event this past weekend.

I highly recommend the site and I'm happy with my purchases! Check'em out through this link:

BARK AKC Agility, Aug 13-16,2009

Thursday at the BARK trial, Darla finished her Novice Standard title! It wasn't pretty, but it was good enough and second place. Watch it on YouTube.


Guy got his first leg on his Novice Jumpers title with a first place! Yea!


Friday: I moved Darla up to Open...she's not ready as she doesn't do the weaves well, but I decided to go ahead. As expected, she didn't do all the weaves, and I made a handling mistake at the tunnel....but other than that she was BRILLIANT!


Guy's run was quite good...fast until we got to the weaves.... lo and behold, there was a bar sitter right there in front of him...been our problem...so he botched his entry, but came right back and finished it up... went smoothly until the second to last jump and he knocked a bar off... I am VERY HAPPY to see that the bar setter didn't have the appeal they use to for Guy. We are gaining focus!!

Saturday: Uggghhhh! Anyone want a male Ridgeback cheap? Honestly, boy dogs can do the wackiest things! Once we got into the ring, Guy's brain had a major glitch... He wouldn't pay attention to sit, finally sat, I left him on a stay, went to my call out spot, said "Okay!".... He stands up, sniffs the ground and MARKS! Out we go... coulda murdered him on the spot. Geez, something else to work on...

Darla gave me a great Open standard run, sans weaves (which I knew she wasn't going to do..my fautlt for not working her more on it). I'm gonna get on that though, because she's running well otherwise.

Planning on going to a NADAC trial next!