NAE Dummerston July 8-10

Northeast Agility Enthusiasts had their Dummerston Vt trial at Hidden Acres Campground July 8-10.
Friday night was NADAC Extreme Games Challenge, which we tried for the 1st time!
We did 2 runs each in Extreme Chances, Extreme Tunnelers, and Extreme Hoopers. It was very fun, and we got points in both Chances and both Tunnelers. The Hoop Circle defeated us on our first two attempts, but we will try again the next time Extreme Games comes to the Northeast.

Saturday was our big hope to get the Hoopers Q we need for Champs, and although the run started out well, we got a fault and so did not qualify.
We again trained our start line stay in the other classes, taking eliminations in Regular and Touch and Go.

Chances was a great course and we had a great run! It really flowed and we had connection and it was a beautiful thing. The challenge was an out to the tunnel next to the dog walk, a call in over two jumps, and a turn out to a jump, then the dog walk at a distance and several hoops out!

Sunday we had several good runs. Touch and Go was a great run until I sent Stewie off course to the A-frame, which he performed beautifully!

Chances Sunday had a series of jumps heading to an off course tunnel, instead the dog had to pull in towards you. I was very pleased that Stewie did not take the off course! Then he missed a jump though and ran by the 6 weaves poles that were near the finish. But the run still had good elements to it.
We finished the day with a smoking tunnelers run that was really fast and run. What a good boy to still run at the end of a hot 3 day trial.

Act Up Trail Sunday continued

After getting our Chances Q Sunday, I was over the moon, and we continued to have a fun day.

We got one Regular Q, but it wasn't the prettiest run, we had to restart the weave poles.

Jumpers was a beautiful run but we had one slight bobble, and went on to Q with a 3rd place.

Weavers was not good, Stewie definitely did not want to play that game. I am going to scratch him from Weavers the next 2 trials at least. Such a bummer.

Tunnelers was the last class, and we had a fast and fun run with a YPS of over 6, got a Q and a 4th place, because of those fast Shelties!

Act up Trial Sunday

Chances was the 1st class of the day, and boy did it look hard! It was 3 obstacles, then a turn to the left and a send out to a tunnel, then another tunnel, then go on to 2 jumps then in to an A-frame instead of the tunnel, then out to a hoop. After the 2nd tunnel, if the dog looked in at you, there was a dummy tunnel right there to suck them in.

The first couple of dogs fell for the dummy tunnel. Stewie went right out to the tunnel, went on to the next, and flew over the next two jumps, then on to the A-frame. I saw his back feet land in the yellow and he was off to the hoop. Woo-hoo, we got a Chances Q!

5 more to go for his NATCH!

Act-Up NADAC trial update-Saturday

Saturday was a beautiful sunny April day for agility. The trial started with Touch and Go, and Stewie got a really fast run in with a Q and a 1st place. YPS 5.97

Jumpers was next, I decided to really practice our distance, and we had a great run, with a Q and a 2nd place. 5.58 YPS

Regular, there was a line of jumps parallel to the dogwalk, the course was the dogwalk to a turn to a jump, then the weaves. I sent Stewie to the dogwalk, layered the line of jumps, and also layered the weaves with no problem. Unfortunately coming back around the course, Stewie took an off course, but I was very pleased with the distance work.

The 2nd Regular run, Stewie blasted by the weaves, and we had another off-course, a disconnected run.

Next class was Chances. Stewie did the distance portion no problem, and then blew by the set of six weave poles at the end. What a disappointment! First not to get the Q, and second that our weaving in trials problem is coming back.

Last run was Tunnelers, and I worked distance some more, and I didn't get a signal in soon enough, and we had an off course.

Overall, a great day, Lynn is absolutely right, working the distance in all runs will help us with our Chances skills.

Act Up Agility

Stewie and I are headed to Act Up Agility trial this weekend. Chances here we come!

Stewie made it to Addicted to Agility's RI trial, no thanks to the wind storm!

Stewie and I made it to Addicted to Agility's first trial in Smithfield RI at the Wide World of Indoor Sports last on Saturday because of the wind storm and power outage. We made it just in time to walk Tunnelers, and we had a pretty good run and got a Q. Thanks to Jules for taking the video!
The last run of the day was Elite Jumpers, and we had a really awesome run. It was fast and fun! Stewie got a 1st place and a Q.

Stewie and Mary

Stewie finds a new perch while Mary holds him while I am ring crewing.

 

2009 Agility Update

Here is our NADAC progress in the year 2009

Regular: 13 Q's, we reached our goal of getting enough points for his NATCH. Total of 280 points

Chances: 5 Q's, 6 more to go to get finish Stewie's NATCH

Jumpers: Completed his Superior title, now has a total of 210 points

Tunnelers: Completed his Superior title, has a total of 220 points.

Touch and Go: We reached our goal of getting enough points for his Versatility NATCH. Total points are 150.

Weavers: No progress, we did not do any Weavers this year while we retrained our poles.

Hoopers: Finished our Open title, need 1 more Q to finish his Elite title.

Sunday at NAE Glastonbury, CT

Sunday's classes started with Tunnelers. It was a really nice, flowing course, but we managed to mess it up! After a tunnel, Stewie turned the wrong way, which somehow caused me to trip, and it went downhill from there, since I forgot where to go after that. Oh well, Stewie had fun anyway.

Regular 1 and 2 were next, both were great, flowing courses. Stewie got the weaves first shot again, and weaved very fast and confidently! I am so pleased with his weaves this weekend. This was an almost perfect run, but I pulled him too hard at jump #11 since I was afraid he would take the A-frame, but we recovered and the rest of the run was perfect, but no Q

Regular 2 was an awesome run, he got the weave pole entry again, and he was going fast when he entered them. He got his tunnel/dog walk discrimination with no problems. A Q and a 1st place. Yards per second were 4.79.

Chances was next, and it looked challenging. We got a good start, but Stewie did not turn out to the # 7 jump, and we didn't make it to the # 8 tunnel.

Our last run of the day was Jumpers and it was a fast course! Look at the beginning, it is lucky I can send Stewie on ahead of me, or I would never have made it. Stewie had a great run and made it look easy and ended the weekend with a Q and a 1st place, with a yard per second of 5.07.

NAE Glastonbury CT

We got to the horse barn in South Glastonbury, CT Friday afternoon. We ran in Touch and Go and Tunnelers. I am glad we put in to run on Friday, since Stewie left me to sniff the first run, and we were eliminated from Touch and Go. Darn rodents! We managed to get around the ring in Tunnelers, he did stop and sniff once right after a tunnel but I called him and he got going again. Stewie earned a Q and a 2nd place. Yard per second were 4.85

Saturday our first run was Touch and Go again. Here is the course, it was very fun and fast, and we got a Q and a 1st place. Course time was 47.62, and Stewie's time was 31.04. His yards per second was 5.92. I think this was a personal best for Touch and Go.
Next were Regular 1 and 2.

Regular 1 was a great run, Stewie was really fast and he got his weave pole entry first shot and weaved really fast, just like he goes at home! At last! He also got his tunnel/dog walk discrimination with no problems. We got a Q and a 1st place. Yards per second were 4.51.

This course was just as nice turned around. This time we started with the jump and the dog walk. It was another fast, awesome run and more perfect weave poles! We got another first and a Q. Yards per second were 4.71, which means he did the course turned around even faster.




Here is the Chances course, it looked really doable. It started with 2 jumps and then an out to the A-frame. I was not worried about the discrimination since Stewie favors the contact obstacles, or so I thought. He took the tunnel instead of the frame, and of course the rest of the course we did flawlessly. Another Chances without a Q.

Next was Jumpers and it was a great course. Stewie and I did it without a hitch and got a Q and a 2nd place.

All in all we went 4 for 5, and got everything but Chances. And there was no more sniffing, good dog!

Connecticut here we come!

This weekend will be our first trial in Ct. It is being held at a horse barn in S. Glastonbury, Ct. Mary and Lexi are headed down on Friday. We signed up for 2 runs Friday, Touch and Go and Tunnelers, and 5 runs on Sat and Sunday. It should be fun, and we will have some new dogs to run against.

Sunday Chances and Jumpers Success!

Chances was the 5th run of a extremely hot day, but I was excited, since looking at the course map it looked like it was possible to get this course. I got Stewie wet beforehand, and he rallied and did a great job. It was a very smooth course,and Stewie did it perfectly! He was flying by the time he got on the dogwalk, and Mary said she was holding her breath that he would get his dog walk contact. He got it and we got our 4th Elite Chances Q!. Great job Stewie!
Jumpers was the 6th run of the day, about 3:00 pm, I didn't know if I should scratch or not, but Mary said to give it a try, so we did. Stewie seemed ready to run, it was a great course, and we had a perfect run. I did a lot of sending with him, and also layered jump #19, sending him to 10 and 11, and it worked perfectly. This run was a Q and a blue 1st place to end a fabulous weekend.

Sunday in Stowe, Hot Hot Hot!

Boy was it hot, even hotter than Saturday and less of a breeze. Stewie was hot but he was also a trooper. The first run of the day was Touch and Go. It was fun but we took an off course so we didn't get a Q.




Next was Tunnelers, and it was a great course, not a lot of traps, lots of opportunities to "go on"and we got a Q and a blue.

We even got an Elite Hoopers Q and blue! It was the first Hoopers course that really flowed and it was actually fun.

Regular, oh regular, we can't get a Q in regular. It was a great course, but we just can't get a set of weaves at all in competition. He did get his contacts, and I did a lot of sending and layering, so it was still a good run.

Sat NADAC Courses Stowe Vt

Here is Tunnelers, it was a fun course, Stewie went wide a couple of places, so we got a 2nd and a Q.

This is Saturday's Elite Touch and Go course. Stewie did a fabulous job and got a Q and a 1st place.

Here is the Chances course from Sat at the NADAC trial in Stowe, Vt. Stewie had a great start but after #9 went on the the tunnel, instead of coming in to the #10 jump. My fault, I was afraid to call him in too far. But we are getting closer to success!

Dummerston NADAC Trial

Mary, Lexi, Stewie and I went to Dummerston Vermont this past weekend to a NADAC agility trial . The first course was Elite Chances, and it was a doozy! We only made it to the tunnel and Stewie did not send to the weave poles. They were pretty far out and the next jump after the poles, #9 was over 40 feet from the line! It was way too much for us, and only 1 or 2 out of all the Elite dogs Q'ed.

Pics from Dummerston on Saturday

Here are some pics that Terri Fischer(Kirby's mom) very nicely took of Stewie at Dummerston on Saturday! Thanks Terri!

Sunday at Dummerston! A great day!

Sunday started off drizzly but nice and cool for the dogs to run. Our first run was Touch and Go. I was so worried about Stewie having an off course after the A frame to the #1 Hoop that I pulled him in too far and he missed the #10 hoop, before I could call him, he barrelled into the next tunnel. My mistake, other than that it was a fun run.

Our first regular run was awesome. Stewie did a great start line stay, and we were in sync the whole course. Boy does that feel great. This run was a Q and a 1st place! Here is the course map:
It had the same setup after the A-frame, this time I just stayed laterally away from the A frame and said "Here". The next tricky spot was 18 to 19. Stewie will usually chose the contact over the tunnel for the discrimination, so I had to really run to get there in time to get the out tunnel. When I added the Q to Stewie's NADAC point chart, I found out it was his 200 point Regular Q. Now he has his Outstanding Regular Title! 3 more Q's til his Regular Natch points are done.

In regular 2 we faced the out tunnel discrimination again at 16-17. I just couldn't make it there in time, I called out tunnel, and tried to push, but we went off course, so no Q.

Next was Chances, I started feeling really stressed when I went out to walk the course. Mary came out and walked it with me, even though Lexi had started limping so she wasn't running it. We thought it looked a lot more doable than Saturday's course. Here it is:

Mary was worried about Stewie going off course to the dummy jump after Jump 6 esp after I told her I was doing a front cross. She said to be really careful not to face the dummy jump or he would take it.
Here is my plan, I started on the left so I could back cross after # 3 to turn Stewie into the #4 tunnel and not risk a off course to the dummy tunnel under the A frame. It worked like a charm and he came out of the tunnel and went right out to # 5 and # 6, I did the front cross and called him, while facing #8 and he turned perfectly and sailed over # 7 and went on to 8 and I said tunnel and off he went! I called him in time and we finished and got the Q!!!! Hurray, this finished Stewie's Elite Chances title and also his Elite Versitility Award!!
What a great weekend we had! Our distance practice paid off big time.

Saturday at Dummerston, VT

The NADAC trial in Dummerston Vt started with Elite Jumpers, here is the course map:

This was a great run, the only thing that went wrong was Stewie turned the wrong way after jump #11, but he came back, it only cost us a little time. He earned a Q and a 3rd place, with less than a second behind the 1st place dog.

Our 2nd run was Hoopers, and our first shot at Elite Hoopers. I thought I had a pretty good plan, and Stewie is really good at serpentines, at least jump serpentines, but we had to take 3 tries at the 3 hoop one. We did get it and got all the challenges, but we went over time. Silly hoopers!

Here is our 1st regular course. It was a fun course to run and we got a Q and a 1st place! Stewie did great weaves and contacts, but didn't stop on his dogwalk.

This is the course turned around,with a fast straightaway start, and an out to the tunnel. I was of course behind him and he went up the dog walk, so no Q for round 2.

Here is the Elite Chances course, it looked really hard and it was. It had the same dog walk/tunnel discrimination that the Regular course did, but at a big distance. Most dogs took the dogwalk, Stewie included, and Not A Single Elite or Open dog Q'ed at this course. The few dogs that got the discrimination went astray somewhere else.
Oh well..............we'll keep trying

Heading to NADAC trial!

Stewie and I and Mary and Lexi are headed to Dummerston, VT. later today for a Northeast Agility Enthusiast's trial.

We are hoping to get an elusive Chances Q!
Rain rain, go away!

More Sunday's classes

This is the first regular course on Sunday. I decided to handle the serpentine 4-6 from behind, and after 6, just send him to the poles. He got the entry and weaved very well. We made the tunnel/A frame discrimination and then went off course afterward, bummer.