The Last Two Agility Trials....

Been a little while since I have had a chance to update my blog - since my last update we have had two agility trials - one the State Games Championships and another double trial at Noarlunga.

First up the State Games Championships. Kenz was entered in 4 events - 2 gamblers runs and 2 snooker runs. Her first event for the day was novice snooker. Keith Millington was the judge. She didn't do to badly managing 2 x 7 point dogwalks before pulling the third red bar. In the closing sequence she came out of the weavers so cost us a quallie. Ah well not to bad for her first run of the day.

Gamblers up next. She wasn't happy with the irrigation pipe tyres and came skidding off the dogwalk but would have got enough points in the opening sequence. The gamble was 4 bars in a row and she just couldn't manage it. Was to focused on me and not enough obstacle focus.

In the afternoon trial I rushed from running Ness in Strategic Pairs to having to run Kenz in Novice Gamblers where they were waiting for me. Kenz was way to fired up and wouldn't wait on her contacts. I spent the majority of my time insisting that she wait until released on her dogwalk contact and in the end we ran out of enough time to collect the required 20 points finishing up 4 points short with 16. She did however manage the gamble easily.

The final run of the day was novice snooker. Kenz ended up with 48 points (2 x 7 point weavers) but didn't push her for suicide 7 as it was a very tight course with too much control for a baby dog. She misjudged the approach on the dogwalk but finished nicely to end up with fourth place.

The following weekend we headed down to Noarlunga for a double agility trial. I had been sick with a flu all week and felt pretty average and suffice to say we probably shouldn't have bothered. Waiting on startlines was optional, as was waiting on contacts. Her AM JD round she had bars down and was just feral. Her JDO round surprised me. She ran a nice round, nailed the distance challenge but then pulled yet another bar after a tunnel before going off course with 3 bars to go. Still not bad for my baby dog. The less said about her two agility runs the better. We have some major remedial work to do with her contacts over the summer break and with what training we have left for the year.

Still she is starting to come along nicely. Learning to read her lines a little more confidently and I am sure there is plenty of great things to come in the future out of my little pocket rocket.

Jump Grids

No better way to spend a lovely warm sunny public holiday Monday then by fitting in a little agility practice at the local school oval. Thought it might be a good idea seeing as though we have the State Games Champs this coming Saturday.

Any way here is a link to our practice session.

GSDCSA Agility Trial 12 September 2010

Introducing Feral Self Opinionated Midget dog on red cordial - eeeek is all I can say.

4 runs - 2 novice jumping and 2 novice agility with no quallies to be had. Her jumping runs weren't to bad but we had a bar down in each. Her agility runs were a bit of a disaster really. It was a day of her pushing me at every chance but with no training the past week due to a heavy week of socialising it wasn't all bad.

Lots still to work on and another gear found in the speed department. I was very impressed with her PM dogwalk contact though and will take that one and bottle it.

ADCSA Agility Trial 28 August 2010

Four runs for 2 passes - 2 second places and OMG was she flying. The other 2 runs that we didn't pass were just little minor things. Rock solid sit stays and drive to me despite the fact there were sporting matches in progress and people really close to the fence including small kids. Her first runs in novice agility and they were just brilliant.

She has certainly matured in her work ethic and becoming a really lovely dog to handle. So looking forward to the next trial in just over 2 weeks time. We are having a blast.

Kenz 2010 SA State Agility weekend

This past weekend we had the annual State Agility trials - 3 qualification trials (Saturday morning and afternoon and Sunday morning) and then the finals on Sunday afternoon.

Kenz was entered in Novice Jumping and Open Jumping for the weekend. The clever Kenz managed her very first Novice Jumping pass at the morning trial on Saturday with a stunning second place run. This meant she had qualified for the finals on Sunday afternoon. The rest of her runs over the weekend were just wonderful but with no more quallies to be had. She decided that she could start skipping her weavers in JDO but for the most part managed the distance challenges pretty well. Her two other novice jumping runs - one she ran past the final bar and the other she got around the course but pulled 3 bars.

The video of her Saturday runs can be seen below:



I fronted up for the Novice Jumping final on Sunday with the goal of her holding a lead out - anything else was a bonus. Well not only did she nail her lead out she ran a picture perfect run and didn't put a paw out of place. She drove down the line of jumps at the end and never looked back. I was so chuffed with her. Since she is only a 400 dog she had to run early but I took her off and opted to not hang around and watch the remaining dogs. I caught a glimpse of one dog who was definitely faster but knew she had given me her all and I could ask for nothing more.

We stayed around for presentations and Novice Jumping class was presented first. Well Kenz finished up the 2010 SA State Reserve Champion Novice Jumping. Not bad for my little WA bred pocket rocket. I was just chuffed with her run never mind the final result.

Any way here is the video of her finals run:



What a weekend :).

Kenz's Second Agility Trial - GSDCSA

Morning was a bit of a disaster all up - a very shitty JD course with some average angles and totally cleared up the spread but did some lovely stuff on the JDO course. Video of the run included here:



Afternoon Novice Jumping course - nice simple course I sent Kenz into the tunnel but didn't support her quite hard enough so she came out. Ran the rest of the course nicely though. Did some nice stuff in the JDO course but a bit above her at the moment (a layered distance challenge but we had messed up before then anyway). Long day since it was also the last class of the day.

Left home at 6:30am and didn't get home until 6:00pm so a very long day. I have totally lost my startline. Kenz stressed a bit but once we got going was ok but there were kids taking the leads and they were coming right to where the dog was even though I was saying could they stay away and I'd bring the lead over. I was not to impressed but Kenz coped all things considered. Her final JDO run was positively feral but that's fine at least she was happy smile.

A huge blog catch up (Kenz's Agility Debut and other things)

Well its been a while since I have had a chance to update my blog - probably the biggest news since my last post was Kenzie's debut agility trial last weekend at our club trial. She was entered in AM/PM JD and PM JDO. She ran extremely well and very nearly came away with her first qualification in JDO. Unfortunately she copped a fault for apparently tipping the broad jump. Ah well can't win them all and I am sure she will be a force to be reckoned with in the future :)



Today we went out to a herding clinic at Meadows held by Tull from Tassie. Kenz started off the day a bit unsure of herself but after watching some other dogs working the sheep and by her final session in the pen this afternoon she was much improved. Reasonably keen and happy to have her collar taken and be put between the fence and the sheep and then to circle her sheep. No video but I think Kristen took a couple of photos so hopefully I can get those and I'll upload them to this post.

In other news her obedience is coming along quite nicely. She is regularly doing novice/open ring run outs at training on a Tuesday night and for the most part starting to cope reasonably well. We have started with her utility exercises and she is an absolute joy. Such a quick little learner. Nailed scent after only half a dozen training sessions and Directed jumping is progressing nicely after only a couple of sessions. I am now focussing on linking exercises together.

Not an overly long post but figured I was long overdue for an update. Have a few busy weekends coming up with a DWD workshop next weekend and then another training workshop the following weekend. Hanging out for a chance to enter her next agility trial but not looking like that will happen until the end of May at the earliest.