Lots of Fun at Breeze Thru Agility Trial
Weekends like this one are what I love about agility -- despite the heat/humidity and the occasional goofy run, Gromit and I had a great time and did well. I had so much fun sitting & chatting with friends while watching runs. Snooker and Jackpot are the most fun to watch, because there are so many ups and downs and near misses and last nanosecond saves!
Over three days, Gromit and I ran 12 times. We Q'd in 9 of those runs!!
We hit a couple cool milestones... among other things, we now have 25 Q's towards Gromit's C-ATCH (Level 5 Title). "All" we need now are five Jackpot Q's and ten Standard Q's. We're running Jackpot at Level 5 already, so I'm confidant we'll get through those, especially now that Gromit is doing so much better at working away from me and sending to obstacles. Alas, we are at Level 3 in Standard, but at least this weekend we put a big dent in that req by Q-ing 2 of 3 tries. Now we only need two more Level 3 Standard Q's to finish the Level 3 title ... and then eight Level 4 Standard Q's to finish Level 4 ... and then those ten Level 5 Standard Q's.
Gromit is only two Level 5 Jumpers Q's away from a Champ ribbon in that class -- pretty cool. To add to this, the last run of the weekend was a great big Jumpers run. I tried a tricksy handling thing and got away with it -- Gromit was THE FASTEST dog out of all the dogs in that Jumpers run -- level 4, level 5, and level C, all heights. The data:
Length -- 121 yards
Obstacles -- 17
Gromit's time -- 21.71 seconds
He ran at an astounding pace of 5.5 yards per second (usually he is around 4 yps in Jumpers runs). He did an obstacle (jump or tunnel) every 1.27 seconds. Of course I can't run NEARLY this fast, so I employed several handling tricks:
Over three days, Gromit and I ran 12 times. We Q'd in 9 of those runs!!
We hit a couple cool milestones... among other things, we now have 25 Q's towards Gromit's C-ATCH (Level 5 Title). "All" we need now are five Jackpot Q's and ten Standard Q's. We're running Jackpot at Level 5 already, so I'm confidant we'll get through those, especially now that Gromit is doing so much better at working away from me and sending to obstacles. Alas, we are at Level 3 in Standard, but at least this weekend we put a big dent in that req by Q-ing 2 of 3 tries. Now we only need two more Level 3 Standard Q's to finish the Level 3 title ... and then eight Level 4 Standard Q's to finish Level 4 ... and then those ten Level 5 Standard Q's.
Gromit is only two Level 5 Jumpers Q's away from a Champ ribbon in that class -- pretty cool. To add to this, the last run of the weekend was a great big Jumpers run. I tried a tricksy handling thing and got away with it -- Gromit was THE FASTEST dog out of all the dogs in that Jumpers run -- level 4, level 5, and level C, all heights. The data:
Length -- 121 yards
Obstacles -- 17
Gromit's time -- 21.71 seconds
He ran at an astounding pace of 5.5 yards per second (usually he is around 4 yps in Jumpers runs). He did an obstacle (jump or tunnel) every 1.27 seconds. Of course I can't run NEARLY this fast, so I employed several handling tricks:
- I led out to just past the #2 jump (a double), invited him to join me, and ran with him to #3.
- Then I sent him ahead over #4 jump and onto the #5 tunnel.
- While he was in the tunnel, I scurried to the left and stood facing the exit of the tunnel over the #6 jump.
- As he came out, I invited him over, then used his "go around" behavior to send him around me clockwise 270 degrees to the #7 jump. This is not a common handling technique, and is risky because I stayed facing frontwards, but it worked! I'm so pleased.
- I handled the 6-7-8 pinwheel from that location, and sent him off to the #9 tunnel with a tiny bit of forward motion.
- While he was in the tunnel, I scurried right just to the north of the fixed pole and stood facing the tunnel exit over #10 jump.
- I handled 10-15 with limited motion, and lots of shoulder pulls to help him take the corners quickly.
- I ran with him as fast as I could for 16-17 so that he finished well. (Earlier runs had him pulling left towards the leash-holding chair that was set at about the 25 line -- non ideal but necessary position.)