September 19th & 20th Trial

Somebody needs to tell Auggie he's doing it wrong.

This past weekend, I was glad to be back at our local club for the trial. It's a site we've been to many many times, a place I'm comfortable at, and a place I feel like Auggie is comfortable at. I was hoping he would be more relaxed as far as some of his recent issues with the a-frame were concerned, hoping he would have fun, and hoping we might go home with a couple ribbons.

Saturday was a bit of a hairy mess. We didn't even get started running Novice until after 4PM in the afternoon... and Auggie and I had rolled in around 10AM to set up and hang out with everybody. It was also a sunny day and a bit warm due to the sun; more than once I found Auggie huddled up in the back of his crate trying to catch air from his crate fan.
So when we got out there for our JWW run, he wasn't totally feeling it. He slowed to a walk through the tunnel about halfway through, and as we entered the weave poles, he stopped entirely and stuck his nose to the ground. Augh! Something smelled quite good and he was no longer interested in me. Attention Auggie: this is not earthdog. This is agility. After several attempts and trying to get his attention back, I waved at the judge and carried my bad little puppy off the course. Snotbucket!

I sat outside the ring and mulled things over in my head. He was still so pokey. What's his deal? His breeder offered that his confidence might still be shaken from everything he's had to deal with as far as his jump height going up and down all over the place. Would I ever be able to restore his confidence? I wasn't sure. And if I can't restore that confidence, I might just resign to playing with Auggie in the backyard instead of competing.

And then we had to run Standard.
The course was set up in a pretty straight line. Jump, jump, a-frame, jump, tunnel.
Auggie would see that a-frame, and, God willing, that would be the end of the story. If I could just get him to run straight up the a-frame, everything else after that was secondary.
I decided not to even bother putting him in a sit. I was just going to drop him and take off running. I've seen people do that before, so why not? Maybe having him in a sit was screwing with his momentum.
So I put him down. And I took off and he came with me. And I yelled and screamed and drove that dog like crazy.
And he went up the a-frame.
I was roaring and screaming and yelling the whole time. Angels sang a chorus of Hallelujah.
And then I pushed him off the entrance to the tunnel.

Hahahahaha! Oh well. Other than that, he ran great, even did his weaves flawlessly (presumably to make up for his total disaster over on JWW.) Even with the one refusal, we got a Q! Awesome!


Sunday was not a very good day as far as the weather went. I decided I would go out early on and watch the excellent runs, and then leave during Open, pick up Auggie, and bring him back with me so he wouldn't be out there for so long during the day. Shortly after I arrived, we got caught in a good downpour of rain. Lovely. The ground got nice and wet, then the sun came out and looked like it might at least dry up the obstacles.
Then I left to get Auggie and it rained some more. And then I sat there and it rained and rained and rained. Eventually, the rain was just there to stay. I was glad that I invested in my ASICS for the sole purpose (haha, get it?) of running in wet, muddy conditions. Auggie, however, does not have shoes that are specially made for running in wet, muddy conditions. He just has little feetsies that sometimes slip.
Oh well. If he knocked bars or anything, I wouldn't blame him. I figured we would just go out and see what happened, and if it looked bad, I would pull him.
Well, he didn't slip and he didn't knock any bars, but he off-coursed twice. Once was my fault, the second time, he was too busy going "LALALALA THIS IS THE BEST GAME EVER LALALALALA!" At least I can't say he wasn't enjoying the game anymore at that point, because the look of joy had obviously returned to his face, and surprisingly, despite the weather, his speed was back as well.


So on we went to standard. He went straight up the a-frame again - bliss! He came out of the tunnel and I pushed him off the broad jump... then oops, I let him back jump it, getting us a wrong course as well as a refusal. Then we came to the weave poles and... Auggie disappeared on me at pole four. Doot doot de doo, he went to go check out the sandbags they had holding the dog walk down. I stood there calling him back... he started to come back, and then went "Oh hey, a-frame!" I distinctly remember going "AUGGIE DON'T YOU DARE." LOL. He came back to me again.
I was THIS CLOSE to blowing off the run. I thought we'd had too many refusals, wrong courses, and now we were way over time. There was no way it would be a Q.
But in my head I heard his breeder's voice, and what she always tells me. "Fix it. Whatever happens, just fix it."
So I fixed it. It took me a while because I had to back him up a few times to help him get the entry correct, but we fixed it. And then on we went, up the teeter, through the tunnel, over the dog walk (where I practically had a heart attack because he looked for a moment like he was going to slip off it), and then through the last tire jump.


"That should be a Q," his breeder told me after the run.
"Oh, there's no way. That took forever. We had to be way over time."
"No," she says, "I think that's a Q."
So I packed up the car, then waited around some more... and what do you know.
That was a Q.
In fact, we were really good as far as time went. We would have Q'd even if we were playing regular agility!

And that means that in four days of trialing Auggie got his NAP.
The same dog that took me TEN TRIES to get a single Q towards his NA.
You have to be kidding me.


So there you have it. We've gotten a jumpers title now, and a standard title. Just, sadly, not all at the same time, LOL. We're still in Novice Jumpers until we get those 2 more Qs towards his NJP. I have to decide if I want to move him up into Open Standard or not.

MANY UPDATES

When did I last update this thing? I have no idea.

What has happened in the meantime:
Next to nothing. We had another agility trial hosted by the same club as the one I previously posted about, and it only solidified my decision to never, ever, ever go to a trial hosted by this club again. It was terrible. I saw things on the Novice Jumpers course that no judge in their right mind should have had in a novice course. It was just terrible. If that were my first trial I would have thought "This s**t is too hard" and quit agility forever. Really. Some challenges are necessary, I agree, but when there are things that make a course flat out DANGEROUS - no matter if it's Novice, Open, or Excellent - there's a real problem.

We have received our official jump height card and I am not happy with the measurement. I have heard rumors that you can no longer challenge, but don't know if this is true. If it's not true and you can still challenge, you better believe I'm challenging.
Regardless, we have been practicing with jump heights at 16 in the meantime, and we're doing pretty good. I'm very happy with the clearance Auggie's been giving me.
I have not been doing a lot more work in the jumping program, because the weather has been disgusting - rain 5-6 days a week, and one sunny day that is usually insufferably hot; that one sunny day we have been taking advantage of to scoot off to Auggie's breeder's house for agility practice, so the jumping chute on the same day would be too much for him, IMHO. I am hoping the weather improves, and I think I may actually start the program completely over again using 16 inch jump heights.

Meanwhile, the agility trial I went to also offered rally, so I went ahead and entered rally both days. We didn't place the first day, and got second the second day (some other guy beat our time by a second or two, and also Auggie kept trying to high-five me instead of down, so I'm pretty sure that is what happened with our score, LOL.)
Regardless of placing, we did Q both days - so Auggie now has his RN. Hurray Auggie!

This coming weekend we are doing a little indoor trial. We are two legs away from our NA and two away from our OAJ, so if he has a stellar weekend... well, I will just pee my pants with joy. I'm hoping to at least come away with one Q each after the weekend is over and done with.

I haven't been doing our Natural Jumping program. I got thrown off with bad weather, an intense summer course, and a vacation. I'm unsure now if I want to actually start back over at week 1 at 16 inch jump heights and let him work through it, or what I want to do. Being unsure of where to start again is holding us back for sure. I think I will see how this weekend goes, and then maybe get started again next week.

Auggie has started DOGGIE DAYCARE as of last Wednesday. He's doing really well. Hopefully I will be able to get some pics in the coming weeks and post some cute Auggie-playing-with-other-dogs photos. =>


Uhhhh I think that's it. I'll try to remember to update this thing more often.

Trial #2, Day 2

Our haul from today...


Wait a second!! Are you SURE you saw that right?? Maybe you should look closer.


I am now the proud owner of Sentinel's The Flash NAJ CGC. That's right... we got our novice jumpers title this weekend!! And all three of his qualifying scores - we got running 16! Snazzy!

Today's runs:

Standard run!
He got buggy on the table and that's what screwed us, but J is almost positive he just didn't "see" the table as a table. She thinks he saw it like a jump, since it's so thin and the walls around it are plain white, not to mention the top is pale purple. So we got 1 table fault (two points) and a refusal for that, but it was the time more than anything else that really put us over. I then failed to pull him in enough to get him a straight shot into the tunnel, so he didn't go into that right away - another refusal! Also, notice that he doesn't come OUT of the tunnel. I notice he's not coming, I can't see the tunnel moving - where is Auggie? I lean over and look into the tunnel... and he's standing there at the bend, nose to the ground, sniffing something interesting! He sees me, goes "Oh - HI!" and comes running out. What a goofball!
Regardless of the NQ, I watched this a billion times because of how wonderful his weaves are!


JWW - the run that got us our title!

Would have been clean, but he changed my plan on me! I was going to front cross before that blue tunnel, but when he spotted the tunnel he suddenly sped up so I couldn't get in front. I KNEW he would hate me trying to rear cross him into the tunnel, and sure enough, when he got to the tunnel entrance and I started to try and cross, he suddenly hit the brakes. Refusal! The time it took for me to back him up and put him into the tunnel put us over time. You can't see them as well here, but he did flawless weaves again here... so beautiful.
Anyway, I came around that last jump and everybody was clapping and going "THAT WAS GREAT!" and the VMO says to me "That was a Q!!" and my mom goes "YOU DID IT" and J goes "YOU DID IT!"
And I say, because I saw the time on the clock as I picked Auggie up at the exit, "But we went over time."
"It's okay," J says. "You're allowed time faults in Novice."
I stare at her.
"You get a point off for every second over time, but you weren't over by that much, even with the refusal. You did it."
I stare.
"YOU DID IT."
"Wh...??"

Seriously... it didn't sink in. It didn't sink in until I looked at the scores posted and saw, yes, he really did Q. And then I stammered out to the trial secretary that we get a new title ribbon. And even now...
we're in Open. My dog can run in Open.

I'm in shock. Seriously.

CGC Test

Our local training club was celebrating AKC's Responsible Dog Ownership Day today with a few different demonstrations and things of that nature. They were also offering free CGC testing.
"Well, if it's free," I thought to myself. I wasn't sure Auggie would pass, so I kind of hated to pay for it and have him bomb the test gloriously. He can be reactive, and I figured that would blow the whole thing for us. But hey - it's free, so why the heck not?

Imagine my surprise when, not only did he pass, but he did so WONDERFULLY! His herding instincts kick in when small children run around, making erratic movements or strange noises as they often do, so I was worried when they put a child into the "crowd" for one of the exercises. However, he didn't even look twice at the child.

He heel beautifully during the "on a walk" exercise, and for his recall exercise, he came bounding towards me with such glee. It was such a gorgeous looking recall that people kept stopping me after the test to congratulate me on it and tell me how happy he looked to be running towards me.

The photos:

Test #2, I think this was - "hi, can I pet your dog?" We started with our backs to the fencing on the left, but he didn't want to sit facing that direction... so we rotated.


The grooming/inspection test.


Walking through a crowd. WITH CHILD. I love it.

As a reward, the club gave him a HUGE milkbone, which he was very happy about:


I now own Sentinel's The Flash CGC. So very proud of my little guy!!