May 12-13 Trial

      So, this weekend I had a trial. This was the first trial I ever entered all 8 runs for. To be honest, it was not a very good trial at all =P and quite frankly, it beat me down. I`m not overly upset about, but it always does hurt a bit inside when you`re dog is having a very bad time like that. 

     On the Saturday, I had 2 advanced gamblers runs, and 2 advanced standard runs. I actually didn`t expect this day to be this bad, but I didn`t expect TOO much. The first run was advanced gamblers. The main gamble was a jump, out to a tunnel end, and back in to a closer tunnel. Upon looking at it, it did NOT look difficult at all. I know Shyloh could have gotten it EASILY. I ran the opening, but she shut down pretty quick. It wasn`t TOO much of a shut down, but it still was. She tried. I thought she was going to get the gamble easy, shut down or not. But when I sent her over the jump and out to the tunnel end, she ran right past it and stood by the ring entrance. Poor puppy, oh well. I said good try and continued on with the day.

       

    The second run was another advanced gamblers run. I focussed on flowy courses and straightaways. She nailed the weaves beautifully (where in all my other runs the entire weekend, the weaves shut her completely down) which was NICE! I accumulated a whole bunch of points, I believe it was 40 some. I thought that was AWESOME!!!! I so thought we were going to Q. The buzzer went off a few seconds before I wanted it too, and I was half a course away from the main gamble. I threw her over a jump, into a tunnel, back over the jump and over to another tunnel... as she was going into the last tunnel... the buzzer went off! DAMN, SO CLOSE TO GETTING IT! That was a good girl :) Not her fault at all. She did her best.

    The last two runs were both advanced standard. I knew going into the weekend that she would probably lose Q`s due to the weave poles because she`s goofy with them at trials. I ran the first one and automatically off the start, something was wrong. She was being so goofy and slow that I decided to just pick her up and leave the course. The weaves REALLY shut her down. The 2nd standard, she was just as shut down... When I got to the weaves, she shut down harder... so I turned around, did the straight line back and ended the run. Overall, the 1st day of the trial was REALLY not very good. It completely made me lose some hope, whether it should have or not. 

      I knew the next day was a new day. So, I went on to think tomorrow would be better :) I definitely was correct, but at first.. she didn`t show too much of a difference sadly =(. She was going well, but then the weaves messed her up for the first standard. She finished the course clean minus the weaves but was over time as well. Her second run was another advanced standard. At first I had thought she NQ`d and thought well good try :) Because she did try for it! BUT, we actually Q`d! Yay! 

      The next run was advanced jumpers. She actually was 9 seconds over time, and took a wrong tunnel end. Completely my fault because I just wasn`t calling her enough. Oops. BUT, our next run after that was another jumpers. She Q`d wonderfully! :) 

     Overall, it wasn`t the best weekend but I`m glad she Q`d 2 runs atleast :) 

April 14th, 2012, OC AAC trial.

So, we went to this trial to surprise the coach of my regionals prep classes because it's her birthday soon :) I entered 2 runs, advanced gamblers and advanced snooker. The first run, snooker, went to the shits (literally xD). Shyloh really needed to poop, so she was stressed out and very slow and unresponsive on course. That's alright! 


By time gamblers came around... she was happy! I knew already she wasn't going to Q because there was 12 weaves in the main gamble. She tried! But she popped out at about the 4th last pole, which sucks! So, no Q's... but it was a good time :) 


Happy Birthday Christina Sanders! 


Video was not made, but that's alright :)

Dogs At Large AAC Trial [April 7-8 2012]

Easter Pajama Day Trial! 2 days, 3/6 Q's, 1 title! 


Day 1- We had 2 starters standard runs, and 1 gamblers run. I was late to the trial because my alarm did not go off, and arrived RIGHT before my first run (which was the gamble run). She was very stressy because I was stressed. That's alright though! Then my next run, starters standard, was a mess. I didn't know whether she'd be stressed or faster... so I played it a bit safe and didn't do much of a lead out and then I released her and she was crazy... Then she goofed up and ran out of the ring, then came back and finished nicely :) There were faults, a few of them, but oh well! She was happy. 3rd run was starters standard as well. Only fault was because she jumped onto the table and then jumped off because she went to see ring crew. That's alright! Close.


Day 2- Day 2 was a new day! And a GREAT one at that! Our first run was starters standard, and we Q'd! That was my last starters standard for my ADC title, and to move up into advanced standard. Very very proud of her! She did great :) Second run was advanced snooker. We Q'd as well! 3rd run was advanced jumpers, and guess what... Q AGAIN! 30-35 seconds, somewhere in there. That's awesome for Shyloh, and she was very very very very concentrated on me during my run! 


Now, all I need is 1 advanced jumpers, 1 advanced snooker, and 1 advanced gamble and I get my AGDC title and can be in all the masters games! :) Exciting! 

Here are the videos:

Day 1: 

Day 2:

Regionals Prep: Week 5 [April 11th, 2012]

So, this week we did something that wasn't standard, haha! We did main gambles. Stuff we would maybe see in regionals. I will say right now... They were NOT easy. A lot of dogs took a few tries to get them right. 

So, the one on the top.. We never got it AT all. We tried, but Shyloh kept taking the trap jump that is straight. This was pretty hard! So, I eventually went in and was supposed to "hug the line" of the trap jumps and do the gamble that way, just to show her what's up. It was all very difficult. 






This one here was a bit easier, for Shyloh anyways. I didn't treat 1-2 as a threadle. I made Shyloh jump 1, and then wrap (opposite directions, towards the left, not towards 2) and then come back with speed so she could take 2-3 easier. Then, I got her to "get around" and pushed her out to 4. It took a few tries I think to get it completely right, but she did get it :)


That last one was very difficult because of the fact that they are going so far away from you to a jump with nothing after it to "pull them in"... And also because there was like a 3-5 foot gap between 2-3 which caused it difficult to send through there towards 4. It was very interesting to try these!

Regionals Prep Class: Week 4 [March 28th, 2012]

As usual, class went pretty great! There were a few things that I had abit of issue with. Here are the courses:

So, this was the first course. Shyloh did pretty well with this one. The mess up points were a bit of confusion from 5 to 6, because of the fact that there are 2 tunnel ends between the proper one. I'm not sure if they were considered refusals, but both times she was a little confused there. I don't blame her. Then from 8-9 there was a bit of mess up both times running the course. Everything else up to 14 was great. At 14-15 there was a bit of confusion, but I'm going to be working on that. I know of a way I should've handled it, but didn't. So, I know what to do for that. The rest was straight forward. First run I took her off course before 16 because I thought she needed to poop. But when I for real ran it during the 2nd time, she was under time with I think 30 faults, which is still good for qualifying for nats if she did that in both standards and did good in jumpers. Overall, I was proud with her performance on this course!

This was the second course that we ran. 1-2-3-4 was pretty nice :) First time my front cross between 3 and 4 was VERY late and we had a tad of a mix up. Second time it was very nice :) I believe she missed both contacts on the a-frame in this run, but that was my fault entirely. I did a rear cross at 5-6 during the first run and she hit the weave entry perfectly, but I got too excited and she popped the poles and jumped back in in the wrong spot, so it took 2 tries to get the weaves right. She just gets too excited. Then 7-8-9 was good, then Shyloh took the wrong side of the jump at 10, but that was my fault. So I went on to 11 and the rest of the course was ran smooth and nice :) She handled 13-17 VERY nicely. I was happy with that part. During my second run, the weaves were also a bit of an issue again and once again got it right on the third try. Then the rest was nice, but she got confused by me right before #9, and ran around a pole in the weaves. Then we had a bit of a problem from 9-10 because of the fact that I just wasn't clear enough with my handling and Shyloh did not understand that I wanted her to go to the back of the jump. So Christina (coach), came over and gave us some great guidance and then I finally got it and continued on. She took the wrong tunnel because I just didn't call. Then we got it right, but then I messed up before jump 14, so I went back and re-did jump 13 and got the rest perfect and she handled it nicely :) 


Overall, I was very proud of this day at class, and Shyloh had proved me wrong once again by actually speeding up and enjoying herself. I'm quite proud :) I have a trial next weekend (Easter weekend, April 7-8) and I'm hoping for that standard Q to get my ADC title!!! This is the barn she Q'd 4/6 runs though the first time we trialed there.. so I have high hopes =D It's going to be very fun!


Anyways, here's the video from class!

March 24th, AAC Trial!

So on March 24th, I had an agility trial :) It was an OC Agility trial. I had 3 runs only. 


The runs were:

1. Advanced Snooker
2. Advanced Gamblers
3. Starters Standard

So, I went in with no expectations really :) All I know is that she is getting much more confident in this barn. It's the same barn a lot of my trials are in AND regionals prep is in this barn :) 

I ended up getting Q/1st in snooker AND Q/1st in gamble! :) That's so very awesome! Now I need 1 more advanced gamble Q to get into masters! That's awesome, Shyloh LOVES her gamblers! Standard ended up being a bit of a mess, but not really. She ended up jumping out of the ring towards a dog, and then came back... But I totally did not know that a dog can still Q after jumping out of the ring and she came back and jumped over the wrong side of a jump. So, since I jeopardized that Q anyways, when she started to slow down and goof off before the teeter, I petted her and asked her "READY?" to get her more pumped up and it REALLY made her go :) I am very proud in the speed she had overall in that whole trial, and the whole confidence she had. My next trial in on April 7-8, but I have 6 runs :) and it's a 2 day trial for me! 

Video:

Regionals Prep Class: Week 3. [March 21, 2012]

So, this week was pretty good :) I was a bit goofy =/ I was off, and I'll admit that. Sorry for the late post too... UGH I'm horrible at my blog! I will really start to be better and update more close to the actual day that the event happened. But anyways... The courses:

So this here is the first course we did. I was relieved because it was an easier course first! Sure it does have parts that are more tricky that others but generally I really like it. First run was goofy... I wasn't enthusiastic enough and plain out just didn't even care, which is a very shitty attitude to have! But, anyways... It was clean except for one jump refusal at jump #8. She started sniffing a bit, and ran past it. She had a bit of sniffy problems during the run, but that's like most first runs when I go out. She did it pretty nice, and hit her 2o2o on the dog walk. She hit the weave entries nicely both times we ran the course too. I'm SO proud of that. Second run was very quick and she was very into it :D! Yay! Not to mention, clean as well! 

So this here ------> would be the second course we did that day.... When this course was set up, I was angry xD!!!! The first course was so chill, then we get THIS! LOL. Well, it was actually not too bad :) The start was pretty good, then we get to 5, 6 and 7... I thought that might be pretty difficult, but it turned out to be very simple, and Shyloh had no problem with it. Then 9-10 Shyloh did nicely as well, but the only REAL problem we did have was at 13-14. I kept not pushing her enough to 14 so she'd take it more like a serp rather than like a threadle would be. Once I pushed her with my body more, she took the right side and completed the rest of the course very nicely :) I was very happy with her! Shyloh is such a good girl :)

Here would be the video :)