Team J-Dawg had a successful trial this weekend- the first
in quite a long time. First off, for
those who measure their success by Q’s alone, we earned our first ever Advanced
Q in Gamblers and a respectable 2nd place to boot! He was running really fast and I had to abort
my plan after the first tunnel pass, but I got him back on track
to earn his points and get the gamble:
teeter – jump – jump. Yay! Here’s the video that shows his great running
A-frame:
Although we earned a Q in Advanced Gamblers, I was more
proud of our NQ runs than ever before. I
ran him in Grand Prix for the first time (tournament with Master’s Rules) and
he did great at staying with me. I had a
handler miscue before/after the chute but I got him back in the game and we
finished up the course. What a good
boy! I had another handler error at the
end (do not know why I rear crossed so awkwardly before the double/teeter!?)
but the beauty of this is that he could have checked out when he took an
off-course after the chute, but I elected to get him back running with me. This would not have been possible a mere
month ago!
Another run was our Standard runs from both days. Saturday’s Standard resulted in an E, but he
ran with me and a beautifully fast running dogwalk to a fast weave pole
entry. Jefferson even went to a down on
the table…such a good boy. But, after
the A-frame – jump combo into a pinwheel, he read my shoulders facing front (in
such a brief second before I was able to make a complete rotation to complete
the pinwheel) and ran to the chute. This
run was over but I was so happy that he and I had worked so hard together as a
team for almost all the course.
Finally, on Sunday we had to run for the first time in the
rain (all day long…yuck!) Luckily, I wore a new rain suit coupled with a pair
of great Gore-Tex trail runners by Brooks that kept my toes warm and dry. It seemed like every time our class had to
run, the rain came down harder…Our first run was Starters Jumpers, and it was a
mud pit out there! We started out
together with Jefferson running faster than I expected. We did well until I rear-crossed him on the
flat, cueing him to make a turn into the wrong end of the tunnel and bypassing the
double jump. We ended up Eliminated from
the run, but rather than let it deteriorate from there, I managed to handle him
to finish off with a tunnel – jump – jump.
This was a big accomplishment for me to not “give up” and handle him to
the very end. I want him to trust my handling so this is the proper choice for me to always make. No corrections.
Our next run was Advanced Gamblers and we had a nice run on
this one. Even though we earned a 3rd
and NQ, I handled Jefferson from his meltdown point and got him back in the
game to run with me. Another milestone
for Team J-Dawg! It seemed as if he was
going to get off track when he did not take the jump I wanted, rather than fret
over this, I took Stuart Mah’s advice and handled the way I needed to at this
moment. I went to him and got him back
on track so we finished the course together and took the gamble. He bi-passed the first jump in the gamble,
but got the A-frame – jump – jump. Heck,
we almost Q’d…but almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades…
The last run of the day was our best one of the entire
weekend. Again, NQ, but I felt like we
ran together as a strong team for the very first time. It was our standard run. I knew there were a few tricky spots – tunnel
to teeter; running dogwalk to table (when the starting jump was positioned for
an off-course) and weave poles to tunnel.
Luckily for me, I was able to use a blind cross after the tunnel to
teeter; a version of a RFP and verbal command on the running dogwalk; and a
front cross after the weave poles. We
started off together and in synch. I
almost lost him after the running dogwalk, but he read my turn into him and
came my way to get his table! YAY! He was going so fast that this was a major handling
accomplishment. I even heard a friend in
the crowd gasp in disbelief! Unfortunately,
after he got on the table, he would not go “down” on the table. I tried a couple of times and he just looked
at me like he was NOT going to go “down.”
So, rather than fight for a Q, I chose to keep my pup in the fun game of
agility and commanded him to “go tunnel” and we finished the course. Together.
Fast. Clean. (I even front crossed after the weave poles
to direct him into the tunnel.) This was
a great day for Team J-Dawg (too bad my friend failed to capture our run on
video).
I am so proud of Jefferson for running with me all weekend,
but I am more proud of myself for not giving up on our running together as a
team. Agility is a sport and like any
sport, it is primarily a mind game. It
has been difficult for me to run Jefferson when the dogs in front of us Q. It has been difficult for me to run in a
trial without comparing our success to everyone else’s success and number of Q’s
earned. For the very first time during a
trial, I did not even pay attention to other competitor’s and how they and their
doggies performed. My only concern was how my dog and I were going to tackle the challenges of the courses.
My goal was
simple: start together, finish together
and have fun. We accomplished our trial goals and I could not be more proud of Team J-Dawg!
Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. ~Henry Ford
You and Jefferson did awesome! Rusty and I had the same goal for this trial (start/finish as a team), and I am very proud to say that we too completed our goal.
ReplyDeleteI always look forward to reading your blogs, so I started my own to track Rusty's progress: http://agilityboykin.blogspot.com/
Erin, I'm really happy that you guys met your goals! Jefferson's a-frames are wonderful--my favorite part!!!
ReplyDelete