Home from the trial

Meg and I went to our first trial since early September of last year, when we came to the realization that we really needed to re-train our contacts. It was an incredibly long winter, and I admit there were a few times where I was just about ready to say "screw it". I mean, how many freaking times can you run back and forth along a board?

Finally the last couple of months, she's had very reliable 2 on/2 off contacts in class/practice. This CPE trial was our first time trying them out in public. We've also been working really hard on our startlines; all last year, I'd just let go and run.

Jackpot Level 2 - Not a great start. There was a screw up with the score sheets, so after I got her in position to start, I had to call her out of it while we waited. I don't think I did enough to keep her pumped, and she started to worry. So we re-started with basically no startline, and she wandered around the first obstacle (tire). Her dogwalk contact was PERFECT and she waited for the release. We did the a-frame twice; the first time she did hit the yellow, but didn't maintain any of our criteria. The second time she hit the 2o2o, but didn't wait for my release. Finished 2nd and Q.

Standard Level 1 - Startline was perfect, dog walk contact was perfect, a-frame contact was legal, but again, not my criteria. 1st and Q.

Colors Level 2 - Perfect startline, perfect a-frame contact, but I misdirected her because I was too far behind. She didn't take any incorrect obstacles, but pulling her back on course slowed us down (actually, her not back-jumping as she came back to me was a bit of a victory). 3rd and Q.

Snooker Level 2 - Perfect. We had the highest number of points (49) of ANY of the levels. 1st and Q.

Full House Level 1 - Tons of pressure coming from a barking dog right behind us at the ingate. She was too stressed by it to get into her normal sit position, but I left her in a stand stay which she held (although I didn't push for much distance). Her A-frame contact was perfect and held until I released. She missed her first entry into the weaves, but quickly righted herself and was fast through them. The buzzer sounded halfway over the dogwalk, and as much as I wanted to run for the finish line, I forced myself to wait for the contact, which she did give me. 1st and Q, which finished our level one title!

Standard Level 2 - Ick. One of those "let's just forget that happened" runs. I THINK the issue was that the dog in front of us left the ring halfway through. Because he was running around loose and Meg is Meg (and not good around many dogs), I kept her outside the ring so I could continue shoving food in her face until he was caught. At which point I had the timer and the gate steward ticked at me and telling me to hurry up. I need to learn to just brush it off, but I let myself be hurried. Again, she didn't want to get into her sit, so I left her in a stand-stay. She hit the end of her dogwalk and just sort of wandered off distracted, missed a weave entry, ran towards the judge, then took two tunnels backwards (at that point, I think I was so flustered there wasn't a lot of direction for her to follow). We finally clicked over the third to last obstacle, which was the a-frame. She not only hit her contact perfectly, but held it while I ran ahead several feet and then released her. 2nd, and our only NQ of the weekend.

Wildcard Level 2 - Her good startline was back, and the whole course was really smooth. She didn't hit her 2o2o at the a-frame, although she didn't miss the contact. 2nd and Q (really fast BC beat us by about a second).

Jumpers Level 2 - Really nice course, and a good way to end the weekend. Held her startline beautifully. She normally has a hard time with lateral distance, so I have her an "out" on one jump where I couldn't really get in the pocket towards it. I should have realized she was working away from me better than at home, and the "out" caused her to overshoot a bit, but she corrected herself really well. The last three jumps were a long line, and when I told her "go" coming into it, she ran straight down the whole line! I don't think I'd even hit the second one when she crossed the third. Normally she will get a bit ahead, then spin while I catch up, so I was thrilled with that. 2nd and Q behind that same border collie.

All in all, I was REALLY proud of Meg this weekend. Her contacts were as good as I could have expected for their first time in public, and got better over the course of the weekend rather than worse as I feared. Her startlines, when she wasn't worried about something, were phenomenal. She never broke before released. And everything outside the ring was perfect. She was quiet in her crate while I was volunteering, walked through the crowds onleash without a peep, even when other people allowed their dogs to touch her (it amazes me how oblivious some people can be), and made several new human friends, including one who actually knew about Mountain Curs!

No pictures from the runs, because it was indoors and they didn't allow flashes, but a couple fun shots:

Meg with her ribbons (from the gap over).



Meg and her trialing buddies with all their ribbons - all four dogs are from rescue. The black and white wire-haired, the little WTF (white thing of fluff) and Meg were all pulled from high-kill WV shelters; the big white wire-haired was a local pulled from a neglect situation. As you can see, all four have come a long way! Not least of which was getting four females, two of whom are reactive, one of whom borders on dog aggression, and one who has no stay, all in a picture together!


Meg, enjoying her post-trial dinner of champions!

congrats! Sounds like it was a success--and Meg looks like she is enjoying her reward dinner!

Oh BB we are so proud of you and Meg!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a wonderful weekend and all those contacts WHOOHOOOOOOO, Petie and I are cheering for ya.
Awesome and well done.
lol I wonder just how many people give their dogs a McBurger on the way home from a trial? Because I know I sure do.

Sounds like all that "running back and forth along a board" is paying off!!

Congrats...but...that seems like an awful lot of runs??

I saw at least two other agility people in line at the drive thru! My guess is business goes up pretty nicely for McDonalds when there is a trial in town.

Well, it was a two day trial, so it was four runs a day. I think that's a pretty common number for people to do. Meg certainly holds up really well through it, and was still happy and outrunning me at the end. I would certainly cut back if I ever noticed otherwise. I'm curious if anyone else thinks that's too much? Around here, as I said, it's pretty average, but I don't know if it varies from place to place.

Thanks for the congratulations. I'm so, so glad I listened to those with more experience and took the time to really re-train the contacts. We have another month and a half before our next trial, so I want to work more on the a-frame with more speed. My little superstar is snoring like a bear behind me; I think I'm off to join her!

Some org.'s put a limit of 5 runs per day, I think CPE is one of them. 4 or 5 runs per day for a dog that is fit isn't uncommon or unreasonable for most dogs. Plus it is usually a least a couple of hours between each class, so the dogs get a lot of time to rest.
I spent more time warming up at a walk and jog and working on focus and stretching exercises to limber them up, pop them over a a couple of jumps, than actually running a course. Warm up/cool down etc total 30 - 45mins for each run.......run is 25 - 60 seconds long. Total course times of a typical day of 5 runs wouldn't exceed 4 mins, 5 mins at the most.
And after the first couple of runs of the day, don't need to warm up over jumps either.

I have know some people at trials that offer multiple rings to enter as many as 8-10 runs per day, which I think is way to much, interesting though those dogs are often not very fit either.......go figure.

When I worked with horses I was taught that they only have so many jumps in them...it wasn't an issue of how they handled themselves in one training session or one trial, but rather the long-term effects from the concussive nature of jumping, and we always strove to limit the amount of jumping they did. I've carried that same way of thinking over to my own dogs.

I've never considered doing more than two runs a day, which would be four in a weekend, and even that much worries me. It's quite possible though that I'm being overprotective.

Corgipower, your absolutely correct for horses, I managed for two Olympian's with show jumpers in the past, both Gold Medal winners (the one earned mulitple Medals). My number one job other than managing the other employee's was keeping the horses sound. That was a full time job in itself.
There is no comparison between what it takes to keep a Jumper sound and a dog doing agility, which tells me it is easier for the dogs. But having said that it doesn't mean dogs can't have injuries and shouldn't be treated as the athletes that they are and preventive along with conditioning should be the largest part of competing with our dogs. (I am absolutey anal about that kind of stuff lol). And they are not packing a rider

Depending on the level, obstacles are between 15 and 20, 20 of course being the highest level of Masters/Excellent/Elite.
For Standards, Gamblers and Snooker, there is always weaves, all three contacts, pause table/box and usually nothing less than 2- 3 tunnels and/or a chute. So you can have 8-10 obstacles that are not jumps, which only leaves a dog in most classes jumping less than 10 jumps.
Comparing that to horses and jumping, in any given A circut Jumper class, typically there are courses of 15-20 jumps, most shows, have Two Rounds and a Jump off, which would equal the same amount of jumping as several classes of agility.
So it is like showing/jumping horses at a level lower than A, because there typically isn't mulitple rounds for the same class, people can enter more classes.

Congrats you two--sounds like you had some awesome runs! You are an inspiration to me and Wrigley!

Good points, ado. Thanks!

I haven't had enough experience at agility to assess long term effects of jumping, so I err on the side of caution. I'll try to worry less.

YAY Boston and Meg, thats great. This is what Dekka and I do doing too, taking a break till those pesky contacts get better. (tho dekka is perfect at home-of course)

Dekka does best with 3-4 runs a day. The more runs the better she does. I think the difference in the canine vs equine structure is significant. Horse's naturally don't jump much. Dogs are for ever jumping (ok at least mine are) on off things, over things, over nothing etc etc.

The 10 10 inch jumps in Dekka's runs are nothing compared to a 2 min play session in the living room. And the zooming on and off the couch, and chair is much less planned than our approach to the jumps.

I've wondered too about the effects of jumping on dogs vs horses. One of the big differences I can see are the "landing gear". Horses take quite a bit of concussion landing on relatively hard hooves; with dogs having softer feet/pads, I expect that dissipates the concussion a bit more before it hits the joints. Just my personal theory.

Good luck with Dekka's contacts! I've got to say, I did fairly well from September through about January, then I started to get really frustrated and sick of it. Luckily I stuck with it, because by late-February they were really coming together.

BB, I agree, the concussion for horses is huge, especially because the foot can't expand.......or as we all know (those of us with horses) the expansion is very very limited. I don't know what the stats are for jumping but studies done many years ago, stated that concusion of a Racing Quarter Horse was 10,000 lbs per square inch on the front feet alone.............
I read a very interesting article on dogs and jumping years ago. They made some very valid points that I tend to agree with.
One of the points is that dogs with dew claws often don't have front leg injuries as dogs that have had the dews removed. The reason for this is, as a dog lands the pasturn hyperextends and when they have dew claws, the dews come in contact slightly with the ground and the dog is more careful.
Where as with the dews removed, the pasturn continues to hyperextend which can cause injuries or arthritis over a long period of time.