What are your goals?

With Kili beginning her agility career I've been thinking about my goals for her and figured it would be fun to hear about everyone else's too!

To my knowledge, no greyhound in AAC agility has earned their MADC (but there is one listed as earning their AADC and if it was recently then someone might be working on their MADC) or ATChC. I would super love if Kili was the first, but regardless I think MADC would be great and also attainable. I'd also love for her to get her ATChC. I think that one will be a fair bit harder, but I don't think it's an unreasonable goal. My "high" goal... would be for her to get her Lifetime. That's a pretty impressive goal for ANY dog, so maybe I'm reaching a bit. I won't be disappointed in her career if she doesn't get it, but would be beyond thrilled if she did. I guess we'll see how the MADC goes first!

So let's hear it... do you have any performance goals for your dog? What are or what were they? If you've achieved it already, how did you feel when you finally got it? Did you set a new goal?

Ummm since Summer started at 8 years old I've tried to keep things very modest.

My first goal was to take a for fun foundations class with her.

Then she did well and so my goal was to run her at a trial.

She did well there too and we got our goal of getting a Q.

So then I thought I'd like to get a title. We've done that three times now.

So I thought I'd like to train her to weave 6 poles.

Did that so I thought I'd like to get her to Q in a class with weaves. Did that too...

Leaves me now not sure where to go... I'd like to finally finish one of her freaking USDAA titles. She would have I am pretty sure if we hadn't had to pull out that last trial when she had her e-vet trip.

IWho knows how long she can run and where we'll go. I'm just doing what we can while we can. It's fun.

I don't know that I will ever have any more specific goals for any of my dogs. I just want to play and have a good time and accomplish good things.

When I bought Frodo I thought he was going to be my introduction to sport dog (HAHAHAHAAHAHAAHA!!! :rofl1, but his brain and (more recently) his structure put a kibash on that. When I realized he was so off-kilter, my goal because a CGC. That might happen...someday?

He has a rally title. I expect we will continue to do rally as long as he physically can. My motto with Frodo is "Zero expectations" and it has served us well.



Siri became my actual first sport prospect, as much as one can have a sport prospect with as little training knowledge as I do. My goal was agility with some dabbling. It has pretty much stayed that.

I don't have any titling goals. My goal is to have a level of communication with her that allows us to compete in agility with low levels of stress and high levels of learning and LOTS AND LOTS OF FUN!

I'd also like to continue playing rally with her (though as long as Megan wants to work with her, she will primarily be Megan's rally/ob dog), and in that I'd like to eventually have a good enough relationship where we work together fluidly, and with a better understanding of one another than we have now.

Someday when I have more time I'd like to do more disc. And if she continues to like the water and gain confidence, I think it would be hilarious to see if she will jump off a dock


Pretty boring goals on the whole.

I want to get Elsie's UD.

Beyond that I haven't made firm goals. She has her first open leg, so we're on our way!

Just want my red dog to focus enough to start finding success in the agility ring.. she has all the skills& speed at home. Just those **** new environments.

I'd like to title in OB and in herding. Dock diving would be great as well.

Maybe an agility and rally trial for Rider.

Welp, I'll be the crazy sports person.

A MACH on Payton before he's six.

I don't think it's going to happen.

Back in the day it was "don't pee on anything, do your weave poles, and take at least SOME of the jumps I ask you to take." We could probably do with going back to that, except that whole weave pole thing is moot.



Georgie meanwhile will probably get her bloody MACH next year or something.


I wanted a MACH on Auggie. Then I wanted a PACH. We stopped with the MXP and MJP. He has 100 points (need 750) and 1 QQ (need 20.) I mean... he'll be 9. I know dogs who were still earning agility CHs at 11. It could still happen. The way his speed has been lately...
but I would have to commit to taking him out of retirement and campaigning him again, and I'm not sure about that. We will see. He is a great little dog no matter what. Sleeping on the pillow next to me right now. Best little buddy.


Pepper, erm. I had pipe dreams with her too. Dreams of taking this poor little scaredy-cat and turning her into an amazing agility dog. DEFYING THE ODDS!!
I still think I might be able to get novice titles on her... but I really don't know. She is a very good girly who likes to be at home and snuggle, so I'm not sure I should really push anything more with her. I probably would have tried it had I not ended up with Payton, just out of sheer desperation, which might not have been entirely fair to her, so. Yeah? Pepper is Pepper and until the day she dies I will always wonder if I'm doing the right thing for her. No matter what I do.

I don't even know what my goals are with Quinn anymore. Originally I had wanted her to be my agility dog. But by the time she was 12 months old she had a myriad of behaviour issues to work with so most of the last 2 years has been spent working through that.

Mostly, she's a good dog now. She's very human friendly, her impulse control has improved ten fold, her tug drive has increased significantly and I've excepted that I've probably got as far with her DR as we ever will. She will always be somewhat selective and unpredictable and it's something i just need to work around.

So the last couple of months my focus has slowly crept back to sports.
In 2015 I would like to put a rally-o title on her. She could do a novice course easily at this point so I might do it just for fun.

I have just began teaching her scent discriminate for an assessment I am doing and from there I think I will train tracking. Partly with the idea of competing, partly to train it for "practice"

I am also playing around with my agility stuff again. I put it all away when I realised we had other serious issues to work through first and it only feels now like it's on the table again. I can't train at a club because of the set up, too much going on at once, multiple classes running side by side simultaneously, too many dogs offlead not under effective voice control. For Quinn, that won't work so we're onto backyard training and online classes for now.

I don't know, competing lightly with Quinn would be nice. If we ever trial in anything I would be over the moon. it would ease the feeling of failure that's followed me around with her for the last 3 years. Plus I work ridiculous hours and at the moment I don't see many weekend becoming available for trialing anytime soon. Next year looks huge but maybe come 2016 life will be a little less crazy.

Back when I got Brisbane as a tiny curly puppy, I had dreams of participating in every sport. Then he grew up to have all the angulation of a yardstick along with an incredibly reactive temperament, and my goals switched to meeting his needs for exercise and stimulation while keeping his joints healthy and teaching him how to live in a world that contains mail carriers, and plumbers, and skateboards, and joggers, and people rearranging displays in store windows, and garbage bags, and FedEx.

We spent a few years working on UKC obedience, Brisbane can do most of the Utility level exercises everywhere except in a ring in front of a judge, where he pretends not to know me. FYI, it doesn't count for the long down if your dog is laying flat on his back. After lots of effort and nothing even approaching a Q, we quit because obedience just wasn't that much fun.

Prior to obedience we did a little agility, but Brisbane was overstimulated by everything and tended to bite or crash into everything. We switched to obedience while I tried to get some control, and are only now going back to foundation skills. So far Briz hasn't tried to leap over any tunnels, so I think we're on the right track. This time around I'm focused on listening to him, and teaching him how to function via Control Unleashed.

Brisbane has done a little herding and a lot of lure coursing. He's a natural with sheep, but we haven't been able to do it regularly enough to compete. We've only done fun lure coursing, the inclusion of mixed breeds in any competition venue is a fairly new thing and I haven't gotten around to getting into the AKC program. Nobody local does dock diving, we might get the chance to do it this fall. I don't know if anyone local does rally obedience, either. Back when we were doing regular obedience hardly anyone around here had heard of it.

I used to think I wanted to do flyball and agility with Ru, but he's just not that much fun to train. He requires certain minimum temperatures before he's willing the participate, and all dog events here are outdoors. If the weather is too cool, or the grass too damp, Ru will boycott the activity. He also doesn't get body language or gestures, and I'm pretty sure he's actually some sort of lizard.

I would like Ulysses to get comfortable enough to remain operant in everyday life. We can set new goals when we get there.

In terms of agility:

I'd like Cobain to get his ATChC, as long as I think of him as "middle aged" I feel it's attainable. Had we been more serious in competing when he was younger, I think we could have it by now.
Right now he's got his AADC (+1 Master Q) and SGDC (+1 Advanced Q in each game).

For Rigby, it'd be nice if I could get her SGDC and MJDC. I don't know if I will ever get her on a teeter reliably which is why I'm leaning more toward the jumper title. Hopefully her speed will pick up eventually.


I would also like to get into disc and herding at some point.

I used to say that I'd like to progress each of Cohen's titles in each sport every year.

You may have noticed that she still only has her novice titles in most sports...

Ultimately I say that I'd like for her to get her ATChC and her UD (or OTCh... maybe but not likely). Though, in order to do that I'd have to attend more than two trials a year. Sometimes I get demotivated when I look at how long it's taking us, but honestly the major issue is that I'm simply not putting the time into trialing. Between demos and 'real life' I find that it's hard to find the time to attend. I hate signing up for things in advance too. I had planned to pull out of classes over the summer so I had some extra cash to attend trials, but that's not happened yet.

She turns 5 next week. Eep.

My goals with Meg have all been achieved. I wanted her P-ADCH, and she got taht about 2 years ago. I also wanted to be able to take her to Cynosport and not look like we didn't belong. Check.

We aren't going for any of the higher comprehensive titles, because I promised her no more gamblers after her ADCH. She has her bronze in the classes I still run with her (snooker, jumpers, standard) and may hit silver. Her Q rate is very high, but I haven't been running enough USDAA because of Gusto. It may happen, but isn't a goal. She owes me nothing, and the day she asks to be done I will throw her a party and she can be.

My goals with Gusto are pretty similar. And on hold while we work on his ring issues. I had hopes for his MPD by this winter, but nope.

My goals with Crosserton are for him to be confident, healthy & happy in any situation. He's my sport dabbler -- he's good at a lot of things, master of none (yet--he's still a baby!)

I'd like him to be Ken's agility dog--but he needs to be pretty bombproof first. In the course of the that, our main goal has been a C-ATCH with titles from other orgs as well. We will also put together a disc freestyle routine and enter some dock diving.

Yeah lack of trials is a big issue here. I think we could feasibly get our TACh (teacup agility champion) because the trials are so frequent and there's so many runs. We're already almost through with level 3 for games and are lacking 1 Q to move to superior in standard.

But we need to do USDAA more than twice a year if I want to title. And preferably not have to end up at the e-vet for them too. Of the couple USDAA trials we've been to she's been sick at one and in the e-vet in another.

She's old though. Working on 11 years. I'm just thrilled we can do anything at all!

Both my dogs would have their NW1 at least if the trials weren't 6+ hours away. Some of my classmates have NW1 and NW2 already on their dogs and we've been training as long and well as them. But I don't have the money to pay $90 in entry fees + drive 6+ hours and then if you fail you fail everything and no title. So it's not worth it at this point. They both passed their ORTs. When UKC nosework starts up I may try it because it will be closer. In a few years there may be NASCW events nearby but I don't know if either of mine will be able to compete then (Mia's health, Summer's age)

I started rally classes with Summer. I've always thought we should go for a rally title since it's very easy at the novice level. But I hate it and I hate obedience so probably won't happen. And Summer hates it too.

I would really like to get an RN, RA, and CD. I would like to trial in agility - I'm sure if I get to that point I will be interested in a low level title, but I think just being able to take Watson in a ring, off leash, and have him focus on me is a big enough goal for right now. Haha

I would like to get his NW1 and possibly NW2 titles.

I think I want to get his GCh. That probably depends on how things go at the first couple shows I take him to. I'm not super committed to this goal so if it looks like it will take too much time and effort I won't bother.

My goal for this past year was to get his Ch, which I finished in May. It felt great! It was the first title I have ever put on a dog, and not something I ever thought I would do. I'm proud of both of us.

Recon's goals would be
CPE Nationals invite this year or next
CATCH by 3 or 4 yrs
MACH by 5 or 6 yrs
Master title in UAD
Qualify for Skyhoundz Classic Worlds

Patton's goals would be
BH by 2 yrs
IPO1 by 4 yrs
17"+ dock jump
Finishing in the breed ring

I think that's all I/they have really been interested in.

Well, we're pretty much there. Just a few more Qs for her ATChC and then everything else is gravy. She's been to regionals twice and qualified for nationals both times and placed top 10 twice (10th in 2013 and 3rd in 2014), she's been to nationals and placed 11th by 0.2 points.

It's hard to trial right now with school and stuff. Just need some gamblers and jumpers is all.

Next year I do plan on going to nationals as it's in burnaby which is driveable. Sussex was just too costly.

I also maybe should finish her RE and potentially do obedience but meh. Kennel club people generally aren't my scene. Even CKC agility is meh for me though maybe if I have wads of cash next year I'll finish her AGXS and AGJXS.

Yeah Auggie needs one more Q for his RA, but ughhhhh so boooooring. I want to finish it up because I hate dangling Qs, but UGHHHH SO BOOOOORING.

I reached my goals with Buzz (NADAC Novice Versatility, UCD, ARCH). I reached my goals with Bailey (VCD1).

I'd hoped to do more with Gabby, but my revised goals for Gabby are CD-C, ARCH, and TD.

My goals for Siri are ARCHEX and CD, maybe Lauren and I can get a VCD1 with her together!

I had ridiculously lofty performance goals for Astro before picking him up. He was said to love tug (and he does!), and the small terrier genetic component has made him zippier than any full Pei I've met.

But his behavior issues had to take precedence. So, my goals became: get him to happily and willingly let someone take toys, leashes, and bully sticks from him. And develop some minor semblance of handler attentiveness.

And we have met those goals! Recently a dog came up to him when he had a stick and he didn't guard it, he wags his tail when I walk over to him when he has a bully stick, he even brings me things himself in an attempt to trade. I have also finally felt comfortable enough to let him drag a line that I'm not carrying when we're out on nature trails, because his recall and "hold up" commands are so improved.

Mostly my goal was just to figure him out, and I feel like I've progressed immensely in that in the past 2-3 months. My new and only sport goal for him now is to pass the ORT and get a NW1 title at least; he really enjoys nosework in a way that he never enjoyed agility, so I've stopped fighting it.