Georgie’s Agility Debut
The most amazing princess puppy had her agility debut! Check out her video below.
My mom admitted to me she was disappointed Georgie didn’t get any Qs, but I don’t see anything in her runs to be disappointed with. I am very proud and pleased with Georgie. She did a lot of things I knew were potential trouble spots for her debut: she did the tire instead of trying to go around/under it. She got on the rubberized contacts and stayed on them instead of being disturbed by the texture and bailing. She got her weaves. She didn’t drop any bars. She did tunnels splendidly! And she even did the chute despite not wanting to go through it the first time. So many good things she did, I just can’t find it in myself to be at all upset or disappointed in what she DIDN’T do. Even though she didn’t ride the teeter all the way down and got an E for that.
For a baby dog who has been mostly trained by somebody who has never actually done agility before, and who ONE WEEK ago didn’t want to even go halfway up a teeter set all the way to the ground, I think she’s a rock star. Little Georgie is entered in two more trials this year before she gets to break for the winter, so we’ll see how she shapes up over the next several weeks!
Payton’s Second Agility Trial
The weather for Payton’s second agility trial, and first ever outdoor trial, was surprisingly beautiful, even a bit hot on Sunday (and I came home with a pretty serious sunburn on my neck, backs of my ears, and arms – yeouch!) It broke the pattern, or “curse,” of the local agility trial, which traditionally calls for sub-50 degree temperatures, high winds, and rain if you’re really lucky! We were all quite delighted and I will accept my sunburn as penance for forgetting to grab my bottle of sunscreen.
Here’s the video of Payton’s runs:
Saturday Payton got his NAJ title. He also got his very first Novice Standard leg. I was pretty stunned, because going into the trial I expected a bit of a disaster for being outside. Once again the rules included “don’t pee on anything.” Happily, he peed on nothing! And came home with his first “Double Q” (which of course truly means nothing sub-Masters.)
His Open Jumpers on Sunday run looks more like the Payton I am used to! THAT is my baby dog. The dog who’s running around in all these other runs and picking up Qs and blue ribbons and stuff, I dunno who that is. Poor guy got popped in the face by a weave pole in jumpers and was quite startled, but I was very proud that I just pulled him back to start over and he got it done instead of staying offended. His collection obviously needs more work so he doesn’t barrel into the weave poles and pop himself in the face anymore…
His standard run was great and he came home with another first place and a second leg towards his NA!
Overall, I am very pleased with Payton. He needs more control, but that is something I’ve been noticing as we practice – as he’s gotten more and more confident in various obstacles and sequences he’s gotten faster and the control is slipping a bit. Self-control has been a constant with Payton since I brought him home and will likely be a challenge his entire life. Luckily, I am up for the challenge. I have a whole host of things to work on with him this fall and winter, and hopefully he will be a really great dog come spring (and hopefully I’ll suddenly come into money so I can trial him more often.) After Saturday, he was getting a small fan club. My heart was glowing with how many people thought he looked good, was coming along really great, and had very complimentary things to say about the baby dog. We are all very proud of him and excited for his future!
Payton “cop-cop” training – again!
It’s been a while since we worked on this trick, but I haven’t forgotten about it. I still think it’s a really cute trick so we came back to work on it some more.
Here’s two videos of us working on it:
Apologies for this one where you can’t even see my feet, I realize how completely unhelpful that is!
Agility Trial #1, Day 1
When I left the standard ring, the first thing I heard was “That dog is going to be AWESOME.”
Everything was going dandy. I gave Auggie to my mom to have him measured by the judge while I walked the standard course. Then I walked JWW. After that, Mom came out looking kind of sour. “I guess I don’t know the ‘trick’ to make him shorter,” she says. “He’s 15.”
Auggie’s breeder, J, and I stare at each other blankly for a minute. My dog is not fifteen inches at the withers. He is 13 and a half! “Wait… what?” I said.
There was much flabbergasting back and forth, and finally the judge appears and confirms that yes, my dog has to run at the 16 inch jump height. Again, J and I stare at each other. I go to the practice jump to make sure he can handle it, and he does okay. J helps me out and tells me what to change up now that he’s running at a much higher jump height than we’ve EVER done before.
Okay. No big deal. It’s fine. It’s fine. I’m not freaking out.
I just think I’m going to puke.
Everywhere.
So we run standard. It’s going REALLY really well. He gets on the table, I put him in a down, and he holds there. Then I call him off and to the teeter – and suddenly I’m still standing by the table and he’s already on the teeter! I remember thinking I was going to throw up all over that teeter, panicking, thinking he was going to take off that teeter and start creating his own course. I caught up with him, but not in time – he hopped off the end of the teeter before it even hit the ground. Automatically eliminated from qualifying at that point. I fumbled a bit after that and missed getting him into the tunnel, which would have been -5 points but would still have had us qualify.
It was just my bad, letting him get away from me on that teeter, that screwed us out of a Q.
REGARDLESS… it was beautiful. It was awesome. It was wonderful. I came out of the ring and wanted to cry, I was so proud and so happy.
My Auggie did it. I couldn’t stop telling him what a good boy he was, I was just SO DAMN PROUD.
For Jumpers with Weaves… it was great for a first run! It was a clean run, no off courses, no touched bars, he did the weaves wonderfully!
I don’t have video for my standard run, but I do have it for JWW. (No sound because the wind was awful!)
Our JWW time was 37.79 seconds, and… FIRST place, and a Q.
It was amazing. Afterwards, everybody kept congratulating me and going “Did I hear right that this is your first run?? You did SO WELL!!”
I didn’t do anything. Auggie did it all.
That’s my Awesome Auggie.
….and now we have to do it all over again tomorrow!
