I'm going to step in to write for Luke today because he's really tired from his big weekend! Luke had a super weekend at his agility trial, held at Family Dog Center here in La Crosse, WI. The results of the weekend were SEVEN qualifying runs, TWO new titles, SIX 1st place, TWO 2nd place, a third & a fourth.
Luke was just a little hyper when we got to the center Saturday morning. This was a result of me not allowing him to do much of anything for the three days prior. Call me over-protective, but I just didn't want to run the risk of him pulling something or otherwise hurting himself!
Our first run of the day was our first attempt at the open level of regular agility. Luke showed that he was definitely ready for this move-up and did a great job, only bringing down one jump right in front of a tunnel -- I'm sure his excitement at getting to the tunnel caused him to jump a little flat. Because we run in the skilled division, this resulted in us earning a 5 pt. Q for this run.
Luke's second open regular run was fabulous! It flowed really nicely and he did great at all of his distance and discrimination work. We were pushing really hard down a line of jumps when Luke yelped over one of them and that freaked me out a little. I think he just had too much speed and took too big of a jump and it hurt somewhere -- he was fine for the rest of the day. At any rate, Luke got his first full open Q this run. Very good for his first day at this level!!
Chances was next and I freaked out a little during the course walk. The distance test was HUGE at the open level compared to what we're used to seeing at novice. Coming out of the tunnel, I had to stay way back and send Luke to a line of jumps layered past a set of weave poles. Luke got a little confused coming out of the tunnel and came towards the weave poles, since they were closest to me. I did a poor job of sending him out and he didn't really know what to do. To keep him happy, I went over the line and completed the course with him -- No Q for that run.
Touch-n-Go was up after that and I was bound and determined to get our contacts, knowing that if I could Q both days we would get our novice title. We were deliberately slow (hence our 4th place time) but we got our qualifying run.
Weavers was a breeze for Luke and in that one little run he got a Q, a 1st and a new title ribbon! I'm so glad that we can move up to open in weavers because Luke prefers the set of 12 poles.
The final class of the day was jumpers, our big bug-a-boo. The course was set up well and theoretically we should have had no problem running it. The problem was that I *assumed* Luke would head down the jump chute straight into the tunnel, so I failed to correctly direct him where to go. This resulted in him going into the tunnel -- in the wrong end! Ah well, what can you do? The rest of the run was great and he left all the bars up, but no Q for us.
Luke was plenty tired after our big day, so I didn't feel too guilty for leaving him at home to go to the barn right away. He pretty much crashed all night and I actually had my doubts that he would keep his energy up for Sunday. Boy was I wrong, though! As soon as we stepped out the door he was up, up, up!
Our first open regular run of the day was almost magical. It flowed so nicely and was absolutely error free. We came in a full ten seconds under time with zero faults, for another nice, easy Q. The second run was a bit more distracted, however. Luke brought down a bar in the first jump chute, then stepped up onto the A-frame when he was supposed to take the tunnel (go figure, my tunnel sucker!), and then finally he stepped off the dog walk early during the distance test. That run netted us 25 faults, so it was pretty much our throw-away run for the weekend.
Open chances was third up for the day again. This time the distance test was totally up Luke's alley and he was doing just awesome through the course. Three obstacles from the end I had to pull Luke out of a chute and send him to the weaves and I opened my big mouth too soon. I called him to turn right in the middle of his jump, causing him to turn in mid-air and knock a bar. Darn it. There went that chance to Q and it was all my fault! I hate it when that happens.
I was a little flustered for Touch-n-Go on Sunday because I knew that we had the chance to get our novice title if we could run clean. My poor directional cues required me to do two hard call-offs at tunnels but Luke listened like a champ, got his contacts and got that last Q that we needed for that class. Now that we are going to have to make open time I will have to put in more work on our running contacts, stressing that he is NOT supposed to fly off them.
Tunnelers is usually a given for Luke, so I wasn't concerned about him making time for his first run at the open level. In fact, I was probably a little too relaxed in general for this class. Luke went out for a poo right before this run and the combination of that and seeing all the tunnels made him go just about crazy. For the first time ever he completely blew me off at the start line at took off in front of me. There was no way I could catch up in time and as a result he ended up going in the wrong end of tunnel number three, which sent him straight into an off course tunnel next to it. I did get him back in focus after that, but his little detour resulted in 10 course faults and .53 time faults, so no Q in our first open tunnelers run.
Jumpers was our last class for the weekend and I felt very confident about the course. Let's face it -- a novice jumpers class starts to look pretty easy after running the open level classes. The course was running really nicely for us until I completely botched a front cross and quite nearly sent Luke over an off course fence. I knew I should have kept to the rear crosses.... At any rate, he responded to my hard call off, came back and finished the course clean!! We beat our jumpers curse and got a much needed Q. All we need now is one more novice jumpers Q and Luke will have earned his Novice Versatility Plaque!!! That is not too bad for a dog who started beginner agility in January and did his first trial at the end of April. I'm very proud of him!
As if our weekend hadn't been tiring enough, a few of us decided to take our dogs out for a walk after the show. We put in about two miles and then came back to the dog center to let our dogs play a bit while we chatted. Luke got a burst of hyper speed from eating a bowl of ice cubes and enticed his new Rottie friend to participate in his zoomy episode ('though she mostly just watched him). I don't know where that burst of energy came from! At any rate, it was the last he had in him because Luke completely crashed in the car on the way home -- flat out on his side!
Up next for Luke -- Our next round of competition agility classes starts up this Wednesday evening. We will be having a new instructor, so that will be interesting. Our next show will be November 10 & 11, again at Family Dog Center.