Trial weekend

I went to Sanford, NC for an AKC trial.  It was indoors , which was nice because it is now so freaking hot outside!!   On the drive there , it was 105 outside. I had my air conditioner blowing 3 bars and the lowest setting. I was sweating.   A couple of hours later I was shivering.  I look at the outside temperature, now it was 74. Wow!!  A storm had come though but I never saw it.   By the time I got to Sanford, it was hot again. LOL.  My friend was about 45  minutes behind me and she ran into two hail storms. Im glad I didn't hit those.  As soon as I got into Sanford , I stopped at the park. Its a really nice park called San-Lee park.  Except I cant get in because the road to the park is closed and I had to drive several miles around to finally get in.  They are working on the main building. It looks a mess, broken windows everywhere.  But the birds are still in their cages. Poor birds. I hope they get bigger cages when the construction is done.

 

 

 

The bathrooms were closed at this main building so I hiked up the hill to the campground. There were people tent camping up there but the bathrooms were locked. WTH??  So I peed in the woods. I didn't know what else to do.  Why would they have the bathrooms locked and people are camping there??  Where are those people going to the bathroom? 

It was freaking hot outside so we didn't walk around much.

 

 

Our hotel was very nice. I only took Java with me. I had pulled Miley because she was limping at the last trial. She hasn't limped anymore but  she will be on rest for a couple of months.
Ive been to this trial site before. In the past they have had the air conditioner cranking and I usually freeze there.  So I took my fans out of the car. Oops, mistake. It was cold inside in the morning but as the day heated up, the air conditioner couldn't keep up and it became warm inside.  The lady who owns the building had replaced the dirt/sand stuff she use to have in the ring and now it has turf.   The good thing about it, is you no longer smell all musty when you leave the place.   I use to have to go home and wash all my crates because everything smelled like must.  
Java had never run on this turf before and I wasn't sure how it was going to go.  I went to the practice jump but they only had 2 squares of turf under the jump, so it wasn't enough for your dog to practice running and turning.   I fingered our first run would just be practice. 

Its hard to watch people run their dogs at the site.  You cant bring any dogs into the ring area, until its your turn to run.  They use to have you wait outside before your turn. They changed that and now you wait at the top of the steps, inside, then you go to the bottom of the steps, then its your turn to go in.  The one big problem, was some of the  gate stewards liked to walk around with the gate sheet in their hands.  So you never knew when it was your turn to run. We asked several times to put the sheet up on the board, but I guess they didn't want to do that. I know their job was hard, because they couldn't see the ring, so they would have to go into the ring area and see where the dog was running and who was going in next but it was hard on us trying to run our dogs and not knowing how many until you ran.   
Anyway, this looked pretty easy right?  So many of the big dogs went off course after #8, they took #12.  The other problem was , after #13, they took the wrong tunnel entrance.


 So, we did stay on course but she dropped a bar.  I think I was late on the front cross.

Next up was standard.

Easy, right???  I screwed it up. LOL.    I thought she would have more momentum coming off the a-frame and I could send out to jump three. But I had to support jump three more and then I tried to force a front cross after the tire and she missed the tire because I was late. Ugh. I should have just reared #5 but I didn't think that quick. I feel like Im never going to get this. Easy course and I couldn't even do it. Ugh!!




Oh Well, what can you do. Live and learn.

We were done early, like before 3pm.  But it was to freaking  hot outside to go to the park, so I just went back to the hotel.  We went out to dinner at the Iron Pig. It was very good. They  also were the ones who brought the food into the trial for the workers. 

The next day, standard was first.

Another easy course, right?  Ugh, I should have done more of a lead out at the startline. Because when she went off the end of the dogwalk, she wasn't sure which end of the tunnel to go to. I was saying tunnel and she was headed to the right one but  she spun and we got a refusal. So I figured , go for broke now. Leave her at the a-frame and see what happens.  She missed the chute. It never occurred to me she wouldn't come straight off the a-frame and take the chute right in front of her. Ack. LOL


Then Master Jww.

This was all out , just run as fast as you can.  And she did but so did everyone else.  There is another sheltie who's father is  Rush, the dog who has been on the world team multiple times and  won nationals several times.  Anyway in AKC he jumps 16 but USDAA he jumps 18.  He can really run fast and did this course in over 7 yards per second. whoohoo.  Java did it in 6.5 yards per second. And took 2nd place. Yay!!

Trial update and Dogwalks

Im still working on Java's running dogwalk.  She did get one rear foot in this weekend.  So Ive been working some more on it. The distressing part is when I watch the video, she had hits that I didnt reward at all. Ugh!!  Why cant I see it????  I will post a little video. She  has a huge leap on the third time, runs it again and has a beautiful hit. I thought she missed and didnt reward. How much am I confusing my dog? She jumps and doesnt get rewarded and then hits an doesnt get reward. Poor Java.



Im not going to post all the video from the trial. We, or rather I had a tough time. LOL  I think I might have myself psychic out.  I was thinking, every time Ive run ISC AKC courses, which are  harder,Ive Qed. (Except that one time when Miley left the start line right after I took off her leash, she went around the first jump, came back to me. I set her up and lead out. And the judged NQed us for training in the ring.But the run was perfect)  Im starting to think its in my head. I go to the line not expecting to Q just so I dont get disappointed.  Probably not the right frame of mind. And then since Java was running second, I front crossed twice and cut her off making sure we stayed on course. Then when I watched the video, I felt bad about cutting her off. She barked at me both times and was really slow and took half the course to speed back up. I didnt work this hard to get speed, to now slow her down. She is faster than Miley and my timing is off.  So the next day I decided to blind cross her. I messed them both up. She was just faster than I expected. So more work to do.

I made this video with most of the mistakes removed. Funny, I still watch it thinking about the mistakes.  I left the last video in where I cut Java off twice.



I listen to a bunch of Post Cast from Bad Dog Agility, they are free, on the way to the trial. One talked about 2o/2o and how we mess up our dogs contacts.  So even though I was aware of it, I still released Miley before she hit the dirt, or she released herself. The second day, I tried to do better but she still self released the teeter. So I will need to be stricter about that. I watched dog after dog, not do a 2o/2o, which it looks like they are suppose to, and the owner released them. No wonder our dogs get to a trial and are confused. We confuse them. Do this at home, but at a trial its ok to do it this way.  Then the dog doesnt know what to do and  you get leaps over the contact.

Masters JWW

Miley went off course.I feel like I cued this correctly. I was at #6 when she was taking jump 5. She just kept on going. Not sure why. I guess I should have called her but it didnt occur to me. I think I tend to be really quit on course and my friend said I need to talk to Miley more.

 Open JWW

This was the course where  I forced the front crosses.


Master Standard

The judge forgot to put weave poles in the course and I guess no one caught it. So we had course changes at the last minute. Worked well.  Miley just didnt read anything I was doing.

 

 

 

Open jww

 

I tried to lead out from the chute, but she came with me and didnt take the chute. I to send her again. Missed the dogwalk contact, wrong tunnel entrance. Dropped bar on triple. But she stayed in her weave poles all weekend!!!

They usually only removed one obstacle between Masters and open. Made such easy course changes and kept everything moving.

Master Standard

The beginning was tough and we got through it. Then she stressed at the table. I could feel it as we were approaching the table. Not sure why but I knew she wasnt going to stay on. She ran around the ring, I just stood there trying to decided if I should leave the ring. When she came around, I told her, "get on the table" and she got right on.  LOL  Afterwards someone came up to me and said, "man she got through all the hard stuff and then left the table. Then came around got right on and said, ok Im ready."   I wonder if it had to do with her self releasing the teeter right before the table.


Open Standard.

Beautiful turn over 8 to the teeter. I was worried, she tends not to read the RC to the left as good as to the right. Dogs were going wide and trying to take the a-frame but she read it beautiful!!  Beautiful turn at 12 too!!

 

Master JWW

 

I couldnt decided what to do.  After her wide turns out of the tunnel yesterday I felt like I needed to be right by the tunnel to get her going the right way. But that would put me behind going down the line and she could go off course. I decided to stay by the tunnel and she went off course down the line. I again should have called her. Ugh!!

 

Open JWW

 

 

I was planning two blind crosses. One between 2 and 3. I never made it and had to RC which she turned to tight. Then I was late on my RC between 7 and 8, so she missed 8.

The park and ducks

I went to an AKC trial this weekend. Lots of ups and downs. Im not ready to talk about it right now. So instead here are some pictures from the park they have there. They weather wasnt bad. Its the first time it wasnt so oppressively hot.  Rained on and off both days. The nats were terrible, flying in your face constantly. (It made me freaking crazy).

  You probably dont remember but last year this was the bridge that looked kinda bad and I was unsure if I should cross it. Well, now its worse and you can no longer go that way.

There is the path that has water flow over it to a small waterfall. Its not deep. Miley didnt want to get her feet wet. The pictures are blurry, sorry but you will get the point.

Java was ok getting her feet wet.

AKC trail : other things

There is this great park near the trail site. I guess maybe 5 miles away. To bad it was so freaking hot that it made it tough on the dogs. There is a lake, waterfalls and lots of hiking trails.  Not to many people.

There were some ducks but Java was more interested in....

Sometimes the ducks would flap their wings and scare the crap out of the dogs.

 This was a falling down bridge along the path. It  was basically on the ground going over a  small creek. Yes we did cross it.

There was a small waterfall . There were several steps downs from the lake with small falls but this was the only one you could get to. The other ones were to dangerous and you werent allowed near them. The first day not to much water going over.

But the next day lots of water was going over. We had lots of rain on Friday night with thunderstorms all evening. So the poor dogs were in the hotel from about 3pm Friday until we left for the trial Saturday morning.

You could walk along the top there and it wasnt to deep. So the dogs were ok with it and it cooled you down.

This was taken with me standing on top of that waterfall area and looking down the creek. When I saw this and all the grass, it makes me think snakes. I saw a man and his little 2 or 3 year old kid walking through that area. Again, Im thinking thats crazy but then I thought I was just being overly freaked out about snakes.  So I look down at the water just below me in the water fall and what do I see?

Creepy!!!  So then the man and his son walked back up to start down the creek again. I told them to be careful and showed them the snake in the water. They were done, no more walking in the creek.

They had birds in large cages. I assume they were injured birds.


It was hard to find a place to let the dogs just run.  Especially Java who was crated or in the hotel. So I went here. I didnt let them run on the field, just the ends and sides.  I kept hoping I wouldnt get in trouble.

Here is the one bad thing that happened at the trial. It was Sunday I was was getting ready to run my Open Standard run. I had looked at the running order , there were 2 - 8inch dogs in front of me that checked in.   5 minutes to first dog, I looked at my watch. I got Miley. I went to the back door and put up my treat bag, I hung it on the fence. The first dog came out of the door. So I walked around to the entrance door and did the practice jump a couple of times. When I opened the door, everyone seemed mad at me. I had missed my run. I cant remember what they said to me but it felt like they were attacking me. ( you know what I mean). Then I just felt angry and said, "Why didnt you just open the door and call my name?" and I said it in a not so nice tone.  Well three people turned around  and yelled at me, "we did".   I just couldnt figure out how I missed my run. So they let me run after the next 12 inch dog. I was ok with them saying I missed my run and thats is that. I know the rules.  But they let me run. Which was very nice.  So I ran and we Qed.  But it didnt feel that great because all I could think about was how I had spoken to the gate steward. ugh!!  So right after I gave Miley her treats, I handed her off the a friend. I went back in and told the guy I was very sorry for how I spoke to him. I didnt mean to sound so harsh.  He said it was ok but you know how when someone says that but you can tell they dont mean it. And really saying sorry doesnt make up for things.   I felt terrible. Im sure they think Im a jerk. My name will be mud for a while. Ugh!! I thought about it all the way home, 3 1/2 hours.   I later found out , someone went thur the running order and just checked peoples names  off that they knew were there. So yes the other 8 inch dog was there but she didnt run.  So  I thought there were 2 -8inch dogs when really there was only one dog was in front of me. Ugh!!