Category: Agility

USDAA Brownsville, OR 2018-08-10

I took Vader and Twitch to the USDAA trial in Brownsville hosted by WAG on the 10th, 11th and 12th of August.

Vader was entered in 15 runs, 5 each day. We did Team on Friday and then regular titling classes on Sat and Sun with Steeplechase and Grand Prix thrown in. We did not place in Team but not for lack of trying!

Vader ran really well this weekend. His weaves were great and even sent out to a gamble weave for a Q on Sat! We got a super Q on Sat in Snooker as well. Our Pairs partner had an off course but Vader was clean. Standard was amazing as well! This dog is all heart and go! Love him!

On Sunday we had two knocked bars but I am sure he was tired! I was! I was having trouble remembering the courses and one of those bars was my fault for sure.

Twitch was entered in Standard on Sat and Sun. I only ran him Sat and he stopped at the second jump to chase a perceived bug. So refusal but he ran well after that! Was even under time! I decided to leave him home on Sun and I am glad I did. I was tired and a long day.

I was a chief course builder for the weekend so in addition to the 16 runs, I built every course in one ring Sat and Sun, and both rings on Friday. I am still tired and sore. Now I am going to sleep!

Struggles Are Real

I feel like crap. My right foot (the one I broke in 2016) has been causing me lots of pain the last few months. My knees have been hurting quite a bit and the other day at work on a walk, the right knee started clicking!

But I want to practice agility. And I want to move equipment around! But I hurt, so I don’t want to actually do that.

The struggle is hard. My brain wants to do things but my body says rest. If I do the things, then I hurt.

Oh and the house needs cleaned. At least upstairs. Which means more pain from kneeling to scrub the tub and bending to scrub the sinks. So how do I manage the balance of things that I want to do versus what I need to do and how much pain they will cause me?

Today I am resting. Kind of. I slept till 11 (called in sick) and will do the house stuff in spurts today. I plan to do some agility tonight when it is cooler.

Making Choices

I am trying to make different choices this year.

First I started with a lot less drinking and snacking. I am down 10 pounds and seem to be stabilizing there which is ok by me!

Next is to do more fun things with the dogs and less long trial days. This one is harder.

I start looking at the trials coming up and want to enter both days. Or enter two trials in a row. Because despite not enjoying the early mornings that much, I do enjoy the thrill of stepping to the line to tackle a new course. The accumulation of titles and seeing what kinds of times we can lay down. I don’t really enjoy having to cheerlead Twitch around the course though.

So I am trying to choose other activities for the summer. I am committing to two trials in July and August. Both USDAA and both outside. Otherwise I want to go camping and hiking. I want to go to new trails and get up early-ish on a weekend morning and go some place new at least twice in July and August.

May is already full though we could plan a hike on one weekend.

June I am currently planning one trial and one conformation show.

See? Not enough weekends for all the fun things!

AKC Ridgefield, WA 2018-03-18

Vader and I headed up to Ridgefield to attend the PAC AKC agility trial. We were entered in Open Fast, Open Jumpers with Weaves and Novice Standard.

FAST went well despite me completely changing my plans after walking. The line other folks were setting off the aframe was way better than what I was going to attempt. It all went just fine until near the end when I turned him the wrong way and we bobbled the teeter approach. He did fine and we Qd anyway. 🙂

JWW was a disaster. I got him out way too early and he did 1-2-4 instead of 1-2-3-4. I had much too much collection and pull off cues and that is exactly what he did. Then he took the tunnel. From there we just hit the finish jump and left. NQ.

Novice Standard was 4 hours later and went just fine. He took all the things I told him too and in the order I showed him. Q! Now we are out of Novice and won’t have to do that stay stupid late bit again.

Good boy Vader!!