Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Big Dogs here I come.....

Last Saturday Mom took Rip and I to Kingston for the day to play in the Morningstar's AAC Agility Trial. The day started off with Rip playing Starters Standard. I was in the car so I didn't see (and Mom didn't have the camera out for it to be taped) but from what I hear, his run was amazing. He did everything perfect but fell off the table because he was going too fast. Mom was super thrilled with him. His next run was Snooker but Mom was too fast turning and made Rip knock down a red bar and couldn't call Rip off before he took the teeter. Oh well, it's a stupid game! The final run for Rip was the Steeplechase and that was my first run also.

I got to go first and was doing great until I came to the weave poles. They didn't have them taped down or attached so I pushed poles 6 & 7 together so I got to start the run over again! I still hit the poles pretty hard so I wasn't too sure about going through them so it took me a couple of times. I then had 2 jumps down because Mom took off running and I had to catch up!

Ripley's run was pretty nice. Mom needs to learn to check up before the weaves and still needs to work proofing Rip's weaves because he left them before he was done to catch up to Mom. She was very happy with his performance in his first "big dog" class :)

My next run was Masters Standard which I got to run For Exibition Only (FEO). There weren't any Advanced runs and Mom thought I deserved to play a bit, isn't she the best?!? I did pretty good on the run overall. I had a bar down but mom rotated too quick and then I missed the teeter because the chute was so short (something we need to work on) and then she didn't call me out of the tunnel so I took my favorite obstacle - the tire!! I got the weaves and my contacts were good so overall she was very happy with my first Masters Standard run.

The final run of the day was Advanced Jumpers! It looked like an easy course on paper but when my Mom was walking it she realized there were a few traps for me. I was a very good boy and ran fast and clean to earn a first place and my third Q!!! Can you believe it? I am moving up to Masters Jumpers with the big dogs :) Mom is so thrilled that I got 3 Q's in just 2 weekends...I love making Mom happy.

We are now taking a break from trialing and will be back at the end of January. The next few months will be working on so many things. Mom says we need to work on start lines, weaves, contacts, jump grids....does that leave anything out?!? :)

No comments: