Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Breakthrough Agility Weekend

This last weekend Suds & Myth had an agility trial (Josie is still on vacation :-) It was the MAC (Minnesota Agility Club) AKC Trial held at Soccerblast. Indoor air conditioned – thank goodness with temps in the upper 90s and dew points at 80+ most of the day.

The last time I tried to run Suds at this particular location he was so freaked out he tried to jump out of the ring through the Plexiglas….poor boy. He has come along way and has gained a lot of confidence since then, so I decided to see how he would do –with absolutely no expectations except to have fun! He started a wee bit nervous on his first run, wanting to be close to me he skipped a few jumps, no problem lets just keep running, he did and finished faster and happy. His second run was OK. I felt him start to stress about half way through the course, so just ran for the finish. Sunday, he was more relaxed and his first course was better, still skipped a few jumps. I have a friend who was watching and she notice the jumps he skipped were where he was on my right, aha! He is less comfortable on my right, something we are working on. His last run (JWW) he did not skip any jumps, I made sure to really support and not get to far ahead when he was on my right, ended up just a few seconds over course time. He finished the weekend strong and did all his weaves all weekend !!! A couple of Suds pictures from the weekend can be found here;
http://greatdanephotos.com/store/index.php?do=photocart&viewImage=255418

Myth, I was not sure if she would totally melt down and leave or what to expect from her. She only had a couple of stress moments, where she would stop in the middle of the course. She started every run fast and happy, did miss her weave entrance in one class and popped out of the weaves in another, but I did not go back to fix it, we just kept running. I also discovered Myth is a rear cross dog...I did her standard run on Sunday with all rear crosses, not by choice, the bar setter was very close to the chute –second obstacle. I wanted Myth to at the very least keep running so I needed to be between her and the bar setter, which meant I would need a rear cross at the next obstacle. It worked so well I did several more in the course, WOW! super speed and fun. Unfortunately, I was a bad handler and did not notice the ring crew/judge forgot to remove the number from the weaves after the course walk, it was placed right between poles 1 & 2. The judge did let me re-attempt them, but it stressed her to much and she didn’t weave.

Some Myth pictures here;
http://greatdanephotos.com/store/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=24208

Here is her Jumpers run from Sunday…or part of it ;-)



Course walks will be a challenge when Myth gets to Excellent….front crosses for Josie, rear crosses for Myth, special handling for Suds...Ella, yet to be determined. I am very excited to see how each develops !

~Melissa
“It is what we think we know already that often prevents us from learning.” Claude Bernard

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