SSA, SG, AD, AJ, AR, AS

These are the new letter Josie gets to add after her name. These are the USDAA titles Josie earned over the weekend.
SSA = Starters Standard
SG = Starters Gamblers
AD = Agility Dog
AJ = Advanced Jumpers
AS = Advanced Snooker
AR = Advanced Relay

It was Josie’s first outdoor trial of the season and VERY windy. With 2 rings running our first class was Starters Gamblers – you make up you own course for the first 30 seconds and when the whistle blows you need to complete the gamble within 16 seconds. The gamble is a set of obstacles that need to be taken in a specific order with the handler remaining behind the gamble line. She rocked! Very nice and smooth no hesitation whatsoever. Q & 1st place & Starters Gamblers (SG) title. Below is our gamblers course;

We then ran over to the other ring and ran our Advanced Jumpers. Jumpers is Josie’s favorite class, once again she was soooo good, nice, nice, nice run. Q & 1st & Advance Jumpers (AJ).

We then had a short break until standard. Myth got to come out and socialize. There are usually quite a few puppies at USDAA trials, they do not restrict unentered dogs at trials, the only requirement is they need to be 8 weeks old.

Josie’s Standard run was OK, she trotted her dog walk, hmmm, and when she was tipping the teeter the wind blew it back up, did I mention is was windy? she did complete it but I could tell she was not at all happy. Then we had a little issue on the table, unfortunately about 4 dogs before her a dog peed on the table, ugh, they did clean it up, but Josie found the spot and proceeded to sniff it for a good 5 seconds before she would down. Q & 1st & Starter Standard (SSA) with her standard title she also earned the Agility Dog (AD) title for an AD you need 3 starter standard legs, 1 starter gamble, 1 starter jumpers, 1 starter snooker and 1 starter relay.

Next up was our Advanced Relay. Relay is done with a partner; each team member runs a segment of the course with an exchange of the baton in a designated location, generally scored based on time + faults (faults are converted to seconds) Our partner was a little Jack named ParTay. ParTay ran first, Josie seemed a little hesitant from our previous teeter so started a little slow, thankfully I asked our partner to do the portion of the course with the teeter. She did end well. Q & 2nd & Advanced Relay (AR) title.

We headed for home about 2pm……. When we got home Josie and I went out in the back yard and did a few teeters, no problem.

Sunday had a lighter breeze ;-) Josie had 3 classes; starters gamblers and standard – fun runs as she finished titles yesterday and didn’t need these legs, good thing. In Gamblers she bailed on the teeter, pretty sure this was reluctance carried over from yesterday. In standard she did to the teeter but it was painfully slow, she also sniffed the table again….she missed her entrance on the weaves, I didn’t make her restart them and just ran for the end jump.

Last class for the day was Advanced Snooker. Snooker is fun, fun, fun class, one of my favorites, it can be a bit confusing until you run it.
Class description can be found here;
http://www.usdaa.com/rulesReg_ClassDescs.cfm
I like to try for all 7 point obstacles in our opening but, the 7 pointer for this course was the weaves and she is not the fastest in the weaves and repeating them 4 times just irritates her I elected to do the 5 point and two 6 point obstacles. She was back to her old self and had a very nice run – great way to end the weekend, even had fairly fast weaves. Q & 1st & Advanced Snooker (AS) title.
Here is our Snooker course;

So, the weekend has some ups and downs but over all was very productive, and thankfully we ended on a good note. We now have a four week break before another agility trial. I get to go watch the World Team Tryouts this weekend at the U of M Leatherdale arena.

~Melissa