# This weekend's agility trial



## Sibe (Nov 21, 2010)

Day one: Denali Q'd in jumpers and won first place!! Her first ever Q for JWW so I'm extra excited. She crashed her landing after the 4th jump, which she tends to do at trials (not specifically the 4th lol, just crashing after jumping). Something to work on. Is it because she's so excited do you think, just that spastic energy? Am I pulling her suddenly, or late? Also I'm very happy with the lead out, and also on both runs she got her weaves perfect the first time!














and the Standard course was... awkward? Seemed much more difficult than the other runs I've done but I'm still very much a newb so who knows. The part from chute -> weaves -> table felt really weird and awkward, and from dogwalk to the last 2 jumps felt funny too. Only one knocked bar though so I'm extremely happy with how well she did overall, a bar is nothing. She wasn't as tight and focused as she was for JWW but I'm a happy girl!! Oh, and after the dog walk there was *something* smelly and interesting. She grabbed a chunk of fluff of something lol.


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## dobedvm (Nov 1, 2010)

congrats, she's a very cute dog!!!! 
it looks like she just slips on the landing as she's trying to turn, it happens on some dogs on some surfaces - i run on a lot of turf up here in NJ and my dog slips on some of them, i make an effort to run her on sprint turf more than astroturf because she gets better grip on that. 

she dropped that bar because you said "here" - i do it to my bitch all the time, i HATE it, i need to stop doing it!!! i cost her three q's one weekend by saying her name, they were the only bars in an otherwise clean run each time. argh! and i think that it would have been more flowing if you had either blind crossed the chute or rear crossed the weaves - it was definitely awkward trying to get to the table from there. i cant tell from the camera angle if it was necessary to cross at the bottom of the DW or if you could have just kept running. 

she's a very cute dog and very responsive and very honest! have fun with her!


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## hachna (Jul 31, 2010)

Hi Sibe,

congratulations! 

your dog is very calm and obedient for her age! I am also quite new to agility with my minis but have had fun time together. We still have to do more for see saw and weaver. Have you done a lot of agility prior to Denali?


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

dobedvm said:


> she dropped that bar because you said "here" - i do it to my bitch all the time, i HATE it, i need to stop doing it!!!


Why would "here" make the dog drop the bar? My knowledge of Agility is very slim/ I've only done it VERY briefly, but I'm still intrigued!

Also, great job Denali! She is stunning!


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## dobedvm (Nov 1, 2010)

anytime you talk to a dog when they are in mid-air, you change their cues and re-direct their attention and they will move their body while they are jumping and that can cause a bar to come down, especially for a younger, inexperienced dog. its even more apparent when you handle so silently and then throw out a single word - its very apparently to her and she's very responsive, and it catches her by surprise almost so she hits it (i think she takes it with her back feet? i only watched the video once) - in this case it was a change of direction, the OP used the "here" because the dog needed to collect and do a 90 degree turn to get to the teeter - another option would have been a cue (offside arm? deceleration? or a lateral send to the jump and go to the teeter) before the jump to not go balls to the wall over that jump and that it was a direction change, not a line to drive...


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## Sibe (Nov 21, 2010)

dobe, I didn't want to cross before the weaves because I thought it would throw her off and she'd either head for the table or back out of them if I rear crossed, or miss them if I front crossed. Most people did what I did. Off the DW I didn't *have* to cross but the jump was pushed over to her left, and from there it's a nice line to the A-frame instead of the final jump. I wanted to be on the other side to keep her from running in front of me (or heaven forbid behind me!) to the A-frame because she's done that before. I noticed the bar did drop right as I said "here" but wasn't sure if that's entirely what did it. With the DW in line I wanted to say something, better to say it the instant she lands? Deceleration would have probably helped a lot, I know I _meant_ to slow down there haha, but after watching again I see I didn't.

hachna, I haven't done any agility at all before her! We started training last October, and the beginning of July was our first trial.


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## +two (Jul 12, 2011)

Sibe said:


> I haven't done any agility at all before her! We started training last October, and the beginning of July was our first trial.


WOW! You guys look really good out there together. Congratulations!


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## Sibe (Nov 21, 2010)

Day two: Double Q! 1st place in JWW, 2nd in Standard. Her time in Standard was half a second faster than the dog who got first, but Denali had a 5 pt deduction.

JWW: It was very windy and one of the top bars on the double jump fell off. I didn't notice it. After our run was over, the judge called us back over. I had no idea why and thought Denali or I must have done something wrong, I was really nervous! But she just reset the jump and said Denali had to prove she could do it. I took her over to the spot on leash, and once everything was explained I unhooked her and instead of having focus she scooted away from me into a play bow and ran in a tight circle. And then she peed!!! All in about 2 seconds. I fortunately got her attention back and she cleared the double no problem. Since her run was over, peeing didn't disqualify her and helpers came out to pour holy water over the area lol.





Standard: The beginning was very similar to yesterday and again we had A-frame -> jump -> teeter at the same angles, and with the dogwalk out in front of the jump. I waited a second longer to call her since the "here" threw her off yesterday. She cleared the jump but went up the dogwalk. She realized she was wrong and as I went over to guide her back down she JUMPED OFF THE TOP. Oh my gosh I had a moment of panic. She was happy when she came over and seemed fine so we continued on. Man was that scary! She also was sliding and scrambling out of the chute, barely on cam. The table is after the chute out of sight behind the A-frame, thus the pause there where you don't see us for a few seconds.





So now we have 2 Q's in each, jww and standard. We're about to have a month of vacation so no more trials until late September. I'm so glad to end on a high note before the break!


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## Kyllobernese (Feb 5, 2008)

Are you competing in AKC? Just curious as I know in AAC you cannot have any faults in order to Q. Your dog does really well and is certainly enjoying himself.


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## Sibe (Nov 21, 2010)

Yep, AKC. In Novice they are a little bit more lenient. Like you have 3 tries at the weaves. I thought her wrong course and jumping off the DW was going to make her not qualify, but apparently not lol. I don't know all the little rules as well as I should :/


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