Three Day Tourney (again)

Blogger seems to have swallowed my recent post about last weekend's agility trials, so here we go again.  Thank goodness for e-mail subscriptions that e-mail me all of my posts :)

This past weekend, Marge and I enjoyed a warm and sunny three days of agility at my dog club's annual Spring trial.  5 runs is the most agility we've ever done in a single weekend.

Marge ran well all three days.  The first day, Friday, we were entered only in Excellent A Jumpers with Weaves.  I liked the course a lot... but the combination of me pulling Marge off of a tunnel by clapping (why did I do that?!?) and Marge deciding to take the pinwheel backwards NQ'd us.



Saturday, Excellent Standard was first. She ran super well.. but popped out at the 11th (!!!) weave pole. This is totally uncharacteristic of her, and after further investigation, it looks like she slipped, tried to wiggle her way back in, and couldn't.



I admit, I was starting to get a little bit bluesy over the fact that we weren't qualifying despite running so well. But then this son-of-a-gun hard course came along and we actually qualified on it. First place and the only 20" dog to qualify in the A class.

She does look a little slow, but it might have something to do with the fact that I wasn't moving all that quickly, the course was tight, and it was hot. She picked up speed at the end. It was still 4.64 yards per second (though she routinely breaks 5 on JWW courses).



Obligatory ribbon photo:

Sunday, we were back out for more. Unfortunately, I don't have any video, since I spent the majority of time by myself. Jumpers was first; not a horrible course, but the weaves were going right in to the fence. Alas, Marge popped out at the tenth pole. I think we incurred another wrong course at the end as well.

Standard was a pretty tough course, with a TIGHT, TIGHT serpentine right after the table. I was too late on the third jump of the serp and while I got Marge over it, I couldn't get her back around it and she backjumped for a wrong course. :( That was the only fault we had, though, so I was really happy with the run.

This trial is definitely one of my favorite weekends of the year. Marge thought so, too, content to lay in the grass outside of my tent as the world went by. I'm pleased to report that she did not react to a single whistle at this trial.

I also got lots of compliments about how Marge and I are doing. A friend told me that several people said that I am "doing a really good job with this dog." That made me happy. Even if we never qualify again, Marge has accomplished so much more than I ever expected.