What's In Store (2012 Agility Preview)

I thought about forming agility goals for the year 2012 and almost started to do so, but for now I'm going to stick with my guns and not form any goals (at least not any goals involving the letters Q and Q, side by side).

I do, however, think my overall plans for the year are worth mentioning.

I plan to go pretty hard this Spring in terms of entering agility trials.  I'm not, and probably will never, enter every single trial on every single weekend, but because things are really up in the air right now in terms of how busy I'll be this fall, I want to make sure we get a lot of agility in while we can.

I already have one overnight agility trip booked, and I'm hoping to get at least another one or two in by the time July rolls around, since Marge clearly enjoys going.  I'm also planning on at least four semi-local agility weekends, which brings the total number of trial days up to about 15 over the next 6 months or so.

Before our first trial, which will come in mid February, I need to make sure that we get to practice on the teeter that has been bugging Marge.  Even though she performed 4 straight teeters for 4 straight Standard Q's towards the end of the year, she still ended the year with a flyoff.  We've made progress on the issue, for sure, but it's not completely gone... and if I start the year with teeter issues and stressy Standard runs, it's going to set the stage for the same stuff we went through in Fall 2010.

No, thank you.

So, despite the cold, and despite the distance, we will make the trip to train on that specific teeter, because I won't settle for anything less than Marge smacking the heck out of it in practice before we trial.

And then, there's Arrow, who I am having so, so much fun with since I start running her in the summer.  In our last trial, we really started to come together as a team, and had very, very close calls in both Standard and Jumpers.  I'm hoping that as long as I continue to practice with her and learn to differentiate her strengths from Marge's, that we will be successful in our next couple of times out together.

I guess over all, the only goals I am setting for myself is that I train hard enough so that obstacle issues don't stand in our way, pay attention to my handling so that neither dog falls prey to knocked bars or off courses because of my errors, that we practice as many of the skills necessary to be successful as we can, and that I breathe and we all have fun.

I hope that, after our first trial, I can come back to this post and say that I accomplished those things, and then begin to evaluate the rest of the Spring in terms of concrete goals.

Hanging out at our club's agility trial,  November 2011