Two

I wasn't sure what to call this post, so since as of this hour we are less than two weeks away from the big show, "Two" seemed like a good fit.

Today, Marge went to her last agility trial before our visit to Manhattan - a UKI agility trial in Colmar, PA.  My original plans for this weekend involved a large AKC trial at a very familiar location, but I was unfortunately closed out.  The only trial left in our relative area was this one, and boy, am I glad I went!  Wonderful, spacious facility and flowy, motivating courses to run.

I entered three classes with Marge.

1. Agility (Standard): Marge went right in and knocked this course dead.. with the bars at 16 inches.  Only after we ran the course quickly and cleanly did I realize that the ring crew had forgot to raise the bars to 20" for Marge.  The judge let me run again, and thankfully, we ran clean again.

This whole thing was HUGE.  The pressure of going in to the ring twice within about ten minutes, running cleanly both times on a course that had contact obstacles, which are admittedly our weakness, was a nice test for both of us.  I probably would have crumbled had it been an AKC trial.

Marge performed her teeter decently twice, and her A-Frame and Dog Walk contacts perfectly.  Her weaves were slower in her second run, which of course is cause for enormous amounts of overanalyzing.  Honestly, I would have been fine packing up and going home after this class, seeing how well she performed.

2. Speedstakes (Steeplechase, for you USDAA folks): Super fast, straightforward course.  Went in and knocked this one out, too.  Got a front cross in, which is always a plus at trials.

3. Jumping:  This course wasn't as challenging as the last Jumping course Marge ran at UKI, but it was certainly still a high level course.  I took some risks in this one, including running up the line outside of the second tunnel to set up an easier weave entrance.  Did two front crosses, too.


Her weaves were again slow, which concerns me.  I felt her all over and I do not feel any soreness.   It's hard to tell, as she sometimes just has those runs where her speed gets pokey and it has nothing to do with injury. I have had her massaged within the past week and nothing came up. Four runs at one trial is the most she has ever done.  She may have just been tired.

Look at all of her loot from the day!  It is a rarity to Marge and I to walk away with 6 ribbons from one day of showing.

Though she had just run four times and was very clearly done for the day, she had an awesome on-leash play session with a young border collie for a solid five minutes just before we left for the day.   It was one of those times when Marge decides (and vocalizes through whining) that she absolutely needs to be friends with a dog halfway across the room who she has never met before.  Not sure what has gotten into this dog - three qualifying scores on the same day, and then playing with a puppy?  Regardless, I was glad to see that she still had some energy to spare when the agility was over with.

Up next?  Some light (and I mean very light) practice tomorrow, particularly on the teeter and table.  I will not be jumping or weaving her tomorrow - I just need to get her on those two pieces of equipment one more time.  I'm going to take it easy for the rest of the week.   We've been walking about an hour every day (a combination of off-leash and on-leash time), but I may scale that back a little bit for this week, too. We'll probably train Sunday and Monday of next weekend, and that'll be it.

There are more exciting things going on, some related to Westminster and some not, but those will have to wait for another day.  For now, I'm following Marge's lead and heading to bed!

International Flair

As part of our prep for Westminster, I took Marge to a UKI Agility trial today in Bloomsbury, NJ.

UK Agility International was founded as the United States' version of UK Agility.  As such, it contains international-style handling challenges at the upper levels.

I have been doing quite a bit of out-of-my-comfort-zone handling at agility class (which basically means straying away from rear crosses and doing everything else), but I very seldom put those skills to use in AKC trials.  I totally admit to playing it safe for the sake of Q's and, more specifically, QQ's.  I want a MACH, and if I get a MACH with meat-and-potatoes type handling and never do anything fancy, I am totally okay with that.

So, in trying UKI, it removes the "run to Q" element.  I am not working on any titles in that venue at this point, and with numbers pointed in all kinds of crazy directions (backsides and wraps everywhere!), it sets the stage well to add in some fancy handling. And by fancy, really all I mean is doing anything but a rear cross.

If you look back at my list of things to work on that I posted last time, UKI had most of those challenges.. including a weave entrance to which Marge (and my body language, probably) said "HAHA, NOPE".   She took the 3/5 jump and 4 tunnel before coming back to weave.

As such, we did not Q in this run, but a couple of important things happened:

• I front crossed without making it in to something more than it needs to be (which is often the case)
• I used a Ketschker "ass pass" turn for the first time ever in a trial - TWICE!
• I learned that I need to work my dog's weave entrances better

We did qualify earlier in the day in the Speedstakes class, which is a straightforward, fun, fast course.  Those were the only two classes I entered.  I wanted to keep it short and fun.

From a behavioral perspective, Marge did very well at this trial.  When we first arrived, she had a mini meltdown because she had no idea where she was.  It probably didn't resemble an agility trial at all to her, since the ring was not visible from the crating/waiting area.  Heaters were fired up, too, and it took her a bit to get used to the noise.  Once it clicked that we were at an agility trial and not the 8th circle of hell, she settled in almost instantly.

After the trial, I headed to the barn to ride.  As I alluded to, Marge is becoming a little bit of a barn dog - at least as much as a Staten Island dog can be a barn dog.  No pics from this time around, but here's a pic of Marge hanging out with Te last time she came along with me.  She likes the horses, but maintains some distance. She likes their grain a lot more.

I'll probably do one more UKI trial sometime this month.  I'd like to go to an AKC show before Westminster, but I'm not sure it's going to happen.  I'm happy with our prep so far!