Bo-Gee Agility Trial at the Sportzone in Derry, NH 2/28

Today I was entered in a CPE trial organized by Bo Gee. It was at a place called The Sportzone, which is a facility for basketball, soccer and more. It was a very interesting place for a trial! The 2 rings were set up inside the indoor soccer field, which had a wall topped by glass, like a hockey rink.
Here's a pic.

So there was an entrance that opened onto a walkway which lead to the first ring and down to another ring. And no food was allowed in that area which was a little challenging. But it was nice because there were bleachers and a mezzanine so you could watch the runs. I forgot my camera which was a bummer because I could have gotten some good footage! Some dogs were distracted by all the noises like balls bouncing and kids yelling, but Shelby seemed ok with it. I do think all the dog noises in the crating area made Shelby nervous, and she did stop on top of the dogwalk to peek over the wall into the other ring. We were entered in Snooker and Standard, which were the last 2 classes of the day. We showed up around 10:30, but still we didn't have a run until about noon or so. We were done around 4pm.

Snooker was an interesting course with the 4 reds in the 4 corners of the course. I had a good plan with things Shelby likes, including the A frame. Shelby was a little distracted and not quite with me the whole time, so we were slow and I didn't think we would get enough points in time. After the whistle blew, the timer said they made a mistake and forgot to add the 5 seconds onto the standard course time for the 12 inch dogs, so they asked if I would like to run again and I said yes. We ran at the end of the 12 inch dogs. It was a little hairy because the 8 inch dogs were waiting and Shelby was distracted and growled at a little Chinese Crested dog. When we set up I thought she might break the stay and go over to the other dog, but she didn't. We started the course well, taking the jump, A frame, jump and the tunnel. On the way to the next jump Shelby turned around and just put her feet into the tunnel opening and that was enough to get us whistled off. Bummer.

The next run was standard. The course was a nice one and I felt confident in my handling skills to be able to do the right things and be successful. It was the tire to the dogwalk, to a tunnel then the weave poles, then a jump, a tunnel, a jump, the A frame, the tunnel, the teeter, a jump, the tunnel and two more jumps. I was a little concerned about the dogwalk because it was slatless and we practice on slats, and sometimes a slatless dogwalk seems like a teeter to the dog and they bail.

We went in to the start line and I asked Shelby to get set and she sets up backwards! That was a new one. I think she was nervous about all the dogs right behind her. Here's photographic evidence!















I got her set up correctly, but she was still looking back, so I wasn't thinking the run would go that well. I had intended to lead out to the dogwalk, but after the set up I decided to run with her. We started and sure enough when she got to the dogwalk she slowed down and thought it was the teeter. I was able to coach her though it and into the tunnel. Then I did a front cross after the tunnel and before the weaves. Shelby didn't hit the weaves the first time, but did them the second time. Then I really tried to put on the speed over the next sequence of jump, tunnel, jump, A frame, tunnel. Shelby seemed to go quicker to keep up with me. I did a front cross after the tunnel and before the teeter to take the off course tunnel entrance out of the picture. That meant I had to rear cross the tunnel entrance which was fine. Although looking at this photo I was ahead of Shelby when she landed from the jump prior to the tunnel, which is wrong. I should let her drive ahead at that point for a better rear cross.















Then I did a front cross after the tunnel exit, to the jump and then the last jump. I thought I was home free, but just as we got to the last jump, the next dog came in to set up and Shelby stopped dead, chest to the jump and was looking over towards the entrance. Thankfully I was able to get her attention and she took the last jump. So we ended up getting a Q, with 1 fault for being 1.78 seconds over course time!
Here I am extremely thankful she is over the last jump.