Last weekend Shelby and I entered our first agility trial. It was a CPE trial held at Gemini Dogs in Littleton, MA. I thought this was a good choice because we train there every week, a lot of people we know would be there and CPE is known to be friendly for beginners, offering a variety of classes.
On Saturday, the classes offered were fullhouse, standard, wildcard, and snooker. We entered all except wildcard. Fullhouse is an unnumbered course. The requirements are that you complete 3 single jumps, 2 circles (either tunnels, chute or tire) and 1 contact obstacle (A frame, teeter or dogwalk). You have 30 seconds to run the course, and you get points for each obstacle. The jumps are 1 point, the circles are 3 points and the contacts are 5 points. Then you have 5 seconds to reach the table and stop the clock. At our level, we needed to get 19 points to qualify. We earned 23 points, but then we were 1 second over time, so we lost a point. But we qualified! Shelby was into it-she didn't exactly follow my cues, but with fullhouse, that's ok. We also came in second by 1 point, beaten by our classmate Mary and her papillon Matrix.
The next class was standard. Shelby was a little harder to handle in this class. I really had to work to keep her with me. We completed the course, but we were way over course time and had 17 faults, so we didn't qualify. We did come in second place though.
Then we had to wait through wildcard, which was a big class. I did volunteer to work, so I at least had something to do, helping set the bars. Wildcard is a fun class where the course is numbered, but there are 3 times where you have a choice between 2 obstacles, marked a or b. At my level, I would need to take 1 a and 2 bs.
Finally it was time for snooker. Snooker is a game where the obstacles are both numbered and colored. You need to take one "red" obstacle and then one "color" and then you repeat another red and a color and a red and a color-but you can't repeat the same ones. If you do that successfully, then you have to do "the closing" which is obstacles numbered 2 through 7. The reds are always single jumps. The colors are all the other obstacles, like the tunnel or A frame, etc. Plus you get points for each obstacle you take, based on what number it is. So for example, the course I was planning was red jump (1 pt), tunnel (6) red jump (1) single jump (7) red jump (1) tire (2). That would have been my opening. Then the closing. However, what actually happened was red jump (1) single jump (7) red jump (1) tire (2) extended sniffing and avoidance, and then we were over time. Very disappointing, but everyone was super nice. I wasn't the only one who had an uncooperative dog.
It was really really hot and humid. The heat index was about 101. I was sweating buckets just standing around.
One Sunday Holly, Cara and Spot joined us for another long day. The classes offered on Sunday we jackpot, standard, colors and jumpers. We weren't entered in jackpot, so we were able to get there a little later. Jackpot is a funky game. You get 30 seconds to take as many obstacles as you can and accumulate points. 30 seconds can be a long time! Then the whistle blows and you have to do the "gamble" which is a set of obstacles that have to be completed a specific distance away. The handler has to stay behind a line on the ground and send the dog to the obstacles independently. I didn't think we were quite ready for this, so we didn't enter.
Our first run was standard, and it was really disappointing. Shelby was not into it at all. She barely looked at me-I only got her over one jump before she checked out.
I was really debating just cancelling the rest of the day, but I decided to let her rest, and then work with her on attention, using treats. That seemed to work. Our colors run went pretty well. Colors is a game where there are actually 2 courses that overlap at least 3 times. You have to tell them which class you are going to run. We didn't qualify because we were over time, but we only had 3 faults and came in first place!
Finally we had the jumpers course. Jumpers does not include any contact obstacles. It's all jumps and tunnels and chutes and the tire. Generally, this is a very fast class since the dogs don't need to slow down and be careful on the contacts. Shelby loves to run, so I was feeling hopeful about this course. Shelby was really great-she followed by cues perfectly, and my timing was right on, if I do say so myself! We had a "clean run" with no faults so we qualified! I thought we might take first place as well, but another dog was 6 seconds faster. Holly took a movie of this run with her camera-it was taking like 20 hours to upload here, so here is the Youtube link instead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKUDOC-SnoQ
On Saturday, the classes offered were fullhouse, standard, wildcard, and snooker. We entered all except wildcard. Fullhouse is an unnumbered course. The requirements are that you complete 3 single jumps, 2 circles (either tunnels, chute or tire) and 1 contact obstacle (A frame, teeter or dogwalk). You have 30 seconds to run the course, and you get points for each obstacle. The jumps are 1 point, the circles are 3 points and the contacts are 5 points. Then you have 5 seconds to reach the table and stop the clock. At our level, we needed to get 19 points to qualify. We earned 23 points, but then we were 1 second over time, so we lost a point. But we qualified! Shelby was into it-she didn't exactly follow my cues, but with fullhouse, that's ok. We also came in second by 1 point, beaten by our classmate Mary and her papillon Matrix.
The next class was standard. Shelby was a little harder to handle in this class. I really had to work to keep her with me. We completed the course, but we were way over course time and had 17 faults, so we didn't qualify. We did come in second place though.
Then we had to wait through wildcard, which was a big class. I did volunteer to work, so I at least had something to do, helping set the bars. Wildcard is a fun class where the course is numbered, but there are 3 times where you have a choice between 2 obstacles, marked a or b. At my level, I would need to take 1 a and 2 bs.
Finally it was time for snooker. Snooker is a game where the obstacles are both numbered and colored. You need to take one "red" obstacle and then one "color" and then you repeat another red and a color and a red and a color-but you can't repeat the same ones. If you do that successfully, then you have to do "the closing" which is obstacles numbered 2 through 7. The reds are always single jumps. The colors are all the other obstacles, like the tunnel or A frame, etc. Plus you get points for each obstacle you take, based on what number it is. So for example, the course I was planning was red jump (1 pt), tunnel (6) red jump (1) single jump (7) red jump (1) tire (2). That would have been my opening. Then the closing. However, what actually happened was red jump (1) single jump (7) red jump (1) tire (2) extended sniffing and avoidance, and then we were over time. Very disappointing, but everyone was super nice. I wasn't the only one who had an uncooperative dog.
It was really really hot and humid. The heat index was about 101. I was sweating buckets just standing around.
One Sunday Holly, Cara and Spot joined us for another long day. The classes offered on Sunday we jackpot, standard, colors and jumpers. We weren't entered in jackpot, so we were able to get there a little later. Jackpot is a funky game. You get 30 seconds to take as many obstacles as you can and accumulate points. 30 seconds can be a long time! Then the whistle blows and you have to do the "gamble" which is a set of obstacles that have to be completed a specific distance away. The handler has to stay behind a line on the ground and send the dog to the obstacles independently. I didn't think we were quite ready for this, so we didn't enter.
Our first run was standard, and it was really disappointing. Shelby was not into it at all. She barely looked at me-I only got her over one jump before she checked out.
I was really debating just cancelling the rest of the day, but I decided to let her rest, and then work with her on attention, using treats. That seemed to work. Our colors run went pretty well. Colors is a game where there are actually 2 courses that overlap at least 3 times. You have to tell them which class you are going to run. We didn't qualify because we were over time, but we only had 3 faults and came in first place!
Finally we had the jumpers course. Jumpers does not include any contact obstacles. It's all jumps and tunnels and chutes and the tire. Generally, this is a very fast class since the dogs don't need to slow down and be careful on the contacts. Shelby loves to run, so I was feeling hopeful about this course. Shelby was really great-she followed by cues perfectly, and my timing was right on, if I do say so myself! We had a "clean run" with no faults so we qualified! I thought we might take first place as well, but another dog was 6 seconds faster. Holly took a movie of this run with her camera-it was taking like 20 hours to upload here, so here is the Youtube link instead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKUDOC-SnoQ
