UKC Agility
I did a good job last week of working Letty on 2o2o, jump grids and 2 x 2s. Karl video taped 3 of our sessions to send to Tracy for feedback. She gave us compliments as well as areas to refine things. Karl and I also setup Dawn’s tent one night to figure out which poles went where.
Thursday night I took Vada to agility class. We had also been practicing the platform jump and pause box for the upcoming UKC agility trial.
Friday I worked from home so I could leave right after work to drive down to Fort Dodge, IA, for a UKC agility trial. That didn’t work out as planned. I had not packed the night before so I still had to do all that after work. I did save myself the hour drive home before I could start packing the van though. So it could have been alot worse. And the dogs were able to be out off and on so I wasn’t getting them home from work and shuffling them from their house crates to their van crates and then to their tent crates. The drive went well and was uneventful. I got to the fairgrounds about 8:30pm. There was a bit of light left. I was camping at the show site, a fairgrounds. It was good that we had practiced setting up the tent so I knew what poles went where. However, we did not see how it worked to set it up with *1* person. It is not a 1-person-to-setup tent. I struggled and struggled with it. I was getting frustrated but would not let myself get mad. So I thought about it a bit and decided to try using one of the wire crates to stick one side of the poles in. That worked! I was able to get the tent setup then. Whew! So I got the tent setup inside with my blow up mattress and sleeping bags and crates, pottied the dogs and fed them and went to bed. We slept pretty good that night. Unfortunately Copper fell off the mattress while he was sleeping. When I woke him up he was on his back with his feet in the air trapped between the tent wall and the blow up mattress. The only down side seems to be getting him out as he doesn’t like me pulling on his 14 year old body. I think if it happened again I would just slide the mattress down to the bottom of the tent. Also, Letty managed to pull her crate cover down and get her head out of the crate (I forgot this one is missing some wires) and ate the inside pocket of the tent. Seven tried to tell on her but I just yelled at him for being mean. Guess I should listen to him better and not just assume he’s always being snarky.
Tent setup by headlights and using a wire crate in place of a 2nd person
There was lots of green space around the tent to let the dogs run. The trial building is in the background – nice and close.
The tent setup. I borrowed it from a friend. It’s a very nice tent.
Letty’s bed. Seven’s was to the left but I had already brought it into the building for the day.
The tent had a nice screened in area that kept the bugs out.
Saturday Seven and Vada both ran 2 runs each of AGI and AGII. Vada managed to Q in 1 AGI run and 1 AGII run. Seven Qd in both AGI runs. He would have Qd in both AGII runs if only he had done the pause box correctly. Vada’s most common error was 1 bar down. In one of the AGII runs we messed up the box. And it was a learning curve for me to figure out the best way to run UKC agility. First I tried doing way too much control and it just made Vada more frantic. Neither dog had been on the sway bridge or swing plank but they both loved those obstacles. Seven had a few oopses with the hoop tunnel if I didn’t put him in straight on but he figured it out. We did not see the platform jump at all as it was being repaired/replaced. I had trained for that and hoped our training was better than our pause box training but we weren’t able to find out. I was able to do some fun runs Saturday after the show to work the pause box. They did great then but it did not carry over to the trial. Well, it didn’t for Seven. Copper got to come in for a visit for a bit. He trialed there with Sadie about 10 years ago! He earned his AGI and AGII titles back then. Letty got to come in and visit too and she fell in love with a young boy who was giving her cookies.
Seven running AGII
Vada running AGI – she Qd in the first run
Seven running AGI – he Qd in both runs
Saturday I bought some raffle tickets to help support the club offset the cost of hosting the trial. I got lucky and won this cool dog bed.
Saturday night I went to dinner with Denise, Carol and Shirley. It was Shirley’s 71st birthday. She only showed on Friday but stuck around on Saturday and Sunday just to hang out at the show. And tape most of my runs for me. I am very appreciative! After dinner I walked the dogs at the fairgrounds. We had tons of open green space. There was a fence by the road too. So I could just let the dogs RUN. They loved it. Even Copper was running around with a smile on his face.
Saturday night the dogs were nice and tired from their run so I got some pics of them sleeping. It was pitch dark when I took these pics.
Vada – chewing on herself from her allergies
Sunday went pretty similarly. I didn’t sleep as well so I was a bit short on patience and getting frustrated with Vada being soooo close but always knocking 1 bar. Vada Qd in her first AGI run. We just needed 1 more to finish her title. But no such luck – 1 bar. Each AGII run had 1 bar too. There are not many jumps in these courses, Vada! Seven again had pause box issues. He did Qd in both AGI courses. I did not know if I could move him to B for the 4th trial of the weekend and I did not ask so we did not get any points.
One of Vada’s AGII runs on Sunday
One of Seven’s AGII runs on Sunday
Seven was pretty tired on Sunday from all the runs and camping!
Letty did some mat work in the lunchroom during lunch while I worked on my laptop. It was VERY busy in there and she did a great job.
Sunday during the down time between runs I packed up the tent and dogs. Before we hit the road I took the dogs on a last walk around the fairgrounds so they could stretch their legs and burn off some steam before the 4 hour drive home. It ended up being a 5 hour drive home with construction.
Seven loved the new dog bed that I won in the raffle.
I had been here 10 years ago with Sadie and Copper. I took a picture using this building as background so I wanted to take similar pics with my current dogs. Unfortunately the ones that I took of Copper and Vada ended up with only 1 good dog in each one. I did not even notice that Vada had her eyes closed til we were home and I looked at them on the computer. Oh well. Now I need to find the one of Copper and Sadie to compare.
The 2 competitors – who do NOT like to be close to each other
With Vada being so close to finishing her AGI I decided to skip the MAC USDAA trial Labor Day weekend and I entered them in a UKC agility trial in Ixonia WI. How crazy is that? Hopefully with 4 runs she can Q at least once. I’m really not crazy about jumping them on these thin mats over concrete and I’m pretty sure that’s what it’ll be in WI. But it’s only 2 weekends. We use to train on that when I started teaching them agility.
A very tired but very happy BorderJack
UKC agility is quite a bit different and alot of people poo poo it because of that. But it’s so different that it’s kind of a different form of agility. I thought it was alot of fun and the dogs did too. What I thought would be problems were not problems. I would have preferred better footing like dirt or grass but that’s about it. The club and exhibitors were super nice and friendly and supportive. I’m looking forward to the next trial. I would definitely consider going to this trial again next year. Maybe Letty will be ready to play by then too. Or Narc.