Not a BC - but agility and a shameless brag.

[CptJack]

I forgot Kylie had a thread here, but fair's fair. I was super lazy with her this weekend, so some of our times were pretty slow (she needs me to run) but she still did pretty well and came out with a handful of Qs -

 

One of them being our last Novice Chances Q, which makes novice versatility. Now we're chances, a single Tunneler's and a single Weavers Q from Open Versatility. Tiny one, partial, day trial this weekend. Proper trial at the end of the month, and we will see what we see.

But I'm super pleased with her. She's not quite 5 and she's really coming into her own.

 

[CptJack]

I have struggled with Chances for a long, long time. Took me over a year to get through Novice and y'all. Last week we did it and this week we ran Open and

 

 

I wasn't even going to try it as laid out, but did and. I'm still over the moon.

Also, open tunneler's title. A couple more open chances and one more open weavers and we hit open versatility.

[CptJack]

Oh and my silly little obvious in retrospect realization from this:

Training a dog to do a thing is a skill.

USING what that dog can do is an entirely different one.

I'm better at the first than the second.

[gcv-border]

Congrats to you and Kylie.

[CptJack]

Congrats to you and Kylie.

 

Thank you. I cried. And laughed. Mostly laughed but I really did not expect that and I might be learning a thing. Dog knows the thing but seeing a chances course and having an IDEA of how to do it was new. I don't know what the mental block is but distance with her has been ROUGH. Molly not so much but 'I take 5-6 strides between obstacles and can change directions and lead legs 6 times in that space?' has taken some DOING.

[alligande]

That was a great run. No one should ever question their skills when it comes to NADAC chances, I am convinced it is the hardest class there is in agility and requires a level of specialist training that is not used anywhere else. When I competed in NADAC we were in elite jumpers, regular and tunnelers and had not entered a single chances class, there is so much to teach a young dog and my focus was USDAA and learning how to handle my speed demon on that style course. Ironically today in Spain people think I have great distance skills, and I think we would still struggle with a novice chances course!

[CptJack]

Chances is so freaking hard. I always knew my options were AKC and NADAC and that I wasn't going to do AKC - so really good *sends* were part of their foundations. They're both going to need some feet added to how far they'll send by Elite Chances, but the 'get out' part isn't really an issue.

The issue is: a-) staying out, b-) crap tons of layering as that line moves further back and more of the course is on the other side and the really hard part - for me - is that my path in chances has to change - a lot. I limped through Novice without getting it into my head (somehow) and just doing a send and stay out there, but as the line moves the handlers path gets STRANGE and that's not really an option. I understand it better after that Open run and Q but it's weird and hard as heck for me.

 

Those bonus box handlers? I love watching them but holy smokes. No, thank you.

(But thank YOU. This makes me feel less mildly incompetent, by a lot)

[alligande]

I will always remember an agility friend of mine get more and more frustrated as she struggled to complete her NATCH, her dog was already an agility champion in USDAA and AKC (she runs medium dogs) and that elusive chances cue drove her to distraction, she is an amazing handler and with a younger dog gone on to be picked for a world team, and did eventually get her NATCH. I suspect chances is the reason she no longer competes in NADAC as it requires skills that are just not needed in other venues.

[CptJack]

I know quite a few Elite Dogs and handlers stuck in Chances and an equal number of people who said 'screw this' and just don't run it at all. It is very uniquely NADAC and it's very much their version of technical. Distance, Discriminations, and Speed are pretty much what NADAC does.

Except in Regular. Regular has a lot of long courses and still has a lot of discriminations, always, but you need neither distance nor speed there. WEAVERS has higher sct.

[CptJack]

 

Trial photo.

[CptJack]

Kylie had a strange, strange, accident on the dog walk at her lesson last night and I don't feel like it's worth a separate post, but - Long story short, it was raining and some combo of wet rubberized matting and wet (and long) dog fur resulted in a basically velcro like effect.

 

She lost a good sized tuft of fur yanked out on the contact, as she was running off. Could have been worse since it looked like it yanked her back a little before it gave and she was pretty hyper-extended for a second. Fortunately damage seems to have been a big yelp, fur left on the contact and I apparently am going to be building confidence on the dog walk again.

[gcv-border]

Wow! I have never heard of that before. I hope Kylie isn't too upset.

 

Where did the fur rip from?

[CptJack]

Wow! I have never heard of that before. I hope Kylie isn't too upset.

 

Where did the fur rip from?

 

I've never heard of it before, either! It was just regular old, standard, NADAC rubber matting/shippbelt in perfectly good condition and just weird. She refused it once or twice but was willing to get back on, though more cautiously, so I think she'll recover. Will do a lot of rewarding at the next few practices and see where we are.

 

I think it came out of her 'pants'. The only other option for where it could be with the length and color is her tail and I don't think that would have resulted in the same kind of being jerked that I saw (but could be wrong). Just remember in saying that that she's hairy and short and her pants at their longest are well past her hocks. Or were. I have fixed that now!

[gcv-border]

Scissors are my favorite grooming tool! LOL.

[alligande]

What a weird accident, that would give any dog a shock. Hope she bounces back quickly and soon forgets about being attacked by the dog walk.

[CptJack]

About 2 years ago, we were just starting to trial. Our first tunnelers run we were like .04 seconds over time and I was seriously concerned that we'd never, ever, make tunnelers times and that even if we did at novice there was certainly no way my dog and I were going to be fast enough for elite times, dear god.

Yeah. She ran elite tunnelers for the first time today - and got her Q. Not only got it, but was close to 10 seconds under time and with 4.9something YPS. Like within a hair's breath of getting elite large dog time. She was maybe the 3rd or 4th fastest on the course in all the jump heights.

Amazing what some confidence and experience will do when applied to both sides of the equation.

[gcv-border]

Congrats.

[CptJack]

Congrats.

 

Thanks! I'm really mushy about her lately. She's suddenly been making a lot of progress at stuff I swore we were at a dead in on - and basically leaving me with the impression she's doing impossible stuff

[Maja]

Wonderful!

[CptJack]

Kylie got the last Open Weavers Q she needed for that title, today. As well as 2 Elite Tunneler's Q, meaning she got that title, and her T'n'G run was the third fastest in the entire trial, amongst all the height classes. She was blazing for that one and impressed lots of people, including me. She's already got her elite title there, but it's her favorite class so I doubt I'll ever stop doing it - it's her 'tunnelers' in the sense that it's where she really lights up and flies. Need a couple of more chances Qs to get her open versatility - and I will definitely be focusing on NATCH classes for a while with her. Want that title, darn it.

Anyway, good day, all around, even if my knees hate the surface (indoors). Tomorrow, Molly. (I split them for this trial, each doing 1 day, since it's a 'games trial' (no regular/jumpers/chances and the classes each day are the same).

[CptJack]

Kylie continues to be the most honest dog, ever - and to make me really, really proud. She even impressed the snot out of the instructor.

 

We had a discrimination that I botched the handling of. I got slightly confused in the sequence leading up to the contact/tunnel discrimination and as a result I was both out of position on the course and rotated in such a way that it was a hard freaking pull, physically. She was HEADED for the dog-walk that was the wrong obstacle.

But my god I said 'out tunnel' and she jolted over and took the tunnel without missing a beat.

 

Pure verbal. Even the instructor confirmed for me -there was nothing in my messed up body language doing a thing to indicate out, but she got it.

 

That just. Impresses the crap out of me and makes me all warm and fuzzy. Not so much me botching things but she really, really tries her heart out and saves my butt a lot.

[CptJack]

I got this in my email this morning:

 

 

We're writing today to let you know that while you didn't quite meet the entire entry qualifications for Championships this year, we would still love to see you attend and compete with Kylie.

 

Well, that and the rest of the email.

 

It's not a particularly huge deal in the scheme of things, and I certainly can't go. The email itself made me go look though and I was only a couple of Qs away from qualifying properly. I'm proud of that - and my dog - dang it. And, heck, maybe year after next when they're on this side of the country again I can qualify properly and even go.

[CptJack]

Not the fastest dog ever, but that's on a regular course - ie: everything, including weaves? She's definitely not slow.

[CptJack]

 

She had some feelings about my (bad) distance handling.

[CptJack]

Chances is going to be the death of me - with Kylie. Way, way easier with Molly. Less time/room to correct but, you know, momentum and a long stride? Bonuses, there.