I would have like to have made it another three titles, but best not get greedy 🙂
Thursday saw Tyra and I heading down to Syracuse with Deb & Flyer to the Salt City Cluster show. It was a 4 day agility trial indoors on maxtrax – not the best footing in the world (probably the worst). Anyway, they had Standard & JWW all 4 days and FAST on Thursday and Friday. Thursday, Tyra ran in Novice FAST and Qd with a first place for her title. It was a tricky send for novice, I thought. Jump to the far end of a c-shaped tunnel. Anyway, she did it ok, racked up loads of points (71) in just 26 sec.
She had a nice jumpers run, unfortunately clipped the top bar of the triple and it fell after bouncing in the cup a few times.
Friday, Tyra moved up to Open FAST. A fairly straightforward send, but as Marcia coined it, a terv nightmare. Double, tyre, triple. There was one other tricky part to the run. The design of the course and the position of the finish jump made it almost impossible to do the send at any other time except as a closing sequence. That meant the timing of the run had to be impeccable so that you didn’t run out of time during the send. Luckily our timing was good and Tyra kept all the bars up. First open Q.
Saturday, nothing. Wasn’t feeling well either so couldn’t concentrate. Sunday the same but she had a really nice jumpers run again. Pulled off a jump towards the end. Disappointed we didn’t earn a Q but she did really well.
She was just an idiot all weekend in Standard.
Despite the slippery surface of the maxtrax she handled it really well and seemed to adapt, being a little cautious at times rather than trash the course.
Another Title!
Tyra now has her MTRDC title – wahoo!! Hoping the success continues. Only 3 standards to go for the ATChC
Meltdown
Funny how stress creeps up on you and makes you do strange things. We had an agility trial at the Quarryplex Soccer Dome in Kingston this past weekend. Not many Qs but some fairly important ones.
Tanja was recruited to run with Trudy in team. They had earned 2 Qs together at Dreamfields in November. Trudy just needed one more for her title. They had three chances to get it on Sunday. First run, both dogs not very fast, but clean Trudy wouldn’t go back in the box for the exchange so that ate up time and we ended up 5 secs over time. Next run, Trudy ran first again. Same thing, wouldn’t go back in the box. Finally Michelle caught her and shouted “Go, Go! Go really fast!”. Well, we tried. Really stepped on the gas. Unfortunately didn’t make up the delay and finished up over time again. Third run. This time Tanja was running first so Michelle wouldn’t have to catch Trudy at the end of her run 🙂 . Well we did it! Michelle happy to have her title at last!
Next tale – Tyra and Keya were partnered in team. Neither dog had any Qs, both needing three for their title. First run, Keya clean, Tyra knocked a bar. Thought we might have been fast enough to make up the fault but didn’t dare celebrate until we found out for sure. Turned out we were ~20 seconds~ under course time!! Next run was fast and clear for both teams. Batting 2 for 2 with one to go. Well, the stress was too much. The course looked brutal on paper and we were far from confident. Heather & Keya ran first – the pressure would be on BIG TIME if she ran clean – after all it was for our titles and Keya’s ATChC. Stress won out. Heather crossed when she shouldn’t have and sent Keya into the wrong end of the tunnel. Game over, pressure was off. It didn’t matter how Tyra ran our half of the course. So we ran it with a big smile and threw in some faults of our own along the way 🙂
We’ll get another chance in April. Stocking up with valium in advance.
AADC
YaaaY! Finally, Tyra got her advanced standard title at Guides Canins trial, St-Lazare on Sunday.
Worth braving the weather for.
Harley
Had a photo session yesterday with a couple and their very bouncy black lab, Harley. He managed to sit still long enough for a snap or two 🙂
It was also the new “Family Day” holiday in Ontario. Just what the doctor ordered. A nice day off after a long weekend 🙂
Silver!
We were at the Club Canin Chomedey AAC trial Friday, Saturday & Sunday. First standard run of the day, Tanja got Std Q number 25 and earned her Silver Award of Merit! She got her ATChC and Bronze AOM at the same trial last year. They have wonderful ribbons!
Be My Valentine
Sam
Last night I went to photograph a 16 1/2 yr old border collie mix called Sam. She’s pretty sprightly for her age but slightly deaf.