every Agility weekend should have a silver lining ...

(the day Jane came home, June 23, 1999)
Our weekend agility news, I'll start backwards ...
Jane ran in 7 classes, she Q's in 6 of them, she needed 5 Q's for her Silver Award of Merit, which is 25 Masters Standards and 50 Masters Games. She also finished her STEEPLECHASE TITLE VMSCDC! I wasn't expecting to get these titles this weekend, I would have thought we would get them at our trial, but wow I was surprised with how well she ran, she did get tired by the end of the weekend - she will be nine in 2 weeks, but she gave it all she had and I have so much fun running her. She was running with in time for Mini dogs, even though now she is a Mini-Veteran, she was 12 - 14 seconds under Vet time, which I was thrilled about.

She Q' in: Masters Gamblers, Masters Standard 1 & 2, Steeplechase 1 & 2, and Masters Jumpers. AND her SILVER AWARD OF MERIT!!

My bitsy boy Kaleb, had a great weekend too! Susan worked on him first thing Saturday, and she noticed that since he had been off for a while because of his cut pad, that leg had weakened a bit because he wasn't able to put full weight on it for 2 - 3 weeks, even though he never once limped. She said he was fine he just wasn't extending his rear left leg as much in an extended trot, so we did lots of extended trots for warm up and cool down, and with her other adjustments, it really made a difference!

He ran great all weekend, and came home with 3 Q's, Masters Team, Steeplechase, and Masters Jumpers. No bars knocked, and he was really extending over those jumps and giving it between obstacles too, very happy with his effort!!

Then there is Gyppie Girl, she is not to overshadowed this weekend. What do I even say about her, this little dog has so much heart. Gyp came home with 4 Masters Qs this weekend.

Steeplechase, Masters Team (the tri-colour bee-otches rule!!) Q - their debut!, Master Snooker - one of only 5 dogs in Masters to Q.

And my proudest Gyppie moment of the weekend was her Masters Jumpers run. It was fast, smooth and I tried to run the tightest line possible to gain time, something that I have had to really learn with Kaleb to keep him under time, because he is not the fastest dog out there, but I have managed to knock seconds of his time now in Masters. So apply the same strategy to Gyp, its just that she is faster to begin with, so if I can tighten lines, then her times are that much better.

This diagram explains that, the pink line is the line I ran, I ran the first two as a threadle (AKA pull through), then wrapped tight to the tire, which was a bit of a harder approach, and opened up the off couse dummy jump a bit.

The blue line was another option people ran, a PUSH through, or a PULL through, then instead of coming in tight around the standard, most dogs went around the back side of the last jump before the tire, to set that line nicer, but also a the potential to have a wider line. That was the only really tricky part on course, and I guess that was the area that you could make up time with tight lines - on which ever path you chose to run, depending on your dog and what you think they would handle better.


This is the only difference I can find why ....
SHE HAD THE FASTEST TIME IN MASTERS, OF ALL DOGS ENTERED, roughly 40+ dogs!!!!
27.41 Gyp's time / 42 standard course time
I still can't believe it, what a great way to top off the weekend.

So now I have three pooped dogs, and one pooped handler! I ran 24 runs this weekend, so needless to say every muscle in my body hurts!!!!

AND our group did FANTASTIC!!!!!
Go Dog Go! Dogs brought home 26 Qs!!

Maggie brought home 3Qs (2 Starters Standards, 1 Team Q with Tag!)
Tag 1Q (Team Q with Maggie)
Stoker 3Qs (2 Starters Standards, and Starters Gamblers Q)
Wicca 2Qs (Masters Team, Advanced Snooker :) )
Boone 1Q YAY (Starters Jumpers Q - the fastest time!)
Lucy 1Q (Advanced Jumpers - 1st and Q!!)
Pearl 1 Q (Masters Jumpers Q)
BB 1 Q ( Masters Jumpers Q)
Jane 6 Qs (Masters: Gamblers, Standard x 2, Steeplechase x 2, Jumpers - SILVER AWARD OF MERIT)
Gyp 4Qs (Masters: Steeplechase, Team, Snooker, Jumpers)
Kaleb 3Qs (Masters: Steeplechase, Team, Jumpers)