July 18-20, 2008 - AKC Agility Trial

Having an agility trial 25 minutes from home is a real luxury...so I am thrilled that two AKC clubs have been hosting trials at New Hope Farms in Port Jervis, NY. This past weekend was a 3-day trial hosted by the Non-Sporting Group Club of the Garden State. They had 3 rings running simultaneously inside the huge horse arena with packed dirt providing an excellent surface for the dogs. It was extremely hot & humid all 3 days, and had we been outside in the sun, it would have been unbearable. But being inside was tolerable, and the dogs were able to rest comfortably in between their runs.
Running 2 dogs in multiple levels in 3 rings resulted in my having ring conflicts every day, but we did the best we could. Memorizing 3 courses at once can be a challenge :-)
Overall, Token (in 26") & Dandy (in 24") did great. Between the two of them, I had 6 runs per day. On Friday, we earned 4 Q's, and Saturday & Sunday brought us 3 Q's per day, along with 2 new titles: Token earned his Novice FAST title on Saturday, and Dandy finished his Novice JWW title on Friday.
Here is the recap--
Friday: Token qualified in Excellent A Standard with a 1st place, Score 100, Time 40.89 (SCT: 61, 173 yds) Token also qualified in Open JWW with a 1st place and a score of 95 (one refusal), Time 26.47 (SCT: 38, 132 yds)
Dandy qualified in Open Standard with a 1st place and a score of 95, Time 41.81 (SCT: 71, 174 yds). Dandy also qualified in Novice JWW with a score of 95 (one refusal), Time 20.04 (SCT: 37, 100 yds) He placed 4th because of the refusal but he still had the fastest time in the class. And this finished his NAJ title, so he moved up to Open JWW for Saturday & Sunday.
Saturday: Token qualified in Novice FAST with a 2nd place, 68 points, Time 24.79 (SCT:32), which finished his NF title. Dandy also qualified in Novice FAST, also 68 pts, Time 26.62 . No placement for Dandy as I'm still getting the feel of the new FAST class; I had lots of time left over to garner more points but I played it conservatively.
Dandy earned his 2nd leg in Open Standard with another 1st place, Score 100, Time 47.8 (SCT: 63, 181 yds).
I incurred faults with both boys in Open JWW so no Q's for us in that class. Token ran an awesome Excellent Standard course, but had one bar down, so no Q there either.
Sunday: Token qualified in Open FAST with a 2nd place, 76 pts, Time 28.11 (SCT:32). He had a great run going in Excellent Standard but we got a refusal when I moved too soon & pulled him past a jump. I also blew the Open JWW run when I had a badly executed Front Cross that crowded him and caused him to knock a bar...other than that, he was awesome. So had I done MY job better, we might have had a couple more Q's....
I ran Dandy on the same Open JWW course. His first time in Open JWW and he qualified with a score of 95 (a "refusal" due to another poorly executed Front Cross on my part!). Even with the refusal, he WON the class and posted a time of 23.56 (SCT: 35, 123 yds). Dandy's time, by the way, was 0.52 seconds *faster* than Token's time on this course.
Dandy was a bit jazzed up in his Open Standard course, and knocked a bar so no Q for us there. But he did qualify in Novice FAST with a 1st place! 79 pts, Time 29.43 (I planned to use my whole 32 seconds and still ended too early but I'm getting the hang of it!)

I am very happy with our overall results. Token & I are getting more in sync and he is running really nicely this year. Learning a new "handling system" is a work in progress, but I see much improvement in Token's jumping because of it. And baby-dog Dandy continues to amaze me with his focus & ability, and we are having a blast!