This weekend Luke and I traveled to Madison for an all-games trial hosted by Paws-4-Fun agility club at MadCity Dog Training. It was a weekend full of firsts for us! First time at an all games trial, first time at MadCity, first time going all by ourselves and first time running at Elite Proficient 20+.
Saturday was a late start day with only three classes offered, so Luke and I got to stay at home and be lazy until about noon or so. We arrived in Madison shortly before 2:00 and had plenty of time to set up and settle in before the 3:00 start time.
Tunnelers was the first class of the day and this was a great way to start our weekend. Luke ran a really nice course and surprised me with a nice start line stay. I had a HUGE wake-up call when I got the results back at the end of the class -- even with his beautiful run, Luke only came in one second under the elite 20+ time and was way down in 6th place. Basically, the times are WAY faster now and we have a lot more competition!!
Weavers was up next and I was dismayed to see that the poles at this club were the same design as last weekend in Crystal Lake. To our benefit, the poles were spaced further apart this time, but Luke still had to deal with the big fat base at the bottom. By the third set of poles he went through on the first try, but the first sets caused problems. We ended up almost 24 seconds over time. *sigh*
Touch-n-go was an interesting experience in that they had rubber contacts at this club. We haven't seen rubber contacts since the Agile Canines show last July. Let me say that I LOVE rubber and I think Luke does, too, but it took him by surprise at first. He slammed on the brakes coming up the dog walk, as if he just didn't know what to think about it. I have to say that this was kind of nice because it slowed him down and made him get that first contact. We didn't have a problem with the frame all weekend, but Luke did jump the dog walk on the second pass of that run, so we got 10 faults for that plus we ended up 3.65 seconds over time! Again with those wicked hard times...
It was 8:00 by the time we got checked into the hotel, got food and settled in for the night. Since I was by myself I got Luke and I a nice king-sized bed to crash on and it was heaven! Luke didn't much care for our ground floor room that faced to the outside world, though. He was a bit unsettled about noises going on outside our room until I switched spots with him and took the spot on the bed nearest the door. Then we were both finally able to get some sleep.
For some reason I had it in my head that the trial started at 7:45 on Sunday, so I planned my morning to arrive at 7:30, giving me *just* enough time to walk the course before the first run. Oops, first dog on line was at 7:30, so I completely missed the walk-through for the first run of touch-n-go. Thankfully, Luke was nearly dead last in the elite line-up, so I had plenty of time to watch and learn the course before we were up. Perhaps this was to our advantage, as Luke got all of his contacts, came in three seconds under time and placed 2nd in our huge class!!
Alas, the second running of touch-n-go was not so much in our favor. Luke wasn't really listening very well and went straight into a tunnel when he was supposed to go up the walk and then to top it all off he then jumped the contact! I decided to reschool the dog walk (which calls for an elimination) and then ran Luke out of the ring -- at which time he decided to take the frame on his own and did a NAUGHTY jump off it, but you are only allowed to school one thing in the ring so I couldn't go back and correct that. It was the last contact of the day, so I figured I'd just have to let it go. Luke didn't get love & treats back at the crate for that performance, though.
Our two runs of weavers were next in line and my hope was that Luke would continue to improve on the new poles. In our first run he managed to do the second two sets without problem but had to be corrected in the first -- that run was 11 seconds over time with a 5th place finish. During the second run we only really had one issue in the poles, but Luke was STILL 9.5 seconds over time. This tells me that he is going to have to have a flawless weavers performance to make time at this level. I am waiting to see what happens at our home trial with the poles that he knows well.
Figuring that tunnelers is a given for Luke, I was hopeful to pick up his elite proficient tunnelers title this weekend. The first run was flawless and beautiful, coming in two seconds under time and in 2nd place in a very competitive class. My brain absolutely shut down in the second run, though, and before I knew it I had sent Luke into an off course tunnel and didn't realize it until it was too late to call him back. I totally blew that one and we ended up with 2.59 time faults on top of the 10 point off course for ninth place.
In summary, we ended up qualifying in only 1/3 of our classes this weekend. I had been hopeful for a much better Q rate at an all games trial, but the move up to elite proficient 20+ was a huge eye-opening experience. This is not going to be as easy as I'd anticipated and we are going to have to work for our NATCH for sure! Luke totally crashed all the way home from Madison.
Our next trial isn't until the one in La Crosse at the end of April. It will be a nice, much-needed break for us -- especially since tomorrow is the day I fly out to pick up my new puppy!!!!