Well, maybe yesterday was beginner's luck because today was a different story! Mom's first plan was to start on the jump at the right of the start line and go in and do 9, 10, then the send tunnel, teeter and work our way out. But then she saw the jump on the left side of the start line and thought it would be a challenge to start with an angled lead out like we practiced in class on Tuesday. So it would be that first jump and then 8, 10 and then the send. So she sat me and lead out and all should've been fine, but I decided to veer off at 8 and sniff. So ok, no worries, mom called me and I jumped the big jump 10 at an angle and then mom said "Tunnel" and I said "Nope, I gotta go sniff this piece of dog fur that looks like food!" After I discovered it was not food, I went into the tunnel and did the teeter so no problem with the send bonus, but the clock was ticking the entire time I was sniffing, and we ran out of time to accumulate enough points to qualify with a 6 second time fault!!! (But notice my blazing fast aframe and finish after the buzzer went off and we had to haul you-know-what to get to the end!)
Mom was blaming herself on the lead out and wishing she would've taken an easier start to the course, but I think I would've sniffed on my way to the tunnel no matter what, so I told her it's all my fault! It was fun to try the lead out and ultimately we don't regret doing it.
Sara wanted to know why we waited so long to try FAST - two reasons - one is that FAST is usually run first thing in the morning or last thing in the day and it makes the regular trial days too long for us. The second reason is that around here, runs usually cost $19 a piece and mom can't make herself write the check for 3 X 19 for one day and then double it for a 2 day trial! Since we couldn't run in excellent STD or JWW this weekend, it was the perfect time to try FAST.
This morning we went to a novice/open only trial held at our club! Thank goodness for air conditioning as it was super hot and humid already at 8:00AM but both buildings were nice and cool. There was one building for crating and waiting and the other building was for running. We ran novice FAST for the very first time ever! The course was fun and mom was secretly very glad to see there was no chute so she didn't have to stress out over asking me to do it. Mom picked a flowy course for me - we started over at the jump on the right side of the start line and then went in those 3 jumps in a row, did a front cross after the jump in front of the aframe, aframe, jump and then tire then the double, jump, tunnel, weaves and panel (the send bonus), teeter, jump and jump! Sorry we didn't write it on the course map before we scanned it into the computer.
Mom did her very first lead out in a trial! She only lead out one jump but wishes she would've tried two jumps. I was really good and just sat there until she called me to go! The only part of the run that I didn't like was as I jumped a jump and came around to take the tire, I heard that box that makes noise counting out your points and I looked and saw a bunch of people there and thought I didn't want to do the tire. No worries - in FAST it doesn't matter! That's right - there was no YMCA dance by the judge for me refusing the tire, we just went on and didn't get those points (but who needs them? LOL!). I came out of the tunnel and mom said "Weave!" so I did and then I took the jump after that and before I knew it, I had done the send and gotten the bonus!
I Qed, got 69 points (I only needed 50), no time faults, and I got first place too! Granted there were only 4 Novice B 12" dogs today but I was the only one to Q! Look at me - I'm a FAST dog! :)
When we got to class today, Jenn said the focus would be on lead out pushes - mom thought that would be impossible for us. Then I proved her wrong! First though a few thoughts about lead out pushes. A lead out push is essentially a substitute for a front cross and is done (obviously) at the beginning of a course or after the table. So Jenn said the handler should think about where she would place a front cross and that would be where she would stand for a lead out push. She also told us to look at the angles of the dog's path and pick the shortest. Mom wishes she would've paid more attention in geometry class in high school - who knew? Any way, we started with a straight forward lead out past a double and another jump. Then we did one with two jumps that were angled. Finally we tried one where the dog is not in a direct line of sight with the handler and jumps the first jump at an angle and the second one with kind of a parallel approach (instead of perpendicular). It was a directed-jump recall (I think). But listen to this - I did them all! And I didn't sniff once during any of my runs this morning! I think I like this lead out stuff!!!
So I did well today except with tunnel discrimination - that was mom's fault though. First time she totally showed me the wrong entrance. Then the next time, she moved laterally but I was programmed to go in the wrong way and mom didn't call my name or anything! Jenn suggested that dogs learn that the word "tunnel" means take the most obvious entrance to them and that the dog's name means to take the more difficult and less obvious entrance. Mom and I are going to try to work on that and see if we can get it.
We also got to talk to Jenn about a novice FAST strategy for this weekend. She says there are two ways to go about it - run out there and get your bonus and points as fast as possible and exit to make sure you Q - or if you want to use FAST as sort of a training opportunity, then go and try to do as many obstacles as possible and rack up the points (over 50 which is what you need for novice) and don't worry when the buzzer sounds - just run for the exit from wherever you are. You can still Q if you are overtime because they start deducting from the point total. She thinks if the chute is an option, we should try it.
Bindi's mom was so awesome and videoed our class today (Bindi has a hurt back and she couldn't run but we hope she is all better soon!). She shared the videos with us through the Flip share and we hope she doesn't mind if we also share them with you. You can see me doing better than I usually do in class!
My name is Ricky (Covewind Little Ricky, AX,AXJ,CGC) and I am a six year old tri-color Shetland Sheepdog. I do agility and I like to learn tricks too! This blog is about all that and some other stuff as well!
