Agility in February

We had a really fun weekend! On Friday Amber got double Q # 18 with two second place runs. She wasn't running super fast but she does have several different speeds of which I've never really been in control. Our judge for the weekend is going to be judging at the Nationals coming up in a few weeks and said she threw in a few courses to prepare teams headed that way. We are not going to nationals but enjoyed the fun courses anyway. The jumpers with weaves was fairly straight forward.

The standard wasn't anything too weird until we got to the end. That last jump, taken from the back side was rather hard. When I walked the course I didn't think it would be that big of a challenge but running it was different. My husband filming wasn't sure we had made it and spoke a dirty word on MY video. If the dog was too fast and far ahead of you they could easily see that jump and take it from the wrong side. It sure seems like they know what that last jump looks like, they can see the laser eyes for the timer, and somehow they know. Our ending was a little awkward but we did qualify.

After we run the course I put her leash on and run back to her crate and she gets a little taste of everything. This time I brought canned beef tripe, hard boiled eggs, string cheese (delivered piece by piece from my mouth which makes Amber's pupils get huge), and canned mackerel that I baked in the oven until it was almost crispy. She likes!

On Saturday on her first run of the day, Standard, she started off so slowly that she knocked the first bar. That's not normal for her! I guess I needed to work a little harder at revving her up before running. You'd think after all the time we've spent competing together that I'd know how to get her going. She and I made several more errors on that run but she sped up in the middle and it ended up being a very fun run!
Her Jumpers run was a slower start too but we did qualify. I am going to start practicing two jumps and stopping for a jackpot, three jumps, jackpot, back and forth mixed with a full course, to see if it improves her speed at the start.

Sunday was pretty awesome and I bought a video of her two Sunday runs which I will post when they email them to me.

Three day agility weekends tire us both out! So hard to go back to reality after a wonderful weekend spent with my dog and my dog friends.