Three Days of Agility

Three days of agility.  Three nights in a hotel.  Fortunately, the Doubletree was very nice.  Loads of lawn to walk the dogs.  Quiet. 

 

On day one we did a few classes including Steeplechase and GP.  Fin rocked the tournaments getting first in both (another regional bye!).  Unfortunately we E'd in Steeple round 2 on Sunday.

 

No worries, Monday was team day. Five rounds of classes, adding up all the scores from all the rounds. Most points win. Dave and his dog Kiley were my team mates. Strategy: Don't get eliminated. Refusals, sure, knocked bars, keep going...just don't E.

It was so very exciting. Round 1 was Gamble. It was a time gamble meaning you've got to get as many points as possible and be at the last jump when the buzzer goes. If you jump the last jump too soon, you get points taken off. If you are too late, you get points taken off. Huge strategy for this class.

Fin killed it. We were 2 seconds over and had 4 points taken off, but I was really happy with her performance. Ended up 2nd in all performance dogs.

 

Snooker was another one.  Yikes it was hard.  Fin and I got through 5 in the closing, but there was a ton of yelling on my part. 

 

At the end of two rounds, my team was in 1st place.  Yikes!  I told people I feel like I'm in a marathon and I am the guy that sprints out in front to set the pace, but all those runners are on my tail and coming up to pass me soon.

 

Standard and jumpers were two more really challenging courses.  There were loads of E's.  It wasn't pretty, but Fin and I got through both without E'ing.  In Standard we were fault free, in jumpers we got a refusal and then Fin plowed into a jump and somersaulted.  I immediately stopped.  She was shaking herself, shaking her head, and I thought, "Oh no!"  But she stopped, looked at me and wagged her tail.  I asked her if she wanted to keep running and I took a step and off she went flying over the last few jumps.  But I knew she was sore.  It was a really bad fall. 

 



We ended up in 2nd place overall, not bad. 

So a little break from agility for my Fin.  Exercise, massage, and rest. She worked her butt off this weekend and I was right there with her.

Bayteam puts on a great show.  My friends and I tailgated in the parking area and the food was fab! A nice relaxing weekend...oh and the 49'ners won!!!! Superbowl baby!!!!

Performance Grand Prix Team

Standard (one tough course!)

Team Gamblers