Leaps & Bounds NADAC Trial

The trial didn't go as well as I had hoped but I did see some things we need to work on. We got there about 7:30am and it was chilly outside. By the time I got Venus out of the van she was hyped and leaping all over the place. I worked her some on the warm up jump and weaves and she was great. Venus and Clover were both in the Novice Proficient 20+ class.

Novice Jumpers:
We started off with about two good jumps. Venus then spotted the ring crew and this is one downfall of having a very friendly dog. She bolted over to go visit but quickly found that the person was no fun and wouldn't pet her. She came flying back to me and tried to jump on me. There was one more jump to get her over and then a nice serpentine of two jumps and the tunnel. Venus loves serpentines so I thought it would go well. She took the first jump of the serpenting, spotted the tunnel and then shot through it. I got her back around and over the jump to the tunnel. She did the next jump and then cut too close to me and missed the next jump. I got her back over it and then the rest of the course was nice.

Novice Regular:
When I brought her to the start line she was focused on a shirt someone had hung on the fence. She did listen to me even though she stared at the shirt over the first jump and heading to the dogwalk. Since she was moving a little slow she did hit the up contact but I would have liked to see her full speed to see if she remembered to hit it or not. She held her bottom contact ok. She came a little further off than I would have liked but she was holding the position and I'll give her the benefit since she's never seen a dog walk without slats before.
She did the distance on the jumps very nice. NADAC requires some distance on their regular courses. She saw another jump straight ahead and was heading towards it but I did get her to turn to where the next jump was instead. Unfortunately the turn was tight and she knocked the bar on that jump. She did nicely and didn't go into the offcourse tunnel, many dogs went into that tunnel. She did a little turn in front of me and almost tripped me but we'll work on that. She did good until the weaves, I am pretty sure that I didn't give the command early enough and she didn't see the weaves. The rest of the run was nice and I loved her a-frame.
Despite the knocked bar she ended up with 1st place!

Novice Weavers:
I didn't get a video of this course but it had good points and bad points. I was able to call her off of all the traps that were out there. She came very close to going in a wrong tunnel at one point but she turned and came back. The weaves were disappointing. She didn't get the entry on her weaves any time we ran that course. There were 3 sets of weaves and two she just kinda ignored and ran past and the third she got the entry but went past the 2nd pole and came back after the 3rd pole. She went over time on that course. Venus earned another 1st place on that run though.

Novice Tunnelers:
Clover ran first of the two on this course. She was such a bad dog! I can't even explain what all she did. She did the first 2 or 3 tunnelers and then was just kinda messing around the rest of the course. She had a good time though and that's what is important. I don't have a video of that run, too bad because it would have gone along great with agility laughs. Since Venus and Clover's runs were so close I told my mom to not worry about videoing and to just hide with Venus. I knew if Venus saw me running Clover she would scream and maybe make things worse.
Venus' run was nice. She took no off course tunnels and made time whoo!! After her weavers course she realized there were times I didn't want her to go straight to the next tunnel. Because of that if she could see more than one tunnel she would check back with me on which one I wanted her in. I'll work her some more on reading cues and going on without me. Venus got her first Q and came in 3rd in her class.

Overall I was happy with the day. I was only disappointed in Clover because she is better than that she just decides to be silly sometimes. Venus was trying for me, she is young and doesn't get this whole routine yet. She had a good time though and I think she really wants to do exactly what I want her to. We'll get there as we learn more together. With the time change it is going to make it harder to train. I will probably work her during my lunch breaks.
This weekend I have a conformation show with Bacchus and Clover and then the following weekend Venus is entered in a 3 day AKC trial.

Here's the video of Venus' runs from this weekend. Yes, I know I need a better camera for this and I'm working on figuring out what kind. Suggestions are welcome if you know of a good camera for videoing agility somewhere around $200 or less?


Brandy