As mentioned in the thread "40 hours and counting" I "debuted" Cenau in
NADAC agility today. (For those who've recently joined us, Cen is a
JRT/Miniature Pinscher cross, somewhere around 3 years old. He came to live
with me 8 months ago; I'm his third owner, and when I got him he had NO
training at all, other than having been inadvertently trained to run away
when off leash.)

The trial was held in an indoor soccer arena, which is why I mention a
goalie hole - it's a sizeable alcove in the wall. There's also a "dugout"
area let into the wall, which has a sort of window about 10 feet long &
about 4 feet up. Both the goalie hole and the closed-off dugout area are
known to harbor mice on occasion - especially the dugout because the kids
drop crumbs.

Here's the play-by-play:

Run 1, Chances (this is the class which tests distance handling):
Nice startline stay, tunnel, jump, short wahoo zoom, jump, short wahoo zoom,
jump, jump, tunnel, bypass weave poles and dart into the goalie hole to
sniff for mice. Call off mouse smell after a few seconds, come back and do
weave poles. Two jumps, off course tunnel, VERY nice A-frame contact, final
jump... stupid handler (me) doesn't immediately say COME, so straight on out
of the ring, eat food somebody had dropped on the floor, realize handler is
in ring calling, zoom back in - THROUGH a 6" square hole in the ring
gating! - and jump into handler's arms.
This is, unfortunately, the only run that got taped.

Run 2, Regular Rd 1 (regular is the course with all obstacles)
First half ok, missed the weave entry but did them fine on the second try,
a bit wide on the turn, very nice dogwalk contact, two jumps to
A-frame/tunnel discrimination (side by side obstacles, dogs were supposed to
take the tunnel going one way, the A-frame on the return pass). Got tunnel
(correct obstacle), missed the jump after, did the next tunnel which was in
a U-shape and headed the dogs back to the discrimination.
Said discrimination happened to be set next to the dugout. insert ominous
music

I was too close to him, which pushed him into the tunnel again. I called
him as he came out, intending only to make sure he didn't leave the ring; he
turned around and shot up the A-frame, got to the peak, stopped dead, turned
sideways (balancing handily on the top, which is maybe 2" wide) and stood
there staring at the dugout because "OMG!! THERE ARE MICE IN THERE!!! MICE I
TELL YOU!! "
I called several times, he finally came down the frame diagonally, staring
fixedly at the wall, and ended up in the best semblance of a correct contact
he could manage while there were MICE! on his brain and in his nose - front
feet on the ground to the side of the frame, ONE TOE of his left hind foot
pressed to the side of the A-frame way up high, his whole body pointed at
the MICE!!, held taut & vibrating.
I finally got his attention (not easy because I was on the other side of
the frame, and laughing too hard to be emphatic), he remembered he was with
me, left the frame, did a jump, I turned him around, he did the A-frame the
other way, I called him, he hopped into my arms & we left the course.

Run 3, Regular Rd 2 (different course - in this case, the first course run
in reverse):
He was a bit silly, made wide turns, but no off courses, nice contacts
although he didn't come quite all the way to the bottom on the A-frame. But
he shot past the tunnel and bolted to the wall where the MICE!!! were, spent
20-30 seconds sniffing up and down the wall - JUST as I was about to pick
him up and carry him away, his brain clicked back in, he came back and did
the rest of the course nicely other than shooting past the final jump
because I was in the wrong place. Turned back at the end & jumped up into my
arms, no attempt to leave. 17 seconds over time, no course faults other than
the 20 for missing the last jump.

Run 4, Hoopers (a strategy game - similar to USDAA Snooker except it's all
hoops):
We started out, going right past the MICE!! with no problems, did the
first sequence just fine. My course went back towards the wall, he bolted
for the MICE!! & started to sniff. I said "Uck! LEAVE IT", he hesitated,
then turned around, flew back to me (he'd gone halfway across the ring), and
we finished the course in style. Would have been a Q except dumb handler had
misunderstood what was supposed to be done in one of the tests & had left an
obstacle out.

Run 5, Jumpers (just what it sounds like, a course with nothing but jumps
and tunnels) :
He did the first half of the course, right past the dugout, just fine -
either the MICE!!! had left, or he'd decided it was more fun to run with me.
He missed one jump after going wide on a hairpin turn; I called him back,
reset him, and restarted from the missed jump. He did the second half of the
course just fine, turned back and jumped into my arms, no attempt to leave
the ring.
Final result: 29 seconds under SCT, no faults, first place and a Q. Holy
cow.

Here's the really scary part: He ran 7.23 YPS *including the reset* which
took 4-6 seconds... so how fast was he *actually* going?? =:O
(Wasn't timer error either - we had electronic timing.)

And now I am going to GO LIE DOWN. :-)

Oh yes... before I go:
Brenin, bless him, thought Hoopers was Way Cool, and actually deliberately
did an extra one before leaving. Had I not made the same mistake I did with
Cen, he would have Q'd.
He also had a nice smooth Elite Jumpers run, 22 obstacles including a
3-jump-1-tunnel serpentine. He was just starting to get tired a few
obstacles before the end, but came off the course with a smile still on his
face.
Perspective is a wonderful thing... there was a time when I'd've been upset
if he'd missed Jumpers time by a tenth of a second, today I was thrilled
that he was only 1.87 seconds over. :-)

You've come a long way baby!

Woohoo!

In article ,
"sionnach" wrote:


Final result: 29 seconds under SCT, no faults, first place and a Q. Holy
cow.




YAYYYYY!


Oh yes... before I go:
Brenin, bless him, thought Hoopers was Way Cool, and actually deliberately
did an extra one before leaving. Had I not made the same mistake I did with
Cen, he would have Q'd.
He also had a nice smooth Elite Jumpers run, 22 obstacles including a
3-jump-1-tunnel serpentine. He was just starting to get tired a few
obstacles before the end, but came off the course with a smile still on his
face.
Perspective is a wonderful thing... there was a time when I'd've been upset
if he'd missed Jumpers time by a tenth of a second, today I was thrilled
that he was only 1.87 seconds over. :-)

;-D

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

On Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:31:33 -0400, "sionnach"
wrote:

As mentioned in the thread "40 hours and counting" I "debuted" Cenau in
NADAC agility today. (For those who've recently joined us, Cen is a
JRT/Miniature Pinscher cross, somewhere around 3 years old. He came to live
with me 8 months ago; I'm his third owner, and when I got him he had NO
training at all, other than having been inadvertently trained to run away
when off leash.)

The trial was held in an indoor soccer arena, which is why I mention a
goalie hole - it's a sizeable alcove in the wall. There's also a "dugout"
area let into the wall, which has a sort of window about 10 feet long &
about 4 feet up. Both the goalie hole and the closed-off dugout area are
known to harbor mice on occasion - especially the dugout because the kids
drop crumbs.

Here's the play-by-play:

Run 1, Chances (this is the class which tests distance handling):
Nice startline stay, tunnel, jump, short wahoo zoom, jump, short wahoo zoom,
jump, jump, tunnel, bypass weave poles and dart into the goalie hole to
sniff for mice. Call off mouse smell after a few seconds, come back and do
weave poles. Two jumps, off course tunnel, VERY nice A-frame contact, final
jump... stupid handler (me) doesn't immediately say COME, so straight on out
of the ring, eat food somebody had dropped on the floor, realize handler is
in ring calling, zoom back in - THROUGH a 6" square hole in the ring
gating! - and jump into handler's arms.
This is, unfortunately, the only run that got taped.

And hopefully you will be sharing it here.

Congrats on Cenau's Q, and thank you very much for the good laugh!

Mustang Sally

"sighthounds & siberians" wrote:

And hopefully you will be sharing it here.

I'm hoping to get at least a couple more runs taped tomorrow, and will
probably edit/Youtube stuff on Monday.

Congrats on Cenau's Q, and thank you very much for the good laugh!

He makes me laugh so often, I feel like I should share. :-)

And now, off to bed so's to get up and do it all over again tomorrow....

"sionnach" wrote:


Here's the really scary part: He ran 7.23 YPS *including the reset* which
took 4-6 seconds... so how fast was he *actually* going?? =:O
(Wasn't timer error either - we had electronic timing.)

To explain that bit of jargon for the non-agility people:
YPS stands for "yards per second", and is a measurement of the dog's speed,
just like MPH (miles per hour) for cars.
The course, as designed to be run, is a certain number of yards long.
There's a time limit for completion of the course, which is calculated based
on the course yardage, what obstacles are on the course, the size of the
dogs (smaller dogs get more time), age of the dogs (dogs over 7 get 10% more
time), and what level the dogs are competing at (dogs at lower levels are
given more time).

When I say Cenau was "29 seconds under time", I mean that he finished the
course approximately 29 seconds under the time limit for his level and jump
height - on that particular Novice course, the small dogs needed to complete
the course in 50.24 seconds or less, and Cenau ran it in 21.73 seconds.
An individual dog's YPS is calculated by dividing the yardage by the
dog's time.

Thing is, if the dog deviates from the course at all - as Cenau did when
he ran past the jump, circled around and came back - it's actually running
more yardage, which means the dog's actual YPS is *higher* than the scoring
program records.

Cenau's official YPS, 7.23 YPS, converts to 14.77 miles per hour - over
jumps as high as his withers. But since he added considerable yardage by
shooting past a jump and circling back, and slowed down to a near stop for a
second or so, his actual speed over the rest of the course was considerably
higher than that. Like I said - HOLY COW!

On Apr 11, 6:31*pm, "sionnach" wrote:
As mentioned in the thread "40 hours and counting" I "debuted" Cenau in
NADAC agility today. *......

Loved your whole description! I was laughing and cheering with you!
Sounds you had a great debut!

Lauralyn
Raw fed agility dogs
Shylo, Cheyenne, Lakota, Apache

sionnach wrote:

Cenau's official YPS, 7.23 YPS, converts to 14.77 miles per hour - over
jumps as high as his withers. But since he added considerable yardage by
shooting past a jump and circling back, and slowed down to a near stop for a
second or so, his actual speed over the rest of the course was considerably
higher than that. Like I said - HOLY COW!

Wow - speedy gonzales! Sounds like a fun day, and congrats on
the Q! I'm looking forward to the video that was made - I want
to see if I can spot the mouse on his brane!

FurPaw


--
Don't believe everything that you think.

To reply, unleash the dog.

sionnach wrote:

"sionnach" wrote:



Here's the really scary part: He ran 7.23 YPS *including the reset* which
took 4-6 seconds... so how fast was he *actually* going?? =:O
(Wasn't timer error either - we had electronic timing.)


To explain that bit of jargon for the non-agility people:
YPS stands for "yards per second", and is a measurement of the dog's speed,
just like MPH (miles per hour) for cars.

And 7.23 yps is shorthand for holy-beejeebus fast. Congrats!!

"Robin Nuttall" wrote:


And 7.23 yps is shorthand for holy-beejeebus fast. Congrats!!

See the post "So he's not Superdog" - they had the yardage wrong. :-D He
may very well be that fast on the flat, but not over wither-high jumps.. I
should have known that YPS wasn't possible with a 3-4 second bobble in the
middle.