If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Adventures with Cenau; or, our second ever agility competition
Cenau's second agility competition was this past weekend.. reportage
follows: First, I have to talk about Brenin... my first agility dog, who was 14 in February. Bren's getting a mite creaky these days due to a touch of arthritis + some muscle loss due to being on a restricted protien diet. He's also getting hard of hearing, and doesn't see quite as well as he used to. But when I take him out of the car at agility practice, he promptly DRAGS me towards the field... so we still let him play, skipping contacts for the most part and cutting the runs a bit short. At trials, he does ONLY Jumpers, at the reduced height of 12" - in his early days, he jumped 30"/26" in USDAA, and 24" in NADAC - Hoopers, and sometimes Tunnelers; I cut the runs short if he starts to look like he's not enjoying himself, or if I think he's getting too tired. This weekend, he smiled his way to the end of both Elite Jumpers courses, missing time by less than 2 seconds. He also would have *qualified* in Hoopers.... except that when it was time to leave, he took off in the opposite direction, and ran halfway across the ring, deliberately doing every hoop in his path - thereby ending up over time. :-D Crazy old coot! I hope I'm crazy that way when I'm a comparable age... And now, on to the junior dog: Cenau started the weekend off with a bang - literally. We did his first trial at the same site; he knew where he was and what was up, and was clearly happy to be there. First class was Weavers... He took 1.5 obstacles (did a tunnel, blew by the weaves), turned around, bolted at full speed for the ring exit, and attempted to jump THROUGH the heavy wooden accordian-style ring gating. Probably would have made it, too, if it hadn't been slightly collapsed... as it was, he got hung up, knocking it back about 6 feet with an almighty bang, then tried to keep going with it stuck around his middle, moving it several more feet before he wriggled free. A friend scooped him up & handed him to me when I got there moments later. Cen was a bit stunned on the mental level immediately afterwards, but none the worse for wear physically other than slightly scratching up his armpits. I didn't make a fuss of him - neither scolding nor sympathy, other than saying "Well THAT'll larn ya!" as I quickly checked him over - just popped him in his crate & took Brenin outside for a few minutes. When I came back in, Cen scratched frantically at his crate door and insisted he needed to go out; I took him outside and he pooped almost immediately. He'd been out in the yard for 10 minutes before we left, I'd walked both of them for more then 5 minutes when we got there, AND I'd taken him out before the run; but apparently excitement about being there, and sniffing all the rabbit smells and smells of other dogs, took precedence over paying attention to bodily needs... until he got into the ring. Typical terrier twit! If the death-defying leap-into-ring-gating had made it onto film, I'd put it up as a "blooper", but all that got taped was him bolting towards the camera, then the taper's feet hurrying across the floor towards the crash site. :-) Things went very much UP hill after that, however. We had a bit of trouble with dogwalk/tunnel discrimination in the next 2 runs (Touch and Go and the first round of Regular), but he qualified in the second round of Regular, in Chances, and in Jumpers - with the Jumpers run completing his Novice title for that class. He also took 3rd in that Regular run (his contacts are slower than some, which is by my choice) and 1st in Jumpers. The second day went even better. We had the same too-excited-to-poop issue in the morning, but I managed to get him to pay attention to bodily needs BEFORE his first run this time. It was a bit of a wahoo run - he was going so fast and so enthusiastically that he overshot two jumps and took two incorrect ones - but he stayed connected and working with me the entire run. I think we got the highest number of course faults in the trial on that one... 100. :-D The remaining 5 runs of the day (Chances, 2 Regular, Hoopers, and Tunnelers) were drop-dead lovely; he had NO faults in any, although I E'd us in one of the Regular runs by training the start line, and in the other I accidentally called him off a jump & he decided to stare at the judge while going down the A-frame, resulting in a veeeeeery sloooooooow descent. Despite that, he qualifed and earned his Novice title. And his Chances run just stunned me... it was literally *perfect*, including a "switch" out to a jump on the other side of the distance line, and a high-speed angled turn to the weaves (which had done in a lot of other teams). Overall - he never tried to leave the ring again. We had NO hunting for MICE! although he did take a hard look at the goalie hole on one run. He hit every set of weave poles at speed, with no bobbles. On at least one run, we had moments where I was handling from 15-20 feet away... Sum total for the weekend, 7 Q's out of 12 runs, four first and a third place, and two titles completed. An outstanding performance for any green dog, and just mind-blowing for a dog who was adopted from a shelter exactly 10 months ago and had no training of any sort (other than having been inadvertently trained to run away). Somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming.... Oh yes: video of 7 of Cen's runs (some Qs, some NQs, one E), and one of Bren's Jumpers runs, are up at http://www.youtube.com/cimawr If you only look at one or two of Cen's, definitely look at the Chances run! :-) Sarah (still on cloud 9) NATCH-2 Brenin, Triple Triple Superior, EJC-400, TG-E, TN-E, O-EJS, ECS,O-TGS-E ... mostly retired Old Man Cenau Goch, NJC, NAC gone, but never forgotten... Vers-NATCH, NATCH-3 Morag Thistledown, Triple Versatility, Triple Triple Superior, S-TN-E, O-TG-E, O-WV-E, ECC-400, EJC-500, EAC-700 Rocsi Cadarn, Novice & Open Triple Superiors, EAC, S-EJC, WV-E, O-TG-E, S-TN-E; O-GTG, AG-I, AG-II, Jumpers Winner 2003 and 2005 JRTCA Nationals |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Adventures with Cenau; or, our second ever agility competition
On Jun 16, 1:15*pm, "sionnach" wrote:
Sarah (still on cloud 9) NATCH-2 Brenin, Triple Triple Superior, EJC-400, TG-E, TN-E, O-EJS, ECS,O-TGS-E ... mostly retired Old Man Cenau Goch, NJC, NAC Alright! Bren and Cen! |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Adventures with Cenau; or, our second ever agility competition
sionnach wrote:
Cenau's second agility competition was this past weekend.. reportage follows: First, I have to talk about Brenin... my first agility dog, who was 14 in February. Bren's getting a mite creaky these days due to a touch of arthritis + some muscle loss due to being on a restricted protien diet. He's also getting hard of hearing, and doesn't see quite as well as he used to. But when I take him out of the car at agility practice, he promptly DRAGS me towards the field... so we still let him play, skipping contacts for the most part and cutting the runs a bit short. At trials, he does ONLY Jumpers, at the reduced height of 12" - in his early days, he jumped 30"/26" in USDAA, and 24" in NADAC - Hoopers, and sometimes Tunnelers; I cut the runs short if he starts to look like he's not enjoying himself, or if I think he's getting too tired. This weekend, he smiled his way to the end of both Elite Jumpers courses, missing time by less than 2 seconds. He also would have *qualified* in Hoopers.... except that when it was time to leave, he took off in the opposite direction, and ran halfway across the ring, deliberately doing every hoop in his path - thereby ending up over time. :-D Crazy old coot! I hope I'm crazy that way when I'm a comparable age... We all seem to have a good start on it. And now, on to the junior dog: snip Overall - he never tried to leave the ring again. We had NO hunting for MICE! although he did take a hard look at the goalie hole on one run. He hit every set of weave poles at speed, with no bobbles. On at least one run, we had moments where I was handling from 15-20 feet away... Sum total for the weekend, 7 Q's out of 12 runs, four first and a third place, and two titles completed. An outstanding performance for any green dog, and just mind-blowing for a dog who was adopted from a shelter exactly 10 months ago and had no training of any sort (other than having been inadvertently trained to run away). Somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming.... Oh yes: video of 7 of Cen's runs (some Qs, some NQs, one E), and one of Bren's Jumpers runs, are up at http://www.youtube.com/cimawr If you only look at one or two of Cen's, definitely look at the Chances run! :-)snip Looking great. -- Bill Clodius los the lost and net the pet to email |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
The Cenau report, Day 1 (beware, lots of agility jargon! :D) | sionnach | Dog behavior | 10 | April 16th 09 04:37 PM |
More action shots: Play day #2, snow!, and Cenau weaves | sionnach | Dog behavior | 6 | March 5th 09 02:01 AM |
Cautionary video about owning hounds & terriers... or, Brenin is 14 & Cenau digs to China! | sionnach | Dog behavior | 0 | February 23rd 09 12:52 AM |
Introducing Cenau | sionnach | Dog behavior | 32 | October 20th 08 05:12 PM |