Saturday, November 10, 2007

Brags!!!

***EDIT***
*New pics added to the right...*

I've been dying to write in here all week!!!

Last weekend was Pickle's first "official" agility trial! I signed him up on the day of the trial... my mistake was- "oh its cheaper to go ahead and do the whole weekend!" So I signed him up for 9 classes, 4 standard runs, and five games split over saturday and sunday.

Our first game was a blast! It was tunnelers... they were so small (I seriously thought Pickle was going to look at them and give me the paw. There was a total of about 7 tunnels that made up the course, and boy were those turns tight! Pickle performed like a champ- but I sent him the wrong signal so we got on "off course" on that round.

The next run was hang-ten. This game looked a lot easier than it actually was. The idea is that each type of obstacle has a different point value. The goal is to complete obstacles adding up to ten (not going over) then bank those ten points by jumping through the tire jump. Our first and second sequences were flawless! Then when I attempted the 3rd sequence I had planned out, I lost him. The sequence was jump-tunnel-teeter. For some reason the teeter scared the crap out of him (he stayed scared of it for the rest of the day). After bailing of the teeter, he made up his own course for about 15 seconds (the run is for 60 seconds). I finally got him back in control, but not soon enough to finish another sequence. Luckily, level 1 only has to get 20 points- so the little man got his first Q!!!

Our next run was a nightmare!!! It was our first standard run... it was an easy course set up in a figure 8 pattern with the table in the middle. Well, we get through the 1st 2 obstacles, and Pickle sees the judge in the middle of his course and runs to her barking. I was kinda sorta embarrassed at this point. I get him undercontrol and continue the course. The teeter at this point has scared the bajesus out of him so am there baby talking him at the teeter... didn't work this round. After this round, I put him back in his crate for a nap.

Our next round was our second standard run. It was beautiful! He even did the stand at the table- which we haven't really worked on!!! He thought about running past the teeter, but I called him off and brought him back around... it wasn't pretty, but he did it. We Q'd in this round with 5 seconds to spare!

The last run of the day was connect the dots. Again, all the obstacles had point values, the contacts had the highest value. We smoked this class as well bringing in our third Q of the day!!!

Pickle's first run on saturday was another game. The name off it is eluding me right now, but it was very similar to gamblers. This was by far the best run of the weekend!!! He was so on! He was the only level 1 dog that completed the gamble perfectly with out hesitation! I think gamblers is going to be his game! We Q'd here as well!!! With this Q, Pickle won his very first title!!!!!!!! So now, he can be referred to as The Wicked Pickle TG1! I'm so proud of the little guy! Mom came out got to see him run.

We had over 2 hours until our next run which was our third standard run. He ran great the first half, did the teeter perfectly! I got so excited about the teeter performance, I was not focused on the run... I sent him past the tunnel right on out of the arena, when I called him back, he was so confused he jumped right on over the tunnel- hahahaha. He finished the course, but we didn't make time, my mistake. At thispoint he'd already run seven runs that weekend- by the time I got him out of his crate to warm up for his 4th standard run, he was so tired- he wouldn't even tug with me (for those that know him, he loves to tug). I decided to take him out of the final 2 runs, he was too tired. Nine runs on one weekend is a lil much for a 12 month old. I am so pleased with him! He worked really hard for me, paid attention, and worked through the tough stuff! He's gonna be a force to reckon with! :)

Thank you to Dori, Rhianne, and Mom for coming out! I'll try and post pictures soon! I am waiting on the photographer to upload the pics!

1 comment:

Em said...

That's awesome, I'm glad he did so well!! What a GREAT showing for your first time out!! :)

It was nice to meet Mr. Pickle yesterday :)