Valle Del Sol Golden Retriever AKC Agility Trial

Excellent JWW

Cassi ran first in Excellent A Jumpers with Weaves.  I'm not sure if (as another handler said) the starting jump to the weaves was directly into the morning sun, caused her to change her behavior, but she went really slow through the weaves.  She never really picked up speed, and it threw me off.  I didn't adjust well, so right before we got to the end, I called a switch--she normally would have taken the jump and turned, but she didn't take the jump.  That was her second refusal--of course, in Excellent, it's a non-qualify after the first mistake.

Excellent Standard

Then she had her Standard run.  She did the tire just fine (yay).  I wasn't where I planned to be after the dog walk, and she got a refusal at the #7 jump.  She did the teeter super-slow.  She missed her weave entry but completed them.  She was actually under time but did not qualify with the 2 refusals (jump and weave).

Open JWW

Teka had been waiting for a few hours when it was her turn to run Open Jumpers with Weaves.  She went over the first jump, entered the weaves, and then totally shut down.  We think Princess Teka decided it was too hot.

Open FAST

Next, she ran her FAST run.  I took her to the teeter so she would have something fun (she loves the teeter) to get her going.  But when we got to the send bonus, it was just way to much distance for her.  My husband gave me all kinds of grief about I shouldn't have entered her in that and I should have made her do the tunnel after I got my fault (when I thought I just had to leave the course, but I guess I could have gone up to the tunnel with her.)

Open Standard

She ran her Standard run, and actually got almost everything, until we got to the weaves.  She popped out right before the end and would not finish them.  She finished the course, but the failure to complete an obstacle kept her from qualifying.

Excellent FAST

Last, Cassi ran her FAST course.  I had to bribe her out of her kennel, she was so tired, probably from the heat, as she had been resting for a while, so I thought she'd be recovered.  She was doing okay, but slow--I took her around the outside loop.  But she could not get the send bonus as it was just too much distance for her, as slow as she was going.

I was feeling terrible today, on and off having serious pain and having uncomfortableness the rest of the time, so I wonder if that affected the dogs.  My husband just thinks it was too hot, Cassi is too old, and neither of them should be running FAST.  I really need to work distance with both of them but haven't figured out where to find the time.  Oh, and I still need bars for my jumps....

We also discussed that I haven't been at a trial for more than six months.  Besides not getting enough practice, it was interesting to see people who haven't seen me in all that time.  They were very vocal about their reactions to my weight loss.  I was really hoping the weight loss would make running the courses easier, but it was hard to tell what effect that had since I was in pain all day.

Update: I found the posted count results interesting.  Cassi's Excellent A Standard group had a Qualifying (Q) ratio of 21%.  Yeah, that's really low, isn't it?  Teka's Open Standard was 39% Q ratio.  Cassi's Excellent A JWW group was 30% and Teka's Open JWW group was 29%.  Wow, that's pretty bad, IMO.  Cassi's FAST group was 57% and Teka's was 31%.  Based on the October heat, if nothing else, we are not going to enter this trial in the future.