Kachina Kennel Club Agility Trial

I was running a little late to the show but made my walk-through for Cassi's Open FAST. She didn't get much "me" time since she was the very first dog to run. She did alright until she got to the send bonus--she went through the tunnel, then around the jump, back over the wrong way, and we were done.

Teka's Novice FAST was next, with a very similar course, but less distance to the send bonus. She did pretty well, although she got very distracted right before the tunnel. I got her focus back and she finished nicely. That was a Q, finishing her Novice FAST title. She gets moved up to Open Sunday--this will be much harder for her as the send bonus is more distance from me.

Cassi ran Open Standard. It was pretty difficult--I was concerned that the first two obstacles were her worst ones, the tire and the teeter. She did have a hard time deciding to go through the tire, and then she did the teeter just fine. And it was all downhill from there. She took the jumps at odd angles, popped out of the weaves at the 10th pole, went around a jump to go to the chute, which was not the next obstacle anyway. And then she pulled it together at the end and did a very pretty walk-it, turn into a tunnel, and a couple more jumps. Not a Q!

Now things got hectic. I had to walk Teka's next course, then walk Cassi's next course, then run Teka, then run Cassi. When I was walking Teka's course, Anabel told me that I had been crowding Cassi, especially on the weaves, so I was thinking about that when I walked her course. Also, she reminded me that when Cassi is frantic, I need to pause and breathe and regain her focus instead of feeding off her.

So, here's how it went. Teka's course was Novice Standard. The tire was again the first obstacle. Teka looked at it, sniffed around, went around it, continued sniffing, not paying any attention to me. I asked to be excused and took her off the course. For her non-effort, she got a refusal, off-course and elimination.

Cassi's course was Open Jumpers. She did very well and would have done even better if I hadn't forgotten where I was going a third of the way in. She got a refusal but we recovered and she got a Q.

After my walk through for Teka's Novice Jumpers, I grabbed some french fries and Teka for some focus and play time. She seemed to be recovering from whatever funk she was in. (Several people insisted that taking her off the other course REALLY helped her attitude.) So we ran the course and Teka did everything I asked. Well, she got a refusal at the last obstacle, which was a tunnel--totally odd--but almost everyone was having that issue. Anyway, she got her Q so we had a good ending.