Today we went to Argus Ranch for the NW Bearded Collie Club of Puget Sound Agility Trial. Kohl and I were just spectating but Stephen and Sky had 3 runs starting with Novice B FAST.
You can see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/user/ghostyboyster#p/u/5/mJxDb0j7610
Slightly untidy but Sky did everything Stephen asked him to do, so he can't complain. They avoided the contacts and Stephen made sure he did the Send early in the run. Sky did some killer weaves too. Sky scored 57 points, qualified, came first and got his FAST Novice Title. Stephen says he didn't time the run very well as they completed the course in just 21 seconds and they still had 11 seconds available, problem was the only remaining obstacles were the A-Frame and Teeter and Stephen didn't want Sky missing contacts at the start of the day.
Novice B JWW http://www.youtube.com/user/ghostyboyster#p/u/4/fpdMExJeaNo
This was a really nice course and Sky made a right mess of it, starting by knocking off the first jump and then not paying attention to Stephen for most of the rest of the run. He did finish nicely though.
Novice B STD http://www.youtube.com/user/ghostyboyster#p/u/3/sesyOwkViFY
This was Sky's best standard run and everything was going fine until he reached the A-frame where he had a refusal. Sky made the contact by the skin of his teeth, but we think the judge was actually a little lenient. Then two obstacles from the end Sky launches himself off the end of the dog walk and Stephen retired him. A least they made 2 of the 3 contacts (they didn't make any last weekend) and Sky did a really good job of the Teeter and the Weaves.
Overall, a good day was had by all and I'm very proud of 'my boys'.
Just STD and JWW tomorrow (no FAST).
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Who are these poodles anyway? Sky
Marsan's The Sky's The Limit at Moonstone (call name: Sky)
Standard Poodle: blue, male
Whelped: October 19th 2008
Breeder: Susan Walz
Sire: CH Moonstone's Evening Edition
Dam: Marsan's Diamonds & Opals
Sky is our competition prospect, he has lots of drive and energy, is willing to please and quick to learn.
He has already started competing in agility and is proving to be very fast ... too fast for his handler right now!
I am training Sky for competition obedience and will also do rally with him at some stage.
Standard Poodle: blue, male
Whelped: October 19th 2008
Breeder: Susan Walz
Sire: CH Moonstone's Evening Edition
Dam: Marsan's Diamonds & Opals
Sky is our competition prospect, he has lots of drive and energy, is willing to please and quick to learn.He has already started competing in agility and is proving to be very fast ... too fast for his handler right now!
I am training Sky for competition obedience and will also do rally with him at some stage.
Who are these poodles anyway? Kohl
Moonstone Maybe Tomorrow NA NAJ OAP OAJP NFP Delta Pet Partner (call name: Kohl)
Standard Poodle: black, male
Whelped: November 17th 2004
Breeder: Kimberly Koopman
Sire: Moonstone Clearly Noble
Dam: Moonstone's Enchanted Evening
Kohl is our first poodle, he's turned out pretty well, despite our lack of knowledge ;-)
He's a successful canine athelete with several agility titles to his name and a wonderful Delta Pet Partner who adores children.
Standard Poodle: black, male
Whelped: November 17th 2004
Breeder: Kimberly Koopman
Sire: Moonstone Clearly Noble
Dam: Moonstone's Enchanted Evening
Kohl is our first poodle, he's turned out pretty well, despite our lack of knowledge ;-)
He's a successful canine athelete with several agility titles to his name and a wonderful Delta Pet Partner who adores children.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Agility trial without contacts :-(
Agility trial without contacts :-(
7/25/2010 8:40:38 PM
We have just got back from competing at the Chuckunut Dog Training Assoc (CDTA) Agility Trial at the NW Fairgrounds in Lynden and the title of this entry says it all. Needless to say, Sky didn't hit one contact over the weekend and, despite an overnight training session reminding Sky what to do, Stephen retired him in Novice Standard today as soon as he missed his first contact. No doubt, Sky will be back to basic contact training this week.
However, Stephen and Sky had nice jumpers runs on both days (although they didn't qualify on Sat it was still a good run) and managed to qualify and come first in FAST today without having to use any of the 'contact' obstacles (A-frame, dog walk or teeter). Not a bad weekend overall but more work needed on those contacts!
Kohl had fun hanging out with his new girlfriend(s), an apricot standard poodle called Cayenne and her junior handler, 8yr old, Alison. Kohl was quite happy to go off with Alison ... until he saw one of us and then he'd sit down and refuse to move ... unless it was in our direction! Lisa (Alison's Mom) and Cayenne had a truly fantastic weekend, they entered 6 classes, qualified and came first in 5 and it was only handler error (wrong course) that prevented a clean sweep of the board. They also got two new titles so congratulations to them both!! We'll see Lisa, Alison & Cayenne again in a few week's time when we compete on their home turf in Sequim.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Kohl's Last Agility Trial ...
Kohl's Last Agility Trial ...
7/22/2010 11:23:41 AM
Last weekend we were at the Washington State Obedience Training Club, Inc. Agility Trial at Argus Ranch. This is the last agility trial that Kohl is entered into, Stephen has decided to retire Kohl :-( Kohl's heart really isn't into competition work, as I found out when trying to do competition obedience with him, Kohl excells at his therapy work and just being Kohl. However, he went out in style and we are very proud of his achievements which taught us both a lot and paved the way for Sky.
If Sky had been our first poodle we are both sure that things would have turned out very differently! Kohl is the perfect 'starter poodle' and that's exactly what he has done, he has gotten us started on the obedience and agility trails (or should that be trials!). He will continue to accompany us to the thrials as a spectator and he's sure to pick-up some therapy work while there too.
Here's how the cousins got on ... last Saturday (7/17/2010)
Despite getting to the venue early, Stephen nearly missed his first run as he was chatting with friends and totally distracted from what was happening in the ring! Poor Kohl was pulled out of his crate at the last minute and made it into the ring just in time. Stephen had to run him 'naked' (Kohl not Stephen!) as Kohl wasn't even wearing his 'competition collar' (flat buckled collar without tags). This proved to work well as a strategy for completing the course in the fasted time ever for Kohl and qualifying for the first time in JWW Excellent A Preferred. He only lost 3 points due to time penalties and won the class.
Unfortunately, I didn't get Kohl's finest hour on video as everything happened so quickly and I really wasn't prepared. I was delving in my bag to get the camera out, looked up and there was Kohl coming towards me through the weave poles! So I didn't get to see much of Kohl's finest hour :-(
We had more time to prepare for the STD class but that also meant that Kohl had more time to 'think' about it and decide that he'd done all he was going to do that day. I hid from view so that he wasn't distracted by my presence but it wasn't good enough to motivate him. Apparently, it wasn't a good run and Stephen had no regrets about making the decision to retire him.
Sky, on the other hand, has no inhibitions about performing in front of anyone! We found this weekend that he is a bit of a showman and has a blast in the ring. He was let down in Novice JWW by his handler who had underestimated his speed and tried to use the same tactics that he used with Kohl ... needless to say that this didn't work, you can see the results here.
By the time they competed in Standard, Sky had decided to put on a real performance and launced himself off the dog walk in a similar fashion to the way he launched himself off the A-frame in the previous trial. After this faux pas he started to behave and hit all his contacts, however, the pair of them messed up the weaves and then took an extra jump before the table :-( Boy is he fast ... take a look here, he certainly lives up to his name ('Sky's the limit' or should that be 'Reach for the Sky'?).
On Sunday, Stephen took Sky to our trainer's to concentrate on his contacts, needless to say, he performed perfectly without a crowd and all the exitement that a trial brings. Maybe he should be in the circus performing in front of a big crowd who will appreciate his antics!
We're off up to Bellingham his weekend to compete at the fairground in Lyndon so we'll see what happens ...
Catch-up time ... PSLRA Agility Trial
Catch-up time ... PSLRA Agility Trial
7/22/2010 10:53:34 AM
I have been rather remiss in keeping the show info up-to-date ... so here goes.
Puget Sound Labrador Retriever Association Agility Trial in Monroe
Sat June 26th
This is the show where Sky famously jumped from high up the A-frame and almost straight into a tunnel. You can see the video of this Novice FAST run on YouTube here. Kohl was more successful on this day, qualified and was placed first in FAST Open Preferred ... well done Kohl.
Sun June 27th
Today was Sky's day in Novice B JWW,... despite Stephen slipping on the wet grass and causing a refusal, they recovered quickly and did well enough to not only qualify but also place first! Their run can be seen here.