Dog Agility Trial-Gem City CPE

Molly went to Dayton, Ohio last Friday to compete in a CPE Agility Trial. Saturday Molly was moving well but the contacts did her in and she only had one qualifying run. That was Level 4 standard. On Sunday she had a much better day. She Qualified in Level 5 Wildcard, Level 5 Jackpot, and Level 5 Snookers. Level 4 standard was a heartbreaker. One slight bobble on my part and Molly touched the A-frame when she should have gone into the tunnel. That was her only fault and it was entirely my fault. She had to do the A-frame twice in the run and I was determined that she would not miss the contact zone. After the second trip over the A-frame she needed to flip directly into the tunnel. When I froze for a second she turned and started to go back up the A-frame for a third time. She barely got one paw on the A-frame but that was all it took to incur an off course. At level 4 you can not get an off course and qualify. Oh well. Her Snookers run was awesome. She finished this run with 48 out of 51 possible points. Molly thanks her good friend Maria for running her in the Wildcard class while I was working at our photo setup. Maria did one nifty reverse flow pivot to get Molly into a tunnel when the tunnel was right next to the A-frame. Great discrimination work.

Now for little brother Jack. Jack ran one run a day at Level 1. He Qualified in each of his runs. He got a third place in Jumpers, a first place in Fullhouse (with 28 points) and a first place in Standard. In his standard class he had to also perform the A-frame twice. I was concerned but he did it like a veteran. He ran with enthusiasm and he had a great time. No stopping at the jumps. He did run over to visit one bar setter but returned to me as soon as I called him and we continued on our way to a blue ribbon. Attached are photos of Molly and Jack that their dad took at the agility trial this past weekend.

Molly and I went to Buckner, Ky. last weekend to watch our good friend Dixie and her owner, Diane earn their Master Agility Championship. So she is now MACH Shanti Dixie Cup of Sunshine. Molly was very happy for her cousin, Dixie and I was very happy for my good friend Diane. Diane has earned MACHs on three Australian Shepherds. Here are some photos of Dixie on MACH day.

Here are the photos from class. Shown: Callie, Mollie, Spice, Voodoo and Dice the lovely demo dog.

On Tuesday Molly went with Jack to his Novice Agility class (level 3). Molly had a good time but would have preferred to do all the running. Too much watching for her. Dice, the sheltie was also there to be a help to our wonderful instructor, Lisa. Dice spent his time being the Demo dog and running with one of the students to help work on a particular move. Jack is making good progress but he is still trying to get the hang of all those weave poles. Molly would like for you to see some of Jack's classmates. We have worked with, been classmates of, and watched the wonderful progress of these up and coming agility teams.

Pictured are: Strider, Cowboy, Sam, Jack and Molly. I will do another post with the photos of some of Jack's other classmates.

Molly is such an honest dog. What you see is what you get. She always tries to do what she thinks you want her to do and she follows directions beautifully. Ok-if food is involved and no one is looking she might not be so honest. But her younger brother Jack is another matter. He is always looking for the angles. When I got my first dog (Charlie), I started with him sleeping in a crate. He was trained with the use of a crate, but after two years I did away with the crate and Charlie slept either in our bed or on his own small dog bed. When we started going to dog shows, Charlie did not take kindly to the crate thing. He just did not see that he was a dog and thought that he belonged with us not locked away. He would bark for hours. Once on a trip to an agility trial in Ohio he barked for a solid 6 hours. I swore that I would never do away with the crates again. That being said; Jack came into our lives 13 months ago and he has always slept in his crate. The routine has been for me to let the dogs out, bring them back in, call them to their crates and give them a treat. All was well with Jack as long as the treat was special. Recently I tried using their regular food and suddenly Jack did not want to go into his crate. Last week I let the dogs out and when they came back in Jack headed straight for our bedroom. He went under the bed, to the very center of the king size bed. It was as if he knew exactly where to be to keep me from reaching him. So I went to bed and waited for him to hop up on the bed, then I carried him to his crate. The third night he out waited me. He waited until I was sound asleep before he came out from under the bed. See I am a slow learner. The fourth night I finally got smart enough to close the bedroom doors. Jack came in, ran straight to the bedroom door and then turned around and looked at me. But he won. I am now back to special treats for going to the crate. He is very smart and very cute and very manipulative. I will post a recent photo so you can see just how adorable he is.

Friday evening we worked on taking some photos of Molly and Jack and of course the photos that just happened are better than the ones that were planned. This photo was taken after we had finished taking the planned photos. It was a beautiful late summer evening and the light was just right. If I had planned this, the toy would be prettier or at least turned around. But those eyes are just stunning. We are working on a book of Molly photos. It incorporates photos about agility and photos of the things that Molly loves to do and the people that Molly loves.

This past weekend we went to Grove City, Ohio to take photos at an AKC agility trial. I tried to get some shots of Molly and Jack together. Here is one that I like. But unless Molly see a treat she thinks the whole photo shoot time is a waste. But Jack sure is cute.