27 more QQ to go!

Day two of our AKC trial debut was just as successful as the first! Secret brought home another QQ today, which means hopefully we can keep moving our way up quickly and get to the fun courses! I have to say, I really did like the Excellent courses this weekend. The AKC style is slightly different than USDAA, but I think in a way that appeals more to Secret. The spacing is a little tighter, but seeing as Secret isn't really one to extend out and have a huge stride, it fits her well.

We could have slept in today, but I opted to go in at 8:00 to help work the Excellent class. I'm curious to see how other AKC trials work, because the number of people who volunteered at this one was PATHETIC. The trial was run by the Coulee Kennel Club and they were almost entirely reliant upon their meager member attendance (most of whom weren't even running in the trial) to fill positions. Getting any of the actual trial participants to step in to set bars or whatever else was needed was like pulling teeth. I guess now I understand some of the threads I've seen on various agility lists. I've just never ran into that at NADAC or USDAA.

The day started with JWW, which means that Secret didn't have to wait quite as long for her first run since that runs faster than Standard. She definitely was not overly peppy going into this run. The reason for this became apparent a short while later when we were walking outside and she had a bad case of diarrhea. Sorry girl, I guess a person can feed too many Charlie Bear treats... (Something new I'm trying mostly because of Kaiser)

We got through the course without any faults (thank god, because it was as straight forward as they come), but I got a little too far ahead of Secret on the opening line and she really slowed down on me. She finished well, though, and she definitely jumps nicer when she is moving with more energy.

We waited forever for Standard (the Masters dogs were having a boatload of problems today...), but Secret was much peppier when she came out of the crate before that run! This course went jump, jump, teeter -- and again I'm very happy with her teeter performance! I feel we mutually screwed up the tunnel entrance a few obstacles later -- I darn near just continued on to the dog walk without fixing the tunnel, but thank god I've spent so much time reading the rules because in the back of my mind it flickered, "Hey idiot, you can still qualify with an off course in Novice Standard!" Of course, then she promptly refused the table. I can't say I blame her; Secret was probably reading my hesitation because the thing looked lopsided when we were walking... I did get her on it after she barked at me for what seemed like forever, but thankfully she stayed planted in one spot and only incurred one refusal.  ;o) She sailed through the rest of the course as I held my breath and prayed for no more faults. We finished on a 90 and got a Q!

I enjoyed our first weekend of AKC agility. In general I still think the people are kind of nuts, but thankfully I'm not really bothered by that sort of thing. I worked the gate for every Masters class and really got an up-close experience with these people. I'll be happy to be a voice of reason among the insane. lol

Since things went so well, I suppose we ought to keep it up, eh? I have to get our next entry in the mail TOMORROW to make it in time for the draw date, so that's on my agenda for this evening. We'll just head up to Minneapolis for a day at the end of June and try to make some progress on getting Kaiser's height card. That is, assuming we can get in. Fingers crossed that we'll get lucky!