Day 1 of the 2013 NADAC Championships is in the bag and we are back at the hotel. I left the fairgrounds around 8:00 and they had not yet finished running Starter Stakes. What does that tell me? Tomorrow is going to be a very long day.... There was no Team round today and we add that tomorrow.
Today went well, aside from feeling like I spent more energy on Kizzy than I did any of the three dogs I was running. She was NOT a happy camper this morning and apparently the people crating near me were starting to complain. This means that I then spent the rest of my day either in the stall or having her with me to A) wear her out and B) make sure she wasn't screaming.
Round 1 was more or less just your typical course and I believe it was only 20 obstacles (plus the extra start hoop). Kaiser had too much momentum going over the a-frame and I was not able to call him back in time and he ended up touching the dog walk. That was his only fault in that round, though and he maintained great speed. Fast enough to be the second fastest dog in the class, but the faults dropped him down to 7th. Yay for ribbons! I was glad that I signed him up for the training runs, though, because I was able to train his dog walk at a distance right before our run and it stuck!
Luke had a clean run but there were two fairly big time-sucking bobbles where I had to redirect him. Because of that he came in something like 22 or 23.
Secret is freaking nuts today. She took off at the start line in round 1, but with no real direction. That meant that she veered to the right at the a-frame and I had to reset her for that. Then she LAUNCHED like a bat out of hell off the dog walk (20' away -- distance line) and then ran to me and flipped out to back jump the jump after the dog walk. Crazy dog. That earned us 20 faults and she also got 22 or 23 (I don't remember which of them was which).
We had a fairly long wait until Round 2 (but not as long as we'll have tomorrow....) and we all crashed in the stall for a while. It's impossible to actually nap there, though, thanks to all of the barking dogs around us. Not that I can complain....
I thought Kaiser would do very well on this course but he threw a couple of surprises at me. I failed to realize how alluring the tunnel under the a-frame would be as the dogs came around and Kaiser sucked right into it (it was far enough out that I didn't even consider it a discrimination, but you did have to pull in to get the a-frame). The distance portion was a send out to an arc of four hoops after the a-frame and I said "out" -- apparently this means, "Turn away" because that's what Kaiser did at the first hoop. He just circled the frame of the hoop, went through it again (10 faults) and kept going. He stopped high on his dog walk, but he did stop, so yay! Then we just finished as fast as we could. The 20 faults netted us 10th place and Kaiser dropped to 11th overall.
Luke had a lovely run, although he also contemplated turning left at the first hoop in the distance challenge. Hmm. Then he was golden until the weaves, where he totally missed the entry. But then he missed it the second time, too. Thankfully he got it on the third try and I ran way ahead to get him to finish as fast as he could (a straight finish into a tunnel). Luke was 19th in this round and moved up to 18th overall. Fingers crossed for more clean runs!
Secret is having a grand old time in the ring. She has decided that contacts are optional, I guess. I don't know if this is thanks to our recent speed work and all the quick-releasing (gee, you think?), but she was just blowing everything left and right tonight. The agility gods blessed us, though, and the judges must have thought they saw a toenail in each of them. Secret scored a clean run tonight and came in 9th place. Her weaves were the only part where I felt she was running slow, so I left her in the last set of 12 and she did speed up to catch me at the finish. Had the weaves been speedier she would have easily been in the ribbons. This placement moved Secret up to 15th in the standings.
We're back at the hotel now and Kizzy has been acting a bit off. She's sleeping now, so I'm hoping that it's just a case of being WAY over tired and not knowing what to do with herself... Earlier she just looked "uncomfortable" -- like maybe she was going to vomit, but as soon as I picked up the leash and took her outside she looked totally normal again. I think we all just need a good long night of sleep.
Especially because tomorrow will be a VERY long day. Maybe we'll come back to the hotel during team.
Thanks for the updates - probably just the fact Secret is having a grand time makes any placement irrelevant!
ReplyDeleteI didn't hear Kizzy screaming but I wasn't at the stall much. I need to come and actually meet all your dogs!
ReplyDeleteWhat's with the timers being at the extra hoop? Why don't they just number it if they are doing that?
Are you calculating your overall place yourself because I haven't seen that anywhere?
I'm glad you haven't heard it.... Yesterday morning some friends of mine told me that a woman across from us was bitching very loudly about it and was threatening to go to Sharon to complain. After that I didn't leave Kizzy in the stall alone. A friend of mine held her while I ran and I spent the rest of the day with her. That's why I was so exhausted yesterday -- it was more work taking care of Kizzy than it was running any of my dogs!
ReplyDeleteToday she stayed in the car until I found out that she broke out of her crate and jumped out the car window (let's just say I'm thanking my lucky stars that someone that knows me saw it happen, snagged her and put her back). So when we came back for round 4 I was back to putting her in the stall, but she now has a 12" bully stick in front of her and it seems to make her happy.
I have no idea why the timers are at the start hoop, I've been wondering the same thing. Apparently they are counting the yardage, but you can't be faulted on that obstacle. Well whatever, it's a hoop, like they can fault it? I liked the timers at the 2nd obstacle because then they are full speed. Meh.
And yes, I'm obsessively tallying all of our scores after each round. Before I left home I made a spreadsheet that listed every dog/handler in each of our classes and I'm tracking scores on the entire class. That's loads of fun for the 12" Vet/JH class, I tell you -- the biggest class at Champs. lol Secret's is second biggest, so it takes a little bit of time, but what else have I got to do here?! :o)