CPE Agility Trial (Flexible Flyers)

Sunday was our DAY!

Molly and I survived the freezing cold, numb toes, see-your-breath agility trial this weekend!  Saturday was a bit of a bust, but a lot of fun.

We ran Standard first and Molly was more than a little crazed.  She blasted off of the start line and did not stop blasting nearly the entire time!  We were overtime and had 33 faults, but it was honestly so much fun to run the course and laugh at the typical Molly-antics.  The below video is Saturday's Standard Run and it is indeed a hoot!

Later that evening we had a Jumpers course.  Molly was a bit more controlled, but still two seconds over time with only 15 faults.  That was still an NQ.  If it wasn't for Molly's zooming around jumps and my frantic recalling her into "back jumps", we might have Q'd.  Lesson learned!  (See?  This was the exact stuff that I was talking about learning by jumping into trialing.  This whole weekend was a great learning experience!)

Saturday's course maps, Standard (left) and Jumpers (right).  Click to Enlarge.

Sunday was up bright and early and much busier.  Fullhouse game in the morning to break Molly in, followed by Standard and Colors!

I was looking forwards to Fullhouse.  It is not as structured as Saturday's games, and left a bit more "blasting" elbow room in for Molly.  The only rules were that we had to do 3 jumps, 2 "rounds" (tunnels or tires) and one joker (contacts, triple jump).  Jumps worth 1 point, Rounds 2 points, and Jokers 5 points - and at our Level we had to earn 19 points.  I had big plans, and we did almost none of them!  Molly was off like a shot and I wasn't as quick to stop her since there is no such thing as off course.  To be honest I am still not entirely sure what happened!  But we got our 19 points and our first qualifying score in CPE Agility!  

Next up was Standard.  If you look at the course map (below) you will see a jump leading straight to the dog walk.  Uh-oh.  I was nervous about that!  I thought we were NQ for sure.  I will let the video speak for us.  Molly still did get a bit onto that dog walk, but it was our ONLY fault (5 faults) and we Q'd!

And last game of the weekend for us was Colors.  Colors are two overlapping mini-courses.  You choose which course you are going to take and stick with it.  I chose the course that was semi-similar to our Standard run.  Another reason was that by the time we got in the vicinity of the Ring Crew member in the corner of the building, Molly would be jetting towards her beloved A-frame instead of wanting to go on a greeting excursion.  It worked.  0 faults and our 3rd Q for the day!

Sunday Course Maps- (Fullhouse Left, Standard Center, Colors Right)  Click to Enlarge.

 

So when's the next one??  (March actually.  *smile*)

I learned a whole lot this weekend, as I said.  I also worked Ring Crew and Leash Runner.  Working Ring Crew for the higher levels allowed me a front and center view point to watch lots of experienced handlers and how they handled problem situations.  

And by the time I did my Colors run, you may have noticed when Molly blew around a jump, I tried my best to move around that jump so as not to recall her OVER it.  Also, start-line stays are VERY important.  In Colors I sat her crooked and thought to straighten her before I started, also good.
I definitely made some very dopey handler errors (if you are remotely agility-savvy, you will see that in the videos), but I will learn from my mistakes!

I had a lot of fun with my crazy girl.  And I think that it is safe to say that I am becoming addicted to agility.