Trial three (aka, snooker fail)

So third trial this weekend. First trial away from home court. The venue had two rings running simultaneously, one for standard runs (two per level), the other for games.



First run was jackpot. Really nice course. We needed 32 points for level 1, we got 49. Amazingly we missed 1st by one point. Some overachieving border collie got 50 points. Griff was on, on, on, focused, ready to roll. No hesitation due to the new location, no sniffing or dawdling at all.



By the time our next run(s) came up, both snooker and standard were on our level. I had walked both courses, but totally fudged the snooker course as I really didn't have a good plan. I ended up planning to start where my instructor started, which was the first mistake. Then we had to walk standard, and it was basically stand around and try to predict which ring would get to us first. As it happened, it was snooker.



I have heard about the two second snooker course, and ours was not over that fast, but basically 10 seconds and 4 points later, we were whistled off. After the first red jump, he took a tunnel instead of the aframe, which would have been fine except I didn't have a good plan to deal with it. Then, on the second red jump, I screwed him up and he back jumped it. Whistle and out!


I was pretty frustrated. He had already far exceeded my expectations by staying with me and rocking the jackpot course, but I totally could have predicted and done better had I not gotten flustered and messed him up. We then had to immediately go run standard, and I almost pulled him from the run. Good thing I didn't, as it was his best run of the day and earned him a first and Q.

The last two runs both had minor bobbles. The second standard course he went into the wrong end of a really tight tunnel, which earned us 5 faults. The wildcard run he backjumped again!!! so we got 5 faults from that as well, but both runs Q'd. He's now finished his level two standard title and we are one stupid snooker Q away from his entire level 1 title.

So, overall, not nearly as clean as my first two trials, but way better than it could have been. My main concerns are 1. backjumping, 2. he seemed to be a bit distracted at the end because he was tired, and 3. obstacle discriminations. I really need to be happy about how it went tho, as I wasn't even sure he'd stay in the ring with me.

Now I want to start competing in another venue because there isn't another CPE trial until July close enough for me to run it....I've apparently been bitten by the bug! I also wish I could find a second class or another practice facility so we can work somewhere new.

(And I want another agility dog ;))


Snooker. I hates you.