LEAP - May 25-27th, 2013

My agility friends decorated my crates (well the dog's crates 

anyway) for my birthday. As it turns out, they also decorated 

my puppy. This is what I came back to when I attempted to 

collect Kip for his standard run on Saturday.

What a weekend at the LEAP trial - lots of great friends, a lot of laughs, a fantastic birthday and some absolutely fantastic agility runs logged by the Magica boys. We'd all had a weekend off following the Rhode Island trial and in that week work got the best of me - I logged more than 74 hours between midnight Saturday and noon on Friday. Add to that a house guest part of last week and a whopping 6 inches of rain Wednesday-Friday and that left very little time to work the dogs - or myself, but thankfully the skies cleared (literally and figuratively) for us to make our way to Connecticut for the weekend.

Teller had a 3 for 6 weekend, one double-Q (on my birthday) and 31 points. Not his best weekend statistically, but he continues to run well. He knocked a bar on a great JWW run on Monday - which is my least favorite way of NQing - if I had to pick just one anyway - missed contacts suck too but at least I can micro-manage those :-) The other two standard NQs were weird mis-communication moments - Teller go out (and he doesn't), Teller tunnel (what tunnel???). This dog has given me so much - and given of himself so freely, he continues to owe me nothing - what he does he does so long as he's happy.

Saturday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzzygEE45pc

Sunday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA1wLaMx_o4

Monday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGsrVwaSnzY

Kipling had another absolutely phenomenal weekend - running 6 for 6 with an even 80 MACH points. A 'perfect' weekend (that's his second perfect Masters weekend in a row) and his 3rd, 4th and 5th QQ's in a row (QQ #s 7,8 and 9). Kip had a 3rd placement in Saturday's JWW run and just outside of the ribbons (5th and 6th) in his other two JWW classes of 50+ dogs. This puts Kip just about 100 points short of a ticket to Harrisburg, PA for the 2014 AKC National Championships.

Saturday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeqtsi9p5eE

Sunday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrUP_GMRfms

Monday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxUZ1cjgNJc

 We have a couple of weeks off (and back to work for this human) before we take another run at it!

Pool time - May 20th, 2013

Quasi-vacation time for the dogs - quasi-work overload for Erica this week, but I made time for the boys to swim this evening after work. Kip was *a little* excited...

Providence and Middlesex - May 11-12, 2013

Kippie snuggles. oh-dark thirty.

Off to Rhode Island this weekend - a long drive but a really nice venue and good footing. Complications due to life meant that we didn't get to head out until well after 6pm putting us at the hotel at 10:30pm. LONG freakin' day for the team, some bad news about a friend's dog and three dogs who had spent a good chunk of their day either sleeping or in crates made settling in tough - I don't think we got more than a couple hours sleep Friday night.

Just before heading to bed I asked Kip (snuggled into the small of my back) if he could pretty-please get 50 points this weekend. That would be super-swell baby dawg and would put us over the half way mark to his qualification for the 2014 NAC. Please Kippie Doo?

I'm too exhausted for suspense, so the summary of the weekend is as follows:
Kip came through the weekend with a perfect four for four weekend: TWO QQ's (#5 and #6) and 61 MACH points - oh and a placement in Masters Standard.




Teller not to be outdone had a credible three for four weekend, running amok in his JWW run on Saturday.Teller's tally: one QQ, 45 points.

TMAC - May 4-5, 2013

We're back from our weekend in Conneticut. Perhaps our greatest accomplishment was that all four of us made it through the weekend without getting any ticks. I freakin' hate ticks, hate em, hate em, hate em!! I kept the boys on the short grass, away from tree lines and kept them liberally coated with Sirius in Vermont's No Flies on Me. It worked!

It's 5am, time to get up!!!

Teller had a 50% weekend - two 13 point JWW runs. Saturday's standard NQ was all me, I tried to serp a line after the a-frame (you can see it on Kip's video): Tunnel, call over a-frame, to non-wing. The weaves were the next obstacle. Teller didn't get the weave cue, curved towards me, bounced off the table and completely missed his weave entry. My bad. Sorry Woo. We didn't get this run on video - flip the coin there - see your mistake or just let it go? I know it was my fault, Teller yelled at me (rightfully so) and he got plenty of chicken.

We came back together for a pretty JWW Q Saturday afternoon.


Kip also missed the same weave entry in standard - though I handled it MUCH better for him after flunking Teller. It was an entry he typically gets in his sleep and he missed it. Oh well!


Kip's JWW run on saturday was equally pretty - I pushed a line and a bar came down out of the tunnel. Take a look at the speed he turns on afterwards though - triple, jump (blind cross) tunnel - holy shitake!


Sunday is a new day, Kip got to go first in both runs. A gorgeous standard run, but an extra #17 tunnel cost us the Q.


Kip came back strong for a JWW Q in the afternoon. I mis-handled a pinwheel (I was watching my dog and not moving my feet!) and ended up having to rear-cross a sequence - and I had to wait for him to do the rear. I probably cost us 2 seconds there (and cost us a placement to boot).


Teller NQ'ed his A-frame on Sunday morning. I had pushed that line with Kip and did the same thing with Teller and it just didn't work. Oh well. the rest was training!


JWW Q for Teller Sunday afternoon: