Monday, February 6, 2012

Maybe Not the Prettiest Yet....But How Fun was This?.....

Our second trial, this was our Standard run which was not the prettiest but it is my favorite so far. I am still trying to learn the best way to get to the ring. This time I had to be there a littler earlier and Cricket fixated on the dogs in the ring. SHE WAS OVER THE TOP wild!!! She could not take food, she could not respond to me, everyone around the ring was laughing saying boy she just wants to go. I HAD TO have a start line stay because of the jump/tunnel to make sure if I got too far lateral and ahead that she did not just come to me--I know her. On top of that it was standard and Cricket gets pretty excited doing agility, and she was starting out over the top, I knew this run had the potential to make an agility bloopers video.

SOOOOOO PROUD of my little girl, she held her start line, she was SOLID!!! She has learned the price of agility is staying when you need to ;-) and guess she feels it is a fair price to play. Funny because I tried all new things and never taught it in the traditional sense like I have taught all my other dogs but guess what, she has the strongest stay.

Going to the aframe my plan A was a front cross...plan B was a blind cross, that is what I really wanted to do and figured would happen,....plan C was a rear cross. Not sure with the aframe in competition how a rear cross would work.

When CrickSTAR BLASTED off the start line she was WAY faster then she has been before in a trial so we were at plan C the rear cross. I LOVE THAT AFRAME, met all expectations and I thought at first she did not read the rear cross and that is why she went to the chute, but when I looked at the tape she did check in and see me but then I think I flung out my arm and looked like I might be going to the chute, we do a lot of sending from around the world on tunnels so I think she just was trying to do what I said.

It is funny when Cricket gets a bad signal and I try to fix it it ticks her off, so we had a little discussion and had to get it together before we could go on. Luckily that was just one refussal.

The rest of the run I was sooooo excited how she held her table, how she did the teeter and stopped at the end and waited for a release even though I was not right there, and how the dog walk looked.

IT WAS A FUN, FUN, FUN RUN! It felt so good to see Cricket with a little more confidence and looking so happy, it might take us awhile to gel, but boy she is a cool little girl and that run just showed me what it is going to be like, when we iron out my handling it is going to be fun.




This was our first run of the weekend, a clean run and a Q, we got third, but boy I sort of froze a couple of times and forgot what I was doing,damn those nerves, when I was telling Cricket where to go she did great, but yea I gotta do what ever to try to get moving better myself.... Luckily we were there the next day and I got my ring nerves more under control the second day. I figured I should post it all because I don't like when people starting out get the feeling from watching others that it is always really pretty from the very start. ;-).

15 comments:

Sam said...

Wow you guys have Mark Upshaw out there as a judge a lot! I guess he must be from your area?

The runs were lovely, Cricket is really really responsive to you and it's clear she's going to go really far!

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

LOL, you have a good eye. Mark Upshaw is from this area and I rent his field to practice a lot. The funny thing is that I have never got a Q on one of his runs-always tiny things happen-nice courses he is not a hard picky judge but none of my dogs have Qd with him. This weekend we broke the Mark Upshaw curse and got two Qs for two runs, whoo hooo, the curse is gone ;-).

Sam said...

I've only shown under him twice. Blew the STD run horribly and had a slow Q in the heat on a JWW course. I recognized his voice as he called the table count in your vids. LOL

Sara said...

Watched the videso with the sound on, andnow Chewy is running from window to window looking for Cricket!

Great job Kathy! Cricket clearly loves running and playing agility with you!

Chris and Ricky said...

Wow - look at Cricket go! It must be so exciting to have a dog that gets so over the top watching agility and wants to do it so badly! Her stay was fantastic! And so were her teeter and DW and table contacts! Awesome how she just froze and allowed you to get into place! Great job!

I think the jumpers looked good too and it did not look like you were stopping or confused to me!

Congrats on a wonderful day!

Diana said...

Great runs. At least she stops and waits for you. Thats a good sign. At least she not just grabbing obstcales. Great job!!

Natasha said...

Love that rock-solid start-line in the Standard, I need to train my dogs one of those!! :) What kind of stuff do you do to get it so solid?

Both runs were fantastic, I just love to watch Cricket run!

Laura and The Corgi, Toller, & Duck said...

She looks so great!!! Happy, fast, awesome contacts!

Steffi said...

Cricket is looking great - and she's such a good girl with her contacts! You can tell from the video how much she loves running with you :)

- Steffi

vici whisner said...

yippie! video. You guys look great. Those starters/novice courses are hard because they have alot of just run full out with no areas to catch up and the two of you are still figuring it out.

Keep up the good work. I can not wait to see more. Will you be at the DART trial March 17? I'm coming down for that with my friend. LOVE LOVE LOVE the videos. You guys are on your way!!!

Elli the cat said...

Way to go!! You both looked so good, and the CrickStar sure seems to like agility. Purrsonally, I like chasing birdies better---have you ever thought of adding bunnies to your agility course? ... The kitty purrspective.....

Sagira said...

Great job! That first run looks like the obstacles were so far apart and a lot of running involved in it. Keep up the great work. :)

Misty Young said...

She looks great! Such a baby dog, and yes, when you gel, it will be awesome! I wish Hustle would weave that way!

Cynthia said...

You guys are looking great! Very nice work with Cricket. We've had Mark Upshaw out here a couple of times, just a couple weeks ago at our last trial. I like him, but dang his memorized briefing gets old. LOL

Anonymous said...

Hey there, looks like she is ready to GO GO GO. Looking forward to seeing you run in person. Love City of Industry, Scoop had fun in JWW but didn't fair well in STD.