Clewe’s Agility Debut: Super Fantastic

I just had the best agility weekend ever!  I got to run my baby dog Clewe.  If he were a horse, he would have been champing at the bit to start agility.  He could hardly believe it was finally his turn.  Both Clewe and Gromit were entered in all eight runs at All Dogs CPE trial this weekend — Clewe at Level 1 for everything, and Gromit at Level C for games and Level 5 for Standard.  Gromit went into the weekend with 1 lonely Q at Level 5 Standard (out of 13 attempts, ouch).  I’ve been working hard on improving his contact behavior … but that’s been true for a while.  More on that in another post!

Executive Summary: Clewe Q’d in 7 of 8 runs!

Clewe started his agility career with a non-traditional Jackpot.  The gamble was simple: after the whistle blows, do exactly three different obstacles, none of which could be tunnels, and then hit the table.  Sounds easy, except for the tunnel wrapped in a C-shape around the table!  Clewe had a fantastic opening, earning 40 points.  He did three jumps, headed for the table, and then ducked into the irresistible tunnel instead.  Oops!  NQ. He got a little spooked on the dogwalk when he heard the judge say “three!” for his tunnel, but he came back and did the dogwalk fine later in the opening.  Great contacts, a few silly spins, but overall a great first agility run ever!

Next up: my old nemesis, Standard.  Clewe has great contacts though, so I wasn’t too worried.  He tried to bring me his leash at the start, but dropped it as soon as he realized that we were doing agility. All weekend, he was EXTREMELY SERIOUS about his EXTREMELY IMPORTANT AGILITY JOB.  What a honey!  He did run past one jump (just before the a-frame) — which turned out to be a theme this weekend.  I am definitely not supporting him enough — I break off a little too early, thinking he has committed to an obstacle, and then he either turns back to me, or runs to be beside me.  It’s not a terrible thing to have a handler-focused dog though :).  Overall: clean run, Q.

Third run of the day: Snooker. I tried for three 7’s in the opening, mostly because it actually was the right thing to do.  The lower-point obstacles were all jumps (I hate risking knocking one of those) and the 7 was a single tunnel with plenty of red jumps nearby.  Clewe had great sends to the tunnel, and finessed the reds nicely.  Alas, when I sent him to #3 in the close, I pulled off too early. He screeched to a halt and whipped around to see where I was going, and knocked over #3 with his butt.  Luckily, at Level 1 Snooker in CPE, he only needed 26 points, so he still Q’d!

Last run on Saturday was Jumpers.  I could tell he was a little tired, and he was a bit spinny on this run.  But, we still made it through and Q’d for the third time.

So … Saturday, 3 of 4 — not bad at all for a baby agility dog’s first day!

Sunday started bright and early with Wildcard. This one didn’t get taped, but my notes say “a little sketchy, ran past 2 jumps.”  I elected to do the poles at the third “choice” obstacle — he nailed them on the first try, super fast! So fast he almost slipped.  We are working on collection!  After that was FullHouse.  I decided to try poles again — again, he was great!  I did a big loop around the backside of the course, deliberately trying to practice supporting him better.  The first pass over the dogwalk didn’t go well — it looks to me like he slipped off a bit on the on ramp, then lost his balance and did a controlled exit from the top.  Luckily this did not make him leery — we looped around (as I had planned anyway) and he did a great dogwalk on the second pass.  I did end up on the wrong side of the dogwalk with all this, so completely boffed turning him to the double.  We did the “BC agility spin and dance” until the buzzer rang and then we escaped to the table.  We lost one point to time, and had 28 overall — which is, by the way, enough to Q at ANY level.  Go Clewe!

Third class on Sunday was another Standard.  I tried my best to stay calm and happy!  We had a funny bobble at the #3 tunnel — I called him off an off-course tunnel, and then he wasn’t sure if he should go in ANY tunnel.  He went in on the third try, and the rest of the run was reasonably smooth.  I front crossed him before the dogwalk to make  sure he paused and collected before charging up — it seemed to work!  Clewe got his second Standard Q with stately aplomb.  (Here is where we will refrain from mentioning that Gromit took 17 tries and 9+ months to get his first two Standard Q’s! Oops, I just mentioned it.)

Last class for the trial was Colors.  I chose the shorter, but slight more tricky-to-handle course.  The longer course copied the opening sequence from Standard, and I didn’t want him to think he could just start guessing which way to go based on last time!  He had a smokin’ fast time: 13.45 seconds.