Hamilton Agility Trial

We just did one day of the Hamilton Agility Trial the end of September. I have wanted to return to this trial since I was there a couple of years ago, but it has never worked out.

Page had a very good day, her first in Open Standard and JWW. I was extremely proud of her in Open JWW. The opening was two jumps straight at a tunnel, but of course you didn't take the tunnel but turned 90 degrees to a jump. Page didn't even look at the jump. She also nailed her weave poles.

However, I learned a valuable lesson on this run. And in reviewing my runs from the Field Spaniel trial it's one I should have learned two weeks ago. I cannot rear cross Page out of the weave poles because I'll likely be too far behind her to support upcoming obstacles.

The rear cross after the weaves put me too far behind and I got a refusal and couldn't support the 180 further down the line. In fairness, all the fast dogs bit the dust at that 180. And the front cross before the weave poles was ugly. So we'll chalk this run up to a pretty good run and a valuable lesson learned!



Next up was Devon's Excellent JWW run. This run needs some background. Kathy and I shared a room the night before (with 5 dogs). Around 2 a.m. we woke up to the sound of someone getting sick. Poor Devon was really, really sick. She threw up about 8-10 times, once on Kathy's bed and twice on mine, not to mention all over the floor. Kathy wins best roomie award for surviving this night!

After an hour of clean up and a trip outside to potty (and seeing a cat that Devon wanted to chase), we finally went back to bed. Devon slept well; I did not. Page decided she had to potty again at 5:30 a.m. Not a popular decision in my book, but she was insistent. Needless to say, I was exhausted the next day.

After she was so sick the night before, I hadn't planned on running Devon at all the next day. However, as the morning went on, she was in a good mood and clearly feeling better. Sammy shared some plain cooked chicken, and Devon about ripped my arm off for it. I decided to run her and give her the cooked chicken before and after. I decided Devon would be more confused by not running at all than having a bad run.

It wasn't the most stellar run. The push out of the weaves that usually works well for us really tanked. But Devon was happy running to the end and she really liked getting more chicken. In the end I'm glad I ran her.



The last run of the day was for Page in Open Standard. This was a challenging course; not as difficult as the Excellent course. However, it was ripping and would get a lot of speed out of Page which I would have to manage.

As many times as I walked it, you would think I would have known where to put my front cross after the A frame. However, I was in the wrong place when I rotated. Imagine my surprise when I was standing in the middle of the jump bar. Bless Page! She acted like it was no problem and I did that all the time (I don't by the way). She jumped the bar keeping it up, and then when I reacted by sending her to the weaves, so sailed into them like she done that a hundred times. I took time to admire her, and then I realized I better get my butt up there for the rest of the run!

I was very proud of Page jumping into me from the triple. That was tough and the timing had to be perfect and the dog fully understand a serpentine. She didn't look like she was only 19 months old! The rest of the run was lovely with a small refusal and off course. I had lots of folks come up to me complimenting this run! It was a great way to end the day and get Page's first Open Standard leg!