We did NADAC agility today. It went ok. Fun to see some people I haven't seen in ages. Judges were both competitors from where we moved. There was also someone I haven't seen since last time we went to Champs...if we even talked, lol! We've been FB friends though.
Mud Qd 2/6 runs, lol. He was not reading their a-frame this weekend. It didn't feel like pain avoidance to me, and he was fine with the AKC a-frames at the trials last month. It's like he just didn't understand it. He missed the discrimination in Chances both rounds. Second time I sent him back to try again and he missed it again. Finally I said "here, climb", he went up. So 3 NQs were not doing the a-frame the first time. The first time he ran by and came back through the tunnel. That video is below. He had no issues the second round.
His weaves were about as expected. Couldn't maintain 12 on the first attempt and the second attempt had funny footwork. He just flat out ran by them in Round 2 of Regular. I took that as a "No thank you." He went in and had the awful tiny step footwork, but did all the weaves. I said out loud "You look so uncomfortable." He Qd that run. 🙄
The other NQ was a handling mistake in Grounders because I was forgetting where we were going, lol. Not a big deal. And I really can't complain about NQs because I rarely train my dog.
I'm still getting a feel for how many runs we can do and what kind of runs and when. I don't think I will enter anything with 12 weaves until I get him more solid on them in practice. Which is probably as much about building strength in those muscles as practicing weaving. I think he is mentally? physically? pretty done after a couple of runs in the morning. So I'm thinking at this club's trials, I may need to only enter both rounds of whatever they've got listed for the first class in each ring. I also don't think I want to enter him in more than 4 runs a day.
As much as Mud can compete/qualify in agility, I still get this feeling it's just not his thing. He'll do whatever I ask, but he can take or leave agility. I don't think he looks like a miserable dog that hates the sport, but it's not his world. My first dog, Blue, adored the sport. I think the physical issues really have tainted his experience, even if some dogs will work through it.
Oh, someone asked why I wasn't at the Stakes seminar last weekend or w/e and I'm like ... my dog can't even weave twelve poles, I'm not attempting Stakes/bonus lines/etc with him?????? I don't train him. It's not a priority with him because he's been sick and hurt. I also don't think people realize not everyone has an endless budget for this stuff.
