CDTC Agility Trial - Saturday April 10
We only did one day of agility this weekend and Riot had a really good day qualifying in all three of his runs!
He got to run FAST for the first time (they don't offer FAST a lot around here). His first time out in Novice FAST he Q'd getting the 5th highest point total -- I've never gone for max points in FAST, just plan for enough to Q and get out. It was a really nice smooth flowing course and the send was a simple jump tunnel combination. The only contact was an a-frame and hitting the contact was fine, however, he did not have a good stop on the bottom.
After that was Open JWW where he Q'd and got 4th place. We're still having issues finding/acknowledging the weaves poles on course -- especially when the entrances to them are straight on or nearly straight on, so we had a refusal at the weaves again. His time was 32.38 and course time was 38. I'm very please with the way the first half of this course looks. He was nice and drive-y and waited very patiently for his leadout. I've watched the video a ton of times and I'm not sure what I could have done differently to get the weave entrance?
Finally Open std, he Q'd, he was clean, and he had the fastest time in his class (10 seconds less than the closest qualifier) and he got 1st place! The course did have a couple of challenging parts to it, but he did well. At the end of the a-frame there was an off-course tunnel. I did hold his a frame contact probably for a good second and took a couple of lateral steps before I released him to pull him away from the tunnel which worked beautifully. The teeter was the obstacle before the table and I held his teeter contact for what seemed like an eternity -- I always feel so silly doing that, but I know it's good practice and he's so fast, I don't have to worry about making course time. The dog walk was the obstacle before the last jump and I didn't hold it as long as the other two obstacles (actually I'm not 100% if he waited for my release or self-released). He did nail his weave pole entrance on this course which was a jump with a nearly 90° turn to the weaves. Course time was 70 seconds and Riot had the fastest time in the 20 inch class at 52.66. Without holding his contacts, that could have easily been under 50.