We hope you enjoy some of our latest
videos and brags from Anna Burbank's Pre-Agility Class:
JUNE 15, 2009- Bridget and Spring rock in DOCNA Agility! I just have to brag for Marie and her border terrier, Bridget, from our Friday night Agility class. They competed for the first time in Agility yesterday. They qualified and placed second in both Standard and Jumpers. They also filled in for a Trigility team (relay race) that was missing a third partner and did the jumpers portion of the relay in fine style - no faults and good time. On the North American Challenge (qualifying event for Nationals) DOCNA doesn't offer a beginner class, so all starting dogs must enter Intern level. They had a minor fault on the run, but did a nice job on the rest of the course, which was pretty challenging including a set of 12 weave poles, which they did beautifully. Both judges complimented Marie and Bridget on her runs and were impressed with what a great job they did at their first trial. I'm pretty impressed, too!!!
Bridget's First Agility Trial
Bridget at Agility Class
I don't generally like to post brags, but since I'm bragging for Marie I have to brag for Spring. My dog, Spring, did not have as high a Qualifying rate as Bridget, but we did put in some nice performances. After being completely stressed out and disconnected on her Friday night runs, she settled in and qualified in both Standard courses and a Jumpers course on Saturday. Her obstacle performance was great in all but her last run on Saturday, including her running contacts, which she hit every time.
The last run on Saturday and first few runs on Sunday Spring was biting her rear end, tucking her tail and generally miserable. Turned out she had a swollen anal gland. I checked it on Saturday, but did an internal exam after Marie said that with some dogs you can't tell from the outside. Poor thing must have been in a bit of pain. After fixing the problem she put in some nice runs Sunday, though still was not quite herself. I'm glad Marie was there - it's so nice to trial with a vet tech!
Spring got lots of compliments on her speed - including the judge, who said that Spring's dog walk performance was so fast that she couldn't actually judge the contact (they have to assume that you hit it if they can't definitively see that you DIDN"T hit it, at least in DOCNA). One of the nicest compliments we got was from our Trigility team. We were trying to figure out who would run which part of the relay and one of them said that the two of them should pick and Spring should take what was left over because "Spring can do anything". Wow! Not bad for a 16 month old dog.
It was a very enjoyable weekend and I'm looking forward to having some of our other new teams join us in competitions soon.
Anna
This only the 8th week into the class
(2nd session of a 6 week class). The course is one with
a cross, which everyone is just learning. As you can
see, the dogs get it faster than the people do! You
can also see how safe our agility classes are – the
dogs not running are leashed and kept busy and interacting
with their owners or in down stays and the working "field" is blocked off with baby gates, so no biting or out
of control incidents can happen.
Trixie: This is only
Trixie’s
2nd time off lead! First time over the A Frame!!!! We
are all so proud of Trixie and her handler, Jerily!
Maria and Jocelyn - Sally – the little
Rat Terrier, developed a fear of the contact obstacles. You can
see here that there is no fear anymore! Nestle, the CKCS, has
a problem getting his head off of the ground…not
anymore!
GG learning agility - GG, the Westie is an all around fantastic
dog. She excels at free shaping, Rally obedience, playtime with
other dogs and now, agility!
Pam and Emma - This is my new girl Emma. I am so proud of her!
The first few weeks of doing agility, she thought that it was
a free-for-all and just ran around the room, totally out of control.
George agility - Georgie is a graduate of my aggressive/reactive
dog class. The first time off leash, he raced around and around,
banked off the tunnel and hit the wall and kept going! Yikes!
This time (a scant 2 weeks later), you can see him really working
with Kitt and NOT reacting to any of the other dogs or people.
I am “riding
shotgun” between the course and the other dogs just in
case (Georgie loves me), even though we have never had
an incident with him – always better to be safe than sorry!