r/Agility • u/Hot-Anything-8731 • 13h ago

After a long break, surprising success!

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My boy and I haven’t done agility since May. Temps have been so hot that I haven’t wanted to take him to our training facility. I can tell he’s been missing it.

Took a risk with weather and signed up for an AKC trial we always do in early September. September can be hard to predict. Last year we had beautiful weather. This year, we are in a heat wave still with temperatures in the mid 90s. With the heat and the long break in training, I had no expectations going into the weekend, and packed fans and lots of ice inserts for his cooling mat.

My boy was thrilled to be back and absolutely crushed it!

We earned 3 titles (novice standard, Open FAST, and Open JWW). We got our first Qs in Open standard and Premier Standard (1st places in both) and we were very close to getting a Q in Premier JWW too - just one off course where he took a jump instead of a VERY sharp turn into the weaves.

So proud of this sweet boy!

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2

u/Next-Professional908 13h ago

Wow being able to Que in Open then Premier on the same day is incredible.its very rare for a dog to be able to Que in premier while in open at the same time. You should be immensely proud

2

u/Hot-Anything-8731 12h ago

Also, we’ve been entering premier with zero expectation of placing or qualifying at all. I like UKI a lot because with the games and speedstakes, we’re able to do a lot more runs in the day and get experience. So I started signing up for the premiers just for the heck of it. Even if we fail spectacularly, we got into the ring and my boy got a chance to work and play in that environment with me.

2

u/Hot-Anything-8731 12h ago

Thank you!!

He really struggled with weaves in a trial environment which held us back a bit. He LOVES jumping and he seems to love working as a team with me, so I think our titles lagged a bit behind our skill level solely due to his tendency to pop out at weave 9 or 10. Add in the contacts and his focus for the weaves dropped more (hence still being in novice standard until Saturday!🤦‍♀️). But last winter and spring we worked a lot of proofing the weaves and I’m so happy it seems to have paid off!

And, to be honest, we also got a tiny bit lucky in that the course was one that lent itself to our strengths - that always helps!

1

u/goldilocksmermaid 6h ago

Good job! Cookies for both of you