1) MY dogs are slightly over 16″. that means they would have to jump 22″ in the USDAA championship program. While they are perfectly capable of doing so, I have heard Remy land after a 22″ spread. It’s loud. Do I like this? Not so much. And while the performance program is a perfectly viable option, let’s face it, Agility folk–USDAA performance people are 2nd-class citizens.

2) No matter what they tell you, USDAA competitors are the most competitive EVER. I rarely hear cheers or compliments on my GOOD runs in USDAA. I get lots of kind love for my sucky ones in AKC. Go figure. I received tons of compliments for a quick recovery after falling on my ass at an AKC trial. USDAA, nice NQ? Not so much.

3) I’ve put on USDAA trials. MONEY SUCK. TIME SUCK. Just saying.

4) There seems to be a general feeling among primarily USDAA folk that primarily AKC folk look down on them. And yet, I was sitting with a bunch of first-time or almost-first-time USDAA people in the Starters/Advanced ring who normally do AKC and were cheering all the nice runs, even NQs. Huh. Dead silence when Remy and I qualified in P3 standard in the MASTERS ring. Maybe it was because we got 1st place?

After this weekend, I’m about done with USDAA, and I LOVE snooker, really enjoy the trials despite the objections above. But I am tired of the received wisdom that everyone is “nicer” and “less competitive” in USDAA. Sorry y’all–I’ve seen enough to know better.

Hahaha! Dream on!

Jumpers has always been more of a problem for us, partly because Remy just doesn’t seem to LIKE it  (seriously, he seems to survey the course and say “meh, I don’t have to run FAST” ) and partly because I tend to get lost amidst the sea of jumps. But we have gotten much better over the past year or so, especially on courses where I don’t have to ask him for a start-line stay (which he doesn’t do much of anyway).

Our jumpers course started out pretty well for us, with two offset jumps to a tunnel. My plan was to send to the tunnel (which was a long one), rear cross and then run up to front cross between jumps 4 and 5. I figured if I didn’t get there, I could rear cross between jumps 5 and 6 instead. Remy is a rear-cross dog anyway, with a smoother, faster performance with rears, at least partially because my timing is better and I can keep looking forward.

Soooo… jump, jump, Remy goes in to the tunnel, I go to make my cross, and BOOM! down I go. Probably hit a soft spot in the dirt/mulch mix in the barn. But even as I’m going down, I am thinking “I WANT this double-Q!”

So as soon as I hit, I roll, and am getting to my feet just as Remy comes out of the tunnel and starts to move my way to check on me. I meet him, send him over obstacle #4 (without the planned front cross, obviously–we ended up with the rear cross between #5 and #6), and while our time was not the MOST stellar, we were clean! Double-Q #11!

Whew. We exited the ring to compliments and cheers for my apparently impressive recovery. I was kind of sore the next day.

Remy jumping

I’ve been working for a very long time to put a MACH on Remy. For those who don’t know, a MACH is an AKC Agility title. It’s 20 double-Qs (qualifying in Excellent B Standard and Excellent B Jumpers on the same day) and 750 points (you get points based on how far under time you are in those classes when you qualify).

It hasn’t been easy, in part because I’m kind of lazy–or kind of busy!– and haven’t been willing/able to put in the time it takes to train my dog to a certain level.  Also, in the last two years I moved from the Chicago area (where I lived for about 13 years) to Pittsburgh and then back to Columbus (my hometown) and hadn’t had consistent training/trialing. When I finally started taking more consistent instruction, one of my instructors told me “hey, Remy doesn’t really know how to LOOK for the weave entrance!”

Well. That was interesting. And she turned out to be right.

We have worked to change that over the last year or so, and it’s REALLY paid off. In 2006, I couldn’t even EARN double-Qs (because Remy and I were unable to finish his AXJ and get in to Excellent B Jumpers). In 2007, we earned 2 double-Qs. So far in 2008, we have earned 9 double-Qs–7 of which we’ve earned since September!

To me, this is nothing short of a miracle.  11 double-Qs. I occasionally worry because our speed is down, but this is at least partly to do with Remy’s worry over the weave poles (he does them at a good clip, but not as fast as he used to) and partly because I am being careful. At this point, I don’t care as much about speed as I do about getting some consistency–and that we have!–and his speed is plenty fast enough that I don’t have to worry about getting speed points.

On to the weekend in my next post!

Here they are! From left to right, Charlie (U-ACH Secondhand Charlie, CGC, MX, MXJ, NAP, NJP, MAD, RM, JM, EAC, EJC, OGC, RS-N, R1MCL, ONYX, 14 years old) Remy (Boldligo Palisades Night Watch MX, MXJ, OF, HIC, PS2, PD2, FGDCH, TF-E, 7 years old), Craig, and Baci (Boldligo Palisades Mille Baci, NA, NAJ, NF, FDCH-G, TF). Whew.

So I finally decided there should be a blog. Hopefully this will alternate between my much-less-interesting musings (since I am apparently the stable member of this partnership) and his.