The Three Jacks

Maddie & Mace

January 30 – 31, 2010

Maddie

Maddie jump

Maddie played Level 5 Snooker & Level 4 Wildcard on Saturday – In our Snooker run I planned a triple 7 opening with Maddie which would have given us enough points to qualify by the 4th obstacle on the closing.  Maddie changed my plan and took a 7 – 2 – 7 opening, which meant we needed to get through obstacle 5 in the closing to have enough points.  Well we only got through to the 4th obstacle in the closing and didn’t qualify!  This was the first time we haven’t qualified in Snooker in 2 years!  In Snooker you have an opening and a closing – the opening consists of making your own course for points by taking a red jump – followed by a numbered obstacle, a different red jump -followed by a numbered obstacle, & finally a different red jump – followed by a numbered obstacle; then you proceed to do the closing which is a 7 obstacle numbered course.

In Wildcard we qualified and got 1st Place!  Wildcard is a numbered course where there are 3 times in the course that you have to make a choice which obstacle to take – keeping in mind the choices are numbered different colors. Depending on your level you need either 2 reds and 1 yellow, or 1 red and 2 yellows.

Sunday, Maddie played L4 Jackpot & L4 Jumpers.  There are several forms of Jackpot – in the course design for this one we had to design the first part of our course for points, then when the whistle blew go on to collect just 10 points – each type of obstacle is worth different points. Since Maddie loves tunnels, I had planned doing 3 tunnels = 9 points+1 jump for 1 point.  Well Maddie took a different tunnel than I had planned, which confused me and I messed up the ending – only sending her in the tunnels 2 times.  So we didn’t qualify – totally my fault!

Jumpers was a thing of beauty!  Jumpers is a numbered course of all jumps and tunnels. Maddie loves tunnels and though this was a bit of a tough course, we executed it beautifully!  I wasn’t going to dare mess up another of Maddie’s runs….  We qualified and took 2nd Place!  What a happy little girlie she was!

Mace

This was Mace’s agility debut!  She played only on Sunday, but we ran

Occasionally in class Mace will go under the tire, Good girl Mace!

4 courses.  She started in Level 3.  Our first course was Jackpot.  Being that Mace is much faster than Maddie and has no quirks about any of the obstacles, the course I put together for her was quite different than Maddies.  One thing about running a little slow dog and a big fast dog – you have to handle them completely different.  Seems on the Jackpot run with Mace I forgot that, and well to say the least it wasn’t a good run – my fault!  Mace jumped and barked at me in protest of my little dog handling of her!

Next was Standard.  Standard course’s are basic numbered courses, which include all of the agility obstacles.  Often Standard courses are thought to be more difficult because they must be done in the precise order they are set, so an error – like an off course (taking a different obstacle than whats next) can end up disqualifying you.  Add in the possibility of knocking a bar down, refusing an obstacle, or missing a contact and this is why a standard course can be hard to qualilfy in. Remembering my errors in the previous run with Mace, I vowed to not do that again.  We got off to a beautiful start, then Mace refuse to take the double jump.  I tried bringing her back around to take it and she wouldn’t.  Then she got frustrated, starting barking and jumping at me in protest.  I had to lie her down to settle her.  We then proceeded to do the weave poles and finished the course just fine.  Unfortunately we didn’t qualify because of the refused jump and time.  None the less I was pretty happy with the run.

Good Girl Mace, now lets go.....

Then it was Colors.  Colors is a pretty simple game.  There are 2 short embedded numbered courses.  You must choose 1 course and follow it, without any off courses. One of the choices was a very simple outer oval around the perimeter.  That’s what I chose.  Mace & I were totally synced and finished the course fast and clean.  Yay, we qualified!!!

The last course of the day was Jumpers.  I had already run and qualified with Maddie.  I knew the course well.  But there were a few areas in the course that really concerned me.  Mace is so fast, and we are still developing as a team.  I was worried I couldn’t quite handle a few areas with her.  Mace was a bit fidgety at the start line, she wouldn’t get into position.  I stayed patient with her and finally got her down stay and led out to the second jump.  It was fast – first area of concern between obstacle 3 and 4, no problem, second area of concern between 11 and 12, again no problem.  Before I knew it Mace was jumping over the last jump!  I could not believe it!  Mace and I were totally tuned to one another.

The last jump - Fast, Clean Awesome Jumpers Run!!!

It was the most fabulous run I have had in my 6 years of playing agility!  It was fast, clean and qualified!  I’m so excited that my sweet Border Collie partner loves to play agility with me.  I know there will be many more beautiful, adrenalin filled runs with her!

Good Girl Mace! I Love You.....

A special thank you to our friend Sarah Gentry for the wonderful photos she took of us at this trial!  As a result of photo shooting at the trial – Sarah started her 5 month old German Shepherd pup in agility classes the Monday following the trial!!!