Pix from 10/20-21 WAG CPE Agility Trial

Well, it took a while, but the CD from David Wong, the photographer who shot the Oct 21-22 CPE trial at Elk Grove, arrived last week. Well worth waiting for! There were over 100 photos, most of them in sequences of 3 - 5, giving me a good look at Miko at several points along the approach-airtime-landing continuum. When you shoot this way, not all of the pix are aesthetically pleasing, but all are instructional and there were plenty of "pretty" ones to choose from too. Here are a few of the best.

You can read an account of Miko's fabulous exploits at this event in an earlier post. However, I see that I forgot to brag that he finished all of his Level 2 titles, which makes him officially Miko, CL-2, CGC. And he's halfway to his Level 3 Standard title (CL3-R).


The A-Frame and the Teeter-totter are 2 of the 3 contact obstacles in agility (well, 4 I guess, if you count the pause table); the other one is the Dog Walk. The dogs must put at least 1 paw in the yellow "contact zone" both going up and coming down. Otherwise it's 15 faults.

Moxie's debut

On 10/28, the Moxerati made his agility debut at a fun run at WAG. Fun runs are for practice only; they aren't competitions. I wanted to see how he'd do in a completely new situation, and I wanted to see if he'd be any more comfortable on NADAC style slatless contacts (specifically, the A-frame) than he seems to be in practice at Ace. His A-frame performance is a mystery -- he's so fast and so fearless about everything but that. I thought it might be something physical -- his shoulders, perhaps, but he's been x-rayed and all looks normal. I ask myself if he's worried about "stubbing his toes" on the slats ... one reason for wanting to try the slatless equipment. (And a reason to give him a pedicure, too.)

Slats or not, his A-frames weren't exactly stellar, but all in all I was extremely pleased with his performance. He had never run a full course before; the most we'd ever done in class was maybe 5 or 6 obstacles at a time. I had no idea whether I'd have any control over him at all! As you can see in the movies below, control wasn't our strong suite, but we were able to correct our mistakes pretty easily, and a good time was definitely had by all.

One of the things I was working on specifically was his start-line stays. He's not supposed to move off the line till I tell him to, and he's so eager to run that it's hard for him to sit still. Another focal area was solid down-side contacts on the teeter, dog walk etc. If it looks like he's just standing there, half-on, half-off while i dance around and pretend to run away, he's doing exactly what he's been trained to do -- wait for me to release him.

Something I *should* have been working on, and will work on in 2 weeks when we go to another fun run, is getting myself properly positioned as we run the courses. He's so much faster than Miko -- I kept finding myself in the wrong place, except that it would have been just the right place for my other dog! Gotta work on the timing...

Jumpers, round 1 ... a little wild!


Jumpers, round 2 ... a little better.


Standard, round 2, with a few extra trips over the A-frame. Note: he doesn't usually blow his weaves! Honest!


Tunnelers, round 2. This was a lot of fun!

Miko strikes again!

I'm waiting for a CD of photos from the Fun Paws CPE agility trial 10/20 -21 at WAG (and yes, it does seem as if I'm wearing a deep rut between Oakland and Elk Grove!). David Wong was there all weekend, taking pictures in the outdoor ring. He uses a motor drive, so there are multiple shots of your dog at each obstacle. Not only a great way to be sure you get just the right shot -- studying the series is also very instructional, almost like viewing a film. I'm tapping my fingers impatiently, and keeping a sharp eye on the mailbox.

Meanwhile, boring ol' text: Mr Meex had another perfect weekend. He Q'd in all 8 of his classes, got 4 blue ribbons, 3 reds and a yellow (that should have been blue, if I hadn't completely blown it at the end). Maybe the high point of the weekend was racking up 66 points in the jackpot (gamblers). Not only was this nearly 3 times the points we needed to Q, it was *almost* the high score out of all the 80+ dogs (all levels ran the same gamblers course). I didn't see anything higher on the score sheets posted after the class, but when the results were actually published there was a 68, earned by a very experienced handler and champion-level dog. Didn't make me any less proud of my boy!

I camped in my tent again; spent Friday night re-pumping my brand new air bed, which turned out to have a slow leak. Found a replacement for it Saturday and expected to sleep soundly that night. Instead, I watched the sides of the tent belly and ripple in the gusting wind and listened to the sound of other people's shade canopies being blown over, too close to me for comfort, so got up at about 1 a.m., found the extra tent pegs, guy lines and a hammer, and battened down the hatches. I don't really think the tent was going anywhere. On the other hand, I wasn't 100% sure it wasn't going to try. I'm used to little backpacking tents with low profiles. My "dog tent" is over 6' high in the center -- nice for moving around in, and airy in hot weather. But not designed for wind, no way.

More when the pix come...