CAT NADAC Agility Trial Canby Oregon

This NADAC trial is very near and dear to me; it is the first agility trial that I went to in 2001 when I was in training and I went to volunteer and learn about agility, two years later it was the first trial that I competed in and it was the first trial that Kant went to when I first got her as a very young puppy. The arena at the fairgrounds is pretty dusty and in February it can be cold and muddy. It was fairly dry during the day this weekend; it did rain over night so it was a bit muddy and it was cold. But this is such a fun trial and this weekend was no exception. CAT puts on a nice trial and they got some good judges for this one.

Kant was entered in all 12 classes at this trial and Hershey was entered in 6 classes, 3 each day.

Jordana did not have to be to work until 11am so she was able to go Saturday morning and run Hershey in one class, Chances, before she had to leave for work. He did not qualify in any of the runs on Saturday.

Kant started out absolutely incredible on Saturday earning a much needed and not very often earned Jumpers Q giving us 90 Open Jumpers points; one more Q to go. I made the mistake during the celebration of that run to say that it did not matter what happened in the rest of the trial. I lied it did matter; Kant went on to drop a bar in Chances, Regular 1, and 2.

But the biggest surprise was when she went flying off the Dog Walk not coming close to getting a foot in the contact zone; she has not done that in years, we might have celebrated a bit too much for getting that Jumpers Q.

Kant did end the day with a Weavers Q so we were 2 out of 6 possible Qs on Saturday. This trial was on the small size and every time I finished a run they were walking my course in the other ring. I crated the dogs out of the car because of the mud in the arena so I spent the day running from the ring to the car to the ring to the car, putting a dog away, walking the course, getting a dog, get the picture. I came home Saturday afternoon and took a nap.

Sunday Jordana did not go with me so I ran both dogs. We did not have a very good day. Kant forgot what out and turn meant in Chances causing me to cross the line.

She knocked a bar on a beautiful Jumpers course and then went on to knocked bars in Regular 1 and 2. She did get another Weavers Q which ended up being the only Q of the day. In Tunnelers she took an off course tunnel not taking my que or here; she was so locked on that tunnel and I could have fallen down right in front of it and it would have just caused her to jump over me to get in the tunnel. When I saw that she was not coming in I did yell at her but then it did not matter. I had a competitor waiting to run outside the opposite side of the ring tell me my command was late which was a bull shit statement that she should have kept to herself but later I realized it was a huge compliment. I use to yell my commands and have worked very hard the last couple of years to be quiet and for her not hear my here command was perfect unlike some of our fellow competitors that scream frantically their commands. Kant ended Sunday with 1 out of 6 possible Qs.

Hershey struggles with working distance so Chances is a challenging class for him and we did not Q on Sunday.

He did go on to Q in both of his Open Regular classes; earning his Outstanding Open Agility Certificate.

Hershey is difficult for me to run; he knows how to push my buttons. He is almost 8 years old and has been doing agility since he was 9 months old. He is my first agility dog and I made more than a few mistakes with him but give me a break he knows what I want and choose not to do it or he argues with me instead of doing the obstacle.

Hershey over all did have a good Sunday with 2 out of 3 possible Qs. It was another busy day for me running from the car to a ring but even a not so good weekend of agility is better than a day at work or home doing chores.

Except for both our jumpers runs I felt that Kant and I were never in sync this weekend. I am not too worried about this and am looking forward to the next trial so see if Kant and I are a better team. If not then I will start to worry. I am now off to play with the dogs.

Agility photos provided by Joe Camp.