This agility event was held at the Clark County Fairgrounds. I entered Journey on Saturday and this time I put him in the FAST event. It was the first time for him. It is a lot of fun. You just run out on the course and take as many obstacles as possible in the time alloted. Different obstacles have different values and you want to get the most points possible. At any time during your time in the ring you may attempt the "send". That is a section marked off by a bright colored tape on the ground. You must send your dog over the obstacles in that area, while you stay on the outside of the tape enclosure. You cannot even touch the tape. The "send" is worth 20 points. In our level, novice, we needed 15 points in addition to accomplishing the send, with its 20 points. Total points needed - 35. You can do the send at any time during your run, and then concentrate on adding other points.
The difficult part for me was judging how much time we had left. We did the "send" right away, and then I counted the points, but I had no sense of the time - since I have not done this event in years and never with Journey. After accruing (well over the amount of points we needed) Journey came through the weave poles and was aimed directly for the exit jump that stops his time. I knew we should have gone for more points, but we were so far from the other obstacles, I elected not to try and turn him back. We finished with 59 points, and a 3rd place Q. We could have done a lot better, as we did have quite a bit more time. We were out of the ring before the timer rang. Oh well, we will get better. A Q is a Q and I am not very good at judging time when we are out there running our course. The FAST video follows:
Video #2 is the Standard run. It starts with an orange tunnel. The starting poles (at the mouth of the tunnel) were different for Journey. He does not seem to pay much attention to the timing poles when they are placed next to jumps. To see poles at the opening of the tunnel seemed to make him think of weave poles. He actually did attempt to weave the pole on his right. That took me so by surprise I hardly knew what to do about it. Anyway, since he did not touch the tunnel surface, he did not get any faults for it and he went through it just fine. The rest of the run was good. He cut in front of me on the next to the last jump, but I should have seen that coming when he veered toward me on the down side of the A-frame. I should have redirected him before he hit the ground. All was well though and he went on to jump the last jump, (with the timing poles) without incident. Journey got a second place Q. The Standard Course Time "SCT" was 79 and Journey did it in 60.55 seconds, earning him a "clean run" - perfect score.
Video #3 is the Jumpers With Weaves run. He also ran a clean run in this event. SCT was 40 seconds and he did it in 27.31 seconds. He earned a Q and a 2nd place. Best of all, I did not get lost in all the turns. We are improving and I am so proud of him. I especially love when he wags his tail. He seems to do it mostly when he understands what I want him to do. We are both having so much fun! He has competed in four agility trials now and I can hardly wait for the next one.
