"Ready, set, go!"
We were actually entered in one other NADAC Agility Trial. It was Journey's very first trial of any venue. It was in Newport, Oregon - one of my favorite places. Quest and I never missed the Newport trial when he was competing. This trial is held outside, and is on the school grounds, located on a plateau above the ocean - such a beautiful spot.
It is about a five hour drive by RV, from our home. This was also the first trial that I had competed in since my back problems began. (My back is quite a bit better now.) There were a lot of things I had not given much thought to. One was the fact that loading the RV and getting everything set to go was tiring and time consuming - much more so with back problems. When I finally finished loading the RV it was late into the day on which I had planned an early start. The five hour drive really took a toll on my back, and we did not arrive until after 10:30 PM on the night before the trial. I had to walk three very excited dogs before we could go to bed. Then I experienced leg cramps most of the night. It was Journey's first outdoor trial and he turned into a bird watcher. I was really having back troubles. We did not Q in anything, and since it was a collection of bad choices on my part, I have sort of tried to forget that it happened. I have a tendency to think of our recent NADAC trial as our first.
NADAC (North American Dog Agility Club) is, in my opinion, the most difficult of the agility venues. The courses are longer and more complicated. You need to be faster than in most other venues and I was truly wondering if I stood a chance of getting through it. I was intent on finding out if I could make the times, before I entered the Newport trial again next July. This one was local, on the weekend of May 3 & 4, 2014. I just decided to go for it and enter all events. There were six events each day.
"Feels weird on my feet"
"Looks weird too".
Numerious things have changed since I was last in a NADAC trial. The surface on the contact equipment (A-frame and dog walk) are now covered with black rubber sheeting. I like it and I think it is much safer than the sanded paint with slats for traction. Journey had never seen it before and was a little nervous about it. He also was not sure where he needed to stop on it, as there was really no color change as there is on the equipment of other venues. In NADAC there is only a comparatively thin white line to tell him, he needs to cross it before jumping off. No training was available to us. So I just used "wait" to be sure he stopped at the bottom. He normally manages all that on his own. The courses were as long and sometimes complicated as I remembered them to be. Journey was great. He listened to me and focused so nicely. He managed the hoops, which were new to him. Once I called the hoop, "jump" and that threw him for a moment, then he was okay with it. I am not sure he ever really got the point (of the hoops), but he ran through them as if he had always been doing that. I need to practice him on them at home, and then give them a name, so that he will recognize them next time.
The biggest problem we had was that, for some reason, they have determined that we no longer need course maps. All of the other clubs we compete in provide small paper maps of each course. We get to walk the courses ahead of running them, but then later when we need to refresh our minds about the course, just before we go in the ring, we can check the maps again to be certain of turns, etc. I have always used those maps to plan what course we might take, in various games, when we have a choice. I generally walk a course a couple times, and attempt to memorize the flow of the course. Then it may be quite a while before our turn comes and I may need to refresh my memory by looking at the map. It was quite a shock to find that they no longer provide those simple maps. They do put a sample of each map on the wall in the back of the barn, where you can get an awful crook in your neck trying to look up at them and study them in the midst of all the other people trying to study them at the same time. Lots of luck trying to memorize six new courses every day. I don't know why they have discontinued providing the maps. No one that I asked seemed to know why.
I did the best I could. It caused me to have to walk most courses endlessly, in order to really get it set in memory. With a map I could have done that from the comfort of my chair, ringside. I thought I had succeeded memorizing most of the courses, but unfortunately by the time I had walked each course so many times, I was already tired and my back was sore before I even began our runs. Since NADAC professes to always be looking out for the safety of the dogs, this situation did not seem to fit that aim, by causing the handlers to go out onto the courses, unsure of where to send their dog and often having to call them off of wrong obstacles. Not much we could do about it, I think it was a little harder on older, handicapped handlers than it was on younger, faster ones. The only way around this was for the people who had WiFi and Ipads. They took pictures of the course maps (the ones on the barn wall) and then they were able to refer to them as we used to be able to refer to the paper course maps. This does not seem to be a very fair situation - particularly if one does not have an Ipad. I happen to have an Ipad and I have a portable WiFi box. But I don't want to bring all that to an agility trial. I want my attention to be on my team mate and to spend a weekend away from all the computer stuff. I only saw a few people taking pictures of the courses. Next thing is people will be bringing photo machines. Hopefully they will sell copies of the maps. If NADAC's reasoning is to save money, I for one would gladly pay an additional sum to get course maps.
We managed to Q in 4 out of 12 events. The reason for not getting Q's in the other events had to be mostly because I did not know the courses well enough. This left me in a panic, with my dog spinning anxiously, waiting for me to figure out where to send him. Not near as much fun, for either of us as it would have been if I had been prepared. He was already a little stressed getting used to the new contact equipment. We will probably do NADAC again, but seriously, if there is a choice of CPE, AKC, or NADAC during the same month, it will not be difficult to make a choice. Other than the map situation, I did enjoy the trial and if I find out that the map-less issue is just a choice by the host club, then I will be able to just skip the NADAC trials hosted by that club. We have not entered any USDAA trials yet, so that may well be a better choice for us. Both Spirit and Quest did well in USDAA.
On Saturday, Journey got a 1st place Q in Novice Jumpers. Then he got another 1st place Q in Regular 2 (Standard). He had close tries at Chances, Touch N' Go, and Tunnelers (where I got lost on the course and pulled him off the correct tunnel he was headed into).
On Sunday he had another real close run in Chances, then he Q'd again in Jumpers. This leaves him needing only one more Q for a Jumpers title. He did not Q in Regular 1 or 2, and he missed on Touch N' Go. But he ended the day with a 1st place Q in Weavers.
Photographer, Joe Camp took some wonderful pictures of Journey. There are so many I will have to narrow it down to the best ones to add to this post.
The photos above were taken as Journey was getting his 1st place Q in Weavers on Sunday. He loves the weave poles. They are probably his favorite obstacle.
