We had a great weekend. Journey is getting better and better. Hard to believe how fast he has picked up some of his knowledge. This was the third trial he has run in Level 3 for some of the runs. This trial he was in Level 3 in all events. At the beginning of the trial he had two Q's in Level 3 Standard (the main event). He was entered in two rounds of Standard on Saturday and two rounds on Sunday. He was also entered in three other events on each day - so a total of 10 events for the weekend. He got 3 for 5 each day, for a total of six 1st place Q's out of 10 events. Four of them were the four Standard runs and all were clean runs (no faults).
Journey's ribbons.
This event was the CPE Spring Classic for 2015 and there was a special award for each Level, to the dog with the most points accumulated from both Saturday's Standard runs and one of Sunday's Standard runs. We tied for High in Trial for Level 3. In this case, the tie breaker was decided to be the Snooker game points, followed by the fastest Snooker time. We lost it by one point. Can't begin to tell you how proud I am of this boy. He is so consistent, and so smooth.
The only other dog of mine to win something similar was Spirit. He got a High in Trial once. These wins are not easy to come by. We were dealing with as many as 375 runs per day in the Standard ring, and 400 runs per day in the games ring.
Heading for the ring.
On Saturday, in addition to the two Standard rounds, Journey also got a 1st place Q in the game, Full House.
On Sunday, in addition to the two Standard rounds, Journey got a 1st place Q in Jumpers. He is a wonderful jumper and almost never even touches a bar. He loves agility and he watches me load the car when we are going to a trial. He watches to see what I pack and thereby he knows what we are doing. Since we lost our #1 boy Quest, I take Pirate to the trials with us. He enjoys it and the two of them draw a fair amount of attention. Neither of them like being patted on the head and Journey learned a good technique to avoid it. He has been pulling his head back and offering his foot to shake hands instead. Pirate noticed and he now does the same. People like the hand shaking, and the dogs like not having someone pat them on the top of their head.
Janet, our friend with the Malamutes came to watch on Saturday. So good to see her! Martha, with the 3 Zzz's was also there. Julie was there, with Penny; Julie's husband & their daughter was there on Sunday. It was fun visiting between the events.
Journey likes to sit with us and visit between some events.
I don't take many pictures at agility trials. I am mostly too busy walking courses and then running the events. In between I alternate walking and visiting with Pirate and with Journey. So I really appreciate the pictures we get from Joe Camp, our photographer at the events. I could not get the wonderful action shots that he gets. This weekend Julie Smith got a good picture of Joe at work:
This is Joe's favorite shot of Journey, from this trial. Journey is just coming out of the weave poles.
On Sunday Journey ran a great Jumpers run. It was an interesting course. It looked worse on paper than it did when I walked it. I still thought it was going to be confusing, but with Journey's normal focus back in effect, he got a clean run. It was hard to direct him through the course though, with all the circling.
Coming off the Dog Walk.
The final outcome from our weekend was that Journey titled in Standard. He was only in Standard Level 3 for two trials and in that time he earned all six Q's that he needed - so he is now in Level 4 Standard class. He only needs one more Q in Full House and Jumpers and he will title in those two classes also. There are three more events in which he needs 3 Q's in each: Colors, Snooker and Jackpot. At the rate he is going it should not take long. Like grades in school, the classes get more difficult and you are required to earn more Q's in each one. It is fun though and I love being teammates with Journey.
