Bring on 2011!

I’m not one to wish time away as making the most of every minute seems to be a better way to enjoy life but there’s a teensy sadness in knowing that the next agility trial isn’t going to happen till the new year.  As much as I enjoyed the PACE trial a week ago, I should have soaked up the experience even more given that it turned out to be my last one for a few months.  I’d been looking at this weekend’s CKC trial as the wrap up but then Denham decided on a self-induced stomach upset that saw me rushing to the vets and then hovering over him all weekend instead.

The PACE trial seems to be a fitting celebration to the end of the trial year though as it saw Denham make his agility debut with a very slow, but most of the time accommodating, saunter around the courses.  I learned that he knows the equipment and commands even if his tail wagging didn’t translate into a determination to finish the course as quickly as we’d hoped.  The girls, Ticket and Tatum, had several successful runs with Ticket finally getting her contacts quite successfully, resulting in enough Q’s in Regular for her Open title.  Just need her to do it on one Novice Chances run so she can pick up her Novice Triple Superior Award!

Both girls totally smoked the Open Jumpers courses with the Q’s there giving Tatum her Open Jumpers title.  Tatum also upped her successes with contacts and even managed to hold one at the end of a really lovely Chances run.  They both seem to like the freedom of Jumpers and Chances so I need to bring that feeling into our other runs.

Another great thing that happened was weave entries!  Yay! both girls are wonderful weavers at class but we’ve been having a challenge getting them on the first approach all year long.  I think a missed entry only happened once all weekend so that was a super achievement for them.  Here’s Ticket showing off her confident weave entry:

In addition, there were no total “play-to-the-crowd-and-totally-ignore-mom” moments from Tatum.  I think she has so much potential but we don’t always pull things together as a team.

While we wait for the new year trials, here’s the goals related to training:

* translate Denham’s enthusiasm at class into a reliable attitude that can happen at trials.

* contacts that I don’t have to worry about for both Ticket and Tatum and continued success at weave entries.

* a healthy Echo that can return to trials along with the others.

* if quick table downs come together as well that will be a bonus that’ll make Q’s much more attainable as well.

One last reason to celebrate the fun of the PACE trial was Afton’s debut.  While she’s signed up for one more trial for 2010, she showed the potential we’ve all seen by blasting around the course with total enthusiasm, picking up her very first Q with a first place in Novice Jumpers.  Congratulations to her handler, Tad Drinkwater on a lovely starting trial.

Here’s a video of one of Afton’s runs: