Feed Polly: November 2010

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

We went to 2 days of an AKC trial last weekend. It was Icon's first trial back after his break and he was happy to be back! I decided to jump him at 20" at this trial (for the first time since he was 18 months I think) and he did great going 4/4. I thought he looked good jumping 20", although he was over jumping a bit. During our 'agility break' I also switched Icon to a running a-frame and they went well. But we'll see how it hold up over time and more importantly over the USDAA a-frame height change. Our running a-frame has bled over into a running dogwalk, I need to make sure that doesn't last...

SacramentoDTC AKC - Icon Friday Standard from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

Apollo had a great weekend going 3/4. It was just a stupid move on my part kept him from a perfect weekend. He just needs one more QQ for Mach 3. I was hoping he'd get it last weekend so that after invitationals I could move him to preferred, but it looks like he'll have to at least do the New Years trial at 24" too.

I only got one of Apollo's runs on video.

SacramentoDTC AKC - Apollo Saturday JWW from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

Rampage and I had lots of fun, but we didn't get any Q's. We were pretty close at times though! It was just babydog stuff. We got all of our contacts and had no bars down. But I definitely need to do something about our teeter... He has a beautiful 2o/2o with a nose touch in practice, but he has no clue that I expect this same performance at a trial. Luckily the new years trial will have a fun match at the end of one day so I will have a chance to let him know. And he has been avoiding the chute for a while now. He'll go in if I make him, but given a choice he will run around it. It's something I haven't practiced much with him because the chute is never out in class and I don't have a chute at home. But it would be nice to not have to escort him directly to the chute entrance on every course.

SacramentoDTC AKC - Rampage Saturday Standard from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

Other videos I have taped can be seen here.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Catching up

We went to a USDAA trial a couple weekends ago and I'm just getting a chance to write about it now. I've been focusing more on work than blogging lately, which is good :). In December I'm heading to Warsaw on a business trip which should be... interesting. On December 5th I'll arrive home from AKC invitationals around midnight and then head to Poland the next morning. I guess I'm just glad that I don't have to miss AKC Invitationals for the business trip. But this is the 3rd year in a row that I'll miss the December Bay Team UDSAA trial. I really wanted to go this year because they have rubber contacts!

The USDAA trail we just came back from was a weird experience for me. It was weird because I wasn't running Icon (he has been on a break since USDAA nationals... returning this weekend at an AKC trial!) and Rampage got lots of Q's, but I wasn't happy with many of his runs. How weird is that?

My video camera is broken so I don't have any videos from the weekend, but a friend was there on Saturday and was able to video some of our runs.

Apollo qualified in everything I entered him in, although he hit the broadjump in Rd 1 SC and dropped a bar in Rd 2 SC. I only got his Saturday Jumpers run on tape.

Apollo Jumpers NAF USDAA 11-13-10 from debbie chun on Vimeo.

Rampage qualified in pretty much all of his non-tournament events (aside from one Snooker and one Jumpers where I pulled him for breaking his startline stay). They weren't pretty Q's though. So he got 2 Standard Qs for his AD title and is now in Masters Jumpers, Gamblers and Pairs (!). I certainly don't feel like we're ready for masters in any of those categories and I apologize now for all of our future pairs partners :).

Rampage Sat Standard

Rampage Standard NAF USDAA 11-13-10 from debbie chun on Vimeo.

Rampage Sat Gamblers

Rampage Gamblers NAF USDAA 11-13-10 from debbie chun on Vimeo.

When I watch his videos I really don't like how Rampage jumps 26". I don't notice it when I'm running him, I just notice that he feels slow. But watching the video he struggles at 26". Once he gets into masters I think I'll switch him to performance 22" for a while to see if he just needs to mature a bit still.

Rampage Sat Jumpers

Rampage Jumpers NAF USDAA 11-13-10 from debbie chun on Vimeo.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Don't diss Apollo

It has come to my attention that someone wrote on her blog about last weekend:

"We had a nice [Jumpers] run, but Apollo the boxer, of all dogs, beat us by .13. (Sorry, Apollo, I know you're a good dog and you're handled by a National Champion and World Team border collie handler, but [insert 2nd place Jumpers dog name here] usually 's time is notably faster than yours. Maybe that was just your course! I'll let you have it this time.)"

Well let me say that YES, I'm offended. I'm not quite so obsessive about keeping track of results as some people but I know that Apollo has beaten this dog on more than one occasion, to the point that us beating this dog is not a shock to me. Sure they beat us sometimes, but we beat them too.

It was not just "our course", we won jumpers both days and beat [insert 2nd place Jumpers dog name here] in grand prix as well last weekend. And considering Apollo was only entered in 4 classes, that's a pretty damn good record.

This is also not the first time this person has 'dissed' Apollo on her blog, although the first time someone pointed it out to me and I just laughed and ignored it. I believe the person said something like (this is definitely paraphrased), "If Apollo can make it to [the 2008] pGP finals and get 3rd place, imagine how much better [insert 2nd place Jumpers dog name here] could do!" Well Apollo didn't just finish 3rd place in 2008 pGP finals, he finished in 4th place in 2009 pGP finals. That's more than this dogs owner can ever claim.

Say what you will about me. I don't care if you call me a bitch and never talk to me again. But don't diss my dogs. And no one. NO ONE. DISSES. APOLLO.