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.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Channan,

    There were videos you posted previously where I thought he was learning ground speed between the jumps - I think you made a comment at the time. Is he slower here than in that previous trial? His head seems to be up as he goes over jumps? That would certainly slow him down. What is his ground speed without agility equipment? I own Cinder (Edge/Scandal) and he was quite slow to mature physically to get his jump height and quick changes from collection to extension. I did a lot of physical conditioning completely away from agility equipment, i.e. hiking, hill sprints, river swimming, and gave him time to mature.

    -Joan

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  2. Boost whipped through starters and advanced much faster than *I* was ready for and she's still not ready for masters several years later. I also can have Qing runs with her that I'm not satisfied with, where she sort of bobbles her way around the course. But I'm betting you'll get it all sorted out faster than I have.

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  3. Channan,

    As stated privately to you earlier, I'm no jumping expert, but I think his jumping looks fine. Maybe it is still just immaturity and a slight lack of confidence that effects his jumping?

    Donna and Bro Roller

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  4. @Joan, yes there was a previous trial where he we faster and jumping better... but he was jumping 24" and not 26". I think that extra 2", at least at this point, is just too much for him to handle. His ground speed without equipment is good (really good when there are squirrels involved).

    @Ellen thanks, we'll see how quickly we get it sorted out :)

    @Donna as Joan mentioned Rammy jumps with his head high, you can really see him throwing his front end over the jump at times.

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