aardogs | USDAA BRAG Jan. 16-17

Man do I love USDAA, it totally sucks that there isn't more of it around here! Panic came home with a whopping one Q for the weekend, but we had a ridiculous amount of fun along the way! I entered him in a hodge podge of classes because I definitely did not want/could not afford to enter him in everything. Saturday he was in Standard, Snooker and the tournemant classes, and Sunday he was in Standard, Jumpers, and Pairs. The only complaint I have was that the surface was AWFUL, very very loose dirt that was essentially sand. I wish they would have prepared it a little better. Plus it was cold as hell in there...

His very first run, Starters Standard, was pretty freakin' awful, he was off the wall and was not listening the entire time. There were a few nice moments, but overall it was just crazy and worst of all he MISSED his dogwalk, and on a perfect straight off exit!

Panic never ceases to baffle me. His second run was Grand Prix, where I was expecting a similar amount of craziness, but of course he went out there and tore up that course turning out a pretty awesome run with one knocked bar. The more techinical courses are definitely our thing since it forces him to be more handler focused. He was still a little crazy, especially in the opening sequences where I barely managed to keep him on course, but that right on the edge of control feeling is a ton of fun and this was by far my favorite run of the weekend. And go figure, a stellar dogwalk performance with a turn to a tunnel, something we have not been very good at in the past.

My timing in warming Panic up was way off before Grand Prix and I didn't have any time to use the warm up jump or do any focus work before we ran, which I did a LOT of before his Standard run. Yeah obviously that helped a lot. I decided not to use the warm up jump or do much of anything (besides letting him walk/run around for awhile before he ran) for the rest of the weekend. Instead I just let him tug ringside until right before we went into the ring, which in my opinion keeps him a lot calmer than if I use the warm up jump and then stand ringside and let him see any of the agility being run. Watching other dogs run makes his little brain get fried before we even get into the ring! I think I've finally found a warm up routine that works for him.

Starters Snooker was next, the run I was the most nervous about. Snooker scared the crap out of me! But I toughed it out and we ended up having a pretty nice run, and got our only Q of the weekend! I have to admit it was a ton of fun, and I am definitely over my Snooker fear. I can't wait to run it again!

Steeplechase was last for the day and it was a blast too. Just so much fun! One knocked bar again, this time I KNOW it was due to the surface, there was a sand pit right in front of the jump and probably over half the dogs in Steeplechase knocked that same bar. Suckkks! He also pulled out of the weaves early, which I can see was due to me starting my cross early, but at the same time while he's weaving he should disregard all of my motion so that is no excuse! Otherwise he was a very good boy and did awesome on this course, again more technical courses are better for us.

I don't remember much about Sunday and I don't have any video. I was very tired and cold all day. Panic had two very good runs, little mistakes in each. His dogwalk was kickass. I screwed up pairs majorly... :P