ASCA trial Feb 22, 2009

I ran Enzo in a one day ASCA trial on Sunday. This was after running in a Show and Go on Saturday to really work contacts. The ASCA trial had one round of Gamblers and 3 rounds of Regular AKA Standard in almost every other venue. Enzo is in Open for everything in ASCA. ASCA is not really my priority but I'm doing it since his breeders are big on ASCA. The courses are definitely a big change from AKC and USDAA.

We ran Gamblers first and even though he made up his own course in some parts of the opening we got the Gamble and a Q plus first place. The Gamble was a send to a tunnel and then teeter about 7 ft or so from the line and then a jump straight ahead of the teeter. No problem for Enzo. He also had good contacts in this run since it was the first of the day and we had just done the Show and Go.

Next was Open Regular Round 1. My brain was like one obstacle behind Enzo on this course. I was not very mentally sharp that whole day. The opening was really fast and I really needed to run hard to get the tunnel instead of the aframe but I forgot where we were going for a split second and by the time I recovered Enzo was on the aframe. Then out of the tunnel Enzo didn't know where he was going because I was behind and he stopped and barked at me. Since he jumped off the aframe I took the opportunity to train in the ring since we already NQ'd. After the aframe I forgot where we were going again for another split second. I took a half step to the right and Enzo read rear cross and shot off to the right after the jump. I can barely even see that I did that in the video but I know I did it and so did Enzo! His dogwalk contact wasn't great as he stopped short and I had to wait him out but he did eventually come down into 2on/2off.




Open Regular Round 1:





In the second round, I chickened out on the front cross before the aframe tunnel discrimination. I walked a front cross but his speed coming at me scared me so I wimped out and tried pulling instead. Normally he will take the obstacle closest to me without too much effort but since he blew off his aframe contacts at the last USDAA trial we went to we've been practicing and rewarding aframes a lot. I messed up the second aframe tunnel discrimination too. I was doing the "HB" or "hide breast" as Nancy Gyes calls it. LOL. I just brought my arm up without acutually turning my shoulders enough for the RFP. He at least stopped on his first aframe but it was a little creepy.

Open Regular Round 2:




Round 3 was a much easier course. I was relieved to see that there were no more discriminations! Enzo did jump off the aframe early and almost flipped into the tunnel on his own. I had to yell "hey!" to keep him from going into the tunnel. That's why we got the spin after the aframe. He has a tendency to do that sometimes. The Judge got in my way a little bit in that loop after the aframe but I still made it for my front cross after the tunnel. Enzo got first in this round and did it in 5.06 yds/sec and I think this run he was actually a little slower than in the other two regular rounds.

Open Regular Round 3:




Next weekend will be one day of USDAA and one day of AKC. First frisbee competition of the year will be March 21.

USDAA trial - Driven Dogs, Fillmore

Went to one day of a USDAA on Saturday. I was hoping to get some tournament Q's but that didn't happen. I don't think I was quite mentally focused on agility. Tooney missed her weave entrance in P3 standard and didn't get the gamble in P3 gamblers. She got the first 4 obstacles but didn't get the last jump. In PNS, her only fault was a missed dogwalk contact. In PSJ she went off course. I took one step too far. Didn't see the potential off course to the broad jump.

Enzo Q'd in starters gamblers. His second q in that. He ran his dogwalk and aframe contacts even when I had him do the dogwalk twice. He got his first Q in starters standard. His contacts managed to hold together long enough for that. In the Grand Prix, he knocked the first bar and then the rest of the run was kind of a mess. He missed a weave pole when I ran ahead to front cross, missed his aframe contact, and then I couldn't get him out to the jump after the chute. There was an impossible long run down the entire length of the field and I just could not get there in time. He ended up barking at me and running past the jump. I think that was the first time that I really needed a directional, either right or out. His Steeplechase run was better but he ended leaping over both his aframe contacts and knocked a bar. I'm glad I don't have any trials coming up for a few weeks so we can do some reminder training.