Alex and crew spent the weekend at the AKC agility trial in St. Charles with the Fox Valley Dog Training Club (FVDTC). I was filming a seminar on Saturday so Whitney got a chance to run with Alex in open standard and open jumpers. I ran Alex on Sunday in the same.
Let’s just say that running Abby and running Alex are two different handling experiences. Whit got to run Alex in class a couple of times last week to get used to it but trying to run both of them on the same day is just a bit much to handle. As has happened a few times in the past, Whitney was brought to laughter while running Alex in standard. The way Whitney tells the story Alex fell off of the dog walk on the way up (this was not the funny part, she was very concerned that he might have hurt himself and felt really bad). As the judge was instructing Whitney to “go on” and not repeat the dog walk, Alex had already run back to the beginning, tried (successfully) again and was waiting at the far end in his 2 on/2 off. Whitney and the judge both laughed as Alex was clearly not effected by the fall. He was sick of waiting for his handler so he took off and completed a few obstacles on his own (a chute, weaves and a couple of jumps). Whitney then picked him up and completed the course. The one obstacle that she was hoping to work was the table. Alex decided that he didn’t want to “down” on the table and instead did a “bow” for more than a few seconds! He did eventually “down” and completed the course as happy as could be! He loves running agility and had to throw in a few bonus obstacles in this run! Their jumpers run wasn’t as eventful but as I hear it was a very nice run with no knocked bars, just an unfortunate wrong course.
Sunday came and I was able to make the trial and run Alex. We waited around for a few hours (in typical “open” or “novice” class fashion). By the time we got to run Alex was quite excited. Alex’s standard run is one of my most proud runs with him in his short agility “career”. He did everything perfectly with the exception of releasing himself from the teeter a hair before I gave him his release word. Still, he finished the open standard course in 40.07 seconds (21 seconds quicker than the second place dog). Here is the run:
Alex’s jumpers run on Sunday came about 10 minutes after his standard run. He was still pumped but I had concentrated way too much on standard and wasn’t connected with him enough in the opening sequence of jumpers. I handled the fourth jump awkwardly and sent him off course. As is typically the case, after this happened all hell broke loose and he knocked a half dozen or so bars and took another wrong course. Once we disconnect it’s usually hard to reconnect during the same run – he sees it as his “fun time”. We’ll have to concentrate on jumpers “Qs” next time!
Our friends Katie and Andy with their Goldens, Ryder and Fergus stayed with us Saturday night to avoid the trip to and from the city (since this trial was 10 minutes from home for us… nice!) Alex, Remi and Abby got a chance to run around with their “hippy lab” friends Saturday night and Sunday morning, in case the trial wasn’t enough for them.
Alex also had to listen to us play “rock band” until the wee hours of the night… not one of his favorite uses for his highly sensitive canine ear drums!! Poor dude!
All in all, Alex had a GREAT weekend and is still twice as happy as any other being on this planet! Alex gets this coming weekend off, then it’s off to a USDAA trial the weekend after, he can’t wait!
