Took Zoey to a NADAC trial today…we haven’t done NADAC for about three years now. This was our first time in Open Jumpers and it was a course tailor made for Zoey: 19 jumps and 2 tunnels. 152 yards of pure, clean running room. She came dangerously close to having the fastest time of ALL dogs in ALL heights: 23.5 seconds. For those who enjoy math as much as I do, that works out to be very, very close to 6.5 yards per second. I keep thinking the older she gets, the slower she’ll get, but maybe not.
March 1, 2009
January 17, 2009
In Case You Wondered Just How Dirty a Dog Can Get…
…when you run agility in a dirty horse barn in the middle of the winter:
(From January, 2006)
November 20, 2008
Just an oversized version of Zoey
This is Tory, who belongs to Patty. Tory is like an oversized Zoey. Believe me, Tory can run every bit as fast as any Border Collie you’ve seen! She’s a wild woman!
November 17, 2008
A Couple of Agility Photos
I spent part of the weekend at the Mt. Hood Doberman club trial in Vancouver. I can’t say that I’m sad about running Zoey in just one class a day–it certainly is nice to have most of your weekend left for other stuff besides waiting for your agility class to begin!
I took my camera with me on Sunday to see how it would do in the low light conditions. The only problem is that the lenses I have that will work well in low light don’t have much magnification!
So, I only snapped a few photos (and then came home to contemplate my next lens purchase).
I did experiment a little with panning–I so love it as a way to capture the essence of motion.
November 16, 2008
Zoey’s Boyfriend
This is Oggie–aka “Oggie Doggie”. Zoey fell for him hard the first time she met him (literally–she hit the ground hard and rolled right over on her back).
Zoey doesn’t get to see Oggie very often (just at agility trials) but she’s still very much in love with him. Of course, anytime Zoey sees ANY Pharaoh Hound, she thinks it is her beloved Oggie.
November 15, 2008
This is for Kim
Today Zoey picked up her 15th performance title-”NFP”. That’s “Novice FAST Preferred” for those who aren’t as addicted to the sport of agility as I am.
She did it in style, winning her class–she picked up 58 points in just over 26 seconds (to put that in perspective, she only needed to accumulate 50 points and the standard course time was 38 seconds)!
We are dedicating our win to our friend Kim in Michigan. Just this week she underwent knee replacement surgery so she could be a better agility partner to her two active Corgis–Libby and Obie.
Kim and I have been corresponding with each other for over three years now. We constantly encourage one another to keep going with our “wild child” Corgis–the story I had published earlier this year in “Clean Run” was about our long-distance friendship.
So Kim, this one is for you; thank you for all your support over the years!
October 3, 2008
My Little Border Corgi
So a couple of weekends ago, Zoey and I went to an agility trial. We hadn’t been to an AKC agility trial since January (!), so I didn’t really know what to expect from my little speed demon.
When we finished our Open Jumpers run, everyone assured me that Zoey hasn’t slowed down ONE BIT during our absence from the agility ring!
Why does the video end abruptly at the weave poles? Well, because it was such a FLAWLESS run up until that point. Zoey held her start line stay. I actually executed a front cross between jumps 3 and 4 (perhaps the first time Zoey and I have ever successfully done a front cross in competition). You’ll also notice that not a single bar is laying on the ground! There were no refusals, no off-courses. Just a lovely, flawless run. You see she even got her weave pole entry, despite an awkward angle!
Sadly, after she got the weave pole entry, she forgot how to weave. We had 4 unsuccessful attempts at the weave poles before I moved on. That was followed by an off course tunnel and THAT was followed by a missed jump. So much chaos and mayhem!
August 5, 2008
Some Dogs Are More Helpful Than Others…
On the police dog agility course, there was an obstacle (a wall) that was about 8 feet tall; the dogs were supposed to climp up and over it, but the handlers (the officers) could help their dogs over it as it was quite tall and many of the dogs could not scale it on their own. Some dogs really tried to do it on their own and their handlers didn’t have to help them very much:
Other dogs, however, seemed to have no problem letting their handlers do most of the work for them:
Any idea of how strong you must have to be to lift a full grown German Shepherd dog straight up in the air, eight feet high?
Photo from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office Police K-9 Trials held in Hillsboro, OR on August 2, 2008
August 4, 2008
Police Dog Agility
Sure…my dogs all competed in dog agility…but they never got to go through a window jump…
Then again, I never got to carry a sidearm with me on an agility course, either…
Photo from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office Police K-9 Trials held in Hillsboro, OR on August 2, 2008
