Silaria
Forums Sage
This past weekend, May 31/June 1, Edan and I successfully completed our C-ATCH, CPE Agility Trial Champion.
We've been competing in CPE since 2009 and it took us this long to achieve this goal because for the longest time we were only able to compete in two trials per year. As the venue grew in popularity the number of close shows grew from two to six (all of which fill quickly so it's become challenging to get into the trials even as a host club member).
At the beginning of the weekend I needed 1 Standard run and one Jackpot run for the championship. (Jackpot in CPE is very similar to USDAA's Gamblers but has an option for a "non-traditional" gamble/jackpot if two Jackpot games are played in a weekend.) Saturday's Jackpot run was a 'traditional' game meaning you run around and collect points for a period of time (35 seconds for little dogs) then have 20 seconds to complete a distance challenge. Unfortunately for me, the buzzer between the two halves of the game caught me out of position and I didn't take time to set it up correctly so we failed the distance challenge and NQ'd.
Standard, the very next run, we successfully Q'd but I ran it very conservatively to ensure that Q so our time was a bit slower than normal. I'm fine with that; the teal Q ribbon was the one that mattered, not the colored placement ribbon. This Q also meant I was down to needed a Q in Jackpot; the one class I was hoping NOT to need for my C-ATCH.
CPE rules state if two Jackpots are offered in a weekend, one must be Traditional and the other "Non-Traditional". With non-traditional jackpots the judge gets to make up the rules for the challenge. Sometimes there are multiple distance challenges worth different values and you have to complete one of them or a challenge to include ONLY 3 of 4 tunnels in your plan (touching the 4th tunnel would NQ you). Sometimes the non-traditionals can be more challenging than the traditionals.
In my case, the non-traditionals required an opening sequence similar to a traditional, 35 seconds to run around and collect 24 points, then after the buzzer we had to complete a 1, 3 and 5 point obstacle of our choosing and get to the table within 20 seconds. Tricky considering where the table was in comparison to the contacts (which are the 5 point obstacles). THANKFULLY I had multiple plans based on where the first buzzer caught me AND that I have a good "Snooker" dog. (Snooker is another CPE/USDAA game.) I knew what I needed to do. I knew WHERE on the course I'd hit my 24 points for my opening sequence. I knew HOW the judge was going to call obstacles the dog was already committed to if the first buzzer went off (they'd be called as 0 points). I knew the ORDER the 1-3-5 obstacles were to be done in (just get them done; any order). I had about THREE different options for my 1-3-5. Edan and I were very in sync during the run and actually covered more ground than we did the previous day in the traditional run.
I was right where I wanted to be for the buzzer between the two halves of the game (1-3-5 combination #2 was my go to combo). We were at the table with about 10 seconds to spare in our closing. I KNEW we were successful but had to wait for the score table to officially tally it. I had a number of people tell me after the fact that I made the run look easy given the added pressure of the C-ATCH.
I have pictures and video but they are home on my tablet. I tried to pull the picture I posted on FB and email it to myself but my phone's FB app won't let me do that.
Next CPE goal - a championship title for each class before moving onto the C-ATE (CPE Agility Team Extraordinaire); their "C" level.
We've been competing in CPE since 2009 and it took us this long to achieve this goal because for the longest time we were only able to compete in two trials per year. As the venue grew in popularity the number of close shows grew from two to six (all of which fill quickly so it's become challenging to get into the trials even as a host club member).
At the beginning of the weekend I needed 1 Standard run and one Jackpot run for the championship. (Jackpot in CPE is very similar to USDAA's Gamblers but has an option for a "non-traditional" gamble/jackpot if two Jackpot games are played in a weekend.) Saturday's Jackpot run was a 'traditional' game meaning you run around and collect points for a period of time (35 seconds for little dogs) then have 20 seconds to complete a distance challenge. Unfortunately for me, the buzzer between the two halves of the game caught me out of position and I didn't take time to set it up correctly so we failed the distance challenge and NQ'd.
Standard, the very next run, we successfully Q'd but I ran it very conservatively to ensure that Q so our time was a bit slower than normal. I'm fine with that; the teal Q ribbon was the one that mattered, not the colored placement ribbon. This Q also meant I was down to needed a Q in Jackpot; the one class I was hoping NOT to need for my C-ATCH.
CPE rules state if two Jackpots are offered in a weekend, one must be Traditional and the other "Non-Traditional". With non-traditional jackpots the judge gets to make up the rules for the challenge. Sometimes there are multiple distance challenges worth different values and you have to complete one of them or a challenge to include ONLY 3 of 4 tunnels in your plan (touching the 4th tunnel would NQ you). Sometimes the non-traditionals can be more challenging than the traditionals.
In my case, the non-traditionals required an opening sequence similar to a traditional, 35 seconds to run around and collect 24 points, then after the buzzer we had to complete a 1, 3 and 5 point obstacle of our choosing and get to the table within 20 seconds. Tricky considering where the table was in comparison to the contacts (which are the 5 point obstacles). THANKFULLY I had multiple plans based on where the first buzzer caught me AND that I have a good "Snooker" dog. (Snooker is another CPE/USDAA game.) I knew what I needed to do. I knew WHERE on the course I'd hit my 24 points for my opening sequence. I knew HOW the judge was going to call obstacles the dog was already committed to if the first buzzer went off (they'd be called as 0 points). I knew the ORDER the 1-3-5 obstacles were to be done in (just get them done; any order). I had about THREE different options for my 1-3-5. Edan and I were very in sync during the run and actually covered more ground than we did the previous day in the traditional run.
I was right where I wanted to be for the buzzer between the two halves of the game (1-3-5 combination #2 was my go to combo). We were at the table with about 10 seconds to spare in our closing. I KNEW we were successful but had to wait for the score table to officially tally it. I had a number of people tell me after the fact that I made the run look easy given the added pressure of the C-ATCH.
I have pictures and video but they are home on my tablet. I tried to pull the picture I posted on FB and email it to myself but my phone's FB app won't let me do that.
Next CPE goal - a championship title for each class before moving onto the C-ATE (CPE Agility Team Extraordinaire); their "C" level.
