Looking Back At 2014 & Goals For 2015

[take4roll10]

Hey Agility Superstars! 2014 is in the can and it's time for a whole new year of training and competing!

This thread is to discuss what happened in 2014 and what you hope for in 2015. I find it helps me to write down (or type) what I learned, accomplished and of course hope to achieve in the new year.

So, in 2014... What were your accomplishments and achievements? What are you most proud of? What did you train? What did you learn? Any disappointments?

For 2015... What are your goals? What do you want to work on? What improvements do you hope to see?

 

[take4roll10]

We entered 2014 more confident than ever. This was the first year we were able to train during the winter. For some reason, Bailey was more reactive indoors, so during 2012 & 2013, we took a break from classes during the winter. The fact that we were able to train indoors during the 2013-14 winter months, meant Bailey was maturing.

We started 2014 with our first run in Masters Jumpers and needed 2 Q's for our AXJ title.

Masters JWW - We qualified in 7 out of 12 runs. Most of our NQ's were not disasters either. Mainly knocked bars or I got lost on course. She did have one or two runs where she missed her weave entry. Pretty good in my opinion.

Excellent & Masters Standard - We also qualified in 7 out of 12 runs. We earned our AX title and 5 Master Q's. We even had one Masters run that we actually earned 4th place. I guess all the fast dogs were competing at another trial? It's not easy to place in the regular classes at AKC in the Northeast. Lots of talented teams at these trials. In standard, our biggest issues were weave poles and running off and barking at the table.

Lastly for 2014, we earned 3 QQ's and 166 Mach points.

Stuff To Work On For 2015:
-I'd really like to improve my confidence (been working on this since day 1).
-Providing quicker & more accurate hand signals. Bailey is now at a point where if I don't give her a quick enough signal, she barks at me in frustration.
-Bailey's running off and barking at other dogs/people while in the ring. This cost us at least two QQ's and seems to happen a lot by the table.
-Also, need to work on Bailey's teeter confidence. She still hesitates on the teeter.
-Last thing, train more! I must admit, when I'm not in my weekly class, I don't train. I do nothing at home. If I want to earn a mach before Bailey is 14, we have to train more.

Here are two of my favorite runs from 2014:
This is the Masters Standard course we earned 4th place. It was the first time we had a 4-obstacle serpentine at a trial and very tempting off-course opportunities by the dogwalk & tunnel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7IElB7FAF0&list=UU5XVYaCErzZDDrLet0Lgdpw

This is the hardest JWW course we had last year. It had 5 or 6 side changes. I tried to do all front crosses. Unfortunately, on the 4th or 5th to last jump, I hesitated right before my planned FC, so I tried to save it with a rear cross. That hesitation confused Bailey and caused her to run past the next jump. So close to qualifying! But really proud we made it that far in this course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYrBUKpDVQw&index=6&list=UU5XVYaCErzZDDrLet0Lgdpw

 

[Calliesmom]

Agility accomplishments for 2014-
Cranberry got his first AKC JWW Q- 2 to go.
Dixie needs one Std Q to move into Masters and one JWW Q to move into Excellent.

in NADAC, both Cran and Dix got their Elite Tunnelers titles. they have various amounts of Qs in the other classes that they run there.

2015 goals:
help Cranberry with collection and jumping- he needs more help than Dixie so I need to work on handling skills that will help him.

Continue 2o2o training with all the puppers
Teach Jocu and Destin weaves
Teach Jocu contacts- he does the Aframe and table ok but has only been on the dogwalk a few times and not at all on the teeter.
work on Destin's recall

I'm sure that there are plenty of other things that we'll find we need to work on but this is a good start

 

[corbinam]

Well, this is the first year in a while that our goals changed drastically mid-year.

Lexi got her ADCH, which was our top priority. Huge moment for my little heart dog and I

But after that, things changed. Had a few things going on in my personal life and agility took a back seat.

Our perspective with Bentley also changed a bit too. Instead of working really hard on retraining, my husband has decided to just stay in maintenance mode. We'll play a few games here and there for fun--focus on the games Bentley loves (Snooker, Jumpers) and not worry too much outside of that.

And yes, 2014 brought us a puppy. Lots of focus on foundation training and just letting Enzo be a (somewhat naughty!) puppy.

This year's goals? I'm going to be way more modest this year.

• Bentley--to have fun and stay healthy.
• Lexi--to have fun, stay healthy, and have some smoking runs here and there!
• Enzo--learn the foundations, have fun, stay healthy, and debut in USDAA at the end of the year.

 

[seashel]

Happy New Year agility fans!

Successes for us in 2014 were: competing properly for the first time,
winning into Grade 3 (In particular our winning Grade 2 run which was probably the best run we've ever had), queuing with other dogs/general good behaviour at agility shows (a major achievement).

Goals for 2015: I really must improve my handling skills, tighter turns and better communication, Grade 4? (terrifying thought!) Would really like to do a training seminar/course.

We had a lovely training session last weekend on the beach with a few jumps and friends. It was cold and damp and loads of mistakes but oh so much fun to be running again after weeks and weeks of no agility due to waterlogged ground.

 

[Hurtseverywhere]

2014: Qualified Stormy for the nationals 17th out of 53 dogs at the Ontario west regionals very happy with that, attended the 2014 Cdn nationals both dog and handler did not travel well and choked big time and finished dead Last in our Class, I was hoping for at least middle of the pack , but it was what it was and was a great experience all things considered. After 2 years without a Q for Cosmo got him going again as a veteran and he has been picking up Q's on a regular basis.
Got both dogs into Masters level and working on masters titles Cosmo got master STD title and Storm got Masters Steeplechase and Master Jumpers titles.

Goals for 2015: finish off ADV Games titles for both dogs Cosmo needs one of each an ADV jumpers, a gamblers and a snookers Q, Storm need 3 ADV snooker Q's, to title both dogs out of Advanced level and get to work on Masters titles, Attend this years regionals and hope to get inside the top 10 this year with Storm and maybe just maybe get to ATCH this year with Storm but not sure this will be possible with the # of trials I am planning to attend that may more realistically be the 2016 goal. Keep it light and relaxed and get back too having more fun out there, I kind a got into a very competitive must be perfect out there mode early last year and took some of the fun out of it for all of us, some hard lessons learned and hopefully not to be repeated any time soon.