ASCA Recap
The short of it is this: He did awesome!!! He nailed 3/4 DW contacts. The 4th one made me realize we need to work on speed and contacts. Rarely would I ever be running that hard, that fast, at an AKC trial or even training (due to the courses being tighter). But with ASCA's wide open course, whoa, Koji picked up a TON of speed and just jumped the contact zone. I tried to get him back on, but he didn't stick that either. We only had one obstacle left, but I made him sit, and picked him up. I figured that was for the best. So, I'd say it's close to being perfect.
I see where we need to proof some more. But I'd be okay with taking this to AKC.
AND he performed his start line stay PERFECTLY!!!!!!
Photos below are of:
Koji with his ribbons
In the car waiting to go home (he's sooo tired)
Koji whining while leaning against his crate, um, lovely isn't it? Doesn't he look vicious?
The long story if you'd like to read it is below, with videos.
Gamblers Part 1 (point part)
Gamblers Part 2 (the gamble)
I was told this was like FAST (easy compared to NADAC's Chances), so I decided to play. I'd say it was easy IF Koji stayed out. In this run, I practiced my DW twice. Perfect. The second pass, Koji comes off, but I know that's something we need to work on. If I move sideways, he tends to bend towards me and falls off. I'm semi-okay with that, but would like to fix it. I figured with all our goof-ups, I didn't have as much time as I thought, so I planned on taking the teeter twice, but only did it once. That's why you see me hanging around the jumps. And then the timer didn't go off. That's why there's two videos. I start over to do the gamble. Koji did GREAT!!!! But, the gamble was lost due to a stupid handler stepping over the line before he got in the tunnel.
So, no Q. But we got 1st place.
Not sure how you can place in Gamblers w/o doing the gamble, but okay.
Regular Round 1
Next up, Regular. This is the one Koji was hauling on, where he missed his DW. He was also MASSIVELY ramped up. One issue I had, and this is all me, was that we had so much time between obstacles, that he'd come back to me, or look at me, etc. So, a lot of us missing jumps and going back for them is for that reason.
Regular Round 2
This was moved a lot better. You can see Koji stopped on his DW!! Yay!! Obviously, no speed going into it really. His serps were awesome!!! Actually in both they were. He knew to just take them. We missed the last one, again, a lot of distance btwn jumps means he has time to look and bark at me. Ugh! He slipped off the teeter. The judge said he was limping, I had looked at him when I was running and didn't see anything, so that's why I kept going. I walked him a bit, and checked on it. Checked it again before Jumpers, but he seemed fine. The judge said she saw limping or strange running during my Jumpers run, but either it's just his running style or something is going on. I'll have my trainer watch me on Wed. For now, we're going to rest, walk some, stretch, rest more.
Vent: I swear. It's been over a year of trialing. You'd think hubby could take better video. He sucks!
Jumpers Round 1
OMG! What a PERFECT run! He ran this in 19 (point something) seconds. Super duper fast. He ran faster than any dog in the Open group. Okay, granted the rest were Vets and there were only 3 others, but still! Heck, he ran faster than all the Novice group too. lol. Awesome run. By this point, I was calling out the jumps more, saying "go over" more, and well, running FASTER! I knew I had to stay ahead or next to him in most of this. I also see I could've FC'd a lot but oh well. Don't you love his stay? I do!!! GAwd, I can lead-out again, you don't know how happy that makes me.
Jumpers Round 2
As I said, running ASCA is so different than AKC. I called Koji off the jump he missed by accident. Basically, all I did was say something and he looked at me and that was it. But once I had to redo that jump, I was behind him, so the ending is a mess. I was supposed to be ahead of him. Obviously, Koji has no distance. LOL. And no sends. If anyone's dog does, then it would've been a LOT nicer of an ending, hehehe. But still a good run.
Overall it was a great day. We got 3/5 Q's and 4/5 1st places. Okay, I admit, Koji was the only dog in his group (standard 16" - everyone else was Veteran's), but still, I took the ribbons since it was my first ASCA trial. I have to admit, I REALLY REALLY REALLY miss trialing NADAC/ASCA. I forgot how much fun it was. I also forgot how tiring it was running 5 runs, hahaha! And having to run them full-out, Koji may not be the only one hurting.
p.s. I'm not sure if I'll sign up for AKC Standard yet because of his teeter. He's still flying off. I think we need to work on that before going into trial. I mean REALLY work on it. Ditto with his A-frame. More contact work.
It's always something, isn't it? Koji is doing awesome on his DW though. Wow! I'll keep you posted Sunday evening and let you know how he did.
