I didn't stay to watch the 22" Champ. class but I heard people walkting it who were planning on all four 7's, don't know if they pulled it off. I imagine it was doable for a dog with fast weaves and then the Super Q's would boil down to whoever was fastest. This has happened before in my height class (Perf. 22") when the teeter was #7 and there was plenty of time and only 3 reds possible. I don't typically like Snooker courses like that because there isn't much strategy involved, it's all about who's fastest and tightest.
For Cody I started with the red furthest to the left, did the weaves then the red to the right of the weaves then the #6 jump then back to the startline for the middle red back out to the #6 jump and into the closing by running past the #5 jump on the far side. Lola's course was almost the same, only difference was I took the #6 jump instead of the weaves just in case someone beat Cody out for first place so she wouldn't take the second Super Q from him. Plus I don't see the point in making her do the weaves more than she has to these days and why risk the fault? I got too far ahead of her after the last #6 jump and on the way to the #2 closing tunnel and she snuck behind me and took the #5 jump. Oddly enough it's something I would expect Cody to do but not her so I hung a little tighter with him and we had no problem.
This Standard course looked like fun, I wish I hadn't got caught up at the table with both dogs and been able to do the course but I'm more concerned with fixing the table problem than handling issues at this point.
Lots of handlers had trouble with their dog turning to the left after the #4 jump. Both my dogs did it then one back jumped #4 and the other took it forward again for off courses all around. I pushed them to the left to take the jump but it was too much motion in that direction and they read it as a rear cross. It looks obvious now seeing it on the course map but I didn't notice this possibility while walking. What I should have done was realized they would turn to the left and simply wrapped them around to the #5 weaves. Several people did this and it worked nicely. Others were able to get far enough ahead to cue a turn to the right but for people with super fast dogs getting up there was a challenge.
I had planned 2 blind crosses after the #10 adn #14 tunnel but of course never got the chance to try them out. A few people did them and they looked nice. I liked that option because the dog can see your feet running past the tunnel so hopefully plan for a turn in the correct direction. Some people did a front cross after #10 and simply pushed the dog on their right at #14 to #15. One person reasoned this would keep them from getting pattern trained and thinking they were going the same way the second time through.
#17 to #19 was a problem for some as well. Most people did a front cross after #17 and another after #18 but you had to be quick and some didn't quite make it. That was my plan and since my dogs have solid teeters I'm pretty sure I could have left them to do the teeter and gotten in place no problem. If I get a chance this weekend I may try to set some of this up and give it a try.
No trials for me this weekend, I'm going to sleep in and have some relaxed fun out at the training field. Good luck to those of you trialing this weekend! I'll think of you as I roll over in bed and go back to sleep.
Those look like fun courses! I would have loved to try running around for four 6s in snooker but my guy is not up for 3-4 sets of weave poles.
ReplyDeleteI know, that's way too many weaves for a 10 year old dog. And if you were going for all four 7's it would be 5 sets including the closing.
ReplyDeleteOh man, if my guy gets *one* clean set of weaves in a trial I'm a happy camper, nevermind five in one run. Heh.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it lovely having a "practice dog" so that you can fix your mistakes with your next dog? Of course, if you want THAT dog to Q, too, then you need a practice dog for your practice dog...
ReplyDeleteKatrina and I were at this trial and since she runs Baby in the 22" group, we stayed for it all - I think there were 4 dogs that completed 4 "7"'s - they were the ones you would expect, Sybil, Slick, Petey and 1 other, I forget. Katrina was going for 7,7,7,6 but Baby dropped a bar on a red and got whistled.
ReplyDeleteFor P3, I did 7, 7, 4, 4, with Skye which worked out good, but time ran out in the middle of the weaves in the closing as he was wasting time questioning my signals - would have been a SQ, bummer, but happy to have a Q in my first P3 snooker run :)
I was afraid of running out of time with 4 reds because Cody can be wide with his jumping and waste time. We had 12 seconds left over so I probably could have sneaked in another red but I'm glad I didn't risk it. Lola has all her SQ's so there was no point risking it with her. One more SQ for Cody and we don't have to worry about it anymore.
ReplyDeleteSkye is plenty fast and accurate, you'll get your SQ's easily, no worries about that!