Here is another little twist from the fine folks at NADAC. They don't stake their weave poles. You can watch the video to see how that turned out for me. Maybe if I go to enough NADAC trials I can get footage for a whole 'agility bloopers' video.
Weavers and 2 rounds of Standard
NADAC May 2010 from colliebrains on Vimeo.
Strum ended up with 2/4 Q's (Standard & Tunnelers) though none of them will count for anything because I entered him in Elite (Masters) classes and he's in Novice still. Elite classes in NADAC are more like the Advanced level in DOCNA and maybe Starters in USDAA and I wanted the extra challenge for him though I wouldn't say his Standard runs were challenging. That's not to say I didn't mishandle and end up with an off course in one of them. I'll blame it on a lapse on concentration after the running dogwalk. Good practice for me though, I need to be able to learn to run fast and keep my head. I will say there was a bit more challenge to the Elite Standard courses then I had at the last NADAC trial that I ran the older dogs in several years ago so maybe things are improving a bit or maybe I just got lucky.
I'd call the weave pole training a guarded success. By his 3rd run he finally looked like he was going to hit an entry and make it all the way through but those darned unstaked poles came up and smacked him in the butt. The unstaked poles proved challenging for him for all his runs I think. It's strange though because I don't train with staked poles since my bases don't have holes to put anchors through and I've never noticed him having such problems. I guess he's going so gangbusters a the trial that he hits them with a whole different level of enthusiasm.
The club had the solid rubber contact surfaces and they're awesome. I was a bit worried about Strummer's running contacts on the the slatless equipment but the rubber provides such wonderful traction that he looked great, better than on the sanded surfaces. He easily hit both A-frames and had one good dogwalk, the other was iffy. The judge gave it to me but it was reluctantly. Impossible to say for sure if he hit it from the angle of the video. One of the DOCNA trials at the end of the month is having rubberized surfaces for the contacts though it's the granule type and not the solid rubber that NADAC uses. I'm looking forward to it, I think it's going to be great for the dogs. Another bonus was that dogs were so quiet going over the dogwalk and A-frame that Strummer was a lot calmer waiting for his turn to go into the ring. That sound of nails on sanded wood sends his brain through the roof for some reason.
Overall it was a fun, relaxing day, beautiful cool cloudy weather. Started out the morning in the mid-30's and it climbed to maybe high 40's. low to mid 50's. Perfect for agility if you ask me and Strummer agrees.
Next weekend is 2 Strummer runs in a USDAA trial then a weekend off then 2 weekends in a row of a full slate of DOCNA. Normally I would never sign up for such madness but I'm trying to get Strum out of Advanced so I can try to qualify him for Champs in the Masters division. Though with a good likelihood of Lola not being able to compete I'm not sure if I'll go for just one dog and make the other 2 sit in crates all day. On the other hand it's only a 4 1/2 hour drive to Grand Junction so in the end I'll probably go. I've got a hotel room reserved already so I'm set if I want to go.
OMG! Poor Strummer and poor you! He really sent that hoop flying!
ReplyDeleteThe hoop flying through the air had me laughing super hard! Glad no one was hurt. And yes, they should really stake their weaves, if they are so safety conscious. I won't be visiting Planet NADAC anytime soon!
ReplyDeleteHa, Planet NADAC, that's funny but so true. They probably think that staking the weave poles is a safety issue though I can't even guess at the reasoning. Not staking them seems crazy and more of a safety issue to me but oh well.
ReplyDeleteStrummer looked good though. It didn't seem to bother him about the weaves.
ReplyDeleteI loved the video of the flying hoop! So NADAC needs to consider the safety of the handler from flying hoops!
ReplyDeletesounds like you and Strummer had fun! I didn't know hoops were in NADAC. Weird... I don't do NADAC but if I ever felt like a "fun match" I guess I'll stick to DOCNA where the obstacles are familiar.
See ya this weekend!
Yeah, you show up at a NADAC trial and you never know what weirdness you'll encounter with the equipment and rules and good luck keeping track of it all. DOCNA has more interesting courses anyway.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm done with NADAC because of the hoops, too dangerous for the Strum man and for innocent bystanders.
Tika knocked over unstaked weave poles a couple of times, once with her tangled in them. I can't imagine why they think that's a good idea. I asked them to stake them at the time, thinking it was just an oversight, but no. That was a longggg time back before I abandoned NADAC entirely. Thanks for the video with the hoops, especially teh flying one. I hadn't seen them in person, and this was certainly educational.
ReplyDeleteWeaves are not staked in NADAC because they want to see that dogs are actually weaving instead of just pushing the poles out of the way. If they push, the weave bases will tip from side to side...some judges will count it as a fault.
ReplyDeleteThe flying hoop was a hoot...I've been to many NADAC trials and I've never seen a dog try to jump one before!
Aside from a very small handfull of AKC trials, which until this year I couldn't do with my mixes, NADAC's all some of us have. I do love the distance handling (major distance!) it's taught me.
Other venues would be great, but the closest trial to me, for any agility venue, is already 2 hours away!
Kim, thanks for that clarification, now I am completely horrified! They think that it's *easier* to push the poles out of the way when they're staked down? That is very strange. When they're staked, the dog *has* to weave because the poles don't flex--that can be clearly seen from any photo of weaving dogs. When they're not staked, that's when Things Happen like the weaves flying into the air (as in this video) or crashing sideways and tangling up the dog (as happened to me). That does not seem safer and the logic makes no sense to me.
ReplyDeleteAh, well-- yeah, back in the old days there was a lot about NADAC that I liked. That was then.
Thanks for the explanation on the weaves Kim. I'm not sure I agree with it or even understand the reasoning but at least I know what it is. I agree with ELF, it doesn't make a whole lotta sense. And it seems like the judging for that is incredibly subjective.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks also for reminding us that some of us are incredibly spoiled by the amount and variety of trials and venues we have available. I have mixes and don't do AKC with the purebred so I realize how that limits your choices but still I have more trials available to me than I'm interested in attending and 2 hours or a little bit over is about as far as I'm willing to travel unless I make a special trip/mini-vacation out of it.
There's a lot of animosity towards NADAC in this area and 2 of the clubs switched their NADAC trials to DOCNA when that became an option. There is a small contingent that appears to like the distance handling and I think NADAC has become a niche market for them but for many people, myself included, this type of handling is a conflict with our normal handling style/system. The market is so small though that I think the few remaining NADAC trials have trouble filling which is why there were day-of entries.
"Hoopsy daisy" -- you crack me up!!
ReplyDelete