A Secret Mission

BRDTC Agility Trial - March 2010

Riot wasn’t the only one who got to play agility this weekend. I decided I’d enter Cisco only in JWW for the three days at the Blue Ridge trial. Friday, I think Cisco was a bit rusty. We had a couple of issues on course. I had a pull to the tunnel that the weaves were in front of and Cisco took the entry to the weaves on the way to the tunnel — something I had never considered him doing. We had another wrong course somewhere along the course and for the first time Cisco dropped a bar and I’m not sure why. It was on the triple and I don’t know if it was the lack of training these last few months (he hasn’t run agility since mid-December in Cleveland) or if I caused the bar to come down or what. He didn’t seem to be in any pain, so hopefully it was something I did. We ran late in the day (I think it was nearly 4 o’clock before he ran) and I wondered if my decision to run him in only JWW was only going to work for trials where Excellent JWW was run in the morning.

Saturday I forgot the running order was switched and JWW was first so we got there with 3 minutes left on the clock for Cisco’s walk-through. I asked a friend to check me in and ran out to familiarize myself with the course. Well the judge said to clear the course with 1 minute and 42 seconds left on the clock. I had made it to obstacle number 13 and that was it. Ugh. It was at least an hour, maybe even an hour and a half after that that Cisco finally got to run and he came out blazing fast. Cisco, not only Q’d, but picked up 8 MACH points — meaning he was 8 seconds under time. This double the number of MACH points we had in the previous 5 runs combined. That’s MXJ leg number 6 for Mr. Cisco!

Sunday again had JWW second and Cisco didn’t run until probably 3 or so. The course was a really nice flow-y course. I didn’t pull him in close enough on the first 180° on the course and he missed the jump. I didn’t bother to fix it but kept on going and he had a gorgeous remainder of the run. It was also a fast run as he was 7 seconds under course time. I think this only running JWW might work out for us :-D

I was really pleased with his performance this weekend. He nailed his weave entry each day, and while they weren’t necessarily the fastest weaves I’ve ever gotten out of him, he completed them each day and they weren’t the worried, pokey kind I’ve also come to expect from him. He has done weaves a few times in the backyard this year. So hopefully that helped. I’m not sure I’ve gotten that kind of consistency on weaves from him ever.

I have Cisco entered in Jumpers and Snooker for the Mid-Atlantic Agility Showcase at the beginning of April. USDAA jumpers is his favorite course because it’s just jumps and tunnels with no weave poles. Snooker typically doesn’t have contact equipment, so I’m taking a chance and entering him in that too.