Held in Walnut, California (outdoors on grass)
JWW judge Larry Brockett Score 95, Time 39.31 (SCT 44), First place
STD judge Terry Cullen Score 98, Time 72.92 (SCT 70), First place
You got the reader's digest version on the phone from the trial, so here is the longer version of Olive's first agility trial.
After getting measured for her height card, Olive's first course was Novice Jumpers with Weaves. The course was fairly straight forward, starting with two pinwheels in an S, a C shaped tunnel, and then a jump into the weaves. The weave entrance angle was tough - the sort that Remy would miss well into his excellent career. Then another S of jumps out to the finish.
Olive looked great through the first pinwheel but followed me past jump 4 (I was setting up for a front cross on the landing side). I had to take her back to the front side, and from there I made sure I stuck with every jump until she committed. That R was her only fault for the rest of the course. She was fast (39.31 seconds, under the 44 second SCT), even with the correction for the missed jump. She nailed the weaves, and ran a pretty nice line thoughout.
There was a wait of about 50 minutes for the Standard course. I figure that Olive will learn how to rest between runs eventually - today she was too excited.
The standard run was beautiful through the first half - tire, chute, jump, broad jump, A-frame, tunnel, dog walk, jump - was flawless. I was impressed because we haven't practiced tire, chute, or broad jump much. On the table she was quick into a sit, but I discovered that she'll start to offer a down. I had to get her back into a sit twice. I'll be practicing that this week!
Then the only real glitch of the day happened. From the table we were to head to the weaves, but on the way Olive spotted Diane and Asti in the corner where Diane was filming. We lost at least 11 seconds getting Olive back to the start of the weaves, and then she didn't have the rhythm she showed on the Jumpers course. But with a bit of work we finished the weaves, went on her way to the teeter - Olive Here! that's not next! - double, teeter, jump, and panel to finish. Even with the huge detour at the weaves, Olive was only two seconds over course time.
We're looking forward to running again next weekend... and we'll make sure that we learn from our mistakes today.
Thanks for a great agility partner,
John"