DACOF 2011

This past weekend Burn and Triumph participated in DACOF - Dog Agility Competition of Florida - at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee.  We were fortunate enough to have been invited by Gail Waller to be on Fast Friends 2 team.  Burn ran in excellent and Triumph in open.  We had a blast and both boys had some very nice runs!! 

There were 55 teams total competiting over the weekend and Fast Friends 2 team placed 2nd - just 20 points shy of 1st place!!!  Burn ended up 3rd overall high in trial 20" excellent dog and Triumph was 1st overall high in trial 24" open dog!!!!

Everyone on my team was so supportive with such great dogs and great attitudes and all were so much fun to hang out with - especially during the awards presentations - we all laughed so hard at times we cried - I think we were overly tired and getting a bit giddy!

Gail Waller did a great job putting everything together and her young dog Tat was high in trial novice 16" dog!!! 

We had a total of 14 individual placements on our teams!!!!  The most impressive was Fast Friends Team 1 went from 32nd to 9th place by the end of the weekend!!!!

Below is Triumph's Open Jumpers run from Sunday - this was a really fun course to run...we've worked hard on his startline and very hard on his jumping - both have much improved...he was a very good boy :)))

Below is a picture of Fast Friends 2 Team

Below is the entire Fast Friends 1 and 2 teams!

Burn and Triumph and their trophies

Burn and Triumph's weekend loot!

LOSS

I'm so shocked and so sad to hear that Ronda Carter lost her battle with cancer early this morning...I worked with her a number of times over the years...Burn did his very first agility seminar with Ronda...that was about 7 years ago...she told me he couldn't jump...I was so offended by her bluntness and her honesty...but I didn't let her off the hook - I did my homework and sought her opinion and help...and she helped me a lot...

Burn's very first DAM team at the Regional in Perry was with Ronda and Pyro and Sherrie and Kix...we had such a great time...I loved Pyro and wanted her to be Burn's husband...she'd laugh and say you can't breed two red and white dogs, you'll get bad pads...after Burn had his first seizure, she was the first person I called...she was so comforting and very supportive...she always liked Burn...and she is one of the reasons I got Triumph...

I'm sitting here recalling so many memories...the laughs we shared and the saki and sushi dinners...I talked to her right before we left for the Regional in Perry...like just three weeks ago...I didn't see her name in the running order and messaged her and told her I would miss seeing her...she replied that she had just had surgery, a tumor removed from her stomach, but that she was doing great and down to a size 6...that was just three weeks ago...

Rest in peace, Ronda, and know that you will be missed...I will miss you and your laugh...my heartfelt condolences go out to her family and close friends and her dogs...I'm just in shock...

Father's Day...

okay so Father's Day isn't my most favorite of all "Days" as my father was not the greatest person in my life, and as far as a father goes...well that's another story...but I did have a super day yesterday at Gabrielle's contact seminar with a really good guy in my life, my dog Triumph...

and I did get to spend today with my boyfriend, who is a great father and his son...

I could feel a little down right now, but will choose not to, and instead, will look forward to the upcoming week, some agility training and then next weekend's DACOF competition...no pressure, just fun, friends, dogs, agility and a weekend :)))))))

something different

This Saturday Triumph and I will be working in a contact seminar with Gabrielle Blackburn at her place in Wesley Chapel, Florida.  Saturday she will focus on dogs with 2o2o contacts and Sunday will be running contacts...while I have been doing 2o2o contacts with Triumph in trials, and am happy to say that I have maintained his criteria at trials, his foundation training was running the dog walk and the aframe. 

I am considering going back to running contacts with him in the future and would have loved to have worked him on Sunday at the seminar, but it is Father's Day and I will be spending it with Marc and his son...

So in honor of a really great dad...we are happy to do Saturday's 2o2o contact session...below is a picture of this really great dad...a picture that I cropped and edited with a new app I got on my iphone...I love my boyfriend, my dogs, and my iphone :)))))

regional video

created my first ever agility video using windows movie maker...THAT was a lot of work but I *think* it came out okay...it's kinda long so I probably could have edited a whole lot more of it, but whatever...it is what it is :)))))

next

Our next event will be DACOF on June 25 and 26, 2011, to take place at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida.  We will be running on Fast Friends Agility team.  Burn will be competing on the excellent team and Triumph in open.  Below is a description of the event. 

The last time I competed at DACOF was with Burn in 2006 and our team won!!  It was great fun!!

 

DACOF - Dog Agility Competition of Florida

One of the most appealing aspects of running agility is the fact that it's an activity between just you and your dog, creating a wonderful bond. However, there is annual event in Florida where being a participant is very exciting. It is called DACOF (Dog Agility Competition of Florida), which embraces all Florida agility clubs.

If you run and/or train agility in Florida, whether you prefer NADAC (www.nadac.com), CPE (www.k9cpe.com), AKC (www.akc.org), or any other agility organization, this competition is open to you!

The teams consist of a minimum of six dogs/handlers to compete, and the scores from the dogs are added together to get a team total. There must be two novice, two open, and two excellent dogs on each team, and a club may have multiple teams. If you have three dogs per level on a team, you can drop the lowest score and keep only the best two.

determination

I love this...

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions,
Small people always do that.
But the really great ones make you feel that you, too, can become great!
~Mark Twain

*******
I learned quite a bit about myself, my dog, and other competitors this past weekend at the Regional event...while it took a couple of days to sink in, I came away having learned a great lesson.

I've worked very hard on Triumph's jumping over the last 4 months...I could see much improvement with his take off and with his over jumping.  I truly believe he thinks the sooner he takes off, the sooner he can either catch up to me or get to the next jump, tunnel, contact, whatever...he's got a lot of drive and a lot of forward compulsion but he is starting to think more about his job and he is also starting to realize that he doesn't have to put THAT much effort into jumping to get where I want him to go next...

I got lots of compliments on his progress and on a number of his runs, but I also heard some very negative comments which I let bother me...really bother me...and then the "no comments at all" I think bothered me even more...so I spent a lot of Monday thinking about this and instead of being hurt by the negative comments, I chose to feel differently...I decided that I will spend the rest of the summer working even harder on Triumph's jumping, his contacts, my handling, everything, and I am now more determined than ever to go back next year and do even better! 

At least I know that I have a very willing partner and as always, he will give me at least 150% effort in our training this summer :)))))

A First!

Triumph competed in his very first Regional Event in Perry Georgia - we had a blast!  Our "team" was a young dog training team named appropriately - No Pressure!  And that was a good thing as team jumpers was first thing Friday morning with the 26" dogs first in and Triumph was like the 5th dog in the ring.  The course was pretty challenging and a number of dogs did not make it through clean, including Triumph!  His jumping started out big and early but then he settled in and it was actually pretty good!

Next was team snooker.  I love snooker but haven't quite gotten comfortable running Triumph in that game.  Our opening was pretty nice doing a 4, 5, 6, and 7 and then he went off course in the closing at 3 - oh well it was still points!

Team gamble was fun - Triumph's contacts were good and his jumping was pretty nice as well.  Team standard was a very challenging course that like jumpers, a number of dogs did not make it through clean - Triumph ran it clean and ended up in 10th place!

Here is our relay run which was actually quite fun - although I have to say I am glad that I got to run the half that I did as the second part was very tough!!!






Grand Prix round 1 was Saturday - I thought it was a really fun course!  I really did not plan to layer the judge and the jump at the dog walk but he was kinda in my path and I wanted to get down that line to the poles and I did!  Triumph was a good boy for getting the entry but just couldn't hold on to it...it was more or less a training run as he had the bye and would be running in the finals on Sunday!

Steeplechase round 1 was a REALLY FUN course!!!!  Not sure why he turned the wrong way at the jump after the second aframe - I saved it but it gave him a bad line to the broad jump and he stepped on it and incurred a 5 second fault which did not allow him to run in finals on Sunday - too bad because that was a very fun course as well!

But I was most proud of his Grand Prix final run on Sunday...I had been told on Saturday morning that I looked like a dweeb running my dogs on Friday...maybe it was said in fun, but it bothered me such that I was bound and determined to do a better job and we did...so to the person who called me a dweeb, thank you!

Unfortunately, by this run Triumph had started to push his start line and ended up under the tire - stinker!  Had he not got the refusal at the tire, and had all the other results stayed the same, he would have placed 4th in a very large and very competitive 26" class! 

At not even 2.5 years of age and his very first regional, I think he did a pretty good job!

oh yeah, excuse my friend's finger while she video taped :)

off we go!

Had a great lesson on Sunday with Stuart...he was very happy with Triumph's jumping progress since we last worked with him on April 1st...yeah!!!!

We had a great training session last night, tonight will be grooming time, and we'll leave early tomorrow morning for Perry Georgia for the Regional!