Oh my! The switch has definitely flipped. Dudley is off to the races as far as agility is concerned.

I took him to an agility trial in Lawrence, KS last month--the February Fling. I only entered him on Thursday and Friday due to other commitments I had on Saturday and Sunday. At the time of the trial Dudley did not possess the skills to be able to Q in either Standard or JWW. We entered JWW anyway and also entered FAST. Dudley was only weaving at home and he was not performing the teeter with confidence either. Therefore my goal for the trial was for him to stay with me. He did very well! We attempted the weave poles a couple of times in JWW, but it didn't happen so oh well. I didn't anticipate any Q's at this trial, but got one anyway! On Thursday in FAST I was actually able to design a course without weave poles or the teeter that got us a Q! Woo hoo! We had a party after his runs on Thursday because he stayed with me and did what I asked of him. Same thing after the JWW run on Friday. Then he lost his little head and was probably thinking "the faster I get to the end, the faster we party!" and didn't stay with me but did some other obstacles and then booked for the end. I was upbeat but we didn't party. He got some pats and a small treat, but no party. He was clearly confused.

Now I had a quandary. I didn't want his last experience at this trial to be a perceived negative so we went straight from the trial to our practice facility. My goal was to get him to stay with me so we could party. I set up a course and we went to work. He wasn't understanding at first. He thought he was in trouble and when he thinks that, he makes for the chute (aka the Dudley hide out). On my little course he was going over a jump, up the A frame and to the table. Then from the table I was asking him to do the tire while the chute was right next to it. He'd try for the chute, I'd block the chute and say "tire". We did that about 3 times and then he slowly did the tire. YIPPEE! Party, party, party!!! We tried it again and this time when I called for the tire he did the tire! Yippee! Now I started mixing it up so he wouldn't know what was coming. When he stayed with me, party-party! If he went off on his own, we started again. It only took a couple of runs after the 'tire-chute aha' for him to totally get it. We had a final party, a nice romp (he loves to just run in there), and went home.

We entered another AKC trial and this time we entered all the events! It was a 3 day trial with Standard, JWW and FAST on Friday, Standard and JWW on Saturday and Sunday. We did it all. However, I did decide not to ask the teeter of him on Friday. In class on Wednesday he was very nervous about the teeter so I didn't want to stress him out on the first day. There was an off course jump right next to the teeter that the dog would see when coming out of a tunnel. It was a challenge jump that you were supposed to call them off and send them over the teeter instead. I just sent him over the jump like that was the right course. Yippee! Party, party, party! He stayed with me and, if he'd have done the teeter, would probably have Q'd. He did Q in JWW on Friday in a blazing 36 seconds with a SCT of 52, no faults! I was looking forward to picking up a second FAST Q on Friday, but what's in the send? The teeter! I decided we'd work on our weave pole entry and lateral 180's and try to run out the clock before we attempted the send. That worked out spiffy. We were on our way to the send when the buzzer sounded. Yeah! Party down!

Day 2. We're entered in JWW and in Standard. JWW is in the morning and we Q in no time flat. Even though he's not hitting his entry solidly like he does at home, he's doing the weaves. Even with 3 attempts to hit that entry, he still Q's in almost 20 seconds under SCT. Good boy. Now that we've got 2 JWW Q's I figure might as well see what he does with the teeter in standard. If I have to babysit him, that's okay. If he does a great job I might even stop right then and reward him. But does he go over it with fear and trepidation? No, he goes over the sucker at FULL SPEED! I about had heart failure! I tell him SLOW, but does he? Nope. He goes over it at top speed but bails before it hits the ground. That's an automatic NQ. I'm so stunned I can't even get the name of the next obstacle out of my mouth (tunnel). I do motion to it and he's still going full bore. I pick him up when he comes out of the tunnel and we complete the course. I praised him a ton and still had a party because he did all the obstacles. Good boy but mommy about has a heart attack.

Day 3. Now I'm in a pickle. My original goal was to get two JWW legs under his belt so he could get his NJP at Nationals in April. But what if he runs JWW and Q's? He'll have his title and I can't get him into another trial to get some Open legs before Nationals. What to do? I decide to go ahead and go for the title. It might happen, it might not happen. And if I don't go for it and something happens to me or Dudley so that we can't run later I'll kick myself for not trying now while I had the chance. So we go for it. Woo hoo he Q's! That's his NJP! Yippee!!! On to Standard. The running order is Tall to Small and Novice Standard is the last class of the day. We're "last dog this trial". The waiting is excruciating! But we manage to stay upbeat and start our run. We Q'd!!! We had one refusal. I had my arm up as he came off the walk and it pushed him to the wrong tunnel entry but I managed to call him off before he actually went in and got him in the right side, but it was still a refusal. And, even though I had a dilly of a time getting him to sit on the table we still made it under time. That's our first AKC Standard Preferred leg.

Not only did we Q in 4 of our 7 runs (4 out of 5 if you don't count the runs I purposely threw), but he took first in every run that he Q'd in. Woo hoo! My agility dog is here!!! Here are the weekends winnings: