Well, I just got home from my 1 and only truly local USDAA trial and because of the snowstorm that hits without fail every year for this trial I spent 2 nights in a Hotel less than an hour from my house!! I find that very ironic to say the least :-)
The good news is the Hotel I stayed at was very nice, offered breakfast, and a hugely discounted rate with a nominal pet fee of $5.00 as a special for this trial!
The bad news is SoBe and Merger had to stay home because schlepping 6 dogs in and out of a hotel room does not even begin to sound like fun to me :-) There was also the issue of the incredibly cold temps. that forced me to crate inside the facility for this trial another thing I try to do as infrequently as possible!
This storm brought hours of pouring rain that turned to snow and glare ice roads to begin with, followed by a day of monstrous winds, blowing and drifting snow, how special! Today warmed up and the sun came out it was a glorious day.
The trial itself was wonderful, it was so nice to be back showing in USDAA, my last USDAA trial was the first weekend of Dec. it ha been a long dry spell.
I had a fantastic weekend! I ran 3 dogs this weekend, Able, Maze and Mr. Wally Woo. They all performed wonderfully and made it very clear that I had better get serious about getting back in shape!
Able is a tired man tonight and is definitely feeling the effects of his almost 10 years but as always he was brilliant and among other very impressive feats this weekend he won the PNS and both rounds of the PSJ, I love my Able dog!
It is really tough to wrap my mind around the fact that Able is almost 10 years old, it is even harder to realize that the number of agility runs he has left are limited. I am no more ready to stop showing Able than I ever was ready to retire, Jack, Buzz or Secret.
It is such an incredibly special bond that we have with our canine teammates and I cannot imagine a life without these awesome dogs.
Don't get me wrong I have no intention of retiring Able anytime soon, but I have started to cut back on the number of runs he does in a day or over a weekend, I also realize that although he still gives 100% every time he runs a course there is a price to be paid. At the end of the day he is stiff and sore and reminding me that it will ultimately be up to me to decide when it is time to hang up Ables' running shoes.
This is not a day that I look forward to, time goes all too fast and before you know it our puppies are geriatrics of the household. It is a not so subtle reminder that we should always appreciate every run, every piece of every run and all of the precious time we get to spend with these amazing animals.
It is also a reminder in a different way to take time with our dogs, let them be young, let them grow up in their own time and be patient, even when it feels like it will never come together it always does if you are patient, fair and clear with your instruction :-)
Todays post was absolutely not meant to be a downer I just really got thinking about how much I appreciate all of my dogs and how quickly time passes and I don't mind reminding myself on a fairly regular basis not to wish my life away, enjoy every moment!
OK, next topic... As you all know I have made the decision to keep a running Dog Walk criteria with Wally, there was a lot of thought and back and forth indecisiveness involved in the ultimate decision to keep a running Dog Walk.
I realize that there are going to be misses and I have to be willing to accept that. I realize that I am going to have to stop the middle age spread and truly think about exercising to be able to keep up with a 1.3 second Dog Walk performance.
These are a few seriously difficult things for me to accept but I am willing to do so knowing that in this new age of agility every hundredth of a second counts, BUT, and this is a very big BUT, I am not willing to accept judges penalizing a running contact because they cannot get to the end before the dog does.
So, before I go further let me also say that if agility organizations would do away with judging the upside contact of dog walks a judge might actually be able to accurately judge a running dog walk with more consistency I have been a proponent of abolishing the upside criteria for a long time and now it just seems like it is necessary to guarantee any level of consistency in judging a dog walk performance.
However, since at present the up "and" downsides are judged it is becoming harder and harder for judges to place the dog walk in a position on course that gives them even a fighting chance and judging both.
Herein lies the problem, in the "old" days if a judge somehow found themselves out of position to judge either the up or downside of a contact they erred on the side of the dog. This is as it should be.
In the "new" era of agility I am finding a complete opposite judging performance. It seems to be through my own experience as well as the many hundreds or thousands of runs I see every year that judges are unable to see both up and downs sides of the dog walk in particular and are faulting running contact performances that they obviously cannot see.
I am not saying that these calls are not sometimes accurate, that is not the point. The point is that if the judge does not feel 100% certain that a contact was missed they simply should NOT call it.
It is almost like judges do not want to admit that they cannot run as fast as the dog so they "pretend" that they can see both. Well, I know that I can not beat my own dog from end to end in a foot race across the dog walk.
In order to be at the down contact at the same time or before Wally gets there I would not be able to tell you with any degree of certainty whether he hit the upside or not. Now, Wally does not miss the upsides of his contacts but once again that is not the point. The point is, very few people are going beat a Border Collie or any fast long strided dog from end to end of a dog walk.
It is definitely time to rethink judging the upside contacts of dog walks and we need to get back to a more realistic judging approach, if I don't see it, I can't call it.
Last thought from the weekend, what an incredibly talented area I get to live in. The Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, South Dakota agility folks are definitely some of the best around and it is great to have such competitive individuals to constantly keep us on our toes, trying to train and handle to perfection :-)
6 comments:
Woohoo, way to go, Able!!! That was not a downer of a post at all, just very beautiful and a great reminder for us all not to take things (and dogs!) for granted.
Vaguely curious: why do you not generally crate inside trial facilities?
I agree about the DW judging - do you know if this is being discussed within the walls of USDAA?
(maybe they will also review judges who don't judge, but worry about when people get to the start line instead - not that we'd know any like that of course)
It WAS a fun weekend! :)
Congratulations on the weekend! I cannot believe Able is nearly 10. I'm going to dig up my old CR magazines and re-live his puppyhood. And we should ALL age as gracefully as you are, young 'un!
Way to go Able. Not bad for an almost 10 year old dog, not bad at all. He rocks!
I totally, 1000% agree with you about judging the upside of the contacts. I've had several judges get in my path because they're trying to see both ends of the dog walk. I've had judges call Nakai's DW contact when they were not even close to being in the right spot to see that he had both front feet and a back foot in the contact zone. I've also had a judge trip me because they got in my way. I should not have to layer a judge...Nakai doesn't appreciate it either.
As for Brix, he too is like Wally...fast as anything on the DW. He has also been clocked at having a 1.3 second DW, but has a great 2o2o at the moment (to be honest, I'm too scared to do a running DW with him). There is no way a judge can see both ends with how fast he is, unless the judge is 20-30 feet away. Which, since it seems like they want to be practically on the DW themselves, doesn't happen. The only way the judge from this weekends trial knew Brix got both ends was because of his 2o2o.
Way to go Able. Not bad for an almost 10 year old dog, not bad at all. He rocks!
I totally, 1000% agree with you about judging the upside of the contacts. I've had several judges get in my path because they're trying to see both ends of the dog walk. I've had judges call Nakai's DW contact when they were not even close to being in the right spot to see that he had both front feet and a back foot in the contact zone. I've also had a judge trip me because they got in my way. I should not have to layer a judge...Nakai doesn't appreciate it either.
As for Brix, he too is like Wally...fast as anything on the DW. He has also been clocked at having a 1.3 second DW, but has a great 2o2o at the moment (to be honest, I'm too scared to do a running DW with him). There is no way I or a judge can see both ends with how fast he is, unless the judge is 20-30 feet away. Which, since it seems like they want to be practically on the DW themselves, doesn't happen. The only way the judge from this weekends trial knew Brix got both ends was because of his 2o2o.
Hi Stacy - found your blog!!!!
In Canada, as you know, up contacts are no longer judged. It was decided that there was no reason for this, it is not a safety issue, which was the reason for contact zones in the first place!!! My guess is, when running contacts become the "norm" for the fast, top teams, all organizations will have to have some sort of electronic contact zone..Like a "Hit it" to tell the judge if the dog is in or not. I think someone is beginning to play with inventing one in Europe.
Hope to see you at AAC Nationals again sometime!!!
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