Well, Tammy thinks Merlin may've hurt his ACL so we've definitely got an appointment with Dr. Mark tomorrow. Until then we're trying crate rest and leash walking to potty, to try to keep him from further injuring whatever. I definitely love clubs that have a "partial refund for injured dogs" policy though - at least I can put that toward treatment to get that dog back to normal, if needed. That helps a lot! I do hate to ask this club for that money back, as it didn't come even close to filling its 330 runs, but that's not really an option at the moment.
I've still got Hawk and Rhymer entered (both classes, both days), so at least I'm not pulling all my entries. Should be fun! We're staying with a dog friend/student and carpooling with them, so it'll probably be nonstop dog talk all weekend!
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I set up a really random course the other day -- mostly built around the fact I didn't want to move the contacts. I wanted to work a bit on dog walk/tunnel combinations, a 270 or two, and a little bit on weave entries.
(Click on course to enlarge)
Rhymer: Rhymer got to be the test dog for this course. I tried being on both sides of the weaves, but neither was much more successful than the other. Front crossing after 4 tightened his weave entry, but made the pin wheel a little rough (he likes to work away so that part worked out okay). With a post turn at 4 (with me hanging back a little so he knew to shorten up his stride), he turned a little too wide to the weaves but corrected it and hit the entry, but then I was "stuck" behind 9 in the pinwheel. I suppose I could've kept going with him on my right and eventually rear crossed at 10 or 11 but for whatever reason that didn't look like a good option in 3D. He absolutely loved the rest of the course.
Hawk: Hawk thought 1-3 was an absolute riot! We ran into the same problem with the weaves-to-pinwheel that Rhymer and I did. Hmm! If it's not raining today after Spanish class I'll go out and take another look at possibilities. She thoroughly loved the rest of the course. She and her dad both chose the far tunnel entrance of the yellow tunnel, but that may've had something to do with the way I signaled it. Hmm, might go look at that again too!
The other day someone informed me that Hawk has really slow contacts. Out of curiosity I looked up the "blistering fast, competitive, and OK" obstacle times someone had sent to Clean Run's list a while back. Hmm.. doesn't look so slow to me, considering I imagine the fastest times are big dogs (ie Border Collies)? Not bad for a little 13.5" girlie :)
From Clean run:
Dogwalk - fastest times are getting down to 1.5 seconds (big dogs). FastI took several attempts of her contacts frame-by-frame on video and timed from the moment her first paw made contact with the obstacle to her first paw leaving the obstacle (since she does a 2o2o).
2o/2o are just under 2 seconds. You would ideally like your dogwalk under
2.5 to be competitive but under 3.0 for the average competitor is still
decent.
Teeter (variance due to equipment) - fastest times are just under 1 second.
Very good is around 1.2. To be competitive you want it under 1.5. Less than
2.0 is good for the average competitor. Small dogs there is a huge variance
due to equipment.
A-frame - fastest times are around 1.3. Very good times are under 1.5. Less
than 1.8 to be competitive. Less than 2.2 is good for the average
competitor.
Weave poles (huge variance due to surface and spacing) - fastest times on
grass are between 2.2 - 2.4. Very good under 2.7 on grass. Definitely want
to be less than 3.0 to be competitive. Average competitor is doing well to
have 3.3 or less. Carpet can add over half a second depending on traction.
Her times (average based on 2-7 attempts):
Teeter: 2.3 seconds
Weaves: 4.1 seconds
A-frame: 2.6 seconds
Dog Walk: 3.2 seconds
Off to school as I'm already running late (agility talk is clearly much more fun than getting ready)!
