Happy Solstice!

First holiday picture in six years without Jasper Fforde. I miss you, party cat. At least Cai enjoys playing with his new sibling, too.

Rally-FrEe Advanced title (R-FE/M)

We signed up for the World Wide video competition. I recorded at Sherry's. I could record here in the back yard, but Chimera moves much better on a flat grassy field than on wood chips, and I wanted to set him up for success. Unfortunately on the day we had set aside for recording, it was extremely windy. Our ring gates were falling over, and one of the Free Choice signs blew away, never to be seen again. Poor Cai. This was not his best work. Despite the difficult environment, we qualified with a score of 142. That completes his title in the Advanced class, which is called R-FE/M.

We'll now be in the Championship class, which is identical to the Advanced class. (After that is the Grand Championship class, which requires 5 scores of 175+. That will be a challenge for us.)

First AKC agility Qs!

Chimera was entered into his first AKC agility trial yesterday. We did a standard novice run and a jumpers novice run and qualified in both!

I had been sure that Cai's height was just under 12" and therefore he would need to jump 12". However he measured in at 11" with one rep and 10.45" with the second, so he's all set to only jump 8" in AKC! That's a relief - it's easier on his body, and of course he'll be faster on the course.

Jumpers was one big counter-clockise loop for #1-9. Before #10 I did a rear cross, and a second rear cross before #13. After #7 I was glancing up ahead and heard Cai give a loud squeal. I looked back and he was standing in one spot, hunched over awkwardly. The bar was still up, so my best guess was that he had landed oddly. I asked him to take the next jump, and he did it normally. So I decided to finish the run unless he showed me that he was hurt. He did the rest flawlessly. After we finished I asked the judge if he saw what had happened. He and a couple people from the ring crew all confirmed that Cai squealed as he jumped over #7, but since the bar was still up, he mostly likely had barely caught a toe on the bar.

I don't think that he was truly hurt as he would have been limping and/or slowed down for the rest of the course. Instead he sped back up and finished with enthusiasm. He didn't limp as I walked him around afterwards.

I put him back in the car for 90 minutes until it was our turn in Standard. He was sound asleep when I went back for him after the walk through and was slow to perk up. I worried that I hadn't given him enough time to wake back up and warm up.

Terra chewed on the map a bit.

I did a front cross after the teeter and again after the weaves, making sure to go deep so that he would have a straight approach to the broad jump.

He hesitated at the top of the a-frame, which was unusual. No problems with the tire or teeter. I saw him hesitate just slightly and look closely at the panel and broad jumps, which he hasn't seen in a long time, but I repeated the cue "hup!" a few times and so he trusted me and jumped them. On the weaves, he got distracted and looked off and popped out. Fortunately novice allows a redo and on the second try he was perfect.

So all in all I'm quite happy with how we did. I'll keep an eye on his toes (and let Dr Wallace know at his next chiropractic appointment next week). And I'll continue to work on figuring out just the right balance between letting him acclimate and warm up but not tiring him out.

Time to check the calendar for our next trial!