A closer look: Regular Courses

OK, so at the very wise suggestion of our four legged friend Bailey, we are also going to do some posts to give more details about our courses. So, I figured a good place to start was with the regular course. A regular course is made up of jumps, tunnels, weaves, an A-frame, and a dog walk. In NADAC, we don't have teeters, tires, or tables, which was one of the things that first drew us to NADAC over other venues. Once we got started, we loved how laid back and friendly everyone in NADAC was. The hardest part of the regular courses for us these days is when they put a tunnel right under the dog walk, where the entry to the tunnel is right next to the ramp to the dog walk. One weekend (not very long ago), we didn't get our Q on three runs in a row, because somehow, I wasn't giving Brad the right signal. I spent some extra time in our next class working on it, and it paid off at our last trial. In the past, the weaves were our hardest thing. In novice we only had to do 6 weaves in a row, but now that we're in open, we have to do 12. The very last regular course we did, Brad argued with me on the weaves, and we didn't get the Q because we went over the time. Speaking of time, there is a Standard Course Time set for each dog size group (small-med-large). We're in the medium group. Since Braddock is a very tall mini schnauzer, we jump at 16". Most mini's jump at 12". I've attached a link to one of our decent regular course runs from youtube. You can see how those weaves used to give us problems!

Schnauzer fun...

We'll be traveling up to Oklahoma City next month for a trial, and we've managed to find 4 other schnauzers (2 sets of 2) that have invited us to crate with them! That is going to be one loud corner of schnauzers! Should be fun, though!

Flashback...

Thanksgiving, 2007

McGregor, TX

Our first agility trial...ahhh the excitement! I decided to go ahead a do a trial even though we had only started classes in June of that year. I just wanted to see how we'd do and decide from there if trials were for us.

Our first run wasn't bad, for a first run. We did get a Q at least. Back then, there was a distance line (which will be our nemesis for a long time to come), which I had to cross, giving us only a 5 pt. Q. Thankfully, in 2008, NADAC did away with that nasty distance line in regular.

On to our second run. By this time, Brad has figured out that we leave Daddy to go run, but that he can see Daddy. While we are waiting in the run for our turn, he was constantly looking at Daddy and barking at him. We get to the start line...more barking, more looking. We did a few obstacles, but the separation anxiety was just too much for him. He went running out of the ring, right into the lap of...wait, this isn't Daddy, it's just a stranger who took our seat when we moved! Little did Brad know, Phil had moved up higher to video us! Click the link in the title and you can check out this infamous run on youtube. It's got more views than any other run we've ever posted. It probably is the most enjoyable!

The next day, we went back for our third run, and again, he ran right out of the ring. I didn't find this quite so funny the second time around. I wasn't sure at that point if we'd ever go back.