Our first USDAA trial in Youngsville, NC Oct. 19-20, 2019
We did our first USDAA trial Teamworks in Youngsville, NC this past weekend. Very different feel than the AKC trials we went to this summer. There are different types of courses and they add a game component that is actually very fun and challenging! It’s not all about doing the course you’ve been given. You can make up your own course and accumulate points and sometimes you might win a little bit of money! (We didn’t this time, boo.) We did Q in Starters Jumpers the first day though! Lots of fun and met a bunch of people too. Very laid back feel and the place was awesome. Thanks to my friends Heather and David for hosting me at their beautiful home in Wake Forest and for coming to support us at the trial. They even brought me a peanut butter and honey sandwich that was ahhhmazing! Thank you, Heather and David!!! See you again soon!
I also want to thank my teacher, Andrea Arbogast, for encouraging Ann and me to shoot for the stars. We probably would not have signed up for this trial if she had not encouraged me to do so. Thank you so much! We had a great time!
This was our first time doing a game called Gamblers. You have to accumulate a certain number of points in the first 25 seconds and then the buzzer will go off and then you do the gamble part of the course. The gamble on this course was the tunnel to the next tunnel, then the jump. The handler cannot go over the line. I got enough points and if Ann didn’t get stuck on the teeter, we probably would have gotten a Q! But alas, we got buzzed off just before she jumped the last jump. Next time!
This was our Starters Standard the first day of the trial. USDAA’s rules are that the dog has to down on the table. AKC doesn’t have that rule. We practiced down on the table for about a week before this trial and she got it at home but she wasn’t doing it on the course. She also had some issues with the weaves, but eventually got it on the last try. She’s doing better and better so I’m proud of her. Not sad about getting NQ.
We got a Q in Starters Standard! She’s a fast little dog and loves to run so this course was great for her!
We messed up the tunnel entry right at the beginning. She was supposed to go into the right hand side and it should have been easy, but I must have pulled her off course. Oh well. Missed that !, but she’s pretty much following me around the course otherwise so that’s good! Also, 2 dogs before this run, a dog went to the bathroom in the back corner and she stopped to take a sniff. It happens!
This is what’s called Steeplechase in USDAA. Kind of a hard course but Ann did it. She messed up the entrance of the tunnel again. Not sure why she’s doing that. Gotta figure that out and fix it.
This is one of the tournament courses called Grand Prix Qualifier. I’m still not exactly sure what that means, but we messed it up so we didn’t qualify. Lol. I’m just trying to get as much practice and exposure to different situations as possible. It was fun and she actually did pretty well. Just not perfect…yet.
If you want to see something funny, this is the one. I promise we practiced down on the table and she can do it. She was just being stubborn and wouldn’t down! Anyway, I had to get on the ground to get her to down and she finally did it.
