Flying Poodles

New challenges….

This past weekend was Dancer’s first USDAA trial. The jump heights are so high–Elly has to jump 22″ even in Performance–that Elly’s health made USDAA difficult, even though I like USDAA courses and I think Snooker is a blast.

But with Elly’s newfound strength and the fact that CAT was putting on a USDAA trial 25 minutes drive away… I entered Elly in Snooker both days and Dancer in Steeplechase, Jumpers, Snooker, Gamblers, and Pairs.

Elly made me proud. She Qd in Snooker both days, taking second on Saturday and first on Sunday. She did exactly what I asked of her, and did it quite well, with enthusiasm and verve. Snooker is a bizarre little strategy game in which you have to do a single-point jump–there are three designated jumps on the course–then take another obstacle for points, then a single-point jump, another obstacle for points, and then the last single-point jump, another obstacle for points, and then the obstacles in 2-3-4-5-6-7 order. The trick is that, if you make an error, you get whistled off immediately. When I ran Dancer in Snooker on Saturday, she did two jumps and a tunnel before we got whistled off… Using the same strategy, Elly made if all the way through, error-free.

Dancer was super, too. It was the first trial where I’ve asked her to jump 26″. In NADAC the highest jump height is 20″ and there are no spread jumps; in USDAA, her jump height in Starters is 26″ and she faced double and triple jumps. You could see her making up her mind about that challenge!

Steeplechase is an interesting class. It’s open to any dog at any level. Dancer was the slowest 26″ dog that didn’t get eliminated, running just over 50 seconds. She had no off-courses and no disqualifying faults. Not bad for her first shot at the class. About half the dogs were eliminated.

In pairs, there are two dogs on the course, running in sequence. A baton is passed between the two handlers, and both dogs must be off-leash during the handoff. Dancer ran first, and wow did she get excited when she saw another dog on the course! Somehow, though, we Qd. I’m not sure I understand why, since Dancer missed her A-frame contact, but I guess you can have one error.

That was Dancer’s only Q of the weekend. Gamblers is a whole different challenge in USDAA–gather points for a while, then when a buzzer sounds, go to a distance challenge. I found the buzzer part VERY difficult! It seemed to catch me off-guard both days. Jumpers went well, except for the triple, which clearly worries Dancer. She went around it, then took it when I took her back–but by that time she was over time.