Flyer's Third Birthday and First AKC Trial - Video
14 Jul 2014
Flyer was born on 7/11 and I always say I should have called him “Little Gulp” or “Slurpee”. We celebrated by going to our first AKC trial held by the Wisconsin-Illinois Agility Group (WAG). I love their smooth running trials! The facility was an indoor soccer/sports place in Libertyville, IL with two turf rings and, this weekend, a noisy basketball tournament. I’m happy to say the noise didn’t bother Flyer at all.
So we had to do all the baby dog stuff, like get measured and run in Novice…
Flyer never liked getting measured but he was extra squirrely about it and kept jumping off the table. Fortunately, VMO Kathy Rudolph was extra patient and gave me the great advice to just have him jump on and off the table a dozen or so times. Once he had done that he seemed happy enough standing their to get a good measurement. Just as patient, VMO Joan Mullen scratched his chest until he relaxed enough to stand normally and we had our second and final measurement: 19.5 inches.
We were lucky enough to get into all three days of the trial and I was imagining we could get our Novice titles in one weekend… or could we? It has been five or more years since Meeker was in AKC Novice and I forgot how long the jumping sequences could be with out any crosses. Turns out that would be a challenge for us.
Here’s Friday’s video:
He was pretty amped up, really liked the surface and I was surprised by how fast he was in our JWW run; I was behind a lot… also surprised he popped the weaves! I was more in sync on the Std run but he dropped a bar. Oh well - a lot of good and a fun way to celebrate his birthday!
Saturday I was starting to get more used to faster Flyer on this style course:
But I still let him get ahead of me in JWW and sent him to the back side of the jump… He broke his stay in Std and didn’t hold his 2o2os on the DW or teeter. I marked the start line verbally. Beautiful running A Frame and Flyer was fast and smooth all day long! Happy to earn our first Q and a first place in Standard.
Sunday wrapped up the weekend with me feeling great:
Instead of handling cautiously I decided to run the JWW course more aggressively and “go for it!“. Even though we NQ’d with a dropped bar I felt good about handling Flyer how I want to run him. We qualified in STD after I reminded Flyer to hold his start line and earned a 1st place.
So more work for us running fast on long jumping sequences of varied jump distances! I’m proud of Flyer and how he has grown up!
If you enjoyed this article won't you please: 
Thanks!