CAWA Fundraisers Trials aka Cypher's Most Excellent Adventure!

Yesterday the Agility Committee put on a double header agility and jumping trial like they do every year to raise funds for our own Canine Association. It was well attended with nearly 500 runs throughout the day. I was there at gates opening - 7am as being on the committee I needed to help organise the equipment and set courses. It didn't help that on Thursday I came down with something and have felt pretty damn crook for the last 48 hours, maybe catching 3 hours sleep all night Friday night. So dosed up on Nurofen Plus (the one with the excellent somewhat weirdly effective Codeine in it) I arrived at the grounds with my brain in automatic pilot thinking only 1 step ahead. I had no idea how I would go today and really the way I was feeling at that point, running courses was the last thing on my mind.

So the morning trial rolled into a start and first cab off the ranks was Raven in Masters Agility. Given that I had no voice, and what vocal capacity I did have was saved for emergency calls on the course I'd decided that today they'd have to cue off my body just about the whole way. This didn't worry me as running silent with Raven is usually far more effective, I didn't know how it would go with Cypher but as I said one step at a time.
The Masters Agility course was really quite nice and flowing, unfortunately we didn't finish it as we left as soon as she dropped a bar. She dropped the one before the dogwalk. I stopped went back and replaced it and we left the ring. Illness really helps one stick to one's criteria like that!
Next up was Cypher in Excellent Jumping, again this was a really nice course that had some interesting handling challenges. Unfortunately I came to a complete halt in the middle of it, not because I got lost but because when I quickly glanced at a number to double check (whilst Cy was in a tunnel) it was facing the wrong way so I couldn't even see if it was the right number. We wasted a good 5 to 6 seconds there at least. In the end I just went with my instinct and it turned out to be the right way, then of course on the nice straight line home instead of just sticking to "Go on Go On" - idiot me yelled "Go on, go on, out go on" and what did he do? He went out of course like the good boy he is! Needless to say that course was not successful for us
but Cy was a good boy how got lots of play at the end of the course.
Soon the Open Jumping course was ready for running - there were a number of complaints about this course in terms of the distance control being virtually impossible to complete. I had a go with Raven and when I yelled out, she went out but still couldn't see the jump she had to go out to. They came through a fairly heavy collapsible tunnel then had to go out at quite an angle to jump a bar the was on quite an odd angle in relation to their position as they came out of the tunnel. Her speed and her moment taken to reorientate herself with the course meant that she whipped back to me and started barking wanting to know where to go. Needless to say we failed the distance challenge on this one :-)! Along with 53 other dogs so I didn't feel too bad. There was only one qualifier and after going up to the line with him still wondering how the hell I was going to get him through this distance challenge, Cypher was the only one that managed it. He managed it simply by NOT listening to me who had some sort of vague half assed plan that once he was in the tunnel I would call him back to the line bring him around my legs and shoot him out to the jump. When he came out the tunnel he had sudden deafness to my calls of Cypher Come, kind of trotted over towards the ring ropes (obviously thinking about Saffi - the red and white girl Robyn had brought down) and ended up right in front of the jump he was supposed to do. So I just gave up trying to get him to come and yelled "Out Over" and so he did it! The only one out of 55 dogs to do it. What a cack! Not even my experienced Masters dog who is a very
competent distance worker could do it. That was really his only major moment of 'boys brains' so to speak and probably the one time in his career where it will actually benefit him! So he achieved 1st Place Open Jumping!
Next on the agenda was Masters Jumping and judge Mel Rhoden put up another really smooth flowing yet challenging course. Raven again made it round half way before she knocked a bar. So again we stopped, replaced the bar and left the ring. Following Masters Jumping was Cypher in Excellent Agility. This course ran really well, it was smooth, flowing and we both ran it well, he was very responsive to me and working hard. There were only 2 qualifiers on this course and Cypher managed a good time to win 1st place by about 25 seconds from the 2nd qualifier. I was very happy with the way he was running despite the fact that I wasn't really energetic or vocal enough to show it!
Soon the Open Agility course was set and ready for running. The course really didn't need alot of distance handling on it and it would be likely to have lots of qualifiers. Raven again was going great guns until she knocked a bar at the start of the distance challenge, we stopped and left the ring again. Cypher was the last dog to run this course and again like in Excellent Agility we ran like clockwork, he was on the ball with every signal and command I gave and looked to be having such a good time he let out a bark at me at one stage - his very first on course bark. That made me smile as it was a bark through sheer excitement and enthusiasm for what we were playing at. He did a nice course and gained a clear round and came 9th out of 19 clear rounds so very happy with that. Only two more to go for his ADO title now.
Then it was lunchbreak and time to set the courses for the afternoon's trial. The first event we were to run in the afternoon was the Excellent Jumping course. Once again Cypher kept his form going and ran very smoothly for me, not only did we go clear and gain our JDX title we also won 1st place over 4 other clear runs. So for him he'd had 4 clear runs from 5 so far that day - I was starting to wonder when his fuse would overload! Next up was Masters Agility and Raven kept all her bars up this time, and ran clear. We only managed a 3rd place though because she decided to run the last four jumps according to her plan rather than mine which meant quite a bit of faffing about as I like to call it. It was good to go clear on a Masters Agility course for once though - the last time we did that was back in April!
Our next event was the Open Jumping course and I did a four jump lead out with Raven so that I could put her into a serpentine with me leading her from the front, she did this lead out really well and again we were going great guns till an odd angled bar was knocked about the 2nd obstacle into the distance challenge. We replaced the bar and left. The distance challenge whilst it didn't look all that difficult had dogs doing all sorts of faults - splicing the broad, extending over a jump so much it took them past the next jump and missing the weaver entry. Cypher I handled with a two jump lead out and he again ran as smooth as clockwork - he was really firing on all four cylinders today (in his case I think he's got 6!). There were no hiccups or wobbly bits for us and he ran clear for his JDO title today, not only that but he won 1st place again! Beating 4 other clear rounds, I was over the moon with him. I certainly didn't expect anything else from him that day.
After Open Jumping the Excellent Agility course was set and Cy must have had enough by then I think. He missed his A Frame contact and then vagued out on me going round a jump that was set near the side of the ring, I went to run off on him and he came with me straight away so I just got him to redo his A Frame contact and then we did a couple of jumps on the way out as we left the ring.
The last course of the day (and by this point I was definitely grateful for that!) was Open Agility. Now Raven still needed legs for this so I had thought of a couple of options of handling it. The best way to complete a three jump box was to front cross on the dog as it completed a 270 and came over the bar at you and typically this is something I always tend to shy away from because when just going for a clear I like to play it safe and give Raven as much room as possible to clear the bar. However I saw this successfully done with two much younger and just as fast dogs. So I decided what the hell I'll see if I can do it. And we did it! I was so impressed she kept the bar up but remembered not to stand around spectacting this wonderful event and we blitzed the rest of the course to win it. What a star she was! The 3 clear runs she had in the afternoon more than made up for the crappy morning trial we had. Cy again was the last dog to run and he was firing as well until I tried a "Raven" move on him that I haven't really practiced and he popped out the weavers as I did it. I took him back to redo the weavers and did a more gentle front cross on him closer to the weavers as he was doing them and he was fine, he stayed in them. But then as I yell "A Frame" he decided to just gallop across the up plank coming off sideways! I gave him an "oi!!" and he did it again properly, but I think I knew by then he was probably a bit switched off. We finished the course though because I'd brought his tuggy lead
and I'd wanted to finish really fast and play a stong game of tug with him. He did finish the course nicely and we did have a big game of tug afterwards. I didn't begrudge him this or any of his non-clear runs that day he'd performed well above my expectations that day - to say I was very proud of him would be an absolute understatement.
We have a trial next weekend (our first one with the games of Snooker and Strategic Pairs to be held in this State) and I've decided that until we've been trialling a bit longer I'll just put this weekend's trial to an amazing amount of luck. If he maintains his consistency next weekend on brand new trial grounds for him then I'll know we're getting somewhere.