Favor and I just had a wonderful weekend of ASCA at the beautiful Sugarbush Farm in Stephentown, NY. One of my favorite places to trial and this weekend was particularly fun. It was a small trial and felt more like a picnic on a pair of beautiful days. Favor and I had some nice connected runs — plenty of runs blew up, but we still managed to Q 4 times in Open Regular. In ASCA you can run at your level or above, so even though we needed Qs to finish Novice we’ve been running in Open, on the theory that if we can’t Q in Open we don’t really belong in Open. That and twelve weaves. So we wrapped up Novice and are 5 points shy of an Open title, so from here on out it’s Elite, baby. (Already legit in Elite Jumpers.)
Last week Daisy gave me some feedback on Favor that was super insightful and encouraging. Favor is a close worker and super responsive, Daisy pointed out, and that she isn’t necessarily on my hip all the time but she does run close to my path. Rather than trying to kick her wide of my line I can instead use her comfort of working close to my advantage. Pushes, blinds, those sorts of things with tons of forward cues work well for us.
Anyway, this weekend I really focused on my path during walk throughs. And I also copied a friend and got a tug and treat (ours also had bunny fur!) and delayed food rewards til after runs. I usually find myself popping so many treats in her before runs just to keep her from wigging out on the BCs standing near us, but this was ASCA and even a lot of barking Aussies don’t get her as keyed up as a single tugging BC, so we were able to keep our shit together before going in the ring and not fall apart as dramatically or as often in the ring. A good weekend.
Plus a very, very nice competitor took some fantastic photos of Favor that she shared with me. All these trial photos courtesy of Norie Calvert. Thanks!
This coming weekend another trial at Sugarbush — our first USDAA in ages. Whee!
Filed under: ASCA, dog agility, Favor, Vermont Tagged: Aussies rule
