At this point I will get to the actual agility, since this blog is kind of all about agility hey? But for my non-South-African readers, I will give some quick explanations, which I might have done at some stage before in my blog, but I am too lazy to go and re-read all my posts. (Yes, I did do an average calculation of the time it would take to re-read all my posts vs. the time it would take to type this all out again and typing won by far... apparently I have made 89 posts already)... Here in South Africa (aka the Third World), we have three separate 'agility-like disciplines. Contact Agility - What it says, normal agility, which includes all the stuffs allowed in FCI Agility. Second one is Non-Contact Agility - This is like FCI jumping, all the usuals, just no table, see-saw, A-Frame or dog walk. Then we have a third one, called Dog Jumping... Now this one is own to the dark continent. It started out in the early 80's, mostly supported by obedience handlers. In the early years, courses ranged from completely ridiculous (as in 5 jumps in a straight line, except all obstacles were from the opposite side of approach, or massive tripples (550mmx750mm) onto pull-throughs or 2m from incorrect tunnel entries), to ridiculously easy... just a zig-zag across the field. There are different options (versions of running it, Table A, Table B, Table C or Table D), but the most common AND the reason that it the sport still continues in South Africa AND the reason it is different from agility in South Africa, is the (in)famous jump off... The basic concept is, that course is set, with 15 obstacles (for the 'higher' grade) and all the clear rounds compete in a run-off, which determines the winner. Now in the olden days, this meant all handlers playing super-safe in the first round, mostly having atrocious rounds, but 'getting a clear', in order to compete for the prize in the jump off. Which of course I completely disagree with this mentality and luckily the sport has kind of evolved with agility, although some old-school judges DO insist on clinging onto the insanity that used to be dog jumping. Now the jump-off is FUN, it is great fun and it is a great competition normally... it is over as shortened course and it leads to great speed and great pushing.
Now as far as our championship statuses go, each discipline is separate ie Contact Agility, Non-Contact Agility and Dog Jumping. In Contact Agility and Non-Contact Agility, you need three Qualifying Certificates (QC's) under three different judges to become a champion. Because we have such small numbers competing, a minimum course speed is set out in our rules. These speeds are 4m/s for Non-Contact Agility and 3.5m/s for Contact Agility. There is no maximum limit. For 1-15 dogs in the class, a QC is awarded to the winner, provided they have a clear round, 16-30 dogs, the first and second places (provided they have a clear round) get a QC and 31+ dogs, three QC's are awarded to the top three places. However in Dog Jumping, only the winner gets a QC and only provided there are at least 3 dogs (with three different handlers) competing, however there are no minimum speeds in Dog Jumping. QC's are only awarded at Championship Shows (we also have open shows, which is entry on the day and you can still gain qualifications in the lower grades.)
Got that? Eish, if I didn't explain it well then go read it all on KUSA's website :)
Now back to today... Since the entries were reasonable for today, I entered both Chaos and Quake... I knew in advance that the grounds that we were running on would be absolutely covered with dry grass, dead, dry, yellow, wintery grass. Chaos's word nightmare. The dog is just weird, on the most slippery carpet in the world (where I have fallen on my ass repeatedly) he motors along, he finds grip and there are no slips... but give him three blades of dry-grass and he is all over the place and keeps falling on his face. The point is, I honestly went with no expectations with the Spaz, of course I wanted my clears, but I was prepared to take the slips and face-plants into account. Quake? Well it IS my special needs child after all. With Quake, there are no expectations, just a 'let's go and have fun', type of thing... so that is what we did. He did manage a second in a very small contact class... He decided that he has never seen an A-Frame before and it was going to give him a heart attack or at the very least bit his ear off... Apparently it was Quake's turn to feed me the humble pie, while Chaos filled my eyes with tears of Spazzie Awesomeness...
We started of with contact, where the judge for some or other reason put the bars down to 550mm... now I train over different heights and I expect my dogs to keep bars up regardless, but I also know that Chaos has a tendency to just crash straight through lower bars, as he has no regard for them. Anyhow it was a super easy course and he had a nice rounds... with perfect releases on his contacts... well done Spazzo! Fastest time of the day, but with one knock :( I felt very relaxed today... no I hadn't smoked/sniffed/popped anything, I was just chilled. Went for my clear in the first round of Dog Jumping, got that right... but when the jump-off came along and I walked the course, I was kind of disappointed... the judge had left the poles in (oh yes, in most jump-offs, which are over a shortened course, judges take out poles and tables). Chaos's poles are slow... normally only around 2.6 seconds. Now I have been actively working at speeding the dude up since October last year and I have made a lot of progress (down from a 3.1 average to the 2.6), but still left a lot of room to beat me... Haha, to make it even more... erm interesting... a dog ran onto the course with my first attempt at the jump-off... luckily a very friendly dog, that just wanted to play and herd, NOT an aggressive one... but I had to stop Chaos mid-course, which confused the hell out of him... then I replace him in his wait, but he moved... now in Dog Jumping, once the whistle has blown, you are not allowed to touch your dog, this is faulted, so I just kind of went with it, released him and ran... a very nice clear to win the class... with a QC... good Spaz! A video of all the dogs in the jump-ff:
The non-contact course was quite tricky... hmmm, doesn't really look that way on the video, but the judge promised to send me the courses, so will post them when I have them. Oh yes, that brings me to the video thing... the police still has my video camera in the evidence lock-up and I have NO clue when I will get it back... I MISS my video camera, I long after it, I yearn!!! Yes it is REALLY that bad! So all these video's were taken on my still camera, that cannot zoom while recording. Sucky, sucky, sucky... so the video footage is crap, from a million miles away, and I don't even know if it is worth posting it here, but since I am a video slave, it is better to post something than nothing... Okay, back to this round... It was a tricky course and Spaz had a nice run... and won the class with yet another QC! Woot boy! Ja I know the Jump-Off rounds are a repeat of the previous video, but I just FELT like it, okay!
So this leaves us needing one QC each to become a champion in each discipline... I am happy with him...
For tonight that is all, although I have tons more to say... but all that for a later date... among the subjects up for discussion will be:
Measuring of the course... have a look at my rounds today... and I especially put the m/s up there for you to lift an eyebrow at... another one will be course design and then I might do another few paragraphs on dogs and their jobs! Until then, over and out...
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