Agility! Oh yes and my first conformation show...

   I was having a hard time when I did my entries for that weekend because I needed to get Lacey in the confo ring before her "puppy career" was over but I knew there was a local CPE trial! I hate having to choose between the two. So I ended up doing Fri and Sat of conformation with Lacey and saved Sunday to do the agility trial with Willow.
     So on December 16th, I entered my first dog show with Lacey, my 9 month old Standard Poodle bitch. It was a Poodle Specialty held by Poodle Club of Lehigh Valley. Lacey and I were entered in the puppy sweepstakes (9-12 month class) and the regular 9-12 month class. Because it was a kind of small specialty, Junior Showmanship classes were not being offered. We won the puppy sweepstakes (only dog entered unfortunately) but rolled in a few bucks earned in that and some sweet ribbons!

Gotta love the prep work on those Poodle coats!

     As my mom and breeders worked like factory employees cranking out Lacey's coat and grooming, I got myself prepared to go into the ring! Before I knew it we were back out there and this time it was for real! We won our class, it was the best feeling! Literally before I knew it, I went back into the ring numerous times with Lacey (it'll take a few more shows until I understand the swing of things). What blew me away was when the judge called us as Best In Show Puppy! Had to be the most amazing feeling ever with my Poodle puppy girl! 


          The next day was Saturday and we were entered for our first all breed show in Allentown, PA. Unfortunately our breeders couldn't be there to help but they hooked me up with some other great Poodle people that helped me prep Lacey before the ring again. We took 1st in our 9-12 month bitch class! Because it was such a crazy environment and both Lacey and I were nervous, we didn't place in the next class but the judge was nice enough to announce in the ring how well we worked as a team and how beautiful of a puppy Lacey is and shook my hand. We had a nice time and learned some skills so it was well worth going in the breed ring that day! Literally right after that we had to run over to the JR showmanship ring for my novice senior class. Placed 3rd out of a group of like 5 juniors!


        The conformation stuff was fun but with my breed the prep work on Lacey is so exhausting and stressful until I feel more comfortable with how the showing schedule works and the timing of when I go into the ring. I was so excited to have a one day of agility Sunday (the following day)!


         Agility day! Sunday December 18th we were entered for a CPE trial in Barto, PA.  I had my alarm set for 5:30AM so I had plenty of time to pack up the car and get a big crating space and parking spot. I also wanted to get Lacey measured to get her used to it and I was curious to see what she'd be. Well when I woke up that morning, I realized the sun was shining way too brightly through my window to be 5:30AM! I completely overslept and it was already 8:30! I guess I was so exhausted that I hit the off button to my alarm in my sleep. I ran around screaming and luckily my parents helped me pack a lunch and hit the road ASAP! I got there by about 9:20ish in the morning and as I expected, I missed my first run in Snooker but I wasn't too mad. I was more nervous about finding a space for my crate! Thank goodness the building wasn't too crowded so I got a spot fairly easily (which totally shocked me since I normally really struggle to do so!). I brought a huge wire crate with me to crate the Poodles in together. I have an equally as large soft sided crate that I love but I can't trust Lacey in it yet because I am sure she'll chew a hole in it when I take Willow out for a run. So for now I will bring my wire crate around to trials that weighs a million tons but once Lacey can be trusted in a soft sided crate, I can convert them over :)
    Onto more exciting things.....my runs for that day! We did really well! Below is a list of my links for my runs with our results too. This was Willow's first time running in 20" early veterans in CPE. She seemed very comfortable with it! Enjoy the videos!


Standard L3. Our first run of the day. We did pretty well, Q'ed and 2nd place but got one fault for knocking a bar, pretty unusual for Willow so not sure what happened there. Our time could have been better but apparently a cat lives in that building and all the dogs were sniffing where the cat has been. I never had to call Willow off something during a course to stop sniffing so that was an adventure!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL89s45X6nY&context=C3579099ADOEgsToPDskI-P8UTihPrbLOwr2432nhQ


Fullhouse run. We Q'ed with a 1st place!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLj_p4Z0uuE&context=C3e13658ADOEgsToPDskKsOZFSGlAL9Efl4rnkiZRJ


Jumpers level 3 round 1. Clean run, Q and a 1st place! Whoop whoop! Willow sure loves those jumpers courses and runs like something else!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWN9SZnKpDk&context=C3de6fceADOEgsToPDskLaK8CZEG3kBK1bu3DS-cPq


Finally, Jumpers level 3 round 2! Another clean run, Q and 1st place! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxXljJkfaRs&context=C3856418ADOEgsToPDskINIYxFCnyynu8nDLstZEoK






So proud of my Poodles for a wonderful weekend to remember!










         

First trial with AKC!

So for the past year, Willow and I have mostly competed in CPE agility trials. November 19 & 20, 2011 we had our first agility trial with AKC. The trial was held at Dreampark in NJ and our adventure consisted of myself and two awesome friends Hillary and Selina. Hillary and Selina brought all there Paps and I took Willow and Neptune, Lacey stayed home for this trial. So we all stayed over at Hillary's for the weekend. Saturday morning (too bright and early), we loaded up the Papmobile with 3 anxious teens and 7 dogs and headed to Dreampark! I entered Willow in preferred which she will forever run in AKC so she can jump 20" instead of 24" (and veterans for CPE). We were entered in 4 runs for the weekend, 2 each day (one Standard and one Jumpers).
     All of our runs went so well! We had a perfect weekend there! 4 runs; Q'ed in all of them and all 1st places and only one refusal all weekend! You'll see it in the video, not sure what happened off the AFrame but I am still very very pleased to have done perfectly at our first AKC! Love my Willow girl.
      Here is a very awesome video that Hillary made from our runs that weekend since I am technology challenged and can't really put cool videos together. Credits to Hillary!
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gax-6zxD5qk&list=FLUFN0cz3u6zENO_PIElAuOQ&index=1&feature=plpp_video

Oh wait, its Christmas?

So pretty much this really doesn't feel like a typical Christmas holiday season. Between school and work, I feel like I haven't had anytime to mentally prep for the holiday season or even absorb the fact its Christmas weekend. Although it kinda pretty much stinks to work on the holiday, my pretty awesome job makes it better. What makes it even better is working with Hillary, pretty much my best dog nerd friend ever. She's awesome and so are our never ending dog conversations.
       My parents have been bugging me on what to ask for Christmas to make their shopping easier. I guess my two items on a wish list from http://cleanrun.com/ wasn't quite enough to hand me for the holiday. Then out of nowhere, I came across an ad on a bulletin board at a local training facility that was advertising some agility equipment for sale. It listed weave poles, a teeter, and an AFrame. I thought I'd give it a shot and call the number listed to hear more information on these items. Before I knew it, I was on my way driving the a strangers house to purchase an Aframe and teeter off of them! Aframe is basically brand new bought from MAD agility. The lady purchased it new but then her agility dog got injured and she doesn't plan on getting back into the sport. The Aframe has been sitting in her house for a little while, and I bought it off of her for $200. A steal for a competition frame! The teeter I bought for $70 off of her. It's competition sized board however the base in very strong PVC but still makes me nervous chancing the equipment to brake. I will probably end up just buying a metal base eventually. Pretty much, the timing for this equipment was great as my Christmas present from my parents. Also great because I am just starting my running contacts with puppy, and having contact equipment available will be perfect in shaping the behavior I want on my own time.