Thursday, September 14, 2006

Steeple Chase

We tried our first ever agility steeplechase last night at class. Steeplechase is a USDAA special tournament class. It has jumps, tunnels, weaves, and an A frame and is designed for speed! The course was one designed by our instructor who used it in a at a trial she was judging the week before.

What a blast! You had to do the weaves twice and they were 12 weave poles. There were 2 pinwheels, a tricky lead out, a tunnel A-frame discrimination challenge, and a triple jump at the end. There were also a number of places where you pretty much had to layer jumps. Lots of off course potential near the A-frame and some of the layered jumps.

Wyatt seemed very happy to get back to agility. He still has his sutures but he seems completely heeled and he is no longer trying to scratch them. We had a few problems on our first run. I did not continue forward enough after my lead out pivot and has an awkward tunnel entrance. There was a tunnel (under an A-frame) into a pinwheel and I was stopped dead waiting for him at the pinwheel entrance. But all in all, we had a good, fast run with 1 off-course on one of the layered jumps.

The second run was awesome. No faults and a really fast time! It was exciting to do so well after our injury break. He, by far, has the best run out there including a really good BC with a 15 year veteran handler.

2 comments:

Margaret said...

It sounds like it was an exciting evening! I wish my knees would let me do agility with my dogs. I know I have some who would love it.

Keep up the great work with these guys!

Margaret

John Heffernan said...

Thanks, Margaret!