ASCA Agility trial in Rendon, TX

There was a 3-day ASCA agility trial in Rendon, Texas, which is just about 15 minutes out of Fort Worth. Driving South from Whitesboro would have been a 1,5 h drive, but I hit some NASCAR traffic! It was insane, just standing in line for 20 minutes without moving anywhere! :O

I did eventually make it to the competition area. It was a big horse arena that is normally used to host rodeos, barrel racing etc. A roof and some walls, but no heating. The first day (Friday) had three runs, one Gambler and two Jumper-runs. I had entered Dracu in only Novice class because I had no idea you could start from Elite if you wanted and just get your Novice and Open titles there! The classes were super small but everybody was really nice and welcoming. AND I won the prize for longest distant traveler! :D

Our first run was Gamble Novice. Dracu jumps in the 20'' height (about 51cm) and that is lower than what we would normally in Finland, 23,5''. The Gablers class in something we had never done (as we don't have anything similar in Finland) but I had read the rules and everybody helped me out. Basically you have 30 sec to collect as many points as possible by doing any obstacles you want. Different obstacles are worth a different amount of points. When 30 sec is up there is a buzzer and you need to do a 4-6 obstacle course the judge has made + there is a line that the handler can't cross so the dog has to do the so called "Gamble" in a distance.

So what could be better for us than a competition where you don't get faults (you just don't get points for a faulty performance) and you need to be fast and work at a distance? We had a load of fun even though Dracu was a bit confused that after doing the contact or what ever we just turned around and did it again! Our first run was a Q (qualified) with 1st place and high points :)

 The two Jumpers-classes were super easy, just straight lines and only jumps and tunnels allowed. But the jump distances were a bit different and Dracu knocked a bar or two down on both runs. But man was she fast!! She was going about 6,5 YPS (pretty much the same in meters)! Because the jumps were so low she could just plow on like a crazy dog!

On Saturday we had quite a busy time with 5 runs total! 1 Gambler, 2 Jumper and 2 Regular. We got an other Q from Gambler and got a new title GS-N - Gamblers Standard Novice! The other runs didn't go as well with more bars coming down. Even though the courses are a lot easier than Finnish courses there was one really difficult thing in even Novice, tunnel-contact combinations. We have not really gotten to train these yet and had some trouble with them. We made one more Q, this time from Novice Jumpers. We also had one VERY nice, fast and clear Regular class, but were disqualified because I went back to correct Dracu in the beginning because she stood up. In Finland the course has not started before the dog comes over the first jump but here it apparently is...

On Sunday we had 5 more runs! Again 1 Gambler, 2 Jumpers and 2 Regulars. We had gotten special permission to move up the Open Gamblers but didn't make the gamble. It was super hard, you had to stay way behind and get your dog into the farther side of a U-tunnel :O Even though I could laugh that the Elite courses are easier than the Novice classes in Finland, some of these Gambles are super hard! The dogs here really have to know long distance work and know the difference between the obstacle names! We did get a Q from Jumpers and got our title JS-N - Jumpers Standard Novice. We also qualified on the second Jumpers course, but had a bit of a commotion! A border collie got loose and chased us around! It was no big deal because Dracu didn't even notice, but they couldn't get our time. So we got to run the course again right away to get a time. We knocked some bars down this run but they only marked the time :)

So we got two titles and had a LOT of fun :D But the courses (all straight running, hardly any turns) really killed Dracu's turns! Also all the speed she got leaded to her knocking bars a lot more than normally. But it was cool just running like crazy and sending Dracu off to run like crazy! A lot of people were really impressed with her and she was the fastest dog in the trial, hands down.

Oh and just for me, our Gabler points were in total: 51, 60 & 35 (without gamble). Dracu's speed (YPS) were at best 6,58 (on Jumpers) and 5,62 (on Regular)