ASCA Agility!

The above photos are a photo journal of our day, today. Daddy Itty and I went to our very first ever ASCA Agility trial, over in Chapel Hill. We had a really great day. ASCA Agility is a lot different from AKC ... this trial was small and very laid back and we ran five runs instead of two. There were two Gambler runs, two Regular, and one Jumpers. I had never seen Gamblers before today. It's where you have forty seconds to accrue points by making your own course ... you get five points for contacts, three for tunnels and weaves, and one for jumps. You have to get twenty points at the novice level which is extremely easy to do. The idea is to end up near the "gamble" which is a series of four obstacles that the dog must run while the handler remains behind a distance line. Itty Q'd with a perfect score his first run, but the second one he did not. My fault. I hadn't realized that we might be faced with obstacle discriminations during the gamble (which we were ... I included a photo of the one that killed us) so I had not trained for that at a distance. We got perfect scores in our two Regular runs, and I'm reasonably sure that I totally screwed up our Jumpers run for us. By that time of day my mind was just blitzed and my body tired and *I* (not the dog) went off course. Or at least I think we did. LOL. But all in all, it was a good first experience ... we Q'd three times, with perfect scores and got three first places!

When we got home ... after making a pot of strong coffee ... I took Itty and the puppies out on the farm for a run. He's such a good dad, he shares the parenting duties! He took great fun in showing his kids all the good places to find the rabbit trails, and he demonstrated just how to best cool off in the pond! We ended up on the agility field where little Ma'am decided all of her own initiative to explore the teeter ... I was barely able to snap the photo and reach her to get her off before she tilted it to the ground. Wobble board upbringing or not, I don't think she's quite ready yet for a full sized teeter!

Three ... with a change ...

We are down to just three puppies who are looking for their forever homes and I think they are truly three of the most special puppies in the litter. I have decided to make Ma'am available. I held her out for myself and have been all but agonizing over the decision, but only want to keep one and have found I cannot part with Bahnsen at this time. Ma'am and Bahnsen were the temperament tester's two favorite picks of the litter. Ma'am has by far the prettiest markings of any puppy in the litter with her even white collar, blaze and perfectly matched stockings and socks. I don't know that I've EVER seen an Aussie so prettily marked! Strobe ... well, just look at that handsome face. Only Gentry (now Rascal) had a handsomer face. And he has a sweet, smart, reasonable nature to go along with his good looks. And Knox ... lol ... what can I say? He is just about to bust wide open with himself. He has a BIG personality, as I think the photos show, and is very quick to learn. They are all dreams to teach things to, and are well on their way to knowing "sit", "lie-down", "spin", "turn" and what the "no-no" sound means (I can't spell it, lol, it's just a sound I make when they're doing wrong that means cease and desist!). We're taking long rambles on the farm daily and they've had all sorts of adventures. They're all retrieving a ball and playing tug. I just adore working with puppies of this age as they're as capable of learning as an adult dog although their attention spans are short. They're little blank slates getting off to a good start! In the next few days I will be giving each of them that remain their own page on the website, so be on the watch for it!

The photos, in order, are of Strobe first, then Strobe and Knox, then Knox and then Knox playing with the others, followed by photos of Ma'am. Don't forget that if you click on the photos you will get an enlargement!