Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Another NEW experience on the horizon

This next weekend Magic and I are going to try UKC agility.  UKC agility is rather different than the others from what I have been reading in the rule books.  Like obedience you start out with points and every error reduces your points.  The obstaclkes are very different as well as the performances.  For example, they have a pause table and a pause box. You choose whether your dog sits or downs.  They have a variety of different jumps, log jump, water jump, window jump. One jump set up is 2 tables with a jump in between and the dog must sit on the first table, jump the bar then sit again. There is a sway bridge, a plank bridge and a crawl tunnel. All very interesting I think.

Magic hasn't seen a pause box, so we created a faux box last night and played with it. We also set up a small table jump table thing too. That may be a challenge for us, he is so eager to GO JUMP,  he wants to just run up and jump.  Contacts are pointed off unless your dog goes straight up and down no going off at an angle. You also can retry though like in rally and just get points off, but I do expect to get fly offs as contacts have always been an issue for us.  Additionally, you can trial in both level 1 and 2 simultaneously, although if you earn level 2 first, you do not get the award until after you earn level 1.

I am truly not expecting to come home with amazing runs, its been over a year since Magic has really done much agility.  But I think it will be a hoot to try these new obstacles.  And if we do actually Q its just a bonus! If we dont, heck that is OK too, we can look at it as a primer for when the UGSDA club holds thier first UKC trial here in MN. (Hopefully next winter?)

5 comments:

Jules said...

Have fun. I will be curious to find out what you and Magic think of it!

penni said...

I'll be looking forward to a full report. Have a great time!

andrea said...

That sounds really interesting - haven't heard of it at all - looking forward to a report ... I actually like the sounds of some of those obstacles

andrea said...

That sounds really interesting - haven't heard of it at all - looking forward to a report ... I actually like the sounds of some of those obstacles

Sherilyn said...

Best of luck and have a great time! :)