The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

Hi All,

Mom got lucky this weekend -- she entered us on one day (Saturday) and it was the day it did NOT rain. Rosey got QQ #23 and 11 MACH Points. All the points were in the standard run; the JWW was a zero-point (meaning she made standard course time, but wasn't below standard course time; hence no MACH points.) Mom was to blame for the lack of points. She was giving very, very, very late commands and Rosey didn't know where to go. (No video of this fiasco). In the standard run, Rosey has a funny moment of turning the wrong way coming out of the tunnel, but she corrected herself.
http://youtu.be/0tN1ERLJTMo Rosey’s Q in Standard

I was back in the double NQ category. Dropped a bar on a curve in jww , otherwise my jww was beautiful.
http://youtu.be/xMGXV_t84pU Solo’s NQ dropped bar on curve

And in standard, I hit the panel jump. OUCH! I have never hit the panel jump and I don't plan on doing that again. To that error I added a couple of more (weaves, triple); but I did great contacts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrsYsLeuat0 Solo’s NQ --- hits panel jump

We are going doing some tracking practice during the week, and then we have agility trials on Friday and Sunday.

Oh -- the Rosey MACH Point Watch is at 581 of the 750 points.

Solo

Solo, that first JWW course looked beautiful! I had to play it twice to see the dropped bar. Ouch on that panel!

My mom thinks that I'm doing better, she's using this new thing of putting bells on the jumps and I get no treats when they make noise. I'm learning to really lift my legs. We'll find out if it is working when we go on Friday to a trial.

Big Sis Rosey, that was beautiful! You reminded me of me when I come out of tunnels because I'm always having to double check to find out where my mom is and where I'm supposed to be going next.

Am I reading this right? You now only need 169 more points for your MACH?

Star

Yep, 169 points.

Wow, they did great!

It seems to be going faster than you initially thought!

No, we are right on "average". Rosey averages only 11.3 point per QQ (most of the points from the standard Q). For example, for the 3 days of trialing in November we have earned 19, 3, and 11 points = 33 total, 11 average.

We'll keep chipping away at those points.......

Colleen

For some reason it seems faster to me than what I had thought. Is she faster in standard than jumpers?

I don't think it is that Rosey is faster in standard than jumpers, but that the SCT for standards is longer than for jumpers. A few months ago I ran the numbers and Rosey averaged 8.5 points for standard and 2.8 points for JWW. We rarely have jww courses with SCT over 44 and Rosey has to be hauling a** to run a course in under 40 seconds. But standard courses tend to have SCT ranging from 65 - 72. Thank heavens Rosey has running contacts! We have been working on getting on the table faster and that helped this past weekend.

Colleen

That makes sense. I've never spent any time looking at times because so far it has not made a difference. Soon enough it will be time to keep track.

I wish I would had started paying closer attention to time, but it took us so long to start earning QQ's that I was fixated on getting those QQ which meant I was running pretty cautiously at times. (Not sure you can even do that with Star). Those careful and cautious runs started earning the QQs, but didn't do a lot for the point count. It was just in the past 6 months that I started to pay closer attention judges and their course times. I now have a list of judges that I don't entry under (unless it is a trial that I am "expected" to enter) because their course times are so tight. This is a case with one of the upcoming Cocker trials. I have included an "adjustment" in the calculation for when we might finish the MACH because I know that (assuming we q) we will earn about half as many points under that particular judge.

Of course, I am much happier being in the situation of just needing points to finish the MACH. I don't envy the people who have plenty of MACH points, but they can't manage to get two clean runs in the same day.

Colleen

That would probably be us! One of the women we train with has 19 QQs and has been looking for the 20th since early this summer.

Last winter/spring, I met a woman who had well over 2,000 points , but just earned #17QQ. The judge said that people start to get a little crazy when they get to #17 because they are so close that the MACH dream seems real; they still aren't there yet.

Colleen

That is beyond frustrating! Poor woman.