Course by Sandra KatzenTip was already my Champion agility dog, but now she has the title to prove it!
Tip, my first agility dog, the one that tolerated me learning, re-learning, changing my handling style, my frustrations, and our success. We did it all together!
I could write probably write a novel about our journey, but I won't, at least not right now. I will say Split and Tangle owe her BIG!
I entered just one day of a USDAA trial. I was fairly sure that my foot won't tolerate a whole weekend, but figured I would try one day. I entered Split and Tip, 8 runs in total. OK, 8 runs was probably too much, but I would do it again in a heart beat. Split and I had only trialed together 1 time in 10 months (first his injury, then mine), I wanted to run my boy. Both dogs were wild at the beginning of the day, just glad to be out. Tip's first run looked like a "yard sale" and when I told her that on course, the judge cracked up! As the excess energy was expended, things calmed down for both dogs. Much better runs!
All I needed for Tip's title was one more Super Q in snooker. Snooker isn't generally our strongest game. Your dog must listen, do only as directed, and keep a level head. Some days that does not describe Tip :) The course seemed kind of nasty on paper. I couldn't figure out a good path that would get us enough points for a SQ, but not blow Tip's head when I asked for too much control. Couldn't find it on paper, walked the course, couldn't find it then either. I tell you, I walked to the start line just thinking "this would not be the day".
Tip listened AMAZINGLY well, she got a first and her Championship title!!
Here is the course and the path that I ran. Several people ran different courses, with more opening points, but not many made it all the way through the closing.
Our run
