Rudi
Black and white Border collie x
Rudi is the dog that started it all for me. I found him on the side of the road when he was 8 weeks old. He was this little ball of black fur living in a barrel. Erik and I where living in an apartment at that time so we could not take him, so we gave him to my mom. I started training him in obedience when he was 7 month old. We did 2 levels of obedience and Rudi quickly decided that it was too boring. That is when we moved onto agility. We started in puppy classes and soon saw that this was the sport for us. He took to agility like it was second nature. He competed in this first trial when he was exactly 18 months old. Though he didn't do great he placed 3rd in Jumpers. We have now been competing for 3 years and Rudi has proven to be my steady dog. He has yet to miss any contacts and is an amazing gamble dog. We have been working hard this winter to get his speed up. Even though he is a BC he is not one to go full tilt unless there is something in it for him. Hence the reason we have a tough time getting Q's in Adv. Rudi rarely gets course faults but we are always over time. Check out his progress below.
2009
Jan 2nd: 1 Masters Jumpers Q!! What a hard twisty turny course too!!
Feb 15th: Rudi earns 3 Q's: Jumpers, Standard and Snooker!!
May 19th: Another Standard Q!!!!!
2008
November 15th: 1 Q masters Snooker & 1 Q Masters Standard
Rudi competes at the Morningstar trial in kingston. His snooker run was like a dream. He was one of only 6 dogs that earned a Q, and placed first in his division!!! His standard run was equally beautiful!! He placed 4th in his division.
August 30: Masters here we come!!!!!! Rudi earns his final Jumpers Q with a first place in his division!
July 13: OMG!!!!!!!! Rudi finally earns his first ADV jumpers Q!!!!!! only one more to go and its all masters from there!!!!
March: Rudi earns his final ADV snooker Q...still waiting for that jumpers!!!
2007
Congratulations!!!!!
Sept 8-9: this past weekend was Rudi's last trial of the season. It was the annual Hilltop trial and we were just going out to have some fun. Rudi decided that this was the trial where he was going to show everyone why he deserved to be a Master level dog! On our first run (snooker) Rudi came out flying. He managed to rack up 43 points for his first Adv Snooker Q!!! And took home a 3rd place ribbon! Next was our least favorite game: Adv Jumpers. We have been trying all season for one of these Q's but seem to keep missing it by inches. This course was not about to disappoint. Rudi got one refusal and was 12 seconds UNDER time so no Q for us.
Our next run was ADV Standard. We started out great but a few obstacles into the course there was a problem with the timer so we had to rerun. Now on other occasions when we have had to rerun Rudi has not done well. This time he decided that he was going to do even better! We had watched all the other teams go and not one of them walked away with a clean run, so I was nervous. I told myself : "Self, we are here for fun!” Then we ran.......all I can say is not only did Rudi get his SAADC title but he took home FIRST place, Best run overall, and one of only 2 Q's in the class!!!!!!! He had his own cheering section when we announced the ribbons!
By earning his Q we were allowed to move into Master Standard for our next run. After some heated coaxing from fellow club members I decided why not try a masters run. Well again Rudi was in no mood to disappoint! He ran better in that run than I have seen him run all year. We got through the whole course and came to the last set of jumps and Rudi caught my mom out of the corner of his eye and over strode the jump so landed too far to take the next one and got a refusal! There was a collective " Agh!" from the crowd watching as the judge raised his hand. The good news is is that even with that he placed 4th!! Pretty good for our first time out!
May 19: FINALLY!!!! Rudi managed to pull it off, he finally got an ADV standard Q! He had a flawless run and even placed first in his division!! good boy!
June 9th: He did it again!!! Rudi racks in another ADV standard Q. (He also would have had his title had I not sent him in the wrong direction on his second run of the day...ooops...!)
2006
June 3-4: This year Rudi had had a rough start. We participated in the
June 10: Earned 2 Q's: One in Starters Team which gave him his SSGDC title and another Q in Adv Gambler moving him into Master Gamble.
July 15: Rudi earned an Advanced Team Relay Q with best overall run of his class! Thanks go out to his partner!!
August 26: Rudi gets another Q in Advanced team with same partned as last time!