Finally some more agility!!

Hobbs and I finally made it back to agility today!! I have been feeling really sick for the past month, and we have barely gotten out of the house for walks some days let alone running around playing agility lol! But we have a trial coming up in just over a week so we needed to get back to practicing.

Today was another open practice at our local trial venue. I really love practicing there because it is building Hobbs confidence in a trial setting. He is also FINALLY starting to seem like he understands what is expected with his A-frame contact. The only reason I say that is because his speed on the obstacle has increased a ton, and he is hitting his contact most of the time. I haven't started running ahead of him or really doing anything other than going right beside him, but I have a feeling that will come soon. YAY!

Anyways, today's course seemed very similar to one we had a couple weeks ago. I am hoping that the one next week will be very different.

Our trial this next weekend is ASCA. We are still in novice and I think it will be fun to run some super easy courses. It will be a good start to our year. I am hoping it gets me excited for the agility season. I have been feeling kind of burnt out and un-enthusiastic about this year of agility, and I am not sure why. Hopefully that changes soon!

My little Calliope girl

I got to visit guide dog puppy #2 today, and it was wonderful! Calliope turns 7 on the 30th and I haven't seen her in the 2 years since she came home from being retired as a guide dog. When I saw her last time, I was pretty disappointed and saddened that she seemed so different.

She was SO much happier this time! Plus, I am pretty sure she remembered me!! She had a yummy stuffed bone that kept her pretty distracted, but she rubbed up against me like she used to when she was a puppy. It was nice to see her again. She looked much healthier, and happier. She had LESS gray hair around her muzzle than the did two years ago. I think that speaks loads to how much her stress level has gone down.

But SERIOUSLY?!? Do you know how awkward it is to go over to a "stranger's" house just to see their dog? I don't know if it is just because I am a shy person, or what, but it was so uncomfortable sitting on their floor petting and playing with Calliope.

Her owner said that he has plans to go out of the state this spring/summer and liked the idea of me watching Calliope while he is gone. I am crossing my fingers that this time it actually happens. The first year she was home, they offered her to me a couple times and I couldn't and then the didn't offer anymore. I would LOVE to have her come to our house for a visit! I would have all three of my dogs in the same house at the same time, and it would be awesome.

I took a couple pictures, but then my camera died, so I am crossing my fingers the ones I got are good.

Sequences and Plans for Patriot

This morning Hobbs and I did some little sequences I got from AgilityNerd HERE.

We did these two sequences:

I think I had it a little more spread out than it was was supposed to be, but they were both still really fun. Hobbs rocked both the weave entries on the first tries, but then got a little sick of them. He certainly doesn't love the weave poles. After a couple tries on both sequences I move on to playing on the dogwalk and teeter. I worked on his speed using the clicker and a target/treat plate at the end of each.

I realized that, for some reason, Hobbs is nervous about staying in the 2o2o position on the teeter. He was hesitant to get into the position, and then would immediately jump off when I released him. Not sure why he is nervous, but I do know that the teeter made him hurt when he had his bladder infection in Oregon. Maybe he is nervous about it hurting him?

The morning was very fun and relaxed. I was very happy that Hobbs wasn't worn out by the end of the hour!

Now, for Patriot. I have a plan to help strengthen his muscles, particularly his hind end. I won a DVD at a trial last year, and just barely got around to watching it. It's about strengthening performance dogs. There are a few exercises in it that I have been doing with Patriot, and he gets fatigued very quickly, so I am hoping to see an improvement over time. He is feeling much better, but is still having trouble getting up and down sometimes.

Practice pays off!

I am loving the consistency I am seeing with more practice. Hobbs was doing really really well yesterday when we went to run the course at open practice. We managed to get a clean run on the first try, and it was a really fun course.

We ran the whole thing through twice, then played with some different handling to tighten up the turn from 5 to 6. There was some weird thing in the dirt straight out from 5, and Hobbs would run to it every time. I think he thought it might be his reward.

The best part of this practice was that Hobbs' weave poles and A-frame were fast! Usually Hobbs isn't fast on either away from home or the barn. It is good to see him relaxing here and getting used to playing. This is where many of our agility trials are held, so hopefully all this practice will carry over to the trials.

Thank you for all your kind comments about Patriot. I think I have a plan for him, and he is definitely feeling better after a few days rest.

Sad Day :*(

I had to leave Patriot home from our walk today. It broke my heart.

I took the boys to the big dog park, with the creek and all sorts of fun stuff, and now Patriot is really really sore. I had to keep him on dog aspirin for a couple days because he seemed to be really hurting. He has a hard time getting up from laying down and limps really noticeably for a few steps when he first gets up. A 30 minute walk is usually enough for him, when last year he could go for an hour no problem. It is so hard to watch him get old.

He has been on joint supplements for a couple years, and now is one a better (more expensive) one. It seemed to be helping him, but obviously he is not ok to go on dog park hikes. I have been working on some strength stuff with him, but haven't seen a lot of improvement, especially now that he is sore.

My plan is to keep him home from walks for a while, do some strengthening stuff with him, but nothing else so he can recover from the dog park adventure. Then he will probably go on separate walks from Hobbs. Hobbs needs the longer, faster walks to stay fit for agility. I am hoping that Patriot will love going out by himself.

He is going to be 10 in May.

Alphabet Drills

Today Hobbs and went to the barn to practice. A friend came with us and she brought her book of Alphabet Drills. We decided to start at the beginning and did the letter a.

First we played around on the other equipment. I sent Hobbs over the A-frame a bunch of times with the hoop at the bottom, and he did great. I took it away for one time and he jumped the yellow. Silly dog :(

I worked on his weave entries, doing positions 1 and two from the challenge. Hobbs rocked them both! He gets stuck and slow sometimes in the weaves, and I am not sure what causes it. I wish he was this confident with his weaves at trials.

I played with him a lot! I want him to be a little more excited to play with me, rather than just running for the treats. Lol, he thought I was insane for a while, but then got into the play.

We only had time for one sequence with that letter, so we did the hardest one:

I am proud to say that Hobbs and I got it on the first try! He was very fast, focused, and watched me well for the most part. It was really hard for me to tighten up his turn from 10-11. There is a statue of an Owl at one end of the barn and every time he went over that jump he was staring at the statue. I am not sure what he thought it was, but maybe he couldn't figure out why it never moved.

I love my dog! He was having SO much fun today! We are going to the open practice again on Wednesday, and I am hoping he will have as much fun there as at the barn.

Year in Review

Our second year of competitive agility was AWESOME!! Here is our summary:

2011

Trials - 8

• ASCA - 1 - February
• AKC - 7 - January, February, May, June, July, and September

Q's - 23 (this is DOUBLE from last year!!)

• ASCA - 3
• AKC - 20

Titles - 7

• ASCA - GS-N (novice gamblers)
• AKC - NAP (novice agility preferred), NFP (novice FAST preferred), OJP (open JWW preferred), OAP (open agility preferred), OFP (open FAST preferred), AXP (agility excellent preferred)

I truly LOVED our year of agility! My little dog did me proud on almost every single run. The only ones he had a lot of trouble with were the ones at our Idaho trial. The thing I wish I had tried harder with was practicing and keeping him fit. He may or may not have injured himself during our last trial, and part of that is probably because he wasn't fit enough. I openly admit that, but it is tough to keep a dog fit with a two year old and being pregnant most of the year. I will do better this next year! If he had been fit, we could have had 3 more months of agility this year. Instead, I was trying to keep him sane while he healed.

*Our Agility goals for next year:

*Get out of Excellent A!!! - or at least get an Excellent JWW Q
*Earn a QQ towards Hobbs' PACH
*Earn half of our speed points towards a PACH (that is 375 points)
*Trial more in ASCA
*Attend a seminar
*Attend AKC Nationals! Lol as a spectator anyways
*Get and keep Hobbs fit
*Practice 3x per week (at least)
*Come up with a pre-run routine
*Get a reliable A-frame contact
*Complete the weave pole challenge
*Trust my dog more at trials
*Trial like I practice
*Have FUN!!

Another great course

Hobbs and I went to the open practice again this week, and had a great time. Hobbs was tired really early again, but I am trying to work on his fitness so hopefully that will get better.

This course was pretty fun!

The only tricky parts were 3-5 and 17 to the end. I decided to do 3 -4 as a threadle with Hobbs on my left. It worked wonderfully on the first try! The end was only hard because I had to get ahead of Hobbs enough to do a front cross after the tunnel. I guess I could have tried a rear cross at 19, but I chickened out. Hobbs was super fast at first, but the deep dirt of the arena takes a lot out of him.

I think we are going to plan for an ASCA trial in February. It will be a nice first trial because we are still in Novice in almost everything lol. I wish I had the money to trial in ASCA regularly too, but I would prefer to get his AKC titles first. Then we can go back and do ASCA later. I think there is also an AKC trial in February that would be fun.

Monday will begin our regiment of 3x a week training. Monday, Wednesday (most weeks), and Saturday we will be doing agility! I think I am going to work on handling/obstacle behaviors on Monday, run whatever course is set up on Wednesday, and then we will do a little of both at our group practice on Saturdays. This will be the most we have practiced agility each week since we first started, and I am excited to see what kind of difference it makes.

We are back!!

Hobbs and I are FINALLY back to doing some agility! We went to a local agility practice, and had a great time running a full course for the first time in two months.

Here is the course we did:

Our first go through was surprisingly good! He went off course a few times but every time it was my fault because I was handling slowly and sloppily.....and Hobbs was FAST! Hobbs was obviously tired after the first run, so we only did it one more time. The second time it was perfect and Hobbs' A-frame was amazingly gorgeous!

I am planning to take him back again next week, but I expect the courses to get more difficult as people are preparing for Nationals. I am excited to see how crazy they get.

Oh, and I am BEYOND excited to go to Nationals as a spectator!! March is SO far away!

The Lack of Agility :(

There has been a significant lack of agility around here lately :(

After our last trial it seemed like Hobbs was moving oddly. I couldn't pinpoint anything, so I decided to just let him rest. He seemed to be better, and I was ready to get him back in agility, when he broke a toenail. So we are done for the year. My plan is to start up again in January, and will be entering two trials in February....hopefully.

I am still debating whether he should go in to see a vet or not. He doesn't seem to be in any pain and willingly runs around like his normal self. The only thing I have noticed is that his walking gait has changed from a regular 4 beat to more of a pace gait. Patriot has walked this way since he was pretty young, but until recently, I hadn't noticed Hobbs doing it. That is why I am wondering if I should still take him in even though he doesn't seem to be in obvious pain.

As for Patriot, he is doing well for his age. He is going to be 10 in May!! He is really slowing down and I had to get him some stronger joint supplements because he was starting to have a hard time on the stairs and getting up after laying down for a long time. He is pretty content now not going on walks very much. He still enjoys them, but after 30 minutes he is ready to come home. It is really sad to think that he is getting old. I hate thinking about when he isn't here anymore. Hopefully that wont happen for another few years.

I have been really bad lately about taking pictures of the boys

I am going to try to do better next year!