Thru Labs' Eyes

My little Calliope girl

2012-01-21T20:37:00.004-07:00

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

2012-01-09T19:38:00.003-07:00

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!

2012-01-05T11:43:00.003-07:00

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 :*(

2012-01-03T14:35:00.003-07:00

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

2012-01-02T21:10:00.004-07:00

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

2011-12-31T16:36:00.001-07:00

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

2011-12-31T08:31:00.004-07:00

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!!

2011-12-23T22:59:00.004-07:00

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 :(

2011-12-14T23:01:00.001-07:00

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!

AKC x 2

2011-09-27T11:15:00.001-06:00

Yes, I know it has almost been TWO months since I updated last! Hopefully that doesn't become a habit, but it might. Life is just busy right now, and we aren't doing any agility lately....more on that to come.

Hobbs and I were able to compete in two more AKC trials last month, our 6th and 7th so far this year, and for the most part they were pretty good. Lets just say that, so far, Excellent is kicking our butts.

The first one was at a beautiful site, a large horse farm with huge grass paddocks and the grass arena they turned into agility rings. The only classes we Q'd in were Open FAST and T2B preferred. We had two other really REALLY nice runs, but the little mistakes I made cost us the runs. Here are the courses and as much as I can remember about them.....forgive me. Its been two months :(

Friday:

Excellent STD - This was such a nice run! We had one refusal at #15, I think, because I didn't support him enough over the jump.

Excellent JWW - Another really nice run that was SO close to being a Q! It was another refusal, but I can't remember where on the course it was.

Open FAST - This course was great. Fast and easy! No problem with the bonus, and we got our 2nd open leg.

Saturday:

Excellent JWW - Bad run. 3 Refusals and 1 wrong course :( Looking at the course, I don't remember why it was so difficult. I think we were just having a bad day. I do have this one on video somewhere, but I can't find it for the life of me! I do remember that his landing coming off #12 it looked like he might have hurt his leg. I stopped to watch him move around for a second before finishing the course.

T2B - Our only good run of the day and it was REALLY good! HERE is the video. It is on a friend's Facebook page so hopefully people can see it.

Excellent STD - Another REALLY bad run. I think I got overconfident with this run because the course was almost identical to T2B. Hobbs missed the weave entry twice and it just got worse from there. I don't even know how many faults we had or what they were, but it was BAD. He also dropped at least 2 bars! Not like him :(

Saturday in general was a tough day for me. It was the 1 month anniversary of losing our little Cadence.....so my mind was elsewhere for parts of the day. I would like to think that contributed to our horrible runs.

Our next trial was just two weeks later, and it was SO much colder! During the two week break I gave Hobbs a lot of rest time because it seemed like he was moving weird. Not limping, but not moving right. After the two weeks it seemed that he was good again, so we went to the trial.

Friday:

Open FAST - This course really interesting. The bonus line was odd, and it was the first time the judge had tried something like it. If you look at the picture, you can see there was a vertical line and a horizontal line. To get the bonus you had to stay below the horizontal line or to the left of the vertical line until after the dog was in the chute, then you had to cross the line, so that you were above the horizontal line and to the right of the vertical line, before you sent the dog into the tunnel. Anyways, our run was amazingly smooth and wonderful until the weave poles. Hobbs missed the entry once, twice, and finally got it on the third try. After the second try I started to think "It has been a really long time. The buzzer should have rung by now!" It turns out I was right. The timer was having issues and didn't work properly for my run. So, after a 1 dog break I got to do it again for points and time. I ran the exact same course and it went really well again, but Hobbs still missed his weave entry 2 times before I skipped it and ran for the end of the course. We Q'd, got our OFP title, and moved up to Excellent for the next day.

Excellent STD - This course was beautiful! Right up until he missed the weave entry....twice.

Excellent JWW - This course was also really beautiful! Hobbs was getting a bit tired though because it was the end of the day, and he dropped two bars. I think I was getting tired too and didn't handle as well as I could have. He really hasn't had a problem with bars in a long time.....well except the last trial. He got his weave entry though which was my only goal for this course.

Saturday:

Excellent STD - This was such a wonderful course, and our run was practically flawless! I almost lost him at #12 because he locked onto the table. This was our 3rd standard leg in Excellent A so Hobbs now has his AXP!! We still haven't gotten his certificate from AKC though, so I may have to check on it.

Excellent JWW - Ugh. This was our 9th run in Excellent, and our 9th NQ. This one was another really close one too. Our mistake happened at #8. He jumped it thinking he was turning right and when I called to him he back jumped it.....I wanted to cry at that point. The rest of the course was wonderful, but my records say we also dropped a bar. If he dropped the bar as he back jumped #8 would that count as a fault? Because we got one wrong course and one fault.

Excellent FAST!! - This bonus was really intimidating! I was really excited about being in Excellent FAST though. I walked my planned opening of this course a ton. I planned to put him on the start line pointed at the double, then turn left and go through the chute, then over the five 1 point jumps that are in a "line" to the bonus. I was one of two people who did that opening, and the other person did it because she saw me walking it that way. It worked out well for both of us! As for the bonus. No one was getting it. The handler couldn't cross the line until after all 4 paws of the dog were on the ground after the A-frame.

Hobbs and I nailed it!! I put my whole body into letting him know he needed to stay on the A-frame while I went around the skewed jump that was on the bonus line. Then I let him creep down until he was in the yellow, then released him. Here is where my plan was off. I immediately tried to push him over to the weave poles and he missed the entry. Then I panicked about the time and ran for the finish, picking up the triple and tire on our way out. Thinking back, I should have taken the extra second to set him up nicely for the poles to get the 10 points. We would have had 1 or 2 time faults, but more overall points. But we still got a Q!! I really wish we would have gotten a video of that run....I was so proud of it! I think we were one of 2 or 3 20" dogs that got the bonus.

A little rusty....

2011-08-29T14:42:00.000-06:00

Well, our first agility practice (last week) went pretty well! I think mentally, I was not at my best (go figure), but we did a good job anyways. That course is tough!

We did THIS course for our first practice.

We stumbled our way through it once then I went back and walked it a TON while Hobbs had a water break. The second time through was rough, but we got through it! Hobbs was pretty done after that so we ended with a small easy part of the course.

Today we went to the barn again for practice and it went so much better! Here is the course we did:

Click to enlarge

This course is actually by a judge I have competed under! I thought it was really tough when I set it up. I switched the A-frame and the Teeter because they were already mostly in place and I didn't want to have to drag each of them across the barn. There were parts of it that were pretty tight, and I think that was even more so because of the size of the barn. I need to get faster at setting up courses! I understand mostly how to do it now, but it takes me 20-30 minutes to set it up when I am by myself.

Hobbs was on fire! He was crazy excited to be doing agility again, and I was happy that even with that extra energy we got through the course clean (with breaks for rewards) the first time through. The only trouble he had was sticking his teeter. He kept stepping off and so we worked on that for a little while between running the course.

The second time around the course was amazingly smooth and flawless! It was a great morning even though it was about 1000 degrees by the time our hour was up.

I am excited for our trial this weekend! I am also nervous and worried about the heat. Hopefully it will be a cool day......ha ha!

Going Crazy

2011-08-21T18:31:00.000-06:00

Patriot thinks he is going crazy. We have a new cat in the house and he can't figure out what he is supposed to do. He is VERY protective against cats that aren't ours, and now he doesn't know what to think. He will randomly jump up because Turtle or the new cat (who doesn't have a name yet) walks by, hackles raised, and run over to them to see if they are ok or not. I keep reminding him that they are both ok, but he seriously gets this look on his face like he thinks he is going crazy. It is a little funny, and a little sad.

Hobbs on the other hand is stressed and terrified. He is scared to death of the new cat, because she is not used to dogs. His stress comes in the form of diarrhea and drinking excessive amounts of water. I don't know what to do for him other than just keep his routine as normal as possible and try to limit his interactions with the new cat.

She still needs a name, in case anyone has any suggestions!

Plans for Practice

2011-08-19T14:12:00.000-06:00

I finally rented the barn where I have had class for the past two years! I will have it all to myself, and that is a little intimidating to me. I know I need to make sure I have a plan so I don't waste away the time. I already have a course that I want to try that might actually fit in the barn. Usually we have to break a course down into two parts to get it to fit in the space. It is from AgilityNerd's latest post:

It looks really tough, and really really fun!

I will only have time to do one course (probably), so I want to work on some other things before and after. Pretty sure we can finally get some work in on the weave pole challenge.

I took Hobbs and a few jumps to the local park and Hobbs was crazy excited to be doing agility.....or he was just excited about the freshly cut grass. He would take a jump and then go run a HUGE loop around the field and come right back to do more agility. The poor boy was pretty worn out after only a few sequences, and about 5-7 loops around the field. It was really good to do some agility though.

Back to Agility

2011-08-08T13:59:00.003-06:00

Because of a recent tragedy, I find myself in the position to go back to agility much sooner than I had planned. I am not sure if I am going to continue with my planned break or, for sanity's sake, pick up where I left off just two weeks ago.

There is an agility trial the second weekend in September at a site that I absolutely love, so if I decide to continue competing this year, we will be entering that trial. Physically I am sure I will be ready to trial by then......mentally, I am not sure when/if I will be ready to trial for a very long time. I am going to rent some time at the agility barn to see if I will be able to concentrate on agility long enough to run a course properly.

Goals for Patriot

2011-07-12T15:38:00.003-06:00

Here some things I would like to work on with Patriot:

Recall - He used to really enjoy coming when called, but lately he is pretty bad about ignoring me.

Clicker training and Shaping - Every so often I get the urge to try to get him to understand the point of the clicker....mostly shaping. He just doesn't seem to get it. He will sit FOREVER waiting to be told when to do something, and usually will just lay down and go to sleep if I try to wait him out. I might need better treats, easier tasks (what is easier than nose touch to something?), or just a LOT more patience, but I am determined to get through to him.

Hind end strength - He is getting old, and it is most noticeable in his hind end. I need to find some exercises that would work for my massively uncoordinated, huge labby boy.

Tricks - This one is if the clicker training pans out.

Goals for Hobbs

2011-07-12T14:01:00.004-06:00

For the next few months, basically the rest of the year, I can't trial. So, I have a couple of options. I could just sit back, relax, and start from square one after I am recovered from having this baby. Or, I can take advantage of this time to work on some little things that could be improved. My plan right now is the second option. I am going to be working with Hobbs on mostly agility stuff, and I am going to work with Patriot on a few things.

Here are my plans (so far) with Hobbs:

Weave Pole Challenge! - Hobbs struggles with his weave poles at trials, and I am not sure why. I have gotten though only week 1 of the challenge, and haven't successfully been able to video ANY of our weave pole work.

Jumping Skills - There are a few skills I would like Hobbs to understand better, most of which have to do with collecting and turns......and keeping bars up.

A-Frame - I have not decided what exactly I want to do for his A-frame contact, but I do want his contact behavior to be more consistent

Recall - His is getting really bad. It has never been good, but it is getting worse.

Core Strength - I think this will help him overall in agility, especially his jumping, weaves, contact behavior, and turning abilities........wait, that is everything!

Body Awareness - Again, helpful in all aspects of agility.

Fitness - I have been keeping him fit, but just enough to keep me from feeling guilty. Honestly, I am probably asking for him to get injured, and I think about that every time I play agility with him.....because I know he isn't as fit as he should be. This one will be mostly waiting until after I am not pregnant anymore. Then both he and I will be really focusing on getting fit.

Change treats! - I got to thinking about it at my last trial that Hobbs has been getting the same treat as his reward for Agility for the past 2 years. Does he like it? Yes! Could he like a change better? Maybe!

One of the big challenges we have had in the area of training is the lack of a yard. Ours is really not fun for the dogs to play on, and I don't want to force either of them to work on it. It is extremely difficult to get all my jump equipment, the dog(s), and the two year old to the park to work for any length of time.

I may have to really work to get this stuff accomplished by the end of the year, but I think it is doable!

The end of a great season!

2011-07-09T22:37:00.004-06:00

This past weekend's AKC trial was SO wonderful! Well, wonderful except one tiny moment that was a bit less than wonderful lol.

First thing on Friday morning was FAST......and it was less than ideal. Hobbs was CRAZY despite me taking him to run around outside before the run. The A-frame was in the gamble and as soon as he took of to go up it I knew he was going to jump the contact on the down side. He basically jumped from the second slat on the down side. I pulled him off of the rest of the send bonus to try the frame again, and he jumped it again....but this time it was closer. I decided we were done and thanked the judge and she said we could try the A-frame again. So I did and this time Hobbs went all the way down to the bottom and gave me 2o2o.....something we haven't done in almost a year lol. After he got it I praised him a TON and let him do a tunnel and a couple jumps as we walked off course.

Next up was our first Standard run of the weekend. It was a great course, and I felt like it was very doable. Hobbs had his head screwed on for this run, thank heavens, and we did awesome! I was very proud of our, and wished I had had my camera for someone to video. Hobbs got his A-frame again, but I was babying it a bit to make sure he got it. I really need to figure out what I want to do to get that running contact consistent.

Last up for the day was Jumpers, and it was a tough course. I was very excited to try it, and I was VERY happy with how we did. Our only issue was the weave poles. They were right after a tunnel and triple jump so Hobbs was FLYING. I tried to get him to steady before he started them and he got his entry, but after about 3 poles he couldn't stay it. I sent him again and he did all of them and then we finished the course beautifully. It was a REALLY nice run.

On Saturday we only had two runs, a standard and a jumpers. The club chose to have Time 2 Beat as the game for the day and I didn't sign up. It looked fun though so next time it is offered we will give it a try.

Our jumpers run was great! It was a very fast running course, and being 7 months pregnant, running fast is not the easiest thing in the world. I walked it several times, and somehow still blanked on most of the course. Maybe it was the fact that my pants kept falling off.....I was literally holding them on while I ran. So, I felt like I was running hesitantly, trying to remember the course jump by jump. Hobbs missed a pole and exited early from the weave poles and so we didn't Q, but I was very proud of the rest of the way he ran the course. This is the only run I got on video so here it is:

Standard was another very doable course, but after two mishaps with the weave poles I was nervous. I shouldn't have been. It was an amazing run! He got the weaves wonderfully even though they were right after the tunnel. That gave us another Q and another 1st place. It was a wonderful end to our trialing for the next couple of months.

I am going to make a list of things I would like to work on before we return to trialing. Hopefully, it will include a plan for the A-frame!

How did we not know?!?

2011-06-28T20:52:00.002-06:00

My agility classmates and I said a tearful goodbye to our instructor this past Saturday. She is moving across the country and will be greatly missed. "Greatly Missed" doesn't quite cover it in my book. I am beyond sad that she is gone, and I am sure agility around here wont be the same without her.

We had a great going away party for her where we played a bunch of fun games, talked, and laughed. Some of us made plans to practice together now that we have no instructor. Our first practice was today.

It went pretty well until we tried to put together a course. Obviously that takes more skill than we realized. It took us a LONG time to get part of a jumper's course set up. Figuring out where the jumps went was a killer. I never realized how much skill it takes to set up a course. I need to learn! If anyone has some suggestions, I am all ears/eyes. For heavens sake, I didn't even know if you are supposed to measure from jump standard to standard or from the center of the bar to the center of the next bar!

Also, for these practices, I need to make a plan for what I want to work on during the first 15-20 minutes. We set up different obstacles and all do our own thing. I felt kind of lost during that today. I didn't bring my camera or I would have tried to record our weave poles (again).....stupid batteries were dead last time I did it, so I wasted an entire session thinking it was being recorded. I tried a box drill but, again, realized I didn't know how it was supposed to be spaced! Oh, the things I didn't know I needed to know!

Volunteering In Agility

2011-06-28T13:52:00.001-06:00

Steve from AgilityNerd is having a blog action day where all dog agility bloggers were asked to blog about the same subject on the same day. Today the subject is Volunteering at agility trials.

I really think that volunteering is the only way a trial can run smoothly. I have been to trials where people spend 5-10 minutes of each class yelling that they need people to work the class. It slows things down, and makes the trial more stressful than it should be.

Personally, I haven't branched out much in my volunteering, mostly because I am shy and intimidated about doing the more important jobs. So I usually stick to bar setting, scribe running, and (when not pregnant) leash running. I really would like to try scribing/timing/and gate steward. I never work the class before me, but now that I am in Excellent I can work the small group most of the time because there are SO many dogs.

I really enjoy volunteering! You get an excellent seat, and get to watch the judges.....which can be entertaining sometimes. I have learned a lot about handling by working classes. The only time I have NOT enjoyed working a class was when I volunteered to be leash runner for both tall and small dogs in excellent standard. It wouldn't have been bad except that the start of the course was in the middle of the ring. So I would have to run out for every dog to get the leash and would barely get it to the out-gate before the dog finished the course. I basically RAN for 2 hours straight during that class.....and it was rough.

Most of the trials I have run/worked in have had a large whiteboard with each class listed and spaces below for people to write in their name as volunteer for specific jobs. The trials I have NOT worked are the ones where those boards fill up too quickly.

Different clubs reward their volunteers differently. I have seen them do nothing (grr), lunch tickets, free lunch, dog toys, and raffle tickets (my favorite). I will admit that I am more likely to sign up for an extra job if my effort is going to be rewarded.

Black and White

2011-06-21T16:24:00.000-06:00

Sadly, this past trial in Idaho didn't go quite as I would have liked it to. We had some good moments, and some truly awful ones. I have actually been delaying this post because I couldn't bring myself to watch one of the videos. I survived the video, so I guess I can share.

First was Excellent JWW - I got too busy watching people run that I forgot when I needed to pull Hobbs out to warm up. I didn't have near as much time as I wanted to. So he had a lot more energy than I wanted. I went into the ring a little flustered, and as I watch the video a lot of my handling was late, but it didn't feel like it at the time. I mostly felt like I didn't have Hobbs' attention at all.

The course:

Here is the video - This is the one I really didn't want to watch because it seemed SO bad when we ran it. The wind in these videos is a bit loud so you may want to mute it!

Next up was Open Standard - What a difference! We had a couple bobbles (his A-frame contact was SOOO close), but for the most part it was great, and Hobbs did really really well. I wish I had a video of this one! This was our last leg needed for our OAP title, we got 1st, and we moved up to Excellent!

The Course:

Last of all on Friday was Open FAST - This run was bad....it had good moments, but mostly it was just bad. Hobbs was blowing me off big time. He even missed the tunnel entry of the bonus....which was super easy. He instead chose to trot around behind it sniffing. Then he went sniffing around the scribe's table, and at that point I almost walked off the course. The only good part of the whole run was that he got his A-frame contact really well!

The Course:

First on Saturday was JWW - When I walked this course I liked it much better than the one the day before. I felt like it was very doable.....Then I ran it.

The Course:

As soon as I sent him over #11 I realized I had walked it wrong. I had walked it with #11 going in the wrong direction. That threw me off for the rest of the course. He took a bar down somewhere, and went to the tunnel after 14 rather than the weaves. I was kicking myself for the mistake for a LONG time after the run was over. I didn't let Hobbs know I was upset though. I celebrated and played with him for a good while because he was SO good during this run. After I put him away I mentally beat my head against a wall.

Next up was our first ever Excellent Standard run - It went decently well. Hobbs, and almost every other dog in the class, had a weird moment at the table. Hobbs stopped and trotted around for a second before getting on it....which gave us a refusal. The ring crew chair was VERY close to the table, and there was a photographer and a group of spectators all set up right behind the table. I think it was stressing the dogs because many of them had problems with it. After that he got the weave entry which I was really happy about. I forgot my handling plan for after the weaves and he thought I wanted him to go to the teeter......and then got lost behind me.

The course:

The Video:

Last of all was Open FAST - I almost went home early and skipped out on this run. I was SO hot and tired and the day seemed to just drag on and on and on. I am glad I stuck around because it was a good run. I was worried about the end of the A-frame being SO far from the line, but he got all the way down into the contact. After that I was so happy I forgot the rest of my plan. It worked out though and we got 1st and a Q!

The Course:

I hope our next trial isn't a total disaster. It was tough keeping up with him being as pregnant as I was, and I will be another 3 weeks further along. It will be in our usual trial location for this year, so hopefully I will have my normal dog again.

I promise it wont be another month before I post again! I am planning to start on the Weave Pole Challenge tomorrow, so hopefully I can get that edited and posted soon after. I am really new to video editing and I am hoping that wont slow me down too much.

Starting to get Sad :(

2011-05-19T20:48:00.004-06:00

As much as I am excited about this pregnancy, I am really starting to get sad about that we have to cut our AMAZING agility year short. I am down to only 2 trials before I am going to stop. There is a trial at a location that I have wanted to compete at (because it is beautiful) since I first got interested in agility, but it is the week before the baby is due :(

I am really excited for the next two trials we are entered in though! We are going out of state for our next one because I can stay with family and it will be nice to have a change of scenery. Most of our trials this year have been in the same place. Then our next one is in July. It is being judged by Janet Budzynsk, who I guess they have been trying to get out to Utah for quite a while. I don't have a clue who she is but everyone around here is pretty excited about it so it should be fun. But I can already tell I will be VERY sad once the July trial is over.

Starting over after the pregnancy is going to be hard. This time around I will have two little ones work around to practice and compete. Also my beloved instructor will have moved across the country before I have the baby. So I will have to find a new instructor.......not something I am looking forward to. Rather than finding a new instructor, I will probably just start renting time at the barn and practice by myself. I swear, I just need to buy some land for an agility field. Then I wont have to pay to use other people's equipment.

As a general update on the boys, they are settling in great to our new house. Patriot seems pretty uneasy about having part of his yard next to the sidewalk/street and he feels the need to patrol it. I think he is looking for bad guys lol. We are planning to put up a more solid fence and I am hoping that will give the old man some peace of mind. Hobbs doesn't like it outside right now because there isn't any grass and has been raining almost constantly since we moved in. Hobbs really hates mud, and will stand on the covered porch and look longingly at his water bowl out in the rain until I go get it for him. Silly pansy of a dog!

They are both shedding like crazy, and this is the first year I have noticed Hobbs really shedding. That is a bummer for me because I loved that he didn't shed much ever. Patriot is another matter all together. I swear he somehow sheds more every year. He is also back to itching quite a bit, but this time we absolutely can't afford his $80-a-month allergy shots. It would come down to him getting shots or us eating.....and I pick us! So, I am going to keep the weeds short in our yard so they don't flower, vacuum every day to keep any mites away, give him a medicated allergy bath every other week, and give him benadryl when the itching seems really bad. I am hoping that his allergies get better once the weather dries up and the plants stop flowering.

I am going to start working with them on some general training refreshers (mostly for Patriot) because it seems like Mother Nature is determined to drown us out. Both Hobbs and Patriot hate going on walks in the rain, and I don't like it much either. We go whenever the rain isn't actually falling, but we need some inside activities. I may try to teach Hobbs some more tricks, but mostly I want to remind them of some basic manners. I may tackle the new rule of no dogs in the kitchen too.....because there is just no room in our tiny kitchen for me, Kaylee, and two big dogs.

I won a dvd in a raffle at our last trial and it will be fun to watch when I finally have time. It is by Dr, Debbie Gross Saunders and is called "Strengthening the Performance Dog" It is a bunch of strengthening exercises specifically geared towards our hardworking competition dogs. I would love for Hobbs to be able to compete as long as he is happy doing it, so I am sure this will have some valuable information for us.

Hopefully I have some more interesting things to blog about in the coming weeks and months!

Best Trial EVER!!!

2011-05-08T21:08:00.010-06:00

I don't think anything can top this trial. It was amazing!

This was our first 3 day trial, and our first outdoor trial of the year. I was pretty nervous about it because we had been moving all week before, and Hobbs hates to move. I was getting over a cold on Sunday and still feeling pretty crappy on Tuesday. We slept the first night in our new house Wednesday night, and I left bright and early for the trial Thursday morning.

Day 1 - Thursday:

Novice FAST -

This run was pretty crazy. Hobbs was SO excited to be playing agility and to be outside! He was barely under control the whole time, and had several sniffy, scooty, crazy moments. We had several "off courses" from what I walked, and we missed the bonus by a mile and a half. Lol, it was fun though, and I was glad to see that Hobbs wasn't stressing......he just had a little too much energy for his own good. - NQ

Novice Standard -

What an amazing run. The course was pretty easy and we ran clean easily. Hobbs didn't get very far into the yellow on the A-frame, and I was turning away from him when he was coming down it, so I wasn't 100% sure if he had jumped the contact or not. I couldn't see the judge so I didn't see if he called anything either. So when we finished the course, I thought we had gone clean, but I wasn't sure. Hobbs was a little odd after the run, but no where near as bad as he was after the standard courses at the last trial. It was so nice to see that he had gotten his contact once we got our score sheet. - Q & 1st place - That was our 3rd leg for our NAP title!

Open JWW -

This was one of those runs that isn't pretty, but gets the job done. Hobbs was either tired or just mentally done for the day and so he would tune me out every so often on course. We got called for 1 refusal, and thought that meant we didn't Q, but luckily we still did! - Q & 1st place - That was our 3rd leg for our OJP title after only 3 open jww runs!

I was pretty ecstatic after day 1. I was also exhausted and sore. Part of me was really tempted to skip Friday and just go on Saturday, but I decided to stick it out.

Day 2 - Friday:

Open JWW -

Ugh. This run made me glad that I had forgotten to move up to excellent jww for the day. Things were just off. I didn't plan my handling very well so I got in his way a couple times. I don't know if Hobbs was just stiff or sore or what, but he didn't do very well either. He took out the triple because it was on a corner, refused a jump (my fault), and then took out another jump with a super early take off. - NQ

Open Standard -

I was SO excited to be in Open standard that I wasn't nervous at all! It was a fun course that was REALLY similar to the Excellent course. I think they moved 1 jump and re-numbered things a little. We got a refusal on the 2nd jump because I moved too much laterally away from him and he pulled off thinking thats what I wanted. After that it was great and he even got his A-frame contact really well. The only thing that was a little iffy were his weave poles. He doesn't like doing 12, and we haven't worked on them much so he was really slow. I was so happy with his A-frame contact That I thought for a second about stopping, giving him a huge hug and being done.....it was that good. - Q & 2nd place

Day 3 - Saturday: - When I was driving to the trial, all I could think was how glad I was that this was the LAST day of the trial....Lol I was pretty tired. Hobbs seemed better this morning than he did Friday morning.

Open Standard -

(#16 is the Dog Walk)

This course was pretty intimidating to me! It had a pretty tricky area that was very similar to the Excellent course and the excellent people were having a lot of trouble with it. There was also a triple on a corner which is not something Hobbs is good at. I should have had more faith in my dog though because he did AWESOME! Our only little bobbles were that he pulled out of the poles at #10 because I got too much lateral distance, and that the evil chute rolled him. My parents were there with their camera so I have a video of this run!

Novice FAST -

I was pretty determined to get a clean run with this course. It was a super easy bonus, and I figured out how to get a lot of points too! It all went exactly as I walked it, and we got 60 points. I am not sure we got credit for all of our points though....I will have to look at the map and count my points. - Q & 2nd place. This was our 3rd leg for our NFP title, and we are officially out of novice!

Excellent JWW -

I haven't been truly nervous for a run in a while, but I was for this one. JWW intimidates me a lot for some reason, and I was hoping for some more "practice" in the open ring before moving up to Excellent. That being said, we have been doing amazing in Jumpers for a while now, with the exception of a couple runs. The course looked really scary on paper, but it walked ok. There were a couple spots where I didn't know what I should do, but after watching a few people go I decided on a handling plan. It went SO well and I was incredibly proud of Hobbs. He REALLY didn't want to do the weave poles, but he got through them on the first try. Then I pulled him off jump #12 because I dropped my arm 1 second too early and he spun before taking the jump. Other than that, I was an amazing run. We were connected and I was so happy with it. Unfortunately, in Excellent it has to be perfect so it was an NQ. I wish I had a video of this run because it was wonderful!

It was such an amazing trial, and I am so proud of my little Hobbs. He is very tired, and a little stiff and sore, but I think he had a wonderful time too. I have all the course maps to post as well as another video, but those probably come later.

2 in One Day!

2011-05-05T21:26:00.003-06:00

I will write more about this trial once it is over, but I need to brag about my little Hobbs. He did wonderfully today at the trial. I wasn't expecting too much from him because we just moved and he is pretty stressed from it. He is handling it better than he has before, but I was still expecting it to affect his performance this weekend. Apparently it didn't!

We earned TWO different titles today!!! We finally got the 3rd Q for our NAP (novice agility preferred), and after only 3 runs in Open JWW we got our OJP (open JWW preferred) title, and will be moving up to Excellent in JWW. For any non agility people who read this, to get a title in a class in AKC you need 3 qualifying scores under two different judges. Hobbs and I have run 100% clean in Open JWW and have earned that title in the minimal amount of time possible.....and I am very proud of that, because JWW intimidates the crap out of me!

As for moving up, I forgot to fill out the move up form for JWW we will be running in Open tomorrow and Excellent on Saturday. We moved up in Standard though, and it will be fun to have something other than the stupid A-frame to worry about on course.

Our Standard run was really great. Hobbs was really connected with me even though I could tell he was stressed (something he does now in the standard ring). I thought he got his A-frame contact, but I wasn't sure, and didn't see if the judge put his hands up or not. So when we finished the run I had no idea if we had gone clean or not. I celebrated for Hobbs anyways, but we had to wait FOREVER to see the scribe sheet and the magical Q that was written on it.

It was a wonderful day and I could not be happier!

Happy Birthday Old Man!!

2011-05-01T09:11:00.001-06:00

Patriot is 9 today! I can't believe it has been 9 whole years since I picked him up at a hotel outside of Salt Lake City. That day was so amazing for me. I was getting my first guide dog puppy, and I couldn't wait to see him turn into a guide dog. It turned out to not be in the cards for him, and that was the beginning of his life as a PET.

He is such a cool dog. He is happy to do whatever we ask of him.....well except baths.....he isn't happy about those, but he still cooperates for them. He mostly sleeps all day. Sometimes he will have a wrestling match with Hobbs or just lay on the floor playing "bitey-face". He still loves walks, but not when they are longer than about 45 minutes. He is perfectly happy getting one or two walks a week, but is excited to go every day when we are able to.

Today we went for some play time at the dog park, and he loved that there were tons of dogs there. He also got the usual extra cup of food in his bowl for dinner, and tons of cuddle time through the day. He may get a new toy tomorrow, but I haven't decided if I want another thing to pack or not lol.

He has been taking this move in stride and I am sure he will settle into the new house very nicely.

Yet Again!

2011-04-26T21:20:00.004-06:00

Hobbs and I had a wonderful agility class on Monday, and we got to run an amazing course. Here is the basic course without proper measurements, because I don't have the actual course map yet. When I get it I will post it.

The hardest part of this course was from 4 to 8. It was especially hard for me because 1) I am pregnant and slowing down and 2) Hobbs is FAST. On our first attempt, I got us all the way through to 7 where I stopped and rewarded Hobbs for paying such close attention. Then we tried it again and Hobbs was confused and we couldn't get from 5-6.

We took a break, talked about it as a class, and it was suggested that we could send our dogs to the tunnel from 2 and then go around the weave poles on the bottom side of the map (if that makes sense) to get ahead of them for 4-6. Nobody wanted to try it because they didn't think their dogs would send that far. I wasn't sure Hobbs would either, but I didn't feel that I could go fast enough to beat Hobbs to 5 if I went with him to the tunnel. So I tried it. I sent him from way back at 2 and he actually went in the tunnel! Then our 4-6 was pretty smooth and we finished the course, including the pretty tough weave entry.

It was a great evening, and I loved the course. I wanted to do it over and over, but my pregnant body and my dog were both done by the end of the class.

***UPDATED***

Here is the actual course from Monday night. We did 1-11, with 11 being a triple rather than a broad jump.

Some More Tough Courses

2011-04-25T09:06:00.003-06:00

I am so happy to be in the agility class I am in. All the people in that class have been there for over a year now, and we are all to the point where we are trialling regularly. It is great to see all of us improving so much so quickly. It is getting harder to run my best in class, which is frustrating, but Hobbs makes up for my weaknesses so often!

The barn we practice in is pretty small, so we usually have to break these courses down into two parts because the whole thing wont fit.

I can't remember which parts of this we did, but it is an awesome course

This one, we did 1-15. It was amazing that I felt confident that Hobbs and I could handle this course and then we ran it clean! I just need to remember that confidence at the agility trials.

We have another trial the first weekend in May. It will be our first outdoor trial this year, and it is usually a pretty wet weekend. So if it rains it will be our first trial in the rain.....or the first one we withdraw from. It will also be our first 3 day trial! The best part? I will be 22 weeks pregnant!

In other news, we are moving again, on Saturday! Yes, I know we just did that like 9 times, but this time we bought a house so I am hoping we will be staying there for a good long while. If you hop over to my family blog and scroll past the easter posts, you can see the house we have decided to buy.

Little Sister!

2011-04-14T18:46:00.002-06:00

They boys are going to have another little sister! We found out today that we are having another girl in September! Yay!

We also have some other great news that I will share hopefully in a week or two.

Daisy Peel

2011-04-10T22:32:00.002-06:00

Here is a video of Daisy Peel and Solar running the course that we did at class last week. The second half of the course is hard to see as the same this we did, because ours was a little adjusted to fit our barn.

Wonderful Agility Classes

2011-04-05T21:18:00.005-06:00

Hobbs and I have had a particularly excellent time at our agility class this past couple of weeks. Our instructor has set up some pretty challenging sequences, and it is so much fun! Here is what we did two weeks ago:

I am a little peeved they uploaded so small, just click on them to enlarge.

The threadle (6-10) on this one intimidated me SO much when we walked it! It was tough but after many, MANY tries we got it right. Over the next week we practiced that move a LOT so that Hobbs and I felt more comfortable with it.

This past week we did two different sequences, that when put together were a course from AKC nationals!

Part 1

I am happy to say that this one was actually pretty easy for Hobbs and me. He even got the weave entry on the first try both times we ran it.

Part 2

We also ran this one clean the first time through. I pushed Hobbs' DW contact by moving laterally away from him towards #3 while he was still moving into position on the contact. I was impressed that he did his 2020 immediately. He went a little wide from 3-4, and I forgot my handling plan from the tunnel to the teeter, but otherwise it flowed really nicely. The second time around I tried to tighten up 3-4 and he did it tight but ended up dropping the bar on #4.....it was probably because he was getting tired.

I went away from this class feeling very confident in both my handling and Hobbs' behavior. I love that we do such difficult courses/sequences in class even though all of us are in novice/open. It is such a confidence booster, and I know that Hobbs and I can handle it and that this stuff is good for us to be practicing. I am starting to push my handling at class as much as I do at home, and it is working!

1 month until our next trial!

4

2011-03-21T12:55:00.004-06:00

I can't believe this little boy is 4 today. It makes me sad, and it makes me puppy hungry lol! But it will be a while before we have another furry little one in our house. Hobbs has had a wonderful day relaxing and we got to go to agility class tonight and he loved it, as usual.

This year I am hoping he has an easier time excepting the baby coming in September. Kaylee's first few weeks were really hard on him. I hope we get to play agility for well over half the year (there is a trial in August I want to enter lol).

Hobbs is such a good little boy. He has his "issues" (barking, Coprophagia, and the lack of a decent recall to name a few) but in every other way he is a perfect little gentleman.

2nd AKC Trial of the Year

2011-02-23T20:33:00.004-07:00

This past weekend was our third trial of the year and our second AKC trial of the year. It was a learning experience, and I gained some perspective about the importance of Q'ing in runs.

This was a three day trial, but Hobbs and I were only entered for Saturday and Monday.

Saturday started out with FAST, and it was another great run. This send bonus had the A-frame in it and Hobbs' contact performance on that is pretty inconsistent so I was worried about being farther away. He did it perfectly and we Q'd in 1st place with 72 points. At least that is what I think we got. I just got a trial results email saying that in that run we got 2 time penalties, but our time was only 34.something. If I understand the rules for FAST correctly, the maximum time for 20" preferred dogs is 35 seconds. That would mean that we got no time penalties and we get to keep our 72 points. Either way we got 1st place and our second Q in novice FAST.

Next was Standard, and it ended up being a rough run. There were some tough parts, all of which we did great on, but he jumped his A-frame contact and then when I went to rear cross him going up the DW he turned around and came back down. After the run, I thought about it and I don't think I have rear crossed him going up the DW in a very long time, if ever. Hobbs was really upset and stressed after the run. I tried to be happy and praised him, but he was weird. Actually, he got weird on course right after he jumped the contact. I am pretty sure he knows when he does it wrong, but he doesn't understand what he is supposed to do. After the run I took him outside and walked around for a while to let him relax until he seemed to be back to his happy self. His attitude after that Standard run really baffled me.

Next up was our first Open JWW run ever! I was nervous, but knew it was just a learning experience so I didn't let the course stress me out. It turned out to flow really well, and it felt great! Hobbs got in and finished all 12 of the weave poles for the first time in competition, and I was so proud of him. We got a Q and placed 1st in that run, and I was so excited. Hobbs was ecstatic after that run and his attitude was a complete 180 from what it was after standard.

On Monday we started out the day with Standard. It seemed like a pretty easy course and I was confident we could do it as long as Hobbs got his contact on the A-frame. It was the third to last obstacle, and when he got the contact I started to celebrate on the inside. Next was the chute and then the panel jump. Looking back, I think I started to bring my arms up to clap as he went over the last jump and my little boy dropped his back legs and knocked the top off the panel jump. What a heart breaker. I shook my head, and praised Hobbs anyways trying to keep him happy, but he was just as weird after this run as the one on Saturday. I think my little boy is stressing in his standard runs.....and I know I am the cause. I really would like to get our final Q for his NAP title so we can move up to Open, and I think it is making me overly nervous before our runs and Hobbs feels it. And, naturally, when we don't get it I feel disappointed, and even though I have been trying not to show that to Hobbs I know he can feel it. I am not disappointed in him, I know that 99% of problems on the agility course are the handler's fault.

Next up, and last of all for the trial was JWW. This course was pretty intimidating to me, but I did a lot of thinking in between Standard and this run and decided that no matter what I would not get caught up in trying to get our Open titles. I decided that even though there were some tough parts of this course I would use them as an opportunity to try more aggressive handling just like I would in practice. And I did! I gave Hobbs much more space than I usually do out on course at trials, and he did great. He was a little slow in the weave poles, but I could tell he was mostly just tired. We got another Q and a 2nd place behind a lady who just placed 12th at the AKC invitationals. They are GOOD. She has dropped her dog down to preferred and has been in a few of our classes. They beat us by about 3.5 seconds, but her dog is naturally much faster than Hobbs, and has a MACH (or two). Hobbs was once again really happy after this run, even though he was tired and basically done for the day.

What I learned from this trial was that I need to get a handle on my competitiveness to get Q and to our novice title in standard. I am making it no fun for Hobbs and that is inexcusable on my part. I also learned that I need to build myself an A-frame to practice on so I can get Hobbs understanding exactly what he should be doing on the A-frame contacts. I actually am planning to try the Box method once I am too pregnant to run him in trials. That is something I would be able to do no matter how huge and immobile I get. The only thing I worry about is that he might have a hard time with all the repetition.

ASCA Weekend

2011-02-14T07:45:00.010-07:00

Hobbs and I had a wonderful day on Saturday running a total of 6 runs at our ASCA trial. It was a LONG day. It was a really small trial, but instead of the round 2 courses being the exact opposite of the round 1 courses, they were different. So instead of running excellent 1 then 2, they ran exellent, open, novice 1 and then exellent, open, novice 2. So it took a lot longer than it should have with so few people.

Jumpers was first of the day, and it didn't go too well. The first run Hobbs was WAY excited and he dropped a bar (my fault) and went around a jump (also my fault). When I called him back after the missed jump he came scooting back to me like he was about to run labby scoot loops around me. Luckily he controlled himself and we finished the course. We got 5th place out of 6 and an NQ. The course:

Round 1

Round 2 went pretty well but we had an off course and a knocked bar, my brain just didn't seem to be working. We got 4th out of 5 and another NQ. How is it that Jumpers is where we do the best in AKC and the worst in ASCA? The course:

Round 2

Gamblers was next and it was a world of difference! We got both the gambles and Q'd in both rounds getting 1st in one and 2nd (by 1 point) in the other. Our first Q gave us our novice gambler's title! I think it is......GS-N, so that is the pretty ribbon in the picture. It is one of the best title ribbons I have seen yet! Both of our runs felt really together and we ran exactly what I walked both times. Hobbs got all his A-frame contacts, which was great. Here are the course maps:

Round 1

Round 2

Last of all was our Regular runs. Our first run was great with an almost off course, but we saved it and finished nicely with a Q and 1st place.

Round 2 was a much trickier course and I didn't plan the first part very well. He went off course, I called him back, and he thought I wanted him to go over the A-frame and unfortunately got 4 paws on it before I got him back. The rest of the course (including a tough tunnel/dog walk discrimination) went really really well. We got a Q and another 1st place. Ugh, it looks like I don't have the regular course maps either.

By the last run both Hobbs and I were really done. I was exhausted after the first Gamblers round. Luckily Hobbs had some time between runs because he was pretty tired by the end too. I have videos of some of the runs, but it will be a little while before I can get them posted.

Googility

2011-02-04T14:11:00.002-07:00

Has anyone heard of Googility.com? It is the google search engine for dog agility. I haven't had a chance to really search through it a lot, but what I have seen I like! Check it out!

AKC and new Title......NOT!!

2011-01-31T21:03:00.001-07:00

The trial this weekend was great! It was a wonderful return to agility for both of us (after almost 3 months), and I am very proud of us both.

I will post videos of a couple of the runs, but they will probably be a few days away.

Friday we ended up getting to the site an hour and a half early because I read the premium wrong. It ended up being ok because I got an amazing little private place for Hobbs' crate and a great parking spot. I was sleep deprived and just not feeling great. Probably just pregnancy mixed with not enough sleep. The trial site has a TON of stairs and the dogs are crated at the top of them, with the agility rings and bathrooms at the bottom. So if you want anything you had to go up and down the stairs.

Our first run was FAST and this was the first time I had entered it. The send was really easy and I planned a great course. Our run ended up being only 19 seconds long, we got the bonus, and had a total of 61 points! It was so much fun! So we started out the weekend with a first place and a Q. Here is the course:

Friday FAST course Q and 1st place

Next up was Standard and I was really nervous thinking it would be our qualifying run for our NAP title. Hobbs thought we were turning one way over a jump and when he realized we were going the other way (mid air) he dropped his back legs and knocked the bar. Then he jumped his A-frame contact.....Ggrrr. Other that those, the run was really together and smooth.

Last of all that day was JWW and the course was the most intimidating I had ever seen in novice. I actually couldn't look at it on the paper all day because it scared me so much. It didn't seem as hard when we walked it and I went onto the course confident that we could do it. Well, I set up my body wrong to call him off the start line and he got locked onto an off course jump.....and took it behind my back. When I got him back on course the rest of the run was AMAZINGLY smooth and together.

I was exhausted by the end of the day, and went to bed at 8:45 as soon as I had Kaylee in bed. I didn't know if I was going to be able to survive the next day. Luckily, I wasn't planning to get to the trial site until almost 10 the next day so I planned to sleep until Kaylee woke up. So I ended up getting almost 12 hours of sleep. The only problem with that was that I spent the whole night dreaming and having nightmares about agility. It was NOT a fun night. I felt SO much better by the next morning though, and was ready to go for another day.

Saturday was great! Jumpers was first for the day, and it wasn't a bad course. The first 3 jumps were the exact same as Friday's course so I decided to try again to call him to me. This time it worked! I made sure to point my body the direction I planned to go, and he did exactly what he was supposed to. The rest of the course flowed really well, and It felt really good. Q #2 for the weekend! Here is the course:

Saturday JWW Q and 2nd place

I hadn't entered FAST that day, but I really wish I would have. It was a fun send, and I think we could have Q'd easily.

Last of all for the day was standard, and it was a pretty interesting/tough course. It ran really smoothly though, and I only felt like I was getting frantic with Hobbs once. I swear he looked up at me like "what that crap are you yelling at me for?!?" He didn't jump his A-frame but I think it was only because I did a front cross after it. We once again had a clean round and got another Q and second place! Here is the course:

Saturday Standard - Q and 2nd place

After this run I was ecstatic! I was so proud that we had gotten our standard novice title. I got a beautiful New Title ribbon, and raced home to show it off to Robert and Kaylee.

Sadly, when I got home and started putting this trial information in to the record keeping software on my computer, I realized that I had miss counted. We still need 1 more standard Q for our title. So I put the pretty ribbon away, and stopped celebrating. I just keep telling myself that we have another two chances next month.

All in all, it was a great first trial back!

Happy Birthday Girly!

2011-01-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

My little Calliope girl turned 6 today, and I spent a lot of the day thinking about her. I haven't seen her in a while, but I know she is with people who love her to death. I am hoping to be able to visit her sometime soon, but I am not holding my breath. I am busy, her people are busy, and life happens to get in the way. Anyways, Happy Birthday little girl! You are such a special dog!

Looking Past This Trial

2011-01-25T13:11:00.003-07:00

Hobbs and I have an AKC trial this weekend, but I am already looking ahead to the next two. That is because they are back to back weekends. I haven't ever done trials back to back, so I am hoping someone on here has some suggestions for making them both go smoothly.

Is there anything I should prepare for having back to back trials coming up?

The rest of the hints

2011-01-24T09:58:00.002-07:00

For those who wanted to see the rest of the clues, here they are with their explanation.

Mexican Food - because that is all I can think about eating lately.

Nuts - because we are.....

Fall - When this little one is due (September to be exact)

Peanut(s) - The nickname for the thing growing inside me!

Little footprints - I can't wait for these!

2 - because this is the second baby!

I figured by this last one everyone would have figured it out.

Ok SERIOUSLY?!?

2011-01-22T21:07:00.002-07:00

1 HINT, THATS ALL?!? 1 hint and someone....2 someones guessed it?

Man, I need to get better at making up hints! Well, since both LauraK and Katlynn got it on the first try I am going to send both of them a little home-made prize. If you guys would comment with your address (I wont publish it) I will get those in the mail. Congrats smartypants!!

Yes, folks I am pregnant again! I am due in September, so things are still really early on in the process. The raspberry hint was because supposedly that is how big this little one is right now.

Guessing Contest!

2011-01-22T08:27:00.005-07:00

Alrighty folks! I have some news I would like to share, but I want to make a bit of a contest out of it. Here is how it will work.

I will post a new hint every day (please forgive if I miss a day) and you can comment your guess. I wont publish any of the comments until someone gets it right. That someone will win a little prize from the labby boys here. Got it? Here would be your first hint:

If you happen to already know the news, please give other people at least 3-4 days to guess!

Wicked Wednesday Course

2011-01-20T21:00:00.004-07:00

I have been going to a local equestrian arena for agility practice for the past two weeks, and this week's course was pretty awesome. It was LONG (for a novice person) and had some tricky parts. The hardest part of all of it was that the dirt in the arena was very deep and loose. I think it bordered on too deep. Each person who comes to practice gets 2 minutes at a time in the ring with the equipment. At least for me, it seemed that that was barely enough time to complete the course, even forbid you had a mishap and needed to train for a bit! Here is the course:

Obviously you will have to enlarge it to see what was actually going on. The only tricky parts for us turned out to me 3-6 and 9-10. Hobbs doesn't have the wrapping skills needed to make that turn around 4 and back to 3/5. He knocked the #4 bar almost every time until I allowed him more room to make a wider turn after it. Then he would almost go back up the DW before coming with me to 6. 9-10 was a really tough weave entry, and a LONG 12 poles. Hobbs needed at least 2 tries every time to get it right, but he kept at it and we partied every time he got it right.

I was very proud of Hobbs after this practice. He tried really hard even towards the end when he was getting tried.

Monday Practice

2011-01-17T22:03:00.003-07:00

Class tonight was really fun, and we practiced jumper's courses which is always helpful for Hobbs and me. We are entered in novice jumpers at the AKC trial next weekend even though technically we are allowed to enter Open now. I am just not ready for Open yet. Honestly, I feel like our getting Hobbs' novice jumper's title just a bit of dumb luck. Most of our jumper runs at trials were super rough, and awkward. I don't want to feel totally overwhelmed by an Open course.

Anyways, our first course of the evening was the opening of an Open course:

The only hard part of this course was the way I tried to handle 6-8. I tried to post turn 6-7 and then rear cross 7-8 from across the weave poles. We have done pretty much that exact move in the back yard so I thought Hobbs and I could handle it. NOPE! Hobbs bailed out of the poles every time until he was super confused. Lol he wasn't getting frustrated so we kept trying it. After a break we tried putting the rear cross between 6 and 7 but there just wasn't enough room. We got through it, but it was just awkward and slow. Last of all I put a front cross between 6 and 7 and it worked perfectly. Front crosses are just better for Hobbs! Too bad that means I have to be SUPER fast to get ahead of him!

The next sequence was the closing of an Excellent course:

This one looked a bit rough, but it actually ran really nicely. We got it on the first try, but tried it again to get the timing on the FC after 4 to be better. I was a bit late, but it turned out that Hobbs just wasn't able to make the turn as tight as I was cuing it. Gives me something to work with him on.....once the snow melts.

We got the sad news today that our instructor is moving....far away.....like across the country :( I am very sad, as she is a good friend and wonderful mentor. She will be greatly missed in the Agility community here.

Back to Blogging and Agility!

2011-01-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

Now that I am going back to Agility classes on a regular basis, I am going to tentatively come back to blogging. It was taking up too much of my life, and taking my attention away from Kaylee, and my wife/mom/family duties. I am going to try to keep it in perspective this time, and will probably not be reading everyone's blogs except for once a week.

Anyways! Hobbs and I have been having a great time in classes, and practicing on our own. Hobbs was good enough to weave his 6 poles in the yard in the middle of a FOOT of snow! He is such a good boy.

We did our first set of 12 weave poles, since before Oregon, on Wednesday morning at the place our AKC trial will be held. He did them perfectly on the first try! He was really good at practice and only had some motivation issues because I dropped some treats on accident and stupidly let him help me clean them up. Stupid thing to do! But luckily we have two more practices there before the trial and I am hoping he forgets about the treats.

I am proud and happy to report that Hobbs' teeter is looking wonderful! He is recognizing that it is the teeter even when he blasts onto it as if it were the dogwalk. When that happens he flattens into a down to ride out the movement and hasn't flown off the end in a good while (knock on wood). At our trial this month we will be entering in FAST for the first time ever and we got to practice/learn the game at class on Monday. Boy is it confusing! I am not expecting much from that class at the trial, but it will be a good learning experience for both of us. Now I understand why it takes people so many tries to get their FAST titles!

Hopefully after class next week I will have time to post our course and a little record of what we did. I am trying to be better a record keeping this year.

An update on Patriot! Poor boy doesn't get a lot of face time on here. He is doing well, getting older, but still a happy healthy (except for an ear infection) boy. His allergies were bugging him after he came home from my parents' house, but they cleared up pretty quickly....except the ears. His hind end seems to be getting a bit weak, and that is concerning and sad, but I am not really sure how to help him. I would love to be able to get a balance disc, but honestly, I don't think they make them that big. Anyone have any suggestions of ways to strengthen a really big dog's hind end?

Agility 2010 Summary

2011-01-12T11:35:00.001-07:00

I figured I would do a summary of our first year of competitive agility. All I have to say is that, for a first year, it was a great one!

2010

Trials - 5

ASCA - 2 - February and May
AKC - 2 - July and October
NADAC - 1 - October

Q's - 11

ASCA - 4
AKC - 4
NADAC - 3

Titles - 1

AKC - NJP

Ugh, the biggest thing I have learned from this post is to keep better records! It took me forever to figure out what venues, trials, and classes we had Q's in, and I had mistakenly thought Hobbs had gotten his Novice Agility Preffered (NAP) title in AKC. Instead, we got our Novice Jumpers Preferred (NJP) title!! Thank heavens for AKC's records on their site! I downloaded a free record book software and finally have everything in one place. I have every run recorded from this year, and will be keeping track of our trialling on it. It has a place for training records too, but I am not going to try to go back and record all our training....unless I get bored some time.

I added all the trials I am considering for the first half of next year, but I might have to win the lottery to have the money to enter all of them. Why are trials so darn expensive?!? There are a few I really want to enter though so those will be my first priority. We are officially entered in our next AKC trial though! The end of January. I am trying to get Hobbs and myself back in shape for trialling because we took a break for so long. I can physically see where Hobbs has lost muscle tone, but I think that will come back in time. I wish it was nicer weather outside so we could do more jumping practice, but I guess twice a week is sufficient.

This year will be an interesting one for us, and I am hoping to be able to trial for a good portion of it. Maybe not all year (since things maybe changing around here a little bit), but we shall see.

Until Further Notice..................

2010-12-05T15:03:00.003-07:00

I am taking a break from blogging until further notice. The swap is also canceled, sorry for any inconvenience.

Just so that no one is concerned. My family and I are ok, this is a personal break, and it hopefully wont be permanent.

It Kicked Our Hineys

2010-12-03T13:23:00.005-07:00

Hobbs and I were pretty much pathetic at class last night. I didn't think I was that out of shape from the rib issue and the month of no agility (and basically no walks). Hobbs had gotten out to the dog park to play and most of that was him blasting around like a crazy dog, and since we have been home he has been on the treadmill for at least 20 minutes all but 3 days, so I figured he was getting his exercise. Apparently not.

It was a nice big barn that is where they have clinics and ASCA trials usually. It wasn't heated so it was pretty cold, but I knew that and was bundled up. The first sequence was one from a clinic that had been during that day and then again today, and it was pretty tricky.

We first all handled it by keeping them on our right over 3 and 4 then then handling the threadle that way. All but one of us had to try multiple times to get in the right position for #5. The dogs would either run past it and take 6 or the would jump 5 the wrong way. Then a lot of the dogs took the tunnel instead of 7. And the handling of 7-9 to get to a FC after 9 was tricky.

The second time around we did this thing where we put a front cross between 3 and 4 and between 4 and 5.......it didn't work well for any of us. I could see how if you were used to handling it that way it would be easier, but it was just awkward for everyone. This sequence reminded me that we haven't done serps or threadles for a VERY long time. I need to work on them more.

The next sequence was more doable for Hobbs and I.

We had to leave right afterwards, so I only got to do it once, but we did really well. Our run would have been perfect except that half way through the tunnel (after an amazing send from 5) he stopped and turned around to come out and smell the sand bags on the tunnel! We started over at 2 and ran the rest clean and clear. I thought our 180 from 7 to 8 was really smooth, but we ended with a really rough ugly rear cross. The stupid #2 jump was right where I would have usually crossed so I had to get really close to 10 before I crossed.

Hobbs was very much done, and could have done without this last run (see, pathetic) and I was getting a cramp in my calf (again, pathetic) but we did very well on it anyways! I still feel like I have to really baby his pinwheel turns, and I don't know if that is because of him or me.

I have a super plan for how we will go about getting in shape mentally and physically for the trial at the end of January.

Physically: Hobbs and I will be on the treadmill every other day. On the off days we are going for a long walk together with Patriot. Because I feel like I need more work to get in shape, I will be taking just Patriot on a shorter/gentler walk the days we treadmill. I will also do some strength training, and rib supporting exercises to avoid another episode of that whole mess. Hobbs will probably join us on the short walk after a couple weeks of every other day.

Mentally: I am lucky enough that our new instructor also rents out her barn for people to practice in so we will probably go there once a week. Then, back where we used to have class (about an hour away) also is rent-able now that I am competing so I will probably go up every other week. When I go up there, I may have a private lesson, but that depends on if my instructor is going to teach since she just had a baby. And to top it all off, WAY up north, a big equestrian arena has been rented for open agility practice 2-3 times a month and it is only $5 per person for as long as you want to practice. So on some weeks, that could be as much as 4 days we practice agility! That is pretty good for winter around here.

Tricky T-day - Bang!

2010-12-02T07:37:00.003-07:00

Yes, I taught my boy to play dead when he gets shot at. He is really cute about it sometimes and doesn't a kind of grumbling groan as he goes down. It isn't perfect in the video, but he tried hard.

This is my first attempt at putting two videos together, so hopefully it isn't too horrific.

Together again!

2010-11-29T21:03:00.001-07:00

Patriot is HOME!! Turtle is HOME!!

It is so nice to have all my animals back together again. It has been interesting having 3 animals again. Kaylee was pretty intimidated by Patriot at first, but will push him right back (or try to bit him) if he bumps into her. They have all settled into their routines, but that hasn't included any walking because it has either been snowing or below freezing outside, and I don't want to take Kaylee out in either of those.

I am hoping that things will warm up a little and that the sidewalks will thaw so we can get out! I have been putting Hobbs on the treadmill just to keep him working so we don't lose ground on his fitness. Patriot really doesn't like to even walk on the treadmill so I make sure to play with them outside so he gets to burn off some steam. Good thing he is an old dog and doesn't need much to satisfy him for the day.

Kaylee LOVES having her cat back, and tries to cuddle with her all the time. Turtle isn't sure about being laid on and squished, but she is being patient.

The boys playing in the snow. If you compare the depth of the snow in the top 3 pictures to the snow in the bottom 4, just know that that much snow fell in about 8 hours.

Flying puppy!

The older Patriot gets the less he likes the snow

That isn't blood in the snow, it is a bottle of some pinkish soda that froze and burst. It was staying cold in the snow during a party and got forgotten overnight.

trying to get a grip on the Kong Wobbler

Not sure what Patriot was chewing on.....

The morning after the snow stopped

This snow is DEEP

the two of them racing back to the house

In other news, Hobbs and I get to do agility on THURSDAY!!! I was going to wait until the first of the year, but we are entered into a trial the last weekend of January and I don't think one month of classes would be enough to get us ready. If it were summer and I could just practice any time I wanted in the back yard it would be different. So we are starting class on Thursday and will be renting time at the barn a couple of times. I am going to have to take Kaylee with me to practice at the barn, so it may be interesting.

Tricky T-day - Roll and 8

2010-11-09T10:00:00.006-07:00

I am going to try to get one of these up every week, but it may not happen. Hobbs and I are taking a break from Agility until my rib is completely healed (so close!), and I wanted to teach Hobbs some tricks.

This week we are doing two tricks so that I am forced to teach him a new one this next week. Our first one is pretty easy. "Roll" is a pretty basic one, but it has taken quite a while for Hobbs to be comfortable with losing his balance and rolling. He finally got the idea, and can roll one way pretty consistently. We are still working on the other direction, but he is getting it slowly.

One trick I want to teach him eventually is the backwards weaving through my legs. So, our next trick was the figure 8 through my legs. I was amazed how quickly he caught on to this one. It isn't on a verbal command yet, but that will come soon I think.

Chances

2010-11-06T20:43:00.004-06:00

Here is our Chances run from the NADAC trial.

It was great! I thought the bar he dropped before the tunnel was my fault, but it looks like he landed funny from the jump before it and didn't take off right. He was one of the only dogs in our height (or Novice altogether) to get the discrimination on the first try. It was a tough one, but he handled it really well.

My favorite part of this run especially is that he is bounding along like a little puppy. It is really cute even thought it isn't the most efficient way for him to run a course. I am scared for the day he gets down to really running because, as fast as he is now, I wouldn't be able to keep up with him! I also forgot to mention in either of my posts about this trial that we were getting compliments on our runs from complete strangers! I guess I should remember that when I start nit-picking our runs. We are a very green team, and I need to remember that more.

Thanks for all the comments on my other videos. I think I let being perfect get to my head, and made the trial less fun than it should have been. Our class that we were taking here is pretty serious about being perfect all the time and I think it rubbed off on me a little.

NADAC Videos

2010-11-04T20:49:00.006-06:00

***Edit*** Lol, sorry the video's are so big! I don't have a clue how to change them, so if it bugs you just double click on them to watch on youtube.

I am deciding more and more, that I turn into a crazy different person at trials. I really want to video some courses during a training class and see if there is really that much of a difference. For example:

Friday - Touch 'n Go

This is the only run where he is really running like he does in class. Right up to where he misses the DW three times and then almost falls off, and then doesn't stop on the contact. Surprisingly, this was our first run of the day which is usually a complete disaster. I also don't know what the noise is that I make as he is coming across the DW.....didn't realize I made that noise. Other than that, it was a great run.

Friday - Tunnelers

Ok, I guess he is running in this one as well....but it is a class full of puppy-rockets. I am making that same stupid noise in this one too! This shows me very well that I am waiting for him too much, and waiting WAY too long to get his attention out of a tunnel. At tunnel #3 I didn't even realize that he back crossed me to get in the tunnel.....don't really know what to think of that. I am proud of how I handled the middle section of tunnels though.

We slept in the car overnight so I wouldn't have to pay for a hotel, or drive home just to drive back. It was a bad decision because I don't think either of us got much sleep. Also, my rib was really hurting all during this day of the trial. I don't think we got a good warm up for any of our classes either this day.

I didn't order the Chances video, but I think I am going to, just to see how he looks in that first run.

Saturday - Regular 1

This one wasn't too bad. Grrr he jumped the contact. My pull towards the jumps, after the A-frame was late. Another turn away from me after the tunnel under the A-frame, but I think he thought the course was over....interesting. I need to practice the weave poles again stop babying him in them. I so should have been able to just run and do a front cross after them.

Saturday - Regular 2

Not a bad run at all. He was sniffing as he approached the contact on the DW, stress? I think he is not comfortable entering the poles if I am in front of him (or so I think) so I wait for him so I can do a rear cross. That needs to stop. I am very proud of his push out to the tunnel after the tunnel under the A-frame. But, he almost jumped that darn contact again! I know I wasn't running as fast in this one because my rib was KILLING me so I was just trying to do the course faster than a walk.

Saturday - Jumpers

Hmmm, a little bit of difference in our speed, no? It was our last run of the day so he was really tired, and just done with agility. I think I was handling conservatively too because I wanted the bars to stay up. I have NO clue what the little turn away from me was on the 5th jump.....

Please give me feedback on my runs! If you see anything glaringly obvious that I could work on, I want to know....nicely please.

I may post the Chances run if I decide to order it.

Wishful Thinking

2010-10-29T23:55:00.002-06:00

This dog was listed for adoption with the group that was at the NADAC trial.

I love her markings!

Bly is a great black and white female Border collie who is about a year and a half old. She is fast and petite and would be a natural at agility, herding or other dog sports. She loves to be trained and is catching on very quickly to clicker training. She is not a couch potato. She needs an active life with lots of training. Bly really wants to please her person and is very sensitive and listens very well. She gets along wonderfully with the dogs here. She has developed an amazing recall here. That will need to be worked on with a new person, but should be easily attained.

---------------------------------

I think she is REALLY pretty, and I would have loved to take her home and see what kind of agility dog she could be. Sadly, we are at our dog limit, and I kind of told Robert I wouldn't ever get a Border Collie. I think that may change.

NADAC and Taking a Break

2010-10-26T18:44:00.007-06:00

The NADAC trial this weekend was so much fun, and was very different than an AKC trial. For one it was so much more laid back than other trials can be. The atmosphere was a little chaotic at first, but I think that was because the building had so little crating area that it was crowded. I ended up leaving Hobbs in the car so he wouldn't have to deal with all the dog barking and the mass amounts of crates. He stayed more relaxed that way and seemed happier.

The trial started late on Friday which was odd to me. The first dog was at 6pm. I got there about 5 minutes late and ended up missing my walk through! The first class was Touch n' Go which has nothing but tunnels, contacts, and the NADAC hoops (that Hobbs has never seen in his life). Luckily Novice was last, and Hobbs was last in Novice so I had a lot of time to watch other people and memorize the course.

I really focused on our warm up for this first class so that I could see if that was what was messing up all our first runs. I tried to do everything I did in the AKC trial for the good runs that we had. I totally forgot to bring his new toy so that will have to wait until next time. When we went in the ring, Hobbs was fired up, and we had a great run. It was very smooth and fast until a DW/Tunnel discrimination where he should have taken the DW. We haven't worked on discriminations for quite a while so I wasn't surprised that he took the tunnel. I sent him again and he started to take the opposite end of the tunnel but I stopped him and got him back on the DW. So, we ended up with 2nd place even though we had too many faults to Q. t was a great first run without all the disconnect we have had at previous trials. I think our warm up is key for our first runs.

Next was Tunnelers, which was a course entirely of tunnels. It was SO much fun! I wont have my videos of the runs for a while, but I will post them when I get them. There was a very tricky middle portion of the course, but it went just fine. I successfully handled everything the way I planned to and Hobbs listened very well. We got a 1st place and our first NADAC Q.

Saturday started bright and early with Chances. Hobbs was one of the first dogs on the line, so I was very glad I got to walk it first. The distance challenge was a A-frame/Tunnel discrimination, but I was sure I could get him in the tunnel. Unfortunately, I pushed to hard and he dropped the bar leading up to the discrimination. He DID take the tunnel on the first try though and finished the course perfectly! We were too slow for the Q, and I don't think we would have gotten the Q with the dropped bar even if we had made time. I was proud of him for taking the proper obstacle though, I think he was the only one in our height class that got it on the first try.

This day, my rib was bothering me quite a bit. I coughed so hard I put a rib out of place and it has been taking forever to heal. I know I should have skipped this trial to heal, but I had already paid, and was really looking forward to it. It really didn't affect me until our regular runs.

Next was our first Regular run, and I almost missed our turn on course because I forgot we were one of the first ones out. So Hobbs didn't get any warm up, and I was expecting a disaster. The only bad thing that happened on course (besides him jumping the A-frame contact AGAIN) was that after one jump he went off sniffing into a corner. He has never even thought about doing that, so it makes me wonder what he was thinking. I thought for a second he was even going over to say hello to the bar setter! I felt like he was fast, and paying good attention, but I haven't watched any of my videos from this trial yet.

When I came off the course after that run, I could barely breathe. My rib hurt so bad I couldn't even talk loud enough to praise Hobbs. I tried to let him know he was a good boy, but I think he was a little concerned about me. I was in so much pain that I seriously considered not running in regular 2. But I sat down and tried to relax and took some pain killers. They didn't kick in before our next run, so I had to just block it out and run anyways. The whole time, I was thinking "my chiropractor is going to kill me"

Regular Round 2 was right after so I didn't put Hobbs away, I just tried to relax and forget about my rib pain. I got to talk to a fellow puppy raiser and the current leader of the local puppy raising group while we waited! She just barely had a puppy cc'd who she thinks will be good in agility. The puppy looked SO much like Calliope it was crazy. She was adorable, but Hobbs thought she was a little too friendly. Our run went really well! Hobbs barely got the contact on the A-frame, but everything else was great! He did a weird turn away after a jump again, but this time I think he was anticipating a rear cross. We have been practicing them a lot, so I wonder if that caused it? 1st place and Q yet again! It didn't hurt as much running this round as the last one, but that may have been the pain killers.

Last of all was Jumpers, and I was pretty nervous about it. Hobbs deserved a good jumpers round, but I could tell he was getting tired and I usually handle something screwy and cause him to drop a bar. I really wanted to have a good jumpers run. I had to pull out all the stops during our warm up because Hobbs was pretty much done. I took him outside to relax, but I had to keep coming back in because we were close to first in running order. Our run was great! I think it was a little slower than it could have been, but I was trying to be precise in my handling so that he wouldn't drop any bars. He didn't! He again turned away from me coming off a jump, so I don't know what to think because I was ahead of him so there is no way he thought we were doing a rear cross. We got another 1st and another Q! It was a great end to the trial.

Hobbs' spoils from NADAC:

from left to right - 3rd, 1st, Q, 1st, Q, 1st, Q, 1st, 5th

I am going to have to figure out what to do with all these ribbons!

Now, I am thinking of taking a break from Agility for a little while. Actually, I think I NEED to take a break in order to let my body heal. If I didn't take a break I would have class every week, and another trial in two weeks, then more classes and another trial. For now, I am going to shoot for being ready for the AKC trial in Utah January 28-30. That gives me almost two months off, and then a few weeks to bring Hobbs back into form for the trial. I am still going to be walking Hobbs if I can to keeping him in shape, letting him run, and maybe doing a little handling practice with our jumps at home.

I also want to think about how I want to keep Hobbs fit for agility. I think he is not quite as fit as he could be, and that is causing him to be "done" after 1 day of an agility trial. I want to figure out a good way to keep him "racing fit" so he is better able to handle a little agility.

I got professional videos for this trial because they had a killer deal for ordering all the runs. They had all of our except our Chances run for some reason and they didn't know why so they gave me an even bigger discount. Yay! I am excited to see them, but it may be a couple more weeks before I get them.

AKC Trial #2

2010-10-12T14:11:00.001-06:00

Hobbs and I recently got back from our second AKC trial, and it was great!

I was worried about Hobbs with him recovering from the UTI and all. It did seem to be bothering him on Saturday, but that was the first day he was off the anti inflammatory so I think he was hurting a little. Am I bad for having him run anyways?

Anyway, our first run was Jumpers and it was a DISASTER! Ok, it wasn't that bad, but for as easy a course as it was I was ashamed that we couldn't handle it. I am noticing a pattern for our trials that I don't like. No matter how easy the first course is, we mess it up. I observed some things this weekend that I am going to try to learn from and correct/work on at our next trial

Here is the video from that run:

The video is pretty crappy, and starts in the middle of the run, but if you couldn't tell he entered the weaves on like the 3rd pole the first try, ran PAST them the second and finally did them properly on the third try. Then I forgot my handling plan and rear crossed a jump which gave him the wrong directions and he missed the middle jump in the pinwheel.... something we obviously need to work on. We got a Q in that class still, but I was really disappointed in both of us on that run.

The thing I LOVED about this run is how fast he was going! He blasted full out across the dogwalk and didn't stop until all four feet were on the ground rather than his 2o2o....hopefully all this testing his contacts in class isn't working against us in trials. I felt a little behind in my handling cues so we got some wide turns on my front and rear crosses. Unfortunately, he jumped his A-frame contact, almost had a fly off on the teeter, but I didn't let it get to me and we finished the run really well. And, he got the weave poles on the first try. We didn't get a Q in that class, but I was proud of the run without it.

One thing I noticed before our standard run was that I was interacting with him more during our warm up. Looking back at the weekend, I can't even remember what we did in our warm up before the Jumpers run that was such a disaster. I decided that at our next trial I am going to focus on our very first warm up so we get the most out of it and see if it makes our first run better. I even bought him a new toy for that purpose.

New toy just for agility trial warm ups

One of the best parts of Friday was what we won in the raffle! I debated entering all day and finally did at the last minute put two tickets in ($2), and we won a jump and wings!

Saturday was great too! Hobbs was feeling much better, and we had a lot of fun.

Hobbs was super fast on his Jumpers run this day, but I slowed WAY down for him to get his weave entry. I need to work on those so they aren't an issue in trials. Other than that, I felt like he handled great, and the bar that he did drop was my fault for being late on my front cross....I think. I can't every tell from the videos if I am early or late. What do you think this one was? We didn't Q because of the bar, but it was a good run anyways.

Standard was our best run yet until the end because I forgot how tight the turn to the weave poles was and got in Hobbs' way for his entry. He got it eventually though, and we got another Q for the run. He got his A-frame contact but just barely......something else to work on. I was a little worried about the teeter, but he did it wonderfully and stuck the landing. It was an especially great run because it was our 3rd standard Q so Hobbs earned his first ever agility title (I believe it is the Novice Agility Preferred or NAP) but I am not !00% sure yet. I had someone else video this run because my camera died, so I don't have it yet. I will post it when I do.

Our spoils for the weekend:

The ribbons

I am so proud of my little man!

Class #2 - WOW

2010-09-28T22:08:00.006-06:00

Class tonight was AMAZING! I was considering not going because Hobbs is still recovering, but I am so glad that I did. I decided to just watch Hobbs and give him breaks as needed. The course was set up when we got there, and our instructor told me to "walk it and see which parts you think you can do, because it is pretty tough". Then added "If you think you can run the whole thing, by all means try it!"

I am in class with a bunch of handlers who have dogs in Excellent at trials and people with dogs in novice in some areas too. Our instructor knows I am a novice handler with a novice dog so she tries to let me know that I can take it easy.....thats not me. So I walked it as if I was going to run the whole thing. Here is the Champs (Excellent) UKI Jumpers course she had set for us:

Enlarge it so you can see just how insane it was!

There was only one thing (the two jumps before the weaves) that made me hesitate with Hobbs. Had it only been 6 weave poles I would have tried it on the first run through, but I wanted him to be successful at the poles so I decided to leave out #13. Looking back at it, I was walking it wrong when I decided to leave it lol.

Our first run through was great! Hobbs didn't even think about going up the DW after 2, but I forgot my strategy for getting him into the far end of the tunnel so he took the wrong end. Then I think he missed #15 at the end, but it was again my fault (isn't it always?). Even with the mistakes it felt great and we were working together very well.

Before we went through again we got a lecture about not running full out with our dogs. Most of us were just running close to them being safe when we should have been moving out and getting our dogs to RUN. Our instructor said at one point that "the one one with an excuse for not doing this is Brittany because she is a novice handler" to which I came back with "No, I don't have an excuse, because novice or not I should be handling my dog properly!". We all laughed at that and decided that no one had an excuse for babysitting our dogs on the course.

The second time through we were supposed to stop after the weaves so I decided to handle the jumps before the weaves like it is on the course map. We did GREAT! Hobbs went into the wrong end a couple times and then I did something wrong getting from 12-13 but we finally got it right and Hobbs got his weave entrance the first time!

After that course we worked on proofing our dogs contact behavior on the DW. I hadn't realized I baby Hobbs so much on his contact. We started by running with them, and continuing to run past the end to see if the dogs would stop on their own. The first time, I ran and slowed WAY down as he got to the end, and of course he stopped. My instructor said we should find out now how well he knows his job and told me to just blast right past the end and keep on going. We wanted to see if he would blow the contact. I was positive he would because I never run past. I always have stopped with him. So I took her advice and ran as fast as I could past that contact.

HE STOPPED AND HELD IT!!!

I was astonished, and threw a huge party for him. I need to trust this boy more because he is constantly proving to me that he knows what he is doing.

Then we had some fun with some "lazy handling" stuff and all took turn sitting in a chair on the side of the DW and handling our dogs from there.

The dogs ran from right to left Jump, DW, Jump and the chair is the blue square.

Hobbs took a few seconds to go all the way into 2o2o when I was in position 1, but he did it on the first try (and was the only dog in class that was able to do it). With position #2 he very tentatively came off the contact the first time, I took him back to the start, and he nailed it the second time! My little boy knows (mostly) his job on the DW!!

All in all, it was a wonderful class! I am really liking that this class has some seriously difficult (for me) handling challenges every week. It is going to make our novice AKC trial seem like baby stuff. I can't wait!

In Other News

2010-09-25T16:49:00.004-06:00

We have a PIT in our house again! Well, sort of.

Meet Kenwood

He is a very recently CC'd PIT who came to be puppy sat for the weekend. Before he got dropped off at our house I was under the impression he was still in the program, but apparently he got dropped for a lot of the same reasons Hobbs did. He is a wonderful, soft, cuddly boy.

He didn't like me taking pictures of him, so he laid down every time.

Kaylee LOVES him, and wants to keep him for permanent.

She keeps trying to feed him, lay on him, share the dog bed with him, and generally doesn't leave him alone. And he love it.

He is just a good boy.

Hobbs and him met, but Hobbs wasn't feeling super great so they didn't do much. Hopefully by tomorrow Hobbs will feel well enough to play a little with him.

Update

2010-09-25T16:30:00.003-06:00

Hobbs started peeing blood this morning at Agility practice, so we got to go to an emergency vet (why is it that vets are mostly closed on Saturdays?). Turns out he has a major UTI but luckily no crystals. He got an anti-inflammatory shot at the vet because he was in a TON of pain (yelped when the vet went to feel his bladder), antibiotics, and anti-inflammatory's for the next two weeks. He gets to go back in two weeks for another check to make sure it is all gone.

I feel like I let him down by not noticing before now how much pain he was in.

UTI or More Stress?

2010-09-24T20:34:00.004-06:00

Hobbs is having serious bathroom issues today. He has gone outside to pee no less than 25 times. When he goes out, he pees for a second, jumps up and trots really quick to another spot, pees, jumps up again and either goes to another spot or runs back to me. I don't think he has pee'd for more than 3 seconds at a time all day long. I think he had a little problem yesterday with this, but nothing this bad. Also, he has had 5 accidents in the house, and 3 out on the porch! Just little ones like he didn't even know he was peeing. He is also drinking water every chance he gets. I actually restricted it today, and I haven't had to do that in a long time. I think maybe he has a UTI.

So I don't know what to think.

He is still incredibly stressed, his barking issue is getting worse, and he only relaxes every once in a while. He is getting out to play, walk, and train, but he is always at the door asking to go out. I am hoping the potty issues aren't another manifestation of his stress level. That will be harder to fix than a medical thing.

On a brighter side of things, we are going tomorrow to practice agility, and then out to the coast. It is supposed to be a gorgeous day there so I am really excited! Hopefully Hobbs likes the ocean water!

This is going to be great!

2010-09-24T13:45:00.002-06:00

Class tonight was excellent! Hobbs really enjoyed himself, and we got to work on new things.

None of the sequences were over difficult (not really worth posting) and Hobbs did great. This instructor has random toys all over the place which act as distractions and Hobbs was a little too interested in a Frisbee that was on one of the courses. It stopped him several times. Next week hopefully he is a little more attentive and not so interested in looking for new things in the environment.

One thing I was very happy to work on was our contacts. We just worked on hugely rewarding the dogs for quickly getting into position and staying there despite us throwing a party for them. Hobbs broke a couple times right at first when I partied and then corrected himself. He did amazingly well on her teeter even though it is very noisy, isn't weighted down, and lowers quickly.

Things I learned about my handling during this class:

I was shocked to notice how often I use Hobbs' name in frustration for a mess up on course. I am not upset at him, but for some reason it comes out of me as his name. I noticed once tonight that it shut him down a little.
I thought I had been really praising him a lot for his contact performance.....NOT! Maybe I do in private, but tonight it was difficult for me to party for him really enthusiastically.
I NEED to work on my timing for front crosses and rear crosses. I am tired of being slow 98% of the time.
I take my eyes off my dog a lot. When I go to run ahead of him on course, I assume he is going to follow me and stop watching him. That has to stop, NOW

Any suggestions for a dog who would rather chew on grass than do agility? Not Hobbs, another dog in class. He runs well on other surfaces, but long grass makes him want to graze.

We are going on Saturday to practice by ourselves and hopefully that will be our routine while we are here.

He is stressing.

2010-09-19T22:02:00.004-06:00

Hobbs is stressing. He is restless all day long, barks at every noise, jumps up every time I move, and constantly acts like he NEEDS something. I have been taking him on walks, but it has been raining the past few days and I don't have a rain protected stroller so we can't go unless it is barely sprinkling. Plus he hates walking in the rain.

I have been doing training stuff inside and he seems to be himself while training, but it doesn't drain any energy or settle him down at all. I have been trying to just ignore him, and let him figure it out on his own, but I am starting to worry a little. I am really hoping he isn't too stressed to think properly at agility on Tuesday.

CLASS!

2010-09-14T22:14:00.007-06:00

I made sure that Hobbs and I would be able to start an agility class asap after we moved out here, and tonight I went to observe one the classes I am considering. Hobbs stayed home but it was still fun to go and watch and get a feel for the class so Hobbs will have a more confident handler for his first time. I really don't want a repeat of our private experience so I want to know what is coming and if it will fit Hobbs' personality.

I believe this class will be really good for us! The sequences they handled were on about an intermediate level, but some of the things were pretty tough. Like this Jumper's course:

I didn't get right in and walk it, but it looked pretty wicked. She had them handle it like this:

Scary Huh?

Most of the dogs did pretty well, one getting in perfectly on both tries. Her handler did VERY well each time.

Then they did some smaller ones:

She had them handle 5-7 by starting with the dogs coming out of the weaves on the handler's left then the handler would go past the plane of #6, FC, and then push the dog out and pulling them back towards them over #7. Does that make sense? It was a little different (ok a lot) than how I would have handled it, but the instructor was trying to teach a skill so I could kind of see the point. I was a bit weird though. How would you guys handle 5-8?

Next up:

This was the same sort of handling, sending the dog around the back side of a jump so that they were jumping toward the handler at #5 but this one made more sense, kind of like a big 180.

Hobbs and I are going back next week, and I am really excited. I wish I had brought at least one or two jumps with me, but we will make due. I am considering joining another class that is on Friday. Then we will have LOTS of agility time!

Sad Day

2010-09-13T22:09:00.004-06:00

I miss my Patriot boy :(

Utah is so very far away :( :(

Time to share the news

2010-09-07T13:39:00.001-06:00

I don't know if anyone noticed my list of upcoming trials, but they are a bunch of Oregon trials. I live in Utah.

Robert, Kaylee, Hobbs, and I are headed to live in Oregon for 3 months, and I am planning to run in a few trials while we are up there. We are going because Robert is going there for work, and I didn't feel like being a single mom for that long. He will still be working a ton while we are there, but it will be better than being alone.

The really sad part about this trip is that Patriot isn't coming with us. No, I don't love Hobbs more than I love Patriot. Patriot is just a really big dog, and he isn't very happy living in a 2 bedroom apartment. Plus, we barely we able to get permission to bring Hobbs because he is over the apartment complex's 40lb dog weight limit. They were lenient though because we will only be there for 3 months. Patriot will be staying with my parents which is where he lived for years before coming to live with Robert and me. He will be a mostly outside dog again, but he will be fine with that.....as long as there is horse manure to eat lol.

Until about a few weeks ago we thought Hobbs was staying there too, and I was worried about him. He doesn't have the temperament to suddenly have to live outside. My parents promised to give him cuddles and loves, but I don't think that would be enough. Plus, I didn't want to take a 3 month break from agility just when we got started competing.

On Friday this week Kaylee, Hobbs, my mom, and I will head out for the looooong drive to Oregon. Patriot is at my parent's house and having a great time being an only dog, and my parent's like having a dog to fill Cody's hole in the family.

Our kitty Turtle was supposed to stay at Robert's parents house, but it has been 3 days since they have seen her. I am really sad that she may be gone forever.

I probably wont be posting until I get internet there, so probably a week, but then expect a lot of new about the new home, agility group, figuring out CPE, and hopefully getting our first AKC title before we come home.

More Cody

2010-08-09T17:41:00.005-06:00

Here are more pictures of Cody

Goodbye Old Buddy

2010-08-07T16:44:00.007-06:00

Cody - 1998-2010

I said a final goodbye to the last of my childhood dogs last night, and this morning he was helped across the rainbow bridge.

Cody was such a wonderful dog to grow up with. My mom has always had Irish setters and he a great one. Many people think of Irish setters as crazy, brainless, hyperactive balls of fur. Yes, many of them are, but when you get a sane one they are amazing dogs.

Cody was more of a hunting bred setter so he didn't have all the long feathers of a show dog, but he hated being brushed so it was better that way. I was 14 when we got him and we were best friends. We went to some "training" classes, but sadly they were the " yank your dog around until they are too scared to leave your side" classes so we mostly just used books and common sense. I trained him to sit and down in German because I thought it would be cool.....it was.

He was my first agility dog, and I didn't even know what agility was. I would tip over picnic benches and tables and have him jump over them in a pattern. I think I saw an agility trial once at a breed show and got the idea from that. I remember wanting to train him to do the pattern all by himself on verbal cue only. Lol, that didn't work, but we had fun trying! He loved playing with me, and tried everything I asked him to do.

He was always pestering our older rough coated collie "Heidi" and she was always a grump about it. Then when she passed away we got another setter......one that was crazy.......named Kelly. She became his best buddy for a while until we got Patriot and two puppies was too much for Cody. He became the grumpy one and never liked puppies after that. Eventually it was just him and Patriot (Kelly went to a more active home that had the time for a dog like her) and they loved being together. Cody sulked when Patriot went to "college" and then rejoiced when they were reunited 4 months later.

I am sad to say that he took a back seat in my life after I got Patriot. I still loved him, but Patriot is my Heart dog and I wasn't good at sharing my heart with another dog. Now I wish I had been better about it.

Cody turned 12 a couple weeks ago and had a wonderful birthday full of hiking and pampering. He had been going downhill for a couple months, and finally started having trouble breathing and lost his appetite this past week. It was time, especially with my family going out of town for two weeks later this month. I will miss him, but I am glad he is in a better place filled with all our other setters who have crossed the bridge.

I am getting a bunch more pictures of him together that I will post later this week.

Goodbye Cody, you were one of the best and I will never forget you! Say Hi to "Brandy", "Esty" and "Heidi" in heaven for me!

HE DID 12!!!!

2010-07-31T20:53:00.005-06:00

Hobbs and I have mostly been practicing on our own since the trial, and it has been going pretty well. Hobbs has been doing great with a teeter to get on every day, and I have started proofing his end position on it. A couple days ago I ran as fast as I could past him as he went over it and he still stopped with 2o2o! I am really proud and happy that he has come so far with the teeter. Now i wish I had a huge yard to fit all the contact obstacles in. Sadly, I don't.

Anyways, on Thursday night we went to practice with a bunch of Ogden people, and it was great! The first thing I did when we got there was send Hobbs over the teeter. Ours at home is very heavy and takes some effort from him to tip it, and it tips later than a light, competition one. Apparently, it also swings to the side a little as he goes over it, because this one didn't and he almost fell off the side lol. He stuck the landing though, got lots of pets and treats, and we quit while we were ahead. I didn't want to drill it, just show him that it was going to tip earlier and faster.

Most of the people there are running either Open or Excellent so that is the kind of course we were running. We did two little courses, and both had 12 weave poles in them....something Hobbs has never tried. The most I have sent him through was 8, and that was just twice, months ago.

The first course we did looked pretty easy:

**These are VERY rough estimates of the course, and may or may not have an extra jump in there somewhere.

The first part of the course went well, but Hobbs was a little hot and didn't want to sent away to the poles at all. So I went with him and the first time through he did 8 before popping out. I didn't react at all, just continued on with the course. The reason for this was that I didn't know what he was going to do with 12 poles, and didn't want to shut him down by taking him back to try it again. So I decided that he would be rewarded for doing any of them (within reason). the course turned out to be a little tricky from 11 to 12, because everyone forgot where they were going and went over 6 a second time. Hobbs and I did this 2 or three times but finally got it right.

On our second run through of this course, I decided to softly repeat "weave" when Hobbs was about half way through the poles. HE DID ALL 12 OF THEM!! I threw a huge party after them, fed him a handful of treats, and then promptly forgot AGAIN where I was going for the rest of the course. Lol, we got it the second time from #10 though.

Then we walked the second course:

And NONE of us could find #7 at first!

I was pretty intimidated by this, especially because Hobbs patterns so easily that I thought he would just ignore me and plow into the closest end of the tunnel after 6 because that is what we did in the last course. I decided to keep him on my left the whole way to 7 and then kept him on the left again until 12 where I did a wrap/front cross to finish the course with him on my right. I went into it again not expecting anything from the 12 poles, but planing to repeat "weave" half way through. We got the whole course perfect including all 12 weave poles and #7!! I was very impressed with both Hobbs and myself. Hobbs didn't even almost run into me between 6 and 7!

The only thing I noticed during class was that Hobbs was really slow coming down the A-frame. I think his nails may need to be trimmed, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it, and it was also the first time he had been on a full height A-frame since the slat-less one at the ASCA trial. I wish I could get him on some equipment to try to get him to speed it up. I am not too worried about it though, it may have just been the heat.

It was great to get together with people to practice again, and I hope I can go most Thursdays when they get together.

Green Leash Giveaway

2010-07-18T21:52:00.006-06:00

Megan over at Picassa: The Adventures of a Guide Dog Puppy is doing her second giveaway of a handmade leather leash.

"These are leashes that can adjust to two different lengths and are braided together for extra strength. Here are a few pictures of the leash so you can see what they look like."

The leash in green (like the one that is being given away)

A blue version - the picture enlarges for a better look

I use a regular brown version of this type of leash and LOVE mine! I don't think I will ever get a different kind of leash.....well other than my agility slip lead.

Head on over to her blog to make this giveaway interesting! There are 3 ways to enter to win!

Happy Birthday to ME!

2010-07-16T13:20:00.010-06:00

Robert has been working on my teeter totter as a mothers day/birthday present and he got it all finished and put together yesterday just in time for my birthday! It still needs a little tweaking because the board fishtails back and forth a little, but it is stable enough to be used.....even by Hobbs!

And some more agility pictures because I just don't take (and post) them enough.

Weaving from the front....

and from the back - with toys strewn through the poles. My little man knows his job!

My plan is to get Robert to get me 3 more boards, I will paint them up, and buy a dog walk base for them! I will have to get a bigger yard though lol.

I thought I would share

2010-07-13T16:42:00.006-06:00

I forgot to point out something about the agility trial that was kind of a big deal. Well, to other people there, not so much to me. What caused all the comments and questions?

These did:

These are my Vibram five finger "shoes"

They are meant to mimic being barefoot and let the foot work the way it is built to work.

They don't have a lot...ok any... traction on the bottoms but they worked great on the dirt arena we were running on. I don't remember slipping even once!

So, the answer to the question I got most over the weekend was "yes I run/ran in these!"

It actually was really not a big deal to me. I have been practicing in them for a couple months, and the only time I wished I had had regular tennis shoes was once when I landed heel first (a no no in these) right on a big rock and bruised my heel pretty badly. Other than that, I use them for everything except church!

On Saturday I ran in this pair because the arena dirt had been tilled up and was getting in the tops of the other ones. I didn't want to risk getting a rock in there in the middle of one of my runs. These, of course, worked just as well!

A side view of these ones

Three of the people who stopped me to ask about my shoes said they were really interested, and one came back up to me on Saturday to ask about pricing, styles (she had researched them online), durability, and adjustment time. I hope I convinced her to at least go try a pair on. I can not say enough how much I love these shoes!

I am getting another pair sometime next month that are just like the grey and pink ones above, but they are black and have actual tread on the bottoms! Yay for more reliable traction! They are not supposed to be any thicker on the bottoms so hopefully that will be true for the pair I get. Then I wont be as worried about running on wet grass if that come up in a future trial....which it will.

What a Weekend it Was!

2010-07-12T08:50:00.006-06:00

Our trial this past weekend was GREAT!

We didn't show up at the trial on Friday until around noon because our class was the last one of the day. I really could have shown up at 2 and still had a couple hours to burn, but I had volunteered to work some classes so I was there earlier.

Hobbs was not happy from the moment we walked into the site. He saw the rows and rows of dog crates, and froze. I had to walk him the long way around to the other side where there were less dogs, and then I had to move all his stuff across the place. Luckily we did find a relatively quiet spot or he would have been even worse than he was. I tried to keep him cool with his Kool Koat but it was REALLY hot even inside the arena. Anytime I wasn't working in the ring crew, I had him with me because he was less stressed that way.

Finally it came time for our class! On paper, it looked pretty intimidating, and once I got out there it didn't get much better. I walked it a TON, and finally just told myself that I needed to prepare for us to not get a clean round. Pretty positive wasn't I?

Once we got out there I took a deep breath and went for it. We had a little bit of an iffy FC after 8, but the rest was AMAZING! It was one of those runs where everything flows and you feel connected with your dog. The only thing that was a little odd was that I felt like Hobbs was going slow. I actually told him to "come on" after I think #5 because I felt like He was dragging. Afterwards I figured it must have been the heat. I don't think he was really going slow though because our time was 25:08 sec. More on that later though.

We had a perfect run, a score of 100, our first ever AKC Q, and 1st place! I am running him in preferred so there were only 3 dogs. I think we would have gotten first out of the rest of the 20" dogs too though. I really wish I had video's of both of my runs.

Saturday I was there early because JWW was first for the day. We still didn't run until almost noon, but it was a much better day. Hobbs was happy, relaxed, and it wasn't super hot either. I got to talk to some of my friends from Ogden which I think relaxed me more than I had been the day before.

The course this time seemed much easier on paper and out walking. I think I took it for granted that it was going to be easy.....stupid thing to do.

We waited a long time after I warmed up because we were running next to last. The run wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. I supported him just a little too long over #2 which was the double, and then had a late FC after 4. Again, it seemed like he was going slow, so I slowed myself down for the line of jumps so he wouldn't bail off one and then I wasn't in position fast enough for the FC. Then at either 11 or 12 (I honestly can't remember and REALLY wish I had a video) Hobbs went around a jump. It was my fault. I think he thought he was either supposed to come with me, or keep going straight, but I can't remember which, or what I did or didn't do to get that result. The part that I was a tiny bit worried about #14-15 went great and we ended on a good note. We ended up getting another Q and 1st place despite the oops. Our time was 34:48 sec.

All in all it was a great weekend, and now I know that AKC isn't some scary monster of a venue lol. I am really excited for the next one, because if we Q in JWW again we will have our first title (not sure what it is, or if I am counting Q's right) and because next time we will be in standard for the first time!

Hobbs and his ribbons

As for his seeming to go slow. I think it is because my brain is figuring out what I need to do faster than before, so it seems like he is going slower. I don't know if that makes sense. I used to feel like I couldn't even think about my handling fast enough because he was so speedy. Now, all of the sudden I am starting to feel like I am getting to where I need to be (either mentally or physically) way before I used to, but just in time to cue him correctly. Does that make sense? or should I be worried that he seems slower?

First AKC Trial

2010-06-28T09:59:00.001-06:00

Hobbs and I are entered in our first ever AKC trial! It will be July 9-11, but we are only competing Friday and Saturday. Also, we are only entered in JWW on both days. I thought about entering Standard or Gamblers as well, but I don't want to get carried away and have Hobbs have a set back with the teeter.

Speaking of the teeter, he has been really good in class the past couple weeks, and we even had it in a small sequence! I still get SUPER nervous whenever I send him over it, but he is starting to look like he recognizes it as the teeter. Next week at class we will have another small course and if it has a teeter, I am going to go for it full force. I will still send him over it before I run, but I wont stop him in the middle of the course to slow him down before the teeter.

Ugh. Can I admit how nervous I am about this trial? I already have butterflies, and have been having nightmares about horrific courses. I have no idea why AKC intimidates me so much, but apparently it does. If anyone has any novice JWW courses that they could email to me, that would help me SOOO much!

My plan of action before the trial is to take at least 2 private lessons that will hopefully help ease my nerves.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.

2010-06-21T10:31:00.005-06:00

I have been SO busy this past few weeks, but I promise there are posts coming. This one had to come first though, because I feel awful that it happened, and wish I could take it back. Let me just say that this kind of thing DOES NOT HAPPEN REGULARLY! I think anyone who reads this blog with any regularity knows I have my dogs' best interests at heart. This was just a combination of a bad snap decision, laziness, and plain and simple stupidity on my part. Please don't judge my treatment of my dogs on this.

Patriot went to my parents' house for a few days to visit two weeks ago. They miss having him around, and I had company staying here, and he gets a little too wound up for being around two little babies.....mine and my sister's.

He came back with a little habit of barking at the door when he wants back in the house. Not incessant barking, but enough that I wanted to do something about it. I tried just ignoring it, telling him no through the window and door, but nothing was working. Then the other day I was at the grocery store and ran across this:

Looks harmless enough right? We learned otherwise......

It is supposed to be one of those sonic bark control things, and I liked that I could just set it outside by the door. I figured after a couple barks he wouldn't do it anymore. The first time I put it out, he NEVER tried to bark so I figured he was just choosing to be good and hadn't set it off yet.

Then I thought of putting it by the front door to see if it would stop Hobbs from barking at every sound outside. That is when the trouble, and my stupidity, started.

It had been by the door for a while, and Hobbs kept jumping up randomly and barking just once and then would come to hide behind me, or would go hide in the bedroom. I figured that he was being corrected for barking by the controller thing and didn't give it a second thought.

The next day, I was busy paying bills and dealing with money stuff while Kaylee played on the floor. She was fussy, and talking/screaming a lot. Hobbs kept coming over to me and I thought maybe he was just being extra sensitive to her for some reason (he kind of has been ever since we had two babies in the house).

Honestly I had completely forgotten the little thing was on. I used to sell something similar at PetSmart, and when those ones made their noise, I could always hear it. I figured it would be the same with this one and hadn't heard it yet so I didn't think the dogs were triggering it.

I couldn't figure out what was going on with Hobbs......until I realized he was shaking, and had his fear hackles up (just the ones right above his tail). I jumped up and walked over to where the controller was and Kaylee had picked it up and was banging it on the floor. I turned it off, and everyone calmed down. After I turned it off, I realized that Patriot had gone in the bedroom to sleep rather than just getting on the couch. I felt awful and took them on a impromptu walk to get it out of their minds and to relieve some stress (mine and theirs) from the incident. Even after this, I figured it was only being triggered because Kaylee was playing with it and screaming into it.

Over this past week I only used it outside when the boys went out, and i was impressed that Patriot never even tried to bark. I thought he probably tested it when I was out of hearing range of him and had learned his lesson. Again, Stupid, Stupid, STUPID me!

Then today happened. Robert's friend and mine were over with their dog Ginny who also is a door barker so we turned on the thing and put it outside by the door. Surprisingly neither of the dogs even tried barking so we figured they were busy playing together. Patriot LOVES her and they play constantly while they were here so it wasn't too far of a mental leap. Looking back on it, I feel like I was being completely, stupidly, oblivious to what was going on.

After leaving the dogs out to play for a couple hours this morning they had to leave and we opened the door to let Ginny in. It was CHAOS! All three dogs were desperate to get in the house. Even Patriot was ready to climb over whoever was in his way. I was shocked, but it quickly came to my mind that the little controller was probably the problem. Ginny got over it pretty quickly, but Patriot was growling and chattering like he does when he is super nervous about something on our walks......something, I might add, he hasn't done in well over a year so I knew something was seriously wrong.

Hobbs was a mess. He was shaking so bad his legs were slipping on the floor, his hackles were up from his head to his tail, he was cowering panting, yawning, and whining all at the same time. As soon as they came in I had rushed out to turn the stupid thing off, and i went so far as to take that batteries out just in case it was malfunctioning and wasn't turning off.

After I turned it off, I took them both out in the yard to play. I had to bribe Hobbs with treats to get him outside. Patriot came out looking like he expected the sky to fall on him. I immediately started playing with them both, wrestling, sending Hobbs over jumps, throwing treats, toys, and generally trying to get them both as wound up as I could. After a minute they were both running scooties around the yard, and seemed to be back to normal. We went back inside and they have both been snoozing since.

Needless to say, the stupid bark thing is in the garbage as I type. I will NEVER NEVER buy something like that again. It is SO not worth what damage could have (and maybe was) been done. I have no idea what was setting it off, or if it was just crap and was constantly going off, but I feel like I should have caught on to what was happening WAY sooner than I did. I am crossing my fingers that Hobbs is not too traumatized. Patriot is more able to get over stuff like this so I am not really worried about him.

So there you have it. I feel like this is BY FAR the worst mistake I have made as a dog owner.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-02T09:02:00.001-06:00

Patriot Update

2010-05-30T21:40:00.002-06:00

Well, I think it was just the cold water making him ouchie. By Friday afternoon when I left for ID he was getting up and around much more easily, and Robert said tonight that he is back to his normal self. So, no more cold water swimming for him!

Thanks for all the well-wishes and suggestions!

Swimming is a NO NO

2010-05-27T06:09:00.001-06:00

We live right on the edge of a city canal, and the gate in the back fence actually opens to the canal. Well, I figured the boys would appreciate getting to play in the water, so I let them go swimming for literally 10 minutes yesterday.

Now Patriot can barely walk.....

He whines or yelps when he stands up, slept on the floor rather than the couch all night, wont stay standing for very long, and at this moment has been outside for 3 hours laying in the same spot. He didn't even get up to investigate the dog and owner who walked past along the canal. I gave him doggy aspirin this morning, but it says to only give it every 12 hrs.....that isn't until 8pm.

Needless to say, I am a little worried.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-05-26T08:26:00.001-06:00

Clarification

2010-05-21T22:45:00.003-06:00

I think I should clarify about Patriot's clicker problem.

He WANTS to do something to get the click. He is just waiting to be told to do something. He doesn't seem to even consider taking the initiative of trying something. Sometimes he will sit in front of me and whine because he wants the click SOOO badly. But he wont try anything without permission.

He has the nose touch to hand thing down great.....if I tell him to touch first. Otherwise he will sit and stare at the clicker and me, waiting for "permission" to do it. Every once in a while he will chose to touch, but no matter how excited I get for that choice, it doesn't seem to increase the frequency of it.

Training Plans

2010-05-20T21:53:00.005-06:00

I have some plans for both Hobbs and Patriot's training, for the coming summer and fall. I am hoping that the plans for both will be doable, and that the boys and I will have fun with them.

Training in General:

Improve Recall - I have severely slacked on the boys' recalls, and now neither of them comes reliably, even when they know I have a treat. Shameless, I know.
Better Off Leash Control - I know this will come with the recall, but back when these boys were PIT's (puppies in training) they were AMAZING off leash. Except Hobbs' recall, he never had one lol. I could get them to do almost anything off leash that I could get them to do ON leash.
Better Door Manners - More on Hobbs' later. I am always appalled that I have two big dogs who get up in people's faces when they come to the door. They don't jump (for now) but they push past me, and sometimes the people at the door, and generally are in the way. It embarrasses me every time.....even with family.***
Coprophagia - Enough said. ***

Patriot:

CLICKER - I want more than ANYTHING for him to understand how to work for the clicker. He understands that it means he gets a treat, but doesn't get the idea that he has to DO something to get the click. He wont try anything, just sits there waiting to be given direction/commands. It is the same problem I had with Hobbs in the very beginning....only much worse. I have tried for the whole 2.5 years he has lived with us to get him to understand, and he just doesn't. ***
Tricks - I know he would love doing tricks if I could get through to him with the clicker. I just don't know how else to teach tricks other than click/treat. Some tricks I want to teach him - Spin right/left, bow, show your teeth, lick lips, picking up objects, maybe shake (although I vowed never to teach a dog shake again), open and close doors....and probably more if it goes well.
Get Rid of Training Collar - Patriot still pretty much wears his medal Training (choke) Collar everywhere when we are out in public. I don't usually have to use it, but he doesn't try stupid stuff (like lunging to greet other dogs) with it on. I don't like using it, but can't physically hold him back with a flat collar. I don't want him wearing a Gentle Leader the rest of his life either, because he CAN control himself. I am hoping that if I can get him clicker trained, I can get him out of that collar.

Hobbs:

More Tricks - Picking up objects, show your teeth, open and close doors, light switches (unless it starts to scratch the walls),
Door Manners - Oh, what I would give to get him to stop barking at the door! It is such a huge problem, and I dread every day that Robert comes home because I know he will bark. He barks if he hears cars beep now (Robert's truck does when it locks) and at anything that sounds like it may be a door. I can tell he is barking out of nerves, but I can't get him to stop. Now it is continuing even after he sees that it is Robert. ***
Directionals - I want to try to teach Hobbs right and left for out on the Agility course. I don't know how much it will benefit us because I have to be able to think fast enough to give the right direction out on course.....yeah right!
Body Awareness - This kind of goes with the tricks, but I want Hobbs to better learn to use his whole body. More box work, hind end work and tricks, balancing behaviors/tricks, and strengthening exercises.

I feel like all of Patriot's goals hinge on him learning how to work with the clicker. That is a little daunting for me, but hopefully it will just motivate me more to figure out how to get him to understand the clicker.

***Any suggestions of how I should go about these goals would be greatly appreciated!

A couple pictures from the trial

2010-05-19T22:04:00.003-06:00

Here are a couple picture from the ASCA trial. Neither is the one I am getting as an 8x10, but I like these all the same.

He is jumping 16" here because it was pre-novice.

The tunnel in our Jumpers course

I LOVE THIS DOG!!

2010-05-16T11:12:00.009-06:00

Little Mr. Hobbers was AMAZING at the trial. Well, except for a couple hiccups that were mostly my fault.

We were originally entered in 4 runs rather than all 6 that were going that day. But after our first run, I decided to enter the other two. The reason for that was it was a disaster....

Jumpers was first, and I made a mistake by planning my course on the course map paper. Then when we got out to walk the course, it was a little different and my handling strategy changed. Once we started running my brain shut off and I couldn't think of how I wanted to do it. Here is the Jumpers round 1 course:

Yes, you read that right.....75 faults. Hobbs was everywhere! He went around jumps, knocked bars, went over the wrong jumps, but we got through the course. I did my best to stay happy, but was a little apprehensive about the rest of the day. It was our first trial course outdoors on grass, so I was hoping that was the problem. We got 3rd place in this class only because there were only 3 dogs. I don't think we would have placed in a normal sized class lol.

Anyways, on to round 2!

In between rounds I was running like crazy to put Hobbs away, get him water, get money for the last minute entries, and barely made it into the ring to walk the course twice. Then we were third on the line. Here was the course:

What a difference! It was so smooth, and even though I was handling a little closer than I normal would, I think it helped Hobbs get his brain into Agility mode. It was FAST! 20.04 seconds! I know that isn't as fast as some of the border collies, but it is fast for a novice dog who just got 75 faults 30 minutes earlier. Another thing to be said about these Jumpers courses, was that I needed to do rear crosses. It was too tight for me to get front crosses in, and Hobbs is way too fast on Jumpers for me to try to stay ahead of him. I think in this particular one I put in 2 or 3. Having never gotten a successful RC on a course in class, it was a big deal! This was our first ever Q and we got 1st place! Hobbs has an ASCA # now so he is eligible to work toward titles!

Standard....Regular....Whatever! It was next.

When they started setting up the elite course, the judge hollered out that it wasn't the same as on the paper......OK..... Good thing I wasn't planning to go off the paper course after what happened with jumpers. Finally they got to Pre-Novice and I got out on what was mostly this course:

I think the only differences were that the #2 jump wasn't there, and the #3 was in between #2 and #3 on the map. The rest looks right.

This course was amazing as well! Hobbs got all his contacts, I got a little distance, and he did his job. Once we were on this course it didn't feel too difficult, we even got another successful rear cross in at the end. Hobbs was really fast again, to the point that coming out of the tunnel towards the DW I called for him to "steady" which means check your speed and be careful. I don't think it was totally necessary, but a dog in the class before his came off the DW and was lucky enough to land on his feet. I guess it worried me a little. It didn't slow him down a ton, just enough to get him paying attention to what he was doing. This was another Q, but because it is pre-novice I don't know if it counts towards anything. We got first place again, which was even better because there were5 or 6 dogs in his jump height. The second round course was this one backwards:

Again Hobbs was amazing! I tried for a little speed over the A frame and he just barely made the contact before jumping. We got another Q, and another 1st place! We need to do LOTS more work with the hoop.

Gamblers was next, and I mistakenly thought this gamble looked easy....

The written in #s are my planned course.

Things fell apart in the opening of this course. I got to #7 just fine, Hobbs even did his weaves! Then When I meant him to take the tunnel, he went over the DW and my brain stopped working. I don't even know what exactly I did after that. It felt like we just wandered around (I am not sure Hobbs was even taking obstacles) until the whistle blew, then we started the gamble. Hobbs got the first jump and wouldn't push out to the second. Then trying to get him out to the A frame I stepped over the line, but tried to finish the gamble without stepping over again. Hobbs jumped the contact and came in towards me and I could tell he was getting stressed, so I just forgot about the gamble, and went beside him over the next two jumps. We got 3rd again only because there were 4 dogs and 1 got eliminated.

And last but not least, Gamblers round 2.

The Elite (and maybe Open too) Gamble was INSANE!

Out of all the dogs, 2 got the gamble. Most of them got 1, 2, and 3, but only 2 got #4. It was craziness, and the Judge was LOVING it!

Anyways our course wasn't too bad:

This gamble really intimidated me on paper. Hopefully everyone can see it. Let me know if you can't and I will post a picture of just the gamble.

I made sure when I walked this one, that I planned how I would handle every situation that I could think of. We had one bobble in my plans, but it was basically just that he went in the opposite end of the tunnel from what I had planned. The whistle blew, and we started the gamble. He went over 1 and 2, then got a little confused, but I re-sent him over 3 and he did it and #4. I was SO happy we got it!! So that was yet another Q and another 1st place!

I am so proud of Hobbs and me for how well this trial went. I really felt like I was getting an handle on my nerves and doing my best for my dog.

At the end of the day there was a worker's raffle for everyone who worked in a class.....so everyone because it was such a small trial. I entered at the last minute (literally about 10 seconds before they started drawing names), and I won a free 8x10 print from the pro photographer who was there!

After looking at the pictures, I can't decide between two of him jumping. He gets SO much height over his jumps, and his legs virtually disappear! Hopefully when I get the print I can get a good picture of it, or scan it in somewhere so I can post it on here. I may even ask the photographer for permission to use the files that say proof on them to post on here so you all can see my funny Hobbers jumping. My only worry with the pictures is that Hobbs looks a bit stressed in a few of them. Hopefully it is just my imagination.

I can't wait for the next trial! There isn't an ASCA one for a good long while, but hopefully soon I can get Hobbs consistently doing the teeter to the point where I would trust him at a trial.

Sorry, no video this time :(

More to come later!

2010-05-16T08:36:00.003-06:00

I promise there is more to come later today or tomorrow!

Back to the Barn

2010-05-12T20:58:00.001-06:00

I was feeling really insecure about taking Hobbs to his second ever trial after our disastrous class on Saturday. So on Monday night I hauled him up to Ogden and went to class with our old instructor at the barn. I let her know in advance that Hobbs needed to have some fun and practice before the trial. It was such a good idea, and I am very glad I did it.

Hobbs was back to his normal happy eager self as soon as we got to the barn. This shows me that I probably need to start hauling his agility stuff to different parks and places to practice being happy with new surroundings. It will be interesting to see how he is at the trial because it is outside on the grass at a new place (same kind of scenario as the Saturday class).

My goal for this class was just to play, have fun, and make sure that Hobbs had fun. The only other thing I wanted was to get him through the 6 weave poles. We worked on that first because Hobbs was SO excited to play.

He got them EVERY time! We added in a wrap around a jump and he still got them. I KNEW he was just having a bad day!

Then we played with serpentines and threadles to a table (and back), and a pull off the A frame to a jump. I was happy to see that after 1 really hesitant run over the frame he was back to his normal self.

The sequence this week was CRAZY! But I was happy to find that rather than be intimidated, I was jazzed to see if I could do it.

Here it is.....don't be scared!

Those first 5 obstacles were so crazy. When I first walked it, I wanted to put a front cross after the tunnel, another front cross after the weaves, and one more FC after #6. That fell apart after the tunnel. I didn't give Hobbs enough room, and then got flustered. After a couple tries I got him through it and into the chute. Then I forgot about the FC after 6, but we got through to the end.

The second time through, I played it safe and did a post turn after the tunnel, a RC after the weaves, and a FC after the weaves, and the FC after 6. It went great, and felt smooth. Especially the FC after #6. I don't know why it felt so great but it did.

We all had time at the end to either do the first half or second half of the sequence. I was feeling bugged that I couldn't make that FC after the tunnel so I chose the first half....#1-5. I put it in my head to get it right this time, and walked it AGAIN before I ran. I nailed it, and it felt SO good! The tunnel FC was a little sticky, but he got into the weaves and through the rest of the sequence.

I am feeling much more confident about the trial this Saturday. I was scared to death that Hobbs wouldn't bounce back after the bad class, but he has. Now all I have to do to prepare is get him over a few 20" jumps before the trial. He jumps 16" max at the barn because the floor gets packed and is too hard for full height.

Explanation

2010-05-10T22:43:00.007-06:00

Now that I am feeling better about what happened, and Hobbs has gotten over it, here is the explanation of the last post.

We went to our first class with a new instructor down here, and it ended up being a disaster. I am not going to go into a ton of detail, but Hobbs was having an off day anyways for some reason, and then he was pretty thrown by the new surroundings. We were the only ones there so it was a full hour of just one on one. Hobbs has never been to a private class before.

Also, he had been popping out of the poles since I tried to add the 7th (haven't worried about it since class Tuesday) and did it again at class. The new instructor wanted me to start rewarding IN the poles - so sticking my hand in and stopping his motion to give him a treat - and that REALLY upset him and soon he wouldn't try the poles at all.

The A frame was set for USDAA height, and I didn't realize it until I sent him over it. So he crept down to the bottom. We added the hoop, and I sent him again, and he jumped OVER it! - She suggested we lower it all the way down next class and start from scratch with the running....without the hoop.

He was ok on the DW but seemed hesitant to really run over it.

He was NOT having fun at all, and kept going to his crate. I was jumping around like an idiot trying to motivate him during the whole class. After class he was stressing and was actually pacing in the back of my car on the way home. When we got home he hid in his crate and went comatose. It took him until mid way through Sunday to act normal again.

A good thing that happened at that class was that her teeter is heavier than normal and he did GREAT! He went over it I think 6 times and never even almost flew off. We even went from the DW to the teeter (her suggestion for getting him to recognize the difference was do that over and over and over) without a problem, but that was when he was really hesitant about the DW. She said it was probably because her teeter is heavier and the dogs can feel the tip point better.

I am not going to be continuing with this instructor. It just wasn't a good student/dog/teacher combination.

Not Sure I Want to Share.......

2010-05-09T21:06:00.003-06:00

Our first class with the new instructor didn't go well......I am not sure I even want to post about it......maybe once I figure out what to do.

For the first time in....maybe EVER.....Hobbs didn't have fun playing agility :-(

New Home, New Classes

2010-05-07T21:55:00.001-06:00

Yes everyone, we moved....again. We found a less expensive place to rent, and it was closer to family so we took advantage of it. I am sad to move away from friends and the nice agility connections I have had, but I will be glad to be back in SLC again.

Hobbs and I are signed up for another agility class that starts this Saturday! Then we have our second ever agility trial on the 15! I am nervous and excited. It is outdoors, and that will be a first for us. I am hoping for good weather!

I did say classES in the title though, didn't I? We are still going to go up to Ogden once a week for agility. It is another class with the local obedience club I went to before. Our first class was pretty simple, but it will be a great way to have a low key opportunity to practice specific skills each week rather than a course.

The only thing of note that happened at class on Tuesday was that I tried to add a 7th weave pole with Hobbs. It didn't go well. I think of 10 tries he got 1 right. He would just come out towards me like he normally would with 6. He couldn't weave through that 7th pole. After class I asked our instructor (we were working on the poles by ourselves) how she suggested I help him get it right. She suggested that I add two rather than 1 pole. I will try it next time we go. Hobbs is having a little trouble with the poles here at home so I am not going to push it.

It will be interesting to have two classes a week. I try not to jump Hobbs more than three days a week, which leaves us with one day that we can practice jump exercises at home. It will be ok though because Robert is making me a teeter for Mother's Day! I am hoping to get a table made too soon so that I can duplicate the system we were using in class to help with Hobbs' issue.

Patriot is doing well at this new house. He doesn't like the floors because they are even more slippery than the ones in Ogden. I am hoping that we get some area rugs soon to help him feel more secure. His allergies are flaring up again too, so he is back on benadryl. He really loves living by a canal though! We walk along it once in a while and he loves wading and swimming in it.

Overall, there is a lot of new stuff going on, and I am hoping it will all be for the best.

The end of an era....

2010-05-07T17:33:00.001-06:00

...ok that may be a little dramatic.

On Monday we had our last Agility class. Ok, just our last one with this instructor and group. Hobbs did great, and it was a really fun class.

Since I am writing this over a week after the class, I don't remember the little sequences we worked on. Hobbs worked over the teeter, and did very well considering he flew off it the week before.

The big sequence of the night:

We got through it on the first try, only knocking 1 or 2 bars! I was very proud of that because this sequence was the opening to an elite USDAA course my instructor had run the weekend before.

We messed up on our next run, but not badly. Then we chose to run from #1 to #9 as our last little sequence. Hobbs' crate was set up just to the left of #1, and somehow he got it in his sights. I released him for the course, and he went over #1 and straight into his crate and plopped in his down like he would have on the table. I re set him and he did it again...TWICE more! Finally I got him to go past it, but then we finished with the jump after the DW.

It was a great last class, and I am very sad to not be coming back next week :(

Happy 8th Birthday!

2010-05-05T12:42:00.001-06:00

I am sitting here in shock that my little yellow puppy turned 8 on Saturday. It is sad to me that he is getting older but, compared to last year, he hasn't slowed down much. He seems to be having a harder time dealing with the heat so far this summer, but I think that may be because it came upon us so suddenly.

For his birthday we were ~~exhausted from~~ celebrating moving into our new house. He got his extra cup of food, some yummy duck meat strips, and several milk bones throughout the day. Lately he is mostly happy to hang out on the floor or the couch. He enjoys his walks, but he is happy if he only gets two or three during the week rather than every day.

Here are his 8 year old pictures:

I love this one! His eyes are gorgeous

Happy Birthday big guy!

Sequencing, Setback, Success, and Sadness

2010-04-20T17:24:00.004-06:00

Last night's class was wonderful! At the same time, it was really sad, because it was our second to last class. I have signed up for a class with the local (Ogden) club because it is less expensive, and I want to stay with some of the same people. It will be a different instructor, but with at least one of the people in this current class.

I am also trying to decide on a class to take down in SLC. I have found one that starts on May 8th, but I don't know if I want to be skipping every week that there is a trial because they are on Saturdays. Saturdays would be easier to have Robert watch Kaylee though.

Anyways, we started class with the teeter with Hobbs, and he did great. We had him do the whole thing three times, once with a tiny jump before it. He stuck his landings, and did his 2o2o 2 out of the 3 times.

There were a few other little sequences, but I kept it simple and short with Hobbs because it felt like it was a MILLION degrees.

We did a pretty simple sequence this week:

Yes, #2 is a TEETER!!

My instructor wanted me to have Hobbs go over the teeter once just to make sure he remembered what it was. It didn't go well. He flew right off the end. Then when I took him back and tried it again he wouldn't go on it. I didn't know what to do. We had him do "bang it" a few times which he did willingly, and then sent him over again. He did it very hesitantly, but he did it! Then I continued with the sequence from there. My head really wasn't in it after that, so we messed up a lot.

The second time we did it, Hobbs did really really well. We started from the beginning, he did the teeter, and everything perfectly except he missed the entrance to the weaves. But I think the problem was that he was just done for the day.

All in all, it was a good class. I was sad, and distracted. But I am so happy Hobbs and I did our very first sequence with a teeter in it!

Oh, OK....

2010-04-14T19:27:00.001-06:00

I guess those were a little harder to decipher than I thought. So.....here is another clue.

Something is Coming!

2010-04-12T21:40:00.001-06:00

Here are your hints.......

.....you can expect your answer by May 1st!!

Until then......

You.......

Will.........

Just..........

Have to............

Wonder!!!

He is such a trooper!

2010-04-12T21:20:00.001-06:00

Today, I forgot it was Monday. I took the boys on their first hike of the year, and they both played hard for over an hour. When I got back from the hike I realized that we had Agility class in just over 2 hours! I could tell that Hobbs was already tired, so I wasn't going to expect too much from him during class.

He surprised me though, and stayed strong and happy through most of class.

We started out with the teeter. Two bang its, two medium tables (the first of which would have been a major fly off), two small tables, and three full teeters (the last of which he stuck his 2o2o!!). I am so proud of him, and it is great to see him recognizing that it IS a teeter.

Then we went to some wrap around jumps with the triple. Hobbs did great the first time I sent him over, so I had him do it on the other side and stopped. I wanted to save his energy for the sequence at the end.

Next was a distance challenge of jump, tunnel, weaves.

Hobbs got it perfect the first time! So we did it backwards and stopped.

Next was a discrimination with the A-frame

Once again, he did great so we stopped early

The first sequence of the evening was excellent. It was just challenging enough to make me really want to try it. We did it perfectly, except that I started to forget what came after the A frame. I recovered just in time to get the rest of it right. I was VERY excited that we got it right on the first try. We ran it again and it was even more smooth.

We changed the numbers up a little bit, and this time it was NOT good for us. I think we were both just done, but Hobbs was the one who sucked it up and kept trying. My brain just shut off and I couldn't concentrate and get the handling down for the last part of the sequence. Even when I got my handling wrong per the course, Hobbs did EXACTLY what I told him (even if it was accidental). We ran the whole thing once....failing miserably at the end. Then ran just the last part and kind of did better with some different handling.

I am very proud of him for doing so well at class after running his legs off on the mountain.

Crazy crazy sequence!

2010-03-30T22:02:00.005-06:00

Here is the sequence from Monday night......it was insane:

Apparently, it is a sequence from a 2008 Clean Run "backyard dogs" article. It was all about wraps and timing our cuing and body language to help our dogs wrap tight and quickly.

The first run through was crap. I was all over the place, and was too worried about getting the course right so I wasn't able to concentrate on my handling. The second time through, I stopped Hobbs after #4 because he had done the opening so well. But after we started up again, the rest flowed really well, and Hobbs table down was AMAZING! He gets better and better at it every week.

This was the first week of a new section of class. We lost a handler/dog team, and gained a new one. The new dog is a border collie who has a few titles but is still green and had a habit of just going on his own course. He is a very handsome dog, and is going to be great. He had a little bit of a hard time to adjusting to working in the barn with everyone, but I am sure he will get better with time.

The best part of the night was that....

HOBBS DID THE FULL TEETER!!!

He was being really confident on the lowest table so we took that away and had him do it once, and he did it wonderfully. I didn't had him do his end position, but he was slowing himself at the tip point, and riding it down. It felt great to have him do the whole thing without flying off.

That being said, he would have flown off the first time over if the table hadn't been there. So we will still be having him do it with the table over and over and over until he starts to recognize it as the teeter. Time is all it is going to take.

So Close!!

2010-03-22T22:18:00.005-06:00

This week in class the stations were,

Practicing distance and pushing them out to #2 by not going any closer than the edge of the tunnel - Hobbs was GREAT at this one, and did it perfect the first time

Weave pole entrances from the jump - Hobbs couldn't get this one for some reason. He kept entering on the wrong side. Then he would weave backwards through the whole thing!

Send over the DW and then practice pushing or pulling into the tunnel

Another line of jumps to the table - Hobbs did great with this except for the long jump. He would just run over it about 50% of the time.

First though, Hobbs got to practice some more teeter games.

Hobbs is SO close to getting the teeter again!

This week we lowered the table yet again, and now he is landing on the 12" table! That is only a foot away from being the full teeter. He did it so confidently, and was slowing himself down in preparation for the drop each time. I recognize now that before, he was just getting lucky by sticking the landing each time. He wasn't thinking about it, and now I can see the wheels turning.

The sequence this week was great, and I was excited about it before we started.

Hobbs and I did wonderfully! The first time we ran, I did a post turn from 5 to 6 and then a rear cross into the tunnel. Hobbs almost went over jump 10, but turned around and went back into the tunnel. Other than that, we did it flawlessly.

The second time, we changed the table behavior from a down to a sit. Hobbs couldn't do it! He kept slamming back into his down or trying to do his "sit pretty". I eventually had to stand right next to him and keep my hand up to make him stay sitting. Rather embarrassing for an ex-PIT. I also did a front cross between 6 and 7 and it worked much better that way. I don't know if it was Hobbs just being patterned into going into the tunnel, but I am hoping that some of it was my handling correctly. The only other flaw of the run was that he ran over the long jump.

All in all, it was a great class, and I was very encouraged by it.

Happy Birthday Baby!

2010-03-21T22:33:00.001-06:00

Dear Hobbs~

You are such a wonderful dog! I loved you from the moment you got off the truck in Bakersfield CA. I was really glad your name wasn't Hal, but if it had been I am sure I would still love you....just not your name. For the first year of your life, I watched you develop into a wonderful dog, and hoped that you would make some one very happy as their guide. Even though I tried not to see it, I also watched you struggle with fear every day because you wanted to try to be good for me. Please forgive me for not admitting sooner that everything was screaming that you didn't want to be a guide.

I was heartbroken when you were career changed, but that quickly went away when I realized how much happier you were just being a pet. I have watched your confidence in life and the world grow and have seen you take on the challenge of agility. You are so much better at it than I am, but I try hard and know you still have fun.

The best thing about you right now is how brave you are being around Kaylee. I know she is scary sometimes, but you are very patient and good with her. Trust me when I say that she isn't trying to hurt you. She just loves you and doesn't know that her screeching in your face makes you want to run away from home. It will get better, I promise!

I hope this year is a great one for you, and that we get to play a lot more agility this year.

Love,

Mom

Hobbs is 3 this year!

We didn't do much for his birthday this year. I kind of counted the Elk antlers as the boys' birthday presents this year. He got the usual extra cup of food, cuddle time with mom and dad on the bed, and got to go on a walk all by himself with me. He didn't enjoy that last one as much as I thought he would. Patriot is still a pretty big security blanket for him on walks.

After having Nexus for a few days, I am SOOOO glad I have the dogs I do. They are perfect, and Hobbs is an amazing example of what a 3 year old lab can be like. He is perfect in every way, and I wouldn't trade him for anything!

A use for Jumps

2010-03-20T12:14:00.004-06:00

I made a play pen out of them!

The dogs were running around all crazy, and I didn't want them plowing over her, so I used what I had to protect her.

I knew Agility jumps were good for something!

2010-03-19T12:54:00.003-06:00

FINALLY!! After 27 hrs.......

Please Welcome.......

2010-03-18T16:29:00.002-06:00

NEXUS!

This big boy is going to be spending the next few days here, and I am actually having mixed feelings about having a PIT back in my house.

The 3 boys together

I asked to be put back on the puppy sitter list only about a week ago, and immediately was asked to watch this little boy. But first, I wanted to attend my first puppy meeting in over a year. I thought I would be able to just slip right back into it, but it wasn't that easy.

I was actually out of practice with corrections! I thought I had still been using them daily with the boys, but my muscles didn't remember how to do it effectively. I kept saying "Yes" like I do as a verbal marker for Hobbs. I actually reached back to where I keep my treat pouch a few times when Nexus did something exceptionally good. It was frustrating trying to turn off that part of my dog training abilities.

When I did have to do an actual correction, I didn't feel like I was abusing the dog or anything like that, because I still feel like corrections have their place in training. I did wish that I was allowed to reward more that just praise and petting. After this, I don't know how soon I will want to puppy raise again.

I got Nexus this morning, and have been trying to give him the attention he desperately needs (he is a transfer and is pretty needy) while still keeping up with my little girl. Easier said than done! One special thing about him is that he has the same birthday as Kaylee! Yep, he was born 7/22/09 and his parents are Samuel and Arabella.

So far, he has a TON of energy! He has worn both Hobbs and Patriot out and is still out of his mind with energy. He is pretty antsy on tiedown, so the make-shift one I have tied to the bottom of the TV stand isn't going to work. He just stands there and paces, yawns, whines, scratches, pants, and takes FOREVER to settle enough to even sit.

This basically sums up his personality:

Yeah......enough "said"

He is facinated by all the toys, but is sad that he can't have the really good ones (the antlers) or the fluffy ones Hobbs flaunts in front of him.

He is pretty jealous of Hobbs and Patriot being on the couches too.

I will try to update about him after he has been here a little longer.

Some More Agility!

2010-03-16T11:58:00.002-06:00

I feel like I only think about this blog after agility class, but for any of you puppy raisers who still read, I will have something else to post about in a few days.

Class this week was great! Lol, I say that every week! This week we worked on some more 270's and some turns from tunnels onto the DW. Hobbs was being a bit iffy with the DW stuff, but eventually got the idea. Here is what we were doing:

We would send them into the end of the tunnel pointing away from the DW......um not the ones parallel to the DW. Then as they came out we would turn them towards us and back up the DW. I was using my body wrong at first and Hobbs was going right back in the tunnel. Once I got my body language under control he did it wonderfully.

We lowered the table under the teeter, so Hobbs is riding it about half way down before hitting the table. He was great! We did it on the high table first, and then lowered it when he was confident. I only had him go over the lowered one twice because after the second time he was a little worried about it. I left it at that and made sure he was still pretty happy.

There was also a box of jumps set up to practice 270's over. Hobbs just doesn't get those. At one point, he tried to jump the standard to go over the jump the way he wanted to/thought he was supposed to. After some practice he did them right a couple times. I am glad I have my yard back to be able to practice these at home.

Hobbs got to weave a couple times and was really focused and excited about it. Then......we did the chute a couple more times too.

I had walked the boys that morning, not thinking about the fact that Hobbs would then be tired for class. He was getting tired already before we even started the sequence. But he sucked it up, and did his best. I love this little boy!

The sequence for the night:

The opening for this sequence (# 1-4) was great! and Hobbs did a great job. We stumbled a little with the turn from the tunnel to the DW but he got it on the second try. The closing was good too but Hobbs kept going into the tunnel rather than over the A frame. After a few tries he still wasn't getting it, so I got him to just go over it and after that, if I had my body language WAY over exaggerated, he would do it right in the sequence.

At the end of class I ran the whole thing again, and we did it all without a mistake. It was a wonderful feeling!

Stay tuned! Exciting things happening on Thursday!

Where did my brain go?

2010-03-14T21:16:00.004-06:00

Class this week would have been really great, except that I was sick. I wasn't sick enough to skip class, but apparently I was sick enough that my brain refused to work.

First of all, it was SO warm at the barn on Monday night! I was in just a hoodie and was perfectly warm!

We started out with several different stations. They were 3 jumps to the table, teeter, weave poles, a-frame to a tunnel snaked under it, a chute to a jump (working on the dogs driving straight through the chute), and I think something else.

The three jumps to the table was great! Hobbs was driving and was down almost as soon as he was on the table. Someone asked the other day how I got such an enthusiastic table "down" from him. Well, he has a trick called "sit pretty" where he sits up in the beg position and then I tell him to down from there. I don't know why he finds it so fun, but if I do that with him a couple times and then have him go to the table his down is fantastic!

The teeter was good again too. We started off having him just play bang it a few times and then set it up on the big table again. He was much more comfortable with it this time than he was last time. It was good to see him be so happy about it. Next week (umm tomorrow....sorry about the late post) we are going to lower the table a little bit so hopefully it goes well!

Hobbs was having an off night on the weave poles. Not a lot of problems, but enough that I didn't want to drill them. He seems to shut down if I drill them, rather than using them in a sequence. I had him go from the table to the weave poles and he did great with slowing himself down before the entrance. Then I had him go from the weave poles to the A-frame. He had been locking onto the frame every time I sent him through the poles so it was natural for him.

He had a little bit of trouble with the tunnel and a-frame discrimination, but once he got it right he could do it just fine. His running frame is still pretty good, but I am still using the hoop at the bottom most of the time in class.

I was really nervous about the chute because of the last time he went through one. He was a little hesitant the first time, but went through and didn't have a problem after that. He went straight through, but the entrance wasn't at an angle like before either.

The sequence was SOO technical!! It would have been really fun if my brain had been cooperating. I felt like I was letting Hobbs down. He was trying so hard, but I just couldn't string two thought together. Here is the course. No, I didn't forget the #2. You just have to look a little bit out of the way.

The first thing that went wrong was that Hobbs went from #3 to #7. I don't blame him, it was a straight line. After that, he was patterned and just wanted to keep doing that line. When I got him off that jump, he went over 5 the wrong way and then went in the tunnel.....and got patterned. Finally I got through the opening perfectly and our only problem was getting him to the right end of the tunnel after the A-frame. It all seemed like a blur and I couldn't concentrate.

We never got all the way through the whole thing. It was a bummer, but I was really too sick to care.

On a better note, the local club is starting an advanced agility class in a few weeks!

I knew this would happen!

2010-03-05T11:12:00.005-07:00

On Wednesday I raked all the old leaves off the lawn, pulled out the jumps, weaves, and contact plank. I had everything set up to practice some agility but didn't get the chance to that day. I crossed my fingers that the snow wouldn't return before I had the chance to play with Hobbs outside again.

Well.......it didn't work.

We have returned to winter, and all the agility stuff is covered in white. Hobbs is thrilled because he loves doing scooties in the snow, but I am definitely done with winter. I was done with winter WAY back in November when it first started snowing!

I am looking forward to class on Monday, and am trying to decide if I want to enter a couple classes in an upcoming DOCNA trial. It probably wont happen though because Robert will be working that day :( I am not in a huge rush to get into another trial though. When it happens it will be awesome, and hopefully Hobbs will be doing the teeter by then. I can't believe we have all the obstacles down except for that one. I am so happy with how well Hobbs is doing.

Olympic Agility?

2010-03-02T10:48:00.002-07:00

Wouldn't that be AMAZING?!

I don't know what made me think of it, but I think dog agility would be a wonderful addition to the summer Olympics.

Just a thought.....