A Bye!!!

We went to the Flexi trial last weekend. I was inspired from watching the WAO live stream the weekend before, plus Blaze and I had a great class on Wed night.

First class was snooker. Start line felt a little shaky - that start line will never be totally fixed but it is getting better. Did a 1-6, 1 and "tweet" Blaze took 6a really long and I sent him over 7a instead of 6b by mistake as I was disorientated. Big 8 points.

Standard - didn't Q but was happy with the run.

Grand Prix next. Had a few spots that were tricky and required thought to figure out the handling. I had worked on some 270's the week before and knew that if I didn't go in deep, Blaze would pull through the gap. We were about 1/3 of the way down in the run order so I got to watch some of the 22" dogs and saw where there were a few trouble spots.

Good stay at the start, kept the first few bars up. Came out of the chute - it was up hill there and I was a little behind - off course jump on left, off course weaves on right, correct jump in middle. Blaze came out of the chute and started to veer towards me - oh no! Told him to go on, jump. I had set a good line of motion going into the chute, so he took the correct jump and kept it up!

Decelerate to indicate turn after tire, he turned and was a little wide towards the off course dogwalk. Redirected to far end of tunnel. Picked him up and off to the dogwalk. Then the next tricky bit - jump after dogwalk, but show collection or we were buying the aframe. Phew, that worked with right arm up, name, jump, back up past plane of aframe, rotate and hope next jump was there - yes! Again, don't show extension, send to tunnel.

Took a step backwards, got him coming out, the stepped towards jump while facing to the left. Read it perfectly, didn't even see his beloved weaves and went straight towards the teeter! Can't say there was much of a wait for release there :-), but we aren't working on that - yet:-)

Into the 270 - step into the pocket, tell him out jump, start moving to aframe when he is committed. Step away from aframe to the left when he is at bottom as some dogs had taken the off course jump straight ahead. Oh god, please don't knock the bar! Weave (please don't pop out at 10!), jump, jump, done and CLEAN.

That was how I always want to do agility - running with the dog and us being in synch. Couldn't believe we were clean for a Q! Went back to check that it was still a Q a while later - and found out that we took first for the Bye!! There were lots of good dogs after us, so I never thought a Bye was possible - but there it was!




Now he gets to have 2 additional runs at the NE Regional. As I am secretary for that, he will be there anyway.

Still makes me grin when I think of that run a week later :-)

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Catching Up

Been a long time since I updated. I read on someone's blog somewhere that they won't read a blog if it doesn't have pictures. I haven't been taking a lot of pictures, so I'm not posting ....

USDAA NE Regional - that went well and thank goodness it is over :-) We got decent weather with only some rain on Saturday afternoon. I tend to obsess on the things that didn't go well, but, really, it went smoothly - people keep telling me that, so I'll believe them :-)

Luce was entered only in the 3 P3 Titling classes ... and only ran one. And got a refusal at the weaves, so no Q in Standard. Oh well. Blaze was entered in one class per day. First day was Gamblers and we knocked every single bar in the gamble :-) AND broke a weave pole!! A first! Second day was snooker ... my first 0 point snooker!! He knocked the first red and was over the #3 jump before I could redirect - whistle and out in 4.something seconds! LOL

Gamblers was the 3rd day - he Q'd for his Starters Gamblers title!!!

Blaze held his start all 3 days and got all of his contacts. Missed a set of weave poles ... did that at Saratoga and Flexi as well. All 3 times it was the doing back to back weaves, him on my right. Hmm. I can't reproduce it here at home.

Had a some stress getting him measured and didn't get his final measurement until Saturday. He was measured at 21" on the nose at Saratoga by the CMJ. I was hoping to get two measurements there as it was a 3 days trial, but the other judges said to leave well enough alone, so I did. Got 20-3/4" at Flexi. First day at the Regional, I was stressed, rushed etc etc and Blaze did not cooperate, so we didn't get a measurement. As soon as the junior judge got there on Saturday morning, which was before a lot of people got there, I got Blaze measured and got his 3rd measurement at 20-3/4" YAY, done and officially a 22" jumping dog which is what I wanted! Sent in the card and he is now showing as permanently carded on the USDAA site ... just have to wait for the actual card to come in the mail.

Now going to enter Blaze in more than one run per day ... we'll leave Jumpers and Pairs alone for now and just add in Standard.

FINALLY going to go to class tonight after 3 weeks!! Should have gone to Luce's class last night, but there was threat of thunder. Won't drive for an hour just for her to sit in the car shaking. Blaze doesn't seem to care about the thunder, so we'll go. I'll take Luce in case there is an opening in his class, just to get her on equipment.

Great class

Blaze and I had a great class last week and I hope we can have another one tomorrow.

We ran two sequences and the first one just felt SO GOOD. A glimmer of what it will be like when we are more in synch! It didn't start out so hot ... jump, teeter WEEEEEE. Oops, that would be a fly off and certainly not part of our criteria :-)

Start again and we got through the whole thing, including the table, nice turns and the weaves. YEAH!!

Second sequence .... well, good thing we had the run before :-) Could not get the weaves. I could see his face ... it was almost like ... crap, can't slow down, okay, I'll just run by. Hmmm.

I have been working on Blaze's stay at the start the last few weeks. Have been doing Rachel Sanders "Bridging the Gap" without any obstacles and just doing it a few minutes here, a few minutes there. I am seeing an improvement in class. He had his toes splayed out and gripping the sprint turf :-)

Spring!

Wow, a month since I posted last. It's just been crazy. Yeah, normal :-)

The picture is from the many forsythia that have been in bloom for the last couple of weeks. I do like this time of year with all the flowering trees and bushes. So pretty, but too bad it doesn't last.

Just had a very nice jumping session outside. Blaze is really reading my deceleration now, so much so, that if I don't say "jump", he shears off the jump. Which is way better than just taking each jump in full extension!!

He is also reading the rear crosses more than half the time now which is wonderful.

Of course, once we get to class tomorrow night, most of that will fade away, but hopefully some of it will stick.

Have been using one of the Bad Cuz balls outside. It doesn't get soggy, it can be washed off when it gets dirty and I can hold on to it by the feet, so my hands stay relatively clean. Plus, it bounces in all sorts of weird ways which keeps Blaze on his toes :-)

It's still February

I should be driving home from Luce's class right now ... but am really feeling yucky right now. Fighting a cold and it feels like it is winning. I want to go tomorrow night for Blaze's class as he needs it more so I stayed home tonight.

The Keystone trial was 2 weekends ago. It went well. I was happy with most of my runs with Luce even though we only Q'd once (GP!) Should have gotten the gamble ... it was a jump, tunnel, redirect to the teeter then on to a jump. I wasn't sure Luce would go to the tunnel, but she did. She came out wide and I told her teeter ... she was so wide that I thought she was going to go past the plane and go on sideways, but she veered over enough ... had I just said "teeter" one more time .... but she sheered off at the last minute!

Grand Prix was next and we got it all ... I was very pleased with her weave poles ... fast straight on entrance. Standard after that ... and could she get the stinkin' weaves? No! And it was one of those runs that I did not feel good about. I felt like I was "saving" every other obstacle. However, she got all of her contacts in all 3 runs which was good. Even gave me a 2on/2off in gamblers which pleasantly surprised the heck out of me :-)

Monday was Snooker first ... I still don't know what I did to get whistled off :-) Gotta love Snooker :-) Jumpers ... ack, I went straight when I should have turned and so did Luce. My fault! We did a Mulligan Run after the trial was over and Luce and I got it that time.

She is such a good girl. So easy to travel with, so easy to have by ringside. She wasn't always like this, but she sure is now!

Didn't bring Blaze ... indoors at such a big trial would be too much and we still have a LOT of work to do before we should be thinking of entering any trials.

Blaze had class the last two weeks. Blaze's Aframe two weeks ago. Can we say "flying dog"? Well, he did touch yellow going up and going down. Needs to work on contacts when someone is there in judging position apparently.

Last week I discovered that he can't do the tire if it is the first obstacle. Add that to the ever growing list of stuff to work on. Also have to work on recall to heel stuff as he apparently has forgotten most of it. Sigh.

Went to a Sends & Recalls seminar this past weekend ... same one that I audited back in December. Didn't get a working spot, so audited 2 of the 3 days so that I can fix this stuff in my head a little better. It was a good seminar but I would have liked to have tried this all with Blaze as I learn better by doing. I didn't get a chance to go on Friday which was the basic foundation recalls and sends, so I'm sure how much that changed. I heard a little of it did ... I wish I could have gone just to get that part fixed in my head as well.

I wanted to get to the Kruisin barn this week, but that isn't going to happen. We were supposed to have carpet people here today to measure ... now they aren't coming until Friday and won't be installing until next week sometime. However, Rosemarie did invite me for Sunday, so we will get a chance to work again. We have a trial the weekend of the 14th, so it would be nice for Luce and I to get some practice in. I do have to say that I think we are running better as a team lately ... practicing with Blaze has improved my handling of Luce. But that isn't going to get us those two remaining gamble legs!

I've been looking over the agility calendar - would have liked to go up to New York for two different 3 day trials (double gamblers at each!) but just can't do the first one. Evan is coming home from Duquesne the day I would need to leave and I just found out that Hugh will be doing a drivers ed event then too. So, I'll just go to Saratoga. I'll need to find a team for Luce to make it worth while - if we get the Team Q, that will be her Bronze Accomplished Tournament Dog title! I didn't like the site 2 years ago at Saratoga but the new one is supposed to be WAY better. Before I got Blaze it wouldn't have mattered, but that boy needs room for playing with the ball!

Evan and I will be driving up to Canada on Wednesday for Dad's surgery so I might not even see it until I get back late Sunday night. Which means the furniture might not be put back where it belongs either .... I just hope this carpet is the right color because the "surprise" dining room carpet is definitely wrong :-(

Okay, gonna go and drink more fluids and get some sleep.

Agility Class & Training Session

Got back from almost 2 weeks in Canada last weekend. Then catch up on work, laundry ... you know, the usual.

Luce's agility class on Wednesday night was cancelled due to ice, however, Blaze's class on Thursday night was a go. And then on Saturday I met up at Rosemarie's with a couple of people for a training session. I really envy Rosemarie her indoor :-)

Oh, there are SO MANY THINGS WE NEED TO WORK ON!!

Thursday night we had Mary Ellen and Alaina. I REALLY NEED to work on Blaze's start line stay. Okay, I can do that. He was releasing when I raise my hand. I worked on that on Saturday and I can see some improvement. That is something I can work on in the house. It is supposed to warm up above freezing for today only, so hopefully I can pry one of the jumps out of the ground, or even get the shed doors open, and bring a jump inside.

Blaze is dropping bars. One jump work. So, more use for a jump inside. He tends to do it when jumping very extended or very collected. I can work on the collected part in the house, but not the extended. I also noticed on Saturday, that if I can be very, very calm and quiet, he drops fewer bars. However, and Jean had the same problem with T, also a "baby dog", when I am trying to move into position to handle the next bit, then the bars go flying.

I also noticed, that whereas Blaze can find obstacles here in the yard or up at the Kruisin barn, he had problems the first sequence in class and then on Saturday. He isn't used to looking for obstacles so he ends up running by them. So, that will mean going to run throughs etc. But now now ... there is more training to be done.

While dogs did Mary Ellen's sequence, others went over to Alaina to work on dogwalk contacts. Alaina gave me some good pointers, the most important being to visualize what I want in the end contact behaviour. What I want Most important. I am willing to accept a foot or two off of the plank. I am not good enough (or let's face it, patient enough!!) to enforce all paws on. What I really want out of the dogwalk and teeter, is Blaze in a down and one elbow on the plank and at least one back leg. I need to train myself to see it as soon as it happens and give him a verbal marker, which will be "yes" Then ping pong the duration. So, I also need to pry either the teeter board or travel plank out of the ice and bring that inside also.

We also worked on the aframe on Saturday where I realized that I will accept a different performance. There, I want a down, but I don't care if his elbows are off the board ... I want the back feet ON, but given the steepness, I can accept that he might not be able to stop with elbows on. If they ARE on, fine, but he has to have his elbows touching a surface.

I was very please that he is landing ON the aframe very softly and running up. I hope he keeps that!

Luce was happy to do some agility again and running with her is so comfortable! She doesn't have the distance that Blaze does and doesn't have the "twitchiness" either. But she also understands more. One of the sequences was much easier for Luce and Zen than it was for Blaze and T due to their experience. However, Blaze can get weave pole entries that Luce can't.

It was nice to get into "agility mode" again!

Blaze's First Agility Class

Blaze had his first agility class this past week. He had been in a few beginner classes over a year ago, but got so high, that he couldn't function.

We've worked through some of that and, plus, he is older now.

Working in the building is hard though .... he needs to stay in the car until it almost his turn. Otherwise he barks like a maniac .. or we have to tug. I think my arms are longer now :-)

This class actually splits into two sections with both sections working the floor at the same time. Well, we learned that Blaze needs to be the only dog on the floor. Sigh. Not going to worry about it yet ... hopefully by the time he ever goes to a trial outside with two rings running at the same time, he will be even better in the focus department.

We worked on his start line stay .. Jean gave me some good tips. I haven't really worked on it, so I'm not worried about that either.

The second half had a dogwalk and he FLEW off of it twice. Ended up scraping his knee up, but isn't limping. And I mean FLEW. I don't want to slow him down, but I somehow need to figure out how to get him to THINK about what he is doing. He was fine both times at the Match this weekend, but it was in a different location and I came up with a sequence in the opening portion of the gamblers to bleed off a little speed first.

I was pleased over all ... he is responsive to what I am doing so it will be a matter of him learning what my cues mean and me learning how to give him the information HE needs properly. He doesn't handle like Luce and that will take me time to figure out how to handle him properly. I didn't enter him in Jumpers at the Match for that very reason as I have no idea right now how to handle all jumps with no places to slow down or catch a breath like at a contact or weaves.

It will come ... but now it is on hold for 2 weeks. Eventually we'll get to class ... I hope :-) I didn't plan to have him entered in a USDAA trial until September Blackthorne at the earliest ... and now I have to wonder if there is going to BE a September Blackthorne ... ack, always something!

Sanctioned Match

We got through the Lehigh Valley Dream Weavers Sanctioned Match!

There was a huge threat of major snow and we discussed if we should cancel or ... what could we do.

We decided to start the day and see if we could get enough classes in. And it really worked out well with the snow holding off! A lot of people didn't make it, which was understandable. But enough die hards, more than half!, came out and we had a good time. Agility people are crazy :-)

Lehigh Valley Dream Weavers is a nice club to work with. Most of the members were prepared and had really thought things through. It won't be a problem when it is time to hold a "real" trial ... finding a date will be the toughest :-)

I didn't bring Luce with me as I'm still not sure about her foot/toe. Doesn't seem 100% yet, so I just brought Blaze. He was just entered in Gamblers and Snooker so that I could try to maintain my contact criteria. He did a good job for the most part. He didn't get the gamble because he went WAY out and took something even further away! But got and stuck both of his dogwalks and the teeter. Did one set of weaves and he nailed that too.

He had a fantastic snooker run!! 47 points and 1st place! I told myself to just stay calm and I did and just tried to stay in tune with him. I walked one plan that I had and it would have required too much "snookering" with him right now. We don't have those kind of skillz yet :-) Came up with another one and it was perfect for him. He didn't drop any bars (it looks like if I slow down or stop as he is in the air he will drop a bar, so I have to keep moving and let him know before he takes off that we are going to turn or go straight or whatever), responded well, and got his teeter contacts both times. Very, very pleased. And what a rush to run him!

But now, we have to take 2 weeks off. I need to get up to Mom & Dad's and need to leave on Tuesday for almost 2 weeks. Leaving the dogs at home as Mom's leg is still too fragile to risk one of the dogs possibly bumping into her.

So, now gotta get a bunch of stuff done so that I CAN leave!

DOCNA Weekend Continued

Overall, I am very pleased with this weekend. DOCNA is such a feel-good venue and I am usually much more relaxed and do well.

Luce finished up some titles and was running really well. Weather was cool which she prefers. Plus, this was at the building where we train, so it was on home turf. She had 12 runs over the weekend and Q'd in 10 of them ... sure wish that was the case each trial ;-) Too many bobbles, all my fault, for my liking. Some would have been refusals in USDAA, so they wouldn't have been Q's. Only 2 bars down the whole weekend ... unfortunately one in the second jumpers today which meant no Jumpers title this year. My fault though ... I should have put in a front cross, I was indecisive and down it came. Need to be more assertive and stop chickening out! :-)

Blaze did 2 runs per day. Saturday started off with Standard and no stay at the start at all ... first obstacle was a chute and apparently that is just too much :-) I haven't really trained or worked at the start line stay, so when he was vibrating and just staring at the chute, I decided to just let him go. And, boy, did he GO! :-) It was chute, jump, aframe in a line and he stopped at the aframe down contact, so I was able to catch up. I was concerned about the next bit ... jump, jump, then 90 degree turn to the weaves. But, there was another jump beyond the second one with huge off course potential. I don't know how to "turn" him yet and I didn't want to give him a cue to turn and have him just take off and ignore me. I was able to leave him on the aframe (thank goodness for stopped contacts!!) and was able to stand at the next jump and release. Then just one step for him to take the next jump while I then pulled to the weaves and told him to weave. Which he did :-) I crossed behind and got up to the next jump.

The rest was lovely ... from what I remember ... it is all a blur. I know I had to do a blind cross at a curved tunnel as there was no way I was getting there for a front. And he doesn't rear cross yet ;-) Anyway, he was great, he got his first Q ever and a 1st place to boot! I cried :-)

Next run, traditional gamblers, was next for him. He got most of the opening okay ... the gamble was jump, tunnel, back over the jump, then bring them around for another jump. The problem was when they were to come back over the jump, the aframe was right there too and I was worried he would keep going for an off course. I guess I was too close to the jump and he took the bar. Oh well :-)

Today was Snakes N Ladders. It was beautiful ... he only ran by one set of weaves because I was blocking them when he came out of the tunnel and he came with me when I stepped aside. No problem ... turned us both around and he got them for a Q and a 2nd place and his first title!

Last run today was what I was expecting Friday night. Young, green dog running amok! I was debating running either of them in Strategic Gamblers as I was just too tired to come up with a plan. I should have listened to my instincts and just bagged it and gone home. Luce's run was first and it was horrible ... she missed both dogwalk contacts (first of the weekend) and I misjudged the closing and we were over time. I got Blaze out too early and he was WAY too high. No stay at the start and he just WENT. I tried to call him back but he was WAY gone. I am also really mad at myself for NOT holding his contacts as they were NOT what I had the rest of the weekend.

But, overall, good weekend ... for the most part, Blaze can hold his contacts (I REALLY need to work on myself to make sure he DOES hold them!! Definitely no USDAA trials before September!! DOCNA or matches ONLY) If he sees the weaves, he gets in them and does them all. But we need to learn how to turn and to handle ... which I knew. Also, outside trials will be a little easier as I will be able to go behind the tents and watch what is going on. At the building, I had to keep going up the building and peer through the windows to see what was going on. Plus, the very act of going through the door makes him crazy and all the competitors and dogs are all in one spot instead of spread out.

Blaze's Agility Debut

This weekend is a DOCNA trial at our training building and there are usually two classes on Friday night. There typically aren't a lot of runs and not a lot of dogs or people, so I thought it would be a good place for Blaze to actually be in a trial.

He was manageable in the building ... as long as I had his tug. But he was listening even when I didn't have it ... would sit, give me his paw, nose touches in between the yelping. I need to teach some more tricks though ... calm tricks.

We did the jump and the weave poles in the practice area and he totally was focused on me and not on the dog in the ring. Very good!! He couldn't do that the first year I had him.

First was Strategic Gamblers. He held his stay at the start. He did NOT knock every bar Yes, he knocked a couple, but left most of them up. Most important ... he STUCK his aframe (twice!!) and teeter. I mean 2on/2off and didn't leave until I said OK!!!! He was going so fast that he ended up falling off of the dogwalk. And he got his weaves and FAST! We didn't Q because we crossed the finish line way too early .... like 2 seconds too early. I haven't run him before so I had no idea how many obstacles he could do .... looks like I need to plan for a LOT more with Blaze than I do with Luce :-)

Second was Snakes & Ladders. Did NOT stay at the start. I couldn't find the smaller tug, so he was ramped up too much coming into the ring. Lesson learned. BUT ... again, he STUCK all 3 contacts ... 2on/2off until the OK. And got all 3 sets of weaves!! But we didn't Q .... I wasn't fast enough and direct enough so my pull to the finish line was weak, so he turned and put his paws on the aframe again for an "E". Oh well :-) I need to be quicker with this boy :-)

So, I was ecstatic with his contacts and weaves. I had decided to put him in this trial to see if he could do them in this situation and he can!! But .... as I suspected, it isn't the obstacles themselves, it is everything in between! One small forward cue too many, and off he goes. And I am SO used to giving lots of forward cues for Luce .... this will take some time. It didn't matter with the Strategic Gamblers as he just racked up more points. He took the wrong tunnel after one of the sets of weaves in Snakes and Ladders which altered my plan .... I put one step forward and off he went!

That was the purpose with this trial ... to see where we are. He hasn't even attended a class yet, so I'm not upset. He has two classes tomorrow as well, but for some reason, I didn't sign him up on Sunday.

I also got Blaze measured ... the judge was Bud Houston who has been judging for quite a while for various venues, so I think it is a good measurement. 20-7/8" Woohooo, under 21!! Doesn't matter for DOCNA as 22" is the cutoff for the next jump height, but he needs to be 21" or under for USDAA. He didn't snap at the judge and was fairly calm for the measurement which was good too ;-) I always expect the worst LOL Unfortunately, he will need another measurement as he isn't 3 years old yet, but he is good for the weekend. I think Darryl said he didn't need another measurement now until he is 3, but there are 3 spaces on the form ... guess I should read the rules again.

Oh yeah, I also phoned the vet today and Blaze is officially heartworm free now! So the treatment in the summer worked and we don't have to worry any more.

Luce did well ... she Q'd in Strategic Gamblers for her Specialist Gamblers Title and also Q'd in Snakes & Ladders .. that is her first Q at the Specialist level as we had to start at Beginners for that class. She was moving too, I didn't have to drag her around the ring. And she got all of her contacts - not 2on/2off at a trial like Blaze gave me, but in the yellow without leaping off.

Luce is entered in everything this weekend but I might not go on Sunday morning ... other stuff to do.

I'd been apprehensive about this trial, but it went pretty much as should have been expected. I need to manage him BIG time outside the ring. I need to work on his start line stays. He has good contacts and weaves. And we need to work on handling BIG time.

But, I was able to manage him for the most part - so I am feeling better about getting him into a class situation now. I need to figure out which class and when and how I am going to manage that. He would be eligible for a class on Thursday night at Keystone ... Luce's class is Wednesday night. Two nights in a row ... eeek. But I need to keep going to class with Luce for those 2 elusive gambler legs for her APD (Performance ADCH). We are also working towards the Silver Snooker and Bronze Standard titles as well ....

Off to bed ... we are going back tomorrow and the first dog is at 7:15am ... EARLY!!

Thursday morning practice

I had reserved the Kruisin barn for Thursday morning, so off we went. Blaze barked the whole way there which was very unnerving.

There was a whole course set up - Thursday morning is a good time to go :-)

I took Blaze out first. We worked on the opening quite a bit as it was tricky. Sort of a loop coming back, extending out a bit, then looping back then switching.

We needed to work on when I need to slow down or move laterally, or both, so that Blaze reads it and collects. His inclination is to YEE HAW down a line of jumps :-) However, I have been working on some jumping stuff at home where he needs to collect and come to me and work close and it seems to be paying off.

He did get it after a while. If he got the handling cues about turning, then he dropped a bar, so we still don't have it right. Sigh. At least he was doing 20" the whole time (Kruisin has AKC/NADAC jump cups, so no 22") and didn't duck under any of the jump bars like he did in September. I have to NOT get obsessed with the dropped bars and create a problem where none exists right now. It is most likely just a green dog thing.

He got all of his contacts which was good. I was very pleased with that. He wants to leave SO badly though .... I will need to continue to reinforce the contact behavior so that it doesn't become a problem. And remember that the DOCNA trial in December is for the training!!! Maybe if I tell myself that enough between now and then I'll actually DO it :-)

There were tricky sections on that 23 obstacle course, so I broke it down and we worked on parts.

I tell you, I really need to get into shape for this dog! After the aframe, it was a jump, jump, weaves, all in a straight line. Then a curved tunnel beyond the weaves but they had to take the far end of the tunnel. A front cross at the end of the weaves worked the best to get Blaze into the correct end of the tunnel, but to get to the end of the weaves to actually DO it was hard work! I didn't have the right shoes on which didn't help. So, note to self, ALWAYS weave running shoes when running Blaze!! And it was still humid in the barn! My jeans felt like I was wearing lead which didn't help matters any! And thank goodness Blaze has stopped contacts, because I couldn't get to the end of the dogwalk before he did and it was a flip away to a tunnel.



One problem we had at that section was there was a dummy chute even and to the left of the weaves. I was on Blazes left, and he took the chute the first 3 times ... if he was ahead of me, he crossed in front of me to take it and once I was ahead of him and he crossed behind me to take it. Not sure what was up with that - I need to bring the video camera. Maybe a tunnel is more of a draw than weave poles are? More visible? I was on that side? I somehow cued it? I don't know. Once he knew where the weave poles were he was fine, but we aren't going to get a second chance in a trial situation!

I was very winded after Blaze's session. I rested a bit, then it was Luce's turn. It would be SO much easier if they jumped the same height! Luce would have gotten a Q our first time around :-) Good little girl :-) We redid some parts to tighten turns etc ... actually got a flyoff the aframe, yikes! Got to correct that and I went back to reinforcing all of the contacts. She got the weave pole entrance, the little monkey ... why not at trials!!! Again, need to bring the video camera to see just what the heck I am doing differently!! I would love it if she had independent weave poles, but she doesn't and at age 9, I don't know that she ever will have. I am certainly aiming for that with Blaze!

We had a little break, then I brought Blaze back for another go at the first half which was the trickiest. I had noticed with Luce that if I moved even more laterally AND slowed down, it cued a certain turn much better than the way I had done it with Blaze. It did work better and he really collected and knew that he was going to turn. I should have thrown in some going straight at that point ... just thought of that now. He is smart enough that he knew what the course was by that point :-) Anyway, more bar problems. Hopefully this will resolve itself eventually.

We didn't get to work on rear crosses, but the extension/collection stuff was good. Didn't do any distance stuff with Luce either. I need to go with a plan in my head for her.

Unfortunately, Blaze must have very tender feet because he has some very tender spots on his pads, and two of them are slipped. I think due to the combination of doing the contacts and the mulch. So, that is it for agility for a week until his pads are better. He did this once before at the barn and I totally had forgotten about it. I will have to be more careful in the future if the contacts are out. It is only on the contacts ... when it is just jumps, he is fine.

All in all, a good session. Blaze wasn't crazy wild like he was in class that one night. He was "listening" more and I'm trying to handle more. The first time through the sequence, I was too afraid to get up to one point for a front cross as I was afraid it would push him even further out. Gave myself a stern talking to, and got up there all the other times.

Got to work on stay at the start and the first obstacle was a tunnel that Blaze VERY much wanted to take :-)

Blaze rode in the back of the car in the crate on the way home. I figured, if he was going to bark non stop, he might as well do it back there rather than right behind me in the car. He was POOPED, so other than his usual barking as the car starts up, he was quite almost the whole time home :-)

Wednesday night class

We got to class on Wednesday night. Missed last week due to not having a car, so it was good to be able to go back. My usual ambivalence - usually tired by that time so that I don't want to go, but I enjoy it when I get there.

Brought Blaze along as well and he was horrible in the car. He had been settling in riding in the back seat, but that night it was non stop barking like he used to do when he rode in the crate in the back of the car. This barking makes me CRAZY!!

Our sequences were short which was fine. I like a mix over time of small drills, short sequences and full blown courses. The floor was divided into two sections with a short self serve sequence on the other side.

We got there early, so the early class was still going on (traffic is always a crap shoot, so sometimes we are on time, sometimes we are early) I brought Blaze into the building as I figured that Luce would have her time in there for the actual class. I brought a tug with me, approached the door, and expected the worst. And was very pleasantly surprised! Blaze was interested in his tugging and didn't even notice that a dog was running at first. Then he noticed and went for his tug. There was a jump and a set of 6 weave poles out on the mat and he dragged me over to that. So ... I took a chance, took off his leash and we did some jump, weave, jump combos with a reward of his tug and he never gave the actual ring a glance!!

We were even able to get up to where people were watching ... and Blaze was wonderful. He was fearsome on the tug :-) but if it means he can be managed and divert his excitement away from barking and screaming, I'm all for it! Some people didn't even realize I had Blaze there ... the most noise he made was when I stepped on his foot accidently.... ooops!

So, I was very, very pleased and have some hope that we will actually be able to attempt some runs at the DOCNA trial in December. There weren't a lot of people in class, so it wasn't crazy and there typically aren't a lot of people there on Friday night of the DOCNA trial.

Luce had a good night, especially the first sequence. We tried different ways of handling it with pushes and pulls and crossing here and then there. It was all good and I am going to try and trust Luce more on certain types of jump combinations.

I "lost" Luce a little on the second sequence. It was drizzling outside and was windy, so inside the building, it sounded like a torrential downpour! Luce, of course, equates that with thunder and she was getting apprehensive, especially when there were huge gusts of wind. She got through the second sequence okay, but not at the speed she had for the first one.

We also did the self serve part once ... it had a teeter and weaves and she got her weave poles, the little monkey :-)

Weaving

Did a short session this morning with weaving again.

Also resurrected the older camera that also has video capabilities.

This is Blaze doing "soft side" weaves.



And Blaze doing "hard side" weaves out of a tunnel. The tunnel was almost at 90 degrees and I did a cross behind. He doesn't seem to care what I am doing when he is weaving which is what I want.



Wow, imbedding video actually works :-)

Training

I feel like I am returning to the land of the living. What with most of the Fair Hill entries coming in the last week of closing, then pre trial prep for Keystone and then Fair Hill, then the week after the trials spent in doing all the post trial paperwork and getting both trials into the mail (by 2:38pm on Friday, woot!!) there wasn't much time for anything else. Then, I didn't have a car last week because of two stupid bolts that had gone missing from the rear brake calipers. Took them a whole, solid week to get two new ones!!

Anyway, car is back, trials are out the door! I need to start on the test schedule for Keystone's February trial. And find out who is doing the test schedule for Lehigh Valley Dream Weavers sanctionned match in January. But I can take a break from all that for a couple of weeks.

I went up to the Kruisin barn today for the first time in over a month. Worked on rear crosses and jumping with Blaze. He is getting it, he is getting it!!!! I do have to give him more turning cues or he will just keep on going. He did some serpentines as well. So cool :-) He did most of them at 20" and kept a lot of bars up ... a lot better than early September anyway :-) I do think it will come! I just have to learn how to "steer" him :-)

I also put him on the aframe (full height) and dogwalk (half height as that was how it was set) and he got all of his contacts. Decided to give him some distraction on the aframe by swinging his tug toy. He came off, so I put him back on. He then trembled and was just dying to go, but he stayed there and stayed for several reps, good boy!!

Put him away, brought Luce out. Didn't work her as much as she will have class tomorrow night. Did some weave pole entrances which she got. Hmmm. Why there and not at home? Same angle. At home she isn't bending and is going in between 2 and 3. Mulch surface at the barn, so maybe she can't go as fast as the hard ground at home? And it was a little wet at home on the weekend, so maybe she didn't feel she had good footing? Not sure. We'll see how she does on the Sprint Turf at Barto.

She does not have as good entrances as the Blazo Boy though .... I have to manage hers as she isn't reliable at anything greater than 45 degrees or so. At least she is collecting herself and making an effort to get the poles .... except for at home this weekend. Gotta be the footing. Gotta move the weave poles in the yard when it is drier out (it drizzled a little today) and see if that is the reason.

She is a little monkey and can be squirrely. As well as being a border collie I remember a few years ago when I had the weave poles on the front yard. She would only weave in one direction .. didn't matter if I was on her left or her right, she would only go from the creek side of the yard to the driveway side of the yard and not back again. That went on for not quite a week and then she was fine. But it was strange while it happened :-)

We have another session reserved on Thursday morning. More of the equipment should be out and maybe I can get some sequencing in for Blaze and work on communicating with each other on course. It is just a matter of working with him and both of us learning how to "talk" to each other. Plus he is a green dog, so that is a factor as well.

Anna was there with her new dog, Spring, when I got there. We talked for a bit before she left, and she said Tuesday was the worst day to come as the beginners have been there Monday night and nothing is out. That's okay, I can always find something to work on and there were jumps set up in the outside ring.

Anna would love to train with someone, so we might get together starting in the new year. Spring is quite different from Belle :-) It will help me stay focussed and will help having another set of eyes. And it is easier to move equipment with two people ;-) Spring will need more basic stuff which won't hurt Blaze to do. I haven't done everything with him that I probably should.

Anyway, I was pleased with the short session. I didn't stay that long as it was humid up there for some reason. Freezing back at the house, but humid in the barn. Go figure.

DOCNA Nationals - October 2008

After blogging about USDAA Nationals, I did have to mention that Luce and I went to DOCNA Nationals the first weekend of October. It was up at Barto where we usually train, so it was a no-brainer :-)

DOCNA, Dogs on Course in North America, is a fairly new organization that is a lot of fun. They sort of took all the best parts of the various venues and discarded other parts. Courses are nice and reasonable, equipment is whatever is available (ie what we are used to) and training in the ring is well defined. 3 tries up to SCT and then out. I took advantage of that in August when Luce flew off the aframe. I let the judge know we were dropping to training and I put her back on the bottom of the frame. The look on Luce's face was priceless because this doesn't happen at a trial!! We then swung around, did a few jumps back to the aframe and she stuck it. Came back over, stuck it again, good girl and out! The next run was North America Challenge (sort of like Grand Prix) and Luce got her contacts, good girl :-)

Blaze will be debuting in DOCNA in December as I can go back and train. Plus it is still a low key venue which will help.

Anyway, I didn't do the whole 3 days as Keystone was the following weekend with Kinetic the weekend after that. Too much pre-trial prep work to do! So we went on Saturday only. Got a Nationals shirt and a tote bag of goodies. The judge and one of the venue owners are Canadians so they even played Oh Canada as well as the National Anthem :-) It was also a beautiful day in terms of weather and we knew a lot of people there. A lot of Kruisin Kanines folk as well as Keystone and others that I knew.

Luce did really well ... got her weave poles again. Only had one dropped bar and that was in the National Challenge which meant we came in second instead of first. Still, that earned her a silver medal for the East. The course was built out west as well (they apparently spent hours on the phone getting both courses as close as possible) and the results were combined. We would have finished 3rd in the country except for that uncharacteristic dropped bar!!

This pic is courtesy of Michelle Yon. She got one of Luce with her ribbons and medal and also got some of MABCR dogs as well as Kruisin dogs. The rest of the pictures are at Michelle's site.

DOCNA doesn't just have a warm up jump, but also has warm up weave poles. They also had one of the new self healing tires out in the warm up area, and later on, the dogwalk. I ran Blaze over them and he was great!!! Not sure if I was "allowed" to run Blaze on that stuff, but no one else was waiting to use the area and someone else said to just go ahead.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I'm glad I went. Now I can say that we went and competed at a Nationals event! We are already qualified to go next year, but apparently the weekend is being changed as they couldn't nail down the site in the West. 2009 will be the same weekend as the Keystone trial, so 2009 DOCNA Nationals is out for us ... and a lot of others as well. That made me doubley glad that I went!

USDAA Nationals and agility musings

USDAA Nationals happened over the weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona. This year, they had live streaming video of all of the tournament finals - woohoooo!!! They also have the videos archived.

It was SO cool to watch ... almost like being there. I was lucky enough to be able to go to the 2005 Nationals as DH offered me his frequent flyer miles, so I have been there. And that was a lot of fun too :-)

How neat to be able to watch people from this area compete .. and to see people from the North East as ring crew. I would go to do that, but getting all that time off of work and home ... and the money to fly out there .... it isn't going to happen. If I did go again, I would rent a car so that I wasn't dependent on hitching a ride with everyone else. I don't think they minded, but I hate being the 5th wheel and feeling like I am imposing.

Other than for PNS Nationals on Friday night, the running orders were up before the actual event. I was toying with setting up my extra monitor but then realized that would be excessive LOL Results were up by the next morning for the previous day for just about all of the classes which was also nice.

Great job and I hope they continue with the streaming video for other events. Really is nice for those of us at home.

Watching the streaming video was so inspiring. However, I don't think I have the mental capacity to keep it all together for a Nationals. I think running in the main ring would freak me out. I'm not consistent enough either. Luce is such fun to run - when she is running that is - but she isn't a speedy border collie. Never has been, never will be. So, a mediocre team wouldn't have a chance. But, as I say, it was inspiring and will motivate me to keep on training.

Now, Blaze. Oh my. He deserves a better handler!! The Team Relay on Sunday had a weave pole entry that I know Luce would NOT be able to do. I set up just that part (jump, tunnel, weaves) in the yard, and sure enough, Luce could not do it. I have to shape the entry for her.

But Blaze. As I said, oh my :-) I have finally have a dog that can WEAVE!! He was nailing that entrance and doing all 12 each and every time. That dog does love him some weaves :-) In fact, he wasn't reading my body cues (or even verbal ones!) when I tried to get him out of the tunnel and NOT into the weaves! He can do all of the obstacles, it is the stuff in between the obstacles that we REALLY need to work on :-) He is entered in a DOCNA trial in December. It is low key and Friday night typically doesn't have a lot of dogs entered .. .usually 30 runs between the two classes. I should be able to manage him. I just want to see what I have with him. After I got to run him in class at Keystone, I was PUMPED. But I don't want to rush it ... my goal is Blackthorne 2009. If he is ready earlier, then fine, but I NEED TO NOT RUSH HIM!!

I don't have him in a class yet due to his reactivity so I don't really know what I have. I need to get him into something - that is a goal for early 2009. I need to learn how to handle a dog like this! Luce was faster than Princess and Blaze is SO much different from both of the girls. For all of my agility life (10 years now, wow!) I have had dogs that I needed to keep motivating forward and away from me. All of my cues are for this, so the few times I have been able to run Blaze in a facility, he goes to the next county! I need to rein him in, but not too much. I don't want to lose the distance - I want a gamble dog that can weave this time, dagnabit! LOL

He is keeping more and more of his bars up here at home. He was having a horrible time a couple of months ago. I worked on it a little and it is helping. He was also running under the bars when they were up at 20" or 22" and he isn't doing that any more. He still needs to really KNOW that his job is to keep them up regardless of whether he is turning or whatever. I think he will get it, assuming I can be a good enough of a trainer to teach him that!

It will be so nice to have a dog that I won't have to drag around the ring :-) I love my little Luce, but if she is stressed or it is hot out, then I have to drag her around. SO frustrating! We sort of fell between the cracks at Keystone when I got her and we didn't have the foundation classes then as we do now. And the kids were home, so her prime years were "wasted". Not really "wasted" as I did want to go and watch what the boys were doing! But I couldn't get to class or train as often as I should have with her.

I taught with Kruisin for almost 2 years which also caused a break in training. I love teaching, I really find it rewarding. But I am not a high energy person so no way could I be out of the house too many nights a week. I was teaching Monday nights and I worked late on Thursday nights, so going to class on Wednesdays was out. I didn't even pay for a training spot at Keystone in 2006 and 2007 as I had only gone to class 8 times in 2005. That didn't help one bit and we lost some of our skills and our teamwork. I stopped teaching at the end of 2007 and started training again in 2008 and it has really helped.

Usually, nowadays, we lose Q's due to obstacle non performance .... we get all the hard parts of a course but then miss weaves, pop out of weaves there for a while, or miss a contact. She has an aversion to yellow at times :-) Now, having a slower dog does help for some of the courses does help :-) I fully comprehend that I am not god's gift to handling, but I am happy when I do recognize what I need to do and what I would do with a Blazing fast dog.

And then I do have my mis-handling moments. They always seem to happen in slo-mo with a huge N-N-O-O running through my head and my feet rooted to the spot. That part of my brain in the back there, watching and knowing exactly what I should be doing, but the rest of my brain and my body just not following through! Occasionally I totally handle something wrong and the "right" way didn't occur to me. I expect that will happen more with Blaze as he is so different that it will be like starting all over again when I couldn't "see" angles and such.

Anyway, back to watching the streaming video ... man, the handlers can, and must, RUN! I think all of the top dogs have running contacts as well ... don't think I want to go there! I am not Nationals material, so I think I need to train for being the Weekend Warrior which means stops on the contacts for me :-) If the Nationals moves to the East Coast, as is the rumor, I would like to go just for the experience and the fun and to watch the truly fantastic competition. It was wonderful back in 2005, but I didn't have a dog with me so I was free as a bird. Rumor has it that Nationals might move in 2009 already .... that is too soon! LOL

Agility

While we work on Blaze reacting STRONGLY to being near other dogs doing agility, we are working on agility at home.

One of the first things he learned was the table. USDAA is my favorite venue, so he is learning an auto-down on the table. Gotta work on getting BOTH elbows down on the table.


I don't have any jumping pictures ... hard to take pictures while directing him to jump :-)

His weave poles are really coming along.


He does 12 poles now and we are working on entrances ... and distractions.


We started on contacts during the winter. I decided to go with 2on/2off. Instead of 2on/2off, Blaze offered a down at the end of the contact. I've decided that is fine with me as it he will shift his body weight in order to get the down and stop.


We still need to work on jumping foundation skills, tire, chute and getting him on a real aframe and real dogwalk.

Maybe by the time he can sort of control himself at agility class or at a trial, he will have learned all of the obstacles at home.