Trial Report

Gidget and I ran in another trial today.  The trial was held at a big indoor soccerfield and it was a lot of fun to run on the turf.  Open STD was up first, right at 8am, and we were the first dog up!  (We ended up being the second dog because of someone's conflict with the second ring but it was still nerve racking!)  We got there about 40 min. early, set up, and tried to find the official measuring person.  We've been in 6 trials and that was going to be Gidget's first official measurement.  The measuring person wasn't there which meant I also couldn't get my armband sticker.  I talked to the gate steward, the judge, the volunteer coordinator all while I was supposed to be walking the course.  I was ready to panic!  I gate steward was nice enough to go get my sticker so I could walk the course for a minute, and the judge ended up measuring Gidget so we were good to run.  Gidget had eaten the half of her breakfast I'd given her and was very unstressed so she ran happy and energetically which also meant her focus was a little difficult to reign in.  She ran around a couple jumps and a wrong course, but after that tricky part of the STD course her focus came back and she ran the rest beautifully!  Unfortunately I was by myself for this early run and didn't have time to find someone to run my camera, so no video for that run.

Our JWW run was estimated to start at 2pm and I figured that was just too long of a wait for Gidget.  I didn't want a slow, off dog on my hands again!  So we went home and went back to bed.  Gidget ate the second half of her breakfast and we relaxed for a while before heading back.  My husband actually agreed to come with us this time and offered to drive, which is when we found out his car wouldn't start!  So we took my car and left a few minutes later than I wanted, but thankfully we still got there earlier than the 2pm estimate, the open JWW meeting was happening when we got there!  So I handed off my stuff and Gidget to the hubby and managed to get plenty of course walking time.  Once again we were first dog up (really this time).  I was worried about the early section with Gidget's focus issues earlier, but she ran it wonderfully!  She had focus and was happy and energetic!  There was a very fun straight-away in the middle.  It was going so well until that second tunnel.  Apparently I didn't slow down enough or didn't pull enough (in the video it looks like my opposite hand isn't doing it's job) or just should have used a front cross.  Whatever it was, Gidget took the wrong tunnel entrance then refused to take the tunnel from the correct entrance.  So no Q for us there either.  

After the run I went to try to find the VMO (volunteer measuring official?) to get an official measurement for Gidget.  I couldn't find her.  We waited at the measuring station for a while but didn't see her so still no official measurement for Gidget.  Luckily we already have a plan to get an official measurement at our next trial on top of not having to worry about getting a measurement the same day we run!  So we left and headed for Dairy Queen for ice cream for all!  (Gidget didn't get the cone in her pup cup though, but Gracie was happy to eat it for her when we got home.)  We may not have gotten any Q's, but Gidget's happy runs were enough to call the day a success!



Outside!

Gracie had her last weaves class last Wed.  We start advanced jumping this next Wed.  I don't remember what all we did at that last class.  More practice with 12 poles obviously.  I think we put out a tunnel to do before the weaves.  Then an angled 2x2 was placed in front of a full set of 12 poles to work on entries.  Gracie did fairly well but still likes to pop out to check in with me.  Hopefully I'll have time to work on weaves with her on my own.  Our instructor did talk to us about using guide wires too and mentioned they could help Gracie with her popping out issue.

On Thur. there was an outdoor class!  I could have taken both dogs but Gracie and I were not having a good day and needed a break from her.  Surprisingly, our issues had nothing to do with other dogs or squirrels.  We saw both on our walk and she behaved just how I want her to for where we are in our training.  Now it's the pulling that's driving me nuts along with some of her other obnoxious behaviors.  My shoulder has been hurting for almost a week now, and I'm pretty sure it's from Gracie.  Thankfully our instructor is putting on a "Pleasure Walking" course that will hopefully help us.  If that doesn't work I may actually have to sign up for a private lesson because that will be cheaper than shoulder surgery.

Anyways, Gidget had an awesome time outside.  She was a little unfocused our first turn up, but you should have seen her weave!  Faster than I've ever seen her!  No idea how to train that into habit.  The courses were the work of one of my classmates.  I have no idea how he managed to think them up (or how anyone thinks up a course for that matter) but they were pretty fun.  The jumps weren't set exactly the same for each course, but this doodle gives the general idea.  Basically people wanted to practice serpentines and pin wheels so that's what made the course.  In the first course I used a front cross after 7, otherwise it was pretty straight forward.  The second course was trickier, especially with that opening sequence.  A tight wrap around 3 wasn't really an option (but with further training hopefully will be) with that tunnel calling, but I managed to call Gidget off the tunnel to continue on.  The number setter accidentally set 11-12 to be a threadle which I guess isn't allowed in AKC, but it looked fun so on one of our turns we tried it.  It took a second try but it worked and was fun!  I believe I rear crossed the weaves for this second course.  After we'd run this course a couple times I thought we'd run it backwards.  That was fun too!  We have an outdoor trial in 2 weeks so hopefully that gave us enough outdoor practice to prepare.  Happy agility!

Trial Report

Gidget and I ran in a trial this past weekend.  We walked away with 1 Q and a first place, but I wasn't all that happy with the day overall.  Gidget was way slower than she had been in practice in recent months.  My best guess was that the stress from travel plus the trial was a little too much for her.  We hadn't traveled in over 5 months and I was having a hard time getting Gidget to even eat her meals.  She was otherwise acting herself though until the trial.  Had I had this experience before I may have even pulled her from her second run, the one we didn't Q in.  Hopefully our trial this next Mon. will go better since we don't have to travel for it.

Anyways, beside being a bit on the slow side, our STD run looked pretty decent.  The opening was nearly identical to that of the excellent course so I got to watch lots of dogs run it before we were up.  It really wasn't too tricky of a course, just needed a few front crosses and we were good.  She may not have been feeling her best but she stuck with me and did everything I asked of her so really I shouldn't be complaining. 

Our JWW course wasn't as pretty.  The beginning was again very similar to the excellent course and we made it through that part just fine, I even thought Gidget had pepped up a little.  After the opening though I lost her again.  She walked right past a jump and I didn't think I was out of position but I couldn't tell.  In hopes of keeping her moving I didn't go back to repeat the jump but she wasn't focused most of the rest of the course.  I think she got distracted by my family on the sidelines and didn't finish her weaves, she even looked back at them a couple jumps later, not like her.  We finished the course and did our best.  Thankfully she was completely back to herself running at the open agility practice on Mon.  If next Mon. seems similar I'll have to change something, but hopefully I just have to work on relaxing her when traveling.

More Catch Up

I hate getting so behind.  I have a class, a trial, and open agility to report on!  I'll save the trial for a separate post with videos and all.  So class and open agility here.

This was a pretty interesting course set up.  I was very happy that Gidget got her tunnel/contact discrimination every time!  I ended up rear crossing all the sequences involving the triple to the tunnel.  A front cross may have been faster but I was concerned about getting in her space after the triple.  If the turn hadn't been as sharp a front cross would have been fine.  The front cross may have still been possible, but I wasn't sure how to pull it off. 

In the first course a lot of my classmates had trouble with the weave entry at 10.  Turns out you have to send your dog out a little to the tire so that the handler has a good line past the wings of the double jump to the imaginary first weave pole.  Gidget and I managed to get the weave entry after watching a few others figure it out, plus Gidget has pretty decent weave entry skills.  After that I did a slight lead out from the weaves (yay for working on independent weaves!) for a front cross after 11.  I did a front cross after 13 too and then a rear cross over 14.  I thought a post turn between 12 and 13 would lead to a wide turn and possibly an off course to the tunnel.  The rear cross gave her a good turn toward the teeter and away from the weaves.  I did a front cross after the teeter just for practice, I still find that move to be awkward, but I didn't do this in the second run.

The second course had one good tricky spot, 8-9.  Getting Gidget to run past the dog walk before turning that direction was tricky and involved good timing.  I had to keep going in the same direction til Gidget was past the dog walk, then I could turn around to get Gidget on my right (front cross) and run for 9.  I was happy how well an "out" command worked to send Gidget to the tunnel.

Open agility had a simple set up which was fine for some general practice.  With Gracie's turns we worked on bottoms (contact behavior) on the dog walk, with a jump and table thrown in.  Gracie managed to remember how to weave the full set of 12 poles.  We also worked on "stop" on the teeter.  She hadn't seen the teeter in a couple weeks and I think the sound scared her more than I expected.  I'll have to remember to reintroduce that carefully when we work the teeter in the future.  She had no issue the last time we worked the teeter, but I have to remember that things change and until she has a solid teeter performance (and even frequently after that) that she needs to remember what the teeter is.

I took a couple different little courses with Gidget.  First we did weave-jump-teeter-table-dog walk-weave.  I mostly wanted to make sure she was back to herself after the trial this past weekend, but we also got a good front cross after the dog walk a couple times.  The other course we did was teeter-table-dog walk-jump-weave.  Just wanted some wrap practice on the jump.  It was a fun little practice overall.

Catch Up

Alright, I'm a little behind on posting on here so I have some catching up to do.  In Gracie's weave class last Wed. we worked on various angle entries.  Our instructor put a piece of duct tape on the ground for different places we should start from.  Gracie did well except fro the straight on entry.  I assume this is because that's an entry we can't really work at home and I'd been kind of slacking on weave practice that week.  She improved through the class and overall did very well.  This week in weave class we worked on getting to a full 12 poles!  We reviewed 6 poles then put a second set of 6 poles a few feet in front of the first set.  Then the instructor moved one set of 2x2's to make one set of 8 poles and one set of 4 poles with a gap inbetween.  Then it was the jump to 12 poles!  Gracie did really well, but she was definately better at weaving off side than on side.  We'll have to work on that.  We added a jump into the mix too!  Just put the jump in the path of the entry arc.  Gracie handled that well too.  One more weaves class left and then it's on to advanced jumping!

In Gidget's class on Thur. we started by making up our own courses!  My goals were to practice a couple 180s and 270s, get Gidget to stick with me and avoid off course obstacles, and layer a pole.  The 180s and 270s didn't go so well for some reason but we did just fine with the other 2 goals.  The off course jump to be avoided came into play at 7-8 and 14-15, not a problem either time.  The pole was at 14-15 and I was able to send Gidget out and get her back to me with no problems.  It was fun to make up a course but it was hard to remember my course while trying to watch everyone else's courses. 

Our first set course was fun too.  The 270 went better this time.  Most of the course was fairly easy but 10-11-12 was a little tricky and had several handling options.  I was going to try a post turn with a front cross, rotate from 10 to 11 and front cross after 11, but then our instructor showed us another option that looked fun and ended up being easier to set up while running.  It involved a front cross after 10, send over 11 and wrap the standard closer to the teeter.  I didn't have to slow down as much for this and the turns were much tighter than a post turn would give.

Our last course had a fun section too. 9-10-11-12 also had multiple handling options.  I could have rear crossed 10 then treated the rest like a serpentine.  A rear cross 270/serpentine start would have been tricky, would have set her up going the wrong direction after 11.  I could have front crossed after 9 and after 11 then post turn to 12.  Handling 10-11-12 as a serpentine from the left side just didn't seem to work well plus the post turn would have been fairly wide for Gidget.  That's why I ended up front crossing after 9 and 10 and handled the rest like a serpentine from the right side.  Not many of my classmates tried this option, but I really liked it.

There was open agility training on Sat. and a fun course was set up.  I did a front cross after 2 so that I was on the right side of the weaves and pushed Gidget out to 4.  Another front cross was in order after 6.  Then the fun part, 10 and 11 were close enough that you couldn't really run through them, so it's a 180 with a wrap on the outside of 11.  I had to get just ahead of Gidget and the jump standard for a nice tight wrap.  It was fun and worked nicely.  No one running the course, myself included, saw that there was a 20 on the course so I'm not sure how I would've handled that.

I never ran the whole course with Gracie but I got close.  We got some good contact practice in, her 2on2off is looking good and her stop on the teeter is improving.  We did a lot of the course in small sections and Gracie handled it quite well.  My extra practice time with Gidget was spent working on some teeter independence and running really fast around the outside of the course.  It was a fun day with some good practice.

Ok, watch for notes from tonight's practice and a trial report for our trial on Saturday!



Continuing from Yesterday...

See the links in yesterdays post to see the courses I'm talking about.

Course 6 was large dog (jumping 24") JWW.  Part of the course looked very similar the the small/medium dog course but they had a different path.  I'm not sure why they changed the course at all.  Just about all the handlers led out so that they were on the take off side of jump 2 with their left arm up so that the dog wouldn't take the wrong side of the jump.  Once the dog was moving, the handler would do a front cross to send the dog over the correct side of the jump and continue with the dog on the right for the next couple of obstacles.  A front cross between jumps 6 and 7 seemed to work a lot better than front crosses after 7.  I saw a lot of handlers come very close to tripping over jump 8, landmarks may have been very useful here!  The weave entry seemed kinda tricky here.  A few dogs took the jump to the left of the weaves and some were just going too fast to get the weave entry.  Some deceleration and collection before the weaves can be a big help for that problem.  I noticed a couple of generalities during this course too.  A lot of handlers were using blind crosses, especially at tunnels.  I've been taught to stay away from blind crosses which I think is smart.  It's much better to keep your eyes on your dog at all times.  If I were to use a blind cross ever, it would only be at a tunnel since you can't see your dog anyways and turning with a tunnel can get extra dizzying.  As long as you can turn and see your dog exit the tunnel, it would work just fine.  A large number of the dogs finished the course and ran straight for their leash, grabbing it and bringing it to their owners.  This seems like a smart training idea since it keeps your dog in the ring and focused even when they're done with the course.  It'd be great for Gracie to keep her from thinking about other dogs she may see near the ring exit.

The last course I actually took notes on was the medium dog STD course.  Very few of the dogs actually qualified on this run.  It was really exciting when the first dog succeeded!  A few dogs fail the tunnel/contact discrimination, more at the dog walk than the A-frame.  It was fun to see some handling stand out, few people used the method but it worked well for them.  This happened at jumps 8 and 10/11.  Most people handled the A-frame on the side closer to the course start, wrapping the jump back towards the A-frame and pushing out to the tunnel.  A few front crossed jump 6 so they could be on the other side of the A-frame, wrap jump 8 away from the A-frame and have no issue sending the dog into the tunnel and being ready for easy handling over 10-11-12.  Those that had to make a cross around 10/11 mostly rear crossed jump 11 to send the dog to 12 but I did see one front cross after 10 that worked nicely.  Let's see, a few other neat things I noticed... 12-13-14 made a nice serpentine with the weaves as the last obstacle.  Sending the dogs away from the course on jump 16 made for a very nice line to the tunnel to the dog walk to help with discrimination issues.  Most of the medium dogs had a running contact which doomed most of them to take the off course jump.  The few with a decent stopped contact behavior or with really good handler focus managed the correct jump.  It was a tricky course that really made the talented handler/dog teams stand out!

I forgot my notebook on Sun. so I didn't take notes on the small dog STD course.  It was intense though.  If I remember correctly there were a lot of clean runs.  Looking at the course map now I can't think of any places that had frequent mistakes.  Not everyone qualified but I'm pretty sure a lot did.  The 12-16 sequence was definitely the trickiest part of the course and it all came down to proper handling.  Those that succeeded had pretty similar methods, one case where standing out wasn't a good thing.  So over all it came down to speed and boy was there some competition.  The last dog to run was the only Papillon in the group.  He was fast and his handlers moves were smooth.  It was oh so fun to watch and he beat the next fastest dog by nearly 1.5 seconds!  This pair definitely made it on the team!

I can't wait for next year's tryouts, I hope they're nearby again!  Maybe, just maybe I'll be able to try out with one of my dogs (likely a future dog).  I'll just have to keep working on getting better!  Happy agility!

World Team Tryouts!

http://www.akc.org/events/agility/world/2011/tryouts_saturday.cfm
http://www.akc.org/events/agility/world/2011/tryouts_sunday.cfm

These are the links to the courses used at the tryouts.  I only saw courses 3-7 on Sat. and course 13 on Sun.  It was a lot to take in and a lot of fun to watch.  Most handling strategies I saw were pretty similar but there were a few that stood out as really good and a couple not so good.

The first round we watched was medium dogs (jumping 16") STD course 3.  Most of the group had a hard time with this one.  Saw lots of dropped bars on the offset 3rd jump of a serpentine, the angle was sharp and not every handler accounted for that.  When handlers tried to get their dog around the backside of jump 5 a lot of the dogs ran straight ahead to an off course tunnel.  That tunnel sucked in so many dogs, I'm surprised anyone qualified!  The weave entry after that was really tough too and half those that survived the off course tunnel couldn't get the weave entry!  It looked like a good number of the dogs just about flew off the teeter, nothing was called though.  Handlers that used a front cross after the teeter kept their dogs under control and handled the next sequence much better with a sharper turn after the next jump.  (That reminds me of Thursday's class, don't use something fancy, like a rear cross, when another move is so much more effecient/effective.)  Things learned from this course: work on all sorts of serpentine set ups, good weave entries are essential, and being able to call a dog off an obstacle is always handy.

Courses 4 and 5 for small (jumping 12") and medium dogs were exactly the same.  Here was another tricky weave entry and I didn't like the way most of the handlers tried to accomplish it.  While it worked for some, many dogs missed the entry.  I saw it done 3 ways: doing a post turn around the standard further away from the weaves, wrapping the standard closer to the weaves with some variety of front cross, and wrapping the standard further away from the weaves then rear crossing the weaves.  The post turn makes for an easy weave entry but it's slow and many of the dogs had rather wide turns.  The second option is a much quicker turn but the weave entry is very tricky.  The last option seemed to work the best, but very few of the handlers used it.  The wrap makes for a tight turn and since the turn is away from the weaves, the weave entry is a little easier.  Just goes to show, you gotta look at all the options and not pay attention to what everyone else is doing (I learned that at our last trial.)

Ok, it's really hot in our apartment so I will continue this tomorrow.  Off to try to cool down!  Happy agility!

Thursday Class

World team tryout participents were practicing at Cloud 9 Thur. and Fri. so the courses we ran for class Thur. night was partially set up by a really great handler (she and her dog are now a part of this year's US team!).  The courses were fun and only had a couple tricky spots for Gidget and me.  Our first run was smooth and focused (for once!).  I had gotten to class early enough to do some obedience warm up with Gidget, that seemed to be enough to gain her focus.  There was some discussion about the 5-6-7 sequence.  Most people tried to rear cross the tunnel (myself included) and rush over to front cross before the dog walk.  Turns out it is much more efficient (our instructor actually counted out the steps) to do a front cross after the teeter then take half the steps that you would for the rear cross method to get to your spot for a front cross before the dog walk.  I think I had briefly considered this when walking the course, but I don't like doing front crosses after the teeter (think I just need more practice with it) so I went with the rear cross method which worked just fine for us.  I'm the youngest in class (though I think some of my classmates are just as fit) and don't necessarily have to worry about efficiency yet.  I do have to make sure that I get the correct info to my dog no matter what method I choose to use.  I did get a chance to try both methods and felt more comfortable than I thought I would with the front cross after the teeter, though it does still feel slow.  So I need to remember to try different options and find the best mix of efficiency, comfort, and communication with my dog.

The start of the second course was very rough on me and Gidget.  I just couldn't find a way to get Gidget turned and running at a good angle to take the broad jump.  I tried a C-set, running past 1 with her and doing a front cross before 2, didn't work.  I tried a lead out with a front cross before 2 which worked better but barely.  At the instructor's suggestion I tried a post turn and layering the pole to the left of 3 (oops, forgot to draw that in) but I almost tripped over Gidget before 4!  I could have tried a 180 with a front cross after 2, but I think that still would have been a bad set up for the broad jump.  I'm now thinking what would have worked best would have been to run straight out past 1 with Gidget, do a post turn out by the wall and run straight back over the broad jump.  That may have even allowed me to get a front cross after 2 otherwise I might have issues before 4 again.  The other part I was worried about was getting in a front cross after the A-frame (11) but it worked perfectly and I easily got Gidget in the correct tunnel entry.

I spent a good 6 hrs. at the AKC World Team Tryouts yesterday and another hour today.  I'll share what I learned tomorrow!  Happy agility!

Can't Wait for the Weekend!

Gracie's had two classes already this week, reactive obedience on Mon. and intro to weaves last night.  The obedience class is pretty easy for Gracie, except any time that she has to sit still.  Heeling, stays, and come are no brainers for her.  I'm just glad I can work her more around other dogs.  She did have an incident of staring too much at one of the other dogs, my fault for not stopping and getting her attention back.  Gracie didn't react though, just the other dog did.  She's so good about ignoring other well behaved dogs in class now.  In weaves last night the class got separated (not on purpose) into herding dogs on one side and non herding dogs on the other.  The non herding side included a chihuahua, an English toy spaniel, a springer spaniel, and a lab mix (the lab mix does not focus on his mom very well and is of course black and no taller than Gracie, so Gracie doesn't like him very much).  The herding side was Gracie, another blue heeler mix, a border collie and an aussie mix, all nice well behaved dogs and attentive handlers which makes Gracie's job of being well behaved and ignoring other dogs much easier.  She had a good night running right past the other dogs into her kennel.  Her weaving was pretty too!  We finally got up to 6 poles, even got them pretty close to straight.  It was so fun to watch all the dogs figure out the extra poles, most of them got it pretty quick!

This weekend is the AKC World Team Tryouts!  My mom is coming up to visit and we're going to go watch!  I'm taking a notebook to sketch out courses and write down what all these pros from around the country do, from warm ups to course moves, that makes them so great.  I'll have to post some of what I learn next week.  Happy agility!