Catch Up Time!

 This first course was from class almost 2 weeks ago.  There are a lot of courses here so I'm going to try to keep it short.

Black course: Send to 1, front cross after 2, rear cross over 8.  After a send to 18, stay on the landing side of 19 for a front cross and finish the course.  Gidget was on fire for this course and when we finished it she wanted to keep going so she zipped around on her own course.  It was very funny and running her with that energy level was very cool.

Red course: Gidget used all her energy on the first course and was very slow for this one.  I tried to send to 1 then set up for a front cross after 3 instead of 2 like I did before.  It would have worked if Gidget had some energy left.  Front cross after 5, 10-11-12 is a serpentine, front cross after 12.  I practice getting some distance from the weaves so I could set up for a front cross on the landing side of 16.  I found that Gidget stays in the weaves if I keep my hand up and moving forward, saw that trick in videos posted by Tori Self of her running her border collie, Rev.  Oh, and rear cross into 19.

 This next set up is from open agility.  The blue course was set up and I made up the purple one.

Blue course: "Right" flip into 4, front cross after 6, front cross after 16 with a good vocal cue while the dog is still in the tunnel to keep them off the dog walk, rear cross into 18.

Purple course: Front cross jump wrap over 3, front cross like in the blue course after 4, rear cross into 6, front cross onto 7, front cross after 9, then run, run, run!

We had a lot of variety in the set ups for class this last week.  Definitely some fun challenges though!

Green course: 1-2-3 is a serpentine, front cross after 8.  I did a post turn from 9-10 but some did a front cross in there because of a pole that somewhat blocked the view of the jump, they then rear crossed over 11.  Finally a front cross after 17.

Orange course: 2-3 is a threadle!  Handling options for 4-7: post turn 4, rear cross over 6, front cross after 7 OR front cross after 4 and 6 then post turn to 8.  Either way you have to look out for the off course tunnel.  Handling options for 12-14: keep your dog on your right and rear cross into 14 OR front cross after 12 and have your dog on your left the rest of the way.

Black (sorry there weren't many more good colors to do numbers in) course: This was pretty easy, 1-2-3 is a serpentine again, then front cross after 5.

Red course: Front cross after 4 and 9.  Using a landmark to get that tricky weave entry with the cross is very important here!

Blue course: Pull to 3 for a rear cross, followed by an immediate front cross after 3.  More front crosses after 8 and 13.

Ok, that's the quick and dirty overviews of the courses I've been able to work on with the girls.  I'll try to keep up better so I can put more explanation in there.  Probably no open agility this week :(, just class and a trial on Sat!  Happy agility!

Gracie Update

Recently I've sat on the couch watching TV with a dog curled up on either side of me.  I'd think back to a year or more ago when this scenario would have been impossible!  Gracie took forever to calm down enough just to relax next to me.  She's come so far!  While still a pain in the butt sometimes, I can't imagine life without her now.

A few weeks ago we arrived at school for an open agility session.  I went in to set up our spot and found I was the only student there.  I went back outside to get the girls and walk them around a bit before heading in.  When we got inside I heard a thunder of paws coming down the far stairs as all of our instructor's dogs had gotten loose!  Instinct sort of took over and I grabbed Gracie by the chest so that she was standing on her back paws.  I kept talking to her as she let out some low growls, but she didn't fight to get away from me.  There were close to a dozen dogs running around us: a Border Collie, a sheltie, two German Shepherds, and several English Toy Spaniels and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.  Gidget was a little overwhelmed but was handling it well.  As all the dogs were sniffing Gidget and Gracie, Gracie's tail started wagging a bit and the growling subsided.  By the time the instructor had all her dogs rounded up Gracie seemed almost happy, no growling and some good tail wagging.  I was so proud of how well she handled that surprise situation!  The familiar environment and the fact that the dogs weren't barking much and were quite friendly helped her tons I'm sure.  Once everything had settled down again Gracie was happy and ready to do some agility!

We haven't had much in the way of positive or negative dog/dog experiences since then.  I've accidentally let Gracie out of her kennel at class with another dog a little too close for comfort a couple of times with no reaction from Gracie (yay!).  Other than that life with Gracie has been fairly uneventful thankfully.  She is doing great in class!  I saw the fastest weaves I've seen out of her in class a couple weeks ago and she's completing 12 poles the majority of the time now.  I'm so proud of my Gracie!

I'm really behind on my class updates.  I think I have 6 course set ups to sketch out on Paint, half of those only have 1 course on them though.  Hopefully I'll get to them soon since we have open agility and class this week plus a trial next weekend!  Happy agility!

Outdoor Trial!

Gidget and I were in a trial on Sat.  The weather people had been predicting rain off and on all week, so I headed out expecting to be comfortably cool and possibly wet, sunscreen was the last thing on my mind.  It turned out to be a beautiful day!  It was warm and windy and my skin was nice and red by the end of the day, but I couldn't complain too much.  I volunteered for the trial and had to be there bright and early even though Gidget didn't run til after noon.  I was worried about how she'd handle being in her kennel for so long before running, but she did quite well.  I put her thundershirt on before we left in the morning and kept it on most of the time she wasn't running or getting ready to run.  I left her in the car for my first bit of volunteering then moved her to her kennel and covered it.  We were set up in the sun, but her kennel stayed surprisingly comfortable and I made sure to send her to her water dish frequently.  Before runs we took a short walk in the big open field away from the rings.  I'm not sure which part of all this helped Gidget the most, but the slow poky Gidget I've been seeing recently at trials only made an appearance briefly in her last run.  She was still far from her fastest, but I was pretty happy with her!

It was our first trial in Excellent A and Std was up first.  My concerns were mainly the dog walk and A-frame contacts and the chute, I told her it'd be nice if she got the correct tunnel entrance at a tricky spot too.  She did everything I asked her to!  Her contacts were near perfect, she took the chute but did get a refusal at it first, and she read my front cross perfectly and took the correct tunnel entrance!  Unfortunately we had some unexpected issues with the weaves (I thought I had a good set up but wasn't completely surprised that she missed the entrance since every other dog had missed it too), and a fly off the teeter which was a total surprise because Gidget's never ever done that!  We finished the run with a nice long curve of jumps, which is definitely one of Gidget's favorite things to do!  Here's a link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znz0AMa8Llw

Next was Exc JWW.  It was a fun course with some front cross spots and another long curve of jumps at the end.  I remembered to use my landmarks so two of my three front crosses look nice and smooth.  The third one may not have been necessary, but it worked out just fine.  The only issue on this course was the weaves, otherwise it was beautiful!  Here's the video:

Lastly we tried out the new class Time 2 Beat.  With no refusals counted, and no table, chute or dog walk, how could we resist this fun looking class?  I realized during the walk through that both of our other courses had the weaves on my left and this course was set up the same way.  I figured changing it up could be a good thing and an easy front cross put the weaves on my right.  Well that worked!  Gidget finally weaved just fine, not fast, but that's OK.  I was a little worried about how she'd take the teeter after flying off it earlier, but she did just fine.  She got her A-frame contact too, twice!  This was our only Q run for the day and earned a whole 1 point!  The fastest 16" dog was really fast and we were a little on the slow side (she took forever to come out of the first tunnel!).  Here's the video:

Overall I could not have been happier with the day!  Our successes definitely out weigh our mess-ups.  I think we'll be doing this trial again next year!  Happy agility!

Jumping and Class

This past week we had open jumping on Wed. and pleasure walking and our regular agility class on Thur.  The girls and I were the only ones at the jumping class so we had lots of time to practice.  The set up is shown on the upper left.  We practiced rear crosses at 3, 3, and 2; tried a front cross after 3 (but had to end at jump 4 as I wasn't set up to finish through 6); worked on 180's followed by a front cross at 3-4, 3-4, and 4-5; threw in an "out" at 6 and 6 if my dog was on my right; did a couple speed runs; worked on a pinwheel 1-3; and did a two jump front/rear cross/post turn exercise.  Lots of fun stuff for such a simple set up!

I took Gidget to the pleasure walking class so I could focus on learning and not Gracie reacting to other dogs even though Gracie's my problem walker.  We started walking backwards, rewarding our dogs frequently for keeping a loose leash.  Then we turned so the dogs were basically heeling except that we weren't asking them to heel and they could walk out of heel position if they wanted, as long as the leash was loose.  If the leash got tight we'd turn around and reward them for catching up to us, making the leash loose again.  It's a pretty simple concept but it does no good if you can't be consistent with it.  That's where my issue will be.  One, I don't know that I'll have to patience to be consistent with it, and two, living in an apartment building full of dogs when one of my dogs is reactive to other dogs and can be aggressive makes stopping in the middle of the hallway to work on this unsafe.  We'll see what we can do though.

Since the pleasure walking class was at the time of Gracie's normal agility class, I got to run both girls in Gidget's normal class.  The class was extra huge this week so we only got to run two courses.  They were fun with some good challenges though. 

Black course: This course was pretty straight forward until 9.  For Gidget no cross was needed, after the serpentine (sort of) the tunnel was straight ahead and was the obvious next obstacle.  Gracie however is a contact whore and tried to take the A-frame even at that sharp angle.  A front cross after 8 took the A-frame out of play and put her in the tunnel.  Gracie had her fastest, in class, 12 pole weaves at 10 which I followed with a front cross to finish off the course.

Red course: The beginning of this course was a little different, but both girls held their start line waits (as usual) and handled the turn to the dog walk just fine.  Then after a front cross into 5, I set myself up closer to the landing side of 6 so that my dog was on my left for the serpentine (sort of) and I could post turn to the weaves.  At the end of the weaves, I pushed slightly on my dog's line toward jump 10 for a front cross jump wrap and ended the course with my dog on my right.

I think I have enough of my videos to work on a trial report next.  Yay!  Happy agility!

Agility Full Week!

Tues. we had open contacts.  The dog walk, A-frame, and teeter were all set up, along with a tunnel to do between obstacles.  With Gracie, I worked on stengthening her contact behavior and adding a little distance.  With Gidget, I tried something new, I used a clicker and click everytime she ran through the yellow.  She seemed to be getting that and continued to do well on the dog walk the next day at open agility, but was jumping the A-frame contact zone at class on Thur.  Grrr!  We'll just have to keep working on it.

This was the open agility set up.  The black course was what was numbered when I got there and the red course was something I made up for fun. 

Black course: I did a front cross right away from 1-2.  I tried starting it with a C-set (sending the dog to the jump while your set up to easily get into position for your next move) and with a start line wait and both worked very well.  5-6 was easy for Gracie and her "bottom" but was fairly tricky with Gidget's running contact seeing as I can't race to get ahead of her without her jumping the contact zone.  With a few tries we were able to make a flip work.  Everything else was pretty easy, rear cross 11, use a solid pull cue to the correct side of the tunnel and keep the dog on the right til the end.

Red course: I worked this course out to help Gracie increase her drive for tunnels and jumps (she loves those contacts so much!), to work on "out," practice a jump wrap, and throw a front cross in there too.  I used an "out" command to send my dogs to 3 while I kept running straight for 4.  Jump wrap front cross over 6, then a front cross after 8.  It was fun and fast for both girls.

These are the courses for Thur. class.  Sorry, you have to keep track of another black and red course.  Gracie's class started a little different than usual as we had a different instructor.  All that was set up when we got there was a jump, the tunnel and the A-frame.  So that's what we practiced, just 1-2-3.  It was a nice warm-up exercise. 

Red course: A front cross was needed after 2, but the cross needed to be set up so that you didn't get stuck behind the wings of jump 3 which would pull your dog away from jump 4.  We had another discussion about using landmarks for crosses, finding something in the room (in this case it was a yellow cord and the seams on the floor) that you can see as you run your dog to use to find the location of where you want to cross.  This allows you to make sure that you're not going to run into anything after you turn, that your path is the best one for getting your dog where they need to go, and can help you visualize your run between walking and running the course.  Once set up properly, the pinwheel was pretty easy, though Gracie needed some extra support near the jump, likely because of the other dogs on that side of the ring.  A front cross worked best after 7, it allowed you to keep your momentum so your dog keeps their speed to the tunnel, and puts you further ahead to set up for the weaves.  Then dog on your left til the end.

Blue course: 5-6 was tricky on this course.  Most of my classmates did a front cross after 5, but I wasn't fast enough to do this with Gracie.  I did a rear cross over 6 which worked out just fine for us.

Gidget's Class

Purple course:  I sent Gidget out to the A-frame after 2, a front cross may have worked too, but it just didn't seem as smooth to me.  Front cross after 4 meeting Gidget closer to the tunnel exit than to jump 5 to help keep her path nice and short.  There were a lot of options for 7-11.  Most involved sending the dog out to 7, after that you could front cross after 7, then again after 8, take 9 and 10 followed by a front cross to 11.  Rear crossing over 8 poses an off course tunnel threat, but you could rear cross over 8, then again over 9, and front cross after 10.  You can always not cross after 10 and pull the dog to the correct tunnel entrance, but there's that off course chance again.  I ended up front crossing after 7, rear crossing over 9, and putting that front cross in after 10. 

Green course (last one!): I went for the flip after 5 which meant a rear cross over 6.  I thought I then had a nice straight line to 8 but Gidget kept going in the wrong tunnel entrance.  The instructor told me to throw in an "out" command after 7 and that fixed the problem.  Front cross after 8.  I don't remember which of the handling options for 11-14 I used, but I think I did this first one: front cross after 11, then again after 12, then pull to 14.  The cooler option would be to post turn from 11-12 so that the dog comes out of the tunnel on the opposite side of the A-frame as the handler. Most of the handlers could get ahead of their dogs doing this so with an "out" command the next obstacle was pretty obvious, then it's just a pull or a front cross to the correct tunnel entrance.

This week is a little less busy, just open jumping tonight, class tomorrow (possibly with just one of the dogs due to a pleasure walking class I'm taking to get the girls - mostly Gracie - to stop pulling so much on their leashes), then Gidget has a trial on Sat.  That will be our first time in Exc A and we're trying Time 2 Beat too!  Hopefully all goes well.  Happy agility!