I entered both girls (Gidget was last minute decision) in a CPE trial in La Crosse on Sun. I had some extra cash on hand so I could enter Gidget and I thought it'd be a good warm up trial for our three AKC trials coming up at the same place. Gracie was in need of just 2 Qs to finish up level 1, so that was our goal for the day (on top of the usual: keep nerves under control and have lots of fun!).
Wildcard was up first for Gracie. I had screwed up our first attempt at wildcard, but I had a map and a good understanding of what we needed so I wasn't going to screw us up this time! The choices were (a or b) a tunnel or weaves, a single jump or serpentine, and a single jump or double jump. We went with the tunnel, single jump, and double jump. It was definitely Gracie's best run of the day. Here's the video:
Next up was Standard for both girls. Levels 2 and 3 had the same course and there was only 1 or 2 dogs between Gidget and Gracie (Gracie was first). Ahhhh!!! Gracie was a little off for this run, nothing major, and maybe not even noticeable while watching. I didn't have her lined up quite the way I wanted so she ran past the correct tunnel entrance at the beginning. Then she ran around a jump later. She was a tiny bit slower here than in her first run.
Gidget's standard run, was clean, but not very pretty as far as her energy went. I didn't blame her. I didn't have much time to sit and relax/pump her up before the run and the turn from the A-frame to the tunnel underneath was rather demotivating. The good thing that happened was that she took the dog walk on our second try! She went past it at first, but I called her back and did our start line "ready, set, ok!" and she did it! With some enthusiasm too! I will have to keep this in mind for our AKC trials.
Gidget was in Colors next. It was a nice short course with no contacts. I had time to sit with Gidget before this run. It went way better! Sure, still not her usual in class speed, but pretty darn good for trials! I tried to remember to keep moving, even when she was in a tunnel, and to stay with her instead of sending.
Last for the day was Jackpot for Gracie. I was pretty nervous about this one at first, the rule book made it sound very confusing! It turned out to be pretty easy though. Gracie was obviously tired at this point but was up for some more fun! We made an attempt at distance weaves, but she popped out, not a concern at this point. We got plenty of points.
The girls got 1st place Qs in all but jackpot, Gracie got a 2nd place Q there. It helps when there's not much competition (make that no competition except in jackpot). Gracie got her last two titles to finish out level 1 so she is now Grace O'Malley CL1. Next year we'll work on finishing level 2! Happy agility!
There are a few things I've been meaning to post about recently and haven't gotten to them. So I'm posting them all together now.
Gracie has mastered "Bang" at least to the point that I care about. She doesn't look dead in the slightest. I could work on things like keeping her head on the floor and closing her eyes, but don't feel like it right now so that will have to be a future project. Anyways, here's a video of me training the behavior and the final (for now) product. I love the training part of the video as she starts offering random behaviors in hopes of finding the one I want. She likes doing handstands but normally does them against a wall. She tried offering some anyways which highly amused me. Might have to turn that into a new behavior sometime soon.
Currently Gracie is working on "Sit Pretty." She started offering the air kicks for that too. Gidget is also working on a play dead behavior!
Speaking of Gidget, agility is going very well for her. I have some video from an outdoor class before our last trial when we were really just getting some good work done with tossing Froggie (her toy) and trading it for a treat. She was showing some major improvement. She's continued to improve since then with her only issue of skipping jumps. I wish I had video of class this last Thur. She was spot on! Happy, fast, and not a single obstacle missed! Ok, maybe there was one bobble, but we were able to go back and fix it without hurting her attitude at all! I honestly don't remember what the bobble was, but I do remember fixing something with her. I guess the memories of all the good she did in that class have squeezed out the memory of any mistakes.
Gidget and I went to an obedience walk through recently. It was at the same location that she'll hopefully be in a trial at in Sept. The lady that ran the walk through said we'd qualify. She did do very well considering it was our first walk through in a new location. We still need to work on a straight sit after recalls and our heeling was not very pretty. She seemed to be too distracted to completely focus on me. She stayed with me, but lagged behind sniffing instead of looking at me with her usual smile. So this month we will be working on heeling in new places. Hmm... how to fit that into my schedule. We've managed one trip to Petsmart so far and will be doing another one today. We've done some work outside and in the halls of my apt. building. We're traveling the next two weekends so that should give us some good opportunities to work. Sept. will be here much too quickly!
Our schedule for the rest of the year:
Aug. 25: Gracie is in a CPE trial in La Crosse
Sept. 8: Both girls are in an AKC trial in La Crosse
Sept. 22: Gidget's first AKC obedience trial!
Oct. 20: Both girls will run the CAT, first time for Gracie!
Oct. 27: Another AKC trial in La Crosse for both girls.
Nov. 17: Last agility trial for us for the year, AKC in La Crosse.
Dec. 1-2: Suzanne Clothier seminar!
I think we'll be busy enough! Happy agility... and all things dog related!
Gidget, Gracie, and I participated in the NWGA AKC trial at Soccerblast this past Sat. This was a big deal for Gracie. Not her first trial, but it was her first trial with over 300 dogs and location she'd never seen to boot. There was some raised fur when we first got there and stepped into the busy potty area. The rest of the day went very smoothly for her... outside the ring at least.
Gracie's novice STD run was right at the beginning of the day. It was a nice course, so easy she could run the first half all by herself as I struggled to keep up. Gracie stresses very very high! She was nervous and her nerves turned into speed. I knew she was nervous to start with as she wouldn't sit at the start line. She jumped over the dog walk contact, not like her but not surprising. Did anyone there hear the big gasp shortly after 8am? Yeah, that was Gracie flying off the top of the A-frame. I could not believe it. I was shaking my head at the thought of the moment for hours later. There was no sign of injury so we continued. After her flight she jumped on and off the table, no fault called but I know it happened (again not really surprised). The table and the weaves, which were next, allowed us to calm down and collect ourselves (we needed all 3 tries to get the weaves). She finished the course beautifully with a big cheer when she did the teeter perfectly. It was an interesting run, but my goal for the day was to get her in the building and to each ring without issue, and in that we succeeded! We took a good walk after this run, I was certain her acrobatics required it. Another sign of nerves from Gracie - she wouldn't pee on our walk.
Gidget's JWW run was next. We took a very chill approach to entering the ring. Instead of trying to get her pumped up, I leaned back and relaxed talking to Gidget and telling her we were just out to have fun. She looked nervous while we were waiting, but once we got going she looked great! She's no speed demon in agility, but she was happy! She wasn't poky or concerned, she just ran! She did run right past a jump, but we're still getting used to our new routine. We'll deal with how to fix mess-ups without losing her good attitude soon. I did also forget a cross and lead her to a wrong jump. Oops! I was pretty darn happy with her run overall!
The STD ring was running behind and the JWW ring was running ahead, which meant ring conflict for me! They kindly bumped Gidget up so that we were done just in time for me to walk novice JWW and run Gracie. Gidget's STD run started nicely besides a bad handling decision on my part. Without a lead out I wasn't in position to send her out to the third jump so she ran past it. Starting on the other side with a cross after 2 perhaps or a pull to the correct tunnel entrance would have worked better. Someday we'll have a lead out again, but we have other stuff to continue working on right now. Gidget did the teeter nicely, weaved with a good attitude though she skipped a couple poles, but then we got to the A-frame. She wouldn't take it, I didn't push her to take it and continued on to keep her pumped up. She stayed pumped up and I ended up timing a front cross badly leading to another refusal from the judge (I thought he was a lot more strict with refusals than many judges I've seen, though it was a bad cross). The jumps went smoothly but then we hit the dog walk. She stepped on then hopped off (ugh!) so we moved on to end well. No more chute issues for us! Just plenty of other issues.
Gracie's novice JWW was last. It was quite a long wait for Gracie and she calmed down significantly! She had even peed when I took the girls out before Gidget's run! Gracie sat and gave me a shake before at the start line (yay!). She had nowhere near as much speed as her STD run, but I wasn't about to complain about that. She did a wonderful job on the course, even getting her weaves in the first try! She did have to go say hi to the judge and his strange hat but got right back on track. We finish with a 3rd place Q!
The girls and I had a really good day! Sure, only one true Q, but there were too many good things happening for both dogs to care about those. The only thing I'm going to change with Gracie is to add some exercise before her first run of the day to try and reign in her focus and a little bit of her speed, just enough so I can keep up or at least be able to get into position to direct her. Gidget's next issue to address is the dog walk and A-frame. My theory is that she's worried she's going to do the teeter again even though she does the teeter well now. The A-frame was before the teeter at her last trial and the dog walk after, she did the A-frame then but not the teeter. Not sure what I can do for this issue besides adding value for all her contacts. Advice would be appreciated.
Only 4 trials left for us for the year. One CPE for Gracie and 3 AKC for both girls. I may add in a 4th AKC trial for Gidget but I haven't decided yet. Happy agility!
