Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all!  I'm sitting at a table chatting with my in-laws, looking at black Friday deals, and getting ready to enjoy a lovely day with family and friends and tasty food!  In the mean time I have some things to catch up on: clean out my email, work on stuff for the teacup trial I'm chair for, and update my blog!

Last Sat. the girls and I competed in our last La Crosse AKC trial for the year.  The courses were a lot of fun!  The Exc STD course had such nice flow and could have been just plain fun!  Except I had to go and screw Gidget up.  First at the weave entry, I felt I needed to stop moving to keep Gidget from taking an off course jump but my positioning threw off her weave entry and she skipped the first couple of poles.  The second spot was at a tunnel with a tricky entry.  I had myself so convinced that I needed to stop to get Gidget to pay attention and go to the correct side of the tunnel.  Turns out I didn't need to stop, she was heading for the correct end, but it was so stuck in my head that I needed to stop that I sent her to the teeter instead!  Overall it was a nice run, Gidget was happy and speedy and I didn't screw up any front crosses.  We even got a nice rear cross in there!  We'll get those STD Q's eventually, just gotta keep working at it!  Here's the video:

Gracie is also stuck in STD.  This time Grracie got the zoomies which means her nerves were a little on edge.  We still could have qualified with just the zoomies, but Gracie wasn't up for weaving either.  She finished the course nicely but NQ for us.  Video:

Then it was on to JWW.  Again, nice fun courses.  There was a nice big U shape of jumps in the middle of it, lots of fun!  Gidget was a little slow in the weaves, but otherwise it was a fun run!  Not much more to say about that for Gidget, better to watch:

 

Gracie was super nervous at the start line for her JWW course.  She wouldn't even shake!  I'd cut back on my keep Gracie from getting nervous measures.  It was a good reminder that she still needs a fair amount of help.  I had cut down to just the DAP spray and doing our mat work while waiting in line.  I took Gracie outside by herself and I really need to take Gidget out with her, and she should probably still wear her thundershirt at least part of the time.  Always lessons to be learned.  The course went well, Gracie was just a little slower than she usually is and she almost popped out of the weaves, but we managed to save it.  More video:

It was a good day in the end.  Still plenty of stuff to work on though.  I'm still working on my teamwork with each dog.  It's like we need a warm up run before we can really work together on a course.  I may need to do some 2 day trials.  Either one dog each day, or both STD and JWW the first day and just STD the second day.  Giving each dog their own day would allow me to focus on each dog's individual style.  If we really do just need a warm up run, then doing STD the second day may help move us along in that class.  The question then will be, can I survive 2 days of trialing?  In Jan. each of the girls will have a trial to themselves (I'll have to bring Gidget to Gracie's CPE trial, but I won't run her).  We'll see if that goes better.  Thanks those who have already given me advice on how to get through our STD dry spell!  Happy agility!

Who Needs Standard!

The girls and I were in La Crosse for another AKC trial last Sat.  It was a pretty decent day, 1 Q for each dog in JWW.  STD just wasn't our thing that day (for Gidget it hasn't been our thing for a while!).

Gidget's Exc STD course was up first.  The first four obstacles for three of the four courses that day were kind of unpleasant for us.  They all start with two jumps then a sharp right turn to the weaves, followed by a sharp left turn to a jump.  Dogs with lead outs had very little trouble with this, but I don't do much of a lead out with my girls.  Their capable of it, but I think they're happier and more confident if I stay with them.  So for this first run I tried a front cross after the second jump... it didn't work.  Gidget was way to far ahead of me, so I sort of attempted to turn it into a rear cross which sent Gidget right past the weaves.  We regrouped, but then Gidget refused the teeter.  Not surprising, but she took the teeter on a second try.  After that the Gidget I see in class showed up, happy and speedy!  I loved it!  It did lead to an incorrect tunnel entry, but who cares, she was thrilled!  We'll get through Exc A STD someday, and when we do, I hope she looks like that!

 

 

Gracie's Nov STD run was up next.  This was our one course that didn't have that icky start.  Instead it started with a long straight away and me hoping I'd keep up with Gracie!  Our first mess up was from the A-frame to the tunnel.  Either she wanted to go sniff or my feet were pointing way to far too the right so she went around behind the tunnel at first.  Gracie sort of popped out of her bottom position on the dog walk, but she tried and did hit the yellow so I'll take it.  Then Gracie dropped a bar.  It was my fault, I was racing to get ahead for the weave entry causing Gracie to take off early and knock the bar.  I know better than this, really!  So a few oopsies, but overall a decent run!



 

 

Next was Gidget's Exc JWW and that icky opening again.  I decided to go for the conservative route and front crossed after the weaves.  It worked, but the photographer caught a picture of this moment with Gidget sticking her tongue out as if she's saying "That was a silly place to cross Mom!"  We were flying for the rest of the course.  Happy, speedy Gidget stuck around!  Hopefully her pumped up attitude was due to our happy, speedy practice in class, but it may have been that her dad was there watching.  He's good at getting her pumped up.  Only problem is he rarely comes to trials.  Really hope it's the training!  Gidget came in 5th and earned 8 speed points!



 

 

Last was Gracie's first shot at Open JWW!  Again the icky opening, but a front cross after the second jump worked for her, though it was far from perfect.  Gracie did pop out of the weaves near the end and had to repeat them after a brief visit with the judge, but after that it was a perfect run!  The delay put us over standard course time, but we still managed to get a 2nd place Q with an 85.



 

 

So I will definitely be setting that opening up sometime in the near future.  I like taking something specific away from a trial to work on!

 

Two weeks ago both girls tried the Coursing Ability Test.  It was Gidget's second time and Gracie's first!  Unfortunately neither of the girls could complete the 600 yard course.  Gidget had a really strong start, but stopped about half way.  When she got back to me I found a tiny sore on the side of one of her front paw pads.  I figure an owie is a good reason to stop.  She'll try again in the spring.  Gracie on the other hand, stopped after only 100 ft or so and started sniffing.  The judge was nice enough to give us another try and Gracie made it a little further before stopping and sniffing again.  So lure coursing may not be her thing, that's ok, maybe we'll try tracking someday!  She did have a lot of good things happen that day though.  Just walking through the crowds and waiting in line without incident is a big thing for Gracie!  I did have to ask one lady to back her dog up a bit as Gracie was getting rather concerned about the calm black sight hound being too close.  The woman kindly agreed and Gracie relaxed.  After Gracie's sniffing bouts, she quickly and directly returned to me, like we were doing a recall in class almost.  Seeing as there were a bunch of very hyped up dogs just on the other side of the fence, I thought this was awesome of her!  I have videos, but they need some editing.  I may get them posted someday. 

 

That's all for this report!  One more trial in La Crosse in Nov. and one in the cities in Dec.  Happy agility!