My mom running Gidget in T2B in Nov. 2014.
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| Our family pre-babies |
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| Look how big I got! I still had another month to go. |
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| Kaylee, Noah, and Evee at 6 weeks old. |
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| Our family post-babies. The kids were 16 months here. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Video and Pictures
Monday, October 17, 2016
My Busy Life
Where I’ve been is a bit of a long story that can be
summed up in one word… Triplets! You see
back in 2013 my husband, AJ, and I decided we wanted to expand our family with
a baby. This turned out to be no easy
feat. Thankfully we found out pretty quickly
that we would need help conceiving and weren’t struggling for as long as many I
know. So that’s what I was busy with
around the last time I posted, oh so fun fertility treatments.
The good news came at the end of August 2014, on AJ’s
birthday to be precise. We were
pregnant! It was the best news
ever! About a month later we got the
most shocking news ever, we weren’t just having a baby, we were having
three. We walked through life with jaws dropped for a little while.
We eventually recovered and started preparing for a
HUGE life change. Some of that
preparation was for the dogs, but that’s a topic for another post. This post is strictly a where I’ve been for
the last couple years.
So I was carrying 3 babies, that meant I was going to
get big… fast. That was going to make
doing agility difficult. My doctor gave
me the ok to continue as long as I was comfortable and not pushing myself too
hard. I managed to keep trialing until
Nov. though my mom had to run Gidget a couple times for me. They did really well too! Gracie got her MXJ at one of those trials, I
don’t remember which.
So we were done trialing, but I was still running both
girls in class. That wouldn’t last
though. We were working with class friends, Greg and Sue, to see if they could
run the girls and get them some good exercise.
Gidget didn’t have much issue with running with friends but Gracie
really just wanted to be by me. So we
worked with small courses that ended with Gracie getting to come back to
me. She quickly improved and was soon
running 10-12 obstacles with Greg.
In Dec. 2014 AJ and I headed for La Crosse for a baby
shower. Thankfully we had decided to
leave the girls in cities, boarding at the vet clinic I worked at. We were maybe half an hour from La Crosse
when we very suddenly came upon an accident, hitting the vehicle in front of
us. Turns out an older woman had somehow
managed to drive the wrong way on a divided highway! There were half a dozen cars involved and
thankfully only minor injuries. Our car
had only a little cosmetic damage. I
rode in an ambulance to the hospital to make sure our trio was ok. All was well.
We were able to mostly enjoy our weekend celebrating with friends and
family!
In Jan. 2015 I was 24 weeks pregnant at a routine checkup. There were some issues on my ultrasound and
they found I was having contractions. So
I was sent to the hospital. It was
pretty scary at first, worrying that these babies were about to arrive much too
early. I was hooked up to various meds
and the babies and my contractions were monitored. I felt like crap for a lot of the weekend but
it was all to keep those babies in my belly.
I did get a visit from friends and from a therapy dog!
After that weekend I was put on modified bed
rest. I could get out of bed to move to
the couch, use the bathroom, shower (while sitting), and make quick meals. I was also allowed one outing each week besides
my regular doctor appointments. My dad
had a wheelchair I could use so trips to Target were the highlight of my week
many times. All this meant no more dog
training.
I had been planning on leaving my job as a veterinary
assistant and going on a long maternity leave from teaching at Cloud 9 at the
end of Jan. So my bosses only had a
couple weeks of my unplanned absence to fill.
I was bummed to have to quit early but it was a good thing as I was
really starting to have trouble getting around and doing my job.
Gidget and Gracie were glad to hang out with me all
day, but got pretty bored too. They did
get the occasional field trip for walks or an agility class with friends or
family, but it was nothing like our former busy training schedule. It was temporary, though life for them would
never be the same again.
I read lots of training books in all that down time I
had. Played games and watched movies
too. That was my life for just under
three months. A c-section was planned
for April 7, 2015. I would be 35 weeks and 3 days along I did end up in the
hospital for another weekend in Feb.
Other than that it was pretty smooth sailing until that last
weekend. I developed a PUPPPs rash the
Fri. before the surgery. Too bad that
has nothing to do with puppies. I was
horribly, horribly itchy!
Tuesday, April 7, 2015 was one heck of a day! Nervous, excited, terrified, thrilled, I
covered the full range of emotions! The
day didn’t go exactly how I wanted it to go.
I’d made a birth plan that seemed to be completely ignored. Despite that the surgery went well and we had
three healthy babies, two girls and a boy.
Noah spent one night in the NICU due to some minor breathing
issues. The next morning he joined his
sisters, Evelyn (Evee) and Kaylee, in the special care nursery. They were there for a week, getting good at
eating, getting their bilirubin levels to normalize, and starting to grow! Then we went home and were on our own!
Well, we were on our own for a couple days. Then we got help from my mom, and AJ’s mom
and sister. One of those three were
around to help for most of the first 4-5 months. Then we were really on our own.
AJ only had a couple weeks off from work so that help
was the best thing in the world. Daycare
would be way too expensive for three kids, so I get to be a stay at home
mom. By the time we didn’t have help
anymore the kids were sleeping through the night and had a pretty good daytime
routine. That made life easier for
me. I was able to manage most days
without issue. There were plenty of days
that were crazy stressful too, but we got through them.
I started going back to classes before we ran out of
help. The dogs were happy for that! Obedience or rally once each week at
first. Eventually we got back to agility
too. That was tough at first. The girls were thrilled to be running again
and were at top speed. I was definitely
not at top speed though. We made it work
and had some fun.
I started teaching puppy classes again at the end of
June. It took a while but I eventually
started teaching other classes too. Now
I’m teaching obedience levels 1 and 2 and two foundation agility classes! It’s great to be working a job I love and to
get out of the house a few evenings a week.
In early 2016 we started our search for a house as our
apartment was not big enough for all of us.
It took a while to find one, but we put an offer on a house in May and
closed in June. The house needed some
work so AJ spent a lot of time over the next month making it move-in
ready. That meant a lot of long days for
me with Gidget* and the kids. We moved
in toward the end of July. It’s been
great! We go on walks almost every day
and I can actually take the kids places like Target by myself! The house still needs work and we’re not even
done unpacking but it’s home. I actually
have some agility equipment set up in our yard!
The kids keep us very busy and there are plenty of
other little events, dedication at church, having to cancel their first
birthday party due to very bad colds, regular doctor appointments, physical
therapy for Noah, lots of fun, plenty of stress, and love times three!
*Gracie’s story is to come soon.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
I'm Back!
I can't believe it's been more than two years since I've posted on here. A lot has happened since then. Not to fear, I am back and will get you up to date! Life is pretty busy these days so no promises as to how often I'll post. My goal will be once per month. I just updated various links and pages and don't have time for a real post right now, but I'll be starting my updates ASAP! Check back soon!
Monday, July 28, 2014
Busy, Fun Weekend!
Three different trials for two dogs over a weekend, starting Fri. night and ending Sun. morning. Plus a bonus non-trial event!
Fri. night was another TDAA serial trial night. We played Black Hole where you have to keep your dog out of the tunnels. Gidget almost went into the tunnel in her favorite spot, under the A-frame, but I called her off it for a successful Q. Our Standard run was going perfectly until a fly made an appearance on the A-frame. I lost Gidget's brain to the fly for a moment (she hates bugs!) but got her back and finished the course clean. We're slowly trucking our way along towards her TACh. Once we get that I think we'll stop doing teacup, she just doesn't like it as much as regular agility. If she seemed to really hate it I'd stop sooner, but I don't think she minds playing with me too much.
Sat. was Gracie's turn. There was a combined CDSP (obedience) and WCRL (rally) trial both Sat. and Sun. Gracie took a turn at each and did really well! Obedience was up first. She was awesome! I had her attention almost all the way through the heeling pattern. She only lost 1.5 points on each of the on leash heeling and the off leash figure 8, a huge improvement for her! She's still struggling with the stand for exam, lost 2 points there for moving her feet. Then her recall over the jump and the stay were perfect! So she got a 195 for third place, the best she's done so far!
Next was rally. Her good attitude dropped a little bit, probably due to the longish wait between runs, but she was still a solid partner as usual. She got 207 points out of 210 and first place. I didn't see her score sheet to know exactly where she lost points but I have a good idea what happened. First, at the send to the jump, I had to step in a bit to make sure she took the jump. Then, I went to reward her after a stand and she sat down. Oops! Bad handler! Last, she had a crooked front at the angled recall. Nothing huge, and only 3 points, no biggy, just stuff to work on. We don't practice a left 180 degree pivot very often and we struggled with it while warming up, but in her run she did it perfectly! She's such a good girl!
With those runs Gracie earned both her CD-C and her RL2!
Gidget took her turn in the obedience ring on Sun. I felt her attitude was just a little off, but who could blame her after the busy weekend we were having. She too was solid anyways. She lost half a point each for wide about turns and a half point for a bit of lagging on the figure 8, and that's it! She got her highest score yet of 198.5 and second place! I even have video of this one (thanks Laura!):
So the girls had an amazing weekend of trials. They are just the best pups ever!
.JPG)
Fri. night was another TDAA serial trial night. We played Black Hole where you have to keep your dog out of the tunnels. Gidget almost went into the tunnel in her favorite spot, under the A-frame, but I called her off it for a successful Q. Our Standard run was going perfectly until a fly made an appearance on the A-frame. I lost Gidget's brain to the fly for a moment (she hates bugs!) but got her back and finished the course clean. We're slowly trucking our way along towards her TACh. Once we get that I think we'll stop doing teacup, she just doesn't like it as much as regular agility. If she seemed to really hate it I'd stop sooner, but I don't think she minds playing with me too much.
Sat. was Gracie's turn. There was a combined CDSP (obedience) and WCRL (rally) trial both Sat. and Sun. Gracie took a turn at each and did really well! Obedience was up first. She was awesome! I had her attention almost all the way through the heeling pattern. She only lost 1.5 points on each of the on leash heeling and the off leash figure 8, a huge improvement for her! She's still struggling with the stand for exam, lost 2 points there for moving her feet. Then her recall over the jump and the stay were perfect! So she got a 195 for third place, the best she's done so far!
Next was rally. Her good attitude dropped a little bit, probably due to the longish wait between runs, but she was still a solid partner as usual. She got 207 points out of 210 and first place. I didn't see her score sheet to know exactly where she lost points but I have a good idea what happened. First, at the send to the jump, I had to step in a bit to make sure she took the jump. Then, I went to reward her after a stand and she sat down. Oops! Bad handler! Last, she had a crooked front at the angled recall. Nothing huge, and only 3 points, no biggy, just stuff to work on. We don't practice a left 180 degree pivot very often and we struggled with it while warming up, but in her run she did it perfectly! She's such a good girl!
With those runs Gracie earned both her CD-C and her RL2!
Gidget took her turn in the obedience ring on Sun. I felt her attitude was just a little off, but who could blame her after the busy weekend we were having. She too was solid anyways. She lost half a point each for wide about turns and a half point for a bit of lagging on the figure 8, and that's it! She got her highest score yet of 198.5 and second place! I even have video of this one (thanks Laura!):
So the girls had an amazing weekend of trials. They are just the best pups ever!
To end the weekend I took both girls and the guinea pig to an open audition for Animal Talent Pool. They all had to stand and sit on a table while getting their pictures taken. Gidget did not think this was very fun, but she did her best. Hans actually did the best of all three, he happily sat there eating bits of carrot. Gracie held her own, a little worried for sure, but she likes having her picture taken a lot more than Gidget does (probably thanks to her foster mom). She got to show off some tricks too. So now to wait for them to become famous!
That's all for now. More agility next weekend, then the rest of Aug. will be quiet. Happy training!
Monday, July 14, 2014
Almost 3 Years in the Making
Gidget played in her first 2 day AKC agility trial. She's only done 2 days of a trial at one TDAA trial and one AKC obedience trial, otherwise we normally do just one day. It was a very good weekend indeed.
Gidget earned her Open Standard (OA) title on September 10, 2011. It took 7 tries to get the 3 Q's needed for the title. On March 12, 2012, Gidget earned her first Excellent Standard Q. Two years and four months later, Gidget earned the last two Q's she needed for her Excellent Standard (AX) title. That's right, this weekend was so awesome that we earned a title we've been working towards for almost 3 years, and it only took us 23 tries! Plus we Q'd in two other runs for a total of 4 Q's out of 5 runs!
I entered Gidget in T2B on Sat. for something fun and that allows for some weave practice if needed. We hadn't entered a T2B since fall of 2012 when Gidget had teeter issues. I'm glad we gave it another try! Gidget started off a little pokey, but jumped into gear after the weaves and finished with 7 points. A good way to start the weekend!
We had to wait quite a while for our next run. The trial organization was a little messy so we didn't even know for sure which class we would run next. It ended up being JWW. Overall it was a nice run, but Gidget popped out of the weaves so NQ.
Last for the day was the dreaded excellent standard. I'd been working on staying calm and focused, making sure I took the time to visualize the course. I didn't want my brain to fall out again like a couple weeks ago. I had a really good feeling about this run before we started, and my good feeling was right! We made it through the course for a 1st place Q! Thank you so much to Sarah for the video and to Mary for emailing it to me!
On to day 2! No T2B today, we got to sleep in instead! We actually could have slept later, we got to the trial around 10am and didn't run until after noon! Considering the wait, Sunday went almost as well as Saturday. I say almost only because our runs were just a little messy, but we made it through!
In JWW I kept getting in Gidget's way for front crosses. I guess I really need to either figure out my timing with Gidget or where I should do front crosses and where I shouldn't. Gidget stuck with me through my sloppiness for a Q and 9 MACH points!
We had maybe 20 minutes between our JWW and STD runs. I didn't even get to walk the STD course again before running it. Thankfully I'd been working on my visualizing skills all weekend. This run was a little sloppy too. Gidget's favorite thing is going into a tunnel under the A-frame like in the STD course on Sat. She thought it had to be there again for sure. Thankfully that didn't lead to any faults and she came back on course, though looked a little disappointed. Later I tried to get a front cross in right after a rear cross which led to a super wide turn for Gidget. Again no faults, and we made it to the end. Who would think we could get 2 standard Q's in a row after such a dry spell and earn Gidget's title?! It was so exciting!
So now both my little rockstars are fully in Masters and can start earning their QQ's. Hopefully the MACH journey won't be too much longer than the AX journey! After this weekend, I really feel good about getting there someday!
I did learn a couple good things this weekend. One being that I need to remember to focus and visualize before Gidget's runs, just like I do for Gracie's runs. The other being how I handle Gidget's weave poles. I realized in Gidget's JWW run on Sat. that as I saw her slowing down in the poles I started thinking, "Oh no! She's slowing down! She's going to pop out!" In her STD run later, my thoughts were more along the lines of, "I believe she can get all her weaves!" I'm not sure if that was a conscious choice or not, but I think it made a difference. I also made sure my shoulders were turned toward the poles. On Sun. I really did make sure that my thoughts and my shoulders were completely supporting Gidget in getting all her weave poles, and she did! Though she got really slow, she didn't pop out. That is definitely something I'm going to remember for future trials.
That's all for now (I know, just one trial to update on this time!). Rally and obedience trials at the end of the month and another agility trial the first weekend in Aug. Happy agility!
Gidget earned her Open Standard (OA) title on September 10, 2011. It took 7 tries to get the 3 Q's needed for the title. On March 12, 2012, Gidget earned her first Excellent Standard Q. Two years and four months later, Gidget earned the last two Q's she needed for her Excellent Standard (AX) title. That's right, this weekend was so awesome that we earned a title we've been working towards for almost 3 years, and it only took us 23 tries! Plus we Q'd in two other runs for a total of 4 Q's out of 5 runs!
I entered Gidget in T2B on Sat. for something fun and that allows for some weave practice if needed. We hadn't entered a T2B since fall of 2012 when Gidget had teeter issues. I'm glad we gave it another try! Gidget started off a little pokey, but jumped into gear after the weaves and finished with 7 points. A good way to start the weekend!
We had to wait quite a while for our next run. The trial organization was a little messy so we didn't even know for sure which class we would run next. It ended up being JWW. Overall it was a nice run, but Gidget popped out of the weaves so NQ.
Last for the day was the dreaded excellent standard. I'd been working on staying calm and focused, making sure I took the time to visualize the course. I didn't want my brain to fall out again like a couple weeks ago. I had a really good feeling about this run before we started, and my good feeling was right! We made it through the course for a 1st place Q! Thank you so much to Sarah for the video and to Mary for emailing it to me!
On to day 2! No T2B today, we got to sleep in instead! We actually could have slept later, we got to the trial around 10am and didn't run until after noon! Considering the wait, Sunday went almost as well as Saturday. I say almost only because our runs were just a little messy, but we made it through!
In JWW I kept getting in Gidget's way for front crosses. I guess I really need to either figure out my timing with Gidget or where I should do front crosses and where I shouldn't. Gidget stuck with me through my sloppiness for a Q and 9 MACH points!
We had maybe 20 minutes between our JWW and STD runs. I didn't even get to walk the STD course again before running it. Thankfully I'd been working on my visualizing skills all weekend. This run was a little sloppy too. Gidget's favorite thing is going into a tunnel under the A-frame like in the STD course on Sat. She thought it had to be there again for sure. Thankfully that didn't lead to any faults and she came back on course, though looked a little disappointed. Later I tried to get a front cross in right after a rear cross which led to a super wide turn for Gidget. Again no faults, and we made it to the end. Who would think we could get 2 standard Q's in a row after such a dry spell and earn Gidget's title?! It was so exciting!
So now both my little rockstars are fully in Masters and can start earning their QQ's. Hopefully the MACH journey won't be too much longer than the AX journey! After this weekend, I really feel good about getting there someday!
I did learn a couple good things this weekend. One being that I need to remember to focus and visualize before Gidget's runs, just like I do for Gracie's runs. The other being how I handle Gidget's weave poles. I realized in Gidget's JWW run on Sat. that as I saw her slowing down in the poles I started thinking, "Oh no! She's slowing down! She's going to pop out!" In her STD run later, my thoughts were more along the lines of, "I believe she can get all her weaves!" I'm not sure if that was a conscious choice or not, but I think it made a difference. I also made sure my shoulders were turned toward the poles. On Sun. I really did make sure that my thoughts and my shoulders were completely supporting Gidget in getting all her weave poles, and she did! Though she got really slow, she didn't pop out. That is definitely something I'm going to remember for future trials.
That's all for now (I know, just one trial to update on this time!). Rally and obedience trials at the end of the month and another agility trial the first weekend in Aug. Happy agility!
Monday, June 30, 2014
June Trials
You guessed it, an update on 3 more trials! Gidget in TDAA, Gracie in AKC, and Gidget AKC (all agility).
Not much to say about the TDAA trial. Gidget did well as usual and qualified in both her standard and games runs. The game was Blackjack where you have to get exactly 21 points to qualify. Luckily math is a strong suit of mine and Gidget was happy to stick with my plan. We qualify in teacup very consistently, though I'm pretty sure Gidget doesn't enjoy it near as much as full sized agility. She likes to run full out which she can't really do in the tight spacing of TDAA. A Border Terrier in teacup may seem like a Border Collie in full size agility, but Gidget in teacup seems more like a Great Dane in full size agility. (I've always wanted a Great Dane!)
Gracie's trial was the next day and was pretty hot and sticky, though Sat. started off cool. Gracie and heat don't seem to mix well. I don't think she was very stressed this weekend. Her biggest issue was getting distracted while weaving.
Our first JWW run had the weaves as the second obstacle and she started out strong, but spotted (or maybe heard) the camera lady straight ahead of the poles. So she stopped weaving to check that out. Second try at the weaves went fine, but she paused between the last two poles to look at the photographer again (there's picture proof of that one). Then a couple obstacles later she came out of a tunnel with a hint of the zoomies that sent her around one jump but she quickly refocused and finished the course nicely. If anyone has a large camera lens and wants to help proof Gracie on her weaves please let me know. Also open to other proofing ideas.
Sat. STD was slow but steady. We got through all the challenges and Gracie stuck it out through the weaves for our very first Masters STD Q! This is when the building was getting very warm so we only got 6 speed points. We'll take what we can get.
Sun. was warm again so our runs were slow again. The thing that made me more happy though was what happened at the start line for both runs. Gracie did a high hand touch before each run! She'll normally do them outside the ring and in class, but this was the first time she's done them in the trial ring! Yay girlie!
JWW was our qualifying run this day. She was slow in places, but we got our average number of speed points, 7. She was so slow in the weaves she had me worried she was going to pop out, but she stuck with it!
Sun. STD was really an awesome run up until the last 3 obstacles. We were just connected more than we have been in a long time. We lost that connection at the weaves when she spotted something outside the ring. She popped out then got them the second try, but she ran right past the last jump looking toward the exit. She came back and took the jump in such a way that a refusal wasn't called, but still NQ for us.
Thank you so much to Rita and Judy who helped me with Gracie and took video for me. It is greatly appreciated!
Gidget just did a one day trial and I'm pretty happy with how she did even though we didn't Q in either run. Her JWW run was just pretty. She responded well to my front crosses in all but one spot (I should have done a rear cross) and she was fast (almost 4.5 yps with having to restart the weaves!) She was too fast going into the weaves and slipped so we had to start over. Oh well, we do need to work her entries though.
My brain disappeared for Gidget's STD run. I set her up on the wrong side of the first jump! Then there were two other places that I should have been better prepared or done something differently. Gidget missed her weave entry again and it was just coming from the table, I think that one's on her. Like I said, we need to work on her entries. She really looked nice between all my screw ups and she stuck with me too. We've come a long way since the last time we were at Soccerblast over a year ago.
Thanks Sue for taking video for us and letting me sit in your chair!
The last thing to update is Gracie's new class. She taking a ring confidence class which Gidget should also benefit from. We're only 2 weeks in and we've already learned a lot. We practiced what we learned in the first class at Gracie's agility trial too. (Sorry Laura, I know you said no ring stuff till after the class, but what we learned that first week really helped us and she has nothing scheduled until after class now.) The class is based on Denise Fenzi's teachings. I'll write a more comprehensive post on it closer to the end of the class.
That's all for now. Gidget will have her first 2 day AKC trial coming up and another TDAA night. Then both girls will have an obedience trial at the very end of July. Happy agility!
Not much to say about the TDAA trial. Gidget did well as usual and qualified in both her standard and games runs. The game was Blackjack where you have to get exactly 21 points to qualify. Luckily math is a strong suit of mine and Gidget was happy to stick with my plan. We qualify in teacup very consistently, though I'm pretty sure Gidget doesn't enjoy it near as much as full sized agility. She likes to run full out which she can't really do in the tight spacing of TDAA. A Border Terrier in teacup may seem like a Border Collie in full size agility, but Gidget in teacup seems more like a Great Dane in full size agility. (I've always wanted a Great Dane!)
Gracie's trial was the next day and was pretty hot and sticky, though Sat. started off cool. Gracie and heat don't seem to mix well. I don't think she was very stressed this weekend. Her biggest issue was getting distracted while weaving.
Our first JWW run had the weaves as the second obstacle and she started out strong, but spotted (or maybe heard) the camera lady straight ahead of the poles. So she stopped weaving to check that out. Second try at the weaves went fine, but she paused between the last two poles to look at the photographer again (there's picture proof of that one). Then a couple obstacles later she came out of a tunnel with a hint of the zoomies that sent her around one jump but she quickly refocused and finished the course nicely. If anyone has a large camera lens and wants to help proof Gracie on her weaves please let me know. Also open to other proofing ideas.
Sat. STD was slow but steady. We got through all the challenges and Gracie stuck it out through the weaves for our very first Masters STD Q! This is when the building was getting very warm so we only got 6 speed points. We'll take what we can get.
Sun. was warm again so our runs were slow again. The thing that made me more happy though was what happened at the start line for both runs. Gracie did a high hand touch before each run! She'll normally do them outside the ring and in class, but this was the first time she's done them in the trial ring! Yay girlie!
JWW was our qualifying run this day. She was slow in places, but we got our average number of speed points, 7. She was so slow in the weaves she had me worried she was going to pop out, but she stuck with it!
Sun. STD was really an awesome run up until the last 3 obstacles. We were just connected more than we have been in a long time. We lost that connection at the weaves when she spotted something outside the ring. She popped out then got them the second try, but she ran right past the last jump looking toward the exit. She came back and took the jump in such a way that a refusal wasn't called, but still NQ for us.
Thank you so much to Rita and Judy who helped me with Gracie and took video for me. It is greatly appreciated!
Gidget just did a one day trial and I'm pretty happy with how she did even though we didn't Q in either run. Her JWW run was just pretty. She responded well to my front crosses in all but one spot (I should have done a rear cross) and she was fast (almost 4.5 yps with having to restart the weaves!) She was too fast going into the weaves and slipped so we had to start over. Oh well, we do need to work her entries though.
My brain disappeared for Gidget's STD run. I set her up on the wrong side of the first jump! Then there were two other places that I should have been better prepared or done something differently. Gidget missed her weave entry again and it was just coming from the table, I think that one's on her. Like I said, we need to work on her entries. She really looked nice between all my screw ups and she stuck with me too. We've come a long way since the last time we were at Soccerblast over a year ago.
Thanks Sue for taking video for us and letting me sit in your chair!
The last thing to update is Gracie's new class. She taking a ring confidence class which Gidget should also benefit from. We're only 2 weeks in and we've already learned a lot. We practiced what we learned in the first class at Gracie's agility trial too. (Sorry Laura, I know you said no ring stuff till after the class, but what we learned that first week really helped us and she has nothing scheduled until after class now.) The class is based on Denise Fenzi's teachings. I'll write a more comprehensive post on it closer to the end of the class.
That's all for now. Gidget will have her first 2 day AKC trial coming up and another TDAA night. Then both girls will have an obedience trial at the very end of July. Happy agility!
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Three More Trials Please!
Apparently I'm doing trials in threes lately. This time it's obedience, agility, and nose work!
Obedience: The girls and I spent a Sat. morning at a CDSP trial with each dog having one run each. Gidget was up first in Nov C. She was awesome again, which is even more impressive since it was a location she'd only been to once before. She even got the same score as last time, 197.5, but instead of coming in 1st like last time, she came in 4th. There were some really awesome teams there! 1st place got 199, 2nd got 198.5, 3rd got 198, and Gidget was 4th. I didn't look at the score sheet, but my general feeling is that she's losing points in our heeling at the start. It's like she's using that as a warm up. I do warm up with her before we go in the ring, we just need some work getting her to realize that she needs to be on right when we enter the ring, not after the first exercise.
Gracie's turn in Nov B wasn't so pretty. She'd never been to this location before and their flooring is turf-like. Gracie spent most of our heeling trying to stop and sniff the floor. Her figure 8 was better but still not great. As usual she was miss wiggles for her moving stand and exam, but she passed it. I can't complain too much about her recall and her stay though. She finished with a 187.5 and 1st place. Gidget started out looking similar to how Gracie is doing in obedience so far, so I'm not too concerned that she'll eventually catch up.
Agility: We headed down to La Crosse for an agility day with both dogs. It was a one little thing kind of day. JWW was up first. Both girls had the same refusal. I didn't turn them tight enough over the jump before the weaves and they missed the entry. Gracie had a second refusal but I'm not sure what it was. I was really pleased with how both girls ran this course, especially Gidget. Even with the weave redoes they both had pretty decent times. Gidget started off a little unfocused but quickly kicked it into gear. Had she not missed the weave entry she might of hit 5 YPS she was so fast! Unfortunately no video for Gracie, but here is Gidget's:
Standard was up next. Again one little thing for both, just not the same thing this time. Gracie popped out at the end of the weaves so we had to redo that. Gidget came back out of the chute after I rear crossed it. I should have known better, she's had chute issues in the past, why would she be ok with me crossing behind her while she's in there? Something to work on. I was very pleased with the rest of her run! Gracie's run was a little rough. She was a little slow on her contacts and wouldn't lay down on the table, plus popping out of the weaves. I take that as stress since she ran wonderfully in practice on Thur. Maybe Gracie's going through some of the same motivation issues Gidget went through a few years ago, or her anal glands are bothering her more than she's letting on. Only got the end of Gracie's run, camera issues, but here's that and Gidget's run:
Time 2 beat was up last, but just for Gracie. It only took all day, but she finally got her weaves on the first try. She was even slower on the teeter this time, but otherwise she ran nicely and got 1st place and 10 points! We're over half way to her title!
Nose Work: Gidget and I went to an ORT (odor recognition test) last night. She got to test for birch. It was a pretty easy deal. We waited in our car for Gidget's turn. There was a practice station to stop at before going into the test. Gidget took a minute to focus there (it was outside) but figured it out plenty quick. Then we went inside and dried off our feet before going into the testing room. An ORT consists of 11 blank boxes and one box that looks identical but has the odor in it all lined up in two rows. I got Gidget pointed in the right direction and off we went. We headed down the left row and Gidget passed them all pretty quickly. I don't think she was quite working yet, just moving. We got to the end of the row where Gidget often stops and looks at me in a way that can be easily mistaken as an alert. Thankfully she didn't do this here, she moved forward like she wanted to check out the rest of the room and visit. So I turned myself so that the rest of the boxes were more obvious to her and she headed down that row. Part way down the row she stopped and made a sharp turn back to one of the boxes. She had caught sent! She bounced back and forth between a couple boxes and then looked up at me, but she didn't look convinced so we moved on. Good thing I didn't think that was it, because I would have been wrong. Turns out she was catching scent bouncing off those boxes from the actual odor box behind me. I was blocking the path to the source so Gidget couldn't follow it. We finished the second row and started back down the first row. This time when Gidget's head snapped to a box and she looked up at me it was the real thing. She looked much more convinced this time and looked back and forth between me and the box like she was insisting. So I called, "Alert" and everyone in the room cheered! We passed our first ORT, she had found the box in 24 seconds! We are now eligible to compete in the first level of nose work trials. We just have to wait for one to be held around here. Then we have to do two more ORTs, one for anise and one for clove. Those are the scents used in levels 2 and 3.
Now we have no more trials until the end of June when the girls each have their own agility trials. And there will be 3 agility trials there too. TDAA for Gidget, AKC for Gracie, and AKC for Gidget. No obedience until July. Then who knows what! Happy trialing!
Obedience: The girls and I spent a Sat. morning at a CDSP trial with each dog having one run each. Gidget was up first in Nov C. She was awesome again, which is even more impressive since it was a location she'd only been to once before. She even got the same score as last time, 197.5, but instead of coming in 1st like last time, she came in 4th. There were some really awesome teams there! 1st place got 199, 2nd got 198.5, 3rd got 198, and Gidget was 4th. I didn't look at the score sheet, but my general feeling is that she's losing points in our heeling at the start. It's like she's using that as a warm up. I do warm up with her before we go in the ring, we just need some work getting her to realize that she needs to be on right when we enter the ring, not after the first exercise.
Gracie's turn in Nov B wasn't so pretty. She'd never been to this location before and their flooring is turf-like. Gracie spent most of our heeling trying to stop and sniff the floor. Her figure 8 was better but still not great. As usual she was miss wiggles for her moving stand and exam, but she passed it. I can't complain too much about her recall and her stay though. She finished with a 187.5 and 1st place. Gidget started out looking similar to how Gracie is doing in obedience so far, so I'm not too concerned that she'll eventually catch up.
Agility: We headed down to La Crosse for an agility day with both dogs. It was a one little thing kind of day. JWW was up first. Both girls had the same refusal. I didn't turn them tight enough over the jump before the weaves and they missed the entry. Gracie had a second refusal but I'm not sure what it was. I was really pleased with how both girls ran this course, especially Gidget. Even with the weave redoes they both had pretty decent times. Gidget started off a little unfocused but quickly kicked it into gear. Had she not missed the weave entry she might of hit 5 YPS she was so fast! Unfortunately no video for Gracie, but here is Gidget's:
Standard was up next. Again one little thing for both, just not the same thing this time. Gracie popped out at the end of the weaves so we had to redo that. Gidget came back out of the chute after I rear crossed it. I should have known better, she's had chute issues in the past, why would she be ok with me crossing behind her while she's in there? Something to work on. I was very pleased with the rest of her run! Gracie's run was a little rough. She was a little slow on her contacts and wouldn't lay down on the table, plus popping out of the weaves. I take that as stress since she ran wonderfully in practice on Thur. Maybe Gracie's going through some of the same motivation issues Gidget went through a few years ago, or her anal glands are bothering her more than she's letting on. Only got the end of Gracie's run, camera issues, but here's that and Gidget's run:
Time 2 beat was up last, but just for Gracie. It only took all day, but she finally got her weaves on the first try. She was even slower on the teeter this time, but otherwise she ran nicely and got 1st place and 10 points! We're over half way to her title!
It was fun running both girls at this small trial, but I definitely prefer not running them on the same day. It's so much easier being able to focus on how one dog runs at a time. I might still run both dogs when we go to La Crosse, but for trials close to home, I'll keep them separate.
Nose Work: Gidget and I went to an ORT (odor recognition test) last night. She got to test for birch. It was a pretty easy deal. We waited in our car for Gidget's turn. There was a practice station to stop at before going into the test. Gidget took a minute to focus there (it was outside) but figured it out plenty quick. Then we went inside and dried off our feet before going into the testing room. An ORT consists of 11 blank boxes and one box that looks identical but has the odor in it all lined up in two rows. I got Gidget pointed in the right direction and off we went. We headed down the left row and Gidget passed them all pretty quickly. I don't think she was quite working yet, just moving. We got to the end of the row where Gidget often stops and looks at me in a way that can be easily mistaken as an alert. Thankfully she didn't do this here, she moved forward like she wanted to check out the rest of the room and visit. So I turned myself so that the rest of the boxes were more obvious to her and she headed down that row. Part way down the row she stopped and made a sharp turn back to one of the boxes. She had caught sent! She bounced back and forth between a couple boxes and then looked up at me, but she didn't look convinced so we moved on. Good thing I didn't think that was it, because I would have been wrong. Turns out she was catching scent bouncing off those boxes from the actual odor box behind me. I was blocking the path to the source so Gidget couldn't follow it. We finished the second row and started back down the first row. This time when Gidget's head snapped to a box and she looked up at me it was the real thing. She looked much more convinced this time and looked back and forth between me and the box like she was insisting. So I called, "Alert" and everyone in the room cheered! We passed our first ORT, she had found the box in 24 seconds! We are now eligible to compete in the first level of nose work trials. We just have to wait for one to be held around here. Then we have to do two more ORTs, one for anise and one for clove. Those are the scents used in levels 2 and 3.
Now we have no more trials until the end of June when the girls each have their own agility trials. And there will be 3 agility trials there too. TDAA for Gidget, AKC for Gracie, and AKC for Gidget. No obedience until July. Then who knows what! Happy trialing!
Monday, May 5, 2014
Very Late Triple Trial Update
The girls and I have been busy! Three different trials over three weekends in a row. Weekend one was rally and obedience, weekend two was AKC agility, weekend three was TDAA agility. I don't think I've forgotten the important details so here goes.
Weekend One:
We headed to the other side of the cities for a WCRL/CDSP trial. Gracie hit the rings on Sat. and Gidget gave it a go on Sun. Gracie rocked it on Sat. It was her first try at level 2 in rally which meant her first time doing rally off leash in a trial. Trial 1 went perfectly... literally, she got a perfect score (210)! I was pretty darn proud of that performance!
Next up for Gracie was her very first try in the obedience ring. No perfect score here, but I was pretty darn happy with her. At our first halt in the heeling she laid down instead of sitting which was probably our biggest loss of points. The other big thing was that she didn't fail the stand for exam! She wiggled some and shifted her feet a little, but didn't lose many points. We ended overall in 4th place with a 189.5. I will not complain about that!
Lastly another shot at rally. A dog had peed on the wall near the start since her last turn, that certainly caught her attention and took me a minute to get her back. That may be the only place we lost points, though I'm not entirely certain that I didn't go around the middle cone twice in a spiral. Man did that thing make me dizzy! Another 1st place for Gracie with a 204.
Gidget only got one turn in the obedience ring on Sun. and it was her best run ever! The off leash figure 8 was the best she'd ever done! I don't remember where all she lost points, but she didn't lose many. She got 1st place with a 197.5 (2nd place had 197) and got high scoring mixed breed in trial. So proud of her!
Weekend Two:
The following weekend Gracie and I did some agility. Excellent standard was up first on Sat. She ran really nicely up until the table. She got on the table just fine but wouldn't lay down and just stood there sniffing. (I did overhear that a dog had peed on the table the previous weekend, apparently there was some scent left.) I think this caused her to lose some focus as she didn't leave the table right away when I released her. The weaves were a couple jumps away and she popped out, took a couple extra jumps, and briefly visited the judge before getting back to work and finishing the run well.
Masters jumpers went really well, unfortunately I don't have any video because my camera batteries died. Hmm... I have nothing specific to say about this one besides it was a really good run. Ta da!
Sunday was a little more interesting. JWW was up first. We did get first place in crowd entertainment! She ran nicely, even more on her fast side, up until the weaves again. She popped out, so we went back to fix it and she didn't get them on her second try either. Unlike her but we moved on anyways. We got in a few more obstacles together, but the second time she went through a tunnel it turned her into a rocket and off she went zooming! She took one jump while she was zooming before coming back to me, keep an eye on that jump in the video.
I did not expect the last run of the weekend to be great as Gracie is usually pretty tired after zooming around like that, but I was wrong. She was a little on the slower side, we were a little sloppy in places, and still no down on the table, but she ran clean and got her title! Gracie is now in Masters in both classes!
So we had a good weekend, 2 out of 4 and a title!
Weekend Three:
Ok, this was just one evening and not really a whole weekend. It was the last part of the Fri. night Winter/Spring TDAA Serial Trial. Gidget had spent the day at work with me and got a bath so she was kind of tired, but she was still quite willing to play with me. The game this time was Heinz 57. You had to get exactly 57 points to Q. Good thing I like math. We got our points no problem and Gidget got her level 3 games title (TG3)! Standard was up next with a fun little course that actually had a table and a backside jump. Gidget finished that with ease and her first Q towards her TACH!
So that was our April. May is a little bit quieter. We have a CDSP trial (one run per dog) this Sat. Then the following weekend we're headed to La Crosse for a one day agility trial. The day after we get back Gidget is going to give an ORT (odor recognition test) a try so we can start competing in nosework. Ok, that's still pretty busy, maybe June will be quieter? I doubt it! Happy training!
Weekend One:
We headed to the other side of the cities for a WCRL/CDSP trial. Gracie hit the rings on Sat. and Gidget gave it a go on Sun. Gracie rocked it on Sat. It was her first try at level 2 in rally which meant her first time doing rally off leash in a trial. Trial 1 went perfectly... literally, she got a perfect score (210)! I was pretty darn proud of that performance! Next up for Gracie was her very first try in the obedience ring. No perfect score here, but I was pretty darn happy with her. At our first halt in the heeling she laid down instead of sitting which was probably our biggest loss of points. The other big thing was that she didn't fail the stand for exam! She wiggled some and shifted her feet a little, but didn't lose many points. We ended overall in 4th place with a 189.5. I will not complain about that!
Lastly another shot at rally. A dog had peed on the wall near the start since her last turn, that certainly caught her attention and took me a minute to get her back. That may be the only place we lost points, though I'm not entirely certain that I didn't go around the middle cone twice in a spiral. Man did that thing make me dizzy! Another 1st place for Gracie with a 204.
Gidget only got one turn in the obedience ring on Sun. and it was her best run ever! The off leash figure 8 was the best she'd ever done! I don't remember where all she lost points, but she didn't lose many. She got 1st place with a 197.5 (2nd place had 197) and got high scoring mixed breed in trial. So proud of her!
Weekend Two:
The following weekend Gracie and I did some agility. Excellent standard was up first on Sat. She ran really nicely up until the table. She got on the table just fine but wouldn't lay down and just stood there sniffing. (I did overhear that a dog had peed on the table the previous weekend, apparently there was some scent left.) I think this caused her to lose some focus as she didn't leave the table right away when I released her. The weaves were a couple jumps away and she popped out, took a couple extra jumps, and briefly visited the judge before getting back to work and finishing the run well.
Masters jumpers went really well, unfortunately I don't have any video because my camera batteries died. Hmm... I have nothing specific to say about this one besides it was a really good run. Ta da!
Sunday was a little more interesting. JWW was up first. We did get first place in crowd entertainment! She ran nicely, even more on her fast side, up until the weaves again. She popped out, so we went back to fix it and she didn't get them on her second try either. Unlike her but we moved on anyways. We got in a few more obstacles together, but the second time she went through a tunnel it turned her into a rocket and off she went zooming! She took one jump while she was zooming before coming back to me, keep an eye on that jump in the video.
I did not expect the last run of the weekend to be great as Gracie is usually pretty tired after zooming around like that, but I was wrong. She was a little on the slower side, we were a little sloppy in places, and still no down on the table, but she ran clean and got her title! Gracie is now in Masters in both classes!
So we had a good weekend, 2 out of 4 and a title!
Weekend Three:
Ok, this was just one evening and not really a whole weekend. It was the last part of the Fri. night Winter/Spring TDAA Serial Trial. Gidget had spent the day at work with me and got a bath so she was kind of tired, but she was still quite willing to play with me. The game this time was Heinz 57. You had to get exactly 57 points to Q. Good thing I like math. We got our points no problem and Gidget got her level 3 games title (TG3)! Standard was up next with a fun little course that actually had a table and a backside jump. Gidget finished that with ease and her first Q towards her TACH!So that was our April. May is a little bit quieter. We have a CDSP trial (one run per dog) this Sat. Then the following weekend we're headed to La Crosse for a one day agility trial. The day after we get back Gidget is going to give an ORT (odor recognition test) a try so we can start competing in nosework. Ok, that's still pretty busy, maybe June will be quieter? I doubt it! Happy training!
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Exc STD Q #2!
Gracie and I had another AKC agility trial last weekend. We did both Sat. and Sun. The two days went very differently but overall it was a good trial.
JWW was first both days. On Sat. JWW was not meant to be as Gracie had the zoomies! So we got 4 Rs, a W, and an F. She skipped the last two weaves poles and bad handler didn't make her repeat them. Otherwise she managed to complete the course... creatively.
STD went better. Gracie stayed on course, but you could tell she had worn herself out in her earlier run and was still fairly stressed. I know she can move faster than that. She popped out of the poles again but good handler made her repeat them and she was successful on her second try.
Sun. went so much better! I don't know if Gracie just needs a day to adjust or what, but our first day of a trial rarely goes well. Very glad I've been doing 2 days with her. JWW was lovely! It was her 2nd fastest JWW run ever. I'm still waiting for her to hit 5 YPS, I know she's capable of it. Not much else to say except it was a good, fun, clean run and she got 8 speed points.
Last run of the weekend, Exc STD. I asked Gracie to do just what she did in our earlier run and she listened! It was an awesome clean run! She even got 1st place and it was her fastest STD run ever! The only weird thing was the teeter. Several dogs had fly offs on the teeter for that course. I overheard some people talking about saying it was like the dogs didn't realize it was the teeter. Gracie seemed to have the same issue but managed not to fly off. Her front feet came off the front of the teeter and she landed in her "bottom" position but her butt bounce back up with the teeter. I was a little worried about her back after that, but she didn't seemed bothered by anything.
Our next trial is Easter weekend. Will Gracie get her AX then? I really hope so! Could she maybe get her first double Q? Possibly, but it's ok if she doesn't. Plenty of time for that. Happy agility!
JWW was first both days. On Sat. JWW was not meant to be as Gracie had the zoomies! So we got 4 Rs, a W, and an F. She skipped the last two weaves poles and bad handler didn't make her repeat them. Otherwise she managed to complete the course... creatively.
STD went better. Gracie stayed on course, but you could tell she had worn herself out in her earlier run and was still fairly stressed. I know she can move faster than that. She popped out of the poles again but good handler made her repeat them and she was successful on her second try.
Sun. went so much better! I don't know if Gracie just needs a day to adjust or what, but our first day of a trial rarely goes well. Very glad I've been doing 2 days with her. JWW was lovely! It was her 2nd fastest JWW run ever. I'm still waiting for her to hit 5 YPS, I know she's capable of it. Not much else to say except it was a good, fun, clean run and she got 8 speed points.
Last run of the weekend, Exc STD. I asked Gracie to do just what she did in our earlier run and she listened! It was an awesome clean run! She even got 1st place and it was her fastest STD run ever! The only weird thing was the teeter. Several dogs had fly offs on the teeter for that course. I overheard some people talking about saying it was like the dogs didn't realize it was the teeter. Gracie seemed to have the same issue but managed not to fly off. Her front feet came off the front of the teeter and she landed in her "bottom" position but her butt bounce back up with the teeter. I was a little worried about her back after that, but she didn't seemed bothered by anything.
Our next trial is Easter weekend. Will Gracie get her AX then? I really hope so! Could she maybe get her first double Q? Possibly, but it's ok if she doesn't. Plenty of time for that. Happy agility!
Monday, March 24, 2014
Gidget AKC and TDAA Part 3
Gidget and I gave an AKC agility trial another try after almost a year away. We went back to the location Gidget earned her only Exc Std Q. It's a smaller crowded space, but Gidget seems to like it.
JWW was up first. It was a nice course with multiple pinwheels and a straightaway right across the middle. I had considered a front cross here and there, but Gidget was so quick I only got in rear crosses except after the weaves. I am perfectly ok with this since Gidget didn't seem to mind one bit. Her attitude was great and she got her weaves! She was highly tempted to go visit the ring stewards, especially her best friend Judy, but she came right back and stayed on course. Gidget is now only 4 Mas JWW Qs away from her MXJ and she got 7 more MACH points!
STD was next and looked like a good course. Really it went quite well. Gidget's attitude remained high, she didn't go visiting, she hit all her contacts, and once we got the entry she did all the weaves. We only missed the weave entry and I think it was because I was too focused on the dog walk contact. I wanted to be sure she touched the yellow and ended up out of position to support the weave entry. So NQ, but I was overall happy with the run.
So I think Gidget and I will keep entering AKC agility trials, but I'm in no rush to do a ton anytime soon. We're headed to La Crosse in May, and though I prefer to keep Gidget and Gracie's trial days separate, I think I'll make an exception for La Crosse and see how it goes.
Gidget and I also went to part 3 of the Teacup Serial trial. We signed up for part 4 in April too and then it starts up again in June!
The game for the night was Cha Cha. Based on the dance, you had to collect bars of 10 points. A bar consisted of 2 slow obstacles (anything but a bar jump) and 3 quick obstacles (bar jumps). Gidget needed 4 bars to Q. I had a plan for 4 bars but then Gidget went and took a tunnel that wasn't in my plan and I had to improvise a new first bar (this is the part the video starts at). We went on to complete our last 3 bars close to as planned and got our Q.
The Std course was fun. It had a double serpentine in it! Gidget did not fall for the tunnel trap again thankfully. She also hit all her contacts. Another Q for Gidget. I thought this Gidget earned her TSAD with this run, but I got an email the next day saying Gidget earned her TSAD back in Feb. So this was actually Gidget's first Q towards her TACh! In Apr. Gidget can hopefully get her TG3.
That's all for now. Happy agility!
JWW was up first. It was a nice course with multiple pinwheels and a straightaway right across the middle. I had considered a front cross here and there, but Gidget was so quick I only got in rear crosses except after the weaves. I am perfectly ok with this since Gidget didn't seem to mind one bit. Her attitude was great and she got her weaves! She was highly tempted to go visit the ring stewards, especially her best friend Judy, but she came right back and stayed on course. Gidget is now only 4 Mas JWW Qs away from her MXJ and she got 7 more MACH points!
STD was next and looked like a good course. Really it went quite well. Gidget's attitude remained high, she didn't go visiting, she hit all her contacts, and once we got the entry she did all the weaves. We only missed the weave entry and I think it was because I was too focused on the dog walk contact. I wanted to be sure she touched the yellow and ended up out of position to support the weave entry. So NQ, but I was overall happy with the run.
So I think Gidget and I will keep entering AKC agility trials, but I'm in no rush to do a ton anytime soon. We're headed to La Crosse in May, and though I prefer to keep Gidget and Gracie's trial days separate, I think I'll make an exception for La Crosse and see how it goes.
Gidget and I also went to part 3 of the Teacup Serial trial. We signed up for part 4 in April too and then it starts up again in June!
The game for the night was Cha Cha. Based on the dance, you had to collect bars of 10 points. A bar consisted of 2 slow obstacles (anything but a bar jump) and 3 quick obstacles (bar jumps). Gidget needed 4 bars to Q. I had a plan for 4 bars but then Gidget went and took a tunnel that wasn't in my plan and I had to improvise a new first bar (this is the part the video starts at). We went on to complete our last 3 bars close to as planned and got our Q.
The Std course was fun. It had a double serpentine in it! Gidget did not fall for the tunnel trap again thankfully. She also hit all her contacts. Another Q for Gidget. I thought this Gidget earned her TSAD with this run, but I got an email the next day saying Gidget earned her TSAD back in Feb. So this was actually Gidget's first Q towards her TACh! In Apr. Gidget can hopefully get her TG3.
That's all for now. Happy agility!
Monday, March 3, 2014
Teacup Serial Trial Part 2
More teacup for Gidget and I last Fri. night. Another game and another standard course.
The game was Jackpot, which means a distance challenge. Gidget and I have never specifically practiced distance work. The hard part, coming out of a tunnel going away from the handler and to the tire, had already caught several dogs. Part way through the superior class they started using a buzzer/whistle to mark the end of the opening sequence. Well this noise was a little too close to the sound of the fire alarm at home and I suddenly had a shaking pup sitting in my lap. I was worried she wasn't going to run at all! Thankfully she proved me wrong and ran quite nicely. We easily gathered 41 points in the opening (should have been 46 but someone jumped the A-frame contact) and heading for the closing, the Jackpot. Gidget handled it like a rockstar. Teacup sized distance isn't a problem for her! Another game Q for Gidget! Sorry, no video.
The standard course was fun, and Gidget must have just managed to get a toe in the yellow on the A-frame. We got a Q and now we're only 1 standard Q away from Gidget's TSAD title! This one I have video of.
We'll be working on that A-frame contact and getting ready for Gidget's upcoming AKC agility trial! Happy agility!
The game was Jackpot, which means a distance challenge. Gidget and I have never specifically practiced distance work. The hard part, coming out of a tunnel going away from the handler and to the tire, had already caught several dogs. Part way through the superior class they started using a buzzer/whistle to mark the end of the opening sequence. Well this noise was a little too close to the sound of the fire alarm at home and I suddenly had a shaking pup sitting in my lap. I was worried she wasn't going to run at all! Thankfully she proved me wrong and ran quite nicely. We easily gathered 41 points in the opening (should have been 46 but someone jumped the A-frame contact) and heading for the closing, the Jackpot. Gidget handled it like a rockstar. Teacup sized distance isn't a problem for her! Another game Q for Gidget! Sorry, no video.
The standard course was fun, and Gidget must have just managed to get a toe in the yellow on the A-frame. We got a Q and now we're only 1 standard Q away from Gidget's TSAD title! This one I have video of.
We'll be working on that A-frame contact and getting ready for Gidget's upcoming AKC agility trial! Happy agility!
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
CD!
Gidget and I participated in another AKC obedience trial this past weekend. It was one year ago this weekend at the same trial that we got our first leg towards Gidget's CD. Well this year I signed us up for two days at the trial, plus we went to the fun run on Fri.
The fun run went very well. We played with treats and her toy and got some good practice at everything. The stays had some good distraction of the heater in the corner of the ring, almost right above Gidget, making some noises. Thankfully she wasn't near the heater during the trial, though she nicely showed that she could handle it!
For the actual trial Gidget did very nicely both days. She didn't lose any points on her stands for exams (I really expect no less from her at this point but always love seeing how well she handles this exercise). She lost half a point one day and I lost us one point on Sun. in our recalls because of the finish. Sat. I guess she just wasn't as straight as I thought. Sun. I moved my foot in a way that looked like I was helping Gidget sit straight.
When I do fronts with both dogs I stand with my heels together and my toes facing out. My goal being that my dogs can get closer without standing on my toes. The judge said it looked like I was making a little chute for Gidget to help get a straight front. I've been doing this for quite a while, she still usually sits quite crooked on fronts. The judge didn't seem to say that standing like this was a problem (though I'm not entirely sure). The problem came at the finish when I unconsciously straightened my left foot. Oops! Something else to work on.
Heeling: We lost most of our points in our heeling as usual. 10 points total on Sat. and 12 on Sun. Gidget was pretty laggy both days. She stuck with me better on Sat. but had more brief moments of brilliance on Sun. You know those moments when your dog is smiling up at you and prancing, she did that a couple times Sun. and not at all (that I remember) on Sat. However, between those moments on Sun. Gidget got very distracted. Mostly by a barking dog. She completely stopped walking twice to look for the source of the noise, but did catch up to me. She may have missed a halt on Sun. too.
The stays went perfectly. She did some sniffing and even looked a little concerned about something outside the ring Sun. I don't really mind what she does while in position as long as she stays. Her sniffing rarely leads to moving. I was worried she'd move when she looked concerned, but she didn't. She spent the majority of the time looking at me and exchanging blinks. Good girl!
Final results: 2nd place Qs both days. 189.5 on Sat. and 187 on Sun. That brought us up to 3 Qs and Gidget's CD! Two different novice obedience titles in one month. Go Gidget!
I'm not entirely sure where Gidget's obedience career is going to go from here. We'll keep going to classes and see if we can actually get the whole dumbbell thing down, definitely our biggest challenge going forward. In the meantime I think I'll keep entering Gidget in CDSP trials and see if we can't make our way towards her novice championship title. That will give us a chance to work on our heeling in trials while we get ready for open.
Just agility for the next month. TDAA and jumping back into AKC for Gidget and a chance for Gracie to get her AX! Happy training!
The fun run went very well. We played with treats and her toy and got some good practice at everything. The stays had some good distraction of the heater in the corner of the ring, almost right above Gidget, making some noises. Thankfully she wasn't near the heater during the trial, though she nicely showed that she could handle it!
For the actual trial Gidget did very nicely both days. She didn't lose any points on her stands for exams (I really expect no less from her at this point but always love seeing how well she handles this exercise). She lost half a point one day and I lost us one point on Sun. in our recalls because of the finish. Sat. I guess she just wasn't as straight as I thought. Sun. I moved my foot in a way that looked like I was helping Gidget sit straight.
When I do fronts with both dogs I stand with my heels together and my toes facing out. My goal being that my dogs can get closer without standing on my toes. The judge said it looked like I was making a little chute for Gidget to help get a straight front. I've been doing this for quite a while, she still usually sits quite crooked on fronts. The judge didn't seem to say that standing like this was a problem (though I'm not entirely sure). The problem came at the finish when I unconsciously straightened my left foot. Oops! Something else to work on.
Heeling: We lost most of our points in our heeling as usual. 10 points total on Sat. and 12 on Sun. Gidget was pretty laggy both days. She stuck with me better on Sat. but had more brief moments of brilliance on Sun. You know those moments when your dog is smiling up at you and prancing, she did that a couple times Sun. and not at all (that I remember) on Sat. However, between those moments on Sun. Gidget got very distracted. Mostly by a barking dog. She completely stopped walking twice to look for the source of the noise, but did catch up to me. She may have missed a halt on Sun. too.
The stays went perfectly. She did some sniffing and even looked a little concerned about something outside the ring Sun. I don't really mind what she does while in position as long as she stays. Her sniffing rarely leads to moving. I was worried she'd move when she looked concerned, but she didn't. She spent the majority of the time looking at me and exchanging blinks. Good girl!
Final results: 2nd place Qs both days. 189.5 on Sat. and 187 on Sun. That brought us up to 3 Qs and Gidget's CD! Two different novice obedience titles in one month. Go Gidget!
I'm not entirely sure where Gidget's obedience career is going to go from here. We'll keep going to classes and see if we can actually get the whole dumbbell thing down, definitely our biggest challenge going forward. In the meantime I think I'll keep entering Gidget in CDSP trials and see if we can't make our way towards her novice championship title. That will give us a chance to work on our heeling in trials while we get ready for open.
Just agility for the next month. TDAA and jumping back into AKC for Gidget and a chance for Gracie to get her AX! Happy training!
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
A First!
Gracie and I were in an AKC agility trial at On The Run this past weekend. We had one not so great day and one really good day.
Sat. was our not so great day. Standard was up first. Gracie got the zoomies which is always a little fun and amusing, but leads to a big NQ. After greeting the judge, Gracie did do all her weaves on the first try, and she got on the table with no issues. Many other dogs got a wrong course on the way to the table. So in between the zooms the run was very nice. I did mess up the ending sending Gracie over a wrong course jump instead of into a tunnel. I think I just needed to stand up straighter. I was just trying to avoid the off course tunnel entry. Here's the video:
Our jumpers run by itself went really nicely. Gracie just missed the weave entry but got it on the second try. What made this run not such a good memory for me, but at the same time highly on Gracie's part was the singing husky. A very noisy husky was supposed to go after us, but the handler didn't pay attention to the run order and thought she was after the same dog she'd been after before. She was standing in the gate and I had to loudly ask her to move (I didn't want to get too close). She moved, but apparently not far enough away. Gracie got very upset about the husky. I was getting frazzled trying to get my treat bag off that I'd almost forgotten about and get Gracie's attention off the other dog all the while being yelled at to go in the ring. Thankfully friend Sarah was leash running and came to help us out. Not that there was much she could do at that point, but it's always good to know there's someone there to help. I finally got Gracie in the ring, still struggling to get her attention and now to get her leash off. The thought of not running her at all did occur to me, but when you're that frazzled your mind kind of gets stuck on one path and doesn't allow for much variation. Thankfully I was able to get her attention on the tunnel in front of us (you can see this moment in the video). After that neither of us thought about that husky again (well Gracie did glance at the sidelines once during the run, but opted to stay with me). Considering how upset she was I was pretty impressed by her performance. I was kind of emotional afterwards. I felt bad that I had let Gracie down like that and worried that trialing wasn't worth that stress for either of us. One thing I did take away from that run was to not try to manage these tight situations without help. I have friends/classmates that are more than willing to help... take advantage of it! I have to thank again Linda, Ann, and Rene for being Gracie's shields for the 3 runs I was smart enough to get someone to help me with, and Dawn and Sarah for guarding the gates during the run after the husky incident. Anyways, here's the video of our Sat. JWW run:
Sun. went way, way better! Jumpers was up first this time. It was a bit of a tricky course, including a backside jump! Gracie started out a little "la de da" but when she saw the straight away to the tunnel, she kicked it into gear. We had a couple wide turns at worst. It was an awesome run and Gracie earned herself 8 more MACH points!
Then we had a good wait before out Excellent Standard run. Gracie got her weaves and got on the table with only the tiniest sniff on the way (no refusal), and I didn't mess her up at all! Gracie got her very first Exc Std Q!!! First place too! See? Sun. was so much better than Sat! It was such a good day I bought myself some girl scout cookies and put my concerns from the day before aside. As long as I do everything I can to support my girlie, which includes getting help when needed, trialing is not too stressful for us. Here's the video of most of the run:
Our next trial isn't til the end of March. Gidget's got some big stuff coming up though: her first AKC agility trial in almost a year, a two day AKC obedience trial, and a teacup trial. Happy agility!
Sat. was our not so great day. Standard was up first. Gracie got the zoomies which is always a little fun and amusing, but leads to a big NQ. After greeting the judge, Gracie did do all her weaves on the first try, and she got on the table with no issues. Many other dogs got a wrong course on the way to the table. So in between the zooms the run was very nice. I did mess up the ending sending Gracie over a wrong course jump instead of into a tunnel. I think I just needed to stand up straighter. I was just trying to avoid the off course tunnel entry. Here's the video:
Our jumpers run by itself went really nicely. Gracie just missed the weave entry but got it on the second try. What made this run not such a good memory for me, but at the same time highly on Gracie's part was the singing husky. A very noisy husky was supposed to go after us, but the handler didn't pay attention to the run order and thought she was after the same dog she'd been after before. She was standing in the gate and I had to loudly ask her to move (I didn't want to get too close). She moved, but apparently not far enough away. Gracie got very upset about the husky. I was getting frazzled trying to get my treat bag off that I'd almost forgotten about and get Gracie's attention off the other dog all the while being yelled at to go in the ring. Thankfully friend Sarah was leash running and came to help us out. Not that there was much she could do at that point, but it's always good to know there's someone there to help. I finally got Gracie in the ring, still struggling to get her attention and now to get her leash off. The thought of not running her at all did occur to me, but when you're that frazzled your mind kind of gets stuck on one path and doesn't allow for much variation. Thankfully I was able to get her attention on the tunnel in front of us (you can see this moment in the video). After that neither of us thought about that husky again (well Gracie did glance at the sidelines once during the run, but opted to stay with me). Considering how upset she was I was pretty impressed by her performance. I was kind of emotional afterwards. I felt bad that I had let Gracie down like that and worried that trialing wasn't worth that stress for either of us. One thing I did take away from that run was to not try to manage these tight situations without help. I have friends/classmates that are more than willing to help... take advantage of it! I have to thank again Linda, Ann, and Rene for being Gracie's shields for the 3 runs I was smart enough to get someone to help me with, and Dawn and Sarah for guarding the gates during the run after the husky incident. Anyways, here's the video of our Sat. JWW run:
Sun. went way, way better! Jumpers was up first this time. It was a bit of a tricky course, including a backside jump! Gracie started out a little "la de da" but when she saw the straight away to the tunnel, she kicked it into gear. We had a couple wide turns at worst. It was an awesome run and Gracie earned herself 8 more MACH points!
Then we had a good wait before out Excellent Standard run. Gracie got her weaves and got on the table with only the tiniest sniff on the way (no refusal), and I didn't mess her up at all! Gracie got her very first Exc Std Q!!! First place too! See? Sun. was so much better than Sat! It was such a good day I bought myself some girl scout cookies and put my concerns from the day before aside. As long as I do everything I can to support my girlie, which includes getting help when needed, trialing is not too stressful for us. Here's the video of most of the run:
Our next trial isn't til the end of March. Gidget's got some big stuff coming up though: her first AKC agility trial in almost a year, a two day AKC obedience trial, and a teacup trial. Happy agility!
CD-C!
Gidget earned her very first obedience title on Feb. 1! It was the most beautiful performance she's ever done! Her attitude was perfect, next to no lagging, looking off at other things, or sniffing! She got a 190 and 1st place. She lost no points on her moving stand and exam. Only thing... she shouldn't have Q'd at all :(She stood up for a second during the honor stay! Mostly my fault of course. I was playing with her as we were waiting for our stay, but I didn't see the working dog enter the ring. So all of a sudden the judge was asking if we were ready and obviously we weren't. Oops! I quickly got Gidget in a sit and said yes. I never actually said stay. Lucky for us, the judge had the steward judging the honor stay (she apparently didn't remember the rule change that our last judge had specifically mentioned that the judge is supposed to judge the honor stay). The steward apparently looked away just as she stood up and looked back just after I got her to sit back down. He came over and mentioned this to me, saying he couldn't actually NQ us because he didn't see her get up for sure. The judge missed a couple other honor stay rules as well. She had us facing the gate but the rules say the honor dog should be facing into the ring (that one is pretty minor), and she started out saying she wanted all the dogs to do a sit stay. Someone must have said something to her on that second one though since several dogs did do a down stay.
Anyways, the honor stay isn't a big deal in my mind and is something I know she can normally do. The rest of her performance was so awesome though, she totally deserves that title! Happy obedience!
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Teacup Serial Trial Part 1
Cloud 9 just started their second TDAA serial trial last night. How a serial trial works is that instead of having a whole trial over one weekend, they hold parts of the trial one Fri evening each month. Last night was part 1 of 4. Each part has a standard run and a game.
The game last night was called Run Til You Drop. It involved collecting points and ending your run on the teeter (the drop). If your dog commits to the teeter before time runs out, then your points are doubled! So Gidget and I earned 19 points before we took the teeter at about 21 seconds (we had 26 seconds) so our points were doubled and we got 38 points! We needed 24 to qualify. So Gidget got a first place Q in the game!
TDAA standard is like pretty much any organization's standard except it doesn't have to have a table. Also, refusals are only called on the contacts at the superior level. So though our run started a little messy we still got a first place Q! I'm not entirely sure she touched the yellow on her way off the dog walk, but judge said she did and that works for us.
We had a good time at the shortest trial we've ever been to (only took about an hour and a half). Lots of nice people and dogs to hang out with and cheer on. I got to hold an Alaskan Klee Kai, visit with Jack the Maltese, see a class friend who I haven't seen much recently, and one of my small dog beginner students came to watch! It was fun and I hope I can make it to the rest of the serial trial too! Happy agility!
The game last night was called Run Til You Drop. It involved collecting points and ending your run on the teeter (the drop). If your dog commits to the teeter before time runs out, then your points are doubled! So Gidget and I earned 19 points before we took the teeter at about 21 seconds (we had 26 seconds) so our points were doubled and we got 38 points! We needed 24 to qualify. So Gidget got a first place Q in the game!
TDAA standard is like pretty much any organization's standard except it doesn't have to have a table. Also, refusals are only called on the contacts at the superior level. So though our run started a little messy we still got a first place Q! I'm not entirely sure she touched the yellow on her way off the dog walk, but judge said she did and that works for us.
We had a good time at the shortest trial we've ever been to (only took about an hour and a half). Lots of nice people and dogs to hang out with and cheer on. I got to hold an Alaskan Klee Kai, visit with Jack the Maltese, see a class friend who I haven't seen much recently, and one of my small dog beginner students came to watch! It was fun and I hope I can make it to the rest of the serial trial too! Happy agility!
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
AKC Obedience
Gidget and I tried an AKC Obedience trial again. We haven't done one in quite some time. It was badly timed being right after the holiday break from classes. Plus the class the week before the trial was canceled due to it being really freaking cold! Plus I got really sick the week before the trial. We went and gave it a try anyways.
It went well enough. Our heeling was atrocious. Gidget was definitely not in the game for our on leash heeling. She was laggy and distracted and didn't sit at our halts. The figure 8 was a tiny bit better, she sat at least.
Her stand for exam was perfect, as usual.
Gidget had a better attitude for the off leash heeling. This time she forged a little, nipped at my pants a bit, paid more attention, and even sat on the halts. We still lost a lot of points, but I was happier with her.
Gidget lost only 1 point on her recall! I was pretty excited about that. She didn't anticipate and her front was reasonably straight! Still room for improvement, but not much.
We had qualified (I was kind of surprised with how bad our heeling was) at this point so in we went for the stays. Nothing exciting for the sit stay, she was very good. We got through most of the down stay when someone set up the broad jump in the ring next to us. Well Gidget didn't like that noise and sat up. Bummer, we were so close.
We'll try again at the end of Feb. At the beginning of Feb. we're up to get Gidget's CD-C (CDSP). I hope it goes well! Happy training!
It went well enough. Our heeling was atrocious. Gidget was definitely not in the game for our on leash heeling. She was laggy and distracted and didn't sit at our halts. The figure 8 was a tiny bit better, she sat at least.
Her stand for exam was perfect, as usual.
Gidget had a better attitude for the off leash heeling. This time she forged a little, nipped at my pants a bit, paid more attention, and even sat on the halts. We still lost a lot of points, but I was happier with her.
Gidget lost only 1 point on her recall! I was pretty excited about that. She didn't anticipate and her front was reasonably straight! Still room for improvement, but not much.
We had qualified (I was kind of surprised with how bad our heeling was) at this point so in we went for the stays. Nothing exciting for the sit stay, she was very good. We got through most of the down stay when someone set up the broad jump in the ring next to us. Well Gidget didn't like that noise and sat up. Bummer, we were so close.
We'll try again at the end of Feb. At the beginning of Feb. we're up to get Gidget's CD-C (CDSP). I hope it goes well! Happy training!
Trying Out USDAA
Gracie and I went to our first USDAA trial a couple weekends ago and had a good time! Gracie was in starters and tried almost all the classes plus Steeplechase.
Gamblers was up first. I had no idea how she'd handle a distance challenge as this isn't something we've worked on. She managed this challenge just fine! I timed the opening almost perfectly (would have been even better had Gracie not stopped to sniff some fuzz) so that I was ready to set her up for a nice line to the teeter which was the first part of the challenge. Then I had to layer a jump and send her to two jumps straight ahead of her. Managed that no problem too! Gracie got a 1st place Q! Off to a good start!
Standard was up next. The only issue there was Gracie went around the table before getting on (it is a big table!). Other than that the run went perfectly and Gracie got another Q!
Steeplechase was up next. That was fun! We like Steeplechase/T2B type courses. Only problem on this one was that Gracie had to weave twice (she's not the fastest weaver) and there was fuzz that had to be sniffed near the weaves. So Gracie ran clean, but was too slow to Q.
Last run of the day was Snooker. Gracie was getting pretty tired by this point and was rather pokey. Had she had more energy though, we may not have avoided off course options quite so well. We went for 7-7-7 and ran cleanly, but went over time so we didn't get the last 7 points of the closing. She still got a 2nd place Q!
Sunday was an easier day for us, though Gracie may not have been awake for her first run. It took us three tries to get the weaves! That cost us our Q (at least I'm pretty sure that's what it was). Gracie went around the table again before getting on, but this time it was a big, almost zoomy circle! At least she has a fairly quick down once she is on the table.
After that run the horrible, evil death cold started catching up with me. I felt worse and worse as the day went on. I was gate steward a couple times, it got very uncomfortable yelling names by the end, and I was scheduled to work the very last class of the day. I thought about going home, but I really wanted to stick around for Gracie's jumpers run and I knew it'd be hard to replace a worker (I was timing) for the last class of the day. So I stuck it out, and I'm glad I did... for Gracie's run at least.
Jumpers was a fun course with no weaves. Gracie was much more awake this time and was running fairly quickly, near her top speeds for jumpers courses. It was a fun course and I'm bummed I don't have video of it. She got a 3rd place Q and I nearly keeled over with a coughing fit when we got back to her kennel.
There were a couple things I didn't like about the trial. The large dogs were almost all Border Collies, Gracie stuck out like a sore thumb. That's no deal breaker, but a little variety is nice. A lot of the Border Collie handlers did spend a lot of time yelling, that was less pleasant to watch, but if I ran a crazy fast BC I'd probably understand better. There were also some really awesome Border Collie teams, including a couple world team members which were very fun to watch! The other thing I didn't like was how many height changes there were! I was a bar setter a couple times on Sat. First they go up, and then down, then up again, and down some more. I got to thinking, "When will it end?!" Even more confusing were all the A-frame changes (there had to have been at least 3 different heights) and the doubles. Some heights had parallel doubles, some had ascending doubles, performance didn't get doubles at all, there were some classes with two doubles where one was ascending and one wasn't. So confusing! Not to mention, USDAA's non traditional jump heights meant you couldn't use the preset double, you had to set up 2 single jumps and make sure they were the right distance apart and make sure the messed up wing wasn't used because it just didn't work for the double! Considering how confusing it was, everything really went fairly smoothly. I'll volunteer again, but may avoid bar setting for Masters!
There's another USDAA trial at the end of March that we may try. Depends on what AKC trials we can get into. And I think Gidget and I are ready to try an AKC agility trial again! Happy agility!
Gamblers was up first. I had no idea how she'd handle a distance challenge as this isn't something we've worked on. She managed this challenge just fine! I timed the opening almost perfectly (would have been even better had Gracie not stopped to sniff some fuzz) so that I was ready to set her up for a nice line to the teeter which was the first part of the challenge. Then I had to layer a jump and send her to two jumps straight ahead of her. Managed that no problem too! Gracie got a 1st place Q! Off to a good start!
Standard was up next. The only issue there was Gracie went around the table before getting on (it is a big table!). Other than that the run went perfectly and Gracie got another Q!
Steeplechase was up next. That was fun! We like Steeplechase/T2B type courses. Only problem on this one was that Gracie had to weave twice (she's not the fastest weaver) and there was fuzz that had to be sniffed near the weaves. So Gracie ran clean, but was too slow to Q.
Last run of the day was Snooker. Gracie was getting pretty tired by this point and was rather pokey. Had she had more energy though, we may not have avoided off course options quite so well. We went for 7-7-7 and ran cleanly, but went over time so we didn't get the last 7 points of the closing. She still got a 2nd place Q!
Sunday was an easier day for us, though Gracie may not have been awake for her first run. It took us three tries to get the weaves! That cost us our Q (at least I'm pretty sure that's what it was). Gracie went around the table again before getting on, but this time it was a big, almost zoomy circle! At least she has a fairly quick down once she is on the table.
After that run the horrible, evil death cold started catching up with me. I felt worse and worse as the day went on. I was gate steward a couple times, it got very uncomfortable yelling names by the end, and I was scheduled to work the very last class of the day. I thought about going home, but I really wanted to stick around for Gracie's jumpers run and I knew it'd be hard to replace a worker (I was timing) for the last class of the day. So I stuck it out, and I'm glad I did... for Gracie's run at least.
Jumpers was a fun course with no weaves. Gracie was much more awake this time and was running fairly quickly, near her top speeds for jumpers courses. It was a fun course and I'm bummed I don't have video of it. She got a 3rd place Q and I nearly keeled over with a coughing fit when we got back to her kennel.
There were a couple things I didn't like about the trial. The large dogs were almost all Border Collies, Gracie stuck out like a sore thumb. That's no deal breaker, but a little variety is nice. A lot of the Border Collie handlers did spend a lot of time yelling, that was less pleasant to watch, but if I ran a crazy fast BC I'd probably understand better. There were also some really awesome Border Collie teams, including a couple world team members which were very fun to watch! The other thing I didn't like was how many height changes there were! I was a bar setter a couple times on Sat. First they go up, and then down, then up again, and down some more. I got to thinking, "When will it end?!" Even more confusing were all the A-frame changes (there had to have been at least 3 different heights) and the doubles. Some heights had parallel doubles, some had ascending doubles, performance didn't get doubles at all, there were some classes with two doubles where one was ascending and one wasn't. So confusing! Not to mention, USDAA's non traditional jump heights meant you couldn't use the preset double, you had to set up 2 single jumps and make sure they were the right distance apart and make sure the messed up wing wasn't used because it just didn't work for the double! Considering how confusing it was, everything really went fairly smoothly. I'll volunteer again, but may avoid bar setting for Masters!
There's another USDAA trial at the end of March that we may try. Depends on what AKC trials we can get into. And I think Gidget and I are ready to try an AKC agility trial again! Happy agility!
Friday, January 3, 2014
Nosework Fun!
The girls and I have been working on nosework training for a while now. Gracie started over the summer with a local search and rescue group. Then in the fall, one of the top nosework trainers in the country started teaching at Cloud 9 so I signed Gidget up for level 1 and Gracie for the advanced class. Both girls are doing really well and really seem to love searching for these new scents!
Nosework isn't big in MN yet. It's hard to find any odor recognition tests (ORT, has to be passed before entering a trial), much less any trials. The sport is growing, though, and those will be much easier to find soon!
Through a classmate's Facebook post I found a nosework fun day. They called it a nose rush, or gold rush, or something like that, because you'd earn gold coins for all the hides you and your dog found! I signed the girls up and we headed to the other side of the cities the afternoon of New Year's Day.
We waited in the car for our turns. Gidget was up first. There were two rooms to search each with 8 hides and you had 4 minutes to search in each room. The hides were somewhat blind, as you didn't know where they were when you walked in, but you could see some of the tins and there was someone helping you a little too.
Gidget found the super obvious hide first (at least obvious to the people who could easily see it with no extra effort). She then found 3 other hides in the first room, I could see them all fairly easily so it was easy to mark and reward her finds. She found 4 in the second room as well, again most that I could at least see a little. After our turn was over though, the coach pointed out a spot that Gidget had checked out and likely noted to herself that there was a hide there (I couldn't see it), she just forgot to tell me. We're working on that part in class now. So she earned 8 gold $1 coins.
Gracie, being more experienced, one upped Gidget in each room. She even pointed out a couple I couldn't see. Her communication wasn't perfectly obvious to me, but the coach helped me out a little. My favorite find of hers was one that was up on the counter above a metal in-ground scale (this event was held at a vet clinic). She did not want to step on the scale, so she got up on her hind legs and stretched her head around the bit of wall the hide was against so she could reach it. Once I rewarded her she also tried to reach the jar of treats that was also on the counter. She had several other good finds, and even a spot I had made a mental note to go back to but we ran out of time. So the coach pointed that hide out to us so I could reward Gracie for it since she'd been so close.
Now just back to nosework classes and practicing at home some. Someday we'll get to trial! Happy sniffing!
Nosework isn't big in MN yet. It's hard to find any odor recognition tests (ORT, has to be passed before entering a trial), much less any trials. The sport is growing, though, and those will be much easier to find soon!
Through a classmate's Facebook post I found a nosework fun day. They called it a nose rush, or gold rush, or something like that, because you'd earn gold coins for all the hides you and your dog found! I signed the girls up and we headed to the other side of the cities the afternoon of New Year's Day.
We waited in the car for our turns. Gidget was up first. There were two rooms to search each with 8 hides and you had 4 minutes to search in each room. The hides were somewhat blind, as you didn't know where they were when you walked in, but you could see some of the tins and there was someone helping you a little too.
Gidget found the super obvious hide first (at least obvious to the people who could easily see it with no extra effort). She then found 3 other hides in the first room, I could see them all fairly easily so it was easy to mark and reward her finds. She found 4 in the second room as well, again most that I could at least see a little. After our turn was over though, the coach pointed out a spot that Gidget had checked out and likely noted to herself that there was a hide there (I couldn't see it), she just forgot to tell me. We're working on that part in class now. So she earned 8 gold $1 coins.
Gracie, being more experienced, one upped Gidget in each room. She even pointed out a couple I couldn't see. Her communication wasn't perfectly obvious to me, but the coach helped me out a little. My favorite find of hers was one that was up on the counter above a metal in-ground scale (this event was held at a vet clinic). She did not want to step on the scale, so she got up on her hind legs and stretched her head around the bit of wall the hide was against so she could reach it. Once I rewarded her she also tried to reach the jar of treats that was also on the counter. She had several other good finds, and even a spot I had made a mental note to go back to but we ran out of time. So the coach pointed that hide out to us so I could reward Gracie for it since she'd been so close.
Now just back to nosework classes and practicing at home some. Someday we'll get to trial! Happy sniffing!
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