Monday, January 26, 2015

Change and what ever.

 So since November Ive been trying to change Java from a running DW to a 20/20.  She isn't getting it yet. Well at home she is getting it but once we get to a trial, she doesn't even thing about stopping yet.
I went to a trial the weekend before last.  Some how she won Time to Beat. Im not sure how since it took 3 times to get into the weaves correctly.  But with even that, she had the fastest time.
We were so close on Master JWW.  I pulled her off a jump. I really thought she was committed and so I pulled away to get down the line and she came with me. Ugh!


I also pulled her and pushed her off jumps in Master Standard.  Ugh. Although it looks like she was thinking of stopping on the dogwalk.


The next day was worse. It was weird that I had ring nerves , which I haven't had in a long , long time.  Because of the ring nerves, I didn't trust my dog and I released her early , and we went off course. It felt horrible. I felt like a failure. I know its just dog agility but geez, how long is it going to take to figure this crap out???  In standard we went off course because I didn't stick with my plan to do an ass pass at jump #3, to make the turn tight. I change it to a post turn and she went wide and took the aframe.  Ugh!! ( it doesn't look like the a-frame was close to that jump but it was)



Oh yea, and I tried to run ISC JWW. This was intense because it was an official ISC tryout for people trying to win a spot for AKC world team tryouts.  If you won both JWW and Standard, you get an automatic spot. We werent trying for that. But they had a Rep there making sure the course was set up right.
One thing she, the Rep,  did  say was  the committee was meeting in February  and they were going to try to come up with a plan for the new class, I think its call Premier. (It will not replace ISC)  But what they are going to look at, is if you get 25 Premier Q's ( and that's just a number she pulled out of her hat. Its not an official number , so don't anyone freak out), that it will be another way to earn going to Agility Nationals.  You would have to pick either the Premier path or the regular 500 points and 5 double Q's and what ever else (I cant remember what it is).  You can do both, it you want and then which ever one you hit your qualifications on first, that's the one you send in.
Anyway here is the course map of the ISC jumpers run. (we made a mess of it.) I tried to FC after 3. I was late and that's all she wrote.  When I set it up at home, I had to blind between 3-4 or I never made it no matter how big of a lead out I took.




This pass weekend I went to Charleston for some run thurs that a club was putting on. Wow, did a lot of people show up. So that was good. Made it feel like a real trial.  Of course Java didn't stop on the dogwalk or the teeter the first time thur. Then once I put her back on, to show her what I wanted. The next time thru , she got it. I don't know how long its going to take for her to get this. Im beginning to wonder why Im doing this. The teeter, she needs to learn to stop. I just don't get what Im doing wrong.
Afterwards we went to the beach. It was a nice sunny day. Which we seem to have few of these days.




Look how big this crab leg was. Man it would take your toe off.





And this is Miley being embarrassed by her mom because the beach patrol guy came and told us we couldn't be on this end of the beach. The dogs can only be 1000 feet pass the entrance.  Well try putting up a bigger sign that people can actually see.   (He was nice about it).

So here is some video from today of me working Java's contacts. I was thinking if I had her do both running and 20/20, that maybe she would start to understand..




I hate to talk about club stuff but Im at the end of my rope.  They ordered new matting for the back of the building. Right now we only had thick matting in the front two rooms. But those rooms are small and you really cant do agility in them. You can set up maybe 2 or three jumps and a tunnel. My biggest problem with it, is the matting is slippery.  My dogs always slip on it and not just a little bit.  The club is spending a lot of money on new matting and they are putting in the same matting that they put in the front two rooms.  Why or why didn't they ask the club members what they thought of the matting we have already.  So now there will be a big room with matting in it  but still useless to the agility people like me, who's dogs run fast. If you dog isn't running, they wont slip but that isn't the case for my dogs. I just don't understand why they just made the decision. Apparently the board got together an made the decision.   Im over working so  hard for a club that doesn't even include its members on decisions that have a big impact on the clubs money and dogs.
  Then this lady that asked to be on the agility committee last time around and we put her on.  At the trial, on the last day, her dog kept going to the edge of the ring, during her run, and staring down a dog at the practice jump. He did it several times. Im not sure if she pulled her dog or the judge whistle her out. But she was upset. Which I get. She went and put her dog in the car and left. I figured she was just going to take her dog home and then come back. I mean, she is on the committee.   Well come to find out, she didn't come back and she was in charge of getting the judges their meals. She never told anyone she was leaving and could they take over her job and that she wasn't coming back. So no one knew the judges lunches were covered until a judge asked a handler if they would mind getting her lunch. Ugh!!.  The lady never came back , never told the trial chair she was leaving. Not even after the trial did she say she was sorry she left. And didn't help with clean up at the end of Sunday either.  This was very upsetting to me. Then I get an email today, saying thank you to her for providing and severing lunch all weekend for our club's obedience trial.  WTH???  See, Im just so over everything.
And last but not least, Mickey's skin infection still isn't cleared up after 6 straight weeks of Abx.  I had his Thyroid checked too.  Its still low after being on Thyroid medication for 6 weeks. It went from .5 to .6 .   So the double his Thyroid medication. We will do a skin culture  next week after he has been of abx for a week.

3 comments:

Sara said...

Poor Mickey, I hope he gets better soon already!

Maybe you should take a step back from the club. Some people really never get out of high school or learn to act like adults!

Helen said...

I have the opposite problem with contacts. Keltic does 2o2o in practice but runs off missing the contact zone in trials.
I left my club, the year that someone decided to hire an instructor for classes where we paid that person more than we made. Can't keep a club financially viable like that.

Anonymous said...

That is interesting about the Premier thing. I wondered what they were going to do about that - but I am still afraid to try an International course. I hear you on the club stuff. I still haven't decided if I am going to even continue as a member of my club. It really wears you down. -Diane