Perspective

Every year 36,000 people in the United States die from the regular Flu.

Running a-frame

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When watching the video of the running a-frame, she talks about fixing problems. If you have a dog that is 3 hitting at home but 2 hitting in a trial, she said to move the box up , so that the dog is still hits in the box frame. You will slowly move the box down , inch by inch. So do I do that?. Will she be able to only be 2 hits?

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This is the 3 hits on the a-frame. I still have the box a little up, which if she is doing three hits she should be able to hit in the yellow without a problem. The second run thru she hit the box, that's why I didn't reward that one.

So my dilemma is, do I go for 2 hits, or 3?

Everything is broken!

Every thing I touch is broken. Remember the car tire. Well the next day the light was on again. I took it into the shop. There was a hole in the tire. That was an easy fix except guess what? You need new brakes. Ok, I go ahead and get them changed. Now the breaks squeak, a lot. Took it back in. They said they fixed it. Guess what, the breaks are still squeaking. Ugh!! And not a little squeak, its the kind that gets everyone looking at you. The lawn sprinkler system, not working. Turn it on, nothing happens. Great, some thing else to fix. My computer, still broken. Has to be mailed back to be fixed. At lease they finally agreed to take it back. My dogwalk has been taken apart for weeks. I needed to repair the planks. Have I done that , no. Miley's running aframe performance -broken. ( Not that is was ever fixed ) I reviewed the running a-frame video. I cant seem to fix the problem. Maybe I will talk about that more tomorrow. I need a break.

Beach Pictures

Here are some beach pitures. You will have to click on them to really seem them.

B-Match

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I will talk more about yesterday in another post. So this will just be about the b-match. They finished this trial really early. They were done by 2pm. The b-match started at 2:45 and boy was it hot. At least for my dog it was and she hadn't been there all day either. She kept looking for shade. Poor dog. I tried to keep her in the shade as much as possible. I did wet her down and also used her cool coat. But being in the shade felt so much cooler. The oppressive humidity hasn't started yet. Usually it doesn't matter where you stand, you are miserable.
The first run was our standard run. She missed the a-frame contact. More work to do there, not that I thought it would be fixed already. Then I had some late cues. I was late on the teeter and the weaves. My fault , big time. Then over the dogwalk and she didn't stop. So I brought her back and made her wait. Then after the chute I brought her around again so we could redo the dogwalk. This time she got it.



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Here is the jumpers course. I again pulled her out of the weaves. Something else I'm still working on. I held her a little to long trying to make sure she got the correct tunnel entrance. She did. It felt like there was a lot of distance between the jump after the tunnel, to the next jump. (It doesn't look like it on video) . I was worried about that. But it didn't seem to matter. There also seem like a lot of distance after the jump I rear crossed to the next jump. I thought she would cross to tight and not make the jump. But she didn't . It was almost like she was slinged shot over the jumps in the curve. It was a beautiful run and I almost stopped just to watch her run. I didn't even want to look at the video because I didn't want it to change the way I felt about the run. I looks good on video but running it felt great.




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I decided to run the standard course again to see if I could improve the dogwalk contact. As you can see things didn't go well. She thought we were taking the tire again but I change the way we were going to run the course and I clearly didn't cue the weaves . The dogwalk contact she got on the first pass, I went in to reward her and when I said "good girl" she broke. Then I think she thought she was wrong. So when I ran the contact again , she jumped it. One more time. I was going to run the contact if she did it, run out of the ring and give a party. Well she did it. I praised her and she didn't move. When I released her, she took the chute and then we ran out of the ring and she got a big reward of treats. Hopefully she new it was for the dogwalk contact and not the chute.

Plans

On Saturday I'm going to drive down to Charleston to go to the B-match that they are having at their trial. I was hoping that one of my kids could go with me to video tape, but they cant. Plus its always nice to have someone to talk to. So I guess I will go alone because I really want to work on Miley's contacts. I hope its not going to be to hot. Yesterday it was still 86 degrees at 7pm last night. The trial is not under cover, so it could be hot, hot , hot. I'm going to bring Guiness too so that after the B-match we can drive over to the beach and have some fun. Don't worry, I'm going to keep Guiness on leash so he doesn't get lost again. If you have been reading my blog a while, you know I lost Guiness at the beach in July of last year and he was missing for a couple of days. Luckily we found him.
Last night I drove out to the training field and worked on a few things. We worked the dogwalk contact for about 3 minutes. She did really well on that. We did a couple of teeters and tables. Then I set up a small sequence that was posted on the clean run site. Its the exercise of the month. We did ok. I guess I should say, Miley did great and her handler did ok. I had a couple of miss placed front crosses that messed things up. I also worked a little on pulling off from 12 poles while Miley finished them. I had to put a target down to keep her in the poles. So that is a work in progress. Oh, I almost forgot. I brought a long line to put on her when setting up the course or taking a break. I didn't want her to chase any cars. And she didn't get a chase to. The long line itself seem to keep her under control without me having to hold it or control her. So that was positive. We did find a large tuff of sheep hair on the ground and Miley really went crazy for that stuff. So I took it home and I'm going to try and make some type of toy with it.

The computer troubles continue. Last night my computer deleted the audio device again and had other problems. So I guess all that work and its still not fixed. I'm hoping I can send it back soon. I really want these problems fixed. Plus messing with my computer, messed up my blog. When I would bring up the blog , every thing was right in the middle of the page with large white margins around the sides of the blog. When you looked at the video, the word "youtube" was cut off. That's how smooshed it was. So I looked on the bloger help files and was able to go into the HTML of the set up of the blog page. I was able to increase the size of the header and the middle section manually. So now the header picture doesn't sit right in the header space. I will have to fix that after all these problems are fixed. But at least every thing is not smooshed in the middle of the page.

sweet!

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running a-frame

><(Im not sure the above video came thur the post. Im where I cant see it. If its not there, I ll add it tonight. Sorry)
Since Miley is hitting high on her second hit on the down of the a-frame, I decided to put a bar at the top of the a-frame. This will make her jump the apex more and bring her into the yellow on the second hit. It looks like it is working. And the best thing of all, she did it all for a toy. WhooHoo!
Yesterday we worked on weave poles and jump chutes. With the weave poles, I could pull away and she wouldn't pop out on 6 poles. But not so on the 12 poles. Every time I started to move away, she pulled out. So I guess I'm going to put a target at the end of the poles to keep her in there while I pull away.
Miley is still going for the underwater treadmill but now its twice a week. I thought she had a couple of funny looking jumping styles in the Standard course at ASSA. The first jump and the jump after the tunnel she took weird . So I set up some jump chutes at home on Tuesday and videoed each run down the line. Most of them looked fine but once she did that funny looking jumping style. So I took the video to the rehab vet yesterday. She thought Miley wasn't taking off the proper distance from the jump and was trying to correct herself with her body. She didn't think Miley was trying to compensate for an injury. So I will work more on jump chutes for her to learn the correct take off point.

On another note. My husband has been working hours on my laptop. It has problems. You will be working on it and it will just turn off. Then sometimes you cant get it to turn back on and you have to take the battery out for a few minutes and try again. It gets stuck on pages and you cant do anything but shut it down. It keeps deleting the audio device. We keep wanting to send it back to the company because its still under warranty. But they keep saying , just try this more more thing. The last "thing" was completely shutting down all the systems in the computer and the reload all the software. I had back up all my files through Norton security. Well guess what, it wont reload. My husband work with the Norton people from 8pm-12:30 am trying to fix and its still not working. Its not that big a deal except all my pictures and videos were on there. I did do a separate back up just for pictures in December and I have kept several chips from my cameras and just bought new chips. I heard that those chip will last forever , where DVD's wont. So I haven't lost everything. But I'm sure a few things are gone if we cant reload the Norton stuff.
( Im sending this from where I cant see the video, so I hope it loads with this post.)

ASSA Nationals Agility

We made it to the agility trial. It was a rough night sleeping at the hotel. Miley barked at every little noise all night long. I kept the TV on hoping the noise would over ride the outside noise but no such luck. I tried running the air conditioner but it was an automatic one with a temp. gauge on it and would shut off. She also kept barking at herself in the full lenght mirror that was in front of the bed. But that I could solve. I took the mirror down and turned it around. So needless to say we were tired the next day. We got the the trial around 8:40. The were running novice JWW first so I figured I had plenty of time. While walking in I hear my name being called. I was being called to work the ring. I had no idea that I was working. I guess they could have sent me an email. But our email has been bouncing emails for the last several weeks. So maybe I didn't get it. I did get the emails about the running orders and other things. Weird. So I gave my husband the dog and went off to work. I was feeling very nervous that morning and really needed that time to get my act together. O'well , what can you do. We were suppose to be the first dog on the line for Open JWW, but they must have added 2 -8 inch dogs. So at least a had a few extra minutes.

Here is the course. I don't know if you can read it. It starts on the right hand side. I really was unsure what to do on the course. It goes into a pinwheel and then to the weaves. I should front cross b/t #4 and #5. But I kept thinking if I did that , I would block her view to the weaves and she wouldn't see where she was going. So I decided to rear cross even though I was in front of her. The next problem was the tunnel. I walked it , that I would call her name as she came over the jump and do just a little shoulder pull to keep her with me, then send her into the correct tunnel entrance. But as you can see on the video, my arm flapping go the better of me and she followed my direction , which was off course in the wrong tunnel entrance. If I hadn't seen in on my video, I would have sworn I didn't do that. I think I'm going to get one of those slings that they use after having rotator cuff surgery. It has this Velcro strap that holds your arm to your body so you cant move it. LOL I had also planned to front cross b/t #13 and #14 but that didn't happen either and I rear crossed it. But that seemed to work. So anyway, I feel she did well, but my handling needs a lot more practice. If you watch the video repeatedly while trying to down load it on a computer that keeps shutting down, you can really see how her lines are really moving all over the place. Which means , I'm not giving her the information fast enough , so she is having to constantly correct. ( Do you think she leaves the course and thinks, " Hey lady, I'm not taking responsibility for any of that. That was all you". I can just see her prancing right along in that little prissy trot of hers thinking just that. Just kidding , She loooooves me. ) Only one out of 10 dogs qualified but we had the fastest time. ( hey I have to have some thing that makes me feel good) I think course time was 43 seconds and we did it in 26 seconds. No other dog was in the 20's with there time. Imagine if we really ran well with good lines.



I did do my standard run even though I said I wasn't going to. My friend and my husband kept saying, it will be all right. We came all this way to see you run. So I caved and walked the course. I walked it with the reality that she was going to jump the dogwalk contact. So while walking, I practice bringing her back and sitting her at the bottom of the dogwalk and then releasing her. I know people watching were probably thinking, what is she doing? Well, guess what. She stopped in a 2o/2o at the bottom of the dogwalk. I was the happiest person in the world. She was going so fast thur the course. I know it doesn't look like it but she was. I think course time was 75 seconds and she was under 50 ( I think) . She ran the course great. She missed the a-frame contact but did do the 2 hits , so I will have to fix that. I rear crossed the chute because I was worried if I reared the double she would drop the bar. So you can see on the video , she doesn't know where to go coming out of the chute. When we finished the run, I was the happiest person in the world. I was kissing her and everything. I know people standing around were thinking," Does she know she got called on the a-frame?" I was so happy, I just couldn't believe she stopped on the dogwalk contact. She got steak as a reward for that run. WHOOHOO!!!

We had a great time. It was so nice to sit with a group of people that I knew and could talk to. And it was nice that my husband came too. It was the first time we have ever left our kids. One of us has always been home. It was great seeing my room mate Maribeth. Even though we hadn't see each other in many years , we felt like best friends all over again. And it was so great that she won the herding trial. At the agility trial everyone kept passing by saying, that's the dog that won the herding trial. WHooHoo.

ASSA Nationals Herding

Today we went to the herding trials. They were held near Athens,Ga. We got a late start and didn't leave until 7am. But we got there just in time to see my friend Maribeth run her dog. Actually she had 2 dogs to run. The sheep were very spooky and were running away from everyone. It was a hard trial with the sheep. Maribeth's second dog was in starters ( I think that is what it is called). It was her youngest dog named Fiver and she is under 2 years old. They did very well. The sheep were controlled and the dog was controlled. Even I could tell it was a great run. (Do they can it a run in herding?) Maribeth won the class and took High in trial for the whole herding trial. I told her, "I hope you aren't expecting that from me tomorrow, because it isn't going to happen". She laughed and said its never happened to her before either. It was great seeing her again. I think its been about 20 years since we have seen each other. She looked exactly the same. WooHoo, I'm so glad she won.

I dont need no sinking blow dryer

Off to ASSA Nationals

Tomorrow I leave for the Sheltie Nationals. Tomorrow they have the herding trials. I'm going to see my college roommate run her dog. I don't know anything about herding. So unless the dog runs away ( does that happen in herding?) I wont know whats good or bad. But I'm looking forward to it. Then Sunday is the agility trial. The only down part is the vendors cant come on site until 3pm on Sunday. So I wont get to shop because I'm leaving Sunday after the trial. My husband will be happy about that.

I tried to run Miley in the back yard today. She was flying high. I had no steering on her at all. At least she held her start line. Wonder what is going to happen in our JWW run. Should be interesting. I might just have to hang on for the ride. WooHoo!

On a side note. There have be cockroaches in my office at work every morning. About 5 of them every morning. They are usually dead but some times they are just on their back. If you touch them, they start moving. Ugh! Yes, Ive been complaining. They keep telling me they aren't allowed to spray because of asthma kids. Well yesterday a coach roach fell from the ceiling and on to my desk. Ewwww! I have had enough. I told maintenance I'm bring my stuff in from home and spraying. I really don't think I should have to work with roaches Today I came to work with my spray all ready. At the end of the day they came with a special can of stuff to spray around the base boards. So I did that before I left. I hope it kills them all.

2o/2o training

Ive decided to summarize my 2o/2o training that I have done. Just in case someone has some wisdom for me. I use the word "touch" for my 2o/2o command.

Sept. 2008 :Took Miley( 15 months old) to her first trial . We had been doing running contacts. She jumped all her contacts ( 3 days, standard). She jumped off the a-frame so high I thought she was going to hurt herself. I decided to retrain to a 2o/2o.

Worked on a plank teaching the 2o/2o and worked on a full dogwalk.

December 2008 : Took her to her next trial to see how things were going. I entered her in one Gamblers run and a jumpers. In the gamblers run, she stopped in a 2o/2o the first time over the dogwalk but didn't stop the second time. I felt this was positive and going in the right direction.

Worked more with taking the plank to all different places. She would hit the 2o/2o every time. Worked full dogwalk at home and at the training field. Did the 2o/2o every time. She didn't get a 2o/2o at a class I went to the first time through the run.

End of Jan. 2009: Went to a trial. 2 Standard runs. Didn't stop on any of the contacts. Did run lower into the contacts but no stop.

Off training for about 6 weeks. Did keep practicing the 2o/2o on the plank and just the bottom of the dogwalk. Had decided to go back to a running a-frame after injury.

April 2009 : 2 day trial. Jumped the contacts( dogwalk) in both standard runs


Took her to the training field for the first time in several months. Jumped the dogwalk contact several times before getting a 2o/2o. Had back chain before running the whole dogwalk. She would stop with all back chained dogwalks. But as soon as she was on the grass and then run the dogwalk she would blow thur the contact.

runninga-frame

running a-frame

The above video goes with this post. I couldnt get it match up with my post. I guess I need a class.

I took Miley the the training field today. We did have a few good work outs. Sometimes things were great but other things were not. Her running a-frame looked good. I did reward one hit in the box where her back feet weren't in. Ugh!

The dogwalk, I'm not sure what to do about it. She repeatedly ran off the end without stopping. Now we have only been working the 12 foot down ramp for the last few weeks. I'm not sure if that is what the problem is or if its from jumping the contact at the last trial. I did back chain before I started and she seems to get it every time. But once we ran the whole dogwalk she would jump the contact. The first time she did it, I said "no" and made her come back and wait at the bottom of the contact until I released her. Then she did it again. I took her off the field and put her in the car. I brought her out again and she jumped it again. I told her "no " again and put her back on the contact. I ran it once more and she got it and stopped. I rewarded big time. Lots of praise and chicken bits. I left it at that and didn't run it again. But it wasn't fun doing any of the correction. It made me feel bad. I'm not sure why. I just didn't know what else to do to try to make her understand. Next weekend I'm taking her to a B-match in Charleston. It should feel like a real trial and we will see what happens. I'm beginning to think I should just go back to a running contact. I don't what this to be a problem the rest of our agility career together. So like I said, Ill take her to the b-match and then do one more trial and make a decision after that.

I guess I haven't taken Miley to the field in a long time. We went during the day because I had to day off. I had to take Stephanie to the doctor for a check up. I figured it would be nice and quiet at the field. Well guess what. Tons of cars! I couldn't get Miley under control. I think maybe 30 cars came through. And she chased them all. As long as I was working her she didn't leave. But if I was walking a course or moving jumps,she chased the cars. I couldn't call her off once. Maybe soon I can get out there with a long line and just practice not chasing cars. All that previous work blown to bits. Ugh!!!

Whats wrong with this picture? My car and the horse are in the same field. Hmmm. What to do. Do horses run out the gate when you open it like a dog would? I moved my car as close to the gate as I could and still be able to open the gate. The horse didnt run out, thank goodness. I didnt see him/her when I drove in. Usually the horses are in another fenced in area.

This should be funny but....

Yesterday we had crazy weather. First it's pouring down rain, then the sun would come out. Then back to dark skys and pouring rain. I come home from work and its starting to rain again. Stephanie comes in a short while later and says, a light is on in the car. It has two arrows and is in brackets. I told her that was the tire pressure light. I asked her if she had a flat tire. She says, I don't know. ( huh, great). I walk outside, it pouring rain, and look at the car. No flat tire.
When it stopped raining, I took Stephanie outside and showed her how to measure tire pressure and showed her where what the amount of tire pressure should be is written on the inside of the driver door. I start to measure the tire pressure and my neighbors dog, a boxer, is running lose. Its a friendly dog. She comes barreling toward me and jumps on me. Now I have muddy dog prints on my pants. Great. This didn't make me happy. Stephanie says, Mom, she probably just jump the fence again. ( Its a six foot fence) . I told her they could stop that if they really wanted to. The people who own the dog daughter was coming up the street and she called the dog but it wouldn't come. Then the mom came out and called the dog. The dog still wouldn't come, so she went back inside. Now the dog is having a good time running around. I'm still trying to finish with the car. I'm now up to showing Stephanie how to use the air compressor and put air in the tires. You should know that we have the huge puddle that forms in our driveway every time is rains. The puddle yesterday was about 5 feet long and 3 feet wide. When I get to the side of the car that is next to the puddle, the boxer come barreling over splashing thur the puddle. I jump out of the way. The dogs runs away and I start again. The dog comes back, this time really living it up going thur the puddle. Stephanie is laughing it up. The dog was having the best time with the puddle. The more she ran through, the better time she was having. She had just found something great to do. I'm not seeing the humor is all this. Finally Stephanie stands between me and the puddle so I can finish what I'm doing. We get done and go inside. I'm not sure where the dog went. After I thought about it, it was pretty funny but I just couldn't see the humor in it at the time.

Im so mad

I don't know if this happened to anyone else but I didn't get my clean run magazine this month. I emailed them April 2nd telling them I hadn't received my magazine yet and I wanted to check that my subscription was paid up. They said it was and that I should be getting it soon. If I didn't get if by the 12th to let them know. So I emailed them again today. Well guess what. Sorry we don't have any more magazines. They gave me an electronic subscription and one extra month for the inconvenience. Now I realize these things happen but I let them know 12 days ago that there could be a problem. Now I'm just SOL. I cant take the electronic copy to the field to set up a course. I cant take the electronic copy to the doctors office while I wait for my kids appointment. Ugh!!

Happy Easter

We spent Easter at my mom's house in Savannah . The weather was great. My sister , her kids, my brother and his wife , their kids, my grandfather and his wife, my mom, and dad were all there. It was very windy out so no family photos but it did keep the bugs away. If you have ever been to Savannah, the bugs will drive you crazy. Stephanie took some pictures of me and the dogs. The first one didn't look to good, none of the dogs were looking in her direction and Miley wouldn't come close in. So then I leaned her way and Stephanie took this shot. I'm tired of traveling and next weekend I go to Perry, Ga for the Sheltie Nationals. I hope everyone had a Happy Easter.

Rear Crosses

Ive been working on my rear crosses with Miley. I really want them to be tight and they are not. Karen Holik teaches rear crosses the same way that Meagan was trying to teach me. I think I'm getting close to understanding how to teach it on the flat. The video is a jump sequence that I have not been able to do with Miley. You can see we still have work to do but she is at least able to run the sequence.

I tried not to use rear crosses at the last trial because I always seem to cause her to drop the bar. I really need to use rear crosses because I don't seem to be able to make a front cross in time. I want her to be able to do the rear cross even if I'm right there and need to send her in front of me. I also want her to take the jump even if I push slightly into her line.

Increasing toy drive

Have you read this post at Fanny's Clicker dog blog? Its very good information on teaching your dog to play with toys as a reward. ( at least I thought is was good)http://www.fannygott.com/increasing-play-drive-in-your-dog

Im home.

I drove home yesterday. It took us an hour longer because there was an accident on the hwy in Virginia Beach and then they opened the bridge for a ship. You have to cross the bridge to go through the tunnel. So that backed things up a lot. It was a long trip home. Also Stephanie wasn't feeling good and didn't talk all the way home. That's very unusual for her. She likes to talk a lot. But we finally got home. It is warm and sunny here, yea! We took the dogs to the park this afternoon. Here are some pictures.

O, yea, Stephanie is feeling better today.

I think Im going to teach a nose touch for her 2o/2o.

Virginia Beach

Monday I drove up to Virginia Beach to watch my sister's kids while my sister and her husband went to Las Vegas. Its about a 400 mile drive, so not to bad. Yesterday the weather was sunny and warm. Today its cloudy and cold. Stephanie, my daughter, came with me. We are on Spring Break, my sister's kids are not. We did manage to walk the beach even with it being cold. Then we went to this pet supply place that I like. Its called "Cares-a-lot". I actually got their catalog back home first and noticed it had a Virginia Beach address. As you can see from the picture above, I bought some items. Its much cheaper than what I would pay in South Carolina. The bag of Wellness treats cost 10.00 in S.C., here they were 7.00. Three dollars a bag cheaper. Why do you think that is? That's a huge savings. The everlasting treat ball treats were one to two dollars cheaper. The other stuff I haven't bought before so I have no idea if that was a deal. But I felt like a kid in a candy store. WooHoo!

Addicted to agility

How do you know you are addicted to agility?


As soon as you open your eyes at 5 am, how to fix your contacts is going through your head.

AKC trial , 2nd day

This was the jumpers course for today. It seemed really hard to me. I should have just run it like I normally would have but I was worried about her going off course like yesterday. ( sorry the course map is weird and a little blurry, but I was to lazy to scan it in and just to a picture of it. The judge's name is C. Kean) Now also remember that sometimes things look different when you actually walk the course. So I was worried about her after jump 3, that she would take the double in front of her( which would be the back side of #16) To prevent this I was planning a front cross between 3 and 4. It didn't seem that hard when I walked it as long as I was in the correct place doing the cross.(normally I would have just post turned 3 to 4 ) Well here is what happened. I put Miley in the tunnel and the ran to blind cross the tunnel to get out in front of her so that I could make the front cross in time. Well, when she came out of the tunnel , she must have saw me taking off down the line. I'm not sure if she was just trying to speed up or if she was looking at me and not really looking at the triple that was in front of her. But she crashed the triple The person who ran after me, said she took off way to early to clear the jump. And because I was so flustered that she crashed the jump ( she seemed ok, she got up and started running again) that I lost my concentration and was in the wrong place to cross. When I crossed , the jump was right in front of me and I had to jump it. There was nothing I could do. After I got myself back together , the rest of the run was beautiful. I will post the edited run here. I cut out the beginning because I hate seeing it and feel it is all my fault. Someone was wearing a shirt today that said, "great dog, slap the handler". I should have been wearing that. The judge did tell me she probably wouldnt put a triple after the tunnel again. Another dog slammed into the side post of the triple. I watched a lot of the excellent group, which had to same begining, I didnt see any prolbems. So it was my fault.

Someone came and talked to me about my contacts. She said that sometimes when you put pressure on the dog, to try and make them stop, it actually makes them jump the contact. So maybe that is why she jumped even higher up yesterday. When I looked at the standard course for today, it started tire to the dogwalk. I started thinking that I never put pressure on her to stop at home. We practice with me running by. So I thought I would give it a try. My plan was to do just the tire to the dogwalk and then leave the course no matter what happens. If she stopped, have a party. If she doesn't stop, well we are leaving the ring anyway. ( not in a bad way, just run out of the ring. ) When it was our turn, I did just that. Tire to the dogwalk. I didn't feel like I slowed down on the dogwalk. Miley took a huge jump of the dogwalk. So we ran out of the ring. She did go over the A-frame when we left ( oops) . I didn't see what she did. But I was told she had a nice running a-frame. Go figure. It must be me , huh? Karen Holik was at the trial this weekend. She said, I slowed while miley was going over the dogwalk. But after seeing her, she feels Miley still doesn't understand her job. So lots of training.

GCOC trial

Well, we had lots of problems. First ,lets go with the good. She didn't break any start line stays, thought about it, but didn't. She didn't start running her own course. She did get on the table and did the weaves correctly except once when we were off course and she backed a jump which made the entry into the weaves impossible. And at the end of the runs, she came to my side when called. The bad, she jumped her contacts big time. By the end of the day, she took flying leaps off the dog walk.



Novice Standard

So after this run, I decided to work a 2o/2o on the bleachers. We practiced several times during the day, running across and stopping. I had planned to do Novice fast, which had a dogwalk in it.

Our next run was Open JWW. I'm not sure what happened but there was a dummy jump next to the jump she was suppose to take. She took the dummy jump. It looks like she didnt read the cue, and instead of coming with me to the right, she went straight ahead. So then she realized that I was going right and she took the back side of the right jump. But since she took the jump the wrong way, she couldn't get into the weaves right and had to go in at the 2nd pole. I could have fixed it, but I just left it. Then I didn't get my front cross in and had to rear cross. Then she dropped a bar after a rear cross a little later. So you can see things just fell apart.

Open JWW

The last run was Novice fast. I really didn't care about this run except to try and make her do a 2o/2o. I was not successful. She really took a flying leap. Twice. The funny part is we Q ed and took 2nd place with 61 points in 27 seconds. That just struck me as funny.

Novice Fast

I didn't hear the judge say, "nice run" after my dog ran. Hmmm, wonder why? LOL

So what is my plan. I don't know, but I'm not letting her run standard tomorrow. She will just run JWW.

I survived!

Well , I survived the field trip. It was a looong day. Nothing terrible happened. Just one sick kid with vomiting. One thing I'm learning about 6th grades is they over react. I'm not sure why. Ive taken care of all age level kids but Im just not prepared for kids acting this way. On Monday , I get a call over the walkie that a kid is having stomach pain at recess and I need to come get her with a wheel chair. You can hear over the radio the kid screaming bloody murder. So I go out there expecting something bad, and when I get there she is walking around. I still take her to the health room in the wheel chair. I have her lie down, press all over her stomach. Nothing seems wrong. Stomach not tender and its soft and flat. No fever and no vomiting. So I let her rest. Twenty minutes later she says, "I feel better now, I'm going to class". You could have knocked me off my chair. How can you be screaming bloody murder one minute and fine the next. I don't know, but you can if your a 6th grader.

Last night I worked Miley in the back yard. We did some pinwheels and 2o/2o. I was so excited. She nailed her 2o/2o every time. I could just say "touch" and she would jump onto the board in the right place. It was awesome. I could stay behind her and not move and she would drive down the board into the 2o/2o position. I was thinking, By George, I think shes got it". But guess what happened today? Someone took my dog and gave a different one. This one doesn't know the 2o/2o position from Adam. She couldn't do anything that the dog I had yesterday did.

Our trial is tomorrow. I don't have great expectations, especially after tonight. I would even be going, except its my club trial and I have to work all day anyway. So I'm hoping for just some small successes.

Im dreading tomorrow

Tomorrow I have to go on a field trip with the entire school. Over 800 6th graders and 70 staff members and one nurse(me). It just feel over whelming to me. I know that I'm with these people everyday at school but going on a field trip 3 hours away , just feels different. I will be the happiest person in the world when tomorrow is over.