Friday, September 25, 2009

GCOC, Friday

Well, it was hot as heck. I think it got up to 92 degrees and the humidity was a killer. Just sitting there can make you sweat. The poor judges, but they never complained. Today was my first time as Agility Trial Chairman. Ugh!!! It kinda started out rough. The electrical hook ups for the RV's weren't right. So no one had power last night. Some people wanted to leave. We finally got that all fixed. Then the person who had the wicket for measuring the dogs was late and then there was an accident , so she became later. Measuring was suppose to be from 7:45 to 8:15. The wicket didn't get there until 8:15. Needless to say, people were mad. Then the weld under the teeter broke. Luckily the guy who made it was at the trial because he brought us a new a-frame. So he did a temporary fix. Then the large leg for the table was missing. My husband drove up to the field and found it in the shed. We had to rig up something for the first class of the day. I hope tomorrow goes smoother.

Now for my runs. First was Novice Fast. She did well except didn't do the weaves. Everything else was great and she got 70 points, "Q"ed and took 1st place. Now we move to the abyss of Open Fast.

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Now Open JWW. She keeps looking like she is going to break her stay but she didn't. We had a great run except the weaves poles. Its funny, the run felt better than it looks on video. Im going to be in Open the rest of my life.

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Open Standard. What can I say, weave pole problems and she jumped off the table again. Do you see pattern here? LoL Also, she runs right in front of me to take the wrong tunnel entrance.
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So this evening we worked on the table. Ive been trying to make her fail on the table so I could correct it. But she just wouldn't do it no matter what I did. So I had an idea. I hope you don't think I'm a bad person for doing this but I put the ferrets in a small crate and put them just pass the table. I did a couple of obstacle and sent her to the table. She jumped on and then off. I told her "no" and brought her back and put her on the table and then praised her and released her to the ferret crate. ( she couldn't get to the ferrets, she could just sniff them). We ran it again and she got on the table but when I changed the sequence she would then jump on and then off the table again. I told her "no" and brought her back and made her sit on the table. She eventually got it. She had a few, almost off the table but she caught herself. So tomorrow when she jumps on and off the table, I'm going to tell her "no" and bring her back to the table. I'm not sure if I will get whistle off or not. Will see.

7 comments:

Dawn P said...

She's such a stinker and making me laugh at that start line. She was a good girl. I've gotten blasted for teaching Shast to set up between my legs and crouch on ready but she's better staying there than when I set off to my side and tell her wait. Have yet to figure that one out. Nice runs.

Sara said...

Congrats on surviving your first day as trial chair! I'm sure you're glad it's over!

Good luck in your runs today! Fingers crossed that Miley sits her butt on the table.

Chris and Ricky said...

Congrats on the Novice Fast Q and title! The JWW run looks so good! Too bad about the weaves (I had to watch twice to make sure she didn't get the entry). And the STD run is good in many places too - awesome contacts. Hope your ferret-table-fix works! LOL!

Don't worry - we'll be in Open forever too!

Anonymous said...

I don't fault you for using your ferrets. I've contemplated getting a gerbil or a hamster or a rat as a pet just to use for something like that! It's no worse than the caged rats they use for Earthdog tests.

Nicki said...

I had a friend who's dog was a chronic table sniffer. She had me bring urine samples from work so she could pour them on her table at home to try and get him to fail so she could correct him. Even funnier, when I explained this to the staff at work I didn't specify that it was the agility table. They thought she was putting urine on her kitchen table!

Morganne said...

I thought both runs were very nice (minor bobbles). Miley's contacts are amazing!

Morganne said...

Very creative using the Ferrets. When Summit was self-releasing from the DW in competition (never in training), I tried to get him to fail in training so I could mark it ("Uh Oh"), and remove him from the course for a brief TO and then let him try again. I couldn't get him to make a mistake! Then I got out Sage and sent Summit over the DW, then threw the frisbee for Sage. Frisbee (and Sage) went flying past Summit who was just getting down into the yellow. Yep, he self-released and I was able to mark it and give him the TO.