Today's Practice

This was the course from the Beaufort Kennel club trial. I had to rewrite the course map because I wrote all over the other one with all my mistakes and what I needed to correct it. LoL I wanted to rerun the course because I handled it really bad the first time. And this time to. I tried multiple things to get her into the weaves, front cross after #5, rear cross #4-5, should pull with deceleration, none of these things worked to get her into the weaves. Then I broke down into a smaller sequence and front cross after #4 but before #5 and she was perfect in the weaves. Hmmm. How could I get there in time even with a lead out. That's when I tried the rear cross, it didnt work. So I will have to go for that front cross after #4. It worked beautiful.Perfect weaves. She also got the correct tunnel entrances for both tunnels, whoohoo. At the end of the second video the owner of the field let this horse out that was apparently very happy to be free. He was kinda wild. Thank goodness there was a fence between him and Miley. I did use it to work on Miley coming but lets be real. If the fence hadnt been there, she wouldn't have come back.
The first video is everything that didnt work.
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Second video. At the end of the video the horse only comes by twice Im not sure why I didnt edit out the end of the video.


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I had my camera but I was messing around with the setting earlier. Miley is sometimes so washed out when the sun is bright. So I had changed all the setting trying to figure out what to do. So that I was able to take the picture at all was amazing. I could have change to all auto but I didnt realize what setting it was on until I was done. Luckily it was in RAW format so I could lighten it up alot.

Mat work

The weather is not nice here today. Its been pouring down rain and the temps are at 33. So no snow for us. My yard is just the biggest mud pit and I'm not sure if its ever going to recover. So since I'm bored, I decided to take Miley up to Pet Smart and work on her mat. She doesn't like Pet Smart. She seem really nervous there. This always surprises me. How does she go to agility trials where she doesn't show any outward signs of being nervous. But Pet Smart, less people, less dogs, more stress. Anyway, I figured it would be a good place to do mat work. She did really well. My only problem is she is starting to crawl forward to get the treat. Maybe I need to work closer to her until she stops doing that. I don't want her crawling on the table. The videos are loaded backwards. The second one was done before the first one.

Here are some pictures from this morning. I thought it looked like Christmas lights on the trees. Its the only pretty thing out there, LoL

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Got Boredom ?

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Consistency - Table

I haven't done any agility all week. Not one thing. Amazing! I am doing the mat work. Ive done it everyday except yesterday when I was down and out. Right now I'm standing still and sending her to the mat. She can be a pretty far distance away and drive to the mat. Im just saying "go". I haven't named the mat yet. We need a lot more training before that happens. Ive been trying to take the mat different places to make sure she can do the behavior every where. The place she is struggling is at home in the morning. When its time to eat breakfast Miley is very excited. Runs around barking and running, happy as can be. Ive tried using the mat to give her breakfast and she just cant get it. I usually feed her in the crate. We always do the same procedure. I get the food ready. Put Guiness in his crate. Put Miley in her crate. Make her wait with the food bowl in the crate. Then release to eat. Then I lock the crate. Then the chihuahuas get their bowls. Miley just doesnt understand the change in routine. She sits, lies down, sits again all in front of her crate. The mat is close to the crate. So if she accidental walks over it, I c/t with the breakfast. I dont know if she is just to excited or if she doenst understand the change. So Ive stopped trying for now and will try again after I think she has had more time to practice.
Next Ive been reading, "The other end of the leash". Right now its all about our body cues and what we are telling our dogs with our cues. It got me thinking and I rewatched a bunch of my videos with the table. Do you know what? I have no consistency going to the table. Sometimes I run straight at it, shoulders square. Sometimes, Im running to the side of it. Sometimes I run straight at it but my shoulder are turned . Sometimes I stop 3-4 feet from the table, sometimes I run all the way up to the table. So if my dog is look for body cues, Im not giving any consistent ones. Nothing that she can say, "oh, I know whats coming". Can anyone tell me if you always run the same way to the table and its just me thats doing this craziness? Thanks.

Today was not fun

This is how today started. Stephanie had a accident on the way to school. She was ok and the air bags didn't deploy. There goes five hundred dollars. Then I feel terrible. I'm not sure what is wrong. I just feel terrible. It was such a nice day, 65 degrees and I just couldn't do anything with the dogs. My son was an hour late for the tutor yesterday. I was so mad all day. When I was finally able to talk to him, he said he left class early Monday to go set up the tutoring. He thought he had the professors approval. But he didnt so the professor made him make it up yesterday and thats why he was late.

Wordless Wednesday (a day early)

Having a plan

Its amazing how much better you feel if you have a plan. A plan to try and fix things that are broken. So whats my plan. Well for my son it goes like this. By Tuesday he was to give the the name of a math tutor with the days and times of tutoring ( at least twice a week). He was to stop by the academic assistance center today and talk to them and tell them he needs help. I sent an email to the head of the academic assistance center requesting help. And guess what. Lou did it all. Maybe he is listening to me. The head of the academic center said she talked to Lou. They worked up a plan. And he was coming back that afternoon to meet with a tutor to help him with a computer class and math. He will also receive math tutoring with another person too. WhooHoo. I hope it helps. At least I know I tried and didnt just let him fail. And if he still cant make it after all this , well then he comes home. And we go from there.
Next, Mileys table. Im going to not do any tables at a show at least until April, maybe longer. Im teaching her to get on a mat thur shaping. Once she really gets it, Im going to start the relaxation protocol on the mat. Once she gets all that. Im going to transfer the mat to the table. Im going to rename the table. Not sure what name Im going to use. "mat, Hit-it," who know yet. But thats the plan.

Hotel life

Never ending mud, rain,clouds well you get the picture. I didnt go back to the show. I thought I would post this picture of Miley from the hotel this week.

Saturday

Saturday went much better. Still no "Q"'s. Of course I had to walk both rings at the same time. But because I wasnt going to do the table in Standard, I wasnt to worried about it. Plus it was pretty straight forward. I really needed to walk Jumpers because it looked like a tough course. I was suppose to be in the second walk-thur, they split the 12inch dogs because the trial was so big. But then I realized I would be running standard when my walk thur was suppose to be. So I walked first. I continued walking when the judge in the Jumpers ring was giving the briefing. I know that's rude but I didn't have a choice because they were already starting in Standard ring and I was the 12th dog in the ring. I ran and got Miley and went to the other ring. I was able to go outside and warm her up, do the practice jump and stretch her too. We had a good run, no zommies.
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It was suppose to be a-frame to the table but I put her through the tunnel instead. Im not sure why she questioned going in the 2nd tunnel. Then I rear crossed the triple, might as well work on that since we cant "Q". And she didnt drop a bar. WhooHoo. It felt like a great run. Someone came up to me and said "Great run, you must have "Qed". I laughed. I said we didnt do the table. She laughed then and said, "I didnt even realize it".

Next was our Jumpers run. Here's the course map.


I first walked it starting on the right and then rear crossing after #4. But then I realized that I would be behind her and I needed to be in front to cue the correct tunnel entrance. I had planned on being before jump #8 so I could get her head coming out of the tunnel. But she was running fast, and I really had to run full out (at least for me) to be able to cue that correct tunnel entrance. To do that I layered the jump , which worked but I wasnt able to get her head coming out of the tunnel and she went off course. Of course then she ran around me a couple of time before I got her back. The rest of the run was awesome. When I watch the video it cracks me up. I know Ive said this before but I felt like I was running as hard as I could and it just doesnt look like it on the video. LoL. But I got all the front crosses in. WhooHoo and she did the weaves even with me starting to pull away to make the front cross. Our time was 30 seconds which I felt was pretty good considering the lap she took after the off course.



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It was now only 9am. Our next run, Excellent Fast, wasnt until 6:30pm. There was no way I was waiting around for that. I decided to go home. I dont run Sunday until 1pm. Plus I needed to get home and talk to my son about the importance of doing well at college . And inform him of the reality he will face if he doesnt do well. A dog not doing the table is nothing compared to a son not doing well in college. Its been causing me a lot of stress and worry. You start to question what you did wrong as a parent when they dont get their act together. Ugh! Im not sure if I will be going back tomorrow. Its a 2 hour drive to the site. It will depend on how I feel tomorrow.
Thanks to everyone for your supportive comments for the last 2 days. It's really helped me.

Friday

Yesterday was a very emotional day for me. I guess really the last two days have been that way. I ran Miley in Open standard. The table was right in front of the a-frame. It would be hard for me to walk it without her feeling like she wasnt suppose to go there. So I sent her and when you watch the video you will see she really avoids it. So then she got the zoomies. I first tried to get her back into the weave poles which were right after the table. But it was stressing her. So I went for the next jump. She got back on track and finished nicely. When I left the ring this guy said to me, "what a really nice dog". Then through out the day different people came up to me telling me what a great dog I have. "She fast", I would love to have your dog, What a great dog". I know people were just being nice. But I took it as, great dog, to bad you suck as a handler. I realize this was all me, no one made me feel this way but I just couldnt shake it. Why were they saying she was great when she is zooming around the ring?






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Something is wrong with blogger and it keeps deleting the begining of my post.






Then was Excellent Jumpers. She broke her start line. But I was able to get back on track even though I wasnt in the right place. She got the correct tunnel entrance. Then took an off course. Ive only watch the video once but it looks like I cued her correctly. It was probably late. Then she went over the correct jump and I sent her off course with and arm fling. Ugh! I got her back again. She popped out of the last pole. Our finish was sloppy.

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After that I went to see an animal communicator. Im not sure I believe in animal communicators but I thought it was worth a shot to figure out the table issues. She told me Miley is sensitive. That she could take or leave trials. She likes the work but not the atmosphere ( all the dogs and people). That when she is in the ring, she feels like she is alone. When she is running she feels ok. But when she has to stop for the table, she feels the overwhelming feeling of the atmosphere that she doesnt like. Then she said, its like if you go to a party and your arent a social person. That feeling you get, feeling so uncomfortable. OMG. I hate going to social events. All I think about when Im there is "Can I go home now". Every time we have to go to a function for my husband job, it just stresses me out. This made me feel terrible. Thats what Im doing to me dog? Crap! So after that we left and went to a park for a long walk. Then we went back because we still had Excellent Fast to run. I got something to eat. Which I then realized it had been 8 hours since I ate. That could be why I was feeling so emotional. I felt much better emotionally after eating. I had lots of leg pain yesterday and couldnt get it under control. Nothing I did helped. (medicine, rest, walking). I finally broke down and took my Lyrica. I dont like that medicine because it makes me tired. After a while I feel like Im lugging an extra 20 lbs around with me. But it did help my legs feel better before the last run.

We ran Excellent Fast. It was fun, well mostly. I started with the weave poles. She popped out at pole four. Then I did the worse thing for her. I stopped. She started running big circles around the ring. Im not sure how but I told her "climb" and started running. Some how she pulled in and got on the a-frame. The rest of the run was beautiful. She even go the distance bonus with the correct tunnel entrance. We didnt "Q" because we only got 56 points and we needed 60. But she was awesome. We I left the ring someone said, "Great run". Later when I was cooling her down, someone else said, "She was on fire". Sorry, no video. Here's the course map and how I ran it.

B-awful

So we got to the b-match by 12noon. Its hard to believe that the last 2 days have been sunny and 70. Now its raining and 36 degrees. And everything is a mud mess. The run through went quickly because there weren't that many dogs running. They had 2 ring with the same course, so that helped too. My plan was run with Miley's leash on to the table. Then run out of the ring and give her a treat. ( no treats are allowed in the ring). My first run we did this several times. She was pulling on the leash to the table. So I took the leash off and started and she jumped right on the table. We did a couple of jumps and then left the ring. OK, that was good, right? Just wait. I decided to go over to the other ring and run there. I did the same thing and she did well. We did another run and I decided not to use a leash. She jumped on and off the table and then ran huge laps around the ring. I got her back and did a another sequence and again when it got to the table, jumped on and off the huge laps around me. I couldn't get her back and walked out of the ring. She came running after me. I picked her up and put her in her crate. Then I left the building. I was so upset. I guess I thought she needed to understand that I want her to get on the table and once she did that things would be fixed. LOL , I know silly. It didnt break in a day and wont get fixed in a day. I went and got some lunch. I called my husband and said I was coming home. I didn't need to waste all this money when my dog wont even get on the table. Im at a complete lose on how to fix it. Just wanted to give up on agility all together. My husband was very nice and told me to just run the jumpers run tomorrow. All this for one run. Not! Then I called Meagan. She was very nice and told me to go back and run another run. Don't put Miley on the table. Walk a course without a table. Then really reward her at the end. We did this and she was awesome. Fast and perfect , even the weaves. WhooHoo. I really needed that mentally. It made running fun. Then Meagan wanted me to run again. Put Miley one jump in front of the table. I did this, Miley wouldnt get on and did a lap around me. I got her back on course came back around and tried the table again. No go, running laps around me. Ugh! I couldnt get her back and ran out of the ring. Miley came to me. I took her my the colar ( not mean) and brought her to the table and made her get on. I praised her.( I had a tug n treat bag with me hoping that would get her on the table. It didnt work). So after I made her get on the table. I sent her to a jump, had her wrap it and back on the table. She did it! I opened the treat bag on the table. It had on piece of liverwurst in it and I let her eat it. ( I know it was against the rules to have a treat in the ring but at this point I didnt care anymore). Then we left the ring and had a party. We didnt do any more runs. I took her out to the barn and threw the chuck-it. I think she had a lot of pent up energy. It was kinda dark but we did it for about 20 minutes. This dog is never tired.

Wordless Wednesday

Front cross practice

I wanted to practice a couple of things this afternoon. First I wanted to practice taking her to the table with a leash on. Do the count , release, run to the gate and treat with food. I did this several times when we first got to the field. We did nothing else with the table. Im going to a b-match on Thursday and that's what Im going to practice there so I wanted her to know what Im doing.
I also wanted to practice the front cross that Im having so much trouble with. What I found out was Im not cueing soon enough. Surprise huh? So I watch my video again and again in slow motion. I have to cue her just as she is landing on jump #6 if I want her to turn after #7. If I cued her just before jump #7, it was to late.

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You know whats weird. I felt like we had a terrible practice. Its felt like she was running so slow. But after watching the video, she doesn't looks slow. Im glad I watch the video tonight because I was feeling really bad about it. It weird how your mind works. Maybe its my mind thats running slow. Scary, LoL

Im home

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What a long day and Im so glad to be home. Im sure Miley is glad to be home too. The guy sitting next to me yesterday said, "Your dog's bored isn't she?" Yep! It was pouring down rain yesterday morning, so no trips to the park. It did stop raining at lunch time so I took her out and threw the ball for a while but it wasn't enough.

I love her ears in this picture. I was trying to get the contrast between the two grasses and the sky was really dark. The sky part didn't show up that great.
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Ok, I know , enough dog pictures. Now to the seminar. It was a great learning experience. (Miley was bored.) So to start. She was first a human physical therapist. She had a dog going thur college and went to an instructor and said, "What about doing this for animals?". Her instructor told her no one was going to pay money to have their dog worked on. LoL, boy was she wrong. Debbie first job was with the NYC ballet and then she worked for a football team, I think the Chargers. I could be wrong about the name, I kinda get brain fog when people talk about football. Her interest lies in movement.
Structure is very important. We went over structure alot. Through out the two days she would bring different dogs up and we would go over their structure. No dog is perfect. Its important that you know your dogs weakness so that you can strenghten them. Be aware that they could be prone to injury because of that weakness. Catching the injury as early as possible can save you a long recovery and lots of money. If your dog is being injured more than once( I thought she said twice but my notes say once) a year, review their structure and what you are doing with them. If your dog is injured and you are seeing a Chiro, accuputureist(SP?) or rehab vet, and after 3 visits you are really not seeing improvement you need to reevaluate the treatment.
Every month you should completely go over your dog. We all did this with our dogs. She went through all the things we should be checking. It lets you know what is normal and you may find the start of an injury. Every 6 months you should take pictures of your dog. Front, back, one of each side. Then document what the dog is eating, personality and what activities they are doing. Then you can review the pictures is see if there are any changes.
Injuries. If your dog is getting injured or not getting better. What are they doing? It may not be your sport. It maybe what other activities your dog is doing. Like crazy playing in the house with other dogs, ricocheting off furniture (Miley). It could be when your dog is ball playing, they are crazy. Rolling head over heals to get the ball. Swinging from vines by their teeth, twisting all around. Dogs do crazy things. So what is your dog doing. She has a dog that cant seem to learn he cant chase the barn cat through the barn door. The cat runs under the door and bam the dog hit the barn door with his head. Then its back hurts. Just a side note: Dock diving causes hyper extension of the tail. Which could cause back problems. She is not saying its bad. Just be aware so you can find injuries early. Water dogs were having back problems and they figured out it was the flotation devise they were required to wear. So they have redone the flotation devices the dogs have to wear that dont put so much pressure pushing the shoulders up and got rid of the back pain. I just thought these things were interesting.
We did ball work both days. Yes that big wolfhound got on the ball. It took four people but he was on. Your dog needs to be standing comfortably on the ball. If they are squashed, then they aren't working there muscle correctly. You should do the ball daily for 10-14 days, and then go to three days a week. You start for 5-10 minutes and then depending on the dog, you can work up to 25 minutes.
The worse time for injuries is going from cold, to warm to cold. So say a trial starts and its 25 degrees, the it warms up to 68 degrees then it cools down to 30 that evening. More injuries will occur. Going from a warm building, then outside to warm up your dog in the cold and then back in to the warm building can set your dog up for injury.Try to do as much warm up in the warm building as you can. She really like the Back on Track coats. She would use the coat to go from warm to cold. Lots if injuries are seen when dogs are kept out in their cars in cold weather and then brought into the building to run.
She really believes in warming you dog up. And she took us and our dogs through the type of warm up routine we should do. I felt good that I was already doing that except for the stretching part. So Ill have to add that in esp. the toes. I never thought about the toes. Then its really important to cool your dog down. Your dog can die from shock if you run them and their body temperature is high and just put them back in their crate. Also you should stretch them at the end of the cool down too.
Odds and ends. She thinks our a-frames are too soft in the USA. When she did that recent article for Clean Run on the rear end of the dog and the effects with the a-frame. She noticed how hard the dogs were hitting the a-frame going up. And how the equipment flexed. I think she said she was doing an article on this. Buying a puppy. Just because the mother is a great agility dog and the father is a great herding dog, doenst mean all the puppies will have great structure and should go to performance homes. Check their structure. Puppies should be puppies and not jumping and doing equipment until through puppy hood. To many dogs are started early and then when they are 3years old are breaking down. She doesn't like crate rest. We would never tell a person to sit on the couch and rest for weeks after an injury. The dog shouldn't be allowed to be crazy but crate resting constricts the muscles, which you are trying to avoid. Also if you cant figure out which leg is lame. Paint the top of the dogs toe nails with one color and the bottom of the nails with another color. Check the nails in 48 hours to see what is going on.
There was so much information given in this seminar. Conditioning, endurance training, injury recognition ect..It was great. I wouldn't recommend bring a active dog because there is to much down time. I learned so much about structure and it now makes sense to me. We worked on correct stretching, which I needed to learn. Remember this is what I thought I heard and sometimes people dont hear things correctly. So I may have gotten things wrong.

To Tired

Miley is an early bird. She was up and ready to go starting at 5am. Ugh! By 6:45am I couldn't take it anymore. How was she going to make it through the seminar which I figured would be a lot of crate time. So what did I do, I took her to a park. It was early so that first picture is what the sky looked like when we got there. I'm glad no one came in and killed me, you know a wacko. It was freezing, but I threw the ball for 30 min. She must have had a lot of energy to go that long without stopping. Up and down this football field. Doesn't she look like I photo shopped her into the picture. It looks weird. But she was much calmer after that. The seminar was interesting. Im learning alot about structure. I'm understanding it much better this time then the time with Chirs Zink. I'm not sure why. There is a huge and I mean huge Irish Wolfhound in the seminar. He weighs 164lbs and 34 inches at the shoulders( he looks bigger). I cant help it, I just keep staring at him. The owner probably thinks I'm a weirdo. Ive never seen a dog this big before. Debbie Gross Sanders even took a picture of him on the ball. She didn't take any pictures of any other dogs. So that says something. I'm exhausted tonight. I hope I do better tomorrow since I have to drive 4 hours home after the seminar. Ill write more later.

Made it

No sleeping in for me today. Since I was coming to North Carolina and Sheltie Rescue needed to transport a dog, I decided to help out. I needed to pick the dog up by 7:30 this morning. After I picked the dog up, I went back home and loaded the car. I put the rescue sheltie in the bigger crate and Miley in the smaller one. I thought she might be put out that another dog was in her crate but she didn't seem to care. I got the dog transferred and continued on my trip. We got to Durham about an hour before our appointment. So we walked the fields around the club that is hosting the seminar. I decided to try and get some pictures. During one of them , my foot got caught and I fell hard to the ground. Like the true photographer I am ( just kidding), my only thought was for Miley not to move from her spot so I could still get the shot. LoL She didnt move, but I didnt like the picture after I saw it on the computer. Needless to say tonight my whole body hurts. Im to old to fall to the ground.
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This second picture is the one I fell down on.
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We saw Debbie Gross Sanders for our appointment. I told her I didnt think miley was hurt but told about the change in her a-frame performance. She asked me lots of questions about what I feed her, how much and what type of exercise I do. How much agility practice we do a week. She asked about the other dogs in the house and how Miley interacts with them. Then she had me gait Miley. First walking , then running. Then she had Miley play with a toy, fetch and retrieve it. Miley's funny. She would go get the toy and the go really wide so not to get near Debbie at all to bring me the toy. LoL Then she felt Miley's structure. She said Miley had a very nice front. She said lots of shelties have terrible front but Miley's is very nice. Everything felt good. She didnt think Miley was injured. But she did feel Miley is tight in her lower back. She gave me exercises to do with her to stretch her out. She wants me to teach Miley to weave around my legs and add that to our warm up before running agility. She wants me to do very slow hill walking to help her back and thighs. She doesn't like a 2o/2o for Miley which could be making her back tight. I told her I had tried running contact but Miley jumped off from really high. She thinks I should do 4 on the floor. Im not sure what I think about this.
After the appointment I took Miley to a park. I figured a long walk would help her settle when we get back to the hotel. NOT!

Here are some of the pictures.

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Good bye #2

Yes, I had to put the other ferret down today. I knew it wouldn't be long after the first ferret went. When we lost the first ferret, I thought that this ferret might start feeling sad and do worse. But for the next few days , she did really well. So then I thought the other ferret had been stressing her out acting all weird all the time. But for the last 4 days she hasn't been doing well. She usually will have a bad morning or bad day and the next day seem better. But not this time. She either hasn't been able to get out of her bed and went to the bathroom in it. Or I would find her in the litter box unable to get out. She hasn't been leaving the cage either. Today I called Banfield but both the vets that see ferret were off. When I got home, I checked her. She was lying in the bottom of the cage and had gone to the bathroom on herself. It was bad. I washed her and then called another vet. They said they would see her. It was hard to wait in the vets office. I felt bad about wanting to put her to sleep and also worried that they would say, " she not sick enough to put down". But when the vet came in he said, "she looks like sh.." ( Inside I thought "O, Thank god, I'm not crazy ". He said he had no problem putting her down. She was really dehydrated so they had to inject her into her abdominal area. She went to sleep quickly but it took about 4 minutes for her to stop breathing. Poor Veasel. I'm sure she is much happier now.

Practice

I decided I needed to take some jumps out to the baseball field. I need to run her in areas that have more room. I think I get use to running her in smaller places and then when we get to a trial and its so open, I can't judge when I need to cue her.
I only have 7 jumps that I can transport. Man, that's a lot of work. Loading up the bag of jumps and poles and then setting it up. So I first set up a run where I would have to front cross. I wanted to practice what I messed up at the last trial. Here are the jumps I set up. I'm not sure this is exactly right but its close.



I had a very hard time getting her to turn from #3 to #4. She either went on to the off course jump or I pulled her off to soon. We did get it a few times but we will have to practice some more to get it the first time.

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I only posted one of the good runs. But as you can see, she still goes wide so my cues are late.

Then we practice rear crosses. It only took 3 runs to get it right. And as you can see , she zigs and zags at that 4th jump.


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I can see why they dont want people running their dogs on the baseball fields. There was dog poop every where. If your going to let your dog run in the baseball field, pick up after it. I picked up a bunch, yuck!

I called the vet today. They said they already have someone to adopt the Yorkie. She promised me that it was a good home and I didn't need to worry. She hinted it was one of the vets. So that made me feel better.

The schedule is out for next weekends AKC trail OMG, its packed. I'm going to the b-match on Thursday and then entered Friday-Sunday. When I looked at the schedule, Friday looks ok. But then Saturday, My first run is at 8am, my next run around 9am and then the last run is after 6:30 at night. What?? Then Sunday, I don't run until after 1pm. Hmmm. I'm thinking of not doing the Saturday night run and driving home. Then driving back for my afternoon runs on Sunday. Its a 2 hour drive each way, but that's a lot of down time.

Sundays class

I took a double class on Sunday. Both class courses were based on this month clean run "Nested Courses for a small universe". First I took the novice /open class. Both class courses rocked. Meagan had to change a couple of pieces of equipment. I'm posting how we ran the set-ups. So the measurements may not be right. Use the course map from clean run for the right distances.

I did a lead out to almost the end of the teeter. After releasing her and her getting on the teeter I front crossed and brought her over #3, and then sent to #4 tunnel. I stayed on the left side of the weaves and tried to call her into tunnel #5. Nope, straight into the wrong end of the tunnel. So we practiced a few times calling her name when she was about 1/2 way through the tunnel,then click and treat when she head checked me coming out of the tunnel. Then we ran it over and she got it . WhooHoo. Everything was straight forward the rest of the way. She was a wild woman. Lots of energy and big circling when I first got there and took her off leash.

Here is the second course we ran for the novice open class.

The first time I front crossed after #4 I landed right in front of the tunnel and thats where she went. Whoohoo, she was flying. We ran it again and it was perfect. (At least it was in my mind). No weave problems today!

Next was the excellent class.

First we ran 1-11. When I went down the line for # 4 and #5 I was pulling to the right trying to make sure she went in the correct tunnel entrance that she pulled off the jumps and started weaving. LoL, oops. Then the tricky stuff starts. #10 to #11. I tried telling her "tight, weave" as she came out of the tunnel but nope, she shot straight into the next tunnel. Whoohoo, she was flying. So again we had to practice calling her name when she was about 1/2 way through the tunnel and click and treat when she head checked . After a couple of practices, she got it and I pulled her into the weaves. Then we did 10-20. Our next trouble was coming out of the tunnel #15 and getting into the weaves #16. I tried calling her name and turning into her so she would collect, but she was flying. So I had to finally front cross after sending her in the tunnel and then rear cross after sending her into the weaves. So a double cross. And then front crossing again to get her into the next tunnel # 17. These two classes were so much fun and a work out. Miley did a lot of weaving and a-frames. She had great weaves until the last time we ran. I think she was finally getting tired. She didn't even mind getting in the car to go home.

Today we took a break from every thing. Miley needed a rest after yesterday. Ive been trying to keep my mind off the little Yorkie. We took her back to the vet this morning. Ive been feeling bad about it all evening and I'm having to stop myself from going and getting her. I really want her to get a good home. She such a sweet happy little thing. She loves to play.

New attitude

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Great dog,

to bad the the handler is stupid. Sorry, I know thats really negative but its the truth. I did something really stupid at the show and go. Ugh!



I didnt wimp out and went to the show and go. It was still freezing outside. It never got out of the 30's and the wind was blowing. I should have had a better plan in my mind so I wouldnt easily be made to change my plan. Maybe my brain wasnt getting good blood flow because my blood had thicken from the cold. Yea , that's it. LoL. Anyway I ran my first run. She popped out of the last weave pole so I didnt get my front cross in. Then she did a nice a-frame, no creeping. And then she jumped right on the table. I should have run from the ring and gave her a jack pot. Did I, no. I gave her verbal prasie. Then when the judge was counting, Miley lifted her elbows off the table. Maybe at the #1 count. The judge person said to me, "you really need to make her put her elbows down". Why o why didnt I tell her thats not what Im working on. So I told Miley "down " again and she jumped off thinking I was saying "ok". Then I make and even bigger mistake and try to put her back on. Then the circling started. So I finish the run ,which beside the mistake I did , I thought went well. And as I was fininshing, again the judge person said ,"you really should go around again and get her to do the poles correctly". And I listened to her again. OMG, I need my head examed.
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So what do you think happend on the second run? Yep, she didnt even jump on and off, she just refused. You can watch the video for the rest of the crash and burn. There were good things and yes I noticed them. But I was there to work on the table.




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This weekend

What are we doing this weekend? Fostering that Yorkie Stephanie found. No one has come to claim her yet. (thank goodness) That way she can go to a good home. One of the vets in the practice is thinking about taking her. That would be nice.

Doesn't Miley look like a huge dog? LoL

Roxy isn't to happy. Another female for her to compete with.

There is a Show N Go in Charlotte this weekend that I want to go to. But its freezing. Tomorrow morning its suppose to be 19 degrees. Will see if I wimp out on that. Then on Sunday I going to some classes that are inside. Yea!

A-frame

Its looking much better. Why? I don't know. I did add a bump at the bottom of the a-frame to make her 2o/2o position correct and comfortable. (its from that Clean run article a few months ago) Sorry, Guiness and the beagle next door are having a bark fest.

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Im I signed up for a Debbie Gross Sauders seminar next weekend. I also have an consult with her to look a Miley. Just to make sure she isn't injured. ( I don't think she is)

Im also going to try going a few weeks without using treats on the field. Only using verbal praise. I was thinking maybe the table stress is from never getting any treats in the ring. Will see what happens with that. Im still running into the house to give treats as needed. This link below is a picture taken at the trial. So it got me thinking. Is she drooling because she is excited, stressed or is she thinking she is getting a treat at the bottom of the dogwalk? Is she that conditioned? I dont know.
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/Orderpage.aspx?pi=1FMG004H040025&po=25&pc=240

Not 5 dog craziness

Sorry, we are not keeping the Yorkie. I just cant handle any more dogs. She is very sweet and happy. Gets along with all my dogs. But she isn't house broken. Plus she is tiny. You probably couldn't tell from the pictures but she is smaller than Roxy. That's small. She probably weights 3lbs. Tiny! No more tiny dogs for me. They are to hard to house break. We took her back up the the vet this morning. They said they would take good care of her. They feel she is an expensive dog and someone will be looking for her. And just in case she belongs to someone in my neighborhood, I don't have to be the one to lecture them about how to take care of a dog. IF they have to go to the vet to get her, the vet will probably charge them for grooming, vaccines and boarding. And maybe if they have to pay to get their dog back they will learn a lesson. (Hey, I can hope can't I. ) Do vets make owners pay to get their dogs back for care they received? I sure hope so, at least in this case.

Some people should be ashamed

Stephanie came home from school and said, "Mom , come quick. I found a dog". She found this Yorkie running free in the fields by our house. She was so matted. And smelled horrible.

Here is what is looked like.


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Thats not unbrushed hair , thats all matted hair.

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I took her up to the vet. They checked for a microchip. She doesnt have one. They shaved all the mats off her. Who would let that happen to their dog? Sometimes dogs get matted but this takes months. Where do they keep it? It smelled so bad.

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Bye Veasel

I put the ferret to sleep last night. Not the one with the insulin problem, the other one. Really neither of them were doing well. But the adrenal gland tumor one was really ataxic. She just kept falling over and being unable to move. It was just to sad. She had lost a ton of weight this last month. So first I video taped her just in case she seemed wonderful when I got her to the emergency vet. But she wasn't. She was still having the same problems. I had to wait a while in the room for them to come in and actually put her to sleep. So that's what the above pictures are from. Obviously not a normal ferret. Usually when you put a ferret in a room they are thinking 2 things. One, how can I escape or two, what can I destroy. LOL. But she just laid there. They put the IV in and gave her M.J. favorite drug, propofol. She seemed pretty much gone with that drug. Then they gave her the drug that is the final push. It took only seconds. I'm not sure what Bandfield was talking about when they said it takes 20 minutes. Bye sweet Veasel.

My A-frame

After this weekend I really started thinking about my dogs a-frame performance. Hmmm, What happened? On Friday when she did the a-frame in Open fast, it was soooo slow that it was painful to watch. She also has moved over to the side of the a-frame instead of down the middle. I watched a bunch of tapes and it looks like she starts slowing in November and is just creeping in December. I'm not sure what happened. Slats vs. no slats, I'm not sure. Does she have a injury which is causing her to creep?

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Also on Friday after the open fast ring, I went and clipped her nails thinking they were too long and causing a problem. It helped a little. So today I lowered the a-frame, took some treats and ran over the a-frame. It looks ok, not as creepy but not fast either.
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So later in the day I went out again and this time put a jump bar over the top of the a-frame. I also took a toy outside and no treats. It seemed a little faster. We tried using a stop watch to time the two different runs but I think I need a new stop watch. We couldn't get any consistent times.
But even with the inconsistent times the second runs were a little faster then the run this morning. Was it the toy? The jump bar? And why has she slowed down so much?

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Here is a picture of something my husband surprised my with when I got home.


Its such a great idea. It will hold a lot of ribbons and then I got the idea of hanging agility photos on it too. I went out and just bought those plastic stand alone frames. Put the pictures in, and slipped them right into the slots. I even hung some of Guiness's pictures. Right now its in the dining room but I'm going to move it some place else.

I put a photo int0 the PVC jump picture frame to give you a better idea of how it looks. I will hopefully get a better picture to put in it.

Day 3, my lucky day.

Today didn't start off too lucky. I went to bed about 11:30 last night. Miley was freaked out because of the fireworks. About 1 or 2am she kept barking. I finally turned on the TV to block out what ever noise she was hearing to cause her to bark. Then Stephanie came in my room at 4am to tell my she couldn't sleep. At 4:30am, thunder storms. At 5am I got up. So I was very tired. I'm on the road by 6am, its pouring down rain and Im thinking , "Why did I enter fast?". My ring started at 7:45. I was the 2nd or 3rd dog in Open Fast. There wasn't anyone to video. No one was in the stands, weird. Anyway, my goal was to practice weaves since she was having problems and opposite arm tunnel entrance cues.
I didn't plan a very difficult course but she ran beautiful and did everything perfect. We "Q"ed and got our open fast title. WhooHoo starting off 2010 with a "Q". See, our lucky day! Then we had a long 6 hour wait until our next run. So look what I found. This cool picture frame!

Isn't it neat, it looks like a PVC jump. I love it. Wasn't that lucky? Then, I was walking Miley and saw this.


I had to go all the way back to get my camera. I cant believe the bird was still there. See, lucky.

Then it was finally time from my Excellent JWW run. All the dogs were running great.
I planned my course. I was planning to do a front cross after #5 and that's how I walked it. But after watching people run and I never really felt comfortable with the front cross there. It would be difficult to make it. So I decided I would post turn it and tell her tight. Anyway then we ran. I was such fun. When we were coming down the line and she took #15 and I thought, man we might do this. And bam, off course. Man , so close. but still a fun run. LoL



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Next was our Open Standard run. I found a quarter on the ground right by the first jump. See, lucky. Today was table day.

(The video is at the bottom of the post. I couldnt get it to post right here .)





This was such a fun run too! I realize she didn't get right on the table. She jumped off and circled me. But I was able to stop her and get her on. WhooHoo. I know my table problems are far from fixed but here is a start. To bad we didn't do the weaves right. Not sure what that was about. But we got the right tunnel entrance. She really is creeping down the a-frame. I'm not sure what that's about it either. Something else to work on. But today was the most fun we have had yet.
Then the rain stopped and the sun came out and I got some great pictures.
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And now I'm exhausted. ">