Saturday, February 20, 2010

Out of Sync

Miley and I just had our signals crossed today. Im not sure what the deal was. I gave her the "Rescue Remedy" that the animal communicator recommended. Do you think that had anything to do with it? Does anyone use that stuff. I started it 2 days before the trial. Anyway, our first run was excellent Fast. It was a tough distance challenge for me. I thought I could sling shot her out to the jump but she didn't take it. So I brought her over a few more jumps and tried it again and she did the first two jump and was suppose to turn over the last jump in the distance challenge but my cross was late and she went off course.



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Next was Open Standard. I new there was no "Q" for us because I wasnt going to do the table. I wasnt sure if the table being where is was might be a problem. But it wasnt. We did well until after the teeter the she misread the rear cross and went off course grabbing lost of obstacles several times. Maybe she thought we were doing fast again and she was trying to get the most points.


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Im not sure why she kept misreading those rear crosses, weird.

Last was exc Jww. What a tough course. I walked it multiple times and really felt like I had it down pat as what I was going to do. But right before my run I was drawing a blank but then got it back again .


Im not sure why she didnt take jump number 3 and then I just started winging it after that he got all messed up. We finally go back together and finished nicely.
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Hopefully tomorrow we will do better. Hey at least she got all the correct tunnel entrances. Do you think Ill ever get the hang of this? I sure hope so.

12 comments:

Sam said...

Wow, that JWW looks impossible.

We had a kind of botched day today, too. Maybe it's cabin fever after being cooped up in the house because of the snow for so long.

Unknown said...

Hi diana,

Dont give up. I'm sure one day, both you and miley will really undestand each other and nothing will go wrong during the trials.
Miley is fast!

Sara said...

Wow that JWW was a really tough course, especially if you're running a dog as fast as Miley. Her weave entrance on that run was amazing.

I've never used Bach's rescue remedy, although I have tried other "calming" potions. I know some of them can have the opposite of the desired effect on certain dogs.

Chris and Ricky said...

I am going to keep in mind the name of that judge - her courses are impossible looking - so twisty-turny without much flow at all. Yuck!

Miley did really well in some spots - like her weave entrances are always amazing - I think you could send her from any where and she would get it!

If you were running me, your whole experience would be so different and you would feel like the best handler in the world and you would know that you already have the hang of it all. Miley is just so good and fast that she doesn't give you much time to get the information out to her so she is a real challenge. I am sure you will totally get in sync with her and become an absolutely unbeatable team. It's just taking time.

Good luck today! It's nice to see grass and sun again! I'm jealous of your outdoor agility!!

Marie said...

I have used Rescue Remedy with a Sheltie that had very severe anxiety issues. I tried quite a few homeopathic things before I finally decided to just go straight to Karen Overall and get her help in prescribing stronger medication. At any rate...I never saw ANY effect with my use of rescue remedy, but every dog reacts differently. Her case was pretty extreme though, I don't know that it was typical. I guess the only way to know would be to run her without out again and see if she's better.

Morganne said...

Ok, those were some nasty looking courses for the Open level. I hated Open. The courses are usually nested in the Ex. level course and by removing a few jumps, you still have the same challenges as Ex. but now it's more wide-open and the dogs don't need to collect as much. Miley is very fast and intense and not very forgiving on courses like these (I know because I run her red "cousin":-)

One question on the rear crosses. How are you cueing them? I noticed your inside arm doesn't come up very much to support the jump and then you dropped it quickly both times. Are you using lateral motion into Miley's path as well to tell her the direction of the turn? It was really hard to see in the video. Maintaining the IA to support the jump while moving laterally into the dog can help them to understand the change of direction.

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

HANG IN THERE!!! You absolutely will get it, you guys are doing great. Even when things seem to go really wrong I always see some really neat stuff in your runs too, every one of them has some really great moments even the runs with the little parts that have trouble. I thought Miley just looked a little stressed, not stressed like shutting down stressed, but just where they sort of go a little wild-kind of how my Liz seems to show stress, but I think as she gets older-she is still very young, and not all dogs mentally mature as fast as others... and as she gets more experience and maybe just more maturity that will all work itself out. I am really seeing huge changes in Liz virtually overnight, with nothing else changing. You are doing a very good job with it all I think. When it all comes together you have a super TERRIFIC dog and you are learning so much that you guys will be really something else. I think what you are doing and just being very consistent and very clear and making things crystal clear will help her to settle down and be able to handle her stress better-I think you are doing terrific. I have used rescue remedy with a lot of dogs, I use it for rescue fosters, and for transports and I have used it with my reactive dog and Liz with her stress issues, and it works really well with some dogs but I always try to use any of those type of things somewhere other then a really high pressure environment the first time to see how it works with each particular dog.

Dawn said...

Wow that JWW had ME dizzy! Good luck tomorrow!

Anonymous said...

Diana, At the Barb Davis seminar yesterday, there was a little sheltie that had some of the same behaviors that Miley has. She was there last year too. Anyway, Barb recommended massage and the dog did seem to respond very well after the handler massaged her for about 3 minutes before her run.

I tried rescue remedy for my first agility dog, a boxer, about 10 years ago. The only time it worked was after I used it every day for about two weeks before a trial. But then his stomach rebeled and he couldn't tolerate it at all. Must have used too much? I don't know.

Diane

Diana said...

Thanks so much everyone for such nice comments. Morganne, Ill watch the video in slow motion and see what Im doing with my arms for the RC. Thanks I really appreciate it, Diana

Lian said...

Hi Diana,

Just catched up with your posts again. Miley looked very excited. I have problem with Saturn when he is excited, I have no control of him at all, maybe Miley was the same. She looked very happy and jumping brilliant though.

I have never used Rescue Remedy on my dogs but I have tried it for myself when I went to Crufts. To be honest, I don't think it help.

Diana said...

Lian, I was thinking I needed to take the Rescue Remedy too! Lol Diana