Woe is me

Just a quick update. I took Miley for a lesson and a class on Sunday. She excellent at the lesson. She got on the table every time. The other thing we learned is that me standing over her at the table isn't good for her. It puts to much pressure on her. But if I get her on the table and the get into position showing were we are going next, she is much more excited. Its like she is still working and getting information. Not sitting on a table in a time out. ( I hope that makes sense). But she then gets really excited and her butt comes off the table. But right now Ill take that over table avoidance. Next we talked about the a-frame and Miley self releasing. So I ran Miley over the a-frame and she creeped down. So new plan. Im going to change to a running a-frame. Now is a good time anyway since we are still working on the table issue. It will take the pressure off the table too. Surprisingly Miley still remembered the box work. So I dont need to start at the beginning of just teaching the dog to get in the box and then pounce the box. We were able to go to the grid work. The only problem was she is 3 striding coming into the box and we only want two. So Im to work on that. Moving the jumps closer to the box and slowing moving them back until she is at the correct distance and hitting two strides.

Now to the not so good part. I stayed for class after the lesson. Miley was doing well but toward the end of class she refused the teeter 3 times. OMG, I was really trying not to freak out. I told Meagan, Im not going to be able to handle another obstacle issue. So I finally got her on and she did the weaves ,which were next and then decided to call it quits. I didnt think she was hurt but what else could it be. She has never done that before. Of course I obsessed about it all the way home. The only thing I noticed was when I got dinner ready that night. She usually spins when I take the bowls from the kitchen to their crates. She does tight fast spins. But that night they were slow and wide. Hmmm. Ok maybe she is just sore. I didnt see anything else. I didnt take her to the beginner class I help teach on Monday. No chasing Guiness through the yard. I didnt see anything on our walks. She is back to spinning tightly again. Today I needed to go back out to the field to take some pictures of the triple jump. So I took the dogs with me. I thought I would just put Miley over the teeter and see whats up. Nothing is up. She was awesome and attacked the teeter. No problems there. We did a little table work and thats it. I really didnt do anything else. She did run the fence a couple of times when a car came by. The last time when she came toward me I thought I might have saw a skip. So now I need to decided if she just needs to take it easy for a few days or what. I have signed up for a trial this weekend but just one day. Its not a big deal not to go. Will see how things shape up. I will have to be 100 % sure to take her.

Only 3 more days of school until Spring break. I should be excited but that field trip is on Friday. 900 plus kids , three hours from home and one nurse. Ugh!! I will be so happy when its over.

Our agility trial is in a week too. There have been problems. Every time I think, ok I wont let that happen again. Something else goes wrong.

Stephanie had an exciting day today. Last week she turned in a project for a graphic design art class. The teacher gave them a made up company name. Then had to come up with a product, a slogan, a logo. She printed out letter head paper, a coffee cup with a design and slogan on it and a business card. It looked really cool. Then she had to give a presentation in front of several graphic design business owners. Today she found out she took 1st place. And one of the owners of a local graphic design firm offered her a summer internship. The lady said she was very impressed with Stephanie. Awesome!

What Miley thinks

Miley loves agility. But take a look at the next picture to see what she thinks of having to do a 20/20. She self released herself from the contact. LOL ( A friend took these pictures, arent they great)

Run Thurs

Look how green it is.

Miley wanted to go down for a drink, I wasnt going down in all that mud.

Mickey is much better today and acting like his normal self. I think he was sore yesterday so I gave him some pain medication but today he is playing again.

First thing this morning we went to the park for a walk. It was really pretty with the sun coming thur the trees and everything becoming green. It was almost like neon green. The only bad thing was I lost my filter lens. Im not sure how. I was trying to take pictures with and without the lens to see if I can keep Miley from being washed out in the sun. I thought I put it in my pocket but when I came out of the woods it was gone. I retraced my steps but couldnt find it.

Then our club had run thurs at the field today. I wanted to test Miley's table. Well there is good news and bad news. The first time thur the standard course she jumped off the table and started to circle. And I think I said "table" instead of "mat". I cant remember if I just grabbed her or if I threw a treat or bait bag to stop the stress. I then took her collar and set her up and sent to the table. She got right on. I think we took the wrong tunnel entrance and she self released on the a-frame. I wonder why she keeps doing that? She doesnt do it with the dogwalk. So I needed a new plan for the next run thur. I was planning on using a target on the table. But then changed my mind. I decided to do the table first and send her a few times to the table then run the course from the beginning. She went right to the table. I got her excited asking her "Where's the mat, do you want to get that mat?" She got into a crouch position ( showing excitement ) and got right on the table both times. Then I took her to the begining and ran. She did great but self released the a-frame again. When we got to the table she started to run toward it and right before she got there she pulled off and didnt get on. She started coming toward me. I said in the kinda deep excited voice, "Where's you mat, are you gonna get that mat?" and you could see the change in her body and she got excited and jumped right on. Big reward on the table. Multiple rewards. Ok, was that all it took? To change the inflection in my voice? Hmm, will see what happens the next time we are at a trial or run thur. Overall she had a really good run. Great weaves both times!

What the heck?

I worked Miley thur BackYard Dogs sequence in April's Clean Run. #1 was no problem. But #2 was tough for poor Miley. She just kept sucking into the tunnel. A couple of times she almost stopped, looked at me and then took the tunnel anyways. Tough little missy she is. So I back chained it but when we got all the way to the back she would then suck into the tunnel again. Ugh! We back chained and back chained. We finally got it. Then disaster struck. Stephanie was in the house with the other dogs. I hear Stephanie screaming. ( thats nothing new, so I really didnt respond). Then she opens the door and says there is something wrong with Mickey. Micky is having a seizure. We arent sure if he got in a fight with Guiness and that triggered the seizure or if Mickey started having a seizure and then Guiness attacked him. This is probably the worse seizure Mickey has every had. He is never unconscious, but usually gets really stiff mostly in his legs. This time he was crying a lot and stretch backwards with his head really pulling backwards. Poor Mickey. To be awake and you body doing these weird things. Then Guienss trying to get him and he cant even run or fight back because his body isnt working. Ugh!! He only has a small abrasion on his head , no real puncture wounds. But he is freaked out. Usually if he has a seizure he will try to get to me first. Then I hold him for a few minutes as his legs and body is kinda stiff. Then when its over, he jumps down, shakes and continues on his merry way. Not this time. He hasnt been happy all evening. He has been hiding under the bed most of the evening. He did come out to eat dinner. Poor Mickey. I dont think he in injured but he isnt right.

I did do #3 and #4 in the backyard dogs after everything calmed down. This time she had no roblem between going to the tunnel for sequence #1 or pulling off tothe other jumps in sequence #2-4.

In other events today a squirrel decided to spend time with the kids at recess at school. How weird is that? I get a call from a teacher stating that a kid pet a squirrel at recess, did she need to come see me. What? Why would a squirrel let kids pet it? I call the head of building maintenance at our school to get him to chase the squirrel off. Well he tells me he has already taken it twice to the woods and it keeps following him back to school. Even tried to come into the building. It also climbed up his pants leg. All I could think was this silly squirrel was going to bite someone and then I have a whole bunch of problems. So they put the squirrel in a box and took it to the Wildlife rescue place down the street. Do you think someone was raising this squirrel and then when it go to rambunctious the put it out? I guess it was a better story then the kid that fell outside at recess and impaled himself with his sharks tooth necklace.

Wordless Wednesday

Table update

Last night we held the beginning agility class at the field. I thought it went pretty well but I dont think Im the best teacher. It makes me think about myself in class and am I listening to what is being said. I always feel like I am but Im sure I miss things. I think I need to just let somethings go. But I worry that when things go wrong they are going to say , "well thats they way Diana taught me to do it". LoL Anyway, I still think people had fun and thats what it really is all about.



So we wanted to run Miley over the contacts to show the class what the final outcome is for your 2o/2o. It was funny when we told them the dog has to get one foot in the yellow, people were like "just one foot?" Like that should be easy enough. If they only knew. So we also tried to explain how hard it can be to just get one foot in the yellow. I ran Miley over the dogwalk, perfect 2o/2o. I released her , she jumped tightly thur the tire and back over the dogwalk. I ran by and boom, she self released. I looked at her and said, "what happened?" ( not meanly) and immediately she went into circling mode. Oops. Meagan and I had talked about when Miley is wrong and she goes into circling mode. So Meagan wanted me to reward when Miley was wrong. Just throw a treat and walk away , or throw the bait bag. Just to try and get her to understand its ok to be wrong. And I remembered to do it. WhooHoo me. She went into that first circle and I threw the bait bag. She immediately stopped. I gave her a treat out of it. I put her back on the dogwalk and ran passed, she stayed , I rewarded. Then I released her. Later after class I was practicing weave poles. She went in on the 3rd pole. I said, Nope. And went back to the beginning of the poles. She started to circle and I threw a treat. I really didnt think that would work because it was a dark treat and hard to see. Well it flew right past her face and she immediately stopped and went for the treat. Circling was stopped and I set her up to run the poles again. WhooHoo. Meagan is so smart. How does she know this stuff???



Next the table. So after class a bunch of the students wanted to practice on the equipment. Im not sure I agree with this but Im also not sure I can do anything about it. I told them my concerns and let them make their own decisions. It is the clubs field and if they pay to use the field, they can. So anyway, the teeter was right behind the table. They were using the teeter. I was able to work Miley and send her to the table with no problems. She got on every time with all theses dogs around her. I sent her over jumps and back to the table. She got it every time. Im trying to make the table fun and not just agility. I moved her crate in the house and put the table where her crate use to be. She now eats breakfast and dinner on the table. If she gets treats, its on the table. I have a kong that I freeze with yogurt, it has a rope on it too. I attached to the table. So she can leave the table but if she wants to eat the kong, she has to stay on the table. Last night at the field , I put the kong on the table . She didnt care about it at all. She left the table thinking she was missing out on real agility. She didnt even take the kong with her and it wasnt attached to the table. So we are doing better but the table still doesnt have much value yet. LoL

Table Failure

I went an took a lesson today with Meagan. Here was the course to the best of my ability. Im sure the distances probably arent correct. But you get the idea. First we did one thur 12. The first couple of times Miley took the dogwalk instead of the tunnel. Then I kept shooting her into tunnel entrance #1 instead of #7. Finally got that. Then we were able to run 9-12 but it felt very uncomfortable. I stayed to the left of the jumps but the push and pull seemed really hard on the dog. She did it but it didnt flow nicely. What worked the best was rear crossing ten and then immediately rear crossing 11. It felt like it was easiest for the dog. Then we did 11 -21. The first time thur Miley got right no the table no problem. The second time thur she jumped on and off the table and then started to circle. Ugh! I was able to get her on the first time she tried to circle me. I grabbed her by the colar (nicely) and said, "Where's you mat, want get you mat, Get it". And she ran right over and jumped on. I rewarded highly. Meagan gave me some more things to work on with Miley. I just couldn't believe she jumped on and off and then started circling. Of course I thought about it all the way home. Im so mad, angry, irritated, frustrated , sad and tired. Not at my dog, just with the table problem. Ugh!! Im sick of taking this table places. I took it to a different park this morning and she had no problems. I wish I knew why this caused her such stress. She pops out of weave poles, jumps off a-frames and off the side of teeter and she doesnt stress about it . Why does she do it with the table.

Bike, Hike, and tables.

As I said before my husband is training for a triathlon. So today he did his first race , well sort of. It was a Colon Challenge ride. So not really a race. Plus saying the word race made him to nervous. It was freezing this morning, around 40 degrees. But was suppose to get to 80 degrees. That made it hard for him to decided what to wear. He decided to dress light.



Here he is at the 12 mile mark

I figured I could get to that check point before the first riders came through. I told him I probably wouldnt make anymore check points. After that I went home to make sure my son got up to have fasting blood work done before he had to be at work. He is taking accutane and you have to have monthly blood work. Then I took the dogs to the park for a hike. Half the trails were closed at the park due to wet paths. Why didnt they close them a long time ago when it was raining all the time and the weather was crap. Now that all the bikers have wrecked the paths and the weather is nice, you can't use the trails. Ugh! Figures.So we walked some different paths. None of my pictures really turned out. Im not really sure what happened. The best one was the one at the top of the post. When we were done hiking , I stopped at one of the picnic areas . I thought I would do some table-mat work. At first I had a long line on her because I was worried about cars coming. But then I decided to take it off. In January when she had the leash on in the ring for the b-match, she would get on the table. When I took it off , she wouldnt. So I figured it was better to leave it off. No cars came.

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Then I took the dogs home and drove over to the high school. Thats where the Colon Challenge ride ended. I was hoping I didnt miss the finish. I didnt. I had to wait about an hour until they showed up. He road with a couple of other people.

He looks happy here. I hope he is still happy tomorrow. His legs were pretty stiff after he got off the bike. This lady who road with him called her son at the 60 mile mark. She wanted him to come get her. You know what he said to her. "Finish what you start" and hung up. LoL just like a teenager to throw your words back at you. She thinks he wasnt were he was suppose to be, home, and didnt want her to find out. LoL That sounds about right. So she finished. I think the ride was about 67 miles. The map said 65 but the computers on the bikes said 67.

Look at me

Thanks for everyone wonderful comments. I hate to tell you this but I didnt "Q" this weekend in jumpers. It was just a great run for us because we were finally together without going off course. We dropped a bar , so we didnt "Q" but it felt like a "Q" to me. LoL

I took the dogs to the practice field. Both dogs had a good work out. I think Guiness had fun but he will do pretty much anything for food.

Not much

Not much has been going on, that's why I haven't posted. Monday was my anniversary and I was suppose to teach the beginning agility class. My training buddy emailed me and told me to take the day off. Wasn't that great. So we had a nice dinner out. ( except for this teenager who sat at our table and kept complaining about how hungry she was and what was taking the food so long). I did manage to get my husband a gift that he didn't return. Its been a few years since that has happened. He is training for a triathlon. I bought him a new watch that tracks heart rate, distance, laps you swim ect.. The old watch had been tape together so many times it was looking pretty pathetic. And not only did he not return it, he really likes it. That's always a plus.

Tuesday started with a bang. They are doing state testing at school and things are kinda busy with making sure all the kids are here and in the right class. A call comes over the walkie, "code blue in guidance". What?? I take off running as fast as I can, thinking someone has stopped breathing or coded. I swing open the door and was never so happy to see a person sitting in a chair crying. Of course then I couldn't catch my breath to talk. (the person was ok). The next day all my butt muscles were sore when walking. LoL I guess I better start exercising more if I cant even run down the hall without my body complaining.

I haven't done any training this week. I did put my table in the back of my car but it started raining yesterday when I took the dogs for a hike. So we didn't get to practice the table at the park. I plan to take it a bunch of different places and work on table sends.

Im still enjoying my runs on Sunday. Mileys time for jumpers was 5.46 yard per second. WhooHoo. I know you're probably thinking I need to get over myself but we haven't "Q"ed a jumpers run since October. So I really needed to feel like we are making headway. Of course we havent "Q"ed a standard run since July but thats a different story.

A new day

Friday I left work a little early still not feeling well. I just couldnt eat food without feel nauseaed. Also I just hurt everywhere. I got up Saturday morning and didnt feel much better but I wanted to go to the trial. I kept debating what to do. Should I not do my morning run, Exc. fast,and just do the afternoon runs? But its suppose to rain in the afternoon, then I wouldnt get to run at all. So at the last minute I decided to go in the morning. I get there and they are already walking the exc. fast course. I walk the course a couple of times, no real plan as in points I need or time. I just tried to get as many obstacles as I could and the send bonus. Miley ran great and we "Q"ed to boot. I didnt even think we had because I didnt count any points. That was a nice surprise. Then the long wait started. I really wasnt feeling well and in hind sight I should have gone home. I tried lying down in the car for an hour. That didnt help. I only ate part of a muffin all day and most of it I threw away or gave to Miley. So 5 hours later it time for both my runs. Yep, had to walk both courses at the same time, again. Usually I would have taken Miley out to burn off some energy but I just didnt have it in me. So we run both runs several minutes apart. I we ran poorly. In standard I did a poor rear cross and pushed her off the jump. She jumped her a-frame contact and I cant remember what else. It was bad. Then I went to the jumpers ring. I really wanted to run this course. It seemed easy and something we should be able to do. We started out great. No off course into the tunnel that was there. But for some reason she came out of the tunnel to the next jump and turned away from me over a jump to go off course. Then the circling started. Ugh. When you are out there it feels like forever. But when I watched the video it really isnt that long. Finally I just run and tell her weave. She some how gets into the weaves and then starts running great. Until the end when I rear cross to close to the jump which makes her turn tight and we miss the last jump. Ugh! I wanted to cry. I still rewarded my dog and did all things we usually do after a run. But when I got into the car to go home, I called my husband and told him I was quitting. I couldnt take it anymore. All this practice and work just for her to circling me in the ring. Its wasnt fun and obviously my dog wasnt having fun because she was stress circling me. Im sure my husband was thinking , "great , and I just bought that table too". I email Meagan and sent her my run. She told me to email her bad with three good things about my run. So I did. They were, 1. she held her start line, 2. she didnt take the off course tunnel when going into the pinwheel and 3. after we got back on track she had great drive and focus. So that made me feel better. I have edited the video and deleted out the off course circling stuff. Now it doesnt look to bad. loL

Now today. I had decided if I didnt feel good when I woke up this morning, then I wasnt going. But I woke up and felt better. I actually ate all my breakfast for the first time in 4 days. I took the dogs for a walk and then ran Miley in the back yard a few times over the a-frame. I had looked back over yesterdays video and realized that when in the ring I stop at the bottom of the a-frame. But when I practice at home, I never stop at the bottom. I run past and then go back and reward or just release. Im not sure why Im stopping at the trial. So I wanted to practice stopping at the bottom. Then at 9am I left for the trial. My runs werent until around 12noon. I got there with enough time to take Miley for a walk and play chuck-it unitl she didnt want to go get the ball anymore. I really feel like some of the circling in the ring is too much pent up energy. After that I put her back in the car and yes both my runs were going to be at the same time. I was able to at least really walk my jumpers run before they open the standard ring for walking. The courses were a muddy mess. Luckily I had several pairs of shoes in my car. My first pair were covered with mud. I have a pair of cleated tennis shoes that worked great. Jumpers started but 16 inches were running first. They finally start standard but now 12 inches were running jumpers. Both my runs were getting closes and closers to being at the same time. I went over and moved my jumpers run to the bottom which maybe puts 4 more dogs in front of me. I went and ran standard. She was awesome. She held her start line, both her contacts. The course was set up great so I didn't have to do much to avoid the table. Everything was running perfect until I ran into my dog going into the weaves. And she still made her entry. But me blabbing on about how sorry I was to my dog confused her and she popped out. Then there was just the last jump but she was now wide and I had to bring her back to get that jump. But over all its one of the best runs we have had. WhooHoo! I leave that ring and go to jumpers. There 4 dogs in front of us. At least we didnt miss our run. The dog in front of me is still on the standard course so we are now up. Miley held her stay. I front cross before the weaves and she makes into the weaves but dropped the bar in the jump before. Meagan said she slipped. It was a muddy mess.( it didnt rain while I was there but I think the rain for 3 days straight before the trial just killed the grass course) The rest of the run was awesome. She went into the first pinwheel and read it beautifully. No wrong turns. I was watching and thought wow, she is doing it. We run down the line and I had planned to front cross but couldnt get there so I had to rear. Again, she read it beautifully and I was amazed. Next we run down the line and into the tunnel, I make it across to front cross and catch her out of the tunnel and run down the line. It was B E A U T I F U L. She was fast too. I think her time was 27.24 2nd fast time of all the 12 inch dogs , A's and B's. WhooHoo. I was so happy. We still had Exc. fast to run and I decided to forget that. I was happy with what we did and decided not to screw it up with fast. So home we went. I was able to get home in time do have dinner with my son before going back to college. I didnt video anything today. I didnt want to stress about asking people to tape me. So no video, that figures huh. LoL Below is the excellent jumpers course map.

21st wedding Anniversary

Monday is our 21st wedding anniversary. Look what I got. A new table. I didn't have to make it or paint it at all. WhooHoo!

Great find

Gasp ,not a dog photo! LoL They sell this stuff at school every several months. I love these boxes of cards. You get these really nice cards, 30 of them, for $17.00. What a deal. And the cards are nice and unusual. There are all different cards in the box. It makes it so easy to send a card for something. But lately they haven't had them. I ran out of the cards at home from previous purchases. I've been waiting for them to bring them back. And last week they did. I was so happy.

Good bye yesterday

Im so happy yesterday is over. On Tuesday there was a SACS person at our school. They come an inspect the school, interview teachers and students. Well one of the members wasnt feeling good. She asked to lie down in my office. The next thing I know she is vomiting in the bathroom. Then she lays back down. I go and talk to her. She has be vomiting since 4am. She thought it was the fish oil she took the day before. Uh, I dont think so. I tried to tell her if it was the fish oil, once she vomited, she would be better. She clearly wasn't better. I told her we needed to have someone drive her back to the hotel. I left my office and came back. She went down the hall to a meeting. What??? I was so upset. I told the principals Secretary that this lady was going to make people sick. She cant be here. But no one wanted to tell her. An hour later someone comes to me and says someone is vomiting in the staff bathroom. Same lady. Ugh. When she came out to go into the meeting, I just told her she cant be here. "You are going to make everyone sick". I just didnt realize that everyone meant me. Yup, thats right. 2am yesterday morning, Im awake with the feeling of nausea. By 4am its worse. Im thinking how am I going to get to my computer to call in sick to work. At4:30, I finally make it to my computer. I think around 7am I called my boss in charge of the nurses. Sometime after Stephanie left for school, I started feeling worse. Im on the couch and I need to get to the bathroom. While walking I start feeling the rushing noise in my ears and the black tunnel vision starts around my eyes. Ugh, Im going to pass out. My husband is out of town, no ones home. I have two choices. One get to the bed and if I throw up on my bed, I can just clean it up. If I pass out and hit my head, Im in big trouble because no one will find me for hours. I opted for the bed. I didnt throw up in my bed. A few minutes later I did make it to the bathroom. Thats was pretty much my yesterday. Not fun and I was so glad to open my eyes this morning and no nausea. I was suppose to go to a B-match today. But its been raining since yesterday and since Im not really up to driving 1 1/2 hours , Ill skip it. Im going to a trial this weekend. Im not sure I run Saturday morning. It suppose to still be raining. Will see. Im not running my dog in the rain. Its not worth her getting injured by slipping.

Sunset agility

I wanted to go out to the field today. First I wanted to take a few pictures because they looked grainy to me yesterday. So I reformatted the card which was a new card that I didnt format the first time. I wanted to see if that made a difference. I also needed to take the wobble board and some planks to the field. Our beginning agility class moves out the field next Monday since there will be a time change. WhooHoo. Our class has dwindled from 12 to last nights low of 4 students. I think it will increase once we get to the field. People are bored by the flat work stuff and its hard to tell them how important it is. They want to start their dogs on equipment. And last I wanted to go to the field to work Miley a little. It was a warm 77 degree day and I didnt want to waste it. Its suppose to start raining tomorrow. Booooo!

I worked a rear cross drill. But it was suppose to be all rear crosses and I couldnt do it. So I threw in some front crosses. That one front cross is late and that why she didnt turn. I really had to work hard to get those rear cross turns. It probably doesnt look like it but this wasnt the first try thur the sequence. I really had to push into the rear cross to get it. I felt like I was driving into her.Which isnt how I usually handle them. Hmmm, maybe thats what our problem has been.
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We did mat work too. She was very excited when I put the mat onto the table. She had a hard time controlling herself to stay on the table and not lift up. So much for the calming mat work. I guess we have more work to do.

The weekend

Its been a busy weekend. Nothing really great but busy. The weather has been wonderful. Warm 60's and sunny. Whoohoo! On Saturday our club had run throughs at the field. We had some real positives and some small negatives. Miley keeps self-releasing herself on the contacts. Then when I fixed it, she creeped down the side of the a-frame. Then I started worrying that it was to hard for her to stop. But she also self-released on the dogwalk. I began contemplating retraining the a-frame. But after thinking about it, Ive been inconsistent in my releases. In training, I make her hold them a few seconds before releasing. In trialing , I release quickly. Not really fair to my dog. You know the old saying, "train like you trial and trial like you train". Also, Meagan told me that when she watched my videos, Miley is releasing on my motion not my verbal "ok". So time to work on that. I will begin doing the "Bridging the gap" flat work stuff to fix the self releasing. The good stuff from the run throughs was she had great weaves. I put her mat down instead of the table and she had no problems going to the mat. (whoohoo) And she was very excited to be there and started the circling stuff when I stopped to fix the contacts but she was still able to run and get on the mat. Also there was a sequence that was several jumps that were in front of a chute and tunnel and she didnt go off course. The most telling thing that happened was we didnt run either run completely correct during the run thurs. But after we were done, I went out and ran it again. She was perfect. Hmmm, I must be handling differently when I feel people are watching , then when they aren't. Or what ever is stressing me. I didnt feel stressed there but it must be something.
Sunday we took the dogs hiking which was nice. Then I took a class in Charlotte and had a private lesson afterwards. Here was the course from the class. Its to the best of my memory and may not have correct distances.

The first time we ran 1-10 we were perfect. That doesn't happen often for us. Meagan made us run it again and I messed up. She didnt read the rear cross to the teeter. Also I swapped out the table for my mat. She got right on the mat. Then next time we were to run 8-20. Lots of dogs were coming out of the tunnel and going up the dogwalk. Not Miley, she got right in the weaves and was perfect. I decided to stop and reward. I tried to give miley the treat. She spit it out and kept going. So then I wasnt ready and she started circling. Ugh! I was just trying to reward my dog and everything back fired. LoL. So anyway , Miley was a little over the top last night. I think she finally settled down by the time we got to the private lesson. In the lesson we worked on the two excellent JWW coursers that I ran so badly a few weekends ago. What Im not doing is working the ground in between the obstacles. I dont know if that makes any sense and it will be hard to describe.

You see where that green line goes between 5 and 6? Thats where I wasnt going in and working. I was just staying out and expecting my dog to figure it out.
Also Meagan said I could start putting the mat on a flat to the ground table and starting working that. I really hope this works when its time to add it to a trial. Im worried it wont. But no need to worry about it right now.

I had today off and took the dogs for an extra long hike. I was beat when we were done. I dont think it phased the dogs.

Change of plans

Yesterday I was suppose to drive to West Palm beach Florida for a Jenn Crank seminar. I was all ready to go and then just felt like I didnt have it in me to dive 9 hours straight. I wouldnt get there until dark and then Miley would just be beside herself when we got there. She would be full of energy and I would have been exhausted. I should have planned better and left Thursday evening and drove part way. Anyway, I decided not to go. Then I started feeling bad about my decision. So I asked my son if he wanted to go to Chimney Rock North Carolina and go hiking. He said he would go. We took the dogs because the park allows dogs. It was about 2 1/2 hour drive. And then I was really glad about my decision not to go to Florida. Because my son was trapped with me , he had to talk to me. He can be difficult to talk to. He doesn't freely have a conversation. So to get information out of him you have to ask just the right questions. And every once in a while I ask just the right question to find out what is really going on with him. He is struggling with school, both academically and socially. I think he might be depressed from what he is telling me. Even thought that isnt a good thing, at least Im aware of it and can try and help him.
Getting to the park there were lots of twisty road for the last 6 miles. When your driving it doesnt bother you but if your the passenger is can be hard on the stomach. We got there intact, stomach contents and all. We drive up into the park and the road is skinny and twisty. Having to pass another car coming down is scary. Lucky there weren't to many cars there. I go to pay and there is a discount because almost all the paths a closed due to weather. Im not sure what weather they were talking about. It was sunny and 50 degrees. I really wanted to hike to the waterfalls but we couldn't. We drive all the way to the top parking lot. My van is the white one all the way at the end in the picture. The only way to get up to the top look out places, because the paths are closed, is an elevator. But no dogs are allowed on the elevator. Ugh! So the poor dogs had to stay in the car. There was one small path open that I did take the dogs on. So at least they got to walk a little. When you leave the park you cross a small stream that was just beautiful. So I stopped there to take more pictures of the dogs. By this time my son was tired of my picture taking and stayed in the car. There is a huge beach there too but it was closed for winter. You probably cant take dogs there. The little town was very cute and we would have walked thur if I hadn't had the dogs.
Funny thing is my calf's are very sore today. I guess there were a lot more steps then I thought or Im really out of shape.

Fixing table problems

I found a dvd that was put out by Agility in Motion. I dont know if you can still buy these videos. But they were really neat. Each video has several different teaching sessions on it. One dvd may have some clicker training, front crosses, course analysis, teaching the teeter ect. I think they made 13 or 14 different videos and I bought them in 2006 I think. Inside the case on "Contacts Bridging the Gap", I found one of these agility in motion videos. On this one at the bottom was "Table problems and how to fix them" by Rachel Sanders. So I watched it yesterday and today. Very interesting. She talks about a number of reasons why you maybe having table problems. It could be, positional ( dog cant get elbows down or needs be be taught to roll on to one hip in a down ), over handling, reinforcing inconsistent performance, delayed reinforcement ( no treats in the ring), Stalking behavior,and Excessive fixation on obstacles. There were more but I didnt write them all down and forwarded pass stuff I didnt think would apply to us. Things that may apply to Miley and I were delayed reinforcement ( no treats in the ring, stress is caused by not having food). People with this problem will usually practice downs and sits outside the ring waiting their turn. They are successful outside the ring because you have food and the dog is very focused on you because there isnt anything distracting them.( uh this is me. LoL) But once in the ring , there isnt any food and now there are a lot of obstacles for them to focus on. So they cant do it. To fix this one. You practice first sits and down without a table and no food on or near you. When the dog goes into position, they must stay, why you walk over to where your treats are and come back and reward the dog. Once they are doing this add the table back in. Then when you release them ,only release the position not the table. So they can stand if they were in a down. That way, the release isnt immediately off the table. Then release from the table. If a dog has excessive fixation on obstacles (Miley) you need to brake the chain for the release from the table to the obstacle. In training she releases the dog from the table, the dog has to first come to her and play and then she releases to the next obstacle. Another problem, the dog doesnt want to stop the fun (Miley). So she finds something the dog really likes. Something the dog gets really excited by. Then train downs and sits by that item. For her dogs it was a pool of water and other dogs. Her one border collie likes to stalk the other one. So she uses that. Once she can get the dog to sit or down close to the thing that causes excitement then she adds the table back in. When the dog gets on the table and stays in position, she walks around the table verbally praising, and petting the dog. If the dog stays in position ,she will release the dog to the thing they like, like the pool of water. If they break position, she gently places them back into position without giving the command again. Once back into position, she starts verbal praise again walking around the table and petting them. Then release to what they like. I tried this one tonight. I got Miley's dinner out. She was very excited. I had her get on her mat into a down. I walked around her , praising her and petting her. I really thought the petting her part would cause her to break.( she doenst like to be touch especially when she is excited. ) But she did great. I then released her and gave her dinner. I know this was kinda boring reading but maybe it will help someone.

Contact training

I was watching the DVD "Contacts, Bridging the Gap" by Rachel Sanders. Mostly I was watching it again to see if there was anything helpful for the Monday agility class we are teaching. I guess I should tell you Miley was a wash out as the demo dog. LoL. I was trying to show the class how your dog should jump into position on the board where every you are. LoL . She couldn't do it unless I was running. Now we haven't use the training board in quiet some time so Im not sure if that was it or not. But If I stood back and told her "touch" she would get on the board and then do a 2o/2o off the side of the plank, not the end. If I was behind her and sent her,she wouldn't keep going forward into 2o/2o. She would stop. But that I wasnt upset by because I felt like that wasnt giving her any motion and no motion usually mean stop or turn. But to hit her position I had to be running or standing to the side or in front but not standing behind. ( I hope that makes sense). So as I was watching the video, Miley started watching too. She really looked like she was listening. SO I taped her.

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Im still working on the mat work but have backed off some. She was acting a little crazy. At the trial this weekend, I was walking passed some plastic chairs with a small plastic table. She jumped on the table and downed. I didnt cue, her to do this we were just walking to the ring. I havent even put the mat on the table yet. Silly dog. My other problem is , when I start counting like the judge she is getting excited and started lifting off the mat. Ugh! Something else to add into the picture and fix. I guess better now than later.

I dont know what is wrong with me. I haven't really done much agility lately. And Im way off on our exercise schedule.The weather hasn't been great. I thought I was going to have to jump through the TV and strangle the meteorologist . He was saying that we should be 16 degrees warmer today. It was 49 degrees and it should be 65 degrees. What the heck? Why did he feel the need to tell me that? Im sick of this weather. Im sorry, I know many of you have it worst but Im just not use to this. I need warm and sunny.

Snow Again?

Ok, all you people who have said "When hell freezes over" may have to start worrying. Snow twice in Columbia, South Carolina? Have you been here in the summer it is hot as hell. Watch out!



Look how big the snow flakes are?

More photos

Ive been trying to upload my photos in high resolution. The just loose so much when I load them to blogger. Will see if this is any different

CLick on the picture to see it completely.

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