Day two

Im finally back home. I got home last night and boy was I beat. Sunday it was 90 degrees and sunny. I had a headache all day and just couldnt get rid of it. So driving 4 hours home was tough but I made it. Miley doesnt like the sun. Half way thur the day she wouldnt leave the crateing site. Its hard to warm up your dog when she had to stay in the shade. But once she is in the ring, no problem. Runs like she is on fire.
First up was gamblers. I wasnt sure if we should run because the grass was really wet and I saw some dogs slip. But I decided to do something easy. I really just wanted to practice weave poles, the tire and the dogwalk. I dont think I told you that yesterday she crashed the tire. I could have kicked myself for not asking someone to tape my run. But then I feel like Im being a pain. So I have no idea what happened with the tire. Someone said they think she was just looking at me and not the tire. Plus is was on an uphill grade so she met up with the ground sooner than she thought. It wasnt a bad crash. Anyway back to gamblers. She ran the course, not to much craziness but not as smooth as I would have liked. She didnt stop on either dogwalk contact. Ugh! Lots of work to do there. She got the gamble. I didnt think we had enough points with the dogwalk misses but when I checked the sheet we did. O,yea today on the gamblers course you could do anything, back to back contacts or obstacles.
A girl came up to me after my run and said, "I love watching your dog run. Its like she's on crack out there". LOL good thing she didnt see that snooker run yesterday.
Next was our pairs run. I really wish I had this run on video. But they were calling my name at the practice jump so I didnt have time to ask anyone. I let the other girl go first because on the first half of the course was an a-frame and I didnt think Miley would hit the contact. This judge was very nice and really explained the rules for all of us new people. You have to have your leash off your dog before your grab the baton. You could place your hand on your dog but couldnt be grabbing them to hold them. I was very worried that Miley was just going to take off like a shot. I was concentrating so hard on my own dog that I didnt even think about the other dog. When the girl gave me the baton, I told Miley to wait and did a small lead out. I released her and we took off. And so did the other dog. Barking and chasing after Miley on the course. I really just didnt know what I was suppose to do. Do I stop, keep going? I had no idea. Miley got on the teeter and the other dog jumped in her face and was barking. Miley jumped off the teeter. The judge said "go on". But I was confused. Miley had put all four paws on the teeter so I wasnt allowed to put her back on. But I thought the judge meant I just had to keeping going with this dog chasing us. So I put Miley back on the teeter and the judge blew the whistle. Then it dawned on me why. So this dog is still chasing Miley, I call Miley and she came right to me and I picked her up. (I really thought she was going to go into cirlcing mode and then we would really have problems). Then a really nice person asked the judge if I could run my side again just to make sure Miley has a positive experience in the ring. She said sure. Miley ran like a pro with a beautiful flawless run. The poor girl I ran with was so upset. She just kept apoliziging. I told to really not worry about it. Miley and I have had lots of crazy runs. I told it was my fault too. I should have made sure she had her dog before I took off. It was a learning experience for me. Miley was such a funny dog. You should have seen the look on her face during the run with this dog chasing her.I think she was thinking, "What the heck. Im working dog, get out of here. This is AGILITY, get lost" LOL
Next was steeplechase. I had asked someone to tape my run but something happened. When I looked at the tape its video of the ground, a dog walking by then the screen is black for a while, the their hand, their shirt and then the sky. Im not sure what happened. The lens comes out of the camera and it would be hard to put your hand in front of it but thats what it looks like happened. So no video. Our run was ok. The most exciting thing was she hit her a-frame contact both time. WhooHoo. I really wish I had the video because I would have liked to seen what she did to hit it. She missed the weaves and did a big circle around the ring once but I got her back and she ran nice.
Last was jumpers. I didnt realize until I was driving home that Miley got her jumpers starters title on Saturday. Sundays course was so easy and flowing. It should have been no problem. I did a lead out but it just wasnt enough for me to cue the turn in the right place. I was to far behind and should have done and outside arm rear cross but I used and inside arm which turned her over the wrong jump but we didnt miss a beat and got back on course and finshed nicely. Nice run, to bad I screwed it up. LOL.

"Qs" and craziness!

Im at a very small USDAA trial. Its outside and very warm and humid. I had finished 3 runs by 11am. Wow, thats a small trial. Our first run was PI jumpers . Miley did great. No craziness there.

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Our next run was snooker. Im sorry but Im not posting that video. I got the first two red jumps to a colored. Then I messed up and tried to correct it. To late. Miley then went on to circle my 8 times. Ugh! I just didnt know what to do. She had to take a red jump or we would just get whistled off the course. Some how I got her to take the red jump after circling me which felt like forever. So she took the next colored and then we started the close. It was #2 jump to #3 jump to the tunnel. I called tunnel after #2 but the #3 was off center so she missed it and went into the tunnel. I kept going. The judge asked me as I ran by, "Did she do the #3 jump?". I said no. She blew the whistle. To late, we finished the last obstacle. HaHaHaHaaaa!!

Next was Grand Prix. I should have taped it because I have a hard time remembering what happened. Im pretty sure we stayed on course. She jumped both her contacts and ran by the weaves. I made her come back and do them but she went in on the right on the first pole. I didnt fix that, we just kept going.

Last was Gamblers. It was hot any Miley was dragging. You should have seen her. Walking behind me like we were on a death march. No energy. My plan was to do the dogwalk several times to try and get her to stop on the contact. The weird thing was you couldnt do any obstacles back to back. The judge said so in the briefing and she was asked to clarify.Yep, no back to back obstacles or contacts. Look at the teeter to the dogwalk to the a-frame. Ugh. Im posting the course map so you can see how the contacts are set up.


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You can see she is running like a bat out of hell. That just cracked me up. I just couldnt believe the difference in her. I dont know if she got her dogwalk contacts. I know she didnt get them twice. which is part of the problem of running her a-frame. She then applies it to the dogwalk. Last time I was running her a-frame, once I made it a stop, she started getting the dogwalk too. Not sure what to do about that.
I took her to the park late this afternoon and walked for about an hour. She is sleeping now. Hopefully that last all night. ( the picture at the top is from the park. Doesnt it look fake.)

Just to hot!

It was just to hot yesterday. I was grilling chicken on the grill and the dogs didnt even follow me out of the house on to the deck. Miley just watched through the glass door. LOL. So I took them to the lake.

Poor Miley being made to swim.

And this is what she thinks of it, look at that face.

Now Guiness, who hates water, is happy. Why? Because there were waves. This gets him very excited and he forgets he hates water. LOL
( I think some of the pictures are in the wrong order, sorry)

"Look what she did to my hair!"


Guinn still looks happy. Miley, not so much.

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/c4151574c4b8ed1bbe914c3b2f705cc5/video/13928578

The clip is from that agility demo we participated in a couple of weeks ago. The music was what was playing by the DJ. Sorry I couldnt link it , so you will have to copy and paste if you want to see it. It only last about 15-20 seconds.

Glamour shots

Just kidding! I loved the shots of Dare that were posted on Resq Tails blog. So I thought I post pictures for fun. Definitely not glamour pictures. LoL

We are getting closer!

I move the box down one inch. By the third rep you can see her first stride on the down side is now lower. So maybe it will work. She is opening up more. Which makes me think she is letting go of the 2o/2o.">

More box work

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The a-frame is set low. Miley is doing three hits on the down side. I know that when she gets to a trial, she gets high and will only do 2 hits. I need her doing 2 hits on the down side at home. So the DVD suggest to move the box up on the aframe to get the 2 hits. Then slowly you move the box down, inch by inch, until they are in the yellow. The video is of the first day with the box up higher to get the 2 hits. It freaks me out a little that she isnt hitting in the yellow but I have to be patient. LoL Not my strong point.
I tried LM "touch and go" exercise. LoL You set up a pinwheel and you have to touch the upright of the 2nd jump and then run away. It was pretty funny how slow I am. I think my dog was laughing at me. I also tried the one jump with just lateral motion and she wasnt to wide coming around the jump except for one time.

My daughter , Stephanie, set up a blog. http://www.timetobreakfreeartist.blogspot.com/
Thats the link , but its also on the side bar of my blog roll. Its about her artwork. She has posted some of the things she has done at school this year.

Miley turns 3 yr. old

Today is Miley's birthday! We went for a long hike in the Forest. We didnt see any snakes. WhooHoo!
This afternoon we had a class and a lesson with Meagan. I dont really want to get into everything but my head wasnt in the right place. I didnt handle her very well. Poor Miley. She just started doing her own thing because her handler wasnt being helpful. Meagan helped me with the box a-frame stuff. Again I skipped a step. I needed to keep the a-frame lower and back chain it all the way to full running then increase the height. Miley has such a hard time staying on a-frames that arent rubberized. I sure wish that they had made that change in the akc then some of the other changes.
Time to finish up the LM VOD. Im almost done.

Weaves and a-frames

I went out to the field today. Even at 8am, it still feels hot. By the time I was done, sweat was soaking thur my shirt. At least tomorrow's lesson will be inside.
I worked on a jumpers course. She did really well. Our first run thur she just went in at the second weave pole but other wise perfect. I started looking thur my book on the trials we have been to. We seems to do better on outdoor trials on grass and do the worse on indoor on dirt. I wonder if its because we mostly train outside on grass and she feels this is how its suppose to be or is it the different running surface or it could be me. LoL

After I was done running the jumpers run I decided to test if I could get some distance away from the weave poles and her not pull out. WhooHoo, success!
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We also worked a little on the box running a-frame. I started her higher up on the a-frame and she is hitting in the box but I would like it to be a little deeper. Ill have to talk to Meagan about that. I wonder if she will go deeper once she is truly running the a-frame and has momentum to carry her through. She still jumped the box one time. I feel she is still unsure of what she is suppose to be doing. Every once in a while she will creep down into a 2o/2o.

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Im almost done with the LM foundation seminar VOD. Thank goodness. Its starting to feel like a chore. LoL I think if I had more time to watch it, I wouldnt feel so much pressure to get it done. But then you may not get what you need out of the seminar if you wait to long between session to finish watching it. The last part is easier to watch because she is demonstrating her training methods with a dog and then they analyze it and talk about the information that you are giving the dog. Most of the time I have to rewind to see it because I missed it the first time. Its hard to watch what she is doing and what the dog it doing. I guess its a good thing that I can rewind it , if I was at the seminar I couldnt. LoL

Better!

Miley seems better. It was weird how lame she was that morning and by the time I got home from work, she was all better. Ive still been keeping her from running crazy in the yard just to be sure. I did take her in the yard yesterday to work on some of the Linda Mecklenburg "come to heel" stuff. Miley was so excited. She had that look of "Im ready, where are you going to send me". LoL. She has such excitement for the game.
I wish the Linda Mechlenburg VOD was a DVD. How am I going to remember all this stuff. Im taking notes but some of the stuff you need to see to be able to get it. Im learning a lot. I didnt realize that teaching your dog to come to heel on the flat was teaching your dog to collect and control their back end. It also teaches them to bend like when they go over the bar. I knew it was teaching them to control thier body, I just didnt understand the specifics. It will interesting to see how Miley does when I go out and work the "pull" exercise. Will she swing wide over the jump, or turn tight and come chase me? They are suppose to turn tight.
Ive been watching the VOD every night but still have a long way to go. Its a good thing she gave us a week. I couldnt have goten this done in 48 hours.


I try to walk the dogs either every night or every other night depending on if we are doing much agility. Well, between the snakes and the ticks, Im pretty much over it. Last weekend we took the dogs to the park. We had only been walking maybe 2 -3 minutes and I must have gotten a pinched nerve in my back. Every time I tried to put weight on my leg it hurt so bad. My husband asked if I wanted to go back to the car. But really, I couldnt even walk back to the car. I said, lets just wait it out. So after a few minutes it let up enough that I could walk again. Then we come around the corner and there is a big black snake across the path. Ugh, I hate snakes! My husband asked if I wanted him to get it off the path. I told him to first take a picture. He stepped forward and the snake started shaking its tail and we heard a rattling noise. Well, thats all I needed. We are going home. First my back, now the snake. No walk today. My husband started laughing and said, "I guess you backs feeling better now. You have certainly picked up the pace".At first we thought it was some kinda rattle snake. But apparently black rat snakes will rattle their tail to scare away predators even though they arent rattle snakes. Well, it definitely worked on me. LoL. Now, ticks. My dogs keep getting ticks on them. I use flea and tick medication on them but Im not sure its working. Mostly on Miley. Ive found one on Guienss but it was little and dead but I still had a hard time pulling it off. But I have found several on Miley that were big and bloated. The last one was bloated but also appeared dead and again I had a really hard time getting it off. So now its getting harder and hard to go hike in the woods. Snakes and ticks. Yuk!

Lame

Lat night I worked Miley in the yard a little. We did a sequence from the clean run workbook. It was just 4 jumps and a tunnel. She ran well. I did hear her nails clicking some bars. That could have been my fault. We didnt do any other agility stuff. Then later I was sitting on the couch and she was lying next to me. I notice her front paw looked redder in between two of her toes and looked a little swollen to me. I had my husband look at it but he didnt think it was anything. Then this morning I got up and she was limping alot. Barely putting any weight on her right front leg. I looked at it and couldnt really find much wrong with it. Its wasnt red but might be a little swollen. She didnt pester me to take her for a walk at all. Highly unusual for her. It did seem to improve as the morning went on. I tried to make a vet appt. but they are full for today. Crap.

Thoughts

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I still keeping Miley at just above the box and bouncing it. I want to make sure she really understands the "hit it" command. She didnt jump the box once but she isnt running yet either. So will see what happens when she starts running.


Next Im working on keeping Miley in the poles. She tends to pull out if I speed up or if I start to pull away. I used the Ready Treat to keep her in the poles. It worked well. But it got me thinking that your dog has to disregard your motion cues when training that. Is that ok? So then I thought, well you rear cross the poles and that doesnt mean turn when in the poles. So its probably ok.
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I see the AKC has put out their new changes in agility. Most of the things I dont care that they have changed. But some of the things will make it hard when you trial in more than one venue. They have changed the chute lenght to 6 feet. I guess that is to prevent getting tangled in the chute but Im not sure it was necessary. They changed the table to just having all four feet on, no sit or down. Well that's great for most people. Maybe someday Miley will get on the table. LOL They lowered the tire height. So my dog jumps 12 inches and the tire will now be at 8 inches. But when you train in other venues this doesnt happen. So now is my dog being set up to crash the tire because she isnt expecting the higher tire? I did like the rule that if you dog falls off the ascending ramp of the dogwalk or a-frame, gets tangled in the chute or crashes the tire , you have the choice to put them back on the obstacle and then leave the ring. Or of course you can just keep going. They also changed the ribbing in the tunnel from 6 inches to 4inches. Im not sure why. But it will cost the club a lot of money to replace all the tunnels. Ugh!

Ive been watching Linda Mechlenburgs VOD foundation seminar. She has really lowered the price. It is now only $75 . It was $175. And you have a week to watch it vs 48 hours. Ive only seen about 45 min of the 6 hours but so far its been good for me. Right now she is discussing the 6 basic cues. She talks about natural cues that your dog reads and teaching cues. Natural cues your dog instinctively knows and you dont need to teach. Something I found interesting. She talked about shoulder pulls and how they dont really work. ( I think that is what she said). And the reason your dog will turn with a shoulder pull is because of your stopping of motion and not the shoulder pulling. Interesting. Shoulders ,a lot of times, cue extension which is why your dog takes the wrong tunnel entrance even when your pulling with your shoulders. Im looking forward to the rest of it.

Agility Demo

Saturday I drove up to Charlotte to this park called Independence park. Meagan's club was holding agility demos for a fund raiser for the humane society. It was lots of fun and very hot. It was packed with people and dogs. There was a 5K run at the beginning of the day. No we didnt participate in that. I should have told my husband about the run because then he would have gone with me. Instead he was on the army base doing a bike ride. He got 2 flat tires and had to walk back to the car. The car was 8 miles away. I dont know if you have ever seen the bike shoes that click onto the bike but they are not meant for walking in. His feet were hurting when he got home. And some military guys stopped with a truck and gave him a ride so he only had to walk about a mile.
Anyway the park was packed and they played very loud music. Miley wasnt completely comfortable there. Her ears were down alot. I was walking past one of the booths set up ( lots of dog vendors there ) and I heard this guy say "that dog's stressed". I think she didnt like the loud music or that beautiful water pond they had. Once I got to where the crates were and the agility ring was, she seemed fine. And of course once she was in the ring she was all business. Creeping and trying to break her startline. LoL
I have to laugh, this morning my shoulders are really sore. I think its from caring my gear to the site. I had to park several blocks away and carry my stuff to the site. I thought I went light. I brought a soft crate, fan, backpack and cooler. And thankfully Meagan gave me a ride back to my car when we were done. I was dreading walking back to my car. Thanks Meagan
I did see the Chiro on my way back home. She thought Miley's back was much better. No twitching when she was touching it. Yea!!

There is video of the runs today. Hopefully I can get them loaded later today.



Here is the pond that was at the park. Isnt it neat. To bad Miley didnt think so.This picture was before all the dogs got in.






Here's Miley not happy to be near the water.

I got someone's huband to take these pictures of Miley running today. He got some great shots. I should have given him the camera to take all the pictures. He got much better shots than I did.

Sorry , just a-frame stuff

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Here is some more a-frame stuff. I practiced with the box part on and part off the a-frame today and yesterday. That she got easily. Once I put the box on the a-frame you will see she had a couple of problems on the first few hits. There are also 2misses later on. Not complete misses but one foot wasnt in the box. I didnt notice it until I watched the video.
Tomorrow Im going to help out with an agility demo in Charlotte. Im also going to have Miley have another chiro adjustment. Nothing is wrong but the chiro thought she should see Miley again this week. Its been hot as heck lately. In the 90's and humid. Ugh! Ive been trying to take the dogs for a walk in the late evening. They act like its a death march. I hose the dogs down at the front of the park. Im sure people think Im mean because Guiness acts like such a big baby. Miley doesnt like it but at least she tolerates it. So tonight I just bagged the whole idea of a walk.

More a-frame work

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So I skipped a few steps when doing to box a-frame work. Oops, poor Miley. When you are trying to retrain from a 2o/2o to a running a-frame with the box you need to break the stopping motion of the 2o/2o. You do that by putting the dog into the 2o/2o position ( no verbal cue) then put the box on the ground in front of the a-frame. Release her to the box by saying "hit it". Put yourself in all the handler positions. Once she gets that, move her up a little on the a-frame and start again sending her to the box. If she stops in the 2o/2o position, wait her out . (Miley didnt have that problem)
So I started this evening wanting to just do a few running a-frames. Just to see if we still could run like yesterday. Uh, she couldnt. Didnt get it right once. Crap. Meagan had emailed me and told me to watch the DVD again esp. the stuff on retraining from a 2o/2o. Why didnt I do that first? Uh because I know better. Lol
Sometimes Im hard headed. So after the failure, I went inside and watch the DVD. Oh, now I see the problem.I couldnt figure out why she wasnt recognizing the box on the a-frame when I said "hit-it". Once I put the box on the ground in front of the a-frame she started recognizing the "hit-it" command again. I didnt watch any more of the DVD so I wouldnt push things. Who me? Never. LOL Thanks Meagan.
Today was Nurses Day. At school I got a wonderful basket and a 20 dollar gift card to PetSmart. Best nurses gift Ive ever received.

Wordless Wednesday

Running a-frame work

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OMG you wouldn't believe how long it took for us to get this. She was great on the ground work but as soon as I added the a-frame she couldnt do it. Sorry all that junk is on the ground but I was trying a different things to help her understand. I think we were at it for one hour, but not constantly. A lot of time was me moving the a-frame to different heights. Meagan wanted me to do it on a flat on the ground a-frame but my a-frame can go completely flat. It has this bar that runs down the middle so I tried to put some stuff under the apex to make is slightly elevated. That didnt work. I finally got the chains hooked at the lowest point I could. She still wasnt getting the bounce across thur the box. She either walked down the side or went into a two on /two off. I really dont remember what made her finally get it. I do know I had to put the second jump a little further down pass the apex to get a one hit into the box. She isnt running really fast but I think its because she is thinking about what she is doing. I hope she doesnt throw up from all the treats.

Does anyone know?

(picture of back foot)

Every once in a while Miley stands sorta on the back part of her foot. Does anyone know if this is a bad thing. She doesnt do it all the time just sometimes. She should be standing more on her toes. Should I be worried? She isnt lame or showing any signs of lameness.

Happy Mother's Day

Stephanie made this collage for me for mothers day. It turned out cute.
(you will have to click on the photo to see the whole thing) Yesterday we spent lots of time in the car. We drove up to Charlotte to get Miley adjustment. Then my son wanted to go to Borders bookstore. He had some gift cards and there is no Borders in Columbia. So that worked nicely because it was the next exit from the Chiropractors house. Then my husband won a gift car at the triathlon to a bike store that was in Charlotte. So we went to that store too. So all in all 6 hours in the car. Ugh! But well worth it since today I can touch Miley's back and she doesnt flick around and look at me. O, yea her back was out and she also adjusted one of her ribs.

Ready Treat

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This is a short video of the "Ready Treat". I just wanted you to hear the noise it makes and see its size. Its small enough for me to hold in one hand.

I havent done any training this week. I think Miley's back is sore. I think I told you last week she dropped one bar every run. Then this weekend at the beach, she acted weird when I threw the ball. Not all the time, just sometimes. I would throw the ball, she would take off running, get the ball then drop it and come back to me without the ball. Its was weird. Then when we got home and I was stroking her back. When I got to the middle of her back , she would flick her head around and look at her back. It made me think it must be tender. I havent seen anything else. So yesterday I took her to the vet and they agreed that she was sore and gave me some rimadyl. On Saturday Im taking her for an adjustment. I'm hoping by next week that she is back to normal . We still have been walking, which for us is always on leash. Its been hot as heck here. Ive had to hose the dogs off before walking them. Guiness acts like Im trying to cut his feet off.

Acts like this probably lead to a sore back.

Wordless Wednesday

Question?

This has nothing to do with dogs. So you may want to skip reading it. Can anyone tell me what kind of job you can get with a history major? Besides teaching. My son would like to change his major to history. He really likes history and he knows a lot about history. He loves to read, go to book stores and libraries. So maybe that is his thing. But I dont know what kind of job he could get. He doesnt have good social skills so I think being a teacher is out. His current major is information systems but he isnt doing well. Is is better to be a history major with a high GPA then a information systems major with a low GPA? Any opinions will be welcome.

Tire Crash

First, I have no video from yesterday or today. I just decided to let it go this weekend. Once again, Miley didnt let me sleep much last night. Im not sure what the deal was. She didnt bark as much as last night but still barked. Then at 3am she just kept trying to wake me up. I finally got up at 4:30am and walked her. I guess she had to go to the bathroom. But once Im up, I cant go back to sleep. So we were up for the day. She just was acting weird. We walked on the beach and she didnt seem to want to walk. She would stop and stand there. I would get about 30-50 feet in front of her and then she would come trotting up. I kept waffling about going to the trial. What is wrong with her? Is she sick? Plus I had a headache, probably from lack of sleep. I thought I would go to the trial and see how she acted. Well once there she was ready to go. Nothing wrong with her now. LoL
First up is Open standard. She took off and got caught in the tire. I couldnt really see what happened but she got right up and seemed ok, so I kept going. I front crossed after #4 and then hung back as she came out of the tunnel sending her to the weaves ( good thing I practiced that this week). When she got into the weaves I rear crossed. I felt like I needed to be on that side to keep her out of the wrong tunnel entrance. It worked like a charm. I heard someone say, "wow, that worked nice". She ran over the dogwalk and I told the judge we werent doing the table. Right when I should have been telling my dog "touch". And she jumped the contact. Ugh! What was I thinking. I guess I was a little to relaxed huh? I front crossed her coming out of the chute to keep her off the table. The rest went great. She also had great teeters this weekend. She got called on a few last weekend. Over all it felt like a good run. No craziness and again, no circling. I went over and talked to the people next to the ring with the timers and scribes and stuff. They were still trying to fix the tire. I asked if anyone saw what happened. This guy said she took off way early and then landed on the tire. The tire fell to the ground and the top of the tire leaned forward. I think the pin at the top, that you adjust for different tire heights, wasnt in all the way. I remember looking at it when I was at the line. Im not sure why but I did. So at least she didnt get flung around onto her back or the whole thing didnt come down on her. That was very lucky.
Now for jumpers. Was she going to do the tire or be freaked out about it.

I had a slight lead out from #1 and sent her to the weaves. I hung back to make sure she got in. And she was flying through the weaves. I had to really run to try and catch up. I think I had to much forward momentum and she shot out of the weaves and took the #8 tire. I had my off arm up and called her but to late. I should have slowed and moved laterally. Ta Da da da daaa, she came right back to me and was to wide to get #3 but got back on track into #4. WhooHoo no circling!!! The rest of the course we were awesome. Man I wish I had taped it. I rear crossed before #9 and #10. I was kinda behind so there was some distance but it worked beautifully. My dog rocked! I front crossed after #16. I feel we are getting so close to really being successful. A few people came up to me and said it was a beautiful run. I really hope it wasnt the heat suppressing her craziness. No creeping start line and no circling all weekend!! Im so happy. And I guess she was ok with the tire since she took it twice.
Here was the Exc. Fast course. When I saw the send bonus I decided to forget it. If the dogwalk had been on course I would have stayed but it wasnt, so I didnt. I was done by 11:30am. I also had a severe headache. Im so glad to be home now and I finally have my headache under control.

We Rocked!

This morning things started like this and then turned into this.


Needless to say Miley and I got soaked this morning on the beach. I didnt know it was suppose to rain this morning. I wasnt sure I was going to be able to run her if it was to wet. We went to the trial and it worked out great. It was probably a good thing it rained otherwise the ground would have been to hard. Once the sun came out it was kinda miserable. Miley didnt even want to walk around. One time she tried to hide under the car and I had a shade tent and a fan blowing, she still wasnt happy.



First up was Excellent fast. I wrote my plan on the course map. I decided not to go for the bonus send because I didnt think we would be successful. And after last weekend with the weave pole problems I really wanted her to have successful weave poles. We ran and got the off side tunnel entrance. WhooHoo!. The first time over the a-frame she jumped the contact and I marked it with a "Uhho", the second time she got it. Everything else was perfect. Great weaves! She was awesome. Held her start line too.



Next was open standard. It was hot as heck with the sun out. I wet Miley down before we ran. She was awesome!! Held her start line, got her contacts and her weaves. Because I didnt do the table I was on the right side of the weaves and rear crossed #14. But I was so close behind her I pushed her off the jump. I made her do it anyway and she did!! No circling!! Everything else perfect!!

I could believe how well we were doing and thought maybe we should leave on a good note. But then just decided to stay. Last up was Excellent JWW.


I walked it a couple of different ways. I wanted to make sure I tried different things and not just get one way in my mind like I usually do. I decided to post turn #3,4 and into 5 and then RC #5. I front crossed after #7 and I did it beautifully. We got to #13 and I brought my arm forward to send her into the weaves(I was on her right) and I think she thought I was RC on the flat and she missed the weave pole entry. I brought her back and she got right back in. No huge circle, just tight back and right back into the weaves. I was so excited I lost concentration and she took #15 to #19 but I continued like that was the plan and got her into the tunnel. Yea me!! And we finished nicely. NO CIRCLING !!!!!! WhooHoo, We Rock!! Today was great!! I know we didnt "Q" but we were together. (I hope it just wasnt the heat suppressing her. LoL)


And her she is now. You wouldnt know it but she kept me up all night. She just kept letting out this little bark. Im not sure what she heard, I couldnt hear anything. I had the TV on and ear plugs in my ears to try and sleep. I got up at 12:30am and walked her and then again at 5am. She must be wiped out from being up all night. Turkey!