When it rains....

Its a cool day, well sort of. No sun so its a little bit of a break. I trained Miley this morning. We worked on the running a-frame. Meagan thought I should put the box back on the ground and work on decelerating but her still 2 hitting. She did very well. I , did not. I added other obstacles to make the grid box work more realistic. What I found out when I watch the tape was, I'm sending her over the jump with my inside hand and outside leg. I couldnt figure out why sometimes she was turning the wrong way over the jump. I wonder how long Ive been doing that. Im not sure I will ever get this all figured out. Here is some of the video of the grid work.

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( apparently I dont know what day it is???)

Yesterday we worked on 270's, serps and threadles. And also just running by jumps and not taking them unless I cue them. She had trouble with that if she was to my right but not on my left. Weird.

After training we came inside. I was sitting on the couch and I heard Miley yelp. I got up quickly and went to her. All of a sudden she was trying to poop, in the house. What the heck? So she pooped and then ran out the doggie door. I thought maybe she had eaten some plastic, which she has done before and can be painful coming out. But I checked her poop and it looked normal. Then I went outside to see what she was doing. She had pooped on the deck and it was loose. Otherwise she seemed ok. She came back inside. About 30 minutes later I closed the back door and took a shower. Well I guess while I was in the shower, she had to go again. Where did she go, the old carpet, any of the numerous cheap throw rugs all over the house? Nope, on the new carpet that I had put in last year in the living room. Its blocked off with X-pens ( so no dogs could vomit or use the bathroom on it) but they are in a zig-zag pattern. Well where it zigged in, that small patch of new carpet, looked like a good spot. Ugh, that figures doesnt it? I cant have anything new or nice because either the dogs or kids wreck it. Ugh. Anyway, I cleaned it up. I dont think you can see anything. Im not sure why she yelped when that happened, it was just so weird. And then pooping inside when the back door was open. She seems ok this afternoon.

Impressive

Just in case you dont read this blog, Smoothsailin'agility. Watch this weave pole training.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXy4101MQ-I&feature=player_embedded

Phone pictures

These are some pictures taken yesterday with my new droid phone. It took me forever to figure out how to upload them. Not easy. I must be doing something wrong. I can post to facebook with one touch. Hmmm. not sure what do to. Anyway, here a tree that fell over the path.

I thought I'd let you see there are a few more hills then just that one from the other day. LOL

Here are the rocks that people stack differently every time I come by. I havent been by since the big snake several weeks ago. I decided to get over my fear, so of, by going to the park anyway. You can see that all three pictures really show hills. Its a much better workout here then the other park. But my snake fear gets me in the summer and the other park feels cooler to me. The creek here is low right now so if I need to dunk the dogs its harder.

Class and 270's

I went to class on Sunday. We did the set ups in the Clean Run Exercise sourcebook 2 , pages 44-45. The one I had the most problem was the middle one on page 45 ,the dark circles, seen below.


I couldnt get the 270 from #5-#6. I either pushed her out to the tunnel or pulled her around jump #6. Ugh! I tried a post turn with no change of side or lateral motion landing side from cross. I didnt try the option below ( from Clean Run magazine Jan. 2009 page22.)


This one, take off side front cross, may have worked for me.Ill try that another day. So today we practiced 270's. I just set up the square box of jumps. We were getting the 270's but she kept dropping the bar. It would be the bar marked #2 in the above set up even thought I wasnt doing a take off side front cross. So I had to stop and just take one jump and reward for keeping the bar up. Then add a little bit of motion and c/t for keeping the bar up. Finally we were able to run the whole thing with keeping the bar up and we stopped at that.

For some reason Miley was acting really weird after class. When I finally got her in the car she was acting terrified. Im not sure what was going on. She settled down after a few minutes. Maybe it was the blowers on the A/C system in the car. I had them on full blast trying to cool the car down. I guess I wont do that again. I took her to see the Chiro after class. She seemed ok there. She flinched once when she touched her back but then didnt do it again. May have been a fluke. She told me just to keep and eye on her.

No much else going on. To hot to really do anything. Ive been trying to upload pictures from my phone to this blog but it isnt happening for some irritating reason.

More running a-frames

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She is putting in more than 2 strides when Im behind her. Hmm, does anyone know if thats ok? I really want a 2 stride hit but when she is collecting she needs to put more strides in. At least she isnt jumping off before the yellow but she might do that.

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Here she is more extended, so she only does 2 hits.

another test picutre

Just a test picture

The Hill

Here is the one hill in Columbia. Im just kidding but there very little hills here. This hill is at the river park where I walk the dogs. You know, the misty river pictures. I usually dont take the dogs up this hill in summer because Im scared of snakes. See all that high grass, snakes probably love that stuff. Anyway I decided to go up and down the hill today to avoid some of the other people walking there dogs on the regular path. This hilly pass is for people riding horses but people can use it too. In the cooler months I will have the dogs go up and down the hill several times. After about three times of turning around, Miley starts wondering why Im keep playing this sick joke on her. Up and down , up and down ect.... "What the heck, we just went this way".

It doesnt look like much but when I add the dogs in, it gives you a better persective.

I kept the flxi-leads on in case a deer comes by. I would hope that the leash would get caught around a tree and stop them. Oh, you mean Im suppose to use my really reliable recall. whats that?

Miley is worried about her flexi chasing her.

Where is he going? ( Guiness's picture was blurry so I didnt post it)



I tried to get the dogs pictures again at this spot. It was morning so not to hot. I guess Guiness dosent like the pump that is making noise for the pond.

I went to class on Thursday up in Charlotte. Since its a pretty long drive I asked if I could do the novice and the master class. The novice class was good because it allowed me to focus more on what I needed to do to cue my dog. There arent as many jumps and sequence is easier. The master class you need to think quicker. Miley did really well. She didnt circle me once in either class. WhooHoo! She didnt good off course either. She was wide but pulled in to get the jump. Yes! I made her drop a couple of bars by calling her name right when she was over the bar. Ugh! Why do I keep doing that.

Heat and nothing else

Did I tell you its really hot. LOL I did, huh. I took the dogs back to the park last night because they were bored. Walking next to the river is actually slightly cooler than walking any place else. And when you go to the bank to go down to the river, sometimes you will feel cold air hit you for a few seconds. It feels wonderful. I took some more pictures but these are evening pictures of the mist, or do I mean steam, coming off the river. Sorry I keep posting these type of pictures but I think they are cool.

There is also a place with flowers , a bridge and a pond that Ive been wanting to take the dogs pictures there. In the morning they have a kids day camp going on and its right near this site so I cant get it in the morning. I thought I would try in the evening. As you can see Guiness wasnt happy about this.

Im going to a trial next week. Its indoor. It will be the first time we will have rubberized contacts at a trial. I have a rubberized a-frame and I put her over Linda M. rubberized dogwalk at camp, so I dont think it will be a problem. What will probably be the problem is I havent really had good practice sessions. Its just to hot. I tired again to take her to the field yesterday. I had a plan. Keep Miley in the shade while I set up the course. I wanted to set up three jumpers courses and run her thur them each once. LOL, it didnt work out that way. I didnt even get the second tunnel set up on the first course before changing that to a plain pinwheel. Between moving the a-frame, the dogwalk and carting out the tunnel and sandbags,it almost killed me. I was sweating so bad and my heart was pounding in my chest. Kinda scary, so I hosed myself down with the water hose. I ran Miley 3 separate times on the one course and we took breaks in between. I called it quits after that. So much for that.

Today my son comes home from college summer school. I hope to god he did better than the first time he took the class. Sometimes he doesnt tell me things he thinks will upset me. Hmmm. Stephanie started her summer internship this week. She is only working 2 days a week with that. So last night I let her drive down to the beach to spend a couple of days with her friends family. Nerve racking for me but she made it there. Also Im watching a friends dog and this dog is really old. She is probably 18 yr old and is a lab mix. They got her from a vets office many years ago. She had been hit by a car and someone took her there. No one ever came for her and no one would adopt her so my friend finally took her. She is really old looking. Blind, deaf and can barely walk at times. Ugh. Every day Im so worried I will go over there and she will be dead. Ugh, I hope that doesnt happen.

Wordless Wednesday ( better late than never)

At the Beach

Well, we made it. After waking up at 4am, started driving at 5am and got here at 2:45. It was a long drive but we got here in time to change our clothes, get back in the car and get to the graduation. It was very nice. We then had a nice family dinner. If you're on facebook, I posted some pictures there. I got a new camera, the droid incredible, so I took pictures with that because I left my camera in the car at my sisters house. Ugh, that figures. But my new phone worked just fine. I'll see if I can up load some of the pictures.

This morning I slept in until 7:30am. WhooHoo, no dogs pawing me to get up. LOL
I couldnt get any good dolphin pictures but I got some cool bird pictures.

Doggies in the Mist

This is about as deep as we get.

This picture would have been so cool if that ugly tree branch wouldnt have been in the way. But at other angles the sunbeam wasnt noticeable.

Its just been way to hot. Its so hot that mist comes off the river morning and evening. This was from this morning but 2 nights ago we walked at 7:30 pm and it was misty too. Cold water against the warm air. Warm , I mean hot. Its was still 98 degrees last night at 8:30pm. I tried working at the field yesterday morning. I left my house at 7:30am. So we were at the field a little after 8am. Miley worked a short while and then refused. I dont think Miley has ever refused to work. At first I thought maybe she was hurt. I decided to take her home. She ran to the car. And you know Miley hates the car. When we got home she wanted to play ball in the house. It was just to hot for her outside. I guess I wont be going to the field for a while. A forty minute drive is a long way to go for 10 minutes. My yard is shady all morning so I will just have to make do with the small space. I have to laugh. When I went to Ohio I brought a lot of extra underwear and bras ( TMI?) . Because here when you work your dog or go for a walk, you sweat thur you under garments. I dont think I sweated at all in Ohio, I didnt need any of the extra stuff. LOL Here you do. Ugh! Can you tell its hot since Ive been talking about it for a whole paragraph. LOL.

Ive been working on going passed jumps without Miley taking them. We had to start with first just walking by them. Then I could go half was pass and do a recall to heel. Last night we were successful in running passed jumps and only taking them if I cued them. Hurray!! I set up double boxes and she did really well. I need to remember to be consistent. Poor Miley, I did run into her one time because I was expecting her to take a jump and she didnt because I didnt cue it. I rewarded highly.

Driving all that way from Ohio was rough. Now tomorrow Im first going to Ashville to pick up Stephanie from camp. Then we are going to Virginia Beach because my sisters kids are graduating high school. So it will probably take us about 10 hours. Ugh. Im dreading it. The drive that is, not going to see my sister or her kids. The good thing is no dogs to worry about. My husband and son will be staying home.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Bird Brain def. - A bird that lays its eggs in an agility instructors driveway.

Home Sweet Home

Here are the pictures of the water bowel that attaches to the soft crate. It's the small bowel but they make a big one too. That metal hook goes around the back of the pole and then you tighten it up.

The bowel can be removed easily.

Here is the tripod I bought. It telescopes out to 4 feet tall.

Im finally back home. The last day of camp was great. The weather was wonderful. It was suppose to rain but didnt and the temperature felt great. People were complaining how hot is was but it felt wonderful to me. We finished at 5pm and then I drove down to Cincinnati to meet back up with my husband. Miley was so excited when we got out of the car. She ran up to my brother in-law , who she has only met once, and jump on his lap and started licking his face. If you know Miley, "you no touch me", it was shocking. I dont know if she was glad not to go back to the hotel or to be done with agility. LOL Anyway it was pretty funny. We left Cincinnati yesterday morning it was 71 and raining. We got into Columbia at 5pm and it was 102 degrees. Welcome home. LOL

I have learned so much at this camp. Im so glad I went and I wish I had gone sooner. Things I found out I doing, which to me maybe why Im going off course. One thing that was pointed out, when I send to a tunnel I use my inside arm but my outside leg. That could be confusing the dog. (Hmmm could account for some off course tunnel sends). The next two things I put in the course map above. The first is a pull over two jumps. If there where only two jumps Miley turned tight and came with me. But once we added more jumps and choices she either went very wide and had to pull back into me or she went off course over the jump in front of her. I have to really work on this. ( off course again) The other thing that was noticed was when I was running serpentines. Now the first time I ran it she did it correctly but I didnt give her any cues to take the jumps , like over, call her name ect.. But Linda was ok with that because the jump was between me and the dog and if Im looking at the dog over a jump, they should take it. But then when I ran it with me on the other side, again she did it correctly but I didnt give her any cues to take the middle serpentine jump. So what if I didnt want her to take that jump and wanted to go straight over a jump that was in front of us(not pictured)? She will go off course. See another off course problem. I need to cue the jumps so she knows when to take them and when not to. Those were my three" ah ha" moments.

This was one of the best seminars/camps Ive ever been to. I really like it when there is information given about why you do this and that. What the dog is reading and why. It makes so much more sense then just running sequences and trying to get them correctly. You got information on what you were trying to accomplish then just to get the dog over the correct jumps. I wont lie though, it was a long 4 days and Im so glad to be home. One thing I would suggest if you ever go to this camp is bring a tripod for you camera. I didnt bring one but stop at a RiteAid and bought a very small one that would fit in my backpack. It worked great and Im glad I found it. Next make sure you have a start line stay on your dog. A lot of time was wasted with people having to set their dog back up because they kept breaking. A few people gave up and just had someone hold their dog at the start line. I know this is hard to believe but Miley only broke once that I can remember and I was already in position and when I brought my arm up she broke. So I just went on and didnt reset her. And the big high light was she didnt circle the rest of camp. I cant remember if it was the first day or the second but I was practicing with her inside the building. She went into circle mode. I just walked away and shut the door behind me. I only waited about one minute and then came back in. No circling the rest of camp. No at all. Every time I called her she came into me. WhooHoo. I felt bad for this lady who had a very nice border collie. Im not sure if the dog was stressed or what. But Linda was talking to her about her sequence and the dog took off. Running around the building and even ran into the big barn screen door. Then went out the other door out into the field with the group out back. Then next day she was talking to me saying she hope that didnt happen again. I told her not to feel bad. And I told her about my first day ( she wasnt there the first camp) and Miley circling and circling. I think it made her feel a little better. At least I hope so.

Day #3

Today we met another Miley. She is also a sheltie but tri-colored. She was a fast and feisty little thing. Today went very well. It was suppose to rain but of course it held off until our group went outside. LOL doesnt that figure. But really it wasnt to bad. It was never a down pour. Miley did really well. No craziness and no circling. WhooHoo!! And she hasnt dropped any bars the last two days. Hmmmmm. Do you think its because of better handling. Or could it be that the jumps inside the building are wood. Im sure if you hit those, you know it. But she didnt hit any bars outside either and they are the pvc ones. Im so happy about no dropped bars. I kept thinking maybe she was hurt but I guess it was my handling.
Today was common sequences. We are using all the things we have learned the last two days to handle the courses. We ran a pinwheel but used a lateral send, then a moving front cross, then a blind cross, a rear cross on the flat and a moving front cross. Who knew there were so many different ways to do a pinwheel. I didnt. I hope I remember all these things. Ive been trying to video my turns but today my camera kept stopping. I hope its just a dead battery. I should have charged it last night. I even thought about it because I used it the last two days. But I didnt and so it didnt make it thur today. Of course I cant show any of it to you per seminar rules. But at least I can look at my notes and then see what I did.
My hotel is in a good location even though its about 30 minutes from Linda M. place. Lots of restaurants and stores. There is even a few pet stores. I went in the Petco just in case there was something in there I didnt know I needed. And guess what I found? A water bowl that can be attached to a soft crate. I bought it but was kinda skeptical but it works great. And today, no spilled water in the crate.
P.S. I knew Linda wasnt being mean calling Miley "wild". She was laughing and smiling when she said it. And lets face it, she was being wild. LOL

Ive been having trouble reading peoples blogs. Im not sure why I cant really open them up. Well they come up but then the post wont load. And not everyones. Weird. So hopefully I can catch up when I get home. Im learning lots but I cant wait to sleep in my own bed.

Day #2

Today was day 2 of basic skills. My brain is fried. By 5:30 this evening I wasnt even paying attention anymore. I stopped taking notes and writing down the courses. There is just so much to learn and Im trying to remember and let everything soak in. But its just to much. I hope I feel renewed tomorrow. Saturday and Sunday is "common sequences". So I really want to apply what Ive learned. Its hard for me to use these cues and apply them on course. I hope I start having that "ahaa" moment soon.
Today it wasnt suppose to rain until the afternoon. I figured that was ok but my group would then be inside. Not. It rained in the morning. ugh! It wasnt to bad but I could have done without it. It didnt rain at all in the afternoon. Then when I got back to the hotel around 7pm is was really dark black skies. Sirens were going off. I used my card to get into the hotel and it would open the door for me. That figures doesnt it. So I ran around to the front and had them rekey my cards. At least I made it in before the rain started. I thought the sirens were for tornadoes but the news said it was just thunder storms.
The morning half of the seminar was recall to heels with two jumps. Miley did very well. No craziness but I ran her around and played with her in the field before the seminar started. The instructor said, "Its this the same dog that couldnt collect and was over the top yesterday". I laughed and said yes. I told her about exercising her before class today which I didnt do yesterday.
The afternoon session was on small sequences using what we have learned. I didnt learn anything. LOL Just kidding. Im just having a hard time applying what Ive learn on course. Miley did pretty good. Only one time she was a little over the top. She kept wanting to take the tunnel when the sequence was done. I thought, o'boy not a good sign. The next time I took her out Linda said, "Now what can we have this wild sheltie do". LOL She did set up a harder and longer course for Miley to run. This must have been what Miley needed because she did really well and wasnt crazy at all.
Im really tired and for some reason my eyes are blood shot so Im going to bed.
( those things I put in quotes may not have been exact words but you get the point)

Day one of seminar

I was finally able to up load some pictures of Ricky and Miley. Dont they look cute?
I did find out its hard to photograph a whitish dog and a black dog. The camera doesnt like it.


Todays seminar was great and Im exhausted! We finished around 6:30pm. It was a long day for me but Miley didnt work that hard or much so she isnt to tired. Ugh! The first half of the day we worked outside. We worked on the 6 call to heel positions. (you know, every time I try to type in "Call to heel", I type "call to hell". LOL what do you think that means?) Anyway Miley couldnt collect this morning if her life depended on it. It looked like we had never done any collection work. And if she cant collect on the flat, she wont be able to collect over a jump. Then when we did lateral sends to the tunnel, she was suppose to go thur the tunnel and turn tight and come back toward me. OMG, she couldnt make a wider turn coming out of the tunnel if she tried. Then on the last exercise she broke her stay and I went to bring her back and she went into circle mode. I couldnt get her to stop. The instructor had me stand still. Miley circled me, around and around , coming in tighter and tighter. And just when you thought she was going to stop, she went wide again and started all over again. So they had me walk away and then Miley stopped and came up behind me. I put her in her crate. The instructor said if it were her dog she would just go in the house and leave the dog. Game over. Every time she does it , just walk away, leave her. So I was feeling bad about the morning session. I should have gotten there earlier so I could have played with her to burn off energy.

Then the afternoon session went great. We worked inside on crosses on the flat. I told her that I think Ive confused my dog with my hand cues. We talked about it. So for me all my crosses on the flat were with no hand cues. Miley read them all beautifully. It was weird,she was calm , focused and right on. The only bad thing about it was, then you didnt get much floor time because you did the exercise ok. Dogs are funny. Most of the dogs in the morning session that did great on collecting with the call to heel stuff on the flat had trouble in the afternoon. We also worked on lateral sends and forward sends. I think we will be doing more of that tomorrow. Ive learned so much today. I hope I remember it all.