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.