The park and stuff

Today is warm. Yea!  I think it was like 55 degrees this morning.  We went to the hiking park and had a very nice walk. Both the dogs seemed very happy.

Yesterday Stephanie and I toured Coastal Carolina University.  It was a really nice day for that too. Very sunny. Today isnt sunny. 

We had a very nice visit and learn lots.  I was very impressed considering I didnt have high expectations going in.  The only thing I didnt like was in your second year there, you have to move to different housing. The housing is considered  "on campus" but its about 1/2 a mile from campus and its apartments. It cost more to live there. It will add 2,000.00 a year  more to your room and board when they make you move there. Hmmm, I dont like that to much.  Also I think you may not study to as much that far from campus.  On Friday we are suppose to visit another college.

Tunnel/ a-frame problem

At the last couple of trials when the tunnel has been under the a-frame we have gotten a refusal. After she did go in, she comes out  going to the wrong side.  Here are the steps I did trying to increase her understanding of RC into the tunnel. (sorry the music doesnt end with the video)

I hate winter

I hate winter.  Its cold.  I hate being cold. And yes I realize we are a lot warmer that lots of other places but that really doesnt help.  My finger tips are cracked.  This only happens in winter.  Everything is ugly.  Well not everything but  you know what I mean.  By the time you get off work, the sun is going down. So on the days the sun did come out, you missed it.

No good dog pictures yesterday.  I thought the sun was going to be just right but when it started going down there were clouds. So that didnt work out.  The dogs did have fun trying to get squirrels.

 Look even that picture is dreary. Yuk!

Even the squirrel has to go up high to get some sun.  LOL

I havent done really anything with the dogs all week except a few walks at the park but not many, its been to cold for me.  Miley is probably thinking, "what the heck is wrong with this lady?" 

Next week I signed up of an outdoor trial.  What the heck was I thinking?  Its under cover so even if its sunny you wont feel the warmth of the  sun.  Ugh!  I hope I can handle it.  I guess I can always go home if its miserable but then thats a waste of money.

The good news is, its suppose to warm tomorrow. Sunny and 60.  I hope they arent lying like last time when the sun didnt come out until after 3pm. Ugh!  Stephanie and I are going to look at one of the colleges that accepted her. So the weather should be good for walking outside and touring the college.

Happiness is....

freash warm sheets out of the dryer.

Wordless Wednesday

Getting Closer

Well, Im beat.  Woke up at 4am to be at a trial by 7am.  And it was freezing there.  Windy and in the 20's.  My fingers were killing me, the wind just whipped thur my gloves.  No fun. The trial was in doors but you do have to go outside to let your dog use the bathroom and the side of the ring I was on, the practice jump is outside.  Brrrrrrr!  I did take Miley out to play ball and Frisbee. I bought one of those chuck-it Frisbee and she loves that thing.  
So first up was ISC JWW.  When I saw the course I thought, crap I cant do this.  I heard other people saying, while walking the course, I might just skip this run.  LOL

So we did the best we could.  I didnt run as planned. I had planned to pull in between 4-5 and front cross but I was to far behind. ( the theme of the day) But what I did worked, although not pretty. Sorry , the person starting the tape started a little late. I think it starts at jump #3.

We did stay on course. To bad we dropped a bar. But we had the second fastest time except for a dog that dropped 3 bars. 31.38sec. Funny it doesnt look like a fast run. We took 4th place. Only 1-3rd place got money. I guess in ISC you can drop a bar and still Q. WhooHoo for us!

Then it was a long wait for Ex. JWW. , 4 hours. Ugh! I tried to play with Miley outside but it was just to cold for me. I didnt work because I didnt want to hurt my back and it does feel better. I know that its rude not to work but I couldnt help it.

We had a good run but I pulled her off jump #6 ugh!  I was planning to front cross between #6 and #7. And I guess when I went to front cross, she pulled off.  The place that lots of dogs had problems was #10-#11.  Lots of dogs curled in after #10.  I couldnt really tell why. I think there handlers were to far behind which they were reading a deceleration.  I was more worried about pushing Miley to far and the would good over the #14 jump (off course) instead of coming to the #12 jump.  But that didnt happen. I was far behind and then had to handle from a distance which isnt as effective for speed.  But if I went in there, she would have gone off course.


No Q but we still had a good time. And NO CIRCLING!!! WhooHoo, we just might Q soon!

Practice and other stuff

I took Miley out to the field to practice tonight.  We only practice in the yard a couple of times and we did struggle today.  I had the jumps at 16inches which is why she probably looks like she is jumping differently.  Why are they at 16?  Tomorrow Im going to an AKC trial.  I entered ISC jumpers.  Thats an international class and she has to jump 14inches.  So this week when we practiced I used 14 inches but at the field we can only set either 12 or 16. So I put them at 16.   It  was harder for her and I didnt worry when she dropped a couple of bars.  I  did like that I could get some distance from her in the weaves.



I also entered Excellent jumpers. Will see if we can stay on course. LOL

Now about my back. It was feeling fine until Wednesday. I had decided I needed to become fit. So I was going to add hopping, skipping and sprinting to my walks. So I did some skipping and just a few hops because I need work on that, and I did some sprints. I felt fine that day but the next morning my back was killing me. Its kinda weird. Sometimes it feels ok and then it feels terrible. I can run without a problem but picking up the jump bars on the ground, hurt my back. Hmmmm. Im not sure what to do.

I went to a School Nurse Conference on Friday night and Saturday. Friday night was on the legal aspect of school nursing. Well, that scared the crap out of me. It made me want to quit my job. LOL Today was on diabetes and bullying. The diabetes stuff was very interesting. Wow they are doing some great research and getting ready to put it into human trials. It has to do with insulin producing cells and putting them into the pancreas. That would be so wonderful if it works. The two ladies sitting in front of me were so rude. One sat there reading a catalog ( clothes, purses luggage ect..) and the other did sudoku. Why did they even come if they didnt want to learn anything?

I'll let you knew how tomrrow goes.  Keeping my fingers crossed we can stay on course.

Wordless Wednesday

CPA trial day #2

Day 2 started early because Miley is always up early.  We were up by 5am.   I think we were at the trial site by 7am.  You probably know that Miley really wants to chase cars.  Ive been working on this problem constantly. Sometimes she does well and other times not so much.   I was getting stuff out of the car and had Miley out already on leash.  I accidentally dropped the leash.  Cars were coming into the parking lot and Miley was already getting excited and watching  them.  When I dropped the leash, I immediately called her ( probably screamed at her because I was so panicked) and she came .  WhooHoo, that was the highlight of the weekend for me.  It could have easily ended in disaster. I was soooo happy , I just couldnt believe that she came. 
On the the trial stuff.  Today started with snooker.  Ugh, I hate snooker.  Im terrible at it. I was just hoping to get some points.  Some is better than none. Which Ive done before.  I took Miley out twice and ran her under this barn type structure. Threw the ball and Frisbee.  Imagine how fast she would be if I didnt have to burn off that energy before we run.  But if I dont do it, she just is too over the top for me. Anyway we didnt get very far in snooker before the whistle blew. We did get some points but not much. We didnt help our team to much. I think we were 2nd to last place at the end of day one.  So now that  crappy snooker run didnt help at all.

Next  up was steeplechase.  I really needed a good run after those bad runs.  And we did have a good run.  We "Q"d and took 3rd.  We had a little bobble after #4 where she didnt seem to know which way to go, but didnt go off course.  That cost us time. Then I handle from a distance at the end which made her a little wide so time there too.

That felt good.  We werent perfect but we are getting closer.  I didnt sign up for Monday so I didnt run the 2nd day which was for money.

Next up was Grand Prix.

The beginning which was chute to the tunnel, you had to be right there otherwise dogs were taking the dogwalk.  And because I really wanted to make sure she got the tunnel, I couldnt get  pass the tunnel to make a front cross in front of #3. ( or maybe I didnt try hard enough. My  husband said I need to learn to run!) Then I had a bad rear cross to the a-frame and she almost missed it and it was ugly.My dog covered for my bad handling, what a dog!! Then we were done when we dropped the bar on #8.  My handling from #11 to #12 didnt go as planned.  I was behind in stead of in front to use a serpentine and sent her over #7 instead of the teeter.  But she didnt stress and came back to me.  There was an ugly  turn into the tunnel. Im not sure why that happened.  Ive watch the video a few times and cant figure it out.



Last up was team pairs.  We both had great runs and it moved us up in the standings. We were 11th but only the top 9 "Q"ed.  It was a good experience and Im glad I did it.  Slightly stressful and I really felt bad when we didnt do well because it hurts the team points.  Oh well, there be another time to do better.
 Here are some pictures I took after her steeplechase run. It was in front of a NC State stadium which was across the street.

CPA trial day 1

It's been a long day. We got there at 6:30 this morning and left after6:30 at night. They had some international courses that were being run so thats what took so long. Next time I will add more runs so Miley didn't have to wait around so long. ( I started this post Saturday but never finished it)
First we ran PII gamblers. She did well but jumped her a-frame contact, she did stress a tiny bit after the a-frame but she got it together quickly. It's hard to see on the video but the weaves are in the back. I practiced two weave entries and she got the  both. The first one was a rear cross on the flat.

We got the gamble and took 1st.

Next up was team standard.  In team standard you get faults but as long as you dont go off course your still earning points for your team.  Well first off I walk the course wrong.  I was thinking the number one was on the other side of the first jump.  I couldnt ever read #1 right.  Whats up with that?

And then I left out #12-15 in my walk-thur.  Ugh!  I dont know what was wrong with me.  The groups were large so while group A walked team jumpers , team B walked team standard and then we switched rings and walked the other.  Then you ran both.   Anyway they needed help in the ring so I signed up for assit. scribe.  Well, there was no ring crew. They asked me to be ring crew.  And its not like thats a problem but my body is usually screaming with pain when Im at a trial so I was trying to pick a sit down job.  But no problem, I said I would do it.  It was a lot of work.  Running to fix the chute and pick up the bars and be fast too.  The ring captain was very nice and after a while she came out and told me to go do her job as  leash runner and she would do my job.  She told me she wasnt running a dog and she knew I was running in the ring after these dogs ran and wanted me to have energy left.  That was very nice of her.  So while I was being ring crew I realized I had walked the course wrong in both places.  LOL good thing I wasnt first.  I wasnt the only one.  Someone told me a couple of people ran the first jump wrong.
We did stay on course. WhooHoo.  We did have some errors but we still got points. We really have to work on the tunnel under the a-frame and rear crossing that.  Also she took a spill out of the chute.



Next was Team Jumpers.

Man, I really felt like I could run this course.  We were doing well until #12, I sent her and then pulled off to make a front course and she pulled off the jump. I resent her so we were still ok, then she took #14 and went off course over  the backside of #6. She came right back to me and we finished nicely but we got and "E" for our team. Ugh!  (no video)

 Last was Team Gamblers.

In team gamblers you get the most points in the closing gamble.  So all the opening obstacles arent worth that many points.   There were three gambles.  I decided to go for the one with the most points, the white circles. Miley is pretty good about distance and I thought we could do it.   I did tell my partner that if Miley jumped the a-frame contact again I was going to have to mark it and make her do the a-frame again.  And she was ok with it.   We started with the tire to the weaves.  Well when we ran thur the weaves, one of the nails was sticking up 6 inches.  Holly crap!   Now I really needed to change my plan because  I wasnt running her back thur the weaves again which was my plan right before starting the gamble.  Then she jumped on a-frame contact so I said to her "Hey" and made her do it again. She got it the second time.  Of course my whole plan was shot.  Im not even sure what I did.  The buzzer went off.  She took the Circle #1-3 but when she came out of the tunnel she went behind it.  What the heck?? I have no idea why she did this. Then she took an off course jump and we were whistled out.   So we didnt get to many points for our team.   (no video). 

We went back to the hotel and crashed.  Miley went right to sleep and slept all night.  Yea.  I really need to get a white noise machine to block out all the hotel noise.  I thought we might get kicked out Friday night we she kept barking. 

Ill finish out the weekend later today.  It does get better.  No stress circling all weekend!!!!

We Made It

Well after a long drive we finally got here. I wanted to get here before dark but that really didn't happen. We got here around 5:30pm and there was tons of traffic. I finally got off at an exit that I knew had a big park.( I had searched it on line yesterday)I got off and found the park easily . We only got to walk 15 minutes before the park closed but at least she used the restroom. Its a great park but I don't think I will get back there during day light hours to enjoy it or take pictures. After that we went on to the trial site to set up our crate. It was almost deserted so I walked Miley round and round trying to burn off energy. It didnt help. She been over the top here in the room. We walked outside, played ball in the room and I've given her bones. Ugh! I hope there is some where I can run her tomorrow before we get to the trial or it will be a wild ride. On a side note, I slipped on some ice yesterday and hurt my back. It's not horrible just kind of a constant ache. I hope it doesn't get worse.
I'm excited and nervous about tomorrow. I'm trying to remember its suppose to be fun!

No School again!

I kinda cant believe they called school again today.  I guess the roads must be worse in the north part of the district.  I know my sons college, which is north of us, opened at 10am on Wednesday and then today they open at 12noon.  So there must still be problems.  The ice is the problem. As the snow melts, water runs across the roads and freezes into an ice slick.  Here is what the back yard looks like.

 The squirrel did get a nut out.

I did manage to get to the park yesterday.  There were some ice covered parks on the path but mostly is was clear.

 Im pretty sure we will have school tomorrow.  Its an in- service day.  They have already taken the last three in- service days away and made them regular school days.  The only problem with that is,  that in February the nurses were taking a class to renew our CPR. Its an all day class.  How are we going to get that done now? Watch them make us make it up on a Saturday on our own time.  And this is why I hate snow days. 
Tomorrow I leave for a USDAA trial.  I hope I can leave in the afternoon like I had planned.  The in-service stuff might have changed and it could be all day for the nurses. That will really take me over the edge.  I know Im complaining a lot but I wouldnt have entered this trial if I thought I couldnt leave at mid-day.  Well, I'll just hope for the best.
Ive been thinking about Miley's table issue again.  She isnt entered in anything that requires a table but I still think about it.  When you run agility, you run. The only time the handler stops running is at the table. I wonder if that has anything to do with her problem.  I also think she is over the top at trials which is why she is leaving the teeter early and if she doesnt keep on course, she stress circles.  Im not sure how to fix this stuff but its something to think about. The trial in early December was a really small trial which is maybe why she got on the table. Bigger trials, the more over the top she is, or maybe its me.Hmmm?  Maybe Ill go back in Feb. to that same small trial and see if she gets on the table again.

Wordless Wednesday

Poor Miley

She is loosing her mind.  Starting at 6am she has been wanting to go for a walk.  Running to the front door and slamming it. I tried just taking her in the front yard so she could see what the problem is but she didnt "get it". LOL  Ice has coated everything making it hard to walk. Miley will stand on top of the ice but its to slippery to walk.  So at 9:30am I broke down and took her for a walk.  I think she needed to use the bathroom and couldnt figure out where to go. All the spots where covered with snow and then ice on top of that.  All her "spots" where covered and apparently just "not right".   The streets have lots of ice and it makes it difficult to walk but I tried to stay where the tire tracks were. I cant believe how many people are driving through the neighborhood.  They should have just done a 2 hour delay for school. Now we are going to have to make it up. Crap!  I hope they dont take Friday away. Friday is a teacher in-service day. The nurses were  having their in-service this Monday, the snow day, and then only meeting 1/2 day on Friday. The other half of the day I was going to take off to drive to a trial 4 hours away.  Its the only reason I entered.  Its going to be rough if I have to work all day and then drive. Not so much on me, but Miley will loose her mind crated for such a long time without being able to burn off energy.  Anyway, I got off topic.  I first walked Miley up to one end of the neighborhood but that wasnt good enough. When we were passing our street, she pulled to the other side so I wouldnt turn onto our street.  So we walked all the way to the other end of the neighborhood. Luckily someone had driven on the edge of the yard with their car. It made the grass show and Miley finally went to the bathroom.  She must have been holding it since yesterday.  Poor dog.

My son's college has been closed for 2 days.  This morning they didnt serve breakfast.  Wow, they never closed my college and it was in the mountains.  Sometimes you would walk to class and there would be a sign on the door stating that class was canceled. But that was rare.  I think most teachers lived close by.  Now they would just send you an email.  No walking to class, you dont even have to get dressed. LOL  Remember walking to the building to see test grades posted?  You could see how you compared to the rest of the class. Sometimes you would show up and the grades wouldnt be posted so you would come back later.  None of that anymore.  Just look on line.

Guniess says he isnt coming off the deck until I clean up  this crap.  LOL

Snow Day

(This thing is acting weird so  you should see more than 3 different pictures before it starts over agin with the a-frame . You may see a few pictures twice. Im not sure why.)

Snow!

We really did get snow.

Teeter crash

Yesterday I was suppose to go to a seminar for a couple of hours.  But it was three hours from my house.  I just didnt have it in me to go.  So I decided I would go to the field and work on jumping courses that  I didnt run correctly at trials.   Usually we have class during that time but we didnt  have class.  When I got the the field other people were using it.  They said I could participate with them. They were running a course from Clean run,either Dec or Jan.  I really didnt want to run a standard course but I didnt have my choice. I could have gone home but I had just driven 40 miles.  So I walked the course. Miley was over the top with energy all day.  When I usually go to the field I let her run around while I set things up.  She didnt get that today.  The first time we ran the course was the best and it was down hill from then on.  One person said they think Miley thinks she is wrong when I make her rerun the course even though Im just doing it for practice.   She also had a bad crash off the teeter.  She is ok and got back on without issues.  I hope that doesnt turn into something.  After running the standard course, they did agree to run jumpers courses.  So we set up two.  

This run I didnt get the correct tunnel entrance #15 one time.  The other thing I learned is when  run jumpers courses at home she works with a lot of distance from me.  But its not that way a trials.  So is it me or her that changes at the trial? 

Today its freezing outside but we went to the park anyway. Here are some pictures.

So Happy

I took Miley to the rehab vet yesterday to have her checked. I had made the appt. after she dropped those 3 bars in that first gamblers run at the last trial, I was worried. She didnt drop any more bars the next 7 runs but I just wanted to make sure. So I drove up after work yesterday. Miely wasnt happy to be there. She hid under the chair. It cracks me up because she always seems so confident to me except when she is at the vet. Anyway her appt went great. She showed no signs of any problems. No muscle tenderness or soreness. WhooHoo! I was so happy , I could have kissed the vet, but I didnt. LOL ( for my husband, the vet is a lady). After that I decided to go to an agility class that is always on Thursdays. It was outside but surprising it wasnt to cold. Of course I had two pairs of pants on so Im sure that helped. Miley was her crazy self but she hadnt done anything all day and it was now 7pm at night. The course map is below. The distances arent correct, I just cant judge that type of stuff.

I dont know what to tell you about this course except everyone ran it really well, except me.  But thats ok, I was just happy to be running.   Miley did go off course after the number 15 tunnel. She took that jump and went over the dogwalk. Of course I stopped running even though Meagan told me to go with her.  She came around and got right on the table.  "Good Girl"!  Now go figure that out. LOL   The only thing that I realized when I was almost home, yea I had almost 2 hours to think about things, was that I ran the course wrong. I kept setting her up on the other side of #1.  Im not sure why I did that or why no one said , "Diana, you are on the wrong side of the jump"  LOL.  Maybe they did and I was just so happy, I didnt listen to anyone. LOL

Ive been reading everyones goals for the new year and if they met their goals from last year.  I know I had goals for last year but the only one I remember is to get her Open Standard title.  Well we all know how that went.  That title is probably a pipe dream.   Hmm wonder where that saying came from?   I havent had the guts to go read my goals from last year yet.   So this year I dont really have any concrete goals.  I just want to keep my dog healthy and to learn to be a team on course.  Once we become a team at trials then I can start focusing on other things. 

Work has been really crappy and hard to get thur, just in case  you were interested.  Parents always seem to be mad about something. Thank God its Friday!!

Wordless Wednesday

Squirrel Hunting

Miley , Whatcha doing?

Shhhh, Squirrel.

Im gona get it!

 Oh man, it went up a tree.

So much for that.

What, you see another one?

Im coming to get it!