Thur the puddle

If you're facebook friends with me, youve already seen this.

Raining tables

Well its been raining for 3 days now. So what better thing to do than try to work on Mileys table. Ive been trying to find things  that are exciting when she is getting on the table.  Most of the things Ive tried have failed to be more exciting the doing agility.  But then I thought, hey the vacuum . She goes crazy for the vacuum. Not something I should encourage but whats more important  tables or vacuums.  Uh, no brainier here, the agility table.  LOL  My goal was to be able to turn the vacuum on while she is running pass and for her to keep going and get on the table.  I had a lot of video but this first clip is short and just to try and show you how exciting she finds the vacuum. This is already after 6 minutes of having the vacuum out. I dont think the clip truly shows how much she goes crazy over the vacuum but there you go.



But what turned out to be the real challenge was getting her to hold her start line when turning on the vacuum.  I had to first work through that.  Then I could try turning on the vacuum when running by.  Here is the next clip.



I know kinda crazy to do but Im trying to get her on that table. Im probably going about this the wrong way, but Ive tried everything else.

The Hill

Here is one of the big hills I try and walk up and down. Its good for the dogs and my ankle.  For some reason by ankle can fully flex but is about 3 inches short on extension.  Very frustrating.  So Im hoping walking up and down this hill will loosen it up. Its weird because it doenst hurt to extend my foot, it just wont go any further no matter how hard I try to extend my foot.  Im going to try using the rubber band thing under a piece of furniture and then put it around my foot. Then Im going to pull back and see if it will extend that way. Passive extension.

Long Week

All I have to say about work is "Mean people suck"!  The End.  LOL
Its been a very busy week and when I havent been busy,  Ive been to tired to post on the blog.   Monday I help teach the co-op agility class.  I think I figured out why my backs been hurting.  I think when I wear the splint the ortho guy gave me,it must make me walk different and causes my back muscles to hurt.  So Monday at the field I didnt use the splint and just taped it up the way the doctor showed me. It worked great and I was able to run.  Mondays class went well except that when I first got there I let Miley run around while I helped set the course.  So if cars came by she ran the fence line. No biggy right?  It runs off excess energy.  So then we run the course. She was a wild women.  She was taking off for almost all jumps way to early and dropping the bars. It was unbelievable. What the heck was she thinking.   So I had someone tape my next run thur so I could see what she was doing.( crazy dog).  That run she didnt take off early but  jumped off the teeter, left the weaves early to go to the tunnel and didnt wait for her release on the a-frame.


I cant remember if we ever got our act together. So then that night I came home and SG's webnair was on my email. I listened to it and figured out what happened.   She said that if your dog is more stimulated by their environment  than you, you will not be connected on course. You dog may run the course but  you wont be in sync. You will have off courses and wide turn.  ( she said something like that, and I wrote what I think I heard)  So letting my dog run around and do her own thing  was a biggy. LOL  Now I know.
On Wednesday I taught a beginning agility class for our club.  Well, they have already been thur the first  class and now Im teaching them contacts and weaves.   They seem like a really good group.  Im not sure Im the best person to be teaching all this stuff but its better than no one.  I would really like more people in our club to be interested in doing agility . So if we dont offer classes that will never happen.  Most of the people there said they would like to trial their dog when they are ready, so thats exciting.  I ran Miley before the class started. I set up  the course from Loralei's blog. Here is the link to the blog post with the course map.
http://loralei913.livejournal.com/86150.html

What a fun little course. We had no real trouble running except for me.  I again just sport taped my ankle. It hurt to run,  I just couldnt get to where I needed to be. The one time I was just getting to the dogwalk and she was finished waiting for me. Poor dog.  We had a couple of really wide turns because of my slowness but we stayed on course.  Oh, I forget to say Ive had no back pain all week.  Monday and Tuesday I didnt need any pain medicine for the first time in a long time. So I really think its the splint but I couldnt run on Wednesday. So, Im not sure what to do.

Tonight a few of us met at the field to run courses.  I set up an excellent JWW course. I decided to do all the setting up and walking the course before putting the splint on. Im only going to wear it when I run the course. So thats what I did. We'll see how my back  is tomorrow.   I didnt let my dog run around before hand.  Here was one problem I had, well Im not sure problem is the right word.  I was able to get her to tug before running the course (one time).  Right at the start line. WhooHoo. Ive been working all week just tugging by the agility equipment in my yard. We still have a long way to go but its a start. Do you know what happened when I had her tug at the startline.  She didnt go away from me when running and I kept pulling her off jumps.   She was more with me if you know what I mean.  That was different and difficult for me to handle.  It was just that one run that I had her tugging. The rest of the time we did the usual routine.  I couldnt run this jumpers course correctly if my life depended on it.  Before I got hurt we were doing so well staying on course. Ugh, now Im  back to where I started.  I got the wrong tunnel entrance on #15 several times ( just like when I ran it at the trial last July) I finally had to go to the right side of #16 to pull her into the correct tunnel entrance and then call her  over 16 when she came out of the tunnel. (if that makes sense).

It was still lots of fun and Im just beat.  The lady with the yorkies was just awesome. She started last year in our class. Maybe she needs to be teaching the classes and  helping me, not the other way around. LOL
P.S, I hope there arent to many mispelling and stuff. Im just really tired but I wanted to post something.

Wordless Wednesday

Feeling better

Sorry for the terrible post. I shouldnt post or read blogs went Im feeling bad.  I feel much better now.

This picture cracks me up.  

And dont worry, I have lots of help running the agility trial. I just take to much to heart.  And I hate when people come and complain but thats just part of it. People always complain.  Ill just do the best I can.

Run thurs and other stuff

Yesterday we had agility run thurs at the field. It was very hot.  Sunny and 85 degrees. The poor dogs.  They all did really well. I think we arent adjusted for the heat yet. For my first run I tried to make it seem just like a  trial.  No free running or going on the field ahead of time.  When it was almost my turn I warmed her up just like I would at a trial.  I was most interested to see what she would do at the table. So I set my camera up toward the  table. I wish I had zoomed in  some to be able to see better.  She got right on the table. No problem. After my count, I ran out of the ring to reward.  After that I came back in and finished the course. (that part wasnt like a trial)  She had great contacts  except the teeter.  She did her old behavior but thats not surprising and I know I have more work to do.  She had great weaves too.  I had bad handling. I tried not to do any front crosses, only rears on the first run but It didnt work great.  So my second run I did do front crosses.  The second run was much better but she had a bad teeter. I didn bring her back to re due it and the second time she got it right. (Some good news is I finally figured out how to edit video on my new camera)


I woke to a bad dream this morning. I was dreaming that a snake bit my finger and wouldnt let go. I grabbed it behind the head and kept squeezing but it wouldnt let go. I ran outside ( I dont know why I was inside and a snake bit me) and started screaming for someone to help me, but no one would. People kept walking by me and no one would stop to help. I kept pleading for help but no one would. Then I woke up. I know why it was a dream about snakes. On Friday night I watched a show about a guy who got bitten by a snake on the hand. I hate snakes. And now that its warm, they will be showing up at the parks. Ugh! I think that no one would help me had to do with things going on right now and I feel in over my head. One: My son isnt doing well at college. There is no way he is going to pass this quarter, IMO. And the worse part is he isnt even trying. If he were trying and couldnt do it, I would be more understanding. But I read one of his papers and he put no effort into it at all. So I told him, when he flunks out this time. He has 6 weeks to get a job and then he has to get out of the house. I just dont know what else to do. Ive tried everything else. He needs a reality check on why college is important and why you should work hard to achieve success. So I feel like a horrible mom for kicking my kid out of the house. This is the hardest thing Ive ever had to do and I feel sick over it. Why is he being like this. We arent lazy parents. We all work hard. Stephanie isnt like this. She has goals and wants to do things with her life. I may not agree with every thing she wants to do but at least she has goals. Lou has no goals and I have no idea why.Ugh, This is making my life horrible. Its on my mind constantly.
Two: The big school field trip in which we take 900 kids on buses to Myrtle Beach for a lunch at Medieval Times. I have to teach all the teachers to give medications so they can take care of the kids on thier bus. They have to be taught to give epi-pens and inhalers. At least no rectal valuim for seizures this time. Then trying to make sure that the parents listed the medication on the permission slips. Calling them , some of them , based on the students medical condition, I tell them they have to send the medication or their kid cant go on the field trip. That makes me popular. I scared that Im going to miss someone and the teachers arent good about sending me the permission slips with medications on them like they are suppose to. So I email them and ask them if the student is going on the field trip and they say "oops, sorry I missed that one". And then they send it to me. All this is stressful, being solely responsible for this. Ugh!
Three: Be the trial chair for the club's agility trial. I dont want anything to go wrong. There is just to much to list here of things that I need to keep track of but its a lot. Why did I agree to do this? I guess because no one else would do it. I dont even want to talk about all the problems here and how people in the group keep quiting. Im not a good leader and I never said I was either. Most leaders make you want to join and help out and I dont think I instill that in people. Im truly not a people person.
Four: We are losing our agility field that the club uses. I guess we'll have to put the stuff in storage but that means we cant use it. I feel a lot of responsibility to try and find a field too. Why, well I guess I really like going to the field. Lots of room to run my dog, which I dont have in my backyard. Not sure how we are going to fix this problem.
Five: My back is killing me for the last two days. I hiked 4 miles on Friday and then Saturday morning it was really hurting. The only thing I can think of is that Im compensating for my ankle and stressing my back. Then running agility yesterday, that tiny little bit, has killed me. Ugh! I guess Im going to have to go to the doctor because I dont know what else to do. I cant live like this. Ugh!

Yesterdays Walk

Over the top

Since nothing Ive tried with Miley  has been as exciting as doing agility when trying to distract her to the table. Ive decided on this.  You will need to turn down your sound.  This isnt good dog training, I was trying to see what would happen. I went out with the video camera and had no food.  I didnt cut up any food before hand either. I didnt want her to know we were training.  There are lots of things that arent good in the video. Number one, how Im dressed. Sorry about that. LOL   On the video after I run into the house  to reward her, I did get food. So the second half of the video is with her knowing I have food.



Arent you glad Im not your neighbor. LOL

Ankles and Anniversarys

Yesterday I went for a recheck of my ankle.  It was after work and when I got there my ankle was really swollen.  He told me not to worry about it. It will probably swell like that until summer. ( oh goody)  The good news is he  thinks it looks good.   Im ok to hike.  I told him I did a mild hike on Sunday and the next day my ankle hurt the whole day.  He said that was ok. If it hurts  3 days after a hike, I need to call him.  Also the lower outside edge of my lower leg hurts.  He asked me if I had been using the rubber bands and doing the exercises. (uh , no)   Well I need to.  That area of my leg is sore because my muscle are weak and I need to build them back up.  I did the exercises last night and now my ankle is really sore. No pain , no gain,   Right?   Im ok to run in straight lines too.  No front crosses until 2 more weeks, then add them in slowly.  My back is feeling better too. It no long kills me to pull up my pants, give the dogs treats or clip their leashes on.  Its still sore but much better. 
Monday night I went to teach the agility class for our club.  At the rate the one lady's yorkies are "Qing" she will have higher titles them me probably in the next trail she goes to. LOL I did run Miley but not much. I would only run the sequence once, what ever happened, happened.  And the last time I ran a shorter sequence than everyone else. I didnt do any front crosses, only rears.  I work the teeter there and she was perfect.  I also worked her tables.  I guess I dont know what excites my dog.  I brought popcorn because at home the dogs go crazy for popcorn.  It would show up well in the grass.  So I ran her to the table and threw the popcorn on the ground right before she  got to the table.  She could have cared less.  Even when I released her from the table , she didnt go get the popcorn.  So much for that distraction.  I had also brought a treat bag and threw that. She was able to work pass that too.  So I need to find a more exciting distraction.

These were the other pictures from the park. Guiness wasnt happy about the water fall (tiny one) by the bridge. Silly dog.

There is the little water fall. Of course I couldnt get Guiness in this picture at all.

"My mom is a lazy dog owner. She doesnt even carry bottled water for me so I have to drink this crap.  Its disgusting"

O yea, Anniversaries.  Yesterday was our 22nd wedding anniversary.  We went to "Outback" and I ate way to much. 

Things

Sorry I havent posted much.  I guess when your husband says, "Arent you blogging anymore?", its time to put up a post. LOL  I really dont have much to post about.  I just feel like a big complainer.  My back and my ankle just dont want to make my life better. Who wants to hear about that? I dont even want to hear about it and its me.   Works been full of lots of bad things too. I know you are probably thinking, you are just a school nurse. What bad things can happen there?  I cant really talk about it but lets just say, DSS calls, police, epi-pens and bleeding disorders playing contact sports. Ugh! 

Yesterday was a beautiful day.  I wanted to work on Miley's teeter.  I ordered the DVD by Wendy Pape, "Teeters from start to finish".  The only thing I didnt like about the DVD was somethings require your dog to be a good tugger.  Not Mileys strong point.  She will tug, just not in connection to agility. I know thats my fault but doesnt help with this video.   Anyway the DVD has some really good information that I didnt think about.  When Miley is leaving the teeter early, I thought she didnt like the tipping.  But she will get all over a wobble board with no problems.  The DVD talked about some dogs  not liking the height of the teeter. So I thought I would see where Miley was with that.  You keep the teeter so the board cant tip. Put the dog at the end of the teeter and reward with your hand under the board. Then take the dog off.  I started this at home.  I had the camera out but Im blocking the camera so you cant see what she is doing. The first time I put her on, you could tell she was scared and didnt want to go to the end. Once she got a few treats , she go over that pretty quickly.   I also used Jen Pinder's teeter article in Clean Run, Nov. 2009 to teach her end behavior.  So Im changing the end behavior , now she has to wait for a release. Before she was suppose to wait until the board hit and then she could leave. But she was leaving early.  I then took her too the field and used the teeter there. It drops faster than my teeter and is really noisy.



I did work both sides of the teeter but took it out of the video. I just wanted to give you the basic idea.

Next we worked on weave poles. Im not sure what happened but she was really slow. I was using the Ready Treat because I wanted to work on distance but the box wouldnt open. I thought maybe because it was so sunny but when I got up close it wouldnt open. I tried it several times and Im not sure if the box not opening right away made her think she was wrong so she was slow. Or if something else was going on. We stopped working that. ( the remote for the Ready Treat needed new batteries. It works fine now.) Then we worked tables. I had one of those lint rollers with the tape on it. I figured I use it as a distraction. She goes crazy over that thing in the house. It was to funny, she couldnt have cared less when I got that thing out. It cracked me up. So much for distraction training. I decided to use the plastic bag with the treats in it as a distraction. I put it on the ground next to the table. She did pretty well but not perfect. The first time she got on the table, but then tried to reach over and get the bag and her front feet slipped off. She got the bag and back up and onto the table. It was to funny. The next time she was unsure and just got on with her front feet. When I said, "good girl" she got the rest the way on. Then after that she got straight on , even with the bag of food right in front of her approach to the table. I tried to load that video but it would load to YouTube.  Im not having good luck today.  Anyway the video showed poor training methods on my part. I need to remember to put her leash when Im thinking or setting up again. Ugh, she practice circling me several times at the table which I didnt noticed until I watched the video.

This morning I took a walk with the dogs. It was so peaceful and nice. I didnt see one person the whole time I was there.

I dont know whats with blogger but I cant get any more pictures to load.  So I'll try tomorrow.

Ooops!

So I think I might have mislead everyone with the relationship building that Ann Braue talked about.  Its not some magical thing that will fix all your problems.  So Im just going to talk about it. Also remember this is what I heard her say and I could have misunderstood what she said.  She talked about how we spend so much time building a relationship with our puppies but we tend to take the relationship for granted as they get older.  So she said every time you get your dog out of the crate, work tricks and give them a cookie.  Sit-cookie, nose touch-cookie, high five-cookie.  Those are all deposits into the relationship bank.  When on course and something goes amuck, that is a withdrawal from the relationship bank.  Right then- do a simple trick and give a cookie.  Make sure the trick really is easy so you can reward the dog.  If she has a young dog and he misses the weave pole entry. She does a quick trick -cookie, and then sends them back to do the weaves again.  Good trainers have way more deposits then withdrawals in the relationship bank.  She said  she has had good success with helping dogs that are visiting and doing things you dont want when on course.  Im sorry this probably wasnt what you were hoping for but there it is.
Someone asked me which of the three trainers  I liked the best.  I really couldnt tell you. They all taught different things and had tips to help different problems.  If I needed to work on speeding my dog up, I would probably go with Jenn Pinder.  If I wanted to work on  stress in the ring, I would probably go with Ann Braue.  If I wanted to work on just handling , I would go with Jennifer Crank.  But really all of them were awesome and very helpful.  They also worked your dog. Your problems may have been different then the dog that just ran. They didnt just work the sequence, they work your dogs problem. I really liked that. 

I posted this already on facebook , but I will put it here too.  On Sunday , someone showed me this product that I had never heard of. Im sure lots of show people know about it, but I didnt. Its called" Pro-line self rinsing shampoo".  You can order is on Amazon.  When you dog is dirty but you cant get to water to wash them , you use this product.  Just spray it on, rub their fur and then wipe the area with a towel. It was like magic. All the orange dirt that was on Miley was gone. Here is Miley before the Pro-line.

This picture was taken right after I sprayed her and wiped her down. Its great stuff, esp if you cant get your dog cleaned up before going to the hotel.  This picture I posted of her yesterday, saying it was my favorite. That was taken that evening after using the Proline. I wish I had known about it all weekend.

"See, now Im clean. And the best part is I didnt have to take a bath!"

Day #3

Well, its really pass day 3 but I was really tired last night, so I didnt feel like writing.  My back was much better Sunday.  I didnt use any heat on it Saturday night, only ice.  I also didnt sleep with my foot up on pillows.  It was 200% better Sunday.  I didnt sit down most of the day so my back wouldnt start hurting.  But Sunday night my foot was swollen so I slept with my foot up again. I woke up at 4am with my back hurting. Ugh!  I just got up and after feeding and talking Miley on a walk, I drove home.  It was a painful drive home. My back is just so irritated.  I got home by 12:30 in the afternoon. So that was nice.  Now hopefully my back can go back to normal or I will need to see the doctor.  Here I was worried about my foot making it throught the camp.  My foot was no problem at all. LOL
Sunday it was suppose to pour down rain starting at 12noon. But we were so lucky, it never happened. Our group worked with Jenn Pinder.  We work Lateral motion.  Funny, the easy exercises I had trouble with and the harder ones we got. Maybe I take things for granite when its seems easy to me. Ill have to keep that in mind when I walk and run courses. One of the things she pointed out was, I wasnt cuing jumps but miley was taking them and they were the right jumps.  So I still have work to do. We had lots of off courses in Jenns class.
Here are just somethings that were talked about. A dog that has problems leaving your side ( runs with you) she would never give treats from her side.  She would use a throw and treat bag and work from there.  Make sure when you throw the tug and treat to keep going with your motion.  There was a very slow sheltie in our group.  After Jenn worked with the sheltie, she was 2 -3 times faster  when running with Jenn.  It was amazing to watch. Next running with your arm out, slows your dog down.  Pump your arms, use your arms with sends and turns. It was amazing to watch how much faster dogs got when they followed this advice.  One lady,who had a great PWD, could not stop running with an arm out. So Jenn had her hold one water bottle in each hand. Just so that she would be aware of  what her arms are doing.  The lady couldnt do it. While running she would put both bottles in one hand so that she could use her arm to guide her dog.  It was so funny to watch.  We get into habits and its hard to change.  One of the things Jenn works on first with dogs is "sends", so your dog will learn to move and drive ahead.  In our group, 1/2 the dogs were slow.  So today was very hard for them. The handler is so use to being head of there dog that the dog was uncomfortable moving ahead of the handler. For this class, she made the dogs move ahead.  It was so interesting to watch.  One man had a slow border collie. I cant remember what he did but she said, "I think that is why you are getting refusals at trails".  He said, "We've never gotten a refusal at a trail". ( I thought uh oh, never say never). She said, "I saw you get three this weekend. Oops, never say never. LOL

Here is one of the lateral motion exercises, it was a lateral push.  And we were actually successful.  I really thought , one she wouldnt stay and two, I would push her off.  But as long as my shoulder were showing the right line of motion, it worked great.  ( Im not sure the distances are correct on my course map I made). In the video there is a chute to the left of her when I set her up and she keeps thinking she is going in there. Even when Ive lead out in front of her, you can still see her leaning toward the chute.



Everyone liked Miley.  Jenn Pinder told me several times how much she liked her.  Another lady in my group told me I needed to make up cards that I could just hand out because everyone kept asking me where I got her from.  People would try to guess what kennel she came from and then come up and ask me  which one of them was right.   Its funny because there are lots of cool dogs at camp.  Jenn Pinder's black and white sheltie was a spit fire.  I really liked her. She was lean, which I really like.  Sometimes shelties are kinda on the big bone side, if you know what I mean.
Miley did well with not getting to stressed. No huge circling but a couple of times would start but came when I called her.  Jenn told me not to let her do that. On the last sequence of the day, she dropped the first bar and then we had a refusal and she started to circle.  She told me to reward Miley right away. Dont let her think she was wrong. For one thing she wasnt wrong, she was following my motion. Just reward her and keep her with me, then figure out what I did wrong.  She also told me it would be very helpful for Miley to play with toys on course. That it would really help get rid of that adrenaline she has built up.  She also told me to use her name when getting to the correct tunnel entrance. Miley thinks she know where she is going, and thinks she's right too. I need to get her attention to get her in the right tunnel entrance.

Over all it was a great camp. My hotel was nice. It was on the Indian River. Which looks like its on the ocean but behind a barrier island.  It was very quiet. So Miley didnt bark at all, once we went to sleep.There was a park next to the hotel to walk the dog. It was a  really, really small park but better than nice.   They weather was warm but not  hot. It was very windy but I think thats why it didnt feel hot. Even Sunday when it was 80 degrees out.  But it was so windy it knocked my camera over. Ugh.

This is my favorite picture from the weekend.

 

Day #2

 I decided to try the last set up from yesterday, this morning before everything started. She nailed it. Well I guess we both did.



Today we woke up to a beautiful day

.

To bad my back didnt think so.   I know, I complain a lot. My back was hurting when I woke up and it was down hill from there. At the lunch break I had a chiropractic adjustment.  It didnt help. By 3 pm, I just wanted to go back to the motel and take some pain killers. I couldnt stand  or sit. Nothing I did helped. I couldnt concentrate on anything but being in pain. I passed the chiropractor and she asked me how I was doing and I told her I was miserable. She told me to try this magnetic pad. She let me borrow it because it cost 95.00.  At this point I would have sold my soul to the devil if it would help my back. LOL

Anyway , about 30 minutes or so later I was feeling better.  Now dont get me wrong, I was still having pain but I could stand without pain. And it was no longer consuming all my thoughts. Wow.  Sorry Lou, I might have to buy this thing.


Camp: Today my group was with Ann Braue.  Wow , is she knowledgeable.  She told us she trains four things.  1. Relationship     2. Skills,    3. handling   4. mental aspect.  One of the things she talked about is "relationship".  If your dog would rather sniff, go visiting,  steal treats out of someones bag ect... then you need to work on your relationship.  This doesnt make your dog bad or you a bad dog trainer.   Then she talked about what she does to work on the relationship.   This can also work on dogs stressing in the ring.  Im not going to talk about everything she said, sorry.  I dont want to get in trouble. If you want you can email me and Ill tell you what she said.   Yesterday we work on lateral motion. Today was "run where you want your dog to go", lol,   your line of motion.   Miley did excellent. Much better than yesterday.   We have some things to work on like rear crosses. And how to get a tighter trun or wider turn.  Miley had great weave poles today and a-frame contacts. WhooHoo!!

My ankle?  It doesnt hurt at all.  LOL because the back pain is taking priority.

Day #1

I forgot to tell you that my phone wasnt working yesterday morning when I got ready to leave. I got in the  car and  the bluetooth couldnt connect. I looked at the phone and it had all these weird numbers and letters on the screen. It wouldnt let me do anything. My only choice was to take the battery out.  Ugh,I did that and then had to reactivate my phone. Then set up all the google stuff again.  Somethings I lost were, all my pictures and videos on had on the phone. Not that big a deal except I had video taped the sports trainer who should me how to wrap my ankle, so I could remember how to do it. But I did remember today, good thing. One thing I guess I never saved to the SD card in the phone, was my notes. Ugh! So all that information was lost. Crap!  But at least I was able to get the phone working for the trip. It was making me nervous thinking about going without a phone. Funny, I use to travel all the time before phones and it wasnt a problem.  Its weird how we depend on things now.

I felt much better when I woke up this morning. I think I was just really tried yesterday. I woke up and it was pouring down rain. Sunny and beautiful when I left to go to the site. Cloudy and windy during the morning and I had to wear a sweatshirt. Partly sunny in the afternoon. And this evening, as soon as we finished the camp,  it pour down rain and was still pouring when I got to the hotel.  Weird weather.
My ankle hurts but never when Im running. Its seems to hurt when I stop. And then at the end of the day when I took that sports wrap off, holy moly  it was killing me. I think it is wrapped so tight that when I take the tape off all the blood starts flowing and it starts throbbing.  I hope it holds out for 2 more days.  My back isnt to happy either.  I guess Im going to have to get that rechecked when I get home. Every time I think about driving home, it makes me feel ill. LOL 
They had a contest on who came the furthest to get to camp.  There were a couple of people from Connecticut and someone who went from  Wisconsin to Arizona then to Florida.  Then another lady that came from Australia just for the camp.  24 hours is a plane, not fun.
The footing at the site is great. I was worried it would be to soft and I might turn my ankle but it seems just right. Soft but not to soft.  Today my group was with Jennifer Crank. I really liked working with her.We worked all day on lateral sends. Who know there was so much to know.   I would show  you some of my runs but I didnt run anything well. Miley was way wide or jumping in extension. I have lots of work to do.  Im late on my lateral sends, so she is jumping in extension , instead of hugging the side.

One nice thing is they give you course maps. I think I got 3-4. It helps so much, instead of me trying to figure out distances ect.  This was the last set up of the day. First we ran the circled numbers.  Im still stuck in my front cross but I knew that was a problem that I need to work on. Then next we ran the square numbers.  Ugh, did we struggle. We couldnt even get #1-#3 right. It took several trys with me treating to get her to listen and me to get my arms and shoulders right. It was a threadle that was handled on the inside bring her around the right side of jump three. You could have handled it by pulling them between jump #2 and #3 but I didnt run it that way.  Then #7-#9 was a serpentine which I handle that way but she cut behind me after number 8 so , she didnt take 9.  After I was done I remembered something.  This was the same course  set up that Miley cut behind me at Linda M. camp this summer. It looks like I never practiced that huh?  So I have in  big letters on my paper to practice the stuff on this page. ( just note that there were several ways to handle the sequences and she talked about all of them.)
Sorry , no pictures. I like to put pictures with my post but I never got around to taking any except with my phone and those I posted on facebook. They dont look good on blogger because they just aren't crisp enough. I'll do better tomorrow. 

500 Miles

Well, I made it to Florida.   My foot and ankle are really swollen  I guess from being down all day.  It was a long unpleasant drive.   When I finally go here, I kept trying to find a place to walk Miley.

Here is the beach.

But then there is this.

No dogs are allowed on the beach anywhere in this county.  Ugh!  So now I dont have anywhere to burn off her energy.  I tried just walking her but there are so many cars that she feels she needs to try to get.  And my ankle is not happy with walking.  Im not happy. In fact , right now, Im miserable.  My ankle hurts and Miley wont quit barking at me.  Ive tried playing ball with her, gave her bones,  fed her and walked her again.  I know tomorrow will be better but thats not helping me right now. I just wish I were home.  ( I know, do I want some cheese with my whine?)  Plus its really , really windy.  30 mph winds and its suppose to be that windy tomorrow too. And now maybe rain. When I looked at the weather yesterday , it only said rain on Sunday.  I hope tomorrow is a good camp day or I maybe going home early. LOL

The spell check wont work on blogger so sorry for the mispelled words.

The motel Im at sits on the water.  But not the ocean. There is a barrier island in front. Its looks like she is on the beach but its only about 10 feet wide.

Insight

Yesterday was the Mary Ellen Barry Seminar.  It didnt start out to well. In the first set up Miley wasnt collecting over a jump. Here is part of the set up. I didnt put the whole course on here because it is her course.

When I would send her out to #5 she wasnt collecting going over that jump to #6.She was jumping in extension and then dropping the bar. She asked me if Miley knew how to collect and I said yes.  So we did a lot of work with her just at  bar #5 trying to get her to collect with no turning cue.  She really didnt want to do it.  So I have homework to do.  Anytime there was a pinwheel type jump  during the day she didnt collect. Hmmm.  So after the very first run I was very upset. Was she injured?  I know she knows how to collect.  What the heck? She kept dropping bars.    But it got better from there. And on the next course there were two places she had to collect and did it well. So it seems to be in places that have a pinwheel type jump.

So here is the big news of the seminar.  Im doing my front crosses flat footed which is causing me to get stuck, even for just a second. This is causing Miley to read it as a deceleration cue and she goes off course. That doesnt happen every time but sometimes it just causes me to get behind.  MEB thought it might just be my sprained ankle. But I went back and watched a bunch of video and there it was plan as day. So something for me to work on that will greatly help me. Also the way Im doing my front crosses is  causes me to have to take more steps , again getting me behind.  When ever Im not giving Miley information, Miley chooses for herself where she is suppose to go.  Off course.

Here is the course and we were practicing front crossing between  #4 and #5. Also in the beginning we were doing lead out pivots. You can see I need to practice that. I just posted this small part of the video to show you my flat footed front cross and then Miley goes off course.  Its more noticeable here because of my sprained ankle but I had no problem noticing it on other older videos too.



Also I usually dont like to do post turns because Miley doesnt read them well. Uh, that because Im not doing them correctly. LOL I stand still to long and of course Miley says she isnt getting information so she picks what obstacle comes next. Off course we go. LOL When I post turn I need to step back and turn. Not stand still while turning. It worked much better when I did it correctly. So lots of things to work on.

My ankle held up really well. It did hurt to run but it wasnt bad. It started throbbing on the way home. And this morning it was throbbing but it wasnt painful to walk. So I did the cold to hot bucket of water treatments. Man, those work really well. My ankle feels so much better after those treatments. Much better than just icing it down. I wonder why Ive never heard of this before. The only bad thing was , because I was doing so well, I walked the dogs for one hour at the park without a splint. Ugh, now my ankle hurts and it swollen. More bucket treatments.