Taking a break

So we are taking a break from agility.  Im thinking 3-4 weeks.   To bad my mine isnt in agreement.  This morning was the second morning Ive woken up dreaming about agility.  This morning I was dreaming that I was at a  trial.  They had this weird course that after you did a tunnel, you turned tight behind the tunnel and the dog had to go up 2 steps then jump the tire and then come back down the steps.  I started thinking, my dog will never be able to do this, we've never seen this before.  Then I watched Meagan run a Great Dane. (Great Dane??? I dont know where that came from).  They ran perfect.  Then the battery in my camera started alarming and I woke up.  This was funny. Also in the dream  ,during the walk-thur, they didnt put out the a-frame or the teeter  so there would be more room for people to walk. What??? Dreams are funny.

On Friday I drove up and went to a conformation show. They were also doing Rally and Obedience.  I wanted to see the shelties in the ring.  I was hoping to see a few breeders that are in NC and SC but they werent there.   The funny thing about conformation is you are in the ring, the dog is leashed, you have food and dogs even peed in the ring, all this is allowed.  This cracks me up.  Since all other AKC events, none of this is allowed.   While I was sitting there watching, two people in the ring picked up food and flung it out of the ring. The first one hit me and the guy didnt say anything. The lady who threw the food out, didnt  hit my but was close. She did say she was sorry.  It was all very weird and I felt stress for some of the people in the ring. You could definitely see which handlers were having fun and which ones were feeling stressed.  This one lady who was showing tons of dogs, not just shelties, seemed stressed.  She had a beautiful sheltie who was so happy in the ring. She kept yanking on his lead. I thought "geez lady, you have food. Just show it do him. He is a sheltie. That will keep him from pulling ahead". LOL  
My friend was there with her yorkies.  What a lot of work a yorkie is to get ready for the ring.  Because the hair is so long, they braid it to keep it from matting. But then its wrinkly when you take the braids out. So then she has to flat iron it.   She did well in rally. She took first place in excellent. And you didnt just get a toy. You also got a prize. I think she got a digital photo frame.  
I bought some dog food while I was there.   Ive tried raw dog food several times but my dogs wont eat it.  The last time I tried it , Guiness  picked his up and flung it out of the bowl and then finished eating the regular kibble in the bowl.  I think Miley just looked at it, looked at me, looked at the bowl and looked at me. She wouldnt eat. It was like she was saying, "Something is in my bowl and I cant eat it. Please remove it so I can eat".   LOL   I bought Blue Ridge Beef the Natural Mix.   And my dogs ate it!!  They ate it first too, then ate their kibble.   Im only going to add it every other day. They will still eat their regular dog food too.  Because I dont really know how to balance their diet when on raw. 

Ive been taking lots of pictures and reading a book on my camera. Then going out and trying again. I have a long way to go in understanding photography.

Monster land.

The river was so high that all the green stuff is now all up in the trees.  Scary looking.

Miley is probably tired of all the picture taking.  Guiness didnt come because he just couldnt handle the walking today. He had already walked once. So its just Miley.

Someone I use to work with was there with her son's border collie. I asked her if I could take pictures of him in the water and she said yes.   I wont post any pictures of his face because I didnt ask her permission.

The good news was I walked down the path with them and Miley wasnt nervous or anything around this big black dog.  Of course the dog could care less about her, so that probably helped.

The Dam

 Every so often they release water from the dam.  Usually water spills out at 400cubic squares per second.  When this happens, the park looks like this.

Last night the needed to release the water from the dam to bring down water levels from the upstate. So  they released 16,000 cubic square per second. And then this happens.

Its the same shot.  You can just barely see the top of that bench at the end of the walk. Sorry the water is so cold and the air is so hot , it makes it misty looking.

So from this, where you can barely see the water at the bottom there.

To this

I walked the dogs this morning and the river was back down to normal.

Because of all the flooding this greens stuff is now on everything.

I got some great shots of Miley running but its was so misty they dont look clear or bright.

The Table or bust!

Well, I guess we busted.   That was my whole goal for the summer.  Try and fix Miley's table problem.  I really thought if she felt comfortable in the building and place where the trial was, she would get on the table.  I guess that wasnt it.  Now Im at a lost of what to do.  Maybe Im putting to much pressure on her and me to fix this problem.  But Ive tried ignoring it and that didnt work either.  Its just so disappointing.  Her contacts are beautiful , even her teeter is now fixed.   Maybe I do need to run someone elses dog to take the pressure off me and Miley. 

Sunday didnt start off to well. It started with excellent Jumpers.  We have run excellent jumpers 33 times ( I finally got up  the courage to go back and count them up) and no Q's.  Do you think there is something wrong with me?  What is the big deal? Why cant I run a stupid course?????

I had planned to FC after #8 but I stepped to far to support # 6 and then couldnt make that FC.  Well, looking back I should have gone for it but I didnt and she didnt take the jump.  She went around it but I was able to bring her around and get back on course.  Then we dropped the bar on #12 and I said the "d" word. Dropping a bar should not make you say the "d" word.  She went into the weaves and pulled out. What the  heck??  Then dropped another bar.  Ugh. I couldnt believe it.  I felt like we are a mess. I was disconnected from my dog after dropping that bar, thats where my mind stayed. Not good.



I just wanted to go home. What was I even doing here?  I decided to just go to the park, since it will be hours until our next run.  I stayed at the park for 2 hours and took 500 pictures of ducks.   I know, silly but I need to work on my camera skills.  I did much better with only a few dark pictures. 

( not ducks where touched by the dog during these pictures)

When I got back to the trial site I felt much better.  It was nice to not think about agility for a couple of hours.  Then I was sitting next to this lady.  She started talking about her dog. She runs a corgi.  She said, " I dont know why my dog is so pooky in the ring.  I know that  dogs pick up on your emotions and stuff but I love going to trials. I love being in the ring".  You know what I thought, "Really, why?".  I didnt say that. I just let her talk. But it got me thinking about my own feelings about being at a trial.  I dont "love" being at a trial.  Its feels stressful to me. All these people I dont know. What if they want to talk to me and I say something stupid or something that makes them mad. ( dont laugh,its happened to me and then people talk about me behind my back).  What if my dog gets in another dogs space by accident and they fight.  What if I break a rule, like having your dog ring side when no dogs were allowed ring side. Oops, I didnt know.  There is tons of waiting around.  I have to drive hours to get to a trial, stay in a nasty hotel and then at the end of the day when Im exhausted, I have to drive hours home.  So maybe that is my problem.  I dont "love " being at a trial.   I decided to just run my next run.  Enjoy the run for what it is. What ever happens , happens. (thunder and lighting started during open standard, ugh)

This felt like a great run.  In my mind it was wonderful. Miley was so excited at the end, spinning and barking. During the run it felt like she was reading my mind.  How could she make that weave pole entry and get in the correct tunnel entrance if she wasnt?  LOL  But after watching it on video, it doesnt look great at all.  Is it just because its me and Im watching myself?  Hmmmm.

It was a long drive home.  Driving thur pouring down rain.  I finally got out of it and then drove into another storm.  That one was worse.  You couldnt see, everyone slowed down to 20 mph and flashers on. People pulling over to the side of the road.  Thank goodness we got thur that too.   So happy to be home!!!!

Trial Update

I woke up this morning and drove the 3 1/2 hours here.  First up was Open standard.

I think the open standard course was harder than excellent.  The excellent started the same (1 and 2). Then the did the pinwheel back into the tunnel and over the dogwalk. The the aframe  to the table.   We had the pinwheel after the aframe. I was so freaked out by this. How silly is that?  I kept trying to figure out how to keep Miley off the  tunnel after #7.  Do I do a lateral send and then front cross or do a rear cross after #6.   I debated all the way to the start line. Not a good idea.  I went with the lateral send  but I pulled off too soon and pulled her off the jump.  LOL, that figures. 

So her table was much better than I expected.  I know you probably think Im crazy but she just didnt feel as stressed  and crazy to me.   I was thinking if she did the same thing that she did on Wednesday we would go home after today. But she kept me with just a little bit of hope. LOL  Anyway, someone came and told me we Qed.  I didnt believe him.  How could that be possible.  But I guess in open you can have one off course, one refusal and one table fault.  It still wasnt a pretty run but right now, Ill take what I can get.  And this judge didnt give us a refusal when Miley ran around the ring.

Next was Exc. JWW.

Pretty straight forward.  I saw lots of dogs missed jumps.  I guess we all thought it was to easy and let up on our handling. LOL  Well Miley missed her weave pole entry.  OMG, Its been months since she missed a weave pole entry at a trial.  Then after my run someone told me I should have been whistled off for training in the ring because I resent her into the tunnel. O'well, live and learn. To many rules.

We were done by 2:30 so I took Miley to the park.  Its freaking hot outside.  We only stayed about an hour. Thats all both of us could take.

Struggling with my camera

Im having a hard time learning to use my new camera.   A lot of my pictures are coming out to dark. Im having to lighten them in the canon program when I open it. Its driving me crazy.  And then when I get the light right, the dogs are blurry.  I guess I have a lot still to learn.  This camera isnt as forgiving as my old camera.

Ive been trying to get an owl shot for months.  The couple of times I seen him but didnt have my good camera.  Last night the owl was right there. He swooped down and got something off the sidewalk. Then sat up in a branch.  I kept trying to get his picture but at 8:30 at night and in the trees there just wasnt enough light.  I kept trying to slow the shutter speed but I couldnt remember and see what button I was looking for. I got this one but still had to lighten it.  I hope I get another chance to get a better picture.

Tomorrow Im off to another trial at that same building.  I really dont have much hope that she will get on the table  but really anything is possible.