AKC day #2

So Saturday night was a big football game between University of South Carolina and Clemson University. Its a big rivalry game.  We didnt stay near the trial site, which is near Clemson because the hotels were to much money. We stayed 30 minutes away. At 2:30am people are yelling, singing , honking horns and just being noisy. We cant sleep and my dogs keep barking. So finally my friend calls the front desk and complains.  They call us back a little while later saying the people just came back from a bar. And that if they start being noisy again, call them back and they will have the police come remove them. They were noisy once more and then it was quite. But of course now we are wide awake.  So I never really went back to sleep.  I was feeling miserable and achy.  I kept thinking, Im just going to go home in the morning, except all my stuff was at the trial site.  So I thought Ill just run my first run then go home.   Anyway, I stayed the whole day. LOL.

First up was Time 2 Beat.

You will see that I hand my leash to the leash runner. Ive always wanted to be able to do that, but never trusted Miley. Whoohoo, go me!! I didnt realized that she didnt stop on the a-frame the second time. I didnt watch the video until I got home. I dont like to watch the videos at the trial because if I feel like I had a good run and then watch the tape and it wasnt as good as it was in my  head, then it makes me feel bad. Anyway I did an almost two jump lead out. Normally I wouldnt go that far, she might drop a bar by taking off early to get to me but I needed  it  so she knew not to take the a-frame.  My next goal was to get a tight turn over 11.It wasnt as tight as I wanted it.  It was a really nice run. We took first place by a second.

Next was standard.

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My goal on this run was to get forward sends on #5 and #8 . Hey look, Im actually getting to set goals for my runs. Ive never been able to do that because of the contacts and table issues. She blows her aframe contact. Ugh. I didnt want to pull her. She hadnt stressed all weekend yet and wouldnt be able to catch her anyway so I let it go. I wanted to make sure she stopped on the dogwalk and make sure she knew not to go into the tunnel. She stopped. AND she got on the table 2 days in a row. WhooHoo Miley. I was so excited!!!  Once again, I need to learn to run. Get the lead out, what the heck is with me????
I really wanted to go home after this run. I had and really bad headache. I think from not getting enough sleep but I stayed.

 

 

I did a two jump lead out because I wanted to make sure she knew she was going to #4 and not have to guess and take #17. My front cross wasnt right and she missed #6.  Then I think I got behind on going to the weaves and tried to over handle it.  I dont see it in the tape but I remember her taking #14 and starting to turn the wrong way. She has distance skills , I should have used them instead of thinking I had to be right there to get her into the weaves. So I messed her up. Then I didnt finish the way I walked it. I was going to lateral send her to 17 and then front cross but I didnt do it.  So not a great run. 



In good news ,I won  one of the prices for the worker raffle. I didnt even know it. I was leaving and someone yelled up to me and told me I won something. That was a nice ending.

Wordless Wednesday

AKC trial

Went to an AKC trial up near Clemson.  I started up Saturday morning on my way I  took 85 north  and I was suppose to take 85 south. It took me 10 miles to realize I was going the wrong way. I remember thinking nothing looked familiar. Then I noticed the mile marker signs were going up instead of down. So I turned around. I wasnt late or anything, just annoyed. Then after walking my first course, I stopped at the bathroom. I thought I looked at the signed. I walked in and thought, why are there urinals in the bathroom. Ooops, Im in the men's room. LOL, good thing no men were in there.  I was telling someone about these two things. She said, "well lets hope those were your off courses for the day".  That's funny.
The only bad thing about the trial was that people were very emotional. Coming out of the ring crying. I thought maybe they fell or their dog got hurt. Nope.  People mad, kicking doors.   Then someone told me. It was the last weekend to get your double Q's for nationals.  So when someone did Q, people were cheering and screaming.  And then there is me. Just happy my dog got on the table. Or happy we stayed on course even though we dropped bars. LOL

First up was FAST.

This was our best run of the weekend and I didnt get it on tape. We ran the course exactly as I planned it. We Qed and took 1st place.  Even a couple of people came up to me and said that was the best they have ever seen Miley run.

I messed this run up. I front crossed (late) after the chute and then front crossed the teeter. So It think this blocked her from seeing the weaves. And then with the panel jump right before the weaves, she missed the weave pole entry.  Then 11 to 12. I took her to the right side of the jump (outside aspect). I fronted and then was going to rear when she got on the DW.  She just didnt read it and cut into the tunnel. Funny because we have done that a million times and she has always gotten it. I think you were suppose to wrap the jump to the left, but I was worried if I wasnt in the right position, she would take the tunnel. I guess it didnt matter because it didnt work. LOL

Next was jumpers.

Nice run. She dropped the triple. You cant see it in the video but I felt like I had pushed to far into her and  I pulled to the side right when she was on top of the triple.  You also cant see how many times she took off early for the jumps. She may just have been excited. I didnt know it until I went and looked at the photos that were taken. Man, I dont even know how she cleared as many jumps as she did. So took off way to early on  so many of the jumps.



I think I finally look more confident walking out after leaving Miley at the start line.  Miley's table was awesome.  I praised her the whole time she was on the table.  No stress in the ring after my mistakes.  I need to learn to run. 

My dogs had a good time playing chase out in the horse rings.

I finish day 2 later.

Mish Mash Monday

Is it Christmas?

Ive been very lazy lately. Im not sure what the heck is wrong with me. I hardly ever walk my dogs anymore. I just feel so tired.  Now it gets dark at 5:20, its really hard to get the walk in during the week. But I did get there today.  They have all the Christmas stuff up so see at night. It was freezing so no one was there. (yay!)

They had to doors out that different elementary school decorated. I thought it would be cool to get a picture.

 

 

 

 

This one one cool looking but hard to get a good picture. Its mirror is in the shape of a Christmas tree.

 

 

 

I thought this one would be the best one for a Christmas picture. It was in the shade so I had to use a flash, which I didnt check the setting and it was to much flash so I tried to fix it on the computer. Then that light on the right. I might go back tomorrow and try again.

I went back at the end of my walk and the sun was on some of the doors but still some shade just to the right.

Here is a video of Java at the Loretta Mueller seminar last weekend. I was to do a lateral send to the jump after the a-frame. Java just kept going straight into the tunnel. So Loretta stood in front of the tunnel to stop Java from taking the tunnel. She still tried to go in around her legs. LOL.
We finally have straight up weave poles. Yea!! She is a little slow because she had been running and barking at guiness in the yard before we did weave poles. (I should have waited until later to work her on this).

L. M. Seminar

I had a wonderful weekend at the Loretta Mueller seminar.  The weather was great, even though we were indoors. LOL  You know what is cool. That she could set once course all weekend and work on may different skills. We ran master and novice dogs on the same set up just running the sequence differntly.  Even for the  private lessons . It was the same set up.  Saves your body on dragging equipement around. 
I did the master seminar on Saturday with Miley. Miley was awesome. She didnt stress and run around the building once. We worked on using body motion to cue  where you are going but then also using verbal if your body motion doesnt support what you are doing. Like you send and go the opposite direction.  I need to learn to send and go. Trust my dog. Run it like I mean it. I tend not to do that. Miley needs me to act like I know what Im doing. Be sure of myself even when things start to fall apart.  And keep going.   It was a great day. I didnt stress that my dog was going to run around every time I made a mistake. ( I think Miley was just happy Java wasnt there taking "her" turns. LOL)

Sunday was Java's turn. We did the 'Drive and Motivation" seminar the first have of the day. Then the novice/open handling the 2nd half of the day.   Java did great. She kept her drive all day. Loretta helped me fix Java's start line. I really didnt know how to make Java stay.  I tried to go back and reward with treats but she would only tolerate that once and then say "screw it , Im going".  LOL  The treats were no incentive for her. I really didnt know what to do. Loretta told me if she breaks, just set her back up. Just keep setting her back up, until she stays. She wants to run. Well if she want to run, she will have to stay. And it worked. She broke three times in a row, and after that she stayed. LOL (I hope it was ok to post that)  There is some more to it that I will have to work on but  thats the beginning of  getting her to stay at the startline. 

Then Monday I had a private lesson. I wish I had done two private lessons. I really learned a lot.  I do think it helped that she had seen us run the last two days and could see all the problems.  So I think it is good to do both seminars and lessons.
The bad part was I woke up Monday morning at 2:30am in lots of pain. I really tried to stay on top of this because I know doing agility all day and driving will  usually cause me to have more pain. I was freaking miserable.  I really thought I was going to have to cancel my lesson.  But then around 5am, I was feeling better. And Im so glad I was able to go. I got such great insight on my problems and fixing them. I have a list of things to work on:
Lateral and forward sends
Tight turns out of a straight tunnel.
call to  heals
tight turns with speed
Start lines in front of a tunnel for Java
Keep working through the whole course and not stopping no matter what happens.
Trust Miley, send her and go.
Make Java take the jumps when she runs by. Java is responsible for taking the jumps. 
Dont say tunnel when dog is over the bar.

Man, to bad Loretta cant come here every month. If you have a chance to work with her I say, "just do it!"

Mish Mash Monday

Guiness and thyroid

I dont know if I ever talked about this so I will now.   Guiness was having trouble going on walks that started over a year ago.(maybe even 2 years)   Most of the time he couldnt finish the hike and would just lie down.  The first couple of times this happened , I checked his heart rate and it was 70.  Kinda low for a dog that is hiking up and down hills.  We carried him back to the car. Sometimes I would leave him home because I just couldnt carry him.  He had stopped playing with toys.  When we went to the beach , he could only tolerate one walk a day.  Even though he had the whole day to rest for the second walk, he just refused to go.  If he ran around the yard at home, he would come in the house panting so hard it was scary. He would just lie down breathing very heavy.  I took him to the vet and asked multiple times if it could be his thyroid.  I always got the answer "no". ( He doesnt look low thyroid. Not fat, not loosing his hair)  They did an EKG. Normal except for a low heart rate. They sent us to a internist to have his heart check. He had an ECHO it was normal, except for the low heart rate.  I asked again about thyroid. "no".  His level at the time was 1.4   (there low was .8) .   They started him on Theophyilline to increase his heart rate. It did increase it but didnt help any of his symptoms.  I think I gave for 6 months and then gave up.  The next time he went for his yearly check up his thyroid was 1.   His BUN was up 1  point. They wanted me to bring him in for some follow up test for the BUN.  Ok, one point on a BUN is nothing especially since is Cr was normal.    I lost it. I told them I cant believe they want me to come in for this but will do nothing about his thyroid that just keeps decreasing and he has all these symptoms. I said, "Are you waiting for my dog to die?".    Well, I guess that did it. So they started him on thyroid medication. LOL  So even though his level has only increased to 1.8, he is a new dog.  Plays with toys again. Can run around the yard and bark without  looking like he is going to die.  2 walks a day at the beach, no problem.  And has not stopped on any walks even when hiking.  So when the vet tells you it isnt the thyroid because the number hasnt dropped low enough, keep fighting. 

Wordless Wednesday

Weekend trial

I went to an AKC trial this weekend at the beach.  It started out chilly but warmed up quickly. Sunday it was 85 and the dogs weren't to happy. 

First up Excellent standard.

Ill let the video speak for itself.

I dont know why but when I load the videos to youtube, it looks like Miley is running slow but she wasnt. Weird.  Doesnt the a-frame look high?
 Anyway whoohooo Miley!!!  She got right on that table. I praised her the whole time she was on there. I told my friend, the only sad thing is I dont know why she suddenly got on the table. So I cant reinforce it.  This was a very small trial. Only 28 dogs in excellent standard. Only three 12 inch dogs. So I was thinking maybe she thought it was just practice.

Next excellent jumpers.

 

Sorry , no video. The camera card was full and I didnt know it.   She dropped the bar on #8. My friend said she took the jump really weird. She said the back end of her body torqued funny.  I did notice she was taking the jumps very cautiously after the tunnel. Then I was worried she hurt herself.  I couldnt decided if I should run T2B or not. I put her over the practice jump and she looked fine. I figured we would run and if I saw anything, I would stop.

 

 

 How we got the right end of the tunnel, Ill never know. She went flying through. LOL ( again, weird that when I loaded the video to youtube she doesnt look as fast. ) Her jumping looked fine.

So two Q's at an AKC trial for Miley. I dont think we have ever done that. LOL

Next was Java in the B-match. I didnt put Miley in because I knew we would go run the beach and I didnt want her to over do it.

Java did well but I didnt handle her correctly. I didnt support the jumps enough and pulled her off a lot of jumps. So the video is really edited. I took out all the parts were she missed a lot of jumps.


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Sunday was a beautiful morning and I didnt want to go back to the trial. I could have just kept walking on the beach.

This is my favorite picture of the weekend. Just to cute!!

So I went back to the trial even thought I just was ready to drive home. LOL.  But my friend was there and so was my stuff.

First up was Ex. standard.

So that line going to the chute(7-10), Im not sure but I think I got to far behind and she was unsure if she should take the chute or not.


Table stress. Ugh!!  I left the ring. Im not sure if it was the right thing or not.  Maybe the mistake at  the  chute caused her to stress at the table.  Did I cause more stress by leaving the ring?  Did she really think yesterday was practice and then when we went back today, she knew it was the real deal? Maybe I should have put her in the b-match.   Oh well, I had already pulled her so it is what it is. Will see what happens next time.

(Now I really wanted to go home)

This looked like a good course. Then seeing all the big dogs go off course, I was worried.  Lots of dogs took #2 after #14. There, I layered the #3 jump because it was kinda in the way running the ending anyway.  And then some took #13 after #7, that was us.  The #8 jump was off set so I knew I needed to be careful and make sure she took that. I was probably pushing in to much for her and caused her to take the #13 jump. And when I posted this on facebook, everyone said there is no way she saw my off arm cue. Oops.