Wordless Wednesday

Convergence and we dont have it.

 

So do you see a theme?  LOL  Yep,  it killed me all weekend. Over and over again. Ugh!!!  So I guess I have some work to do.

Went to an AKC trail this weekend.   First up was FAST.  I didnt Q with either dog.   Java was heading for the correct tunnel entrance and I said tunnel, she pulled off and took the other entrance. All I could do was laugh. So the rest of the weekend I didnt say tunnel just in case she thinks it means something other that what I thought it meant.

Miley, crashed the triple. Ugh.  Then got the first two obstacles into the send but didnt get the #5 jump.

Next up was Master standard. We havent trial in about 6 weeks or so, so I wasnt sure what was going to happen at the table. But she got right on. She had a beautiful run. We were 6 seconds behind the 1st place dog. Im not sure how I could have made her turn tighter because she looks pretty tight almost every where except the jump before the aframe.

We took 4th place! We got our first ever Master/excB Q and 23 MACH points. Ive never gotten MACH points before. How exciting.



Next was Open JWW.

I already told you what the problem was. Plus she didnt read the call to heel over the jump after the tunnel to the weaves. Im not sure why, because I do know I practice that.


Next up was Miley's Master JWW run.

 

Miley missed the #13 jump. I was going to layer that unnumbered jump between #12 and 13 but when I told people this everyone seemed like that was a crazy thing to do. But I know Miley and I was going to have to pull hard to get her over. Well I didnt layer it and she missed the jump. Ugh. I know my dog and should have stuck to my plan.

 Also my cross must have been late after 9 because she turned the wrong way after 10.

 

Last up Novice Standard.

 

This was a very nice run except for missing that jump.

 

 

She turned the wrong way after the jump after the weaves. I gave her a stong "go on" and think she was so extended and just went on.

Sunday:

First was T2B. I had both dogs entered.

 

Java had a nice run but kept popping the 10th pole. The ending was very nice.

 

 

I pulled Miley at the beginning because I thought she had dropped 3 bars in a row. It turned out to be two in a row. But I was worried she was  hurt.   She is ok and didnt drop anymore bars Sunday.

Next was open jww. I really thought we were going to do this. 

I felt like I was pushing on that line as hard as I could but she was locked on to the tunnel before even taking jump #5.



I had to pull Miley from Master standard.  First she came out of the weave poles. I let it slide thinking maybe she slipped or something. Then she was coming down the dogwalk, like she was going to stop and  took a flying leap off the dogwalk, over the contact and into the wrong end of the tunnel. So I picked her up and we left.  Silly dog.

Next up was Masters JWW.

I was going to blind crossed but chickened out. So my freaking front cross was late and to far over and made her miss the jump. Man I was so upset at myself.  I cant even do a front cross right.  I just wanted to go home after this but Java still have nocice standard and I wanted to try to Q. 

So I saw the weave pole entry from the a-frame and thought crap I dont think we can do that. I was scared to do another front cross, after 2, after screwing up Miley's run. So I walked it with a rear between 3 and 4. That would leave me doing a post turn into the weaves.  Probably not a good plan.  So I watched the first person run. It was a world team person with her new BC. She front crossed into the weaves and it was beautiful. I decided screw it, Im front crossing after 2 so I can be head and front cross after the a-frame. Worked great!!.  Im not sure why she stopped right before the table.  The next problem was getting that tunnel entrance. I know you think , its straight ahead. But for Java, that doesnt mean anything.  So I pushed as hard as I could to force that  tunnel entrance. She got it and the contact!!  Whoohooo!! ( funny, I felt like I was running so fast and then you watch the video and think Not. LOL)   I think Java had the fastest  time of all the dogs that ran. Whoohoo!! I really want her to be competitive  and when I watch the video, she doesnt look that fast. But that can be deciving. Sometimes you think a dog is really fast and you look at their time and they werent.
So anyway Java Qed and we are out of Novcie. So happy!!.

Wordless Wednesday

Just odds and ends

 Guiness doing the happy zoomies. Miley ears are saying she is worried. LOL

 We are on an island so Guiness can run free off leash.  I made the dogs cross the river, they werent happy. But it was really hot and they were all panting hard so it was needed.

The vet Ive been going to is having to close her practice. She didnt have enough small animal business. At least Im assuming she is closing because she is never there. Three times Ive needed something and no answer or call back for days. Ugh. Its been stressful because Mickey need more phenobarb medication. Lucky my old vet saw him quickly and ordered the medication so he didnt miss a dose.  That would have been bad after taking it for the last 8 years. But now I need heart worm medication and I dont want to have to retest all my dogs. So Im going to try one more time to get in touch with her. It really ashame because I do like her. She is easy to get along with and didnt have a problem with me not giving shots every year.  Dentals were way cheaper then the old vet but I guess thats the way it goes. I think she is going to keep doing large animal practice,  where she goes to farms. She operates out of her truck for that.

Ive been working hard with Miley trying to teach her to keep the bars up. I think she if finally getting it. No dropped bars tonight especially on the tight turns. But now Java is dropping bars.  I dont know if its me and bad timing that is causing it or if its her trying to figure out her body over the jumps. It has me worried because this has just started to come up. But Im having her do more difficult course work.  Then she gets frustrated with me and slows down trying to be right.

 

I went to a seminar this weekend on concussions.  The doctor's part was very interesting.  Did you know that there are 6 genes that they have identified that make you likely to have a concussion. And that one of those genes is a genetic marker for Alzheimer's.  Interesting huh? Then he went through what happens when you get a concussion. I know that the  brain bounced off the inside of the skull but I didnt know about all the chemical changes.  That potassium leaves the brain cells and a bunch of Calcium goes in. And there is a huge release of serotonin. which is why you get sleepy later on after all the serotonin has left.  So now the cells cant work properly.  If normally a small area of the brain is used to do a math problem.  But because of the concussion, it now takes the whole brain to do that same  simple math problem. The kid may seem normal but his brain is having to work so much harder to do simple school work.  It takes about 10 days for the chemicals to  get back to normal.

 

Stephanie came home this weekend. She didnt want to go back. I felt bad for her. School is over but the university hired her to work as a graphic designer. She is working on brochers, magnets, t-shirts and posters.  I think its hard right now because no one is on campus.  She is lonely. In a few more weeks the rest of the orientation leaders come to school and then they started the summer orientation program for  freshman. (She was also hired to be a Orientation leader for the summer). So it will get better. Then the school advertised on twitter about bikes for sale. They were ones that were left on campus.  In the picture, she saw her bike. Oops. She was upset but contacted the right person and they pulled her bike from the sale and she got it back tonight.  Good thing she was on twitter.

 

My husband is in a bike race tomorrow. Its up Mt. Mitchell.  102 miles with an 11,000 foot elevation change. So basically all up hill. It will take between 10-12 hours. I hope it goes ok.

 

This weekend I go to an AKC trial. Its been 6 weeks since we have trialed. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully Java will get her last novice standard leg and get out of novice.

L. M. Seminar

I spent the weekend at a Loretta Mueller seminar and had a great time. The first day was at Meagans house which is a 2  1/2 hour drive from my house. Miley and I were going to the Master's seminar.  On the way there I started thinking, I should have brought Java and then stayed over night in Charlotte.   The second day was inside and closer to home but still a 1 1/2 drive. So lots of driving  for the weekend. But it turned out to be not so bad.   The first day was beautiful. Not to hot so very nice.

Here's Miley kinda relaxing. Miley isnt good at relaxing. I think she is either watching the sheep or the guard dog. Im not sure which.

These are Meagan's sheep. They are so cute. I wish I had time to take more pictures. I hope Meagan isnt mad about me posting these. (I made enough people mad this weekend)

OMG, to freaking cute!!

I wish I could have gotten closer to this guy. Cutie pie!!

We worked on lots of things in the seminar.  Cue early and run. Get moving, quit watching your dog. Make your dog move out with pressure, dont cave cause your dog is pushing in on you. LOL, who knew I was caving  to my dogs pressure. If you want your dog to turn tight on a jump and come back toward you, dont go pass the plane of the jump.  If you want your dog to go, dont look at him, look where you want him to go. All of these things we know but for some reason keep forgetting when running courses.





I love watching and listening to Loretta figure out dog issues and what the person needs to do to fix it.  Very cool to watch it start working in a short amount of time. I think that is what is the best part of working with her.  She wants to work on your relationship with your dog, how to improve it. She helps you understand why your dog is doing what its doing. She give you the tools to fix it. When you work on this relationship, you will become a better team and there for do better in the ring ( if thats your goal).    I took lots of dog pictures at the end of the day. Im not going to post them here because they arent my dogs. I wish I took some in the morning  but I just wasnt relaxed enough to take pictures when things first started. 
On the drive home I think I saw Mitt Romney.  There was a car with a plastic crated tied to the roof. OMG, I hope there wasnt a dog in there.

Sunday was the novice day. It was closer to home and inside.

I dont think Java felt like she was worked enough.  She was very excited. By the end of the day she decided this was just how it was going to be. Short burst of activity an in  between you do this.

She looks fat in this picture but she isnt.

Lots of things I still need to work on. I thought I was but she still isnt turning tight out of a tunnel. More"call to hell", I mean "heel" work.  My one big down fall is I usually can only see one or two ways to handle a course. I just cant see the other options and Im not sure why. So frustrating. It puts me at a disadvantage when walking a course. Because a lot of times I dont pick the best way. Ugh. And sometimes I can see it but think its not right. Either I think the turn is to hard for the dog or I cant get to where I need to go from there. Of course Im wrong. Ugh!!  I really need to work on this.   Anyway Java did really, really well.  One time she  decided to just run full out and not listen to turning cues. LOl  I think she was saying, "I just need to run". LOL  But then she got it together.

Here is her video clip.

Mish Mash Monday

And it suppose to rain again tomorrow.

Just to much!

My job has just become so unpleasant . I keep trying to push through, but I feel like I'm not going to make it. It's like ground hog day except I can't figure out how to change it to make it better.  The main problem is that I see most of the same kids over and over again, but there is nothing wrong with them.  I'm not talking about kids with chronic illnesses, like cyctic fibrosis , diabeties, sickle cell  and asthma. Those kids have to come to the nurse for treatments and if the are having problems. I like taking care of those kids and helping them.   Most of the kids I see have no reason to come to the nurse 30 times in a year. Really I can't even tell anymore if they are sick, I just have to go by if they have a fever or they are vomiting.  And the true problem is, if I have so many frequent flyer kids in my office and I'm trying to help a diabetic, I could make a mistake. A mistake with a diabetic could be life threatening.  But no one understands. I've sent email after email about frequent visits. I write on their pass, "this student has had 25 visits to the nurse this year" .  My boss came and talked to my principal telling him that I have see the most visits this year of any school in the district.  Nothing changed.  I think I'm going to go talk to my principal this week and tell him of the changes that need to be made. And if I can't instate them, then I will need to go get a job else where . I don't want it to sound like a threat, it's just a fact. I've become so unhappy. Every Sunday I already dread going in the next day.
At the end of yesterday I had a parent call me and bless me out. Her husband picked up their child and said I was rude. Truly you guys, I don't feel I was rude. My office was very busy. Could he not see all those kids in my office??  I gave him the slip to take to attendance. I told him he needed to sign her out in attendance and to leave the slip and that excuses her for today. He was rude and harsh with me saying, "we'll where is attendance?"  In a mean tone. . I asked his daughter if she knew where it was, she said yes. I asked her to show her dad. ( it's right down the hall from my office ).  I told his wife that my office was very busy, I didn't mean to be rude if I was. I told her I was trying to take care of  a diabetic and lots of other kids. She goes on to ask me if I didn't think her kid was sick and her daughter has migraines. Nothing written on students health card about migraines or any other illness.  ( the last two times I've called her mom, one for an ear ache and another time for a headache , mom said the student would just have to tough it out.)  I'm not sure what was different about today. Mom just went on and on. I really don't know what she wanted me to say. I just said again that I was sorry, I didn't mean to be rude if I was. Ugh!!!

Thoughts....

I had class the last two nights. I think its getting to hard for me to do all this.   I was really tired on the way home last night. Then Ive been up since 3am with Fibro pain. Ugh, it sucks.  I did make it through the day at work.  I really  need this school year to end. These kids just keep coming to the nurse for no real illness at all. I just dont understand it. I can do reports in my nursing program . I was trying to see how many hours a certain student has spend in the health room.  So when I ran the report, I pulled up kids that had more than 15 visits to the nurse this year.   A total of 89 kids popped up. They have accounted for 1,977 visits to the nurse this year. And there are just under a 1000 kids at my school. Thats a lot of visits by just those 89 kids, plus seeing kids that really need to come to the nurse.

Back to talking about dog class. I set up these two courses that I pulled off of Lexi and Bentley's blog.

Java didnt get my forward send to #4 at first, so we had to practice that a little bit. But the next time she ran great.  My crosses were late and I think I should have stayed on the inside when running #16-17 instead of front crossing.




Then we set up this course.

 

This one Miley struggled on. She dropped bars several times because I didnt cue the turn before she took off and then tried to turn, or I told her "tight" after she took off. Ugh.  So anyway, there were only a couple of us in class. One person's dog, who's dog runs very nice,  dropped a bar. The dog rarely drops bars. He is very careful. When he dropped the bar the handler said, "No sir, We do not drop bars". (emphasis on "we")  But the inflection in her voice was like, We dont drop bars like that other dog does.  Now remember I was feeling really tired so I probably heard it wrong or took it wrong.  I felt like the handler was harder on the dog then they should have been. The handler wasnt mean to the dog, so I dont want you to think that.  So the next time the dog ran, he lost some of that spring in his step if you know what I mean. He still ran nice but something was lost. (The handler is way better than me and Q's all the time. So maybe she knows something I dont) It still hurt my feelings.  I know Miley drops bars but Im not going to tell her off for doing it. Its usually my fault anyway. Plus I feel like dogs try really hard to do what you want and arent trying to drop bars. Anyway , who is going to remember if Miley dropped a bar in the end.  I want her to come to the line with the joy and excitement she always has. Thats what I want to remember.  Its not that I dont think dogs shouldnt be corrected but you better be darn sure it wasnt your fault. And then that gets me on to something else.  Im tired of people saying their dog is "blowing them off". Dogs dont blow us off. You have to figure out what is the problem. Is you dog not motivated?  Why? Does he not understand what you want? Is  he stressed?  Its your job to figure it out and work through it. 

 

 This week someone else told me they pinched their dogs ear  for being distracted. I didnt say anything but I wanted to say,Holy crap ! Why do they think its ok to do something to their dog when maybe their dog just made a mistake. I was sitting with someone not to long ago at a trial. She was pulling her dog from course all the time. I couldnt figure out why.  So she ran the coruse and she didnt do a big enough lead out. So her dog came out of the chute and didnt know where to go because the handler was right next to the dog. So the dog barked and spun.  Normally she told me she would pull her dog for that behavior. I was kinda shocked. I told her this was just my opinion, but that error was hers. She didnt give the dog information so what was the dog suppose to do. That wasnt the dogs fault.  Then her dog didnt wait to be released off the contact but waited the second time over. She told me usually she would pull her dog for that too.  I told her I could understand that but dogs make mistakes just like we do. She stopped the second time, so she was trying.  Then she told  me she hasnt been able to complete a course at a trial, for a long time, because she keeps pulling the dog.  Her trainer told her if you accept those mistakes at a trial , your dog will always do them. Hmm, "Hows that working for you?"   She didnt pull her dog all day that day.  Her dog ran great, IMO. Was it perfect, no but it looked pretty good to me.