Finally the trial days ended

Well , the trial is finally done.  Thank goodness!! It was just to much for me.  I cant even imagine how they put on huge trials or nationals.  So lots of fibromyalgia pain all 4 days. The doctor has been changing my medications around and its not helping at all. Things are worse. So I called them today and the upped the dose. Will see if it helps.  I went to work for a couple of hours but I just felt to bad and had to go home.

Thursday was set up day.  Only me and one other person worked the whole day.  I had several people show up for a couple of hours each , thank goodness for that. But it was still rough.  I paid a guy to drive the stakes into the dirt because its just to hard for us. Lucky, he stayed around and helped unload the truck and put up the ring gating.  Im not sure why because we've used the same trucking company and asked for the same guys but they werent prepared. There was no ramp on the truck and they didnt have a dolly with big wheels. What the heck???   So eveytime  they had to take big things off the truck, they had to lower the back deck. It took forever. I told them  that when they come back on Monday to pick the stuff up, they need to have a ramp and a dolly. So hopefully they did that.

Friday started with the battery packs, that bring power to the rings to run the timer box and the microphones for fast, were dead.  So I had to run electrical cords to the rings through the dirt. I had to dig two trenches and bury the cords so no one tripped on them. Not fun.  On of the electrical cords for the microphone box was missing, so the judge just had to shout out the numbers in FAST.

I dont have much video. It was hard just getting everything done , let alone remember to find someone tape me.   I entered Java in Novice FAST. She had a beautiful run. Flowing and  just almost perfect. So she Qed.  Then Open standard she flew off the teeter. I dont think it even tipped but everything else was good.  A friend of mine ran in this class to with her sheltie.  We were talking afterwards and I told her I was pretty sure she Qed.  She had to redo the weaves but I told her she is allowed a refusal in Open.  I told her she better go check. I saw her a little while later and she told me Java got first place. I was shocked. The judge didnt call the teeter. I asked another fried and she watched the run and said that they judge didnt call the teeter. Weird. Java is one lucky dog.  So we got our 3rd Q and moved up to excellent.  Miley's standard run was very nice but she dropped the bar on the triple. That was the only bar she dropped all weekend. whoohoo. I dont remember what happened in Jumpers but we didnt Q.  We were very short on help on Friday. It was rough. In jumpers I was timer and scribe for the 8 inch dogs. Then ran and got Miley, on my way back to the ring, they are calling my name. So we went right into the ring and it didnt go well. Then I walked standard only twice. Then ran Java in jumpers, it didnt go well either. Off course into the tunnel. Then came out of the ring and  one of the doubles jumps 8 inch cup broke off in the open standard ring. Lucky I had extra strips to replace it with. So I replaced it. They went and got my dog, Java to run. It was very crazy. This lady was mad because she had a conflict between Open and excellent.   Well so did I and I ran my dogs plus did more. It didnt matter what I said to this lady she was mad. She wanted me to stop one of the rings. The judge wouldnt do it. Thats not my fault.She could have talked to the judge.  She sent me an email that night too. Then at the end of the day, the judges phone and computer were gone. There was a guy their that kept talking to him. The guy looked like he didnt belong. I never saw the guy be several other people did. The judge felt sure this guy stole his stuff. I felt so bad but the judge was very nice about it. He sure was a nice guy with a great attitude.

Saturday I had new battery packs. I had gone to Walmart Friday night an bought new ones.  So I didnt have to worry about those electrical cords in the ground coming up.  Saturday was much better. We had about 30 more handlers so that really help with ring crew help. I made lots of mistakes running my dogs so it didnt go well. I didnt enter FAST so I could help in the rings. Also, the lady who complained yesterday and sent me the email didnt show up to work. Hmmmm. She came later in the day.  For some reason the teeter kept getting stuck and not resetting itself. It was the one we use at the field all the time and have never had that problem. We took it apart and WD40 the pin in the middle. That seem to have fixed it.  The guy who we think stole the phone and computer showed up again. I called the police and he came and talked with the guy. The guy was out on parole for burglary.  The police couldnt make him leave but gave him a stern warning that we were pretty sure he took the stuff and if anything else came up missing , the cop was coming back for him. So I had to talk to the cop and I went back to the ring to walk and the judge blew the whistle. I only walked twice. I knew I could have gone and talked to the judge to ask for more time to walk  but it probably wouldnt have made a difference.  I ran both my dogs poorly.  At the end of the day was T2B.  And I was really tired. I decided to do all rear crosses. I didnt have the energy to try to make a front. And both my dogs Qed.   Java had the fastest time of all the dogs that ran T2B. Whoohoo Java. And that was with all rears, which were kinda wide.


Sunday was kinda rough with workers again.  More of the same, work the 8 inch dogs , then go get my dogs and run. Lost the table leg and spent most of my walk thru looking for it. Finally found it. The teeter, the other teeter, kept sticking. So we swapped out the teeter. I dont know what the heck it wrong with those dumb things. The breakaway tire, had lost it felt circle thing in between the magnets. It makes it break at the right pressure. Not sure what I did with the extra felt things I bought. So I just switched out the tire, with the other one. (they werent using it in the other ring)
No Q today for us. Java kept breaking her stay, so I will need to work on that.  Miley tried really hard and my bad handling kept screwing her up. Ugh!!  One time I had a beautiful jumpers run going and I front crossed wrong and was in front of the weaves, so she couldnt make the entry. ACK!!.  Anyway, its over and done. So glad!!  Lots of people worked really really hard to keep things going. Ive gotten a few nice emails thanking us for putting on a nice trial.
And I just found out that the items that were stolen were found on Sunday. They were placed in a plastic Food Lion bag and under the person's car by the drivers seat. I guess that person had a change of heart.

Why??

I went to the club building yesterday to show someone , who is meeting the truck that moves the equipment for the trial, what needs to go on the truck.   Well when I got there, someone had moved the doors and sandbags I put in front of the shed. They threw my sign on the floor. I guess they were saying  "screw you, we are doing what ever we want".  It really made me mad. I dont understand why they are going in the shed.   Outside the shed are jumps, a tunnel, weave poles, chute and tire. What do they need out of the shed???  Plus everything is at the field for everyone to use.  So you know what I did?   I screwed the doors on the front of the shed. ( the door hinges are broken from when it was moved to this location)  And I padlocked it shut.   And slapped the sign back up.  If they pull this apart to get into the shed, then I am quitting.  I cant keep fixing everything that people break. Its just to much for me.  People just keep mistreating the equipment at the building and the field.  Im so over it!!  

Here is what I found, at the field, after leaving the building. This is the sprinkler that you are suppose to set out after you are done using the field. How did they think that was going to work????  Plus it breaks the hose when its kinked like that. Ugh!!

  I did have a nice walk this morning. All the flowers are blooming in the field at the park. My pictures didnt turn out great because it was cloudy this morning.

oops, blind crosses ect..

This week the river was finally down that I could walk through with the dogs. I think its been three months since Ive been able to do that.  Most summers I would spend several hours here but couldnt do that this summer.  I didnt bring my camera, so this was taken with my cell phone.

I made the dogs cross the river. They werent to happy. They only had to swim for about 10 seconds but they still didnt like it.  It was over 90 degrees out, so they needed to cool off.

They dont mind getting their feet wet but they dont want to go deeper than that.  


I agreed to chair our clubs agility trial. (I must have a whole in my head) . I wont do it again thats for sure.  We are down committee member's, so a lot is left for me to do. Anyway, I order just 12 of these screw in the ground weave pole bases.  But Im going to see if they work at the trial to hold the ring gating.

Our orange fencing is attached to pvc pipes. The pipes are slid over metal rebarb that we have someone pound into the tough ground.  So I saw these being used at another trial and thought I would see how they work. It would be great if we didnt have to pound rebarb into the ground anymore. These just screw into the ground.

I went to our club building the other day to get some jumps that have to be fixed. And this is what I found. Gee, I wonder how the jump cups broke on the jumps?????

 Thats my sign hanging on the right that says Please dont remove anything from the shed.. (The sign was put there because of the last time I was at the club building to work on the new displaceable tire and the mess I found)  Wow, look how people treated the equipment. This made me so mad!  It makes me want to quit the club. This equipment cost a lot of money and people treat it like trash.  I work hard for the club and this is what people do.  Disrespectful!!    Then people say, Why arent we having a b-match. Uh because I cant do everything, thats why.   
I fixed the shed , put the sign back up and put two doors with a bucket full of sandbags in front of the door. Hopefully people wont do this again.  

I signed up for Daisy Peels on line handling class.  I can never get to Meagan's classes anymore so I figured I do this.  I was running the first weeks sequences. I put blind crosses in and Java decided they need more blind crosses. The video show the first course with my blind crosses and then how Java added her own in the next couple of runs.



Then the next night at our class that I set up and we run a full course, she kept blinding me out of the tunnel, when I just needed her to go straight.  LOL, I guess something else for me to work on.

Fun with Tables.

Canine Capers AKC trial Day 2

Day 2 started much later for us because it was tall to small.  I think we got there by 11am. Really I was feeling bad this morning and if we hadn't drove with my friend, I would have just driven home and not gone to the trial. It sucks when your body hurts all over for no freaking reason.

First up was Miley's Master standard run.

I decided I needed a lead out with a front cross after #3 in order to be able to cue the correct tunnel entrance. It worked except she dropped the bar. Ack!!  Man, look at the holes in the dirt next to the weave poles. Its the theme for Sunday. I dont know why I didnt notice when I was running. My poor dogs.  So this is a nice run but she also went to the outside of jump16.  Sometimes I dont understand Miley. She probably thinks the same thing about me. LOL

 

 

Then Java's 1st time in Excellent JWW. 

So I decided that my dogs would come out wide after the number 4 tunnel. It looks ok on the course map but when you walked it  jump #5,  was pulled  in more so the dog didnt see it coming out and could easily miss it.  Most people just stayed on the opposite side of #5 and just called their dog over and then pushed to 6. But because I thought  my dog would go wide around 5, I decided to blind after 4 and again after 5.  I saw several people do this and thought I could do it too. LOL, yea my blind was late , so she went off course over that #17 jump. I got her back. We stayed on course the rest of the time. Her yards per second was 5.4 so hard for me to believe. Imagine how fast she was going since that did include all the extra she ran. Whoohoo Java. (again big holes next to the weave poles).



  Ok , now Im really tired, my body hurts and Im hungry. No time to eat. I ate at 7am and now its 3pm.  I only had candy in my bag. I need to pack better.  And both Java and Mileys runs are at  the same time.  Ugh, I hate when that happens. Java's ring took priority. But they were running a little slow.  So I was stressed. First thinking I was running Java and then having to switch to run Miley because the other ring was running slow. My head wasnt in the game and I knew it.  I tried to pull it together but just couldnt.  So I really screwed up Miley's run.  Finally Im telling myself during my run that "you have to get your shit together Now".  And we did. Yay!! To bad I didnt do that in the beginning. ( I know most of you wouldnt post this run but this is just how agility goes sometimes. And I hate to see people give up when they run their dogs. They practically walk the course the rest of the way because they are defeated)



I decided I was going to run Java with everything I had.

I really thought my dog knew rear cross into the weaves. I guess not.  Ill be working on that.  Also, Im not sure why she didnt drive to the table. I told her table when she was on the cross part of the dogwalk. We've seen this before and have practiced it too. Weird. I ran  the tire to the chute differently then Miley because Java wouldnt let me lead out but it worked.  Both dogs, I rear crossed the chute and just told then "right" when they were in the chute. And they both got it!!  Lots of dogs turned the wrong way coming out of the tunnel even in Masters.

 

 

 

 

I was beat at the end of the day. Then had to wait around ,just a little, to get my videos and I bought a couple of pictues. But becuase I didnt have my glasses on, I ordered a picture of someone else's dog instead of Miley. Ugh!!  I didnt know this until I got home.  Well, at least I got the right videos. LOL

Canine Capers AKC trial

I went to Atlanta, Ga  this weekend for an agility trial.  My friend and I drove together because I was worried driving 4 hours by my self after work. Im just tired after working. So it really helped having someone to talk to. We didnt get there until 10pm at night. I had a hard time going to sleep but finally did around 12:30am. Morning came fast.
 The trial was at a big park. It was under cover, which was nice. But makes it hard to video because its dark , at least to the camera, in the ring and all this light coming through around the open sides.  So you camera cant take good video. There was someone there taping all the runs. You just had to go and buy them. Then they put them all on  a flash drive. Pretty nice especially when everyone is running at the same time and no one can tape.

 

Java had a nice run.  I thought I didnt have a good chance of getting the correct tunnel entrance when I saw this.

 

I told myself , more laterally, declerate and use an off arm cue. It worked and she got it.

She broke her start line, so I guess I have more work to do.

We got our 3rd Q and get to move up to excellent !!

 

 

 

Miley  had a nice Master JWW run. Besides turning the wrong way after #16, which Im not sure why. So if you see why, let me know. She Qed and took 3rd place. Whoohoo Miley!!

 

 

 

This was a sorta tough course. Lots of dogs going for the off course jump after the chute. Tons of dogs taking the #1 tunnel after the dogwalk. They were suppose to turn tight and take the DW under the tunnel. Then coming out of the #12 tunnel the would take jump 14 and not go the the table.

 

Miley was awesome. We were almost to the end, and she turned the wrong way after the tire, I got her back and she just came with me and didnt take the triple jump. Ack!!  So close. LOL

 

 

The bad thing that happen was the chute wasnt put together right. Nothing happened when I ran with Miley but my friend ran a few dogs in front of me and something happened in the chute.  The dog didnt seem right after a few jumps so he walked off with her. He said he saw other dogs have problems too. I saw a dog come out butt first, like his head was stuck and they finally got out. So when they looked a the chute, someone hadnt attached the chute to the barrel correctly.  There was a big fold in the chute material. So if your dog hit that side of the chute, it was like  hitting a wall of fabric and they had trouble getting out. But if the dog hit the other side of the chute, it wasnt a problem.  I saw the still photo of the his dog coming out of the chute. It looked bad. So something to check when your running your dog at a trial.

 

The open standard course is almost the same as Masters, they just took out a few jumps at the end. I really thought I would get the correct tunnel after the dogwalk. I would cue a tight turn and then say tunnel. No problem. LOL big problem. She collected when I said , "right, right, right , right". Then I said tunnel and she took the tunnel straight ahead. LOL, I called her and said, "no this tunnel".   I then put her in the correct tunnel and she almost ran right into me coming out of tunnel.

 

 

 

We stayed for the b-match. I worked weave poles, teeters and dogwalks. My dogs both did great.  We got to the trial at 7am and left a 7pm. What a long day. But fun.  More to come later.