Snow Day!!

I went outside early, before all the kids in the neighborhood woke up, so I could have the snow for myself.

Lots of pictures because it hasn't snowed here since 2010.

Bird Sunday

I scared the crap out of these condors.

But not the vultures.

Got turning cues?

I have turning cues but my dog is not reading them.  She also can turn tight, but isn't. See video below.



This is part of my Daisy P homework.  The last sequence  was so frustrating.  Daisy said that Java is just seeing jumps in front of her and taking them instead of checking in with me. (Remember when she wouldnt take jumps in front of her??  Ugh)   Also she is running on her front  and not engaging her rear end.  So she wants me to play the freeze game. Run, stop, if she stops with me, reward and then keep going.   Then add it to courses. The reward is to get to go on. Also to go into the jump more so I can show more motion when going away from the jump.  We'll see if I can fix this.
Not much going on. Its freezing and I haven't been doing much. I HATE winter.

BRAC trial

We went to a trial up in North Carolina.  I drove up that morning, its just easier that way.  Let me just say, it was freezing outside.  20 degrees and windy.  My fingers were numb while bringing my stuff inside and I had gloves on.  I know it was an indoor trial but you still have to walk your dogs outside. Yes , Im a wimp.  LOL 
 Anyway, Saturday started off great. First up was Java in T2B.

This was our best run of the weekend.  She waited at the start. Stayed on the teeter until it hit the ground.   She went wide after the teeter but I didn't want to cross and give her a reason to leave early.  We missed 1st place by .5 seconds.  Of course I didn't get it on video.  I didn't realize my friend had left the building so I didn't set up my tripod to film myself. ugh. That figures huh.

Next up was Miley in Standard.

Miley's runs was beautiful but she dropped at bar at the double at #10. So chance of a double Q was  out. And the person filming couldn't figure out my ipad, so this run didn't get filmed either.

Next was Java in standard.  Holy crap. She was crazy.  she wouldn't stay at the start , so I released her before I was ready and then couldn't cue that jump after the aframe, so off course we went. And then everything just went down hill from there. I should have pulled her after the teeter fly off but I didn't. MISTAKE!!  I don't like to pull my dogs but it seems to be the only thing they understand.


Then jumpers.

 

Miley wouldn't stay at the start line, so I changed my plan, and RC  2-3.  I have not idea why she took the #4 jump in the direction that she did, but then we were off course.

Java wouldn't stay at the start line. I just barely got pass the first jump, if that, and she broke. We left the ring.  Here are Saturdays run. Yea, I got all the crappy runs on tape.

So after this horrible day, I felt like I should  just quit agility. Why am I spending all this time , effort and MONEY, on doing this. Im not learning anything. Im not getting better at it.  I cant seem to figure out what is going to send my dog off course.  DP said its because Im looking in the wrong place. So because of that, I don't see it happening. I felt like I tried so hard to do it correctly this weekend, and we just imploded.

I stayed in a hotel with my friend and her daughter, who is an adult.  They had brought some puppies, 6 months to a year, with them for some people  to look at. The people took three puppies to their in-laws house to figure out which one they wanted.  After dinner that night, she gets a call, they lost one of the puppies outside. OMG, all the color drained out of my friends face.  Its dark and freezing outside.  I stayed at the hotel with all the dogs. Her and her daughter drove 25 minutes to their house. The ground was covered with snow. Which was a good thing, because they could follow tracks to see where the dog went.  The whole neighborhood came out to help look.  Some how  they found the puppy. It took about  1 to 1/2 hours. He was ok despite it being so cold and being a dog with hair and not fur.  Thank goodness.

So the next day, I decided not to put so much pressure on myself on doing everything correctly.

I felt like I had a good plan after watching the 20 inch dogs.  But I RC before 15 and I just didn't have enough push to get her out to 16.  I debated and walked it both ways , I guess I chose the wrong way. (See I cant see whats going to happen).  Java did stay at the start , so I guess pulling her helped.

Next up was Miley.  I decided not to ask for a stay.  It was an ugly run but some how we qed.



Next was standard.

Java stayed at start but I didn't lead out because it was a tunnel.  She still left the teeter early but I just decided to let it go.  Im not sure why but she turned into me after 15.  I guess I needed a "go on" or  more forward motion. Ugh.  But not a horrible run, at least she wasn't crazy.

Miley's run: Ok, I have not idea why I did this. She came over the a-frame and I thought she went into a 2o/2o. I said "Ok" and she jumped the contact. Ack.  I think there is something wrong with my brain. I would have swore on a stack of bibles that she did it correctly. I looked at the video and was shocked. Why did I think she did it right? And I released her. So no double Q again because of me. We are never going to get a double Q.  But it was still a very nice run.




So a much better day than Saturday.  It least it felt better.

Classes and stuff

 Even though its been raining a ton, the river is down. The lowest Ive seen it in the last year. To bad it isnt summer or spring.

It been a busy week. I started teaching agility classes again after work.  The one class Im teaching is for people who have finish the agility foundation class and this is the next step.   Im really sorry if I offend anyone but it was horrible. First a couple of people didn't show up. Not sure what is up with that. Then a couple of the dogs in class have no self control.  I don't have a problem with dogs that run around the field because they are excited or what ever. But these dogs start bombing other dogs.  Its weird, the will sit and wait to be released. But once released they with either take the piece of equipment and then start running or just start running from the get go. Then at full speed, the run right at another dog. OMG, it was stressful. I think the border collie in class wants to eat these two dogs. And Java would too if she were in the class.  How these two dogs got released to go on to the next class is beyond me. I sent the person ahead of training my problems and concerns. I don't want a dog fight in class. I'm not a behaviorists.  I have no training for this. And it just waste a lot of time. My next complaint is that there are a bunch of people teaching these foundation classes but no one it teaching things that  more agility people want their dog to learn. Ugh!!!  They have no idea about what Im talking about. The one girl said they were running sequences in her class.  Yea, but her dog cant take a jump without her luring it over with food in her hand.  Its not her fault but now I have to go back and teach the foundation class. This isn't fair to the people who already do know the foundation stuff and are ready to go on.  Im pretty sure this is the last class I teach. And I had sent my concern about everyone not teaching the same stuff to the person in charge of class a long time ago. She didn't think it would be a problem.  Well guess what, it is.  Im tired to trying to clean up other peoples messes. Because then people get frustrated with me and feel they are going backwards and not forward. Then the quit the class. Ack!!  Part of me wants to just forget all the foundation stuff. Maybe its only important to me. Maybe they don't care. Maybe they just want to run their dog and not worry about anything else.  Here is the problem.  You get the agility bug. You decided you really want to run your dog in agility. Your dog it going to need that stuff and they you will get frustrated because your dog doesn't know certain things and you will have to then teach it to them. Then it will all come back on me.

Java's 2o/2o is coming a long nicely. Im going to a trial this weekend.   I know she wont do it at a trial so I don't expect anything from her.
Something I wanted to tell you about Daisy Peel's on-line classes.  She has changed them up. Now when she post the handling course maps, she puts a video with it. She talks to you about the course, why you do will do certain things. Why you would turn them this direction vs the opposite direction. Its really good. Its like a "how to read a course" class.  Then she also added some live coaches call. She tapes them to so if you cant make the time of the live chat, you can what it later too. So that's a nice feature.

My  husbands broken foot is slowly getting better. He is no longer needing the knee scooter. Which I highly recommend if you hurt your foot or ankle and cant bear weight.  He still needs crutches.

This week, at school, this girl fell and couldn't get up. I went to go get her and her knee was dislocated. One good thing about all those skinny jeans the kids are wearing. It made it easy to see what the problem was. I could see her knee cap sitting off to the outside of her leg. Plus her foot was facing the wrong way. I don't know how this girl wasnt screaming and crying.  She was in pain but wow was she in control. I would have been boo hoooing every where. Poor kid.

Contacts

Well, Im pretty sure Im changing Java to a 20/20.  Im over spending so much time on running contacts. First they are good, then they fall apart, then they are good again.  I want to spend more time on handling.  I went to the field on Wednesday.  She didn't hit one running contact and that was the AKC contact zone. Ugh!.  So we started our 20/20.  I have more back chaining to do.  She gets it solid if she is just on the down ramp.  When she runs the whole thing, and I say "touch", you see a big change in her running. Sometimes she even stops.  When she does run all the way across, she looks very hoppy. 


 Im taking another Daisy Peel on-line handling class.  When I sent my first video in, I asked her not to tell me every thing that is wrong with each run. I asked if she would just tell me one or two of my biggest problems and how to fix them. I told her it was over whelming to me when she tells me everything that is wrong and I cant seem to fix anything. 

I got some good feed back this time.  Also, my dog didn't seem to understand a call the heel to be able to by pass the first tunnel entrance. We've been working on that a lot over the pass week. I think she gets it now.   On the video I sent Daisy, Java kept going off course into the tunnel at the end of the sequence.  So she told me I needed to do something before she takes that #10 jump. That I was trying to handle it after she takes the jump and its to late by then.  So I need to decelerate and call her name or shape the turn so she isn't looking at the tunnel .  (Meagan, I think this was also the problem when I ran the course with you last week. Where it was weave poles, jump, to the back side of the jump. She couldn't make the turn and barked at me.  If I had shaped it more, it probably would have given her more info that she needed).  So anyway, worked like a charm.





Sorry I haven't blogged much.  Its winter, everything is so dead looking.  I hate winter.