Christmas and trials

For Christmas, well the weekend before Christmas, we drove to Savannah.  Everyone in our family had things they wanted to do for Christmas, so they wanted to meet the weekend before. That didn't quit work for me but we made it work. I had to cancel my seminar on Saturday with Loretta Mueller. Than to beat all, I woke up vomiting on Friday, and had to cancel the one day of the seminar that I could do. Ugh!!! 
The drive to Savannah was rough. It usually takes us 3 hours and it took us 5 with traffic.  We had a good time. We played a  game called "Heads Up" with Stephanie's cell phone. It was fun.  We didn't really buy gifts. But we did do a white elephant exchange.   We left that night to drive home. My son had to work and I left the dogs at home.  (both my  nieces brought their cats, so its a good thing I didn't bring my dogs).   It was a rough drive home. We kept having to switch drivers, but we made it.

Then actual Christmas , we spent at home.  Our neighbors invited us over for Christmas dinner. It was very nice.

Then  on Friday, I went to Perry Ga for a USDAA trial.  Last year the trial was freezing and windy. So windy , it almost blew Miley's feet out from under her. I remember thinking, "What am I doing here?".  But this year is was warm. It felt so nice outside.

 I entered Miley in Team. On Friday we started at 7:30am. We walked team standard and Team gamblers and then ran both.

 

Miley was awesome and took 1st place.   She took 2nd in gambles.   Of course I some how deleted my videos for Saturday. So no video's of any Q's.  That figures.  Java had a pretty Advance jumpers run with 1st place. I cant remember what happened in Miley's PIII Standard run but we didn't Q.   Java missed the DW contact in standard. (Ive  been changing Java to a 20/20 , but she didn't stop on any contacts at the trial. She didn't even think about it).   We had Steeplechase, I just entered Java.

 

 

We were awesome on this run.  So many dogs went into the tunnel after 5 but Java read it perfectly.  Then I messed up. I was so worried I was going to push to hard after 8 and send her off course to 2, that I didn't push hard enough and she missed 8 and then took the backside of it. Ack!  the rest was perfect.  She probably would have taken first place if I hadn't screwed that up. Ugh!!  (Im so mad that I deleted this video. )    I actually think we ran Grand Prix first and then steeplechase. 

Here is the grand Prix course map.

Lots of people ran the outside of the tunnel. But I figured I could never beat Java to the end of that. So I  FC between 2 and 3 and it worked fine.  Our only mistake was she missed the dogwalk contact. ACK!!



We left at 8:30 pm and some people we still running. what a tiring day. But they put a lot of classes into the day. So if you didn't enter all that , it wouldn't be bad.

Then next day started again at 7:30am again.
First up was Team Snooker and Team jumpers.

 Miley was doing great and then for some weird reason, after she finished 6B and I was sending her to 6A and she flew off to the tunnel. Tweet. Silly Miley.

Then was Team jumpers.

The hard part was 10 to 11. many dogs went off course into the tunnel, including Miley. I was planning to front cross after the broad jump. I started to drive in for the FC and then chickened out. so my rear was late and she took the tunnel. After watching the video, I could have made it. I wimped out.  And then E'ed.  You never want to E in Team. It kills your score. Better to drop bars, miss contacts and get refusals, that only adds time to you score.

Talk about dropped bars....   Miley DID NOT drop one bar all weekend. Whoohoo!!!!!  I have no idea why sometimes she drops bars and other times doesn't.  But she was on fire this weekend.



PIII standard, no Q. Ugh!!  I have not idea why she freaked out and ran a loop around the ring. Once she came back, she was perfect. Ugh!! So he called a refusal on me but  he wasn't calling a lot of refusal. I saw some sheltie spin and not take the jump in front of her 3 times (the same jump) and he didn't call a refusal. I thought maybe you don't get refusal in team . My friend sitting next to me said the same  thing. Then we saw the next dog get a refusal, so who knows. 

Java ran  starters standard on Sunday.  She gets to the table and just stands there.  She has been trained to do an automatic down on the table. She wouldn't down. Then you see my arms go up and I said "really" to her. LOL, after that she went into a down.  I really thought she hit the dogwalk contact but he called it . ugh.  Well never get out of starters. LOL

Next was Biathlon jumpers.

Oh yes and Java's big accomplishment  was no broken start lines. Whoohoo.  It was 30 feet from jump #1 to jump #2. I even asked someone else how far they thought it was and they said about 30 feet.  I went almost to the second jump before I released her.  That's the biggest lead out that Ive done with her. Yay Java!!! I thought I had her coming over Jump #2 and I turned my head and she cut behind me. Ack, so off course. Bummer.

This was a tough little course.   missed the weave pole entry and the dogwalk contact.  Then off course after 18. I wanted to front cross after 16 but didn't make it.



Last up was team Relay.  My partner E'd but Miley rocked her side. Whoohoo!!  It was the  hardest Team course Ive seen so far.  Sorry, I cant find the map.
We finished at 7:30 at night. I really wanted to go home. It was a rough drive. There is one part of the drive, about 1 hour, that is back roads.  It had rained and there was fog. A trucker passed me on a two lane road, double yellow line, up hill. I was doing the speed limit of 55. I thought we might get killed. You couldn't see if someone was coming because we were going up a  hill and then into a valley. Dumb trucker.  I slowed way down and no one came in the opposite direction, thank god.   I had to stop at a rest area around 10:30 and slept for 15 minutes. That still didn't help. Then I stopped at an all night McDonalds.  Thank goodness, that helped. I got home a MN. Safe and sound.

Lots of good things happening with my dogs as far as agility.  Im going to another trial this weekend. What was I thinking???  I feel like Im still not recovered from this pass weekend. Oh, well. Off we go!

Ground hog day

I love that movie, "Ground Hog Day".   That's how I feel right now. Same day over and over again. Ugh!! 
Ive been thinking of backing off all the stuff I do with the club. I don't want to teach classes anymore. Most of our group, the co-op class, has fallen apart. 3 people have moved and there are really just two other people that come all the time. Others only come if its warm.   Its a fun class. I set up a standard course and we all try to run it. Then we help each other on the places were things go wrong. Not sure why more people don't come.   If we have time, we change the course and run it again.  You can run more than one dog.  Anyway, who knows why people don't come.
I was at the field for a class last Wednesday and no one showed up. Some of the people I knew they weren't coming. But the one lady, who always comes, didn't show up. Usually she text me and lets me know.   It was ok, I ran my dogs and worked on areas that I needed to improve.  I finished early and these people start showing up. So I told them that we usually have a class at the field  on Wednesday but it just so happens , no one showed up. They were kind mean about the whole thing. Telling me that  "so and so" at the club told them they could use the field. They are having a class. I tried to tell them that Ive had this class here for the past year, every Wednesday night. But they were just kinda rude about the whole thing.  So I contacted everyone in the class and we decided not to have class again until January. So I sent the one girl a  message that we canceled our class on Wednesdays , so they can have the field. She never answered me. Geeez! You're welcome!

Ive been thinking about dropping Miley down to 8 inches. Here is a video of her running 8 inches. I just don't want her to get hurt crashing bars at 12 inches. Do you think she looks better jumping 8 inches?




Here are some pictures I took last month. Im not sure if I posted them on Facebook or not.

Mickey has had a skin infection since the beginning of October.  It has gotten better. He started with sores all over his body.  I think I washed him every day in October with this special shampoo. And I think it went into November.  Now its the middle of December, and it never completely went away, but now its getting worse again.  The places that didn't heal, were under is arms,  his abdomen and groin area.  So I took him back to the vet. Back to washing him everyday. This time we are doing oral antibiotics. (Last time he got two shots , two weeks apart).   Now his has to take 1 cc of antibiotic three times a day. ( for the next 6 weeks).   They decided to check his thyroid since he cant get over this skin problem. His Thyroid level came back low. It was .5.  They had to order his dose, I guess because he is so little. It suppose  to come tomorrow.   All I do is give medications. Here is the schedule.
5am: Mickey 1 cc of antibiotic
         Miley  eye drops
7am : Mickey 1/2 a cc of phenobarbital
          Miley eye ointment
          Miley  1/2 of tablet of Oxybutin
          Guiness 1/2 tablet of synthroid
4pm: Mickey 1 cc of antibiotic
8pm : Mickey 1/2 cc of phenobarbital
           Miley 1/2 tablet of oxybutin
          Miley 1/2 tablet of Amitriptyline
          Miley eye ointment
         Guiness 1/2 tablet of synthroid.
10pm: Mickey 1 cc of antibiotic

Wow, its a lot. Plus give Mickey a bath. Ack!!

Not sure

We had a nice hike today. It was freezing outside but I went anyway.  My fitbit has been acting crazy for some weird reason. It says I walked thousands of step when Im in my house doing nothing. And then after hiking for 2 hours, it said I didn't do anything.  Ugh.  But that was on the Fitbit Dashboard on my phone.  When I took the fitbit out and looked at it, it said I walked 10,000 steps.  The Dashboard said I was 15,000 steps before I even hiked. SO I think I got it fixed. At least I hope so.

I know I haven't been blogging  much. I keep meaning to and then I just don't seem to. So over the last month I've made some jumps.

I also rubberized my dogwalk. Ugh, what a pain that was. Removing all the paint and then sanding it down. The slats on the dogwalk are imbedded in the plank.  Which makes it hard to get the rubber to stick to the slats. Ugh. I did the ramps one at a time.  The first one, I didn't do a good job on. So there are gaps around the slats, between the rubber and the plank. So the next one I did a better job on. I cut 1/2 pvc poles up and put them on each side of the slats. And then tied them down with bungee cords and put weights on top.

If you look to the ramp behind this one. And look to the right, you can see the gap that formed around the slat.  It didn't happen with this new method. LOL

 

 

Its finally finished and out of the garage. Just in time for it to be freezing cold outside. And now my car is back in the garage.

See that dark, depressing sky. Yea, we've had a lot of those days. Ugh.  Im struggling to stay happy or at least not depressed.  I think Im spending to much time alone.  My husband works all the time. I havnt talked to him in several days.  My son is here but he isnt much of a talker so it feels like you live alone. And I work a job where Im in a office all by myself.  Its down the hall and inside another office. So I don't see anyone or hear anyone.  Don't get me wrong, my job is much better than it was last year but  its still lonely.  The girl that took over my old job has a second nurse with her almost always. I hardly ever had a second nurse when I worked there.. Even when I was seeing 50-70 kids a day. Ugh!!

Then we were going to go to my mom's house for Christmas.  My sister sent me an email saying could we go the weekend before Christmas and that my brother is going to go that weekend.   Well I cant go because I signed up for a Loretta Mueller seminar. So I guess I wont see them for Christmas. If they had told me sooner. Ack!! 

Then, Im already feeling really bad about my handling of  my dogs. I just feel like Im not getting any better. Plus I started working on some foundation stuff and not around agility equipment. Ive been doing it in my house. Some how it effected how my dogs did at the show I just went to.  Java, who only has ever done a down on the table, did a sit and wouldn't go down (on Saturday). And Miley did the same thing. WTH??  And Java was very unsure of herself. You will see in the video, she keeps head checking.   Someone who is an agility teacher in the area, came to the show on Sunday. She was there to get her dogs a message.  Well this guy says to  me, "Is Meagan here to run you dogs?" and was kind of smiling and small laughter. I felt like he was saying, Because you suck, you had to ask Meagan to run you dogs.  Im sure he didn't mean it that way but it was so hard not to take it personally. I know I need thicker skin. Then this person came to the field last night. I was suppose to have a class that Im in charge of. I set up a standard course and then we all help each other with problem areas.  Well no one showed up. I worked my dogs on some things. Then this person shows up and said they are having a class. (they aren't suppose to be holding a class because my class is suppose to have the field. but that's another story).  We start talking and she has a really good dog she wants to start training for agility but there is no way she would take a class from anyone at our club because they all are horrible. Gee thanks.  I think Im good enough to train foundation stuff and the beginning of handling.  So that hurt my feelings. She mush of realized what she said and tried to back pedal.  She said the only person she would take a class from is A. C.  I did tell her that that person is thinking of teaching so maybe she will get to work with her.

 

 

I went to an agility trial about 3 hours from home.  Its an indoor trial but its in a barn and kinda cold.  They have heaters but they are only one side of the barn. Its the opposite side of where you crate your dogs.  Saturday was cold and rainy.  I put Java in FAST and ISC jumpers.  So I could pull her if she broke her stay. She didn't break. Yay!!   ISC jumpers was fun with Java. (I should have set up my video camera but I didn't. Shoot. I will do it next time).

 

 

Miley's run was horrible. She dropped 3 bars and crashed  jump #8. So I stopped the run. Its kind of a dark arena. If you look at the video, its really grainy. Which makes me think there isn't enough light for Miley.  (On Java's video, her ISC standard run was filmed using a tri-pod. It looks much better. Not grainy). 

Java's run was much better. The only thing that happened was I stayed to the right of 1-3. I thought she wasn't reading coming into me over Jump 3. So I really decelerated to a stop and then I was late going to 4. I think she either went around the jump and then back jumped. I cant remember. But after that , she was perfect. Well, she was perfect , I wasn't. I was able to send to the tunnel and really get ahead of her coming out of the tunnel. I should have  FC or Blinded. But I didn't. And I was so far ahead, that my RC was late and she turned to the left and had  turn around and go right.

 

So after Miley did terrible in ISC jumpers, I was worried she was hurt.  But she ran Master Jumpers perfected and Qed.  It made me think, either there wasn't enough light in the morning or I didn't warm her up enough. Her and Java's runs were really close together. Plus it was really cold.  And I know I didn't give her enough of a warm up.

 

 Miley Qed in JWW. Then we ran standard. It was weave poles, chute and jump. Up to that, she had been perfect. And she is almost done with the poles and I thoght, "Hey we might double".  Bam!!  she pulled out of the poles. LOL, that's what I get for loosing concentration.

 

Java's jumpers run was weird. She just head checked so much. I wasnt sure how to handle the line of jumps to the tunnel. So I was late after sending her to the tunnel and how she knew to go to the weaves with me running at her, Ill never know. She should have turned left with what my motion was telling her. It was a weird run and she missed a jump.

 

 

 

 

ISC standard

I ran Miley first.  She went off course into the wrong tunnel entrance. Most of the dogs did. There were only 2 q'S out of everyone who ran.   So with Java, I had to plan to shape her turn over #5. They blast out of the chute and are heading away from the jump. So when they turn to come back to you, it sets a perfect line to the wrong tunnel entrance. (I don't know why I cant see this stuff before I run). So with Java I was going to shape the turn so that she it going to the correct tunnel entrance. And I shaped it to much and she took the a-frame. LOL


The next day ,when I came in early, it seemed kinda dark to me in the barn. I noticed the lights over the bleachers aren't on. I wonder if they weren't on yesterday morning when Miley had so much trouble keeping the bars up. What was the difference  that caused the problems. She ran ISC jumpers and dropped lots of bars and crashed. Then in the same ring, ran Master jumpers and she didn't have any trouble. I went and talked to the person in charge. I asked a bunch of questions. Are the lights on timers (no), were the lights over the bleachers off yesterday morning when we first started running (he didn't know. but he manually turns the lights on). Maybe they were off and someone turned them on during the day????  He did go turn the rest of the lights on before we started running. Did it make a difference?  I don't know. She dropped one bar in Master JWW and one in T2b.  So  Im not sure.  Someone elses dog to a bad crash in ISC jumpers too. Could it had been the light. You see how grainy the video is.

Im putting in this run with Miley because I liked how when I took the leash off and she is just looking up a me waiting. (No trying to break a start line , like she usually does).





Being on facebook can also sometimes be depressing. Just some of the post and stuff. Then did you see where AKC put out their possible agility changes?  Its going to cost the club money if it goes through. We will have to buy two new 20 inch tunnels, since dark tunnels will be out.  (I don't get this change at all. They say because dogs have trouble with dark tunnels. Well what about the chute?  Its really dark and they cant see at all????)  Then changing the broad jump to 8 inch boards. Well of course we have 6 inch boards.  Then this one is just recommended. Jumps with out the wings attached. Whats up with that. If they make that one, not just a recommended change, that will cost us a fortune. After reading all this, it gets me all upset. I know it silly but it does. The club doesn't make a lot of money off trials. We use to but now with lots of clubs having shows and upping the amount of shows clubs can have, we just don't make much.

P.S My husbands ears must have been burning because he just called.