CDTC trial

This picture isnt from the Charlotte trial but I just wanted to have a picture.  It is a recent picture of my dogs at the river here in Columbia.  And I just like it.

So I took the dogs to a trial up in Charlotte. Its the only trial close enough to drive back and forth to. The only down side is , its outside on grass. So if it rains or snows , you are out of luck. But its also cheap to enter.  I took Miley but she isnt entered.  She is having more vision problems and many times cant even get weave pole entries  at home.  Friday, I took Zoey, just to get her use to being there , but she wasnt entered on Friday.  We hadnt trialed in 2 months and Zoey was over the top excited. So we worked on calming behaviors outside the ring.

Java had 2 nice runs but no Qs. She missed the DW contact in standard and dropped one bar in JWW.  But she stayed at the startline. (Ive tried everything to make this vidoe's post clear. I have not idea why they are blurry. They arent blurry on my ipad. I uploaded them again, thinking that I forgot to change it to HD. But it didnt make a difference.  Maybe it just takes a while to process??)



JWW


Then Saturday Zoey was only entered in T2B.  She was very excited but I thought she might be ok.  You can see she wasnt.  She broke her startline, then jumped the A-frame contact and couldnt weave.  Then jumped off teeter. So the AKC has a new rule that if your dog jumps off the teeter half way up, or on the up contact of DW or A-frame, you can put them back on.  So, since she jumped off, I went to put her back on the teeter but the judge said I couldnt.  I went to go on but it was late and Zoey had already circled back around and then got on anyway.  So we were whistled off.




Java 's JWW run, she couldnt finish the weaves. I tried 3 times and she kept popping out.  The weaves where into the corner and there was a tunnel off to the left, that was next.  I guess she just wanted to go on.  Then in standard, she was having a very nice run, then missed the DW contact.  It was DW into a curved tunnel. Then they come out and have to turn about 45 degrees to the right.  She went right back up the dogwalk.

Sunday, Zoey seemed calmer to me so I thought maybe we would do better but we didnt.  Well, she did a little better. She stayed at the startline , enough for me to release her.  But she couldnt weave.

Jumpers.



I couldnt decided if I should run Zoey in standard or not. I dont want her just jumping off contacts.   In the end I  set her up at the startline, she broke. So I put her into the weaves (that wasnt the course) and she did them. We ran out and celebrated.

Java had a nice day. She Qed in Standard.


In JWW she dropped one bar. Ugh, so tough. We are trying to get a MACH and I feel like its never going to happen.  We have over 3000 points , you need 750. But we have only 11 double Qs.  In good news she holding her startlines now.



You can see it was much cooler but luckily the rain held off until after we ran. 

First test RVing adventure.

"T

Last weekend , after coming home from a trial, we took the RV to Dreher Island state park. Sorry to say,that Ive never been there before.  Its about 20 miles from my house and Im not sure why I never went there. Its beautiful!!

Our spot had a great view. It was spot 51.  The only negative was the waves hitting the shore made Guieness very excited and he kept barking.  There werent to many people camping so it was nice. We got a chance to check out other RV spots.

I really like this spot 47.

This spot was more in the cove, so no waves to cause Guiness to bark. And it had its only little beach , so if it was closer to summer , you could go into the water.

This park had a wonderful hiking path. I have no idea how long it was. We turned around after a while because my feet were hurting. (remember I had been at a trial earlier) 

 Stephanie was home for Spring break. She only stayed a few days and then had to go back to work on her  end of the year art project.

 The only bad thing that happened , was the last day, when I went to put the slide it, it would respond. Lou was alraedy at work.  I had tried everything. The only thing I didnt check was the fuse.  I still havent gone back to check that.  You can hand crank the slide back in.  I had no choice. I needed to move the RV and it cant be moved until the slide it is. So hand cranking it in was the only choice. 

When it got this close to being in, my arms were now killing me. It took my whole body of pushing and pulling to work the crank.  I got to the point and sent my husband this picture. I told him I didnt think I coulc do any more.  But of  course I did.   That night I had a deep ache in both shoulders.  Not muscle pain,like you get when you exercise a lot. This was different. I was to the point of crying.  I wont ever do that again. I have road side assitance, I should have just called them. Believe me, I will call next time.   

This weekend I plan to bring the RV to my house, to work on some thing.  We'll see if the slide is working. It it isnt, Ill check the fuse. 

The trial.   

I went to an out door trial last weekend.   It was freezing the first morning.  So when I got there they decided to delay the trial for a little while. There was frost all over everything. 

First up was T2B.  This should have been an easy course to run. Big circles.  Nope, not for me. LOL

I just got to far behind, running down that line. She was already 2 jumps in front of me and by the time I said, "tunnel" , she was  was pass the first entracne  and had to decided which entrance it was. She chose the wrong one. Oops. 

The really nice thing about this trail is they had all the excellent classes first.  So once you ran, you were done and could go home. I may see if I can work that out for you next trial. Now this was a one ring trial , so it was easier to do. ( They had two rings set up, but one judge). 

This course ate up dogs.  There were hardly any Q's in all jump hights. Im not sure why.  For me, I didnt want to push to far pass the weave poles, so I stayed back. (Miley) I front crossed  poorly and must have blocked the teeter and Miley ran passed it. Ugh!  Java, I got behind running the a-frame line and she thought she was suppose to take the chute. She didnt but he called a refusal.  We had some other trouble to, farther down the course.  (Many dogs had weave pole problems. Not sure what that was about). 

Then came jumpers.

It had that same line that T2B had.  Hey I get a do over. LOL  this time I was ready. I started yelling when I was far back, 'tunnel, tunnel, tunnel".  It worked. Java Qed and took 2nd place.

http://youtu.be/DLKo4pzqutk

My friend didnt start the video on time, so I didnt get the begining.   Then Miley had the best run ever!!  Perfect jumping and took 3rd place.  But the person filming hit photo and not video, so I didnt get it on tape. I was so disappointed.  I feel like each and every run with Miley should be charished. I really feel she doesnt have to many more running days left and we rarely get through a course without dropping a bar. I know the person was trying to tape my run but I cant say that I wasnt upset. Not at the person, just because it happened.   

We were done by 12noon. I did stay to watch a friend run but it was so nice to be done. 

I put all Java's videos together.

http://youtu.be/8x1CVXQaARs

Sunday, went up early and then found out I didnt sign up for T2B. Ugh. Then next  was Standard. Once again not to many people Qed on this course.

Miley dropped a couple of bars. Java was doing awesome and then I took it for granted that she would take the tunnel after the table. Ugh. Didnt happened. She took the dogwalk twice before I got her in.  This trial was on an uphill grade. I was trying to put her in the tunnel and try to get uphill to make sure she knew to go to the #13 jump.  It was tough running up hill from a stand still .  I think the rest went ok. Bummer!!!  

Next was jumpers.  

I just didnt see that #4 was not that obvious. I didnt look at the course map before hand. And when you walked the course, it seemed like a straight shot into the tunnel.  Anyway, I didnt support the jumps and she ran pass them. Ugh! I was so upset with myself.

Miley dorpped at least 3 bars. Again, her run didnt get taped because  my friends, each thought the other one was taping.  Ugh!!

http://youtu.be/VfdpvttVc1M

Catching up

Im sorry I haven't been posting. Im not sure to many people are even reading anymore.   Ive been feeling depressed. Not like "cant get out of bed" depressed. Just not doing much of anything. I haven't been walking my dogs much, sad.  My fibromyalgia pain has gotten really bad.  I hate my job and I don't even know why.  They people I work with are really nice. Its just hard to sit in an office, all day by yourself, and see a bunch of kids that don't want to be at school.   And then have to deal with parents who are mad at you for stupid things. I could see if I made a mistake and you were mad but the stuff they are mad about is just dumb.   You are mad at me because I called you and said you cant send your kid to school with a blood sugar over 500 and spilling moderate ketones. You should at  least call me and give me a heads up so I cant help your child. Not let me find out on my own. And now you are snippy with me on the phone when I call??  I just don't get it. I didnt do anything wrong.  Its stuff like that all day long.   So then I find Im depressed by the time I leave there.  I eat lunch alone. Then my husband works out of town , so Im alone at home too. Its just all getting to me.  I went to the doctor this morning and told her we need to change something because Im miserable.  So she added a medication and will see if my pain gets better. I keep thinking how am I going to hike in Oregon next month if I cant even walk 4 miles at the parks without going into severe pain. I want to have a life and do the things I enjoy, not just exist.

I took theses pictures yesterday at the park. This cracked me up. I think this house was for birds. But I guess the squirrels felt it would make a good home.

Then this bird pecking holes in the bird house.

Took Miley back to the ophthalmologist.  They couldn't find anything wrong, or why she is squinting so much. So back to the old medication , Optimune and recheck in two months.  She is better but I feel like she isn't opening her eye completely, but not really squinting.

Last weekend we went to  the trial just on Sunday.  It was a nice day.  Sunny and warm.  Miley Qed in T2B but I messed up Java's run.   But she had nice teeters, you had to do it twice. 

Miley almost double Qed.  One dropped bar. Ugh.  Oh well, I would rather have one dropped bar then not be able to run her at all. 





Java had nice runs.  We got the wrong entrance to the tunnel, I should have layered that jump instead of going it. It pushed her right into the wrong tunnel entrance.  But she got the opening which was getting more dogs.  And she finally got her first excellent jumpers Q.

Another trial, another day.

This has nothing to do with the trial.  Friday I finally got to take my dogs out onto the island at the river. The water was low enough. Probably not low enough for my dogs liking but we could cross. The only thing is having to watch for snakes as I walk through the island to the rock. There are now lots of leaves on the ground and my heart races all the time Im walking through.  Guiness was very happy. They only place I let him off leash because Im pretty sure he wont swim though the water to get to the other side.

Miley always squints when was are outside in the sun taking pictures. The left eye almost always closed. But this week  I have seen her squinting that left eye 3 times in the house. The last time the yesterday before the trial.  Im going to get it checked this week. I wonder what is wrong. Someone at the trial thought she looked funny jumping on our last run, jww.


Yesterday I went to an outdoor trial. I only entered one day. I dont think I told you this but my husband took a job in Bamburg, SC.  He leaves on Monday and comes back Friday nights.  So I dont get to see him much. So one day at a trial leaves Sunday for me to see him.  My son lives with me, so Im not a lone but sill feels lonely sometimes.

First up was T2B.  Miley's run was crazy but not to crazy. No running around the ring.  Java I  was planing to get almost to three and I was going to be on her right side and then push to the a-frame. But once I started leading out, I was getting nervous she might break, so I released so I wouldnt reinforce breaking a start line stay. So because I released her I had to RC 3 and then RC the aframe.  She dropped a bar turning at 9. I thought it might have been because the grass was wet but I think she just turned to tight  and took the bar down.




Next up was Master standard.

Not to many Qs on this course except the 8 inch dogs.  I worked the 20's and 24 inch class and not to many got the ending. A few slower dogs and one freaking awesome border collie that ran. Actually 19 is marked wrong, he changed it to the opposite side.  Most people , including me, tried to wrap it and the dogs didnt wrap. They jumped turning toward the tunnel and then took the wrong tunnel entrance. Miley got it but I think I was just lucky.  I only two 12 inch dogs Qed.  I was having a great run and then cued the wrong end of the first tunnel. Ack!!  Then coming off the table, she went up the aframe. Hmm???



Every time I load video from my ipad to youtube, the video quality goes to crap. Whats up with that??  Im loading it in high def.

Java's run, I really felt like she was committed to jump #9 and I started to move laterally. It pulled her off. Crap. Same thing at 15.  I guess I need to work on that. Also , we didnt get the end. But she stayed at the startline, had good contacts. Didnt fly off the teeter. So lots of positives.




I watched this lady run her border collie. She was having a nice run. Then her dog came off the teeter and went straight to the tunnel. But she cued that. She went pass the teeter and was facing the tunnel entrance. Man was she mad at her dog. I felt bad for him. It wasnt his fault. She downed him in a mean voice and then took him out of the ring. I was so mad. I wanted to yell, it was your fault, you cued the tunnel. So she walked back to her friend and her friend told her. "you cued the tunnel. You never turned your shoulders"  She was taken back and said "I did?". But it was like she really didnt believe her friend. Then she just walked away. Never paying any attention to her dog. Ugh!!!


Last up was JWW.

Both times I was so close to qing.  Miley had a very nice run. It felt good. Someone told me she was jumping funny. I didnt see it when running but when watching the video, she is kinda collecting up before jumping. Hmmm??



Java's run, I felt like I was just struggling for every jump.I was pushing in to much and pulling just slightly to much and then would have to redirect. She was unsure of where to go and head checks me a few times and slows down. Ugh. But several people said it looked really good, and I was thinking how horrible it felt. So with Java, I really tried to pull to get her to that last jump before the tunnel. She did pull in but didnt take the jump but took the correct tunnel entrance.





Once again after running AKC , I feel bad about myself. I know there lots of little awesome parts but it sure would be nice for it all to come together. Then I got to thinking, if I died no one is going to say, "man to bad she couldnt Q in AKC".  LOL  Thats not something people will remember, at least I dont think so.  They will probably remember my crazy runs with a fast , happy little sheltie. Or how Java was not a fast dog, but after all that hard work she became a fast dog. And that she always left the rings happy with her dogs no matter how bad the run went.  And my dogs certainly arent going to be thinking, "To bad we never Qed with her  at an AKC trial".  LOL, no they will probably miss playing with me and going to the park for walks. Going to the beach and running and having fun with just me being around. So who cares if I never double Q, or get to go to AKC nationals. No one but me would remember that anyway.

Sunday

Sorry its taken me so long to post about day 2. Not that anyone really cares. LOL  I should have spent the day at the beach instead of at the trial. I was just so tired. My dogs didnt sleep well. Both nights they got up at 2am and 5am to go to the bathroom. I couldnt be mad because they really had to go.  I guess all that running got everything moving.  Then having to clean the condo before leaving was a drag too.

 There were lots of alligators out. I think I counted 5 that I could see from our balcony.  Ive never seen that many.

Here was the open jumpers course. It was tough.  I was planning on front crosses after four and then pulling to 5. But then dogs kept going off course and my friend said I should front cross again after 5. So I tried but I was late and she went off course.  Only one person Qed and that dog jumped out of the ring to go see his dad who was video taping and then came back.





Next was Miley's standard run.  Again so darn close. Ugh!!

Well at least she got on the table and we got a chance to run the course.

By this time I was beat. I should  have called it a day. You shouldnt run your dog when you dont think you can do your best for them.

When the people walked this course they just wouldnt quit talking about what to do on 3-6. Ugh , it drove me crazy.  I just made a  plan and left the course. Not a good plan either. LOL I have to say everyone at this trial is very supportive , even when everything is going to hell. LOL




I tried to have a better frame of mind to run Java. If I couldnt pull it together than I shouldnt be running my dog. I thought I tried but things didnt go well.

I know she didnt get that dogwalk contact and was shocked when I found out he didnt call it.  But he called the a-frame. I need to practice pushing into her on the down side of the a-frame and she doesnt bail off.



So not a good ending to the weekend.

Then on the way home there was a bad accident.  I was on the highway, two lane. A guy was passing me. Then I heard "bam" and knew he had a blow out. I slowed down, thinking this wouldnt be good.  He passes me and I see the whole tire come off his rear wheel. But he isnt slowing down. Maybe he didnt realize right away what happened.  All of sudden he loses control of his car. It skids sideways in front of me. Now Im headed straight for him. I hit my brakes thinking about which way Im going to go if he tries to correct and starts coming toward me.  But he slid off the road, into the grass, flipped twice and landed upside down in the ditch. OMG, was that scary. I was so grateful that I didnt get hit or run off the road and flip my car. I did pull over and run back to the car. The doors were wedge shut due to being upside down and in mud. The one window by me was broken. There were 4 people in the car, from what I could tell. No one would answer any questions. They just kept starting at me. I guess they were in shock.  No on could tell me, "how many people are in the car". "Is everyone in the car awake". It was weird. The guys in the front just kept staring at me. So the guys in the front got out, no injuries that I could see. A women in the back was screaming, "get my momma out of here". But you couldnt get them out. I think the grandma was unconscious. I never saw her move. Now a bunch of people had stopped to help.  This man and lady kinda took over, the man kept saying his wife was a nurse. So I let them have at it. I went back to my car since I left the dogs unattended. I drove home thinking how lucky I was and it really didnt matter what happened at the dog trial.

Trial weekend

I went to an AKC trial at the beach this weekend. The weather couldnt have been better. Sunny and warm.  Love it!!   Saturdays runs felt really good. Its just seemed like one thing happened on each run to NQ us. LOL

First up was open jww. This was a tough course. Harder than the masters course.

The whole thing squished on one side of the field. Off courses every where. The judge was really nice so hard courses are ok with me but I was pretty sure I couldnt run it.  Of course we messed up the easy stuff. She missed jump #3. I have no idea why. I was planning on front crossing between 3-4. The the rest was perfect. That figures huh?  I think only two dogs Qed.



Next up was Mileys standard run.

 

Miley got on the table like she has been doing it her whole life. LOL   It was a beautiful fun until I rear crossed on the flat after 17 instead of in front of 17. This pushed her wide and she missed jump 19. Ugh!

 

 

 

Next Mileys  masters JWW run.  We dropped a bar.

Then Java's novice standard run. It was beautiful!!!  Awesome dogwalk contact. We dropped a bar, what a heart break.

Miley, T2B.

I debated how to run the serp at 13. First I was going to front cross on the dw side and run it that way. I was worried she wouldnt push out to 15.(I should have run it this way)  So I decided to run on the weave pole side and I was going to front cross b/t 14 -15. I didnt make it and had to rear cross. This sent her off course.



Great day even with the things that kept happening. At least Miley was running with me and trying.  Its hard to run a dog who is freaked out. That didnt happen at all today. Yay Miley. Java was awesome too. I need to stop cutting her off with those front crosses.

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.


.

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.

Success

Went to a trial this weekend.  We had a great day.   I would love to load some of the pictures I took of the dogs on the beach but the Internet is acting weird and I cant.  Sad.   Anyway, I only entered Exc JWW and T2B.   I also wanted to do the b-match to work on Miley's table.   We didnt Q in JWW or T2B.  In T2B we were the fastest but she dropped a bar. Ugh.  In JWW I again worried about sending her off course and over handled it. I caused a refusal.  She was coming out of the tunnel and there was a discrimination between the weaves and a jump. I called her to me after the tunnel and then got a refusal into the weaves because she was unsure and came back to me. But otherwise great run.    So here is the exciting news.   We did the b-match and she got on the table all 4 times without a single problem.  I wanted to reward her , so I petted her.  You can see in the video how much she enjoyed the touching. LOL silly dog. 



Anyway, how exciting is that.  So she gets on the first time, and I almost fainted.  So I thought, put her thur the tunnel and try it again. See what happens.  She got on again. Whoohoo!!  The second run we made mistakes going to the table and she still got on. WOW!!!  Im so excited to see  if it continues tomorrow. So why do I think she got on? I have not idea.  I have been running Java to the table at home and making Miley sit in a crate an watch.  But Ive tried doing that with Guiness and it made no effect. But Guiness didnt come to trials. 

Follow -up trial

 I never really wrote that much about the trial because I was just to tried.  It was at a new place this year. Farther away from the beach, so that was a drag but still a nice place.  It was at a park, a huge park.  When I drove up, you had to pay a fee. But I didnt bring any money. I didnt want to bring my purse so I just took my ID and credit card but forgot cash. I  looked through my change dish and found enough to pay the entrance fee.  Im  not sure what I  was planning to do for lunch. Plus I was staying for the b-match after that. 
Anyway the park was huge. The picture above was taken by this pond that also had a dock on it.It was in the "kid" area where there was a splash pad.I looked for an alligator sign but didnt see one until I went around the other side the next day. I wouldnt have put Miley next to the pond to take pictures.  Who would have thought they would have a pond with alligaters in the kids area.

Then there were the dog parks.  The one side for the big dogs was huge. It has two beaches  and the dogs looked like they were having fun swimming.

 The beaches and water is down passed those people you see in the picture. 

This was more of the water area in the dog park, the water circled the dog park.  I dont know why there were no alligators signs up in the big dog park area.
I had a long wait after running FAST first.  So I thought I would work a class.  I went over to find the worker schudule and it was posted on the ring gate boards.  I walked over there and I felt the leash go tight. I turn around and Miley is peeing right next to the AKC reps shoe. Ugh!  I told him I was so sorry.  She didnt pee on him but jeez, I dont know why she had to pee so close to the guy.  Anyway, I signed up to be leash runner for the exc standard class.  The classes werent that big so I worked it for the whole class.  It was small to tall.  The 24inch dogs were getting ready to run and the timer and scribe had to go walk the other ring. So two new people sat down. There was me, the gate steward , the timer and scribe. The score sheet runner, who worked for the club, went to bring the sheets to the table. She came back and brought water for everyone but me.  How rude is that?  I was so pissed.  Especially since I was in the sun and they were all under the shade tent.  And that there, is the story of my life.  I dont think she meant to be rude, at least I dont think so.  But if you got back and noticed you forgot someone, wouldnt you go get it, or say sorry.  I finished the class and I was grumpy. The worker coupons could go toward lunch but one wasnt enough to buy lunch.  I would need to work another class.   Great.
Now it was time for Exc JWW.

We held it together on this course unitl #17 and I became disconnected from my dog.  I remember thinking , wow we made it thur the hard part and bam, the bar came down. Not that it really mattered because she missed the weave pole entrance but it would be nice if I could keep it together thur a whole course.   The other thing, is she was really wide # 6-9.  Oh, well I was pretty discussed in myself. 

Then I worked another class. I think I was leash runner and bar setter.  I finally had enough coupons to get a sandwich.   It was now 2pm and I hadnt eaten since 6am.  So I think all my grumpiness was from needing to eat.  Needless to say, I didnt forget my money the next day. LOL

So now you are up to date since I already talked about the b-match and Sunday.