Start the year with a trial

I went to an AKC trial in Raleigh , NC the first weekend in January.  They were running  special events. They were having a top dog competition and Team competitions.  It was a fun raiser  and your team picked what ever charity you wanted to donate to.  You got pledges from people based on how many points you earned during the weekend. Then the pledges said the would give you 25cent a point you earned.  I didn't do team. I tried to get my friends to do a team but I think they just didn't understand team. At the end, they said to me, "We should have done team" .  LOL 
They were also running ISC jumpers and Standard during the weekend, along with FAST and T2B. 

Friday Miley was on fire and got 3 Q's.  Whoohoo. I was so excited. I thought we might have a chance to make it to the Top Dog Finals.  But then Saturday morning, in  jumpers, she dropped so many bars , it was scary.  I pulled her for the rest of the day.  I was so worried about her but also sad that we wouldn't be able to try for the top dog run.  On Sunday morning they posted the dogs that made the finals and Miley was so close. We only missed by a couple of points. I think they picked 4 dogs for 12 inch and she was the 5th dog. Ugh!!   When I got to the site that morning, the trial chair came to me and said there had been a mistake with the points and Miley made it in to the finals. Whoohoo!!  Now, how would she do with jumping. Would she crash a bunch of bars????  I was very nervous about the run because I wasn't sure she was up to it. 

I just went for it in the run. No baby sitting anything.  She dropped only one bar and it was my fault.  She did get called on the a-frame contact and the teeter. ( both unusual for her).  Makes me think she is sore.  I had already planned for her to take a 2month break after this trial, and this just confirms that it is the right decision.  It would have been nice to win but I wasn't really expecting that.  I was just happy to be running and that she didn't crash any jumps.  4leggedflix was there filming all weekend. There was also live feed for anyone who wanted to watch. Well they were nice enough to give you a free copy of  your run , for any dog that made it in the Top Dog finals. That was so nice of them.  They also plan to match the donations made to their site to watch the live feed and give it to a dog charity ( I cant remember how they chose the charity. It had to do with the winners and who tge winners picked). You could watch the live feed free but they asked that you donated money based on how much feed you watched.  So if you watched but didn't donate , you might want to consider it.





Java didn't do well this weekend.  She couldn't finish weave poles and for some weird reason, she just kept taking the wrong tunnel entrance. Even if it didn't seem like the other end was a choice. ( did see that I kept turning my shoulders away from her, which makes your dog fling  the other way. You should turn your shoulders into your dog)  So we hardly  had any points to make it into Top Dog Finals. I had entered her in T2B on Sunday morning. They were using T2B like a challenger run. If you won, you earned a spot into the finals.  Java had a freaking awesome run. Did all the weaves and got the correct tunnel entrance.   The only thing that happened was  after putting her into the tunnel, I needed to run and start cueing the turn off the a-frame before she hit the down ramp of the a-frame. But the judge was in my path to cue the jump after the aframe. So now I couldn't see the jump and I couldnt pull my dog with a running a-frame. I had to go around the judge on the inside.  I think the judge was just use to everyone staying close to the a-frame to make sure their dog hit the contact. But if I did that Java would have taken the jump straight in front of the a-frame.

 

So we missed jump #10.  I could have fix it but I just wanted to  keep the flow and she was running so nice.   She had the fastest time but she missed the jump. I still think she would have made the finals even with the extra time to get that jump.

 

 

  We stayed with a friend her in new, to her, RV.  I don't think my dogs liked being so close to her dogs. We shared hotel rooms lots of times but this seemed different. My dogs didn't even want to go in the RV at times. (Poor dogs).

This is Miley , the first night. She is on the dash board, I guess to stay away from everyone. (My friend has little dogs. She had 4 there  to show and then 3 puppies. I guess that was a lot for my dogs to have to deal with)

 I cant remember which night this was. I think my dogs were to tired to care if there were a lot of little dogs in the RV.

Sunday my dogs did well at the trial.  Like I said, Java couldn't get correct tunnel entrances or finish weave poles all weekend. So frustrating.


I guess I better watch myself with bringing my hands up with frustration. Otherwise that will become a stress signal to my dog.

So after all that, Sunday, she had a beautiful Standard run. (And the T2B run which I already posted).



That was so exciting and we took 2nd place.  Of course I had to go see if I got called on anything first. LOL  Sometimes its hard to know when you are running.

I missed most of Sunday's walk thur for 12 inch JWW. I was out walking the dogs and Java had to poop.  When we trail, she can never just go.  Its a process. Walk back and forth and back and forth. The start to go, then decided that's not the right spot and start walking back and forth through the same area. Ugh!!   Its not something you can get done fast. I knew I had to be missing the walk-thru.  When I got in the door, by friend just took my leashes and I went down to the ring. I had 35 seconds. I walked it twice , real fast.  It was a twisty course, easy to get turned around. I didn't run it the fastest way for my dog, I wouldn't have rear crossed so much but we got it done , without going off course. Yay!!



I messed up with Java.  She didn't have stellar start lines this weekend. Ugh. I knew she was over things on Sunday.  I should have done the beginning the same way I did Miley. But then I thought, "She'll stay".  Nope, she didn't, so we were off course in the beginning. Ugh!! So much for a double Q.   LOL

The big negative for the weekend was dogs barking. It was unbelievable. I had already moved my creating area twice , to try to get away from it. These dogs just barked and barked.  Even with the cages covered.  It was a loud, ear piercing bark. So many times, my friend and I had to go to the other end of the building so we could hear what we were saying to each other.  One time, the people were are just standing next to the dogs, just barking away. They didn't do anything to stop it. How were they hearing each other to talk???  I did put my dogs in the car a couple of times to give them a break from all the barking.  ( I was able to park behind the building. There were only 4 car spots there. I don't think to many people knew about the spots. I could see my car from my crating area, so I didn't feel like it was unsafe. Plus it was enclosed by fencing. ) The other negative was it rained all weekend.  It didn't get really bad until Sunday.

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.

Trial follow up, day one.

I went to a trial last weekend. It seem like forever ago.  Ive had ipad problems, Internet problems and agility problems.  I've spent all week trying to do my Daisy Peel homework.  I went Tuesday to the field.  There were three sequences. I figured staying in the weave poles, while I peeled away, would be the problem. Nope, neither dog could read a rear cross at the tunnel. They both kept turning the wrong way. Ugh!! So I worked on it for 2 days. Then  I went to the field again. This time neither dog could stay in the weaves, get weave pole entries or read the rear cross at the tunnel. Ack!! Then I went today and it finally came together. Today was last day to turn in homework. (Java still had one weave pole entry problem) 
Next ,I saved all my videos from the trial on my computer but it makes it hard to transfer to youtube. So I will just do day one today. I had to have my ipad swiped clean and start over. So no videos on it.

I went up Friday afternoon so I could do the UKI trial that was running after the AKC trial. I wanted to practice with Java in the ring. Start lines and teeters and 2o/2o on the dogwalk.  Didn't work out to well, except she did have nice startline stays.

Miley ran a Master series jumpers. The first three dogs that ran, went off course. Hmm.  The dirt was soft, which is nice to run in but made big holes after lots of dogs ran. I noticed it but didn't really register in my brain. So when I ran with Miley, she took a jump and Im pretty sure she fell in a hole.



So after that, every time I walked the course , for the next few days, I went around filling all the holes with my feet and mashing it down. People probably thought I had a problem. I know its hard to get the dirt right at trials. People have complained about the dirt at our trial but Ive never had my dog take a spill like this at our trial.

Here was the excellent Jumpers course.

 

I should  have read #3 as a lateral send, so I could get ahead of Java. But I didn't so I got behind and she didn't know where to go taking #5 and had to guess. She guessed wrong. After that we were good.  You can see how much she is slipping on course.

 

 

Here was the T2B course.

 

I didn't know how to run this. I went with 3 front crosses in the opening. I walked it with rears but that didn't feel right. So I went with the fronts even though I knew I wouldn't make it. I didn't, and Java had to tell me about it. Ugh. We managed to stay on course even with that big mess.

 

 

The next day she had an awesome Excellent standard run.  She had the best teeter she has ever had at a trial.  Didn't do a 2o/2o on the dogwalk at all. LOL 



Ill try to do Miley stuff tomorrow.  She had some trouble with bars. Ugh.