Trash

Its pouring down rain today. It poured all day Monday. It was nice Tuesday and I was able to work on weave pole entries. I also took the dogs for a 3 mile hike. But now its back to rain. Its suppose to rain all week. Hopefully it stops by the weekend. This weekend I'm going to a trial that is near the beach. I went to a B-match there in the Spring. It was a nice area. My only complaint was the rings were in the grass, and the ground was rock hard and uneven. I wish they could put the ring in the horse arena, with the dirt. Since it raining all week, maybe the ground wont be so hard. The best part is, the timeline shows I will be done with all 3 runs by 1pm. WhooHoo. Hopefully Miley can keep it together and I can handle things correctly. One thing I notice is I'm not driving to the correct tunnel entrance. I send her and make her choose. I didn't think I was doing that until I watch other people run their dog successfully. That's when I noticed what I was doing and what they were doing. So my goals are to drive to the correct tunnel entrance and the weave poles. Think about where my shoulders are facing and to try and not let her know she is wrong. When I walk the course, I will try to take notice of the off courses that she could take and have a secondary plan to handle the off courses.

I went to have my mammogram today. So I brought in a book that Ive had in my car. Three times now I have tried reading it. I just couldn't get pass some things. But today I thought I would try again. The book is "Dogged Pursuit". I'm sure you have heard of this book. Its about a guy who wants to get another agility dog and be competitive in agility. His first dog is now old. My first problem with this book is he gets a sheltie from rescue that is basically terrified of his own shadow. Why would you pick that sheltie to do competitive agility. If you were doing it to give the dog confidence I could see. But pick a different rescued sheltie. There had to be a better one for what he wanted to do. I hope you are not taking offense to what I'm saying. I just think there could have been a better fit. Plus how many times does the dog have to vomit and poop in his BMW before he puts the the dog in a crate? But the final straw was him talking about a lady and what she does to calm her dog down. If this lady really does this, then she needs a shrink and a man. I'm not sure I can even tell you what she does to her dog before she runs him to help calm him down. Lets just say if he had hands he would probably do it himself. Ugh! How repulsive. Just as I got to that part in the book, they called my name. When I left, I tossed the book in the trash. I'm sorry, I would rather be happy in my ignorance about what people do with their dogs.

Just so you are not left with that disgusting thought, here is a picture of Roxy from this weekend. If you are on my facebook, you've already seen it. At the trial, I got this big cookie with my lunch but didn't eat it. I had put it on the counter. I had planned on moving it but forgot. Roxy runs by me carrying this cookie that was huge, compared to her size. She took off, under the bed, all the way to the back so I couldn't get her. I was freaking out. If she eats that chocolate chip cookie she might die. I was finally able to get it. Afterwards it was funny to think about her running by,head held high, trying to go fast without tripping on the cookie. ( the picture doesnt really show how big the cookie was. It was bigger than her head)

CDTC Day 2

Today was the second day of the trial. I was so tired while driving up to Charolette that I thought about turning around and going home. But I didnt. My first run was Open JWW. Miley was awesome! Took 1st place and Qed in 22 seconds. WHooHoo. Ive uploaded the video to YouTube but the first time is was blurry. Not sure why. I did everything the way I always have done. Not sure if it will still be blurry on the second try. So if it is blurry, sorry.

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Next we ran Open standard. I don't have any video because I couldn't find anyone to tape me. We had a great run. No crazy jumping on and off the table. She ran the whole course without any circling or taking obstacles she wasn't suppose to. I did pull her off a jump when I rear crossed and when she got on the table, I thought if I moved to get into position for the next jump, she might break. So when I released her, I was facing the jump but not toward the weaves. She took the jump but was wide and really had to pull in to get the weaves. So she went in on the right instead of the left. Oops my fault. But she was ok and finished nicely.

I probably should have left then. It was only 11am. But I stayed for open Fast. It was a crazy run. She scooted up from her start line, all the way up to the first jump. Uhg!! But she popped over and didn't knock the bar when I released her. We couldn't get the send bonus. It looks like there is room to run after the tunnel but there wasn't. I just couldn't get her to have forward momentum. So she got a little crazy after that. I should have stepped over the line and helped. I don't know what I was thinking. But I got her back and finished nicely.

CDTC trial

Well , I'm home from the trial. I had finished all three runs by 1pm and was home by 3pm. Cant beat that. The rain held off. I was planning to leave and not do standard if it started raining. I didn't want Miley falling off any equipment. But it only rained for a couple of minutes in the morning and that was it.

Our first run was Open fast. The blue numbers was the course I was planning to run except the #10 tire. My front cross after the triple was late , so she took the tire before coming in for the a-frame. The run was great! She did everything, even the weaves were perfect. When I did the send bonus, I had planned to back up after she was in the tunnel so that I could then give forward motion driving into her line, to put her over the next two jumps in the send. I remembered to do it and did it right. She read it perfectly. We ran the course in 24 seconds and got 62 points. First place, whoohoo. Things are looking up.

Right after Fast, was Open jumpers.

I wanted to try really hard to make sure my shoulders were in the correct position for the weaves. Then next thing was the tunnel entrance. When you went over jump #7, the dog could only see the wrong tunnel entrance. I know it doesn't look that way on paper , but walking it, that's the way it was. Miley ran great but went into the second pole, I didn't fix it. And she took the wrong tunnel entrance. I should have driven harder into her line and to the correct tunnel entrance. I was already thinking about getting in front of jump #9 for when she came out of the tunnel. Then rest of the course was great.

Last was Open standard.

First off, Miley jumped on the table and went right into a down. And didn't jump off the table. WhooHoo. Contacts were great. She really ran great until...... She went into the weaves, the correct pole. I was thinking, wow we might actually pull this off. But no. She popped out of the 10th pole and then took that dummy jump right in front of the weaves. Some how she most have known she was wrong. I'm not sure if I'm doing something, maybe stopping motion, that is causing her to know she was wrong. So then she got the zoomies. After that jump she went up the a-frame and jumped off from above the yellow. I'm freaking out thinking she is going to break her leg. Then she runs into the tunnel and I caught her coming out. I took her off the course. I wasn't trying to say she was bad, I just didn't want her doing dangerous things. I hope I handled it ok. She still got treats, just not as many as she usually does.

Over all things were so much better than they were at the last trial. I just need to react better when she goes off course, so she doesn't know she is wrong. I'm not sure why she is so concerned about being wrong. Its not like I have ever done anything to her for being wrong. Weird. I got a lot of great compliments about our runs, which always makes you feel better.

B-match

This weekend I'm going to an agility trial. Today they had a B-match at the trial site but not in the same ring as the trial. So we could use food rewards. WhooHoo! I had signed up for 2 runs. All day I kept thinking I couldn't go because I just didn't feel good. I couldn't imagine how I was going to drive an hour and a half to the site after work. But I really, really wanted to work on Miley's table. So I went. My very nice husband brought Miley to my work so I didn't have to drive home and get her. Plus he brought me an ice cream. Hey, life doesn't get much better than that. So off we went. We got there around 5pm, I think the match started around 3:30. So we missed the first run thurs. We signed up for the second one. Here was the course, taken out of Clean Run.

This was the hardest course I have ever walked. How was I going to get my dog from # 3 teeter to #4 table without going off course? It doesn't look that bad on paper , but when walking it, all the off course obstacles were staring you in the face. Then trying to get from #12 tunnel to #13 weaves, good lord. What the heck? We didn't have much time for the walk thur and by the time I thought maybe I should run the novice or excellent course instead, to late the whistle blew to leave the course. When it was our turn I really wanted to treat it like a trial. It felt like a trial except not as many dogs. I did have a 2 hour wait from the time I arrived until we ran, so that's like a real trial. Finally it was our turn. What dog would show up at the start line. Ill tell you which one, the creeping forward and wanting to break her stay. But she didn't. Off we went. And what happened after the teeter? My dog shot out, like a bat out of hell, over jump #10 and into the tunnel. I'm sure my shoulders told her that, because she was so sure that was the way to go. After the tunnel, I said table. Drum roll please.........and she got on the table and stayed on the table. WhooHoo!! Boy was she shocked when she got a treat. The look on her face was priceless. Then off we went thur the course. Beautiful dogwalk, correct tunnel entrance and a-frame. Then the tunnel. I really didn't know how to handle into the weaves. I think I was to the left of the weaves toward the tunnel exit but some how I blew it and she missed the entrance. I had to bring her around and she got in. We had a nice finish. Great run, no circling and she got on the table. What a blessing.

Now to wait for our next run. But now its after 7pm and they are running tall to small. So we are last. I didn't know what to do. If I waited until my next turn I wasn't going to get home until 10 or 11pm. So after a little thinking, I went up and asked if we could run at the bottom of the 8 inch dogs that were running now and just do 8 inch jumps. They said ok. The girl who was waiting next was going to jump 4 inches but she was very nice and let me get in front of her. I told her I would be quick. She said not to worry. "Ive seen your dog run. She is fast. You'll be done in a few seconds".

So here we go again, but I was going to run the course a little differently. I was going to go teeter to the chute and then on the course. Then after the a-frame straight into the weaves and skip the tunnel. It worked great, except Miley self released on the dogwalk, into the tunnel. Again, boy was she surprised when I picked her up and put her back on the dogwalk. So I then released her into the correct tunnel entrance. She came zooming out the other side and straight up the dogwalk. Oops! I stood by the table. Told her touch as she reached the far side and then released her and she came straight to the table. Whoohoo!! Finished the course and she did the weaves perfect. Whoohoo.

I hope it goes this well this weekend.

O'yea snake #4 -terminated.

What is this?

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You thought it was an A-frame but you are wrong. Its a squirrel feeder.



Here a picture from our walk today.

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Turf Wars

Last night we had turf wars in our room. The dogs barked and growled alot last night. I'm not sure what the problem was. Mickey sometimes growls when he is worried someone or some dog is going to step or roll over on him. But everyone seemed in on the chaos. My husband said Guiness was sleeping on the ottoman,which is usually Miley's spot. So Miley kept getting on the bed and stepping on my husband which probably caused Mickey to start growling and then Miley barking. Ugh! I finally kicked Micky out of the bed. It was quiet after that.
Today I took the dogs for a nice walk at the park. It was cool outside and the park was quiet. Nice and peaceful. Then a little later I took Miley to the field to practice. We had a very nice practice. She got all her weave entries except one and of course my shoulder were not facing the correct way. We then practice small sequences with front and rear crosses. I tried running with out using my arms. I think my arm flinging causes my shoulders to turn , which then leads to other problems. Mostly this was successful.
After that, Stephanie and I drove up past Charlotte to Concord, North Carolina. She wanted to go up to that big mall to look for a homecoming dress. Its very hard to go shopping with Stephanie, well more like torturous. But she actually did better than I excepted and found a cute little ( little being the operative word here) dress. Hey I have to pick my battles. It was a long day but I'm finally done with everything. I hope I can do nothing tomorrow, I want to be lazy for a day.

Private lessons

I took 2 private lessons with Karen Holik this week while she was here. On Tuesday we worked on the table issue first. She first thought Miley was coming off because of something I was doing with my body motion. Nope, that wasn't it. Then she thought Miley didn't understand her job. Nope, that wasn't it. We tried to make Miley fail at the table but she just wouldn't, until we got things really exciting. She had to run and play with Sizzle close to where I was working Miley on the table to get her to fail. Then I could correct her. It was probably a mistake to let her not get on the table at trials because then Miley figured she didn't have to do the table. So if she does it at a trial again, I'm to bring her around back to where her approach was and make her get on that way. Don't let her pick the way she wants to get on. She gave me table drills to work on with her. And I need to do it in really exciting environments. Karen thinks you should reward the dog coming off the table toward you because they are never going to be fed going away from you( toward the table), or when they are on the table at a trial. But they may get a reward coming toward you, they dont know. When you release from the table, you have set their line and they are coming toward you. ( remember this is what I think I heard her say).
Next we workes on weave poles. We set up entries and Miley did really well. I think she only missed one. So then Karen had me run a small sequence. Guess what, Miley missed the entry. Why, because of what my body motion was showing her. I first was way behind my dog when I could have led out from the a-frame. So when I released her to the jump she then started to curl back toward me because I was so far behind. Which made the weave pole entry hard and then my shoulder were turned and not facing the weaves. So totally my fault. I wonder how many times I have done that to my dog. She gave me weave poles entries to work on and an exit drill to work on. When I worked Miley tonight I notice her head was up every time she came out of the poles. Probably looking for the bait bag flying over her head. I thought I had better timing but this shows that I don't.

The next day we worked on pinwheels because at the trial I pulled Miley off the 2nd jump in the pinwheel a couple of time. Again, its me and my shoulder rotation that is causing the dog to pull off the number 2 jump in the pinwheel. The 2nd jump in a pinwheel is a forward send. As soon as your dog is committed then you can turn and run. Once I did it correctly, Miley did really well and had a tight turn.
Lastly we worked on rear crosses. I really messed theses up. Depending on how tight you need your dog to cross will dictate how you cross. If I wanted my dog to turn tight as I rear crossed her, I should step laterally toward my dog as she is parallel to me. Then cross behind the dog. If I need her to go out more and then cross, I need to converge on her line. I cant remember the third type of rear cross was , so I sent her an email and asked her. I forgot to bring my notebook to the lesson to write down stuff.
They were good lessons and I'm going to try the stuff she told me. I don't have anything to loose considering how the last trial went.