ABA, week 4

what do most people do after a long, fun, camping weekend that leaves them sore and exhausted? certainly not work an extra hour for overtime then run home, grab the dog to go run around an agility course! that is why i am not most people, i guess.

class last night went well. Lynn, from the novice competition class, watched both Whitney & i to evaluate whether we are ready to move up or not. we ran a course first. according to Whitney this is the same course the 4Hers ran last weekend. so, the pressure was on to be better than the 4Hers! LOL

we started on a soft right bending line, from a vertical (1) to dogwalk (2) to tire (3), then a hard right (front pivot cross) to a vertical (4) on a -sortof- straight line to the triple bar (5) and on to the teeter (6). a 90 right turn to a vertical (7) which gave us a great entry into the weaves (8) and on toward the table (9), sit for a count of five and off to the a vertical (10) to tunnel (11), the a-frame (12) and finish over a vertical (13).

there were a couple of 'traps' in this course. after the tire (3) was a set of weave-o-matics on a straight line. waste' LOVES her w-o-m's!! so it was up to me to make sure she didn't get 'sucked' into them. i over-acted on my front pivot cross and got more of a u-turn than a hard right... then i got confused and she got confused and she started barking and i started laughing. Carrie said i only encouraged her misbehaving by laughing, but if you can't have fun doing this stuff, it's not worth doing. and i am a firm believer in laughing at yourself for your own mistakes - no need to get your panties in a bunch.

so, we straightened ourselves out and sent her over 4 & 5 and a 'go-out' to the teeter (that one made me nervous, but she nailed it ). she also nailed all 12 weaves and got jackpots all around.

after running our course we broke down to different groups and Christie worked w/us on some jump handling exercises. Waste' is so good about reading my body language that we did our threadles in and out w/out any incident - well, until our last try.

i put her in a sit-wait and led out, then called her to jump. she sat. i called again. she sat. i begged her to come. she sat. Christie made the comment... 'i think she's done for the evening'
LOL
she had made her point and we jumped just a couple more and quit for the evening. she was a pooped puppy.

we also got some great photos of her to apply for her ilp, but my card reader on my pc has pooped out. I'm looking at alternatives to getting them sent. bummer.

ABA, week 3

it did cool off some last night for class... i think it might have been in the low 90's indoors...
my new haircut does not lend itself very well to a ponytail, so i slapped a wet scarf on to keep myself cool.

as usual, we ran a course first. we began w/a right bending line over a vertical (1) thru the tire (2) to the tunnel (3). out of the tunnel I did a front cross to a left bending line over another vertical (4) and over the a-frame (5) where I did another front cross to a pinwheel of 4 verticals (6,7,8,9 - the 9th was really jump 6). Then a go-out over a triple bar (10) and on to the table (11). there we did a down for a count of 5 and lit off for the dogwalk (12), thru the weaves (13), onto the teeter (14) and finish over a final vertical (15).

we lost time at the table... again, she just milled around it instead of jumping up on it... not sure of her reluctance, but
we did get on it and had a good down... she absolutely aced the rest of it and came in with good time! :D

after running the course we worked on front crosses, rear crosses and post turns... our only problem there was that we were jumping towards some of the other dogs in class and she just ran over there to them to play... silly girl.

after class we took some pics of her to submit for her ilp number... i don't remember what that stands for, but it is a registration number w/the akc so we can compete!! :D

ABA, week 2

either we are going thru a case of the terrible 2's or the heat is getting to her. or a combination of both... last Friday night was free ring night and she was a barking basket case with all the dogs working at once in the ring, so we went into the rally ring and worked on that - which, btw, she did terrific on!
after working on our own, we returned to the agility ring and everyone was taking turns individually - much more to our liking. she worked well then until we got to the teeter. then she flew over that, without letting it drop, and scared herself to death... so, we kept at just the teeter until she was doing it well again... silly girl.
last night she was in her barking madness again. then, when we ran our first course, she did very well and nailed both set of weave poles, her a-frame and teeter! when we split up, however, she bailed off the a-frame half way up... for no valid reason and then did not want to do it on second try... on the 3rd try she did it very well and received a great jackpot for doing it... each time we took a break - instead of looking for water - she would drag me to the outside door... it was 10 degrees cooler outside. i think the heat really affects her. we ended on a good note with a good a-frame, table and teeter.