Thursday ramblings

good thursday morning

it's raining and plans to rain all weekend it appears. we are supposed to go camping at heartnut festival near camp atterbury. i am imagining the smell of wet dog combined with wet canvas. yummy. i completed my tarot readings sign for this weekend too. i've been procrastinating on that for 3 years. i don't imagine there will be a throng of people waiting in a rainy line to hear their soggy fortunes.

on the other hand, i have taken off friday and monday for travel time, and we do go by edinburgh outlet mall on the way down. i've left the decision up to dan. he has a second sense about poor weather.

Free Friday and NCA, week 6

I never told you how well she did last Friday night, did I? After practicing on our contacts on Thursday, she nailed them all on our run-thrus on free Friday. Instead of running the entire course, I broke it up into sections to keep her focus. This worked pretty well.

Tonight she started out great. We did dogwalk to a right pinwheel. see diagram 9.4.7b.

Then a jump (facing the right side of a tunnel) to the left tunnel and out towards a right-turn vertical - it kinda looks like a bow tie. see diagram 9.4.7a.

The next exercise is where she lost it... the dogwalk and uturn to tunnel... she ran down the dogwalk and ran off to visit the dogs next door... :( see diagram 9.4.7c

then we switched sides.... on the other side we nailed our 12 weaves, the oxer and the a-frame. no diagram needed. she is picking up speed thru her weaves all on her own. :)

so, in a nutshell, she was good when she was good and very badly behaved the rest of the time... it reminds me of that children's rhyme about a girl with a curl right in the middle of her forehead!

Rosie suggested I bring a water pistol or spray bottle with me next week... it may just work.

Ring Rent Practice, Thursday night

Well, we rented the ring last night with Amanda & Skeeter and it was fabulous to have just 2 of us in there. All the contacts were down to 'puppy height', but that was fine with me... since our object was to work on our contacts, it actually made it easier for her to stop on the downside - especially the a-frame. I tried to send her out to the a-frame too, but she still wants to head for the tunnel if it is on the 'near' side. More practice needed here.

She did much better on her contacts on all 3, the a-frame, dogwalk & teeter. Her contact on the teeter has always been good, but we threw that in just to have some fun. She also nailed all 12 weaves. I did try to push her speed once and she missed a few in her rush, so we slowed it back down again.

After a half-hour of working straight, we were both toast and look forward to 'free Friday' tonight. The object tonight is nothing but focus... even if we don't jump anything at all.

The weather has cooled down tremendously (it was 74 by the time we left last night) and that also adds to our successes!

NCA, week 5

Class went well again last night. We were in split classes again; Whitney and I with Buddy and Waste'.

We started over a combination of tire to a-frame, right-hand u-turn to tunnel. Again, Waste' kept aiming for the tunnel instead of the a-frame. Lynn said it is probably because I have to 'fade' left to go around the tunnel entrance and that is drawing her towards it, instead of the a-frame. We slid the tunnel under the a-frame and sure enough, she went right over it. That will take some additional practice - I think sending her to the a-frame from a distance, whether there is a tunnel there or not.

Next we did the dogwalk to the table - back and forth several times, working on her contacts. Now, Lynn said letting her sit on her contact is okay if that is what is comfortable for her. I can always skip it when it comes to competition. We can live with that. Her table was excellent, as usual.

Oh, as an aside... she has taken to jumping up on the old maple stump at home... that is about 4' high and 4.5' across... who needs to build a table when we have one built in!! LOL she is turning into a mountain goat, jumping from one stump to another!

Back to class, then...

After the dogwalk/table exercise, we swapped sides with Rosie's group. There we worked on weaves... and did excellent! also did some pinwheel work with front and rear crosses, also incorporating the teeter. We still have some work to do on our rear crosses and making sure she is on the correct lead going in.

I'm hoping to do some more work this Thursday with Amanda and Skeeter, and Friday on free night. It's supposed to cool down again and I know she'll enjoy herself more when she doesn't get so hot. We also have a vet appointment on Saturday for our annual vaccinations, etc. I'll also ask Dr. Jackson about her weight and her limp... she hasn't been limping now for a week or so, but will still check it out.

my ilp submissions

Well, I finally got my card reader operable
again and got the pictures off the camera that
I took for our ILP (Independant Listing Priviledge)
submission - so that we can compete in AKC events.

So, here they are... front shot and side shot... isn't she a pretty girl??

NCA, week 4

We had our combined class last night and ran courses. Both advanced and novice dogs. The ring was set up with 'nested' courses - that means the placement of the obstacles does not change, but the order does - based on level. We ran a novice standard and novice jumpers with weaves.

The standard course was a vertical (1) to the dogwalk (2), a right hand turn to the weaves (3), left over a vertical (4) thru the left opening of a tunnel (5) to the a-frame (6), right u turn to a tunnel (7) that goes back under the a-frame, left to a vertical (8) and on to the teeter (9), another 2 verticals on a left-bending line (10 & 11), back over the dogwalk (12) to the table (13), then finish over 2 more verticals coming home (14 & 15)

we ran this one twice. first time thru I forgot to do a front cross to the weave and we got bamboozled. between 5 & 6 she got sucked into the tunnel instead of up the a-frame [note: the opposite problem that we had last week with a choice of tunnel or dogwalk]. after we managed the a-frame, she lost focus and started running toward other jumps, but i got her back to do an awesome 8-11. coming home over the dogwalk, she got away from me again... trying to go out the door to the cooler outside... got her back and did a super table and finish over 14 & 15.

2nd trip thru, we nailed our front cross between 2 & 3 and she got all 12 weaves. I got her eye coming out of 5, hit the a-frame and zipped thru 7. by the time we got to the teeter, i was getting pretty winded and couldn't get the words out, but she nailed it and the rest of the jumps while I just ran to keep up. Damn. I was really sucking air after that one! LOL

The JWW did not include any contact obstacles. It started out over 3 verticals (1,2,3) to the tunnel under the dog walk (4) to the weaves (5) and on to the right side of the tunnel (6), back to a vertical (7) sending us into a wicked pinwheel of 4 more verticals (on a circle) (8,9,10,11), back thru the 4 tunnel (12) and finish over the first 3 (13,14,15).

She did very well until after the #6 tunnel... I lost her to the teeter. She just stood at the apex looking back at me like... 'are u coming?'. After resuming, the pinwheel was not as daunting as it appeared and she nailed the #12 tunnel and finish.

It was great watching all the more advanced dogs run and the problems that they had to deal with too. It made me feel like there is hope for us! LOL

NCA, week 3

We had class cancelled last week because of heat. It was 98 outside and who-knows-what inside. That week will get tacked onto the end so we won't miss anything.

Also, last week, she started up a limp. Worse when she woke up from a nap and it always worked out. I did lots of manipulations and felt for heat, but could not pinpoint it. From the way she limped, it appeared to be in her right front shoulder. Well, Tuesday morning she woke up limp-free. It was like she knew class was that night. I resolved to go ahead, but keep a close eye on her. Thru the course of the evening she never took a bad step and she woke up fine this morning as well. Who knows what she might have done to herself!!!

Class went well last night. Whitney and Buddy didn't make it, but Amanda and Skeeter did. Waste' was happy to see Skeeter - they're ol' buddies

We first worked on obstacle discrimination... the tunnel entrance next to the dogwalk... we did very badly with that... she would go into the tunnel and then come back out the entrance to go over the dogwalk! at one point she laid down in the tunnel and wouldn't come out. it was a loosing battle so we moved on to the next exercise.

That exercise was 2 jumps to either another tunnel or the teeter. they were not right next to each other so the handling was much easier. She did very well with that, both pushing and pulling. (pushing means sending her away from me, pulling is drawing her towards me).

After that exercise, we swapped sides w/Rosie's more advanced group. There we worked on weaves and pinwheels.

You can tell that she is getting more comfortable with the weaves... she increases in speed as she goes thru... kinda like "oh, I get it!"

We did the pinwheel 3 different ways... each time we approached from a tunnel... the 1st way was a post turn - I stand in the middle and send her over 3 jumps in a half circle. With that one, she drove wide over the second and had trouble making the third and brought a pole down. 2nd, I send her over 1 & 2 with a front cross to the 3rd. That brought her to the 3rd on a much better line. 3rd i did a rear cross between the tunnel and the 1st which sent her to the 2nd and I pulled her to the 3rd. This one involved less foot travel for me and shaved seconds off.

So, in all, it was a good night. We'll have another chance to work on the tunnel/dogwalk discrimination another time.

New Class! Novice Competion Agility, week 2

We missed our first week, since we were in Florida visiting the folks. While we were down there, we did get to work out with Cissy of Best Behavior Dog Training. She is awesome!

The course was outside and the first time we have ever worked away from home. Poor Waste' was so flabbergasted to have been either on a leash or in the car for 6 whole days that the freedom of the arena was too much for her to bear... all she wanted to do was run and sniff!! Cissy suggested some great things to try to increase her focus - many of which we already do, including obedience work (she's getting so good at rally!). But we did complete all the obstacles one at a time, including all 12 straight weave poles and the teeter! I expected strange obstacles to be the problem, not her focus! LOL

So now we are on our 2nd week of our new class. a new group of dogs, and you know what that means to Waste'... shall we say that our 'focus' suffered greatly.

all in all, she did well. there are 2 instructors for this class; Rosie & Lynne. both have been very successful in agility themselves. Rosie has shelties and Lynne has poodles (1 reminds me ALOT of Jocko!) we worked with Lynne last night and I like her very much. we started out with some handling and discrimination exercises.

the first exercise had us over 2 verticals heading toward both the a-frame and a tunnel. Lynne had us 'pull' the dogs thru it - we stayed on the left side and called the dogs to us thru the tunnel.

second, we jumped a vertical on a bending line to a triple bar with a front cross and hard right turn back to the tunnel. if the front cross was not done correctly, they may go off course to another vertical or up the a-frame... or, if your dog really isn't paying attention to you, they go chasing ruckus, the jack russell.

our third exercise was the same first two jumps to the a-frame and we worked on our down-side contact. Lynne asked me what kind of contacts I've been working on and i told her we've been doing 2o2o (2 on [contact], 2 off [contact]), but have been having problems with that on the a-frame. we used a target and she ran right by it. the second time thru, she stopped for it, but swung her butt around. Lynne says Waste' is trying to tell me this is too difficult for her to do and we can do a different kind of contact for a-frame only.

then we moved to the other side of the ring and worked on weaves. she did all 12 straight weave poles and even had a bit of speed with it! then, coming from the right, she got into her nose-pushing, but got thru about 10 of them... Lynne said we could leave it at that...

after that exercise, we moved on to the dogwalk and contacts there... she did great!

finally, we did jump, teeter, jump. we found that we are slowing down a bit too early, that we should wait another stride to allow her weight to drop the teeter more quickly, shaving off seconds of our time.

it was a hot evening (91), so we quit with that... came home and fell asleep on the couch in front of Law and Order. LOL

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.

Advanced Beginner Agility, week 1, new group

last night was not our best class.

I'm not sure if it was the size of the class - about 6 or 7 dogs - or if the later start time (8p), or a combination of both... about half way thru the class, she just lost all enthusiasm and copped a 'well, if i HAVE to do it, i will, but i really don't want to" attitude. She was much more interested in the new dachshund and the golden/poodle mix (he looked more like a puli). Or, maybe it was past her normal bedtime and she IS a creature of habit!

she did ace her weave poles - from both sides - and her teeter. she just did not want to do her tunnels or the table.

i guess we all have off days and last night was ours. we still had fun.

Week 8, Advanced Beginner Agility

Last night was our last remedial work on the teeter... we took away the 8" table! The first time, well, I didn't know a dog's eyes could get so BIG! That xtra 8" drop was pretty scary, but she did it 3x in a row with lots of jackpots. Later, during class, we did it 2 more times and she nailed it... of course, I will continue to jackpot her each time we do it and make it her favorite!

we did a "Jumpers course" last night... no contact obstacles, just jumps, tunnels and weaves. She did very well on the first course - our homework on 'get out' and 'go' showed - so did our homework on weaves. Our 2 biggest problems continue to be our rear cross, in which she spins it the wrong direction and the square oxer, that she continues to drop poles.

She was a pooped puppy by the end of class.

Starting tonight, the GLKC is having open night - free ring rents! You bet we'll be there!

New group starts next Monday @ 8p for another 8 weeks...

Tweener week

well, we worked out last night in lieu of this Thursday. We have our monthly meeting this week instead of class.
Since she did so well on the teeter last week, I wanted to work on it again to 'keep it in her head'.
I made the right decision.
We warmed up and then did the a-frame, some weaves and the dog walk, concentrating on our contact zones. I put the 8" table under the start of the teeter (that's where we left off last week) and 'jack-potted' her (that's a handful of treats) each time we did it. At first (I swear) she held her breadth at the 'hit-it' point (right after the pivot), but she did hit her contact and released off of it very well. We ran the teeter about 3-4 times, then a few other obstacles, then the teeter another 3-4, then took a break. We repeated that 2 more times w/in an hour. The last time, since she was showing a remarkable gain in confidence, I decided to incorporate the teeter into a small course. We did tunnel to dog walk, to tire, to chute, to table in a down-stay. I led out from the table to the teeter. She hit that teeter at 175mph, hit her pivot and finished on her contact with a sit. I have never, ever seen her run so fast and stop so quickly.
Dang!

week 7

it was soooo hot yesterday! we just did a lot of short exercises last night w/a lot of breaks and drank a lot of water...
we did more contact work and teeter... we're down to the low table to start and riding it down... she was a bit more scared, since it was a MUCH larger drop, but she did it fine a few times in a row... not confident, but you could tell she put a bunch of thought into it... next week is our meeting, so no class... Alicia and i will rent the ring on monday to practice on our own - just to keep it in her head. Our homework is to work on our 'go' which means to go jump out ahead of me, our 'get out' which means to move laterally away from me over a jump and learning 'right' from 'left'.

week 6

class was great, as usual... we started on the teeter from the low table to the ground and she did not like it... she started jumping off it again... :( so, we went back to 2 tables; from the large one down to the small one... we encouraged her to stay on... Carrie thinks that if Waste' runs it and it drops right after the pivot, that kinda freaks her out... so we are teaching her to "hit it" which means to stop right after the pivot and ride it down, then release her. That worked better b4 and so we'll go back to that. we finished by dropping the small table and going from big table to the ground. Next week we'll start w/that and move down to the small table.

Christie set up another course for us... there are 3 levels of courses for the AKC: novice, open and excellent. Last week we did a novice course... this week, just to test us, she set up an excellent course... this includes what is fondly referred to 'city driving' and 'country driving'. City driving is a bundle of obstacles very close in proximity w/lots of tight turns and country driving is running like hell to keep up with her! Since she has a great 'wait' (that is where I leave her and 'lead out' over the first few jumps), I decided to lead out past the third jump - a gamble for a novice dog, but, as long as I can keep her eye, I thought she'd do it. She did, but then I directed her towards the broad jump as the 4th, instead of the vertical... oops! I was so worried about the first 3, that I blundered the 4th... LOL. So, we started back up at the vertical to the A frame, nailed the contact and made her wait there while I lead out over the tire and the next 'bundle'. This was the tire forwards to a vertical, hard right and jump towards me over another vertical, another hard right and out over an oxer to the tunnel. Coming out of the tunnel, I did a front cross and sent her over the dog walk and another 'wait' on that contact. After that I lead out over the broad jump, a hard right turn over another vertical and slowed down for our entrance into the weaves. Out of the weaves forward to a vertical, a hard left, skip the teeter and on thru the shoot and forward over the final vertical. Damn, I was a bit winded by the end!!

Then we split up and worked on the tire combination. She keeps pulling a pole over the oxer... guess we need to work on more spread fences!

After the class some wanted to run the course a second time... this included Carrie... she asked if she could run Waste'... it was fun to watch her run for someone else... I also got both courses on video... hopefully will get them posted to the blog.

week 5 agility

class last night was amazing... we went in early again to work on the teeter... going from the big table and down to the ground, she nailed it 3x in a row... she even sat on bottom contact of the teeter and waited each time. So, even tho we had rented the space for a half hour, we worked for a total of 10 mins and were happy. Then class started w/a biggie... we had to crate our dogs and walk an 18 obstacle course... Waste' just laid right down and uttered not a peep.

The course was long and varied... She just nailed it.

after we all ran the course, we split up and worked on elements of the course... carrie set the training weaves straight... now, these are the type of training weaves that are in a straight line, but are hinged at the ground and will angle out left, right, alternating. Waste' slowed down when she came to them and deliberately and methodically, with her nose, pushed them aside. first left, then right - instead of weaving thru them. Damn! no one could believe she actually thought that out... she is a cheat!! LOL guess we'll have to stick with the channel weaves from now on... she can't move them... what a stinker!

5/17 - class last night & Culver last weekend

Yep, she was good again! We did more gridwork and handling exercises. We also got her pausing and 'riding' the teeter down to the ground. Her dogwalk is getting more and more confident and her weave poles were so-so. She was also getting pretty tired by the end of another hour and a half!

I also have to say what a great time we all had at Culver Academy last weekend. One girl took Waste' off my hands during setup of camp and several other students pitched in to help us! The guys did a bunch of drilling and many demonstrations of cannon and musket fire. Waste' took it all in stride. She is recognizing Dave's voice when he calls out the drills and knows it precedes the gunfire. They had hoped to have the 3-masted ship in the water, but were unable to get her out in time for the event. Hopefully we'll have a chance to board her next year!

I encourage you to visit their website. I'll add it to my list of links. The webcam of the Parade Field from the Riding Hall shows most of the area that we camped in and also a beautiful view of the lake.

Class update

She makes it easy. Carrie agreed and said she will be the kind of dog that will 'save my butt when I really need it'.

We got there early to do our 1on1 contact work. We had a couple of problems w/the dogwalk to begin with and it was more MY lack of confidence than hers. After a couple of trys, she was back to her old 'tackle it' attidude. The we hit the A-frame a few times - no problem there. Then Carrie set up the teeter to try a new exercise. She put each end under a table; the start table higher than the end one. The object is to move from one table to another. Waste' did not even blink. She rode that teeter down like she's been doing it all her life. We did all this in less than 15 minutes, so we took a break before class started.

The first half of class we did grid work. Christie began explaining the exercise and I had to interrupt her. I made the observation that this is gridwork and it is designed to teach her to rock back and round over her fences to jump in a better style. I told her that I had trained horses for 30 years and I may not know about agility, I do know about jumping! She got pretty excited and said I could probably teach her a few things.

It was first set up as 3 bounces to a one stride. As the height increased, she began to jump like a pretty little hunter! Dang, she can be good with those wheels. Then we worked on a half-circle exercise: 3 jumps set up on a pinwheel; all three left-hand standards touching each other. She got that pretty easily too.

She was also pretty pooped by the end of the first half hour. With Carrie we put some consecutive obstacles together including working on obstacle descrimination. A tunnel was placed under the A-frame so both entrances to the tunnel framed the face of the A-frame. The object of the exercise is to send her to the tunnel and not the A-frame. She nailed it each and every time. The we did some serpentines. She nailed the serpentine so well, Carrie had Christie come watch. Christie made the comment that this is a very advanced exercise. (see me brimming with pride).

Then we worked on the training weave poles at about a 2" spread. The only problem she had was with the one short pole... she kept missing that one...

Since she nailed every thing we asked her to do on the coursework, we quit a bit early.

I'm a slacker...

Geez! I am just too busy with myself to get my fingers typing into this blog! I keep promising to blog more frequently, but have failed.

I have to brag... my little girl, Waste' is doing soooooooooooo well! We have had some problems w/our contacts - especially the teeter and we're working on that remedially w/Carrie. But our jumping control and weaves are just hot.

Our event season for re-enacting is upon us. We are going to Mansker's Station in Goodlettsville, TN this weekend. Tstorms are forecast. :(

Dan's daughter, Rita, got married and it was a fabulous day. I've been working on video of the whole weekend. Will add it when I get it done...