Agility training

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Remmy weighs about ten pounds and he does not have a really fast teeter. He runs to the pivot point, crouches till it hits the ground then races down it. He does running contacts so works for us.

Lucy is heavier and was taught differently, has the 2o2o so runs to the end and stops with her 2o2o when it hits the ground. I know when I used to do Agility with Kiska who only weighs about 6 lbs. It seemed to take forever for the teeter to finally get down.
 

CaliTerp07

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Ughhh this weekend was so frustrating for my poor little spaz dog. We were trialing at an outdoor venue that happened to have SHEEP 100 yards away from the ring. (On the other side of the barn out of sight, but their smell and their "baaaa!" was quite evident)

My dog could. not. focus.

We've had a really high q rate recently (for us, at least). Yesterday we looked like we had regressed a year. Leash off, BOLT for the fence, WHEREARETHESHEEPOMGIWANTTHEM. Sucked. By the end of the day we managed to string together half courses, but we were eliminated from all 6 runs.

This morning, we started off better (sheep weren't out yet). A little unfocused, but just things like missing a weave entry or me sending her too wide for a jump. I'm okay with those issues--I can work through that. In the afternoon the sheep were out, but I moved the car as far away as I could and she was doing okay. We were steadily getting better all day (Q'd/1st place out of all novice dogs of any height in Jumpers!), and then the last run of the day...it was tunnelers, which I love. She's so speedy, the tunnels contain her, we generally do really well. Unfortunately, people were packing up their things, and someone's EZ-UP blew over when we were on the start line. My dog was GONE. I told her to go, and she bolted and it took me and the judge 3 minutes to collect her. Mortifying.

We had come so so so so far in our focus work. She upstresses so badly (bolting at a billion gazillion miles an hour instead of shutting down like most dogs do), but we were doing really well with it thanks to hours upon hours of toting equipment to backyards and parks and renting facilities for practice and going to every run-through/fun run within a 90 minute radius.

Now I just feel like it's hopeless to keep doing outdoor trials. I can't proof sheep and flying EZ Ups. I know tomorrow I'll have a better outlook on it, but today I am really down :(
 

BostonBanker

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Now I just feel like it's hopeless to keep doing outdoor trials. I can't proof sheep and flying EZ Ups. I know tomorrow I'll have a better outlook on it, but today I am really down
Come sit with me, we shall have our own pity party. Gusto was at his first ever outdoor trial on Saturday, and he didn't even get over the first jump in one class. He only remotely ran with me in one of the four classes.

I did have a better outlook waking up today (actually driving home - advantage to 3 hour drives home from trials). Honestly, what worked for me was someone saying "See, this is why I only trial indoors now. That's what you should do." Screw that, avoiding the problem isn't how I train! I will now only trial outdoors, year round, in the pouring rain and snow, just to prove I'm not someone who just says "I give up".

Well, or not. My next trial is indoors. But you know what I mean.
 

CaliTerp07

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Come sit with me, we shall have our own pity party. Gusto was at his first ever outdoor trial on Saturday, and he didn't even get over the first jump in one class. He only remotely ran with me in one of the four classes.
Booo! Outdoors is rough!

I am grateful that we had the nicest judge in the whole world who was incredibly kind and helpful to us. We are signed up for 2 more outdoor trials (1 in may, 1 in june), so we'll be trying again...hopefully with better results. We had a great weekend 2 weeks ago at an outdoor trial, so I know she can do it. I think I just stacked the odds against her today.

Oh yeah, and I ran INTO the dog walk. My knee is purple.

It was a stellar weekend for Lucy and me, let me tell you.
 

DJEtzel

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Do those of you who have dogs that you have difficulty with at outdoor trials only train inside, or do you train outside but have a harder time going somewhere new outside? Just curious, I've never attended an outdoor trial but primarily train outdoors.

Frag's coming back to me Tuesday, I'm so excited; can't wait to get him in shape again and hit up some trials.
 

CaliTerp07

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Do those of you who have dogs that you have difficulty with at outdoor trials only train inside, or do you train outside but have a harder time going somewhere new outside? Just curious, I've never attended an outdoor trial but primarily train outdoors.

Frag's coming back to me Tuesday, I'm so excited; can't wait to get him in shape again and hit up some trials.
We "officially" train inside (class with an instructor). Nearly every Friday evening though, a group of us travel to a local park/someone's backyard/vacant lot/whatever we can find to practice outside in a new location, so I actually practice outside more often than inside.

Outdoor locations have a lot more distractions than indoor locations, in general.
 

BostonBanker

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Do those of you who have dogs that you have difficulty with at outdoor trials only train inside, or do you train outside but have a harder time going somewhere new outside? Just curious, I've never attended an outdoor trial but primarily train outdoors.
We train all over; our general weekly training is one class (indoor during the winter, switching to a barn for the summer in a week), one club practice (in a horse barn for the winter/outdoors on grass during the summer) and sometimes a second club practice in the same environment as the first. Plus I have 3 local friends with nearly full sets of equipment (outside) and have been to seminars (inside and out) and camp (outside).

I knew it would be infinitely harder for Gusto; his biggest issue is his desire to sniff, and grass is far more interesting. Plus this was his first two ring trial (masters dogs running directly next to the baby dog ring with only a 3 foot snow fence). His other trial experience has been indoor, one ring trials.

With Meg, it made no difference (other than the fact that she runs much better outdoors due to the footing). Her issues are different from Gusto's.

We will get there. He went from not being able to do his startline in the first class of the day, to being almost clean and completely focused for 90% of his last class of the day (Last line was a bit tough, he went around a jump, and I stupidly called him back to fix it. Should have just kept going, but was stuck on "we could still Q!")
 

Laurelin

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We train outdoors all the time. It'll be interesting to see if indoors is easier or not.

We had a GREAT practice tonight. Really really great. Still struggling with weaves but all the difficult handling stuff is going so SMOOTH and my girls have been very fast. It was 85 F out today and they still kept up speed and energy. Summer's allergy medicine is working wonders lol. All the other dogs were tired acting except for my two.

We did some really difficult handling work today. Summer and I handled very smoothly on the first thing. The second sequence we did just as good except I sent her over a jump the wrong direction and didn't realize it. Mia did almost as good. Just really a great time. It's awesome when everything comes together nicely.

I shouldn't say we are breaking COMPLETELY. I still have my saturday classes but my sunday ones are stopping for a while. I hope I can drop in another class though. I want to practice more than once a week with one dog!

I am thinking we need to start entering some NADAC soonish. Or maybe some USDAA gamblers and jumpers although I am torn about the jump height there. I think I will probably end up running both of mine in preferred/performance (can't remember which venue calls it which). 12" is just too high...
 

DenoLo

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Or maybe some USDAA gamblers and jumpers although I am torn about the jump height there. I think I will probably end up running both of mine in preferred/performance (can't remember which venue calls it which). 12" is just too high...
Yeah, Mia's about Lola's size and she just does not look comfortable jumping 12 inches. She'll do it, but she doesn't look good doing it. We do USDAA performance and jump at 8 inches and that seems fine for her.
 

Laurelin

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Yeah, Mia's about Lola's size and she just does not look comfortable jumping 12 inches. She'll do it, but she doesn't look good doing it. We do USDAA performance and jump at 8 inches and that seems fine for her.
Summer has jumped 16" before when she went flying off course and taking random jumps that hadn't been lowered for the little dogs. But she's older and they're both tiny. Their normal jump height in AKC will be 8".
 
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We only have two indoor trials a year that I can go to, both at the same place. I have given up on Kiska as it hardly seems worth training all year for two trials. She does great indoors but has been scared by big dogs once too often and freezes up outdoors.

Our outdoor trials start this coming weekend and there are usually one or two a month. We train during the winter at an indoor arena but practice outside during the summer.
 

SaraB

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We had USDAA this weekend, just needed that PI standard run so we could move up to PII. We got all the way to the table and I was feeling confident, secure in our chances at the Q. And then Zuma goes and pulls this craziness on me!!! Granted, I should've taken 3 steps towards the tunnel rather than just the one because it's not like I had to be anywhere else. Oh baby dogs.

[YOUTUBE]A6QJZXZZWrk[/YOUTUBE]
 
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H?C LÃÂI XE Ãâ€TÆCHÃÂNH QUY, CH?T LU?NG, T? L? D?U 99,99%
LH: 0937.85.9665 Mr.Tú
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adojrts

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We had USDAA this weekend, just needed that PI standard run so we could move up to PII. We got all the way to the table and I was feeling confident, secure in our chances at the Q. And then Zuma goes and pulls this craziness on me!!! Granted, I should've taken 3 steps towards the tunnel rather than just the one because it's not like I had to be anywhere else. Oh baby dogs.

[YOUTUBE]A6QJZXZZWrk[/YOUTUBE]
Awesome! love stink'n fast dogs combined with lovely runs. Well done, sorry about the bum pass :)
 

SaraB

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DJEtzel

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There are so many CPE trials in Michigan in the next few weeks that I want to enter. I wish I could rely on my car to get me there, and had the money to enter. :( I really need to start a piggy bank for this stuff.

We had USDAA this weekend, just needed that PI standard run so we could move up to PII. We got all the way to the table and I was feeling confident, secure in our chances at the Q. And then Zuma goes and pulls this craziness on me!!! Granted, I should've taken 3 steps towards the tunnel rather than just the one because it's not like I had to be anywhere else. Oh baby dogs.

[YOUTUBE]A6QJZXZZWrk[/YOUTUBE]

SO SMOOTH! :cool:
 

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