Agility training

CaliTerp07

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I know from experience how hard it is to NOT fix things, when you know you can still Q if you do, but not fixing on a dog who is stressing is such a smart move.
So so so true. I only wish I had made this revelation sooner!

Our jumpers run from yesterday:

[youtube]YpZYo31qW7w?t=6s[/youtube]

And today (when I realized she was not going to hold her start line for beans and I was going to have to run it completely differently from how I walked it. I had planned fronts and blinds, and ended up running the whole thing with some speedy rears!)

[youtube]SqFzj96GChQ[/youtube]
 

AdrianneIsabel

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Those both sound like fantastic weekends! Congrats! I can't wait to watch Lucy's video.


All in all this weekend was a good debut! Denis and Sloan Q'd five times three firsts(today), a second, and a third(yesterday). I ran Sloan in jumpers yesterday for a sixth Q and another first. They NQd in snookers because dad put her over two reds in a row and Sloan dropped a bar on a double NQing in wildcard. I was going to run her in jumpers again today but she was done, that's okay she did fantastically this weekend.



I also ran B around a few times, he had a pretty wild but fun fullhouse course which would have placed second but he was short on points and he completed a colors course but timed out due to zoomies. It was interesting to see him out there though, he's um... Fast. I pulled from the rest, we're really not ready but it was fun to play and practice his start lines.
 

Sekah

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Huge congratulations to everyone this weekend. I like reading the weekend roundups that everyone posts. It's so neat to read about everyone's challenges and successes. You all should be super proud of yourselves. :D

We had a really successful weekend too.



We only did two runs on Saturday morning, but I'm super proud of how they went. We ran a gamblers and a standard course, and we Qd in gamblers. Our standard run was also SO close to being a Q, but Cohen blew her contact on the A-frame. She's never missed a contact before, so I guess I released her too early to do a tight wrap from the A-frame to a tunnel and assumed she'd do alright. Otherwise the run was lovely. There was some tricky obstacle discrimination as well as a tricky entry into the weaves which she handled like it was nothing.

But, SHE DIDN'T KNOCK A BAR. Well, okay, she knocked a bar in gamblers, but that was my shoddy handling which was to blame there. It hardly counts.

A Good Dog.


She was A Good Dog, I wasn't concerned about Qing going in, and we both had a blast. I can't wait for the next one!
 

Laurelin

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So no trial news here but training news. Tonight was an awesome practice! Okay so we're still really struggling on the weaves. Same issues I'm having at home. I really think my dogs think that they are just supposed to run as fast as they can next to me with the weaves. The class is doing channel weaves and it's just not working for my two. I think I am going to have to shape the weaves.

But the rest of the class went really nice. We got rained on about 10 minutes into class and Mia eventually decided tunnels with pools of water in them are not fun to run through.

But we did some handling work and my girls were FLYING through their threadles, serpentines and pushing out (what is that called?) And I know this is corny but I can tell I've been working out as I'm not nearly as winded running them back to back to back. Mia started kicking it up a notch too through the jump sequences. It was one of those times where things fell really nicely and you can just feel the teamwork clicking into place.

The best was after class and the other students left (it takes me longer to pack up) my trainer came over and was really complimentary about me/my training, my dogs, and us entering the trial next month. Apparently a lot of other students in the advanced classes have been commenting on the little papillons. I'm converting them all slowly, haha. I'm still trying to talk her into a papillon. :p

We are SOAKED though. Agility in the rain is quite fun and sure beats 95+ and sunny though.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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But, SHE DIDN'T KNOCK A BAR.
yayayayay! Fantastic!

I'm thrilled the paps did so well, as well. I just love seeing paps in agility, they're so stinking cute.

Sloan and Backup ran for the first time on damp grass and it made a difference. It's a bit bothersome actually, I won't unlike many say we'll never do it again but Sloan definitely needs some learning. She face planted off the aframe the first run of the first day and slipped going up the dogwalk the first run of the second day. As the sun came out she did fine and B had no issues but it was clearly the wet grass messing with her footing.

Interesting.
 

Laurelin

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I wish there were more papillons running around here. Mine are kind of a novelty at our club, no one has them and no one runs them at any local trials. I had several people come up to me astounded at how many there were at nationals and I get a lot of questions about whether the level of work and oomph my guys have is normal for the breed.

There's a few other toy dogs around here but no paps. It kind of makes me nervous to be honest, lol. I feel like my guys are really being THE breed ambassadors.
 

Laurelin

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In Texas at the trials I went to there were quite a few paps.

Here it's almost entirely border collies. Quite a few aussies though, and belgians, cardis, and most small dogs are schnauzers. There's not even very many shelties.
 

DenoLo

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There are a few Paps around here and it always amazes me how Bouncy and springy they are. I just love them. Lola can dial it way up during runs and be relatively quick, but her personality is just very mellow "chill dude".
 

Flyinsbt

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It's very odd to me to think of agility where the 8" class isn't dominated by Papillons. That's how it is around here. And plenty in the 12" class too, of course.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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So so so true. I only wish I had made this revelation sooner!

Our jumpers run from yesterday:

[youtube]YpZYo31qW7w?t=6s[/youtube]

And today (when I realized she was not going to hold her start line for beans and I was going to have to run it completely differently from how I walked it. I had planned fronts and blinds, and ended up running the whole thing with some speedy rears!)

[youtube]SqFzj96GChQ[/youtube]
I can't view the first but the second looks great, very smooth and fast!
 

Laurelin

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Lucy looks great! What venue is that? I'm so used to 18 or so obstacles per course.

I have kind of a hard question..... When do you consider retiring a dog? I know I am just now starting out with mine but my trainer and I were talking about our dogs and she commented retiring her border collie in the upcoming year because she was 9. My brain goes 'Wait, Summer's 9 too...'

Summer is having a blast, she's only had the one injury really her entire life and as of now it's not come back. Hopefully it doesn't. She's fast, but more importantly she's having a lot of fun. Her lines have quite a bit of longevity (most relatives made 16+)in them and dogs that stay sound up until the last couple years. Every sports or working dog person comments on how sound of a little dog she is.

My plan with her has always been to take it day by day and just focus on having fun. I realized she was 8 before I started training and we're not going to have a really long career. But is it bad to continue playing with an older dog? At nationals there were lots of 10-12 year old dogs. I believe one of the little dogs was 14. Do you retire dogs once they hit a certain age or do you keep going as long as the dog is having a blast and not having and physical issues?
 

Sekah

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A friend of mine trialed with her old girl (15-16 year old Aussie mix) up until a few months before she died. Obviously they weren't the fastest times, but both she and her dog had loads of fun while doing it, and the dog was sound. I'm glad my friend gave the opportunity to her dog to work with her until the very end.
 

Laurelin

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That's been my opinion. Agility is the highlight of Summer's week. She LOVES it and is the most enthusiastic and is the fastest dog in her class. There is no question to me right now that Summer is having the time of her life. Caliterp's Lucy reminds me a lot of her running, actually. I know Lucy is 9 too.

It's hard since my past dogs were slowed down quite a bit by now. I don't want to push her too far but I like keeping her active. We regularly do 5-6 mike hikes and agility. I have no plans to stop now but every time I hear people talk about retiring their 9-10 year old I get to thinking....
 

SaraB

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Congrats on all the success this weekend!! Everyone sounds like they had tons of fun.

I loved the video of Lucy, way to handle on the fly!

I was wondering the same thing Laurelin, there are a ton of paps/phalenes that run here. They are the go-to small dog breed it seems like.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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Laurelin, I would base it on your dog. Shamoo at 15 is far more spry than Arnold at 8. I would like to hope I can trial B at 9, hell we're hoping we might Q by then. :p

If Summer is healthy and happy keep running. Do you have any videos?
 

Laurelin

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Congrats on all the success this weekend!! Everyone sounds like they had tons of fun.

I loved the video of Lucy, way to handle on the fly!

I was wondering the same thing Laurelin, there are a ton of paps/phalenes that run here. They are the go-to small dog breed it seems like.
I asked my trainer and she just said it was the area. The only trial in the state ive ever seen paps at has been nationals. Then my club mates came back going 'wow I can't believe there were so many papillons!'

I even had one lady who is pretty far along (masters in usdaa and akc) with her border collie get all excited to meet Summer because she said she's never met a papillon before lol.
 

Sekah

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Small dogs in general are pretty rare here. I'm wondering if I just don't live in a very agility-happy area. Our trials are easy to register for last minute, they're not very crowded and there aren't many small dog competitors around.

Have two friends who run 10" dogs; one is a Havanese and the other is a Cavalier. They're often the only dogs competing in their height class (one is in Masters, the other Advanced). Plus, they're often the first dogs on the line since there's rarely any 6" regulars running. There's one lady with a fabulous little Pap who I see from time to time, but really that's it.

Heck, there's not even that many Jacks who I see competing. It's pretty much all herders and retrievers these days.
 

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