Agility training

Well, Kili held off just long enough to sneak this trial in. I'm really glad I decided to go.

We had 4 runs. Saturday was Starters Standard and Steeplechase. Sunday was Starters Standard and Jumpers.

I only have the Steeplechase and Jumpers on video. I am SO mad that I don't have Sunday's Standard run because she was AMAZING. She was focused, fast and didn't make a single mistake. She even got the 12 weave poles which was a bonus because she's never seen more than 6 before this trial. That was the only run where she didn't get distracted at all or do any zooming. However, that said, I was still absolutely thrilled as this was a really tough environment. It had 3 strikes against it: completely novel, trial atmosphere/other dogs/people in the ring, and it was an equestrian facility (yay fun smells!). I expected a lot more distraction and running away than I got. Honestly, the only times she started sniffing or zooming was when we made a mistake. Generally, as long as the flow wasn't disrupted she was right there with me (except at the end of that Jumpers... but come on, that jump was RIGHT IN FRONT OF THAT PERSON! Clearly that means that person needs to be visited. lol). And most of the errors were obviously handling errors or poor choices (note to self: cannot beat the dog out of the tunnel with a blind cross... just plan to do a rear cross).

I mean seriously... she is FLYING in that last section of the Jumpers course. She only takes one step between the second to last and last jumps. And I'm tickled pink with all the lovely comments I got about her. She really is going to be a great agility dog once we finish training those last few obstacles and work out the kinks.

[YOUTUBE]EBQRu4NhpSw[/YOUTUBE]

I want to retrain my dog walk this summer. I have the name of the trainer I want to work with. She's never been anything but nice that I've seen.

And I'm still wimping out on contacting her. I need to man up!

Summer acts like she has never seen weaves again today. I am SO frustrated! We make progress then it's like NOPE. Back to square 1.

Pulled out weaves at home and she's doing great. We worked about 5 minutes this morning and I'm going to aim for that every morning for the next few months.

I gotta figure out why she can't weave at trials and at class but can at home.

^try bringing your weaves to new places(parks, etc) and working on weaves there. Maybe she's not saying weaves at home= weaves in class.






There was an out of control Maltese at class last night, he wanted to herd it soooo bad, but he kept his head about him and we worked on sends while the Maltese had zoomies around the course and his owner was running after him screaming in frustration. Good boy.

We had agility class last night. Tuesdays are my favourite day of the week. The class was a blast. The instructor is doing a good job of challenging Cohen & me with lots of tight turns and off course traps and I'm impressed with how well we're handling it. Some nights are better than others as far as off-courses are concerned, but last night was a good night. My instructor commented about how much smoother my handling has become and the markedly fewer bars Cohen is knocking. We've not trialed in ages, but I'm curious to see how we do.

Unfortunately I don't think we're going to get a chance to attend a trial before regionals. Eep!

I need a better way to schedule and structure my agility training... it was easier during the winter when I had limited space and could basically use six weaves OR a jump and a tunnel. That only gave me a handful of things to work on in the space allowed. I made up a schedule and had a clipboard for each dog with the schedule on it, and each day we worked on whatever was on the schedule.

Now with the warmer weather and no snow on the ground, I can basically do ALL the things, and it's like "uh... well what do I work on now?"

Sunday I set up three jumps and a tunnel in close proximity to the a-frame and dog walk. Got to work on handling and, important for Georgie, NOT taking off-course obstacles. Tough for her because she wanted to go get that a-frame pretty much every time she looked that direction, but she did a really nice job.
With Payton I was trying to work more on sending to obstacles... he will do a restrained send from across my yard, but if we are doing a sequence and I send him to a jump or a tunnel, he may or may not take it depending on where I'm at, which of course is not REALLY a send. It's good because he has no real intention of blowing past me on the course and just taking whatever, but at the same time I would really like him to have the confidence to go ahead and go on. I think some of that is just teamwork and trust and it will work itself out in time as our relationship continues to grow, but it would be nice to not have that be an issue. Yet another reminder that Payton is NOT Auggie...

Private lesson tomorrow and trial Saturday and Sunday! Eep!

Out to the field last night to help with the foundations class and we stayed after to work on some stuff. Iz was a total rockstar. She's had a bit if time off so I wanted to gauge where she was at. This is a dog that does better with minimal practice though. Perfect contacts, perfect weaves, impressively improved distance skills. I am pleased.

Last Monday Mimi killed class. All except for 'what do you mean there are TWELVE weave poles, I only see ten'.

So there's that. Showed my JWW NQ run to my instructor from the National, she thought it was a crap call and 100% incidental contact which makes me feel better. She couldn't believe the judge was that stuck on it for a novice run at a breed national. Ahh well, we'll try again next week. Also, I should probably train my dog on the broad jump. Because she's seen it three times total.. At the three trials I've been to.

We had day 1 TDAA trial today. 4/5 Qs and a new title for Summer. I really live the trial too. Just lots of fun and less serious and very tiny old dog friendly. We go back tomorrow so am hoping to get two standard Qs to finish that title.

Yay Summer!! Congrats

I think that Jari FINALLY gets weaves. I felt like we had hit a block there for a couple of weeks, but he's seeming to really get it, and he's doing lots of different entries and going nice and fast!!! Fingers crossed it transfers to places outside of our backyard LOL.

GEORGIE got the first open Q today... snagged one in JWW. Would also have had standard today except the building we are in is very dark, so she changed her mind about the chute halfway through and got a refusal there the first time and then popped the last two weave poles, so two refusals means NQ. NO visiting of any ring crew today.

Payton is having weave issues today and his contacts, which were lovely at our last trial, are non-existent again. Trying to give him credit for still being a baby dog and focus on the fact that he would have otherwise Q'd in JWW also, navigating a course that was largely unchanged from excellent without biting on any of the off-course jumps that were tanking excellent/masters dogs all over the place. So... yeah. In my head that means our foundations are good, we just need to resolve some of these other baby dog issues. Not a great day for Almost Birthday P, being shown up by the baby girl.

We added 3 more Qs today- 2 standards and 1 leg towards her games 2 title. So now she has both the TG1 and TBAD titles. And we got HIT veteran dog.

TDAA trial HIT by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr

I really had a great time. I know a lot of people poo poo TDAA but really it was a lot of fun and I think it is a great venue. Particularly for people like me with old tiny dogs. She can obviously Q in USDAA, etc but she's 9 inches tall and 10 years old. It's nice to have a little less running for her! And everyone was very nice and supportive and it's very laid back. I enjoyed it a lot.

Yay Summer!!!

Payton was obviously furious that Georgie got the first open Q today because he picked up his first open JWW Q today.


ETA: Forgot to add, no visiting ring crew for Georgie today either!! That was a really big deal! Fun run next Saturday and then a three day trial for us on Memorial Day weekend... I'm making a list of things to work on in the meantime and o.m.g. so much to do and not enough time to do it.

Video of P's Q from Sunday:
[YOUTUBE]AmUfmERRBTI[/YOUTUBE]

Not the prettiest or smoothest run - we were delayed in getting out of the hotel so I got there too late for my walkthrough, and P was the third dog in the ring, so... I watched a guy I know with porties run his young dog and stole how he handled it. So that is what you see. Probably not what I would normally have done but we got a Q out of it, so!

Thanks! I got some video of the Crazy Old Dog tonight at practice. Just a couple little sequences.

Just 2 weeks shy of her 10th birthday.

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We are having so much fun. <3

We must've posted at the same time! Payton looks awesome! Looked pretty darn smooth to me!

I love seeing everyone run their dogs!

Mimi had class yesterday, she was a ton of fun and 110% engaged despite a couple off courses. Frankly, I'd rather her be overenthusiastic and go over an extra jump than slugging around because I redirected her. Wrong end of the tunnel once, jump suck once, but she hit all her weaves both times.

Also, trial this weekend. Woot!

No videos from last night but........

WE MAY HAVE A WEAVER! She weaved 12 poles with no problem last night, a few different times too so I don't think it was a fluke!

Now if we could only get this teeter issue under control