Dauntless Agility

2012-02-15T21:58:00.000-05:00

The darker one, without the full white rough, is coming to be mine. The one that's continually attached to the blanket, tugging and growling like a maniac. Yup, that one ;)

I don't really NEED another dog (really, nobody NEEDS 5 dogs) but I believe I have time to train him. Why do I think that? Because despite all the other things I'm doing, I still found time to play a 35hour game of Mass Effect on the Xbox 360 last month. And I've been reading a lot. So if I cut down on leisure activities, I'll be fine. Money will be tight for a bit when he debuts in agility but I'll make do the same way I always do - by carefully picking which dog runs in which trial until they're all qualified for the things I want them to qualify for. It's been working well for me so far, and after this year Drifter will be fully retired and living the easy life.

Barring any issues, this growly little pup will be shipped to me on Tuesday. Once everything's settled I'll post more info about him.

Somehow, I keep ending up with tricolors. As the sire's owner pointed out, I sort of have the tri-fecta now...

Bird in hand

2012-02-15T08:38:00.002-05:00

one of these MAY be coming to live with me... I am awaiting a final video of the mother to make sure her jumping looks OK (I am a freaky paranoid person about ETS), but if she does (and I think she will), one of these little monsters will be coming here. It is too early for a puppy, yes, but sometimes a good puppy just "falls into your lap" so to speak, and this one is nice enough that I feel I can't really turn it down. Plus the breeder actually WANTS me to take it! It's a boy puppy, tricolor, and his sire's family has a few really really nice agility dogs in it. The mother is mostly conformation lines up close but she also has some relatives owned and bred by famous agility handlers in the western US that are very nice dogs too. There is perhaps a bit more risk of ETS in an AOAC (Any Other Allowable Color - meaning not sable) litter, but I am reasonably sure this one will be OK.

Bird in the hand. Worth two in the bush, no?

Trial video and frames

2012-02-13T13:46:00.000-05:00

Here is video of Strafe's first 2 runs in Excellent Standard. Neither was a Q but he handled really well, continuing to act and run like a much older dog than 17 months. He only knocked 1 bar out of 5 runs all weekend too, which is phenomenal for such a youngster, in my opinion. And I'm starting to run harder and not baby him as much, although I'm clearly not pushing him yet. I'd like to let him run without a lot of pressure yet, just have fun and make sure he's listening nicely.

Although I usually don't like to train my dogs the day after a trial, I did work some contacts today with Kiba and Strafe because it is due to rain tomorrow and that means I won't be able to do it then. I didn't do any jumping - Kiba just ran around a standard and then up the frame, and Strafe worked with a bar on the ground and a u-shaped tunnel after the dogwalk. Strafe's session was telling - his mental state is a bit different now than when I first worked his dogwalks several months ago, and suddenly pulling in to the near side of the U-shaped tunnel is difficult. So we worked on that a bit, with a small stride regulator in place to prevent him from doing silly things on the downramp while he was focusing on the tunnel handling behavior. He did great and I know it needs more work, since I definitely got some failed responses at the beginning of the session (wrong end of the tunnel paired with funny dogwalk striding, exactly what he did at the trial).

Poor Kiba is undergoing aframe work, again. She was originally trained with a running aframe, it failed, so I did 4-on-the-floor, she hates doing it at trials so I tried to retrain running and then reverted back to 4otf several times during her career. She's now 7 years old, and while her retrained 4otf dogwalk is actually going pretty well at trials, she still refuses to stop on the aframe. And the weight shifting she's doing while thinking about stopping is messing up her striding. So once again, with even more experience under my belt as a trainer, and with her being in probably the best shape of her life along with having a better mental state while training (better able to deal with failure, as she could not do when she was young), we are trying again.

One of the problems I have with her is that she just doesn't do a very nice rotary gallop. She bunny hops in the rear a bit, coupled with swinging her back feet out and away on every stride. Generally her back feet hit the ground (or board) very close together when she pushes off - she doesn't do "split feet" in the back very well at all. This is just a weird structural flaw with her, and I've known about it for a while; it doesn't affect her most times but it DOES make running contacts harder. She runs off her forehand, and tends to want to balance the downramp almost exclusively with her front feet and shoulders rather than gathering her rear end under her properly. Anyway, here's a video of our work from today, in case you're interested. Overall I was pretty happy, and we will probably work with the regulator on for the next session to see if that helps her understand to use her rear end a little more and put a full stride on the down ramp. For a 26lb, 18" tall dog, she has the odd tendency to go sailing through the air and only hit once on the downramp. usually right above the contact...

And I filled out the entry form for Seri's re-re-redebut in agility. She's running in USDAA at CH 22. I will attempt to garner a GP and STP Q for her. We'll see. She may not be able to work that well after so long away from trialing, but it's worth a shot, and we definitely need to test out her shoulder under the more exciting environment of a trial. I'm limiting her to 3 runs over 2 days and I will keep a very sharp eye on her to see how she does.

contacts

2012-02-12T16:14:00.002-05:00

That's what I'll be practicing this week. First Trig released herself off a couple of them, then Strafe missed a dogwalk (OK, he actually missed 2!), and then Kiba missed an aframe. Since I've been quick releasing Trig's contacts a lot, I can undestand her doing that, so we'll proof that a bit this week. And poor Kiba is going through running aframe retraining rehash #4 or 5, so again understandable, although we threw away a Standard Q and 1st place by missing the aframe contact by about a toenail today. Strafe's issues this weekend were entirely due to his lack of dogwalk training on more complicated courses. Because we've been trialing and travelling and I was working on other skills, I really haven't "trained" the dogwalk since about October. We've run it in sequence a few times here and there, but I haven't actually worked on anything with it since then. So we need to work on discriminations with the tunnel on the up side - namely pulling in with a short verbal and dropped shoulder while I take off running, rather than me needing to slow down to pull in. Also need to work on a discriminations off the down ramp - today we had a U-shaped tunnel very close to the downramp and he skittered off the ramp and into the wrong end very quickly. Back when I was working on it a few times a week he was pretty good at pulling in, but I think the energy of a trial had him a little too excited and off he went. So we have some homework. It's not the end of the world - overall I think he's running the boards nicely and up until this weekend he didn't miss a single one - but those were Novice and Open courses, more simple layouts.

I am teaching for the next 2 weekeneds, so I'll be working on contacts every few days at home and away when I can. I'd like to give Kiba's aframe one more trial to see if she can even out a little. She's actually pretty consistent at home - last training session we did, I ran 8 aframes from different directions and on different sides of me, and she hit all 8 and was only really high on 2 of them. At the trial she is remembering me making her stop which changes her weight shift over the top, so hopefully by running past this weekend I opened her up a bit more. If not, I will throw a last minute check back into place before the latter March trials so we will not miss them at Nationals... hopefully!

Imp. All Zet Air Attack Strafe OA OAJ

2012-02-11T20:01:00.001-05:00

3rd and Final OAJ leg today. We're up in Exc A for both classes now, woohoo! My big goal was to try to get him up into Excellent before leaving for AKC Nationals at the end of March, so that when I came back his legs in B would count towards Tryouts right away. I don't expect he'll finish his AX and AXJ both with only 4 more days of trials before that time, however he should be fairly close with at least 1 or 2 legs in each, hopefully.

Strafe did miss his first contact today. I'll admit it. It was his 11th dogwalk in the ring, but it was his first try at Excellent, and the approach, while safe, was not something I've worked on a lot (a pull in discrimination with a tunnel) and I got lagged behind a bit, and then the jump afterwards was very far away and he didn't focus forward very well. No big deal. I counted and he's done 17 aframes in competition and hasn't missed a single one of those, or flown off a see-saw. I even blind crossed a see-saw this morning!

Trig got another QQ for me today. She is a bit of a Q machine for me these days, and while she's not as exciting to run as my faster dogs, it is nice to have a mostly trusty sidekick out there... I think this was QQ #18 so she will probably MACH for me at the next trial.

I definitely don't have a super great "connection" running Trig, but I do think we run well together. This is definitely a temporary team though - I'm giving her back in May after Tryouts. My reason for attending Tryouts with a borrowed dog is entirely selfish, but twofold. One being that I just really enjoy Tryouts and don't have a dog for it this year, and the 2nd reason being that I don't want the AKC Team "selectors" to forget about me;) I want to show up with an entirely different dog, and although I may not "wow" them, I want them to at least have the thought "hey, she's not a one hit wonder". That's all. I don't expect us to win or be chosen (although I wouldn't rule it out if Trig runs clean a whole bunch), I just want to get us out there so when I go back in 2013 with Strafe, the selection committee will be more like "OMG this handler came back with a 3rd dog and she's STILL AWESOME!!" (or at least, that's how it works in my mind....;)

2012-02-10T16:23:00.002-05:00

Sometimes when I'm out walking my dogs, I like to pose them and take silly pictures after we've walked around the field. Like this:

And sometimes I try to take a picture of Strafe now that he's all grown up. What usually happens is that he will strike a pose showing off his lovely structure and flowing locks, usually while watching the other dogs. I pull out my phone, unlock the screen, and push the camera button. The camera comes up. I begin to get into position and Strafe moves. So I get a lot of pics of him almost stacked nicely but with one foot out of place, or his head hunched down so his neck disappears, or he starts to crouch and his shoulders drop... this is the best I got, and I can see how pretty he is but it still isn't a great pic. One day I'll actually get someone to help me show off his lovely figure....

Strafe makes his debut in Excellent A Standard tomorrow. The trial is in an unheated horse arena and will probably be chilly so I have their sweaters packed up in the bag in preparation for tomorrow. Will be getting up rather early but since Strafe obligingly finished most of his lower level titles, I won't have to stay very late at the trial and should be home fairly early in the afternoon, which is nice.

Still contemplating taking the sheltie pup. I have been researching the pedigree rather extensively and while I'm not familiar with the conformation dogs close behind the dam, when I went a little further back there were a lot of dogs that are behind some tremendous performance dogs today, and I liked that. And her great-grandfather is a littermate to the sire of some of the OBay dogs, and I love her dogs! Definite bonus... and the sire himself is a fabulous agility dog, a really nice jumping sheltie. Since quite a few of my dogs have been found due to karmic accidents, even though I am not really that type of person in general, I may go ahead and take this pup... can't argue when something nice lands in your lap right?

Heck, Drifter was a leftover 4+ month old pup, Kiba was a leftover pup as well, neither of them was planned. Seri was semi-planned - I wasn't planning on looking for a pup but when I found out they were breeding her litter i couldn't help but sign up. Strafe is my only current dog where I put months of planning into finding the litter, not just stumbling upon it and liking it.

So... hmmm....

by the way

2012-02-09T14:54:00.004-05:00

Videos from my FL trip of both Strafe and Trig can be found on my youtube page.

Also, I may have accidentally found a sheltie puppy already. I have had pretty good luck with unplanned dogs, so I'm seriously thinking about it...

Seri update #.... oh, I gave up counting.

2012-02-09T09:28:00.001-05:00

So after her brief bout of toe related lameness on Sunday night, Seri has looked fine, and I let her swim on Tuesday as usual. When Ria (my PT) arrived, I had her check Seri out and she confirmed what I had found - she did something minor but painful to a toe on Sunday, and it was already mostly healed. Didn't feel like a jam to her (unless I had already unjammed it by pulling all her toes, which I always do when checking them), so it seems like she probably just twisted or bruised it on something. She confirmed what I thought, which is that her shoulders are both doing pretty well, and her pelvis/sacrum area was still in and doing fine too. Cleared for some more agility practice.

Which is what I did last night between classes. The footing in our indoor isn't perfect for a dog with an iffy shoulder, but I decided to chance it and just break the sequences up into large pieces. I allowed her to weave 3 times, but I always paused and made her stop before entering the weave poles because she has a habit of slamming into the first pole (moving the pole bases about a foot or so) and then using that to bleed off momentum. Not ideal, by any means. Anyway, I ran her around 3 jumping courses, with weaves, in large sections, and she did pretty well. Considering she has had so little practice, I am actually pretty pleased with how well she's trying to pay attention to my handling. I really can't run full out like a maniac with her (she has enough "maniac" all by herself anyway) and I can't get too fancy or ask for tight turns, but she reallky did try to go where I pointed, and only hit a few bars at 22" - at this point I'm just letting them go since I am limiting her jumping.

I have solidified my plan to pull her from the AKC trial in early March and will run her in exactly 3 classes at the USDAA trial 2 weeks after that instead. Advanced Standard, Steeplechase Round 1, and Grand Prix. If she makes it through Steeplechase I will not run round 2, just take my Q and be happy.

i've been playing with different configurations of putting dogs in my downsized car, and I'm pretty happy with this one for 3 dogs - I have Seri and Strafe on the backseat with seatbelts, and Kiba in an airline crate sideways in the back. Works pretty nicely. If I bring Drifter or Trig somewhere I just switch them into the backseat arrangement since they are both fine with that as well.

You can see that Strafe and Seri are very stressed about this situation:

Don't worry, the car was parked!

Random Stuff

2012-02-07T16:54:00.003-05:00

Seri has been looking pretty good since her weird "good side" limp the other day. The PT arrives today to check on everyone and I'll ask her about it. I'm still contemplating Seri's future. I am wondering if I should pull her from the AKC trial in March and switch her to the USDAA one and just enter GP and Steeeplechase. She has a much better likelihood of being able to qualify and run in those events in Denver than doing 6 QQ's and then having to run 5 runs or so concentrated over the 3 days of AKC Nationals. At USDAA she may only need to run a couple runs total, and have a day off between some of them. Anyway. Random thoughts, as I said.

More randomness; when DJ left I did not get to salvage the SDHC card with my Copenhagen pictures on it. But while I was searching the one that's currently in my laptop, I did find some unprocessed pictures from our first trip to the UK. So here are some of those that I never posted, all from our Monday trip to Cardiff, Wales.

Passing by the outside of Cardiff Castle, right in the middle of Cardiff. It is surrounded by this huge wall and takes us a block or two!

Inside the wall, there is a large, newer castle that is more like a manor house, and this much older fort on a hill, which we were allowed to go inside and wander around, including climbing to the top.

We parked in a garage right in front of Millennium Stadium. I think somebody important plays here ;)

Millennium Centre. Very cool opera/orchestra house, and the lobby was open to the public. We went inside and walked around. This sight is familiar to any diehard Doctor Who or Torchwood fan.

This picture is pretty meaningless unless you are a Doctor Who or Torchwood fan, but since I am, I was very excited to walk around here :) Unfortunately the Torchwood lair entrance water fountain/statue was not operating when we were there.

2012-02-06T14:00:00.000-05:00

So while I was gone, my other 3 dogs got to take walks around the field, runs in the yard, and did a bit of ballwork with my mother.

Yesterday after I got back, I went back out and worked on Kiba's aframe (yes, I'm trying to reconvert her to running for like the 5th time), and then took Drifter and Seri out and did a quick 3-minute agility play type session. Which basically means I just walk around and throw them over obstacles in a safe but unstructured manner. "go jump, now come teeter...Yay! have a toy!" Drifter enjoys these immensely and they have been his main form of "practice" for the last 3 months, just reminding him what the obstacles look like and enforcing his stop on the teeter. Seri doesn't do much more because I am always concerned about letting her pick up too much speed, with the shoulder/wrist/whatnot issues she has. Yesterday Seri did maybe 6 individual 22" jumps, about 5 aframes, mostly from a stand still at the base, and perhaps 3 each of the teeter and dogwalk, individually and not in sequence. No weaves. And 3 hours later after a nap, she was lame on her right front. Talk about a frustrated feeling - that is her "good" side! I checked range of motion in her shoulder and wrist and came up empty - they look good. I checked her toes and I think that was the problem, a jammed or bruised toe, as I got an unusual pain reaction on one of them. And her left shoulder did seem tighter than it had been when I got home and checked it the first time.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I'm afraid to trial her. This fall and winter I am noticing an alarming correlation between "doing agility" during the day, and her standing up and looking stiff or sore at night. No agility, no limping. Agility, limping. I don't like that correlation, and it implies causation since none of the other activities seem to have the same result at night, except perhaps a couple times she was running like a lunatic in the yard while I was gone (which she doesn't do when I'm home more than 30 seconds at a time when I tell her to). This makes me sad, but I will give her a bit more time of trying before giving up. My thoughts right now are that she may be my "seminar demo dog" for a while. Short bursts of agility don't seem to bother her too much, and while right now it seems true that if she's limping, she did agility, it is not also true the other way around - doing agility does not always result in limping, just more often than I like to see... so while I'm beginning to draw a conclusion about her future career in agility, I'm not ready to write it down in permanent ink yet. I still have her entered in one day of an AKC trial in March. If she looks good to my PT this week I may go ahead and run her there as a final test. If I get visible limping after the trial, or it knocks her shoulder out, or her pelvis/sacrum or whatever, then I will probably give up on running her in competition and just let her be a "play" agility dog.

2012-02-06T10:00:00.002-05:00

Triton, Trig, Strafe in front of Tampa Bay at Davis Island

I am back from my Florida trip, and I definitely had fun. It was lovely weather the entire time we were down there (I traveled with a friend and her border collie). Strafe got 2 Open JWW legs and 2 Open Standard legs to finish his OA title, and gets to run in Excellent this coming weekend at the local trial (after which he has some time off since he's been so busy!)

It was sunny, dry, and around 78 to 80F (26C) the entire time we were there. It was fun to run around in t-shirts and get a slight tan! Of course half-way home we got out of the car to get gas and it was much colder and suddenly we felt like giant wimps about it, since it was still well above freezing. But we had to dig our coats out of the luggage again...

I am definitely considering going down to FL again next year, and I especially liked the Jacksonville site - it is a great indoor arena, it stayed cool all day, it had tons of space for walking dogs, indoor bathrooms, lots of crating, and parking right outside the door! And they did a great job grooming the surface every night so the dirt wasn't too horribly packed. In my experience, all packed dirt surfaces get hard throughout the day, but the dogs did well on this one, not too much slipping, and not much in the way of knocked bars either. I would definitely go to this site again for a big trial!

Strafe handled the long trip away like a pro, with the only exception being that he was a little bit growly and barky in the hotel room if he heard people outside that he wasn't expecting or thought sounded suspicious, so I was unable to leave him in the hotel while we went out to grab dinner. But at 17 months this is not such an unusual behavior and I'm sure he will learn that it's not appropriate. He was quiet the vast majority of the time while I was in the room. Overall, he acts like a much older dog, and at the seminar we ran in on Monday I had several people ask me to reiterate how old he was (17 months, really!), and I'm sure people must think I'm training him constantly to have him at this level, but I realy don't - he just does everything I ask him to, like he's been doing it his whole life. Since this is what both of his parents are like, it doesn't surprise me, but it's such a new and exciting feeling to have a young dog that just says "Ok!" to everything I ask him to do!

Strafe with his new best friend Triton. They were practically inseparable and it was adorable.

Strafe and Triton playing at the Davis Island Dog Park

Playing at Davis Island Dog Beach in Tampa Bay

FL

2012-01-31T11:46:00.000-05:00

Having a good time down in FL. We arrived in the late afternoon on Friday to New Smyrna Beach area, and ran in an AKC trial on Saturday/Sunday. Trig picked up another QQ and a Standard Q on Sunday towards Tryouts. She just needs a few more individual Q's and she'll be all done. Strafe got an Open JWW and an Open Std leg, his first weekend running at "full height" of 26". Then on Monday we went to a seminar and had a great time running some tough courses. I ran Strafe on the majority of them even though they are more than he's really done, and he did great. Even got one right the first time through, which wasn't easy! He did scare us briefly by launching over the aframe with so much speed that he landed right on the ground, on his face, instead of hitting the downramp. He seems fine though. If there is a massage or chiro person at the trial this weekend I'll have him checked but he stretches out pretty well.Today is a day off for us, and then tomorrow we drive up to Jacksonville for 3 days of a 4-day trial before heading back home on Saturday night and Sunday. This morning we took the dogs to a dog park along the beach, called Davis Island Dog Park. here are some pictures from the fun we had.

Triton and Strafe are best friends and it is pretty cute how they go everywhere together.

Strafe playing with a new friend at the beach.

Trig, Strafe, Triton

2012-01-23T21:19:00.000-05:00

Seri's idea of comfortable sleeping positions is a little unusual.

Seri is on the couch noisily dreaming away, and it reminded me that I haven't posted about her physical issues lately. I have not been restricting her in any way, aside from not doing much agility due to the weather. She did jump grids while I was down in NC, and has been freely running, playing, and walking with the other dogs.

And she is doing fine. Perfectly fine. No pain on manipulation or range of motion in the shoulder, although she is always a little tight at end range these days. I am still set on getting a definitive answer by the trial I entered in March. She is only 5 years old, and if at this age she cannot do agility without being sore, then I will not do it. I am not willing to drug a dog to make her able to run, and I am not willing to sacrifice her ability to stay sound into old age just so I can have fun doing agility with her. That said, if i can strengthen her tot he point of doing it, I will try because she clearly loves it so much. Nothing else makes her scream with joy quite like agility does.

For old times sake, go ahead and turn up the volume on this one;)

2012-01-23T12:30:00.000-05:00

It's warmer today, but not warm. And it's damp, chilly, foggy, and rainy. Just ugly weather. However the ice crust dissolved so the dogs ran in the yard - yes RAN not walked. I wanted some easy cardio exercise to get them a bit tired since they've done very little over the past 2 days.

Today I got the license plates for my new car put on, and also got 12" cut off my hair. It's still classifiable as "long" but it's no longer "ridiculously long". No, I did not take a picture. You'll have to wait for agility videos to see it. I figured out that it had actually been over 2 years since I cut it last. Yikes! Clearly I am not one of those people who does pretty nails and goes to the salon and such... fine by me. I get by without weird stares at the mall so I must look "ok" anyhow!

Today and tomorrow I must finish packing for my FL trip, because Wed I'm teaching in NJ and also filming the video bits for my eBook article, then Thursday we leave! My shoulder has been bothering me enough that I'm pretty sure I am going to seek out a good local chiro/massage/PT person when I get home, because I'm absolutely sure I will need one and even though Ria comes here once a month, she's now busy enough that I can't really eat up her time with my human problems instead of allowing someone else's dog to get worked on...

Oh, and I got Strafe's first agility pictures!

2012-01-22T17:47:00.001-05:00

Pretty isn't it? Except it's 2 or 3" of snow with more than a tenth of an inch of pure ice on top. Doesn't sound like a lot .13", but I assure you, when it's frozen solid on top of snow, it's more than enough for dogs to ice skate on top of it! Yesterday the dogs did a fat lot of nothing while we waited out the weather. My workshops got cancelled, which was probably unnecessary for the afternoon hours, however there were an awful lot of accidents on the roads so I don't feel bad about it. Today the dogs are again ice skating; i am letting Strafe out alone because he keeps trying to run a bit on it, and I cannot have that. They aren't breaking through the ice at all. We did a little bit of peanut and core work, then I used a rope leash to make a "jump" in the living room and did some basic lift-over-a-jump-from-a-standstill exercises (like basic Linda M jumpwork, basically). Good exercise for the muscles without a lot of impact ("jump" was only maybe 18" high), enough to make them think and use some muscles a bit at least.

Tomorrow it is going to be 60F and with possible thunderstorms. Just weird, weird weather. I've started going through laundry to pack for the FL trip later this week. Should be fun, although the way my shoulder, neck, and upper back have been bugging me, I am not looking forward to hearing what Ria has to say when I see her next. Ouch!
Stupid tendonitis in my shoulder... it just wreaks havoc on my neck and upper back. Luckily I can run my dogs even when it's bothering me, but driving can hurt after a while. So can being crammed on an airplane. Sigh.

At least tomorrow if we have a gap between "snow melt" and "storm starts", I can take the dogs for a walk at Fair Hill, since they have nice gravel trails that never get muddy.

2012-01-20T13:44:00.000-05:00

OK. Immediate downside to the new, fancy Blogger view is that I don't get to have profile information or links or other widgets on the sidebar. I kind of liked that feature so I'll probably go back. For now, let me say Happy 4th Birthday to Drifter's first and last litter of puppies, and here's the smiling face of one of them, Dare, who lives in Austin TX and made Steeplechase Finals this past year!

Isn't she cute? It is so funny how each of the pups is a combination of both parents - in each one i can see hints of both Drifter and the mother, Singe. Dare's expression is definitely a bit of both!

Here's Drifter, supposedly saying "Happy Birthday" but really he's mega-interested in the YouTube video I was watching of someone playing with a litter of puppies and saying "puppy puppy pup pup" in a high pitched voice and making lots of kissy smoochy noises. He really liked that. I've been hunting down more sheltie pedigrees and breeder info. Knee deep in it right now, got a few possibilities. Hoping to wait till the fall, at least, so not rushing into anything.

And finally, here's Kiba's Perf Grand Prix run from last weekend where she posted the fastest time in the class. Her aframe hit is high but she is definitely in. I am still fighting for that one and she did miss 2 of them last weekend, thankfully one was in gamblers and I made her go back and do it again. I am adding a new verbal that I can say that might remind her of her job better. Her dogwalks, in contrast, have been pretty good lately.

Thanks to Greg Fontaine for the video!

(ETA: I switched back to a simpler Blogger setting and tweaked it a bit. Can't get a picture to look good in the banner so for now we're staying without one)

2012-01-19T15:38:00.002-05:00

I've switched over to Blogger's new Timeline thing since it seems to be working now. Leave a comment if things are too messy to understand and I'll switch it back. There are links along the top allowing you to change how you view it, so you can pick whichever you like.

Post Swim Bliss

2012-01-19T13:52:00.000-05:00

And yes, all of my dogs get to wear nice warm sweaters when they come home from swimming. Seriously, they get chilly!

The day looks pretty outside, but it's cold. I am supposed to teach on Saturday but they are predicting a snowy/wintry mix so I'm not sure if they'll hold the seminar or not. We shall see. Then next Mon/Tues I have to film the video tie-in parts for my contribution to the WAO Team eBook for this year. Look forward to it!!

CPA USDAA Report

2012-01-17T13:08:00.001-05:00

I spent the last 5 days down in North Carolina. Raleigh is only about a 6-hour drive from me (a little less if i don't stop often). I only took Kiba and Trig on this trip. Strafe isn't old enough for USDAA yet, and I didn't enter Seri because of her weird pelvis/sacrum thing at the end of December. And Drifter isn't going to Denver for nationals so I don't see a reason to travel with him.

My goals for the weekend were to get Kiba a PGP, PSJ, and PVP Q so that she'll be qualified for the Regional in April. And we met that goal easily - she won all 3 with a bunch of great runs. We did have an unfortunate off course in Team Standard but luckily for us, so did pretty much every other PVP Team! My teammate got around and so we stayed in first. It was actually strange running her back at 16" again - we've been practicing at 20" for the most part and sometimes at 22", because I want her to be prepared for Belgium. But I'm not convinced that 22" is the right height for her at USDAA Nationals. I am eagerly awaiting confirmation of the rumors of USDAA adding a middle height of 18/19" for dogs of her size - I would happily run her in Championship if that came about! All of that said, I did run her in some of the Masters Challenge classes at 22", with the expectation that she would knock some bars after running 16" in the morning, and she did, but not that many bars, really, and she got around all 3 of the Challenge classes (they're international-style courses, really) without an off course, just a couple of bars, and on the 3rd try she actually ran clean and beat one of our WAO Teammates for 1st place! I was very happy with that. And the bars she did knock tended to be on straight lines when she opened up and forgot she couldn't jump as flattened out as she can at 16". And the triple surprised her on the first day. it's bigger than the 20" AKC triple, I think.

Another goal with Kiba over the weekend was to try to have the fastest time of all dogs in the class when we had a clean run, and we also met that goal - she had the fastest time of all in Grand Prix, Steeplechase Rounds 1 and 2, Team Jumpers, and Masters Challenge Jumpers on Monday. I wanted to try to have that as a goal so that I'd push her a little more, even though it wasn't a huge trial, and also because at 16" our timing is slightly different and she can run very fast since it's just under her shoulder height.

Trig also ran great for me all weekend, and got 3rd place and a GP Q, picked up a needed Super Q towards her ADCH, and won Steeplechase 26". She also did well in the Masters Challenge classes, and ran clean in one on Sunday. She only had one off course out of all 4 classes, and considering how little time we've spent working on difficult stuff, I was pretty pleased with that. Because Trig is a little bit slower than my other dogs, it is easy for me run and beat her places, and as a bonus, she enjoys being handled that way.

I continued to use some high speed blind crosses. I think it's funny how a lot of people talk about using them, and may even use them in practice, but very few americans have gotten brave enough to use them in jumping sequences at high speeds. i find them very useful, and fun, and so far after about a year of using them with all my dogs, they are still not demonstrating any confusion or going behind me when I don't want them to do so.

Back home today, and planning out the rest of the month. Teaching classes tomorrow, then teaching in NJ on Saturday (weather permitting - we're indoors but will cancel if there's snow that makes driving dangerous). Then next Thursday I leave for a 10-day trip in FL with a friend - 3 border collies and 10 days worth of clothing in a compact wagon! Should be a fun trip, but it's a damn good thing I already bought that rooftop cargo box!

One of the downsides of my car is that even though it is a small car with a 4-cylinder engine, it is only rated to get 30mpg on the highway - well I got 32mpg on the way down to Raleigh, so I'm feeling a little better about that! And I easily went almost 350miles on a single tank of gas, and the tank is 14gallons and I have yet to put more than 11 in when I fill it. Yay for efficiency! (although I'm still jealous of all the cool diesel wagons they have in europe...)

Obligatory picture:

Drifter stayed home with my mother and spend the entire weekend digging every toy, bone, and antler chew out of her toy box. Apparently he was in there with both front feet and his face, digging through happily... what a goof. I know some people's dogs are upset when they begin to retire, but not Drifter. I leave with the other 3 to go swimming and he doesn't even get off the bed. He is perfectly happy to stay home. Sure, he loves agility, but he also loves toys and couches and dog beds and sitting on my mother's lap... He isn't entered in another trial until early March. Kiba now has a break in trialing till mid-February, so i think I'll give her this time as a "no jumping" time, and maybe just rehearse and proof some contacts while I'm home, and let her run feral with my mom while I'm in FL. Then once our PT comes and makes sure she didn't do anything too crazy while I was away, she'll go into hardcore training/conditioning mode for Feb/March to prepare for AKC Nationals, where I hope and expect for her to do very well...

Foam and more Travel

2012-01-10T21:20:00.000-05:00

First, a note. Yes, I am probably addicted to technology. No, I won't be quitting Facebook or Blogger anytime soon. It really doesn't bother me that I spend 20min or so a day checking in to see what my friends and random acquaintances are doing. And it's very cool to be able to see what my friends around the country and the world are up to.

A few days ago, I saw a sale was on at Kohl's, and because I wanted to get some memory foam mats for my x-pen and crates, I bought a memory foam mattress topper, and they were Buy 1 Get 1 Free, so I got 2 for the price of one. Then got home and proceeded to cut both of them into various pieces of perfect sizes for my crates in the car, my x-pen, and used the leftovers to top my dog beds at home. Memory foam is supposed to help relieve pressure points. All i can say is, since I put this piece on top of this dog bed and covered it in a $5 (on sale) blanket, Drifter's been spending an awful lot of time there! My dogs are so spoiled....

After today, my winter of fairly little travel is over. I have to pack tomorrow, teach classes, then Thurs morning I'm off to North Carolina to train and visit with a friend, run some USDAA, and then come home Monday night. I originally entered this trial because it is very close to my friend's house and I don't have any Q's towards USDAA Nationals 2012, but more and more I'm convinced I won't be going to Denver. I now know I am going to Belgium (not cheap, even with sponsor help), and I really want to go to Sweden for the EO (yes it's also outside but it's only 2 days, and it's in SWEDEN!) so I think when it comes to it, USDAA is the event I am willing to skip this year.

Once I'm home from NC, I've got one weekend "home" (I'm actually teaching that Saturday in NJ), then I'm off to FL for a 10-day trip, 2 trials and actually attending a seminar in between (rare for me!), I'm hoping they will let me work Strafe. . . I am only taking Strafe and Trig, will be a fun trip! Then I get home and have a various mixed schedule of teaching/trialing until AKC Nationals, then teaching followed by attending another seminar, World Team Tryouts with Trig, WAO with Kiba, etc etc. Basically the slide back into being busy has begun. I do enjoy being a homebody while it lasts. True to my 1980's roots, I spent some time replaying the Mass Effect video game, so I can replay the 2nd one, in anticipation of the 3rd one comign out in March. I am glad I asked the SO to leave the Xbox behind and he agreed to do so. Really didn't want to have to buy a new system!

I've also got the dogs fairly well adapted to their 2x a week swim schedule. i wish I could do it 3x a week but since it's not my pool I did what I could. Twice is enough to build muscle at least. They LOVE the swimming. Today Seri tried to bust through the gate to get into the water. Impulse control, not her strongest attribute...

Speaking of Seri, she continues to look totally fine. I am waiting another week or so before introducing any agility exercises with speed, but I did decide to enter her in ONE DAY of an AKC trial in March. I am making this my mental deadline. If i can't get her to stay sound leading up to this trial, and be relatively pain-free (and not completely misaligned) afterwards, then I am giving up on keeping her in agility. Contrary to what some may believe, I actually really do want to be able to run her. That dog is difficult, yes, and maybe a little crazy, yes, but she freaking LOVES to run agility and it'll be a complete shame if she can't do it.

Seri back in January 2010 before the first injury.

Seeking Sponsors...

2012-01-06T17:41:00.002-05:00

Yep, it's that time again. The 2012 WAO Team USA is seeking sponsors! If you're interested in sponsoring the team, let me know, and I can put you in contact with our team manager. There are all kinds of sponsorship levels, from $50 on up to $5,000 with varying levels of recognition and advertising for each.

If you would like to sponsor me directly, that is also possible! New for this year we are doing "Dog Angel" sponsorships! You can email me and let me know you'd like to sponsor Kiba's veterinary costs, help with travel costs, or entry fees, or other costs of getting me and Kiba to Belgium. You can send us an unspecified amount like "vet costs" and I will let you know later on what the costs were and you can send the money to me, or "entry fees" in which case I will have to put you in touch with our manager because she does all the entering of classes. Or you can simply say you'd like to be one of Kiba's Angels and send any amount to me.

What do you get for that? Well, first off, you get that warm fuzzy feeling of knowing you helped a great competitor get to Belgium to compete! I am not in a financial place in my career where a trip to europe is financially easy; this is a great burden on my finances and while our manager does a great job of getting sponsors to help defray costs, basically it comes down to my personal ability to pay for the trip.

Other benefits, you say?

Well, send me at least $50 and you will receive a public thank you both on Facebook and on my website, as I create a "Thanks to my wonderful sponsors" page...

In addition, anyone who wants to be Kiba's Angel and pledges at least $100, gets to send me their logo to put on Kiba's Back-on-Track coat (or other coat/cape, I haven't decided yet) to be worn around the event, including during the opening and closing ceremonies! This is great for business, since Kiba is really super adorable and has a fun little personality. Many people like to look at her and say "wow what a cute dog!". She will make a fantastic canine billboard ;) If you send me money for this and don't have a company logo, you are welcome to send some sort of silly phrase, or have me put your initials or name on, or anything really!

Already, Clean Run has agreed to sponsor the team with a generous donation towards uniform and general team expenses, and UKI has also pledged some money as well. Thanks very much to them!

2012-01-06T10:36:00.002-05:00

Just so you don't think my "no racing like a Greyhound" rule means my dogs are heeling around the field, here's a couple silly phone pics from our walk this morning. My dogs are pretty free to move around. That is, after all, the best kind of exercise. I use our 10-20min field walks as an exercise "base" and also just as a way to let them "loosen up" if they've done something strenuous earlier in the day or the day before. It's not hard exercise but it gets them moving.

And every once in a while I do let them rip roar around like idiots, but only when I release them to do so by making a shush sound. Running like that is very high impact exercise and I prefer to save the high impact stuff for agility training, since it's so hard on their joints. I know I'm in a minority on that one. My dogs don't play fetch either. Luckily they are dogs, they live in the moment, and they have plenty of fun in their lives. They don't miss playing fetch.

Kiba noticed I was holding my phone up funny.

An example of "cantering calmly" which is totally allowed!

I added this pic only because I didn't use it yesterday. I had a heck of a time keeping Strafe off the peanut to take this picture! It looks small here but it's not.

Also (and yes I keep editing to add things), the weather is so mild I am going to set up a training set our Team Manager sent us this afternoon. Should be great fun!

Conditioning, revisited - Winter Edition

2012-01-05T14:10:00.002-05:00

Because I feel that conditioning is a really important subject, and because there are a lot of uninformed or misinformed people out there, I am going to revisit it briefly today. The first rule is - don't jump your dog every day! I can't tell you how much it bothers me that people do agility every day. Jumping, contacts, and weaves are very hard on the dog's body. The landing impact from jumps is hard on certain core muscles, as well as the strain on the front legs and shoulders. Agility, especially jumping, should not be done 2 days in a row for training purposes. When your dog jumps, it should have at least 24-48 hours of "no jumping" time in between. The exception, of course, is for agility shows and seminars/camps when you don't really have a choice. And of course doing agility on a Saturday and a Sunday is not going to break your dog all by itself, however, you should understand that each progressive day tears down your dog's muscles a little bit more each time, without giving them sufficient time to recover and rebuild.

So I basically do agility 1 to 3 times a week. I do courses or sequences only once a week, with the other practice times being either jump grids or very short skill sequences or obstacle skills for contacts/weaves. Weaves are very tough on shoulders and wrists and spines, so I don't do a lot of repetition with those if I can help it, just some skill work when I feel the dogs need some polish..

What I usually try to do is pick 2 or 3 activities every day for my dogs. Right now we have set times for our swim appointments over the winter, so I am building around that. I try not to mix similar exercises on any given day. For example if I do a tight bounce grid with the jumps, which is a high impact and tough core exercise, I probably won't also work on the peanut inside. I may, however, swim them, take them for a short walk around our field, or go for a hike at the park. It's all about variety and building up muscle. Here is an example week. Keep in mind that I usually hike on-leash, and when I walk in my home fields, they are off leash BUT they are not allowed to "gallop" or "run like a greyhound" - they may walk, trot, canter/run slowly, and sniff, etc all they like, but they may not act like hooligans and run around like crazy things.

Example Week for my competition dogs:
Monday:
Morning: 60 min hike at the park on leash
If we had a trial the previous weekend, I would stop at that, if not then I would do more:
Mid-day: contact practice
Afternoon: 10minutes of mixed core work on Peanut and on ground.

Tuesday:
Late Morning: 20-25min of swimming
Afternoon: 20min walk in our field

Wednesday:
Morning: 20min walk in our field
Afternoon: 15min of course/sequence work in agility
Evening: 10min of free movement in the agility indoor off leash

Thursday:
Late morning: 20-25min swimming
Afternoon: 15min walk in our home fields
Evening: 10min of mixed core work on peanut and with wrist weights

Friday:
Morning: 60min walk at the park
if there is a trial on Saturday, I would stop at that. If not I would add more:
Afternoon: 10min jumping grids or skill work
Evening: 5min of strengthening exercises with no props

Saturday and Sunday would be non-agility days if there is no trial. I would probably go hiking at least one of the days, when the weather is nice. Maybe explore some new trails. And lots of walks in the field when it isn't too muddy or frozen. I really avoid allowing my dogs to run on frozen ground.

Please keep in mind this is an *example* of a week my dogs might have - it will vary from week to week depending on their fitness level and how busy I am.

A note about core work - I don't understand the popularity of doing high speed work with the peanuts and fit discs and Bosu balls. This generally looks really dangerous to me, as the dogs' legs go flying out sideways as they land. I'm sure it does build muscle, but to me, the dangers outweigh the benefit, especially when I find it relatively easy to tire my dogs out right in my living room with no speed necessary. To me, working with the balls, discs, and weights, and even without any props at all, is like a human going to a weight room. I am trying to build specific muscles and muscle groups, and strengthen my dogs. I am not working on cardio or endurance - I have other exercises for that. I am trying to make them literally stronger, with no danger of slipping or falling and no impact involved. I certainly don't care to mix jumping and core work - why would I waste a "jumping day" on core work, when I would rather use jumping to work on jumping or handling skills instead?

Here are some examples of core work I do in my house:
standing on Peanut, turning their head side to side and up and down (by moving a treat around for them to look at), sitting on it, laying down it, going from sit to down to stand and back again, I rock it very slightly side to side and front to back, and once they are comfy on it they can work on turning around. They are on it for about 2-3minutes at a time, and don't get off the entire time they're on it, generally.

Bosu ball - put the dog's front end on it and have them learn to walk their back end around it. Then put their back end and do the opposite - this is harder but is good shoulder work. Sitting on it. Sitting up to beg on it. I work on having them step onto it and off again, both forwards and backwards, with only front feet or rear feet at a time.

Wrist weights (pictured) - you must get these through a qualified professional. I am lucky to have them but I am very careful with them. They have 2 different weights, 2oz and 4oz. You can use them on front and rear legs, but you only use them a couple minutes at a time. You can simply walk the dog with them, or walk them through a ladder, or have them do some basic Bosu ball exercises with them, or my favorite - walking up and down the stairs on leash. This is quite tough and I do it 2x on front legs and 2x on back legs, only once or twice a week.

No props - well there are videos out there describing lots of fun things to do with your dog that work on muscles and proprioception as well. We work on crawling, begging, standing up, I hold their front legs up on me and walk them backwards (don't go forwards). We do sit-down-sit and sit-stand-sit and down-stand-down a bunch of times in a row. Some simple spinning exercises. Backing up down a hallways (to keep them straight).

Also I try to stretch my dogs basic muscles out once or twice a week to keep an eye on them, and they sleep in their Back on Track mesh coats most of the time. If they curl up and look chilly for any reason I put a sweater on them. I would much rather be mocked for having spoiled dogs than have dogs with cold muscles that aggravate possible injuries. They are extremely well taken care of!

Oh and of course they all see a physical therapist once a month to keep track of how they're doing! I have learned tons from her and I believe that's why my dogs do so well physically.

Plans

2012-01-04T22:51:00.002-05:00

So this is a bit of a 2011 recap, 2012 goals post, but I won't go too in-depth. I am basically always planning ahead with long-term "big" goals, and so my short-term agility goals are always designed around those, but of course dogs are dogs; unpredictable, so all those plans are malleable and I really cannot feel bad if I don't accomplish something.

For 2011 I had a few major goals. I really, really wanted to defend Drifter's NAC title, and although I would've been perfectly happy with him if he had not done it, he did, and so we won AKC Nationals 2 years in a row, with the fastest time of all jump heights. Not bad for an 8 and 1/2 year old dog, let alone one with crooked feet, a toe that doesn't work anymore, and a heart murmur! We also did well at the inaugural WAO, and although the Games Championship eluded us by a mere refusal at the gamble, we did manage to win the Biathlon, and that was a great moment in his career and mine as well; I am very proud of our performance at that event. And to cap off his last "big" year, he made Grand Prix Finals, for the FIFTH time. I don't know how many dogs have done that, but it has to be a short list... and along with that was probably the singular most disappointing moment in time of my agility career, and our very first off course in a Final run. But, I can be proud of all the other amazing things we've done, and my 9 year old dog was seeded first going into Finals, and I am very proud of that!

Kiba did well, and although she didn't make AKC Finals, she did throw down some great runs in Lexington and I am looking forward to running her in Reno this spring. Kiba also won 2 out of the 3 Performance Finals at USDAA, and was selected to be on the 2012 WAO Team, which is a huge accomplishment.

Seri actually started the year out very very well, winning 2 very competitive local Grand Prix's, and was actually the first of my 3 dogs to qualify completely for USDAA Nationals, but unfortunately recurring lameness issues derailed my goals for her, and the second half of the year was spent in rehab, conditioning, and strengthening.

Strafe's goals were all about training, and I am happy with where he is.

(these are his dock diving ribbons:)

For 2012...
Drifter will finish his MACH2 and retire.

Kiba is going to Reno for AKC Nationals, and Belgium for the WAO. Of course I know she CAN win the 16" AKC Final, but I am happy with whatever she can give me. She is so much fitter and more in tune this year, that our chances are very good. For the WAO, I want to do well; I think she could win something like the Pentathlon that is cumulative over 5 rounds. I don't know if she could win something like Biathlon where it is a little more speed oriented over only 2 rounds, but as of right now I don't even know what classes we'll be in. For now her goals are to be able to run at 20"/22" more often and with less bars down. She handles the height very well without struggling, she just has to pay a lot more attention and remember to go "up" more...

Seri, after consulting with my PT, is going back into a similar program to what we've been doing, but we will actually be introducing agility at a higher frequency. So instead of keeping it down to once a week, I will be slowly working up to 3x a week, in short sessions of course. The goal is to make sure we build agility-specific muscles, and also to test her shoulder. Basically the only way to find out if her muscles are capable of holding the bones in place properly, is to try to slowly build up the agility and see what happens. Luckily, it does seem that I can tell when something goes slightly out of whack, before it gets serious. So i will watch her closely.

Strafe has lofty goals for 2012, I would like to qualify him for AKC Nationals and Tryouts in 2013... along with possibly going to the EO in Sweden in July.

I am not sure if any of them are going to USDAA Nationals. I am already sort of committed to going to the local Regional, so I guess I will make a token effort to qualify for that.

Anyway, that's my rambling late-night-for-me post. I was happy that my PT felt that Seri still feels pretty good post-chiro adjustment from a few weeks ago. She agreed with my vet's assessment of the x-ray and has contacted Dr. Canapp to see if he has any advice or opinion on the issue, but she feels that with proper strengthening Seri might still be OK to do agility. So I will continue on with the strengthening and try to be really strict with the specific shoulder and core work that I do. It is nice to have an answer for what is wrong at least, to know it's not some nebulous "soft tissue" thing that has no cause other than "Seri is reckless".
If I am able to get a strengthening program that keeps her sound, I would love to qualify her for one of the National events and take her. She isn't my most consistent dog, but she LOVES to run and I enjoy running her, exhausting though it may be...

Tomorrow we go swimming again. The dogs are loving their indoor heated swimming appointments twice a week!

(this is Seri after a swim last week:)

2012-01-02T14:28:00.001-05:00

Some of Strafe's runs from the trial this past weekend. He was a very good boy his first weekend at 24", and finished both his NA and NAJ and even picked up an Open Standard leg.

Due to most of my potential videographers being in the same jump height, I didn't get any other dog's runs on video. Trig got 2 more QQ's at 26" with me, and Kiba had a few great one-bar runs and then QQ on Sunday with 2 really fast, nice runs at 20". She is not struggling with the height at all, I just have to keep conditioning and doing jump work till she remembers (and is capable of) to jump UP over the jumps, rather than just forward like she can with 16".

Today I picked up a couple shelties to keep for 2 nights till they go home with Ria to be worked on. I figure it's a good "test run" to see how I really like shelties;)

So far, one of them is in a playful kind of love with Strafe. Barks at him, jumps on him, wrestles, even humped him once! Too funny...

Also this week I get Ria's opinion on Seri's x-ray. I don't think it looks awful, and no, clearly it isn't the best x-ray on earth, but I do think it does look like something isn't quite right there. I don't know how bad it is, whether it will affect her ability to do agility or not, or whether it's genetic or not - in this case it is such an odd finding that I'd actually wonder if it was just an oddball congenital defect. It's certainly not something i've ever heard of a BC ever having before. i very well may end up with a consult at VOSM to talk to Dr. Canapp, the foremost sports-dog shoulder expert in the country... I'd prefer not to take another x-ray because shoulder x-rays require sedation, but I will if I must. I have reached a point where the 10 months of on/off/on/off shoulder issues have made me want an answer - can this dog do agility or not? If not, I am OK with it, but I would like to know!

A Comparison

2011-12-29T20:37:00.002-05:00

Here is Seri's shoulder x-ray:

Compared to a normal shoulder x-ray (not Seri). Please note this is the opposite shoulder, and a slightly different angle/view, however you can clearly see the difference in the shape of the scapula.

In the top (Seri's) photo, you can see how the scapula appears to be missing the ends. It doesn't appear to be an arthritic type of change, it just seems to have been put together poorly. Since the shoulder joint is already very reliant on muscle to keep it together, this just means that Seri's shoulder is even more sensitive to muscular soreness and instability than a normal dog.

Seri update 29 Dec 2011

2011-12-29T17:55:00.001-05:00

Today Seri went in for some x-rays. Happily, the weird tail and lower back kink to the right has almost totally resolved, and I think it was probably just due to her pelvis/sacrum being "out" for a bit, because that particular oddball symptom seemed to resolve within a few days of her adjustment. But just to be sure, I went ahead and had him x-ray her spine to check for spondylosis.. .

Well, that is a lovely spine! No spondylosis, no disk issues, nothing. Everything nicely spaced and well shaped. Hurray!

Just for curiosity's sake, we took a shot of her wrists:

I know this is not the source of most of her problems, but her wrists have definitely been one of her issues. Here we can see there are no obvious bony changes going on, no arthritis. Some fibrosis perhaps, and on the zoomed in x-ray (they're fully digital) the doc thought he saw some very small changes beginning on one of the small bones in the middle. But overall, not bad. (also, her elbows are very pretty!)

And the shoulder. I had him specifically check for OCD which meant looking for lesions and/or chips of any kind. To get a good shoulder x-ray, poor Seri had to be knocked out a bit, so she got a light dose of a reversible anaesthetic. This guy allows me to be very hands-on with my dogs, so I got the weird experience of holding her while he injected it, then helping her to lie down when it kicked in, and helping pick her up to put her on and off the x-ray table. Poor limp little Seri!

Anyway, here's the shoulder:

There are no visible lesions or chips, which is fabulous. However, the scapula (the upper, flatter bone) is not well-shaped where it meets with the other bone. The upward/inward curve should continue farther down on the right (as you're looking at it). It's almost like a shallow hip socket - it doesn't "cover" the head of the other bone very well, and so that is probably what is leading to the instability in that shoulder. It is entirely left up to her muscles to do the job, and so when she's totally fit and doing well, she is sound, but she is so reckless with her body doing agility, that she can easily mess herself up again.

For now I'm just sticking with a "no agility" routine. She is now swimming twice a week with my other dogs and I've got her back to a normal conditioning schedule with core work and walks, etc. I will discuss the x-ray with my PT and we will make a decision about Seri's ability to stay sound in agility. I don't think staying sound for "life" will be too difficult, at least.

And I have some answers, which is nice. Interestingly, they pretty much confirm everything I already know!

Kiba D Update

2011-12-27T20:48:00.000-05:00

Well I'm glad I let my dogs swim a little bit of extra time today, since it was pouring rain and windy all afternoon. As shown by this photo, they were perfectly happy to have the rest of the day off. Gosh, she's tiny when she curls up! She was only 26.9 lbs at the last vet visit - which is the other reason I posted again today. Urine culture results came back with zero bacterial cultures. So basically, she's perfectly healthy. I don't think it was the kibble since after a week of 100% raw I still see the drinking/peeing elevated. Current theory is that it's the dry air from the heat in the house. At our old place we had electric heat - which meant radiant heat from the electric-powered coils along the wall. Here we have oil heat which blows hot air out of the ventilation systems, so the air is probably warmer and more dry than Kiba's ever dealt with before, and it's possible she's trying to adapt by drinking more. I'm going to try buying a small inexpensive humidifier and running it in the living room for a while to see if that helps. She certainly is acting perfectly normal (for her).

I booked my flight to Reno and Belgium over the last week or so. Money spent, but trips to look forward to!

Strange Brain

2011-12-27T14:47:00.002-05:00

I've known for a long time that I have a strange brain. I can obsess about certain subjects for weeks on end, while at the same time completely and unintentionally forgetting to perform some other task. I am introverted, bright, but not emotional.

Here is a good description of my personality type according to a very exhaustive type of testing. This is not a predictive test; it is a descriptive test. It describes people with a certain collection of social and thinking traits, according to the Myers-Brigg profiles. I am sure I have mentioned it before on here, but IF you happen to be interested in delving into my type of psyche for any strange stalker-related reason, or maybe you just like psychology (as I do), here is my personality type: INTJ, and here is another description as well.
And if you're interested in hearing what INTJ's have to say about dealing with INTJ's, read this;)

And as non-politically correct as it is to suggest that certain people have differing levels of intelligence, I happen to know I am also "gifted". This means not only high intellect, but also yet another layer of what I call "strange brain" is associated with it. Once again, emotional interpretation can be difficult, along with the obsessiveness and difficulty dealing with things we interpret as unjust or wrong. I couldn't find a good description off-hand that fits my weirdness, probably because I often feel that I may have a touch of this as well: Asperger's. And I am not at all certain on that one, but the whole "feeling like an outsider pretending to have the same emotions that others do" is definitely how I feel sometimes. Especially when dealing with certain emotions. I often find that I use humor as a refuge and a way to connect, and when that is out of the question, my brain sort of slides sideways and I have to pretend to go along. I am also extremely bothered by certain sounds and textures, and can be easily distracted and sometimes even repulsed by such. The obsessive bits and lack of social cue bullets definitely fit my strange brain issues, however I don't think I was ever uncoordinated physically. And obviously, if I do have a touch of it, I am very high functioning and I would never imply otherwise. I "get by" in the real world without counseling, but the older I get, the more I am able to recognize and admit to myself that no, I really don't feel the same way that "normal" people do. And I'm OK with that.

Anyway, this has been a public service announcement in reaction to another misunderstanding triggered by my bluntness and lack of social ability. Luckily a very minor infraction this time! But still. Sometimes my Vulcan tendencies (but, the LOGIC!) overcome my human ones! So, if you're bored, feel free to read some of the INTJ stuff and learn more about me. . .

And just so this post has a picture, here's Kiba, who has a strange brain too, but in other ways:

PS - please don't think all of this is in order to say that I can't deal with people on a regular basis, or am incapable of it, just to say that I am weird. I know it. But I enjoy teaching, as do many introverts and probably plenty of people with "strange brains" as well ;)

Sorry

2011-12-26T14:54:00.000-05:00

I love this picture, even though it's not new, shamelessly stolen from Jane's Facebook page. It is a picture of Strafe's family in Denmark, 4 generations all lined up in a row. From L to R: Zoya at 9 months (Strafe's litter-sister), Jiggy (Strafe's mother), Simic (grandmother), and Froken (great-grandmother).

No mushy holiday posts from me. That's a guarantee. None. Ever. We watched a movie yesterday. OK so it was kind of a mushy movie - War Horse - but that's the extent of mushiness from me on holidays. Today I took some dogs for a walk at Fair Hill, then this afternoon we did some garage/barn (all one building) cleaning out and took down the canvas from our shade tent in the agility ring. Then I worked some agility since our footing is still OK out there for a little while longer - unless it freezes really hard again soon. I ran Kiba at 22" and she only hit one bar, then I ran Strafe on the same courses (sort of "AKC Excellent" level, hard enough for the dogs to pay attention but not so tough that we were drilling new skills or working our butts off or anything, just a review session). I put Strafe at 26" for the first time in course work. He's done little bits at 24/26" before but this time I ran the whole courses like he'd done it before, and he pretty much did the same, didn't even touch a bar, just floated over everything. I also worked Trig who is running well for me.

Seri's weird little tail kink seems much improved after a week of rest post-chiropractic adjustment. I've been allowing her to walk free in the field now and she'll start swimming again tomorrow.

Drifter's officially in "semi-retirement" and I'm pretty sure we'll finish his MACH2 and then that will be it for him. He's not even entered in anything right now as I'm focusing so hard on Strafe, Trig, and Kiba right now.

Kiba.... over the past few weeks i've seen a slight increase in her water consumption and frequency of urination. Last week I ran a basic blood test and urinalysis, which found nothing aside from a very slightly low white blood cell count. I also had them draw urine to do a culture, so I'm awaiting the results of that which should be in today or tomorrow. She seems 100% fine aside from the increase in drinking/peeing. I've switched her back to 100% raw as of last Wednesday and she's also on amoxicillin proactively but I still see her drinking quite a bit. Remaining theory is just that maybe the heat vents in the house make her thirsty?? Or....? I'm open to ideas. I had them run Lepto titers on her blood but I don't expect that to be positive. Now I'm thinking either some sort of low-level infection, or it's just a new behavioral quirk (she IS quirky!) or the only thing left that I can think of is diabetes but I think the glucose levels should have been noticeably off in her blood test last week.

Who knows. Weird little dog. She is running fabulously even at 22" in training now, so I think she feels great!

2011-12-22T17:21:00.000-05:00

With my SO's stuff being moved out, I have extra shelf space. I made a mini-trophy case out of the trophies and medals I had handy. Most of them are still packed away from the move last winter.

Today my dogs got to be evaluated at the indoor, heated swimming pool that's only 20min away. They will be going twice a week all winter long to help keep them in shape even when the ground is frozen! Very happy about that, it's great exercise for them.

I also got a 3rd crate into my new car. It fit pretty well, and is supported nicely too. I used a board to keep it level on the slightly slanted seat. So my little Hyundai now has two 20"x30" crates and one 19"x30". I also bought this cargo box to use on top for when I travel with 3 dogs and don't have a lot of room, or travel with another person.

So not too bad, I can fit 3 dogs in crates and all their trial gear into a compact car. I am so happy about it! I hated have extra space in the van. I liked how it drove and it was a reliable vehicle, but I didn't like the upright seating position and I felt like I was being wasteful having such a large vehicle. Now I feel more European;)

If i needed to, i could also just take all the crates out and shove a ton of dogs in it. Or put 2 dogs on the backseat with seatbelts on and use the cargo area for gear instead. Or put 2 seatbelt dogs on the seat and one crate in the back. There's a lot of variations possible. For now I'm leaving all the crates in, as I often work out of the car at shows and this is the easiest way to do that.

My car is like the Tardis, bigger on the inside:

Seri update, again

2011-12-20T14:21:00.000-05:00

I ran some bloodwork and urinalysis on Kiba because I've seen an increase in her drinking/urinating in the last few weeks. Not enough to think stones or UTI, but definitely noticeable. So while I was in I had them check Seri. Anal glands TOTALLY fine, not impacted at all, very healthy.

So yesterday after having the pelvis/sacrum/back/neck adjusted she did seem more happy-go-lucky this morning. I still see the weird right sided twist/bend here and there though. I'm keeping her on semi-rest until it resolves, in case it is a strange muscle pull of some sort. She goes out in the yard unsupervised and she goes on walks in our field BUT on leash so she is restricted to walk/trot. Otherwise, she is her usual happy self. I had a good conversation with someone who had a dog with adult-discovered OCD lesions in the shoulder, and it was interesting and useful. It seems her dog didn't often SEEM to be in pain but definitely was, because now that she's been fixed surgically, she is very different - faster, happier, less tentative in many ways. Seri is fast/happy but when she's sore she is quieter. But it's the on again/off again shoulder tightness and soreness that make me wonder about her shoulder maybe having a lesion or bone chip. Late next week I'm getting some x-rays at my vet, I will do shoulder/elbow and mid to lower back regions, just in case there is a back issue like spondylosis or something that we may have missed. She does have an aunt with that issue...

Seri update

2011-12-19T18:02:00.000-05:00

Took her down to a good chiro who happened to have a same-day opening today. As I suspected, her pelvis was out. Also, her sacrum, entire lower back and TL region, right side of her neck, her hock clicks and pops, and as usual her left scapula was "tight". She worked on her back a bit and she loosened up enough that she was mostly standing straight. She still wants to curl to the right with her tail and butt/extreme lower back area though, which is a brand new and STRANGE behavior. I am keeping on "loose in the yard to potty + leash walks" only right now until we figure out this weird kink. She does look much better with her pelvis straightened out and her back loosened up, but she's still doing it. The chiro did tell me she's seen dogs do weird stuff similar to this because of an anal gland impaction, so I'm taking her in tomorrow morning to get that checked.

Next step will be a set of x-rays at my regular vet who sort of specializes in ortho stuff. He's not VOSM level specialist but he is competent to take shoulder/back/pelvic area x-rays I think. We can at least make sure there are no bone chips anywhere or major arthritic changes. If she clears those, then she sees Ria next week, and assuming she's doing as well as she was before this set-back we have a new plan in place involving the agility and rehab. We are going to try actually increasing the frequency of her agility sessions, but keeping them short. Trying it on the theory that perhaps she needs to build up specific agility-related muscles that can't be done by regular rehab and strengthening exercises. Anyway, we'll give it a shot for a while, once we've looked at x-rays and had a clear check from Ria again anyway.

If Seri CAN be brought back to the point of being to show in agility once every month or so, I would be thrilled, as she is so fast she's competitive even with wide corners. If Seri CANNOT be brought back into agility competitions, then so be it. She is who she is and I won't force it. I am certainly going to try though. As difficult as she is, she LOVES the sport (too much, sometimes) and I enjoy running her, even if she can be frustrating at times...

So yet another setback. I am finding it is useless to make concrete goals with Seri, it is better to just go at her pace.

Sigh.

2011-12-18T21:45:00.000-05:00

First the non-sigh part of the post - I had a great time teaching in White Plains, NY again at PCOTC. Love being in a heated, clean (matted, not dirt) facility with a nice group of people. And it's only a 3 hour drive each way, so i'm home at a reasonable time and I get to bring dogs with me.

Now the "sigh" part of the post. A couple days ago I noticed Seri sometimes holding her tail off to the right, for no obvious reason. She would also curl her rear end slightly to the right as well. It was strange. But on initial examination, nothing obviously wrong with her. She stretches out OK, I pulled her tail, no reaction, I checked for hot spots or knots in her quads, hamstrings, etc. Nothing. Her right hock does click a lot now when flexed and released, which it shouldn't be doing, but that alone doesn't explain the weird tail kink behavior. I brought her with me and since she looked OK most of the time I did a demo or 2 with her at the seminar and ran a couple quick courses with her. She seemed a little stiff at night after doing demos on Sat which is not unusual (not good either but not new), but when I got home today I think I found the problem - I'm pretty sure her pelvis is out. And it seems to have flared forward on the right, which might explain the slight curling to the right. I am also getting a twitching pain reaction under her shoulder too. So, heaving a big sigh once again as I am putting her on indefinite layup from trialing. I just don't want to risk her making herself worse; as crazy as she is at home, she is two or three times more reckless and wild at a trial. And I would like her to be comfortably sound into old age. If that means no agility competitions, then so be it. She MIGHT be able to compete if I paid for expensive surgery to tighten up her shoulder, but I do not want to put her (and my wallet) through all that when she can be sound enough to live a good life without it.

Oh Seri!

On a brighter note, I ran Strafe on a couple sequences at 24" and he did great... he wasn't sure what to think about the see-saw being right next to a big mirror though! He did it, but he was quite tentative, not driving out to the end properly. No big deal.

Jumping

2011-12-17T12:03:00.001-05:00

First, Linda has published another article about ETS. This time she details her personal research into how the problem runs in "lines" of dogs. Most of us who can "see" dogs with the problem will agree - whatever causes it is definitely heritable. Article here!

And speaking of jumping, if you like to watch long videos of my dogs working on jumping exercises for skills and fitness, here you go!

What we did today

2011-12-16T17:43:00.000-05:00

This morning I got some anti-fatique matting and cut it to fit under the therapeutic beds in the dogs' new car crates. I also got a black sheet and folded it over top of the crates like a crate cover, to block people from staring in and to block part of the dogs' view out as well. I left the front side facing the vents/windshield totally open.

Then we loaded up in the car and went to Fair Hill for a walk. I walked around a loop trail that I know isn't horribly long. It was chilly and windy today. We walked through a really pretty tree branch "tunnel" that I enjoy because it looks very fantastical...

While I was out walking, Tracy posted the entire WAO Team on Facebook (see my previous post for the entire list). Wow, what a huge team full of great talent! That's a lot of dogs/handlers. We're gonna take the WAO by storm, looks like!

Anyway, then we got back to the car and I snapped a pic of Kiba looking sad and distracted in front of my new wheels. I'm kind of liking the "carbon grey" sort of color on the wheels. Sporty!

Tomorrow I prepare for my short day-and-a-half of teaching in NY. In a nice heated facility, on nice clean mats! Relaxing! Will also be my first trip in the brand new car. I have AM/FM/CD as usual, and I also now have XM and an iPod connector that allows me to control the iPod through the radio display! Love it, very cool, high-tech and modern!

I haven't used my iPod in several years, so I'm sort of enjoying going back through and listening to albums I haven't heard in quite a while. Yes, including System of a Down, although I think Metro is off a soundtrack to something...

2012 World Agility Open Team USA

2011-12-16T11:23:00.004-05:00

I actually found out yesterday but was under a "no public announcement" order. Kiba made the team!!!

2012 WAO Team USA:
The Team:
300 division:
Sandra Rogers and Quill
Ivette White and Zip
Monique Plinque and Tiki
Daneen Fox and Masher
Mike Padgett and Kona

400 division:
Anne Kajava and Manja
Karen Holik and Sizzle
Jenn Crank and Blaster
Nancy Kleinhans and Jimmy Dean
Jenn Crank and Salsa

525 Division
Moe Strenfel and Kindle
Dudley Fontaine and Sweet
Mary Ellen Barry and Maizy
Jeannette Hutchison and Rumble
Rosanne Demascio and Kiba

650 Division
Lori Michaels and Solei
Linda Mecklenburg and Wonder
Daisy Peel and Solar
Terry Smorch and Presto
Dudley Fontaine and Maverick
Stacy Goudy and Maze

The Reserves:
525 Division
1st Reserve: Elicia Calhoun and BreeSea
2nd Reserve: Vanessa Mortarino and Habit
Addtl Reserves: Strenfel/Kyna for Kindle, Barry/E-Z for Maizy

650 Division
1st Reserve: Mary Dougherty with Trek
2nd Reserve: Ann Zarr with Skylar

The Development Team:
400 Division
Delaney Ratner and Jonesy

525 Division
Susan Crank and Seeker
Kerry Stevens and Mesa

650 Division
Blake Stafford and Beamer
Jennifer Crank and Sonic
Kelly Chaffin and Pete
Delaney Ratner and Kelso

Vehicle!

2011-12-15T17:02:00.000-05:00

Well we spent several hours at the dealer today and came home in my new car! I hope to keep it for at least 5 years, and Hyundai has that nice "Assurance" thing where they guarantee trade-in value which is great, so i know it'll be worth *something* when I'm done with it. They gave me a great trade-in value on my other car so overall I'm happy with the deal. Affordable, has all the options I wanted, and nice low monthly payments.

it's raining, so here it is parked in the garage.

it just *barely* fits the two 20"x30" crates I bought for it. Good size for the BC's, not for long trials where I'll set up an x-pen for them, but for regular half-day AKC trials and driving they'll be fine as they usually curl up and these crates are totally fine for the size of my dogs (not enormous).

ok seriously?

2011-12-14T15:43:00.001-05:00

i am at our indoor for class today and for some reason my droid wont allow me to edit my last post. Perhaps its my aspergerlike insensitivity, but i dont understand why my comments in the last post upset people. This is my blog. I record my thoughts here. And my thoughts are that it felt kind of like teasing us to post "coming soon" on a Monday and not say when the announcement would be. I do realize its not intentional teasing or being mean. I am downright shocked that people actually emailed Tracy and complained about what i said. I think thats silly. Am i not allowed to care about making a team i applied for??? clearly i am not a part of the emotional society that reads so deeply into such statements. basically, chill out people!!!

ETA: I edited the last post. So it doesn't say anyone was "mean". i had no idea how touchy people are. I am a blunt person, so uh, sorry I'm me! I realize a lot of people read this, but it is still, and will continue to be, a JOURNAL. Please keep that in mind.

Nondog, even though the first picture has a dog.

2011-12-14T08:19:00.002-05:00

So I wanted to wait a bit to let it sink in. My "SO" has left, citing my crazy travel schedule and other things, and so I am single again. That's OK, as dogs eat up all my time and generally my thoughts anyway. He was and still is, a really nice guy, but I am just not a super-emotional person (sometimes I actually think I may be a very high-functioning Asperger's type). Looking on the bright side, that does mean i get a new car, very soon, since he owned the van I was driving, and I owned the commuter car he was driving. Luckily the commuter car is worth about $5,000 on trade so I can get a new wagon and still keep my payments pretty darned low, which is what I want with my variable income. I am really liking the downsizing idea, I can get something that is easy and fun to drive, more efficient than the van (although my '05 Odyssey was getting 25mpg average on the highway which is not bad), and more comfortable for my (very bad) rotator cuff tendonitis, which always seems aggravated by driving a more upright vehicle. So looks like I'll be getting one of these. I measured the cargo area, and it's pretty big between the wheel wells so i can actually fit 2 crates across and then if I travel with a 3rd dog I can either squeeze a smaller Kiba-sized crate in the middle, or the 3rd dog can ride loose with a seatbelt.

2012 Hyundai Elantra Touring

Today, though, I am teaching class and still have the Civic sedan, so I'll just be taking 2 dogs that can ride on the backseat loose (anybody but Kiba can do so).

ETA: forgot to mention, on Monday Tracy teased us by posting that a Team Announcement for WAO was "coming soon" so "stay tuned".
2nd EDIT: apparently it was mean of me to say it was mean to tease. So OK, it was misleading posting it Monday, since apparently the plan is to announce it "by the end of the week". So I can stop obsessively checking Facebook now. Maybe.
I'd really like to make it with Kiba, but I have no real high expectations since she doesn't jump 22" which seems to be the expected Tryout height. But if she's not on the team I'd like to know so I can enter her next trials at 16" instead of 20". She can DO 20", but she needs extra conditioning and jump work for it.

Strafe's debut weekend

2011-12-12T12:15:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's right, Strafe is already old enough to run in AKC trials. While I'm not a big fan of overworking a young dog, I felt that Strafe was educated enough to run in Novice AKC. he knows all the obstacles and understands handling basics. And he did great! He measured at 20 and 5/8" tall, and ran at 20" (a little over 50cm) jump height. I will be working slowly up to 26" (65cm) after this, but didn't want to start out that high so young. Over the course of the weekend, Strafe had the fastest time in the Time 2 Beat class but knocked the last bar. He qualified in Novice Standard 2 out of 3 days, and qualified in Novice JWW once - the other NQ's were almost all single-bar-knocked runs. On Saturday I managed to stop him to mark the knocked bar, and after that he didn't hit any more. He is VERY careful about bars at home, so I suspect the excitement was just too much for him. All the bars he hit were cases where he just ran too close to the jump before taking off, which is just a factor of him rushing to go places. The mild correction of stopping to mark the bar on Sat seemed to be all the reminder he needed to pay attention.

Drifter and Kiba each ran 2 of the 3 days of the trial, and each did OK but neither got a QQ. I messed Drifter up once by almost running myself into the table which pulled him off a jump. And Kiba won JWW one day but hit a single bar in Std the next due to severe sun glare coming in the windows by the roof... overall they just ran a bit "off" due to lack of being in tune with me and lack of strong conditioning routine the last few months.

Videos of Strafe:
Friday, all 3 runs:

Saturday and Sunday Novice Standard runs:

And Sunday's qualifying Novice JWW run where I didn't support a jump by accident:

Trips Finished and Trips in Planning

2011-12-06T13:00:00.002-05:00

Well I'm home from my last "far away" seminar for 2011. Actually my last "far away" seminar for quite a while, I have others planned for the next few months, but all are within a few hours driving distance of my house, which makes life a lot easier. Coming home from far out west really takes a whole friggin' day..

i had fun in Portland. it was cold. like frosty cold. And it was foggy. i saw the sun briefly;) But it was Ok because all the people who came to the seminar were really nice, and their dogs were good too. I hope to return in the summer when it isn't frosty cold fog weather.

On the agenda for this week.. . Ria is coming to work on dogs today and tomorrow. I teach classes tomorrow afternoon/evening. Thursday is going to be catch-up day for laundry and various other errands. Then Friday is STRAFE'S FIRST TRIAL! WOOHOO!
Also on the agenda but for the more ambiguous timeframe of "soon" is planning my trip to Reno for AKC Nationals at the end of March. I am still deciding what to do with Kiba. I am taking her and my mother's Trig, who will be flying in cargo. I'm still deciding whether Kiba will be Ok with that, or if i need to work out a way to get her in the cabin with me. My strong original feelings for her have been that she is so bad in the car that she might come out of the plane a total wreck (or dead!) but the more I think on it, the more I am leaning towards going that direction. it's not illegal (always a bonus), and the things that make Kiba really nervous are the windows/movement of the car, and I don't really think that the mostly-dark cargo hold of the plane will have the same effect on her.

So here's my request. I know a lot of people read this blog, but very few people comment. But if you have a dog who is nervous in the car - panting, spinning, bracing in the corner, something like that - please comment if you have flown your dog in cargo. Did the dog come out of cargo OK? Dehydrated? Sore? Anxious? Relaxed?

Help me decide how to get this dog to Reno so she can kick some butt!

2011-12-01T10:35:00.000-05:00

Strafe enjoying our large window

Tomorrow morning VERY early (not so bright) I am headed off to the airport. Again. I've never ridden so many airplanes in such a short amount of time. I am only teaching a normal 2 days of seminars this time, then coming home Monday. However coming all the way east across the US pretty much takes a whole day unless you can get a direct flight (not really possible from PDX to BWI). So I get back late Monday. But really the travel doesn't bother me. I have always enjoyed reading books and I don't mind being by myself for periods of time, so flight days are really just "reading days" for me. Luckily I have some good books packed and ready to go. The only thing I'm concerned about is on the way back my connection time is fairly tight in Denver so hopefully the PDX - DEN flight will be on time or maybe early...

Looking forward to being back in the PNW again, even if it's only for 2 quick days! Nice people out there, and I've done a lot of teaching since the last time I was there and I hope (and expect) that the people who come will enjoy it even more this time than last. After all, if I didn't get better over time, what would be the point?

Today is devoted to my car, getting it inspected, tires, insurance change, DMV, etc. Not really exciting, but necessary stuff.

Yesterday I ran Strafe in my Masters class for the 2nd time. He's still jumping 20" (about 50cm) but he is doing really well. After I get back from Portland on Monday night I only have a few days left till his AKC debut!

On Science and Scare Tactics

2011-11-29T11:04:00.001-05:00

For some strange reason that I don't quite understand, the more scientific advances our civilization makes, the more some people start hunting for old, non-scientific methods of doing things. This ties into the "persecution complex" that many majorities mistakenly harbor, for instance the "war on Christmas" or "doctors are out to get you, not help you", things of that nature. For instance, if doctors (and veterinarians) are "out to get you", you will start believing that drugs are not helpful, only harmful. This is pure bunk. Being a skeptic myself, I believe science and scientific studies over "Mary Sue's friend's sister's dog turned into a raving aggressive maniac RIGHT AFTER he got his Rabies Vaccine!"

And so we talk about vaccines. Did you know there is NO GOOD study that says vaccines of any kind cause long term adverse reactions? Sure, there are some reactions to vaccines, such as a bump at the site, and certainly some dogs can have very strong reactions to any disease or ingredient in the vaccine. However, those dogs are having what basically amounts to a very strong allergic reaction.

Do you know what a vaccine is? It is a small amount of (usually dead) disease, injected into a dog's or human's body, so that the body can build up a good immune response to that disease without the risk of the (dead!) disease killing them. I do not understand how anyone can think it is better to risk their dog DYING of parvo or distemper or rabies rather than introduce this small element into their immune system. Do you know why I think this? Because over the last century people and dogs both have begun to enjoy much longer lives with much lower risks of disease. Why? Well a big part of the reason is vaccines. Get a small innoculation against something and enjoy an almost zero-risk of ever catching the actual disease later in life.

All of that said, I certainly do not vaccinate my dogs needlessly every year. They get puppy shots according to Dodds' recommendations at 8/12/16 weeks or so, they get Rabies after 16 weeks, then they get all their booster shots between 12-18 months. Then I just do Rabies every 3 years as required by the law in my area. That's it. Why? Because real science tells me that vaccines last longer than a year, in fact most of Parvo and Distemper studies I found said they lasted at LEAST 7 years, with strong indications they carried immunity for (a dog's) life.

Anyway, this post was inspired by an online magazine I see posted around Facebook a lot, called Dogs Naturally. This magazine has some good articles, but a lot of pseudoscience is also included. Lots of scare tactics. Lots of "rabies vaccinosis!!!! ZOMG!!!!" type stuff. I've lived with vaccinated dogs all my life. None of them seem to have any strange "rabies vaccinosis". They all seem the same before and after their vaccines... one got a bump one time. It went away after a couple weeks. I told the vet before the next one and he injected a different site that has more loose skin and no bump followed. I do not think magazines like Dogs Naturally really have a dog's best interest at heart. By encouraging people to believe in pseudoscience and quote mining real scientific papers for the single scary line or two, then emphasizing and blowing that part way out of proportion, they are simply invoking an emotional response in readers who are trying to do their best. Another tactic is to tell the reader a lot of bad things about vaccines, but have no link to source material proving the listed information.

I have important news for people. Vaccine companies, veterinarians, doctors - none of them are out to get you. Some of them are out to make money, this is true, but most health care professionals got into that profession specifically to help people or animals, and oftentimes that money is recycled straight back into more advances in the field. My vet does not live on a yacht, laughing at the foolish masses who paid the extra $30 for a vaccine they didn't need every year. I'm sure he does own a car. He's a nice guy. He enjoyed showing me the digital x-ray machine and how it worked. He didn't try to steal my wallet.

So the next time someone tells you that a magical plastic bracelet changed their life, look for the real science before automatically believing it. You will find that magical plastic bracelets have a lawsuit pending in Australia for false advertising....

As skeptics have been known to say "many anecdotes do not equal data".

Videos

2011-11-28T12:48:00.000-05:00

Here's a few runs with Trig, mother's dog. She did pretty well for me, 5 out of 7 Q's, including 2 QQ's towards Tryouts and an Exc A FAST Q as well.

And here's Kiba. She did not Q quite as much but had two really stellar JWW runs, winning the entire huge 20" class (I think it was about 100-120 dogs) on Saturday.

KESSC AKC Day 3 wrap-up and a note about travel

2011-11-27T19:02:00.000-05:00

Day 3 of KESSC today. My mom's little girl was a rockstar again today and got her 2nd QQ at 26" in a row. Already halfway to the 4 we need for Tryouts! Just have to finish garnering our "8 and 8" after that. Trig runs a little differently from my dogs, but she is not *quite* as fast as they are, so it's not a stressful challenge for me to run her, I just have to remember that she's better with me in front, and that if I have to rear cross I need to get her to check in with me first, since once in a while if I just do a regular rear cross without asking for a head check, she will bend in the new direction I've asked for, but then just take the first thing she sees...

Drifter got QQ #35 today. He Q'd in JWW each day with lovely runs, but had a couple goofy mistakes in Std each day. Friday he did one of those weird one-hit down ramp dogwalks that he started occasionally doing last winter. I am pretty convinced it's due to his crooked feet and not-working toe, so i just ignored it and the next 2 days his dogwalks were fine. I have to make sure i don't overextend him on the top ramp though, which is not something I ever had to watch before. I think with his crooked feet (left foot leans inside, right foot leans outside) landing and running on the downhill narrow slope is getting trickier for him and sometimes he'd rather just leave for the ground. This just reinforces my original thought to finish his MACH2 and then retire him from most competition.

Kiba got 2 really nice JWW Q's this weekend, beating Drifter's time in both of them and winning the entire 100dog 20" class on Saturday. The other runs were all nice except for one bar. Today I corrected both bars by marking them verbally and pausing briefly. I think she just needs more work at 20" - we haven't worked much since USDAA in KY 6 weeks ago, just a few courses here and there. She needs some good grid work and difficult handling exercises at 20 and 22" to get her to remember what she's doing. She's also not as fit as she was 2 months ago...

Which of course is because of all the travelling I've been doing. I've got one more weekend "away" until I hit a stretch where all my teaching is only 1 or 1 and 1/2 days, all within driving distance for a while. Which means I can take a couple dogs with me. Which makes it easier to keep them in shape, and makes it easier for them to be watched by my mother when I'm gone.

I met a rescue papillon this weekend that I really liked... made me rethink my "sheltie in a couple years" puppy plan. If it looks like he can be registered with AKC (with pedigree) and he really is the height I think he is (right around 13 and 3/4", mammoth for a papillon but *perfect* for 14" FCI) I am considering taking the little booger. he's currently 10months, which is really close to Strafe's age, but this little guy knows absolutely nothing, so while Strafe is ready to start novice competition now, this pap wouldn't be ready for probably a year.

Just a thought ;)

Videos from the weekend will be uploaded tomorrow.

first 2 days of KESSC

2011-11-26T20:29:00.000-05:00

Keystone English Springer Spaniel Club that is...

Yesterday and today Kiba and Drifter both Q'ed in JWW, yesterday and today Kiba beat Drifter's time. Both are jumping 20". Drifter is a little fat still, a pound or two overweight. And also both days, Kiba hit one bar in Std and Drifter had at least one moment of "WAHOOO I AM NOT AN EDUCATED NINE YEAR OLD DOG!" and basically ignored some blatant cue that I gave him.... so yeah. Hopefully one of the two will get a double Q tomorrow... neither needs it for Reno but it would be nice! Despite the single knocked bar each day, Kiba actually looks GREAT at 20" and I'm still crossing my fingers we'll get picked for the WAO team, as I have no real worries about her health at 20, she just has to get back in the swing of trialing at that height again. She hasn't run at 20" in a trial since late September.

i also ran Trig for the first time at 26" to start garnering Q's towards Tryouts this spring. Yesterday I didn't run FAST, we had one "disconnect" in JWW and she broke her stay in Std so I walked her off (I didn't even get past the first obstacle before she got up). Today she stayed like a rock, Q'ed in all 3 classes, not a "triple Q" technically because she's still in Exc A Fast, but she got her first QQ (of 4 needed) towards Tryouts, and her first of her "8 and 8" each of Std and JWW as well.

One more day of trial.

CO, yep I was there, I had fun, I survived

2011-11-24T09:20:00.001-05:00

With the rush to explain the ETS video I posted before leaving for CO, I didn't actually mention how teaching in CO went. I had fun, it was a really nice group of people, no "sour grapes" types and everyone really seemed interesting in hearing what I had to say and at least trying things out. Everyone had a great attitude, the group asked good questions (I like questions; they keep me on track!). And I survived the altitude just fine. I had no immediate effects on landing, no "altitude sickness" type issues. I'm young enough and healthy enough overall that I really shouldn't have those types of problems. I did recognize that the air was quite dry and at night my nose had that "dry congestion" type of thing going on, but nothing too bad. And I definitely did feel myself getting a little out of breath when I got on a roll and talked for a few minutes straight. However, I think I'll be fine to run a 30 second agility run, as long as I don't enter the ring already out of breath. I also talked to the friendly locals about the weather, and while they did agree there was a slight chance of adverse weather (as in precipitation of some kind), they said generally it should be chilly in the morning and quite likely warm (like 80's possible) in the afternoon. The sun there is very strong and they assured me that any frost should be long gone by 9:30am start time....

So yes, i am still tentatively planning to attend the USDAA Nationals event in CO in September. My first qualifer isn't till January, and Strafe isn't old enough till March. However, I ran Strafe in my Masters class yesterday and he did fabulously. Not to say he ran everything perfectly on the first try, but his mistakes were minor, he handled being around other people and dogs just fine. He weaved no problem and his aframes continue to be very consistently in the contact. Only 2 weeks till his debut now!

Today is Thanksgiving. I don't really celebrate holidays. But it's nice that everyone's off from work. I'm about to go on a hike at Fair Hill with Seri and Strafe, who aren't entered in the trial tomorrow.

ETA: we went for a nice, slightly sidetracked, winding hike at Fair Hill in gorgeous weather. Here's Seri showing off her "Don't Shoot Me" hiking gear:

ETS

2011-11-22T15:51:00.003-05:00

Early Takeoff Syndrome.

No, I do not believe there is a true medical syndrome that is defined by "bad jumping". But I do believe we need a name for this strange collection of symptoms that affects some dogs. I had a dog such as this. Many people won't remember her at all, because I retired her early and allowed her to go live with a nice retired couple and be spoiled. Freeze was a highly intelligent dog, very athletic. But she was a poor jumper. I have worked on jump grids and lots of 1 and 2 jump exercises with my dogs since the dark ages of agility in the early 90's. Freeze did many a jump grid and lots of exercises. She was fit. She passed her CERF exam. She was smart, she was well-trained. She achieved her ADCH title relatively quickly, qualified for USDAA Nationals every year I ran her, made a few Top Ten lists, and even got an LAA-Bronze award.

Freeze had ETS. It is a painful problem to work with. And no, it isn't JUST a matter of training, it isn't even JUST a matter of agility. There are a lot of situations where a dog needs the ability to judge a horizontal "bar" of some sort in space, and she had trouble with all of the. Open types of stairs scared her a bit. She was quite concerned about entering and exiting small crate doors, and always flew through them at 90mph.

Like many ETS dogs, Freeze had a softer personality type, and if I even THOUGHT about correcting her knocked bar, more bars were sure to fall. Also like many ETS dogs, she was highly sensitive to my motion while she was jumping. If she knew I was about to front cross, the bar fell down. If I tried to lead out too far, the bar came down. If I did anything in front of her, basically, the bar came down. So I used a lot of rear crosses (which unfortunately led to people thinking I was unable to handle using front crosses, when in fact I generally prefer to work in front of my dogs!)

Linda is continuing her work with ETS and has been updating the information, adding a new webpage with some newer video links. Because I am now considered a "big name" agility handler (woohoo I guess I've made it!) and I had an ETS dog, i was asked to put some video together showing the problem. I gladly complied. I think it is a sad state of affairs when other "big name" trainers claim that ETS is just an uneducated dog, or one that's rushing. Clearly these people are blind to the obvious anxiety that can be seen on the dogs' faces as they attempt to figure out where the jump or tire is. Many of these dogs have a big heart, and enjoy working with their handler so much that they continue to try, but clearly the dog is just unable to judge things properly. Training can not overcome physical issues, whether they are due merely to vision problems, or to some strange connection between vision and brain.

Here is the video of Freeze. Some of it is quite cringe-inducing and looking back, I am very glad that I allowed her to retire before she got any worse.

ETA: I want to clarify that while I don't believe "bad jumping" is an inherited issue, I absolutely do believe that the collection of traits which lead to this problem ARE inherited. i think it's undeniable that some related dogs, who were bred by different people and raised in different homes, still develop the same problem. ETS is caused by something which is genetic.

minor blackout

2011-11-18T09:04:00.000-05:00

I'm off to CO this afternoon to teach for 3 days. I haven't been in CO since I was about 9 or 10 years old. Several of my friends love it though. I am just looking forward to a brand new group of seminar participants.

Anyway, I'm not bringing my laptop so won't be updating till I get home, and then I'll be brief due to still having other things to do - a friend is visiting, then after Thanksgiving I have a 3-day AKC trial, local to home but still taking up the majority of the day.

So, more air travel today for me. I'm flying on 2 different airlines, one out, one back, in order to get a decent nonstop flight at the right times of day/night. I'm going to try carrying on my luggage this time rather than checking it, just so I can avoid waiting at the baggage claim. I really don't mind, normally, but last time when I was returning from TX it took forever to get the bags on the carousel and on the way home, especially, I get very impatient. So hopefully the overhead bins won't be jampacked when I board so my rolling carry-on will fit... we'll see!

This will also be my first hotel stay without a dog in a long time. Relaxing but strange. I have a deep-seated compulsion to "go walk the dog" when I return to a hotel or before I go to bed. I even experienced it strongly when I was in the bed and breakfast in Denmark last year. So strange to be dogless. I've NEVER lived in a house without dogs, my entire life! Anyway, I will survive 4 quick nights in a hotel. Really more like 3 and 1/2 nights, since I'm leaving early Tues morning. The shuttle comes to pick me up in the wee hours so I can make my flight out of Denver that takes off at 7am.

By the way

2011-11-17T14:13:00.000-05:00

Sometimes when people come to see me for a private lesson, they will tell me they had a friend who said they shouldn't bother to come because "Rosanne only does X..." and X changes, sometimes it's "Rosanne only does rear crosses" - that's what I used to hear, because I had a dog with ETS who couldn't jump well if I was in front of her. Lately it's "Rosanne only does distance" or "Rosanne only does front crosses"

Seriously? I *only* do distance? WTF are these people smoking? I'm sorry... this aggravated me a little. And I'm glad the people who hear this don't let it deter them. And yes, this is a bit of a snipey post, but still. It's basically impossible to succeed at National and International level agility these days if you "only do distance" or "only do rear crosses" or "only do..... " anything!

So to whomever is telling people I don't do anything but distance, here's some videos! And if you already know I work close to my dogs when necessary, but ALSO utilize sending when necessary, here's some videos you can enjoy too. They're all old ones, reposted.

So, sorry to rant a bit. I just think it's very bad manners to say things like that about other people. I certainly hope it is clear that I do not use "distance" exclusively any more than i use any certain type of cross exclusively. In fact when I teach I usually make a point of helping the attendees to find different options. And yes, my dogs do have great sending skills, that is how I GET AHEAD OF THEM!

not as controversial...

2011-11-17T09:29:00.000-05:00

If you wondered where all the obsessive "dogwalk training" videos of Strafe went, well, we just don't need them anymore. It seems the bit of work we did on it a couple months ago did the trick, and he's been sequencing it since then with great consistency. He's missed one here and there, but the very great majority of them have been spot on. He goes with me to seminars I teach (when I drive to them), and I get him on the equipment, and often I find that the very first dogwalk he is a bit hesitant but still hits the contact easily, and after that he gets lower and better. Yesterday he actually gave me a nice deep hit the very first time, possibly because I didn't "show it to him" first - I just made up a course and threw him at it, and he did great. Nice deep, fast, dogwalk hits. I am very pleased. I even did a turn off one to a right angle weave entry and he was great. I haven't worked a ton of turns yet because I wanted consistency first, but i don't get the feeling he's going to be tough to turn later on. He's just not a "lock onto things" sort of dog; he's always easy to turn. Only 3 more weekends before his debut!

Not being home to exercise my dogs every day has led to Drifter's continued chubbiness. It is rainy and windy today but I got them for a nice 20min walk/run this morning before breakfast. I also dug the big peanut out of the spare bedroom (from when we moved) and will work on that this afternoon. i want to make sure the older dogs don't get lazy, and I want to make sure Strafe has built up a good core as I start raising his jump heights up from 20" to 26" later in December.

On jump heights. USDAA and WAO.

2011-11-15T10:30:00.001-05:00

Does this jump look too small for Kiba? She's definitely jumping it. It's only 16". At AKC Nationals we don't have a choice, we have to jump this height.

Jump heights are difficult to get right. In most places in Europe, they only have 3 jump heights, and because I'm american, I'm going to use inches for this post. So for FCI/EO type competitions, the only heights available are 14"/18"/26". Do you see a gap there? Let's see, maybe 22 is missing? Yeah, in FCI every dog over 16 and 7/8" tall has to jump 26". That's not right. But FCI is slow to change. For some reason they seem to like having twice as many "Large" dogs as Small and Medium dogs. I'm not sure why. Makes a lot of sense to split that class and have a 22" height for smaller "Large" dogs.

But alas, I have no say in FCI. I really wanted to talk about the USA anyway. Here in the US, we have 2 major organizations (I am ignoring all the smaller ones that don't strive to create dogs/handlers that can compete at a National/International level). AKC has a lot of jump heights. Possibly too many, but it's probably better to err on the side of "too many options" than on the side of "not enough". In AKC, each jump height includes all dogs within the range of 2" above and below the jump height, with the sole exception of the 8" class which goes up to 11" at the withers. So for the 16" class, dogs from 14" to 18" tall jump the height. For 20", that is dogs 18" to 22" tall. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm pretty sure dogs on the high end of the range have a really easy time with the jumps most of the time, and I think a 22" tall dog competing against a 18.25" tall dog isn't quite right. But at least I understand this system. Luckily for me, in this system, Kiba falls into the high end of the range, and so she can enjoy jumping 16" which is very easy for her, and puts her at an advantage against 14.5" dogs.

In USDAA they have chosen to create a system where every dog jumps higher than it's own height at the withers. This is a problem. Especially because their heights are 12/16/22/26" - and once again there's a large gap, not as large as the FCI gap, but 12 and 16 are 4" apart, and 22 and 26 are 4" apart. So why are 16 and 22" half again as farther apart at 6"? In USDAA, all dogs between 16" and 21" tall are assigned the 22" jump height. I don't think this is at all fair. When you're assigning jump heights, you need to look at the typical body types of dogs within a height range. And dogs at the 16-17" tall range generally do not find 22" to be a very easy jump height. Many of these dogs choose to run in Performance because they feel that jumping their small dogs over 22" jumps is too hard for them.

Another problem in USDAA is that many people feel that the small dog divisions are driving small dog competitors to compete in AKC where the heights are friendlier. Again, in these heights, the body types of the dogs involved do not make higher jumps easy for them. There are a lot corgi's, valhunds, and terriers. Jumping 3" over their shoulder is quite difficult for some of these.

I have a solution! Here is my proposed "ideal jump heights" for USDAA. Not that I pull any weight with them, but perhaps my solution will go viral and create an uproar and perhaps SOME kind of change will happen.
I would use these divisions: 10"/14"/18"/22"/26"
This division has a lot of advantages. You create a smaller Championship height for dogs who have trouble with 12", but without going so low to 8" that the jumps seem like tiny speed bumps. You create 14 and 18", drawing the crowd of competitive FCI and EO hopefuls who would really enjoy having an american organization with those heights available. You keep the 22/26 which I do think are good, competitive jump heights. but you can slice off that section of dogs under 18" or so and stop forcing them to jump 4-6" over their shoulder for the 22" height.

My cutoff's for such divisions would be as followed, and are based primarily on my anecdotal but extensive observations of body type and height of dogs I've seen over the years:
10" jump height - dogs up to 11" tall.
14" jump height - dogs up to 14.5"
18" jump height - dogs up to 18.5"
22" jump height - dogs up to 21.5"
26" jump height - dogs over 21.5"
While some of the heights include a very small slice of dogs who would be slightly taller than the jumps, no division includes dogs that are a LOT taller than the jumps, I think every division forces dogs to actually jump, not just step over speed bumps. It will raise the heights for some dogs, and lower them for others. The dogs who will have a raised height will be brought in line with international standards at FCI, and while I know USDAA likes to pretend they don't exist, just like AKC, the reality is that they DO, and that is the standard that most people look to when they look for the ultimate international competition level.

I would also go the route of AKC and force Performance participants to jump the lower jump height. But that is a personal peeve of mine and I know many disagree with me. I, personally, feel that if your dog is no longer capable of jumping spreads or doing a higher aframe, you probably should just allow the dog to jump the lower jump height too. But I am very conservative in my views on taking care of my dogs' bodies.

As far as WAO, hell, I think those heights I listed would be great for them too but they want to differentiate themselves from FCI by trying to create small and medium heights that are not "border collie heights" as they put it.

I have applied with Kiba for the USA Team for WAO. I think it would be the ultimate irony if I was denied a spot on the team because I didn't compete in 22" for the last year. Considering that WAO created the 20" jump height specifically to try to be fair to smaller border collies and lure the FCI Medium dogs into coming to compete...it would be extremely ironic if I was left off the team for refusing to jump 22" with my small border collie and compete against larger ones. Isn't that sort of exactly the point the WAO was trying to make, after all? Anyway, if we don't make that team, I'll either see if I can afford the EO, or just skip international competition this year, aside from taking Trig to Tryouts for FCI Team. I expect she'll do fine at Tryouts but I have no urgent feeling that she'll actually make the team. She's not even my dog, after all...

2011-11-15T09:49:00.000-05:00

That's how Strafe sleeps in bed. He doesn't really sleep upside any other time, just in bed. I'm pretty sure it's because he likes the belly-cooling effect of the ceiling fan which we leave on most of the time. he DOES take up my foot space though....

Today I'm off to NJ. Yes, never still, my wandering feet (and tires). This evening I'm teaching some privates at a private indoor, and tomorrow I've got a day of privates for a club in NJ. Then Thursday is a day home to prepare for Friday, when I leave for Denver CO to teach all weekend. Then the following week I return home on Tuesday, a friend comes to visit, then Thanksgiving (something I really don't care about, sorry), a 3-day AKC Trial which is my first chance to garner some Q's towards Tryouts with Trig at 26". Then the following weekend I'm off to Portland OR (hopefully I'll get weather as nice as last year!), then the weekend after that is Strafe's first trial! He's actually ready now, somehow. I've never had a dog fully trained at 14 months. And while he's definitely not ready to go win Nationals or anything, he is confident and happy with all the equipment, his jumping is solid, his handling basics are all solid. And it's certainly not because I work him every day. Or even every other day. Or even every week! But he picks everything up very quickly, and he has been to more different places than most of my young dogs, since I take him to seminars with me whenever they're close enough to drive to. So he's been on at least 4 or 5 different sets of contacts and weaves already. He's also experienced a myriad of different types of footing, from slick turf to packed dirt to rubber matting to grass.

Long Island

2011-11-14T16:19:00.000-05:00

While my mother has lived and gone to school in NY, I know little about the city area. So this weekend was my very first trip to Long Island. I discovered that it's a really neat place and it was a great group of people, but you have to cross Staten Island to get there. And any time you go onto Staten Island, you pay a toll. The toll for the bridge is $13. Yes, $13.00 to cross a bridge. And because you cross one island to get to another, you pay a toll each direction. $13.00! Now, the group paid for my mileage so it's not a big deal, I was being paid for it, I just couldn't believe it. I drive in the great Philadelphia/Wilmington and Baltimore/DC areas a lot, and I've never seen a toll over $6.00 for any bridge or tunnel, except for the 26mile long Bridge Tunnel down over the Chesapeake, but that's an enormously long monstrosity that goes on forever, not a 2-mile bridge across a river...

Verrazano bridge from above:

Lots of confusing exit ramp swirly shapes. This bridge has them!

no, that wasn't the best bit of the trip. There were nice people and good times, I do enjoy creating a good course set up that can both push people a bit and also let them be successful, and I'm getting better and better at meshing those things together. And of course it's always nice to be inside in a climate controlled building, although the weather outside was actually pretty nice all weekend.

Friday I leave for CO, should be fun too. Will be a whole new group of people, I have no idea if I know anyone who's coming or not... This group has me doing lots of short workshops, so I will have to spend Thursday reviewing and perhaps creating some new material if necessary, because tomorrow and Wed I'm back in NJ teaching private lessons. Yes, I am one busy little bee lately!

Verrazano bridge at night, pretty cool looking actually...

Strafe again!

2011-11-09T08:11:00.000-05:00

It hasn't quite been a year since I flew to Denmark to retrieve this little stinker, but we are officially entered in our first trial! It was a draw so I didn't know till last night, but the trial didn't fill so we got in. Hurray! I did enter him at 20" because I didn't want to be rushed getting him up to 26" - he is still so young. We've done 24/26" a few times on individual jumps or in very short sequences, but I think he will do better with another month or two of running courses beginning at 20" and slowly working our way up to 26". He continues to jump anything I put him to without any issue at all, so I'm really not concerned. i also want his first trial to feel "easy" for him so he will be confident. Our 2nd trial will be New Years weekend, and I entered that one at 24" as a step up for him. Then when we go to FL at the end of January we will probably go ahead and run 26". Makes for a nice step by step timeline.

Strafe!

2011-11-08T19:30:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we went for a hike at Fair Hill. It was the first time I've gone since after the really big 3-day event in October. Lots of cool horse jumps around, including this one, apparently the world's largest hammock.

As of yesterday, Strafe is officially 14 months old! Such a strange feeling with him. It is going really quickly now and I can't believe he's grown up. But also he learns everything so quickly and acts so grown up in training, that it's hard to believe he's ONLY 14 months old... strange dichotomy.

Thursday he goes in to get his hips done with Pennhip.

Drifter. And jumping.

2011-11-07T10:40:00.000-05:00

Drifter winning the Mid-Atlantic Showcase Triathlon final round this past spring. Yes, he's got a line of spittle hanging from his mouth even at 8.5 years old...

I made the decision about WAO. I am only sending in an application for Kiba, and not for Drifter. I just don't like the idea of ME being stressed about his health the whole time I'm there. Kiba is younger, she's fast, reliable, can turn on a dime, and has no health issues to worry about. She also has the advantage of being clearly under the 2013 cut-off for the new 525mm height, so we could go 2 more years if we get chosen. With WAO out of the equation, that leaves Drifter's single goal for the next year as "finish MACH2 and qualify for 2013 AKC Nationals in Tulsa". Which means just doing some local AKC. He needs 6 more QQ's for MACH2, and then he'll need 6 total starting in December. But that will not take long. He's not going to Reno, he's not going to Denver, he's not going to Belgium. That leaves.... well.... no big events for Drifter in 2012. At all. That is a REALLY strange feeling after having him as my "main dog" pretty much from 2004 onwards. We've had our ups and downs, but he's proven himself well in his career. I am holding out hope that USDAA will move down from high altitude and not all the way out west for 2013, in that case I would run him in Performance (something I was looking forward to for 2012 but will not happen 6,000ft up with his heart murmur). So I guess it is really truly time to focus on Kiba as my "main dog"! She's been an "also ran" for a long time, and though she's done REALLY well in her time, she's also easier to run than Drifter so I never have to work really hard to run her. It's a nice feeling, I am always relaxed stepping to the line with her. She's predictable - she stays on the start, she turns tight, she runs her heart out, and if she hits a bar it was an accident, not laziness or carelessness.
And of course Strafe will be the "secondary" dog as he tries to come from Novice all the way to qualifying for AKC Nationals and Tryouts for 2013.... wow what a strange year, focusing on my 2 "easy dogs" all the time!
Seri will come out and do a little bit, but if I decide not to go to Denver (still a real possibility), she won't be doing any big events either. My main goal for Seri is just to be able to trial her once a month without her body falling apart...

And jumping. Here's a short jumping exercise from yesterday. I worked on the SAME exercises at the SAME heights with all 4 dogs. Here is a video showing some of the similarities and differences between the dogs. Sorry, no fancy music, just me talking to the dogs and quiet slow-mo sections.

MACH daughter

2011-11-06T08:52:00.000-05:00

Forgot to mention this on here, but Drifter's daughter in NY earned her MACH already! They aren't even 4 years old yet, so that's really fabulous. Here's a couple pictures of her and my mom's littermate Trig, they were practically twins as puppies and still have a lot of similarities. These pictures were taken by Kaitlyn Dreese and I hope she doesn't mind me "stealing" them from Facebook to post them here....

Here's Keeley looking unimpressed with her absolutely enormous ribbon

And here's Keeley on the left, posing with Trig on the right. Trig is the one I may take to Nationals and Tryouts this year.

Dogs are not robots.

2011-11-05T17:07:00.000-04:00

Of course this seems ridiculously obvious. I feed my dogs, they eliminate, they have personalities, they age. Of course they aren't robots. Each dog is a living, breathing, different individual. I have trained quite a few dogs already in my life. My methods have changed a bit over the years, but one thing is clear - each dog is DIFFERENT! I have success (or not) with any given dog because I learned how to adapt my methods of training and handling to suit each individual.

Why, then, is it somehow taboo to suggest that any given dog seen out running agility might be easier to train in some way than any other given dog? Let's say I observe "Sally" running "Bobo", and I notice that Bobo is a very nice natural jumper who seems fairly forgiving; he doesn't knock bars even if Sally is crossing right in front of the jump or saying something surprising while he's in the air. I think to myself - "I would like a dog like Bobo!". But for some reason if I say in public that Bobo seems easier than, say, my dog Seri - this is construed as insulting to Sally, as if I am saying Sally is a bad handler and Bobo makes up for it. As if I just don't understand that Sally is an amazing trainer. That Sally does jump grids with her youngsters, etc etc. You get the point.

But the truth is, some dogs really ARE easier than others. OF COURSE! They are individuals, just like every other animal on the planet. Some dogs will intuitively understand the concept of straightening up for a jump in order to turn tighter, some will never get it. This doesn't make them bad dogs or the handlers bad either, but it does make them harder to turn and more prone to knocking bars. Some dogs naturally have more impulse control than others. This is evident with things like start line stays and stops on the contacts. I admire dogs who stop on the contacts in the ring! Those who stay on their see-saw so easily. And of course the handlers have worked hard to train this, but the truth is, some dogs just have an easier time controlling themselves than others.

Some dogs, no matter who is training them, will never be fast enough to win Nationals. Some will be fast enough no matter who trains them! And then there's a lot of dogs in the middle, who have the potential to win if trained properly...

Some dogs will require motivating at a young age, I call these dogs ones in whom you must "install the gas pedal". Some will have plenty of motivation and will require lots of impulse control and deceleration work - I call this "installing the brakes". But then sometimes you get a lovely dog who comes with both gas pedal AND brakes, pre-installed! Strafe seems to be like this. Perfect! But if you had to install one or the other on your dog, no big deal! Train what you have, of course. But a dog who came with both is just lovely. These dogs more easily understand both ends of the spectrum - impulse control AND driving forward. Deceleration AND crazy tugging games.

If dogs WERE robots, we'd just order up the type we like, perhaps add some apps for higher speed or better turns, and be done with it. In the real world this would be things like training drills and even conditioning - but underneath all the personal add-ons each dog will always be an individual that you are building on. There is NO SHAME in admitting your dog was easy to train. Even easy to train dogs require a good handler to do well. In agility, timing is everything, and a handler with bad timing will not be winning too many large events, even with an easy dog! If you've got a difficult dog to train in some way or another, just appreciate what you are learning in the process of teaching this dog, and don't worry, plenty of difficult dogs have won large events with good handlers too.

I just hope that eventually the stigma attached to suggesting that "so-and-so has an easy dog" will fade - I don't say that as a way to disrespect the handler, it's really quite honestly a bit of jealousy. I think I finally have one of these mythical easy dogs, and I'm really enjoying it, and am looking forward to going places with him!

Click on the picture for a large version:)

So appreciate that dogs aren't robots. There's no pre-ordering. Every one is different. And while I'm not a big "Positive Thoughts!!!!!" type of person, I do think we learn something from each dog. They aren't teaching us, rather, it's what we learn from teaching them.

Segmented Post, catching up

2011-11-04T13:30:00.000-04:00

Austin
I've been busy this past week. Last Wed I flew down to Austin TX and taught seminars and privates for 4 and 1/2 days. Got totally lucky with the weather and while it was chilly in the morning and sunny in the afternoon, and one day it was windy, it was generally really great outdoor agility weather. It was fun but tiring to teach that many days in a row - I've never done it before but I found that I handled it pretty well. I wasn't flat out exhausted at the end of the last day, although it was nice to fly home on a direct flight... the dogs were happy to see me when I got back Monday night.

Strafe
He is officially running like a grown-up. He's going to be 14 months old in just a few days, and he can now run full courses at 20", including all the obstacles. His dogwalk looks pretty good. He mis-strides it every now and then but it's not common. I haven't worked turns yet since I wanted to get some consistency first. His frame looks great. His see-saw is also solid - again some inconsistency in that sometimes he drives right up to the end of the board, and then sometimes he stops a little early, but I'm Ok with that. He will even out as he gets more sequences with it. His weaves are not perfectly reliable, he will pop out if I get too exciting or too far away, but he's only been doing them about 2 weeks without a lot of practice so I'm sure he'll get better in time.

Seri
Ria Acciani was at our house working on dogs Tues/Wed (busy, like I said), and I am extremely optimistic about Seri's future as an agility dog. A few weeks ago I began running courses in training, including all 3 contacts, at speed. And she still looks good. Her shoulder is looking fabulous and holding up well, and her wrist is doing OK - it will always be something I have to watch, there is no 100% healing that will magically happen there, and she will probably have arthritis in it when she's old, but that's OK. She is functionally sound and it only bothers her on extreme flexion. My tentative plan is to keep working at home in training, and then try running a few classes in USDAA in January and see how she does.

Drifter
As he's gotten older he's gotten hungrier. Now with the addition of being neutered almost 2 months ago, he is now getting fat for the first time in his entire life. He looks great though, he held up really well over the long USDAA week in KY.

Kiba
Some great pictures of her from USDAA, she has a very photogenic expression, but it is quite clear that she realy does take off early for jumps. This is part of the reason I've put her in P16" rather than making her jump 4+" over her shoulder at 22" in USDAA. She has a lot of ground speed, but doesn't carry a lot of speed over jumps at a high height. At the lower height she is more capable of it. I ran her at 20" in practice again, and she did just fine, so I am not ruling out WAO, she would just need a good deal of jumping practice at that height.

speaking of it.... WAO
Drifter ran so bloody well at USDAA that I had a mini-crisis about not putting his name in for consideration for the WAO Team for this coming year. He is clearly still competitive, and his body is holding up really well for a 9-year old dog. However, he did have one day where his feet were clearly painful, and he was limping quite badly on Friday evening. His toes and feet have slowly become more of an issue, as I remember his toes all being sore after practice day at WAO this past spring as well - I soaked him in a few inches of cold water in the tub at the hotel to help, and after that day he seemed fine. But, clearly, his feet hurt sometimes. This will not get better - he is getting old and having old dog problems now. Ria says he would probably be absolutely fine to compete, however we might need to bring painkillers in case his feet begin to hurt. My general thoughts on WAO are - I would love to go! I have 2 dogs to put up for consideration. Kiba has the advantage of being easier to handle, she stays on the start line, she doesn't have full running contacts so she's a little easier there - I don't have to run like a maniac just to get a turn off the dogwalk. She stays on the see-saw. She eats when travelling! (though Drifter might now, who knows!?) But the big thing is - Kiba, when fit, holds up quite well over a longer competition. She has no major physical issues, no past injuries to watch, she doesn't get sore feet. Usually her back gets a little tight, but with Ria there to help out, she will be good to go. I would have no qualms about running her in 2 or 3 classes a day, for 3 days in a row. Kiba doesn't "argue" with me. I would love, for example, to run her in Individual Pentathlon, Biathlon, AND a Team class or two. But Drifter would not be in that many classes - I would have concerns about his feet getting sore. I also worry that his sore feet will affect his running contacts. That he will fly off the see-saw. That he will get hot and have trouble cooling off (a side effect of his heart murmur, and the reason he won't go to Denver CO). In other words, Drifter COULD go to WAO, but I will be more stressed running him. My only concern about running Kiba is that she doesn' hit bars. . .

Schedule
I'm busy busy busy again for November. This weekend I am home, thankfully, but after this I'm teaching 2 weekends in a row, trialing, then teaching again 2 weekends in December. And hopefully a trial that will be Strafe's debut! I am excited about that!

Nationals
AKC Nationals - Drifter and Kiba are both qualified, but I am still adamant that Drifter is not going. Too much travel. If he is still running great next year maybe I'll bring him to Tulsa. We'll see. It does look like I will be running Kiba AND my mom's Trig, possibly at 26", and possibly also take her to Tryouts in May! I am happy to do that, it will be fun to go, even with a dog that isn't really mine. Trig is a nice solid little dog, and jumps 26" pretty easily (she's 20.25" or so tall). Plus it'll be fun to go with Drifter's daughter. Back to Nationals though - the other Nationals, USDAA, has changed their date. They moved it earlier, to the end of September. That should help with fears of snow and hopefully even frost. It does nothing to alleviate the issue of BSL though. And then apparently that Sept 26th is part of Yom Kippur, an apparently very important Jewish holiday. I don't really celebrate any holiday, I think they are kind of silly and I'm not religious, but I can see how it's kind of insensitive to do that. I'm pretty sure they wouldnt' have picked Easter for this event...

???
There was something else I was going to post, but I forgot. I should add that I keep up this blog in a journal type format because it helps me track my own thoughts, as well as share them with the creepy public world. So stalk away, just don't be too creepy if you see me at a trial ;) I don't want this to become a commercial, instructional, pay-to-play type thing. I am a person, I have thoughts, and if they aren't too offensive, I'll continue sharing them here...

Who doesn't like more video of the "puppy"?

2011-10-25T13:53:00.001-04:00

So I am slowly packing for my TX trip throughout the day today. But i also had to go out and get some more video of my awesome puppy. I was so impressed with how he did the sequences I had set up for the seminar last weekend! So here is a video showing some aframes, jumping sequences, dogwalks and weave poles. We have started working on leaving the toy on the ground near the start line area, so sometimes he comes off the line a little slower and looks a little sad ("why are we leaving the toy behind?") but he started to get better as the session progressed. Nothing too complicated with the jumping, just working some basic handling reminders with slightly higher jumps. I was pleased with his obstacles today. A couple "superman" one-hit aframes but he is usually pretty good at balancing as he exits the contact. No somersaults or face-smashing like Seri. His dogwalks today were just beautiful. He popped a few weaves, but I've been verbally encouraging him to speed up and also slowly adding in a little lateral distance so no worries there.

CO thoughts, and my favorite season

2011-10-24T17:29:00.001-04:00

I think fall has always been my favorite season. I love the cooling weather, the pretty trees, and the crisp smell in the air. I really don't like the sweltering heat and humidity of summer, or the sunburn or the crispy dry grass. Or even just the long hours of daylight. It should be dark before bedtime! I've always found the weather and clear nights of fall to be energizing. Sure, it means winter is coming, but winter comes every year, and since New Years has never really meant much to me (it's just a human way of marking time, after all, the world doesn't care one bit what date we call it...), it doesn't bother me. Winter is just "cold time of year". So fall is a productive time. It's cool, it's usually not as dry as the heat of summer, so dogs can work and play. I can hike as long as I like without myself or the dog overheating. Or freezing. The orange and yellow and red trees are lovely.

I am still waffling a bit about USDAA in Denver. I will be in Denver myself to teach in November, maybe I'll see how I do with the altitude then. I do have asthma - it was bad when I was a kid, mostly cleared now but I have no lung power and can get quite short of breath if I have a cold or something, so I'm curious to see if I can talk all day 6,000ft up. Guess we'll find out!

As for USDAA, I guess it's strange but the REAL reason I'm planning to go is because I can't really allow them to hold a big national event and not attend. I mean, someone else might get MY placements or something! ;) Goofy reason, I know. And it would be fun to take Strafe. But the high altitude, BSL, and possibility of adverse weather conditions are all real turn-offs for me. Not sure I want to travel that far and risk frosty grass, or snow, or rain. And supporting a city with BSL sucks too. Not have bully breeds, i haven't paid attention to it much before, but it's become a public issue this time, and unfortunately it sounds like USDAA doesn't really want to talk about it. Not always good with the whole public relations thing, USDAA. For a privately owned company, they do have trouble remembering that competitors are really consumers here....

Anyway. Enjoy the extra blog post, I'm sure I won't be blogging while in TX this weekend (although I hear it might rain, oddly enough!)

ETA: after I made my post about loving Fall weather, I took the dogs out for an evening walk and got a pretty good pic of the sunset. It's just from my Droid, so some of the color didn't get captured, but a pretty cool picture nonetheless.

A rambling post about how busy I am and how my puppy is turning into a dog

2011-10-24T09:01:00.000-04:00

My dogs are good sports about being posed for pictures now, but the 2 smooth coats kept closing their eyes. Sun glare? Who knows.

This weekend I was off teaching in Salisbury MD, which was fun. We had FABULOUS weather, cool, sunny, a nice breeze. I probably got sunburn. Today and tomorrow I'm resting my feet, my voice, packing and preparing for the next trip, teaching in Austin, TX for 4 and 1/2 days. I leave Wed and fly out of BWI for the first time. I decided not to take a dog with me, since it just makes flying more streamlined not having to deal with the dog. Delays and cramped conditions and finding my ride are smoother without dealing with a dog. Plus to be honest, I hardly ever use a demo dog while teaching.

I fly back on next Monday, I think Ria is coming that Tues. Strafe goes to get his 1-year-plus booster vaccinations on Wed and to get his initial vet visit under his belt so he can get his hips done in a few weeks. Then I'm off to Richmond VA for a day or so. November is also busy for me! Exciting to have so much teaching lined up. I enjoy it, even if it is tiring, and so far most of the people I'm teaching seem to enjoy it too. I really like creating sequences that will challenge people but that they can still have some success on. I want people to walk in thinking "I can't do that" and walk out saying "I did it!" - although sometimes they might have to say "I know what I have to train in order to do it"....

This weekend I took Strafe and Seri with me, and for the first time I ran Strafe on quite a few sequences at 20", and he got to do brand new weave poles and more aframes in sequences in a strange place. He was AWESOME. Got all 12 poles every time, even picked up some more speed through them. He jumps 20" like it's nothing at all.

My growing up little boy in the field:

no one's being persecuted here...

2011-10-21T14:15:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to touch on a topic that is one of my pet peeves today. Judges. Namely, that they are there to judge your dog, not to "get you". Judges aren't out there wishing your dog would fault. They're not out there getting distracted and then calling a fault just because it's more fun that way. They aren't being paid off by the "big name" handlers. They are just as likely to call Johnny Never-been-to-National's contact or refusal as they are to call mine or Susan Garrett's or Linda Mecklenberg's. I was a judge once. I was approached by a few competitors who told me flat-out that I had called their contacts wrong. I knew I had not, but always there are "friends outside the ring" who saw it and agree with them.

When a judge is watching the course, they aren't really watching your dog that closely. When your dog is on the contacts, the judge is staring at the yellow and waiting to see if feet appear. When the dog is weaving, the judge is watching the weaves to see if the dog is on the proper side of each one (this is harder than it sounds). When the dog is going down a line of jumps, the judge is watching the dog peripherally but if they veer or slow down in any way, they are trying to visualize the "thirds" or watch the plane of the next obstacle so that they can correctly call the refusal or lack thereof. This is partially why it's hard for a judge to remember your dog - they aren't staring at it directly. This is also why the judge is usually right, and your "friends outside the ring" are usually wrong. Your friends are watching you and your dog running around the course. In the long years I've been doing agility, I think I've had ONE bad contact call... There were many others that people TOLD me were bad, but I usually side with the judge.

Judges are not out to get you. They are watching the contact. They want you to succeed! They don't want to make you cry. Judges are people too, and often they are even fellow agility competitors. They know what it feels like to come THAT CLOSE to achieving your goal, whether it be Finals, a MACH, a Regional bye voucher, or whatever.

So give judges a break. They're usually right. They are, in fact, hired to stand there and stare at contacts and jumps and weaves all day and do exactly what they do - judge whether your dog hit the yellow, weaved correctly, or ran past the jump. Hovering over the yellow doesn't count, running next to the jump doesn't count, and the judge calls what they see. In my 19 years of agility, I have to say, the judge is almost always right. So if your friends outside the ring tell you the judge is wrong on a regular basis, perhaps you shouldn't believe them. They are watching your dog, watching you, and want you to succeed. But they are not judges. Judges are watching the obstacles, watching your dog, and also want you to succeed but have a DUTY to call the fault if you don't.

Did Drifter hit this contact? It was practice, so I don't remember, but judging from his footfall pattern, it must have been very close...

Strafer-Dafer...

2011-10-20T10:36:00.000-04:00

It's Strafe! Weaving 12 poles and doing some sequences! I did discover we need to work on driving forward off the dogwalk a little more since he kept turning in to look at me today and it made his striding a little weird, but overall I'm happy with this session. Sorry about the wind noise but I didn't feel like looking for music for today.

Strafe, 20 October 2011 training session:

And also, here's his littermate See Me in Denmark doing some courses as well!

And a pic that doesn't move :)

2011-10-19T15:59:00.000-04:00

Myself with Kiba and Kate with Driven on the podium for 1st overall in PVP.

(photo by Karen Moureaux)

It's raining again today so we had to cancel our Masters classes for the umpteenth time this year. Oh well. This weekend I'm teaching in Salisbury, MD, which is nice because it's less than 2 hours drive away so I am leaving Saturday morning and will be home Sunday evening. Then next Wed I fly to Austin TX to teach for 5 days and return the following Monday. Then that Wed/Thurs I'm teaching down near Richmond, VA. Will be a busy couple weeks. I left that Nov 5th weekend open for relaxation and youngster training.

Also big news, I filled out Strafe's first entry form! If we make it in (it's a draw trial), Strafe will debut on December 9th, indoors on dirt at Oriole Dog Training Club! I decided that due to the weather and me being so busy, it wouldn't be fair to run him at 26" right away, so we'll run 20" that first trial - he'll be barely 15 months anyway and as of right now we usually still do 16" or 18" in training. I hope to have him running courses at 26" by January though. No rush! I am also going to get his hips checked soon so his breeder will have the results. In europe they will score hips at 1 year instead of 2 like OFA does here. I will be doing Pennhip though, and getting the vet's opinion on the OFA view as well, probably won't bother to pay for OFA's Prelim since they're pretty useless....

STRAFE!

Moving Pictures

2011-10-18T12:55:00.001-04:00

First up is Kiba in PVP Standard. She curled in more than I expected after the chute and I had to recall her out of the poles to fix her entry but otherwise a nice run.

Next up is Drifter in Team Standard (the same course, just a different view. No, he didn't stay. No, he didn't stay on his see-saw either. Brat dog. Good run though.

And here's Kiba's winning PSJ Finals run!

And while I was away, my mother closed up Strafe's 2-by-2 weaves and got him up to 6 poles. This video is from yesterday evening after I got home. Today I took him out and got him up to 12 poles in about a 5-minute session. Now I just have to get him driving through harder. He has a good rhythm but I fully expect him to do a one-strided gait through them when he's finished, at least in the front, so I will probably do some work with them slightly open for a bit to get him driving harder. He shows good understanding though!

USDAA D4, 5 and 6

2011-10-16T18:39:00.000-04:00

As usual, the days began to bleed together and run late, and I was not able to blog every day to update my results on here. I did try to keep brief updates on facebook at least.

Thursday Drifter ended up 7th in Team Standard, and Kiba's PVP Team was sitting in 1st place overall after Standard...

Friday, Day 4, was a big day for my dogs. Kiba and Drifter both had Team Snooker and Steeplechase/PSJ Semi-finals. Drifter also had to run Grand Prix Quarterfinals because of getting a flyoff called at NE Regional way back in June. Both dogs ran Snooker first, Drifter knocked the #2 bar in the closing, turned out to be due to a sore glute (actually sacrotuberal, but you could say "butt muscle" and not be wrong). Kiba did great, finishing with 48 points in only 37 seconds... Next up was Drifter's GP Quarterfinal run. He ran flawlessly - I was being fairly careful, just trying to stay CLEAN to move through to Semi's, but he ended up tied for 2nd on time and only .05 behind 1st, so I was happy with my "safe" time there! Later we ran Steeplchase, just like last year I was in the very last group to run and it was about 5:30pm or so. This year the footing was definitely less slippery, but it did pack down pretty hard by the end of the day. This was a VERY straightforward, FAST course, and Kiba did well for 7th place and into the Finals. Drifter had a fantastic run as well, but his time was slower than usual, he ended up 34th (they took 21 to the Finals). After we finished we discovered his feet and toes in general were very sore that evening, so I am going to assume his time was slowed down by his feet saying "ouch ouch ouch" around the course. After several sessions with the laser and some high-dose Traumeel he woke up feeling pretty good.

Saturday, Day 5, and we had Team Jumpers (a tough course), Grand Prix Semi-finals for Drifter and at night Speed Jumping for Kiba. Drifter's feet seemed much less sore and aside from one big wide corner in Jumpers he had a lovely run for 11th place. He also put in an absolutely fantastic run in Grand Prix Semi's, proving that old dogs can still rock it, he won Semi's by half a second, putting him in 1st seed for Finals. Kiba's Jumpers went a little better and she posted a great time for 2nd place. Her Teammate also ran clean and our Team finished the day in 1st place again...

The biggest Saturday news is that Kiba put in a fabulous run in Speed Jumping and won the class! She won me $500 which is wonderful and almost covers the hotel bill for staying here for a whole week! What a good little girl! She turned tight, ran fast, and I took advantage of the perfectly set course to use front crosses to get fast aframes including hitting the contact:)

No, we don't get to keep that trophy, it's just for the picture:)

Sunday morning Kiba's team had to pony up and run clean (or at least not go off course) in Relay. The relay course wasn't ridiculously hard, and this year Kiba got to go first (last year Driven punched me in the butt after she finished running her half). We both ran clean, a little careful so we didn't place in the Relay class, but we WON the Team Overall out of more than 100 PVP Teams! So Kiba won both PSJ and PVP this year! If we win PGP in the future, she could be a Performance "Triple Crown" dog! So cool!

Later on we had Grand Prix Finals. i was pretty concerned about my old boy, knowing his feet had been sore the other day, but our PT said he felt pretty good, she worked the kinks out of his neck and upper back (from the hard footing), and he looked great. We had to wait till the end of our height since we won the Semifinal round. He felt good going to the line, he did the opening great, gave me a very pushy see-saw but the judge wasn't calling them, I rear crossed the next jump, he started to come with me, I said something like "come on let's go!" to encourage him, and he shot off to the right and took a tunnel. I don't know if he misinterpreted my verbal encouragement to mean "go tunnel"? I am absolutely certain my body did not tell him to do that, but something I did must have. I stopped for a few seconds, shocked that he had done it at all, he came back and looked at me, I gathered it up again and we went off and finished the course in style, clean aside from our little miscommunication, I even fell briefly trying to pivot after the dogwalk, but he went on like nothing happened.

This was a first for me, I realized, and the reason I had a moment of such utter shock. Drifter has been in Grand Prix Finals 4 previous times, Steeplechase Finals once, and AKC Finals twice. Out of those 7 appearances (I'm not counting Team Relay Finals here), he ran clean 6 times, and once missed a contact. My old retriever made GP Finals twice and ran clean and hit one bar in them. Kiba's made various Finals 5 times and run clean or only knocked bars/missed contacts. NEVER have I gone off course in an individual Final event. So it was a tough disappointment, especially knowing it will be his last Grand Prix Final. Perhaps if USDAA moves closer before he's too old, we will show in Performance, but I won't run him in CO outdoors, so he won't do USDAA this year.

I am glad we managed to make Grand Prix Finals in high style this year, marking his 5th time making it. Not bad for a dog often described as "crazy" and a "bar-knocker" when he was younger.

Getting our Finalist ribbon and plaque. It was hard to smile just a few minutes after the off course of a lifetime, but I managed. Drifter is watching dogs warming up in the next ring and refused to look at the cameras...

USDAA D2 and D3

2011-10-13T19:27:00.000-04:00

Yesterday (Wed) was our first day of actual runs at USDAA Nationals. Both dogs only ran Team Gamblers, and both ran the courses I planned perfectly. I deliberately did an aframe with Kiba just so i could remind her she's supposed to stop at the bottom, and I was glad I did, because she totally "forgot"...
.
Kiba's PVP Team was in 3rd place overall after Gamblers on Wed. Drifter's team was not doing as well since his teammates did not have perfect Gamble runs and in fact one of them got robbed of points due to the judge thinking her dog had entered the poles when he hadn't...

Today (Thurs) we had Team Standard and Kiba ran PGP Semifinals. First up was Kiba in PVP Standard. She had a pretty good run, she just curled in towards me more than I expected out of the chute and missed her weave entry. Not bad. After that we ran PGP Semi-final. I was really excited for this course as it was a fun but tough course and Kiba could easily win the Final if she put in a good run, but no, in a totally random move, she popped out of the weaves at pole #10. I had slowed down, but I definitely had not started moving away from the poles yet since when she popped, she and I were basically face to face standing still. I was pretty upset at her for that - she's usually quite reliable in weaves as long as I don't do anything strange. i got her checked out but aside from a bit of tightness she really was in pretty good shape still.

Drifter only had one run today, Team Standard, and he didn't run till 4pm. He ran great, put in a good solid run, a few slightly wide corners and his usual pushy see-saw but his contacts and weaves and handling and jumping are all looking fantastic and he's clearly feeling very well!

I got a run or two on video but I certainly won't have every run. I do not like the stress of finding someone I know to video before the run...

USDAA D1

2011-10-11T18:28:00.000-04:00

Well today was all about setting up for me. I brought extra crates for Ria and David to use, hung up schedules (boy was THAT a task!), and set up my crating area. Drifter and Kiba get to share a big x-pen all by themselves, but it should enable them to move around and spread out and get good airflow, all important for such a long week. Instead of running the warm-up class, I went to a local park and took a nice 30-minute on-leash hike with them instead. Nothing strenuous, just wanted to get them moving in a nice gentle, continuous fashion to loosen them up. They enjoyed it. Now we're back at our super-nice hotel, dogs are fed, and we're ready to relax. Tomorrow both dogs only run Team Gamblers, nothing more. So not a real tough day. I will also be checking on the ACR crew to make sure the schedules are running smoothly and they're doing OK.

Here's what we did instead of running agility:

And here's video of Strafe's mother Jiggy getting 2nd place in Individual Agility with a fantastic run!

Relatives at FCI!

2011-10-09T20:06:00.000-04:00

Strafe's relatives had some great runs at the FCI championships over the weekend. Two of his sire's sisters ran clean in Individual Jumping:

Fleece:

and Bu:

They also had some great Team runs as well, but I can't find videos of those.

Also Strafe's mother Jiggy, and her sister Nala, made their debut at the event, and both looked fantastic.
Jiggy in Individual jumping:

Nala put in a fantastic time in Ind Jumping as well but hit the broad jump. Jiggy then proceeded to run clean in Individual Agility on Sunday, and I am pretty sure she finished 2nd for that individual class, which is absolutely fantastic!!! What a great debut for a young dog!

Jiggy and Nala's mother Simic (Strafe's grandmother) had a wonderful showing. She is now 9 years old but you wouldn't know it from watching her. She only ran in Team events, but she ran two fast clear rounds and looked great. Hopefully there will be more vidoes as the week goes on.

I figured I'd share Strafe's family success tonight too, even though I only just posted about Drifter half an hour ago. I wanted to post while I was thinking of it, and I won't be posting much the rest of the week - keep track of me on Facebook or Twitter for brief updates during the trial.

About to embark on a farewell tour of sorts

2011-10-09T19:29:00.000-04:00

Drifter enjoying a good roll in the grass at Woodhenge in England, May 2010.

So i was away teaching this week from Tuesday to Thursday at the Doberman Specialty in MA. That was fun - check into a hotel and there's Dobermans EVERYWHERE! So bizarre, like an alternate universe or something! It was fun though, all the dogs did great and there are definitely some talented Dobe's out there in agility. I even watched some of the Top 20 Obedience dogs run! Didn't stick around for all of them though.

While I was gone, Drifter developed a UTI, peeing way too much and unable to hold it. I've heard of other dogs getting them post-neuter, even though the vets will tell you that shouldn't cause it. So he's on antibiotics and 3 days in he seems very much improved, and after discussion with the vet we decided that since he seems fine he should be absolutely fine to go on a week-long trip. Boy he likes to keep me on my toes, I guess. As of today he's not going out to pee anymore often than usual, and while he still looks a bit uncomfortable and pees perhaps a bit more often when he's out than usual, he seems perfectly happy in the house, so I do think the antibiotics are clearing it up nicely.

On the note of Drifter, I realized that this week will almost certainly be his last trip to a National event. He's getting older, and I don't think a 28-hour drive to CO where the competition is 6,000 feet up in the air will be a great idea. Too much travel, too much altitude (I worry about his heart though he's doing great), too much uncertainty with the possibility of wet footing. I'm also not planning to fly him to Reno for AKC in the spring. Again, too much travel for his age and I am determined not to fly him again. So... this is probably it. I really want to retire him while he's still sound and happy. I do not want to be someone who runs my dog in the ring over and over as he ages visibly and begins to have trouble. So we will go to Kentucky, hopefully do some great things, then we will finish our MACH2 (6 more QQ's), and then we will most likely just retire permanently. Do some training, walking, and hiking when the weather is nice. There's the possibility that I might take him to Tulsa in 2013, but I will probably be focusing on Kiba and Strafe at that point. We shall see.

Anyway, here's to Drifter's likely retirement of Nationals, although of course no guarantees as it will depend on how he's doing, but he will no longer be my focus, my "main dog" any longer. He's accomplished a lot, taught me a lot, and he's got his last hurrah this week to try to kick some young-dog butt...

Tomorrow morning we're off for our 11 hour drive!

Strafe from today:)

2011-10-03T11:59:00.001-04:00

No, I won't be doing a lot of 26" work, and when I did the dogwalk sequences the bars were either on the ground or set at 12". Strafe will get some time off with very little work throughout October as I'm going to USDAA Cynosport games in a week, and I'm also teaching a lot. Clearly he won't have 12 weave poles by the time I leave, which was my original goal, but I think we may get to 4 closed ones by next Monday - we'll see. I want to keep getting his basic entry skills a little better, as you can see he has trouble with a couple of them, but when asked to try again he got it, so he's getting there. What an awesome youngster!

LKC D2

2011-10-02T15:51:00.000-04:00

Good day at Lancaster today. It was cold and damp outside, but they turned the heat on in the canvas building and it was bearable. Just not used to cold yet, it was still pretty warm last week! Anyway, Drifter continued his awesome streak, after having minor surgery not even 3 weeks ago he came back in style, going 4 for 4 to add 2 more QQ's towards his MACH2, and I believe he now has 9 on the year. I am starting to feel bad that I'm not planning to take him to Reno, it just seems so silly to take a 9 and 1/2 year old dog with a heart murmur all the way across the (very large) country, when he's already won twice.... but. .... he looks GREAT! He's gotten very very consistent this year.

Kiba was also pretty good, although personally I think the judge was giving gifts today in the standard ring with the contacts...not just my dog either! Anyway, Kiba was clean in Standard - amusingly her time and Drifter's were only .01 of a second apart. And she was also clean in JWW for her 6th QQ on the year, so she's all qualified for Nationals now. I am sure I'm taking her to Reno (I think!) so I'm happy to have that out of the way. We are only planning one more AKC trial before the end of the qualifying period, so I really didn't want to have that hanging over my head!

I also ran my mother's dog Trig, Drifter's daughter. She's only 3 but is coming together pretty well. She isn't as fast as my dogs are (yet), but she's a very tidy jumper and hardly ever hits a bar. She ran well for me this weekend after a bumpy start Saturday morning. She also got a QQ today and now only needs one more to qualify to go to Reno! If she does, I may run her - in fact because of Trig's athleticism and my mother's achilles tendon issues, we are mulling over me trying to qualify for Tryouts with her, and running her at Nationals at 26". She's a pretty easy, careful jumping dog and can handle pretty much whatever height is thrown at her. . . more to come on that later. Nothing certain yet!

Drifter's little girl, Trig:

LKC and more annoying Strafe bragging

2011-10-01T17:13:00.000-04:00

Went on my super-long commute drive out to Lancaster Kennel Club AKC trial today. (and again tomorrow - 1hour45min is a looooong commute!) Drifter did great at his first trial since the end of July, really pretty flawless runs, although I overshot a few corners in JWW. I forget how much farther ahead I can stay using my nifty blind crosses now. He was 1st in Standard and 2nd in JWW, for his 33rd QQ. What a good guy!

Kiba almost had one, but when she jumped off the DW (after dipping her toenails in the edge of the contact) I was still insisting that she lie down (remember that video of her doing lovely perfect 4 on the floor at home?), and she ended up skidding to a stop and lied down RIGHT in front of the next jump, so we got a refusal. Oh well. That gave me free license to insist on her stopping at the other contacts, which she ALSO hadn't been planning to do, and I had to give her reminders after she jumped off. Naughty girl! She flew through JWW though for a time about 1.3sec faster than Drifter's. She's back at 16" this weekend to practice for Cynosport in 2 weeks in KY, and she is so happy - 16 is SO easy for her!

I also ran Trig, who had some, uh, mental focus issues in the first runs but got it together for a nice clean run in JWW for 3rd place behind her father Drifter.

And of course because I'm obsessing about it, after I got home I took advantage of the great weather and took Strafe out to train again. That boy's been getting a lot of work lately, but I try hard to keep it short and not do a lot of jumping - when I sequence the dogwalk I keep the jumps quite low to minimize impact. Anyway, we did some weave work - he did fabulous and I closed them a bit and he was still fabulous. No more "WTF" moments, yay! Getting closer to closing them! Then we did some more dogwalks "in sequence" with me holding the toy and just running. Perfect, perfect, and more perfect. And he's driving forward, not turning to stare at me, so I'm super duper pleased with it. I am confident enough to back off now, actually, and just focus on his weaves for a while. Which is good because I've been working him almost every day, for 10-15min, trying to get his obstacles solid.

Months ago I had thought with him I would probably bring him out in January, jumping 20", and then move him up in the spring to 26", but now I'm thinking about moving straight up to 26" right away. I am pretty darned sure his growth plates are closed, as he really hasn't changed height or physical appearance for probably 3 or 4 months now. In training, I have begun to work a few 26" jumps here and there, at low speeds mostly, a few wraps, a few backsides, a pinwheel or two. He is so great at jumping, he can turn, he can add strides, he can push up vertically from quite close. So nice! I am trying to be careful with him, so the vast majority of our work is still at 12 or 16", especially if we have some speed (dogwalk exercises, for example). But I"m now thinking I may go ahead and enter him at 15 months old, at 26" in an AKC trial. That seems so ridiculously young, but he is mentally ready for it, and as long as I limit his jumping activity, he will be physically ready as well. Now we just need to get his weaves finished! I'm so excited about running him, it's ridiculous. I'm not one to gush about any dog, even my own, generally, but this dog is just so close to perfect - exactly what I wanted. Which is wonderful, but even more so because I went so far and spent so much to get him!

My little boy doesn't snuggle a lot, because he gets hot, but sometimes he will sleep along my legs like this:

CO and DW

2011-09-30T18:39:00.000-04:00

Well it's out - the info about 2012 Cynosport. It's farther west, which I pretty much figured would be the case. I have no problem with it starting to rotate round the country, and I do hope they actually can work it out to move every year, and not get "stuck" in one place like they did in Arizona. What I don't like about CO is that, apparently, allegedly, some people wanted it to be back outside again to be more "festive", whatever that means. So it's outdoors. 4 rings on grass, 2 rings on artificial turf. I'm not sure I like that. And it may be cold - the High for October in Denver is 65F and the lows are down around 35F! I don't really want to be running my first course in a bulky sweatshirt and jacket! And what about Steeplechase Finals at night, after dark? Running in 40F temperatures is not really that good for my dog. . .

So basically what it boils down to is, I understand moving it, I don't really have a problem with CO, but why outside?? Surely they could have found another venue for 5 indoor rings? AKC manages to find these places all over the country and make it work! I don't understand why some USDAA competitors (and board members!) think that "outside" is the ultimate agility experience and has better "atmosphere". Maybe I'm turning into a cranky 29-year-old but I no longer enjoy running in cold rain like I did when I was 14. And with all that I've learned about the physical aspect of my dogs' well-being, I'm not very keen to run them in potentially wet grass or cold conditions. So I'm not sure what to think about a big "international" event, outdoors on grass in potentially cold and possibly wet conditions. I will have to give it some thought - because my main focus in agility is big events, if I am not going to attend Nationals, then I won't bother competing during the year - it's a waste of money for me. I am not a title-chaser, I am a win-chaser! Anyway, i will give it some thought.

Because my training session with Strafe was sort of iffy, I took him back out to test our new "running with the toy" dogwalk. We did about 10 dogwalks, all in the middle of very short sequences, with me holding the toy, and he only missed one contact. The rest were all absolutely wonderful, great striding, driving ahead but still listening, and right through the contact. I also did a few weaves once he was back in the swing of working with me, and he was much better - got over his "WTF are weaves?" attitude from this afternoon. Silly boy!

Weave WTF

2011-09-30T15:45:00.001-04:00

Went through the usual drill this morning - up at 6:20am so i can get to Fair Hill just as the sun comes up for a nice 50-60min walk with Drifter and Kiba. It was cooler than it has been this morning, which was nice. Drifter and Kiba were barely panting at all and I felt we could have gone longer, but my sneakers got wet and I was in a spot where if I kept going it would take a long time to loop back around, so I just made a U-turn and went back the way I came. I enjoy exploring trails, and I'm still working out which loops are doable within 50-90min of walking. I did come across this cool old broken down bridge, just past a "Trail Closed" sign. (I only went past the sign because I could see the bridge).

This afternoon after lunch and a trip to Barnes and Noble with DJ, I got Strafe out to do some more weaves and dogwalks. I actually dislike this age of puppy training, because he's finally old enough to start working on all the obstacles, and i want to get them finished as soon as possible, but that means I have to neglect all the fun handling exercises we used to work on when all he could do was low jumps... anyway Strafe's been doing great on his 2-by-2 weaves, they are only open about 6" or so, and I've been working on mild entries because he was having trouble with a couple angles. Well today I decided to close the poles a little more, and Strafe promptly reminded me that he is still a young adolescent, by completely forgetting what weave poles are. . . I had to make them easier and even then he had trouble. He's a bit of a softy and when he's wrong, he does bounce back but if he's been wrong a few times in a row he needs some encouragement - he'll work but he slows down and looks concerned. So I gave that up for a bad job and went over to the dogwalk, and as usual his back-chaining work is just absolutely brilliant. His work from a standing start in front of the plank is also absolutely brilliant. But if do jump-jump-dogwalk he loses it. So then i tried something different - instead of placing the toy out, I held it, and ran back and forth next to him. Well that looked brilliant! Without the toy ahead of him he isn't going balls to the wall crazy, he just runs nicely. Not sure what to think of that, but I think for now I'll start sticking the dogwalk into real sequences and see how he handles it. If he is perfectly consistent with me just running and no "lure" placed out, then we'll roll with it. My only fear with this behavior is that when he gets to a trial he may get "silly" and run more like he does with a placed toy, then he does at home. But we'll see. He's not an over the top dog....

"weaves are dumb!"

668

2011-09-29T11:34:00.002-04:00

Drifter is happy to have his stitches out, and while there is some scar tissue I will be working on breaking up with laser and massage, overall everything healed up nicely. The last 2 days I had our wonderful physical therapist, Ria Acciani, down at our house to work on our own dogs and local dogs as well. Drifter was pretty tight and sore throughout his neck and back, which she said is quite common from surgery, so she loosened him up and I'll be lasering him and putting his therapeutic coat on at night to help him stay loose. Kiba was a little tight throughout her back as well but that's pretty normal for her, and I've worked her fairly hard all through September, with 2 trials at 20" and then a weekend of WAO Tryout courses as well. We won't be jumping 20" anymore until late October. The best news I got is that Seri's shoulder continues to heal well, and her range of motion and muscling is all going back to normal. Also a mark of good things is that her uninjured shoulder is showing no more signs of compensation, so she appears to be using both sides evenly now. I have already been doing some short agility sequences and obstacles in training, so my plan for now is to continue with this and see how she does over the winter. I am still avoiding full height aframes except from a standstill, and I'm limiting the number of weaves she does as well. But I am tentatively hoping to have her out by the winter or spring in USDAA and perhaps we can qualify for Grand Prix and Steeplechase for next year. I don't think she will do AKC Nationals because getting 6 QQ's will require too much showing, and she will probably never be able to do a high frequency of agility trials in a row.

Anyway, I'm happy that she's feeling good!

Here's Drifter from his 9th birthday on Sunday, looking somewhat grey and grizzled but healthy and happy.

for his birthday I got him a brand new collar with a customized metal tag

OK so maybe I also got Seri a new collar for Drifter's birthday.... but I had to get her a new one! Her old one is red/white, and I have repurposed the red/white harness to be Strafe's, so Seri's doesn't match anymore. I also got a nice light pink/brown leash from Rush to Tug, so I got a collar that would match the leash (which also match's Kiba's collar).

I fear that I am becoming a matchey-matchey leash person. . .

I tried really hard to get updated stacked pictures of Strafe, to show off how gorgeous he is, but the trick of putting him on the grooming table and tossing a toy or cookie totally didn't work this time, and while I got some "ok" pics of him standing, so that an educated person can deduce that he has good structure, the best shot I got was this one, of his happy smiling face and his current favorite toy...

667

2011-09-26T18:43:00.000-04:00

Apparently Drifter's birthday post was my 666th post. Devil dog??

Drifter got his armpit stitches out today, yay! He can now stay away from the vet for a while. Happily! Kiba also got to go along, just especially to have her anal glands emptied. Lucky girl! She's been doing the butt scoot for a while now, occasionally, so that should resolve that.

Today's Dogwalk work with Strafer-Doo. Or Mr Fluff, if you prefer.

By the way...

2011-09-25T13:14:00.000-04:00

Drifter is officially eligible for the USDAA Veterans class today! Happy 9th Birthday Drifter, and to his littermates Reddi and Jess! I know I've been blogging a lot lately because been home a lot, not away teaching or trialing - enjoy it while you can, because October will be very busy for me and I'm sure I won't remember to post here very often. (well, enjoy it if you do, if you don't enjoy my blog, then I guess you'll be happier?)

Now I'm going to ramble a bit about my dog!

Back in late 2002 I was looking for a puppy. This was actually to be my 2nd border collie. My first was only 3 but she was soft and had some ETS type jumping issues, so I wanted another dog to work. I was on the list for a high-powered litter (the sire of which actually went on to sire a lot of nice agility dogs) but the bitch didn't take (she turned out to be barren!) so i went looking again. i was tipped onto someone who had 2 leftover pups out of her agility bitch, sired by an imported working dog. I had seen the bitch run a few times but didn't know her real well. I went to see the pups, and they were both very pushy athletic pups at 4 months old. I chose the black one because he was the pushier one, screaming if I did things with the other pup. He also seemed to have a bit better structure.

I don't have a lot of pics of him available because I haven't transferred all my files off the portable hard drive, and I lost some on my old dead laptop. And photobucket is being very uncooperative in retrieving my old pics today...

Anyway, Drifter certainly has been a pushy dog. He's athletic but he has his flaws. 26" was never easy for him, even though we made IFCS Team at that height. He's very fast in agility but in the field he is probably the slowest of my dogs running flat-out. Mostly because he doesn't really run flat-out very often, but he's not a racer dog either. He can turn on a dime, he can enter the weaves from anywhere, but we had our arguments. I'm pleased with our career and I've learned a lot from him over the years. He's done a LOT in this time, even though for a while people discounted us for being a "bar-knocker" and people still think he's "crazy" sometimes. At the age of 3 he won a Regional Grand Prix and then ran clean in Grand Prix Finals for a 3rd place (he was 4 by then, but barely). He's been in Grand Prix Finals 4 times, Steeplechase Finals once, DAM Finals a bunch of times (sorry I didn't count), and AKC Finals 2 times. He's run clean in 5 out of 6 times in the individual Finals he's been in, and when he did he always landed on the podium. He is a dog who likes the pressure of a big competition, and he's taught me to never take things for granted, to push myself for adrenaline and not be too relaxed, and I love that with him, it's completely OK for me to go the line pumped up and excited, because he LOVES that and will respond positively to it. He is not a good podium picture taker though. . . he's had some tongue lolling pics up there, and then at IFCS he kept trying to flirt with the Russian dogs. . .

This year at Cynosport is possibly his last big National or International event. I have decided not to take him to Reno for AKC, and he's not going to Belgium for WAO either. I will qualify him for USDAA for next year but I may or may not take him, depending on where it is and how he's doing. I am happy and proud that he's still *very* competitive in the Championship 22", and I have hopes that perhaps we can win or do well again this year. I would love to win GP - he's been in Finals a lot of times but we've never won. But he IS 9 years old now and there's a lot more young whippersnappers out there with running contacts and blazing ground speed....

Anyway, Happy Birthday Drifter! Still going strong! This year, at 8yrs old, he was 2nd in GP Finals, winning a spot on the WAO Team, he won AKC Nationals for the 2nd time, won the USDAA Spring Showcase, won the WAO Biathlon, and is collecting QQ's towards his next MACH.

Tired of Dogwalks yet? Of course not...

2011-09-25T09:09:00.000-04:00

Here's a video of the 2 girl dogs doing some dogwalks. I've been allowing Seri to do some agility lately, just no aframes at speed or weird angled approaches to ramps, and not many weaves yet. But she's in the video showing off her dogwalks.

And here's Strafe's lastest session, working on back chaining.

You will probably continue seeing a lot of video of Strafe, since it's easiest for me to see EXACTLY what he's doing by recording it and playing it in slow motion. I can see pretty easily whether he hits the contact, and whether he strides properly or "skips", but the video helps me see exactly where he's landing up top, and whether he's adjusting properly on the top ramp. I was pretty happy with this session. I could see progress, he was starting to get it right more often than not for sure. It was also the first session where I always placed his toy behind a jump, so he had to do the dogwalk, go over a small jump, and THEN get his toy.

Duh

2011-09-24T12:02:00.000-04:00

In my obsession over the dogwalk, I forgot to post the video of Strafe's weave training from today! He's coming along really nicely and I'm starting to see footwork, yay!

more dogwalks

2011-09-24T11:37:00.001-04:00

Just in case you thought my dogs were perfect, I have indeed hit a small snag in Strafe's dogwalk training. He has done every exercise up to now quite perfectly, so I haven't exactly drilled them. I also don't like drilling youngsters for anything, anyway, so I did a few dogwalks here and there, and without a ton of speed, he's fine. With the plank on the table, he was always fine as well... Well the snag is that when he runs the full dogwalk in extension, he's hitting the wrong spot. He's over-extending across the top ramp, landing him right ON the "2nd apex", the joint between the top, flat ramp, and the down ramp. Why does it matter? Well for one thing stepping right on the joint is a silly thing to do, it is harder to keep your balance that way. for another thing - well, if you step there, you don't hit the contact! He should be adjusting his striding on the top ramp, sailing OVER the joint/apex, and then running the last stride.

Here is an example of Drifter running the dogwalk with very typical striding - this is common for pretty much ALL medium size dogs who consistently run the dogwalk. At 12.5% of full speed:

And here's Strafe from today:

As the video says, I think I may go back and do some table-plank work for a week or so, then go back to back-chaining. Sometimes when this weird striding happens, it's just a result of a dog maturing, adding speed, and then losing track of what to do with his feet. Running the way I want him to actually IS the fastest way through, I just have to show him that somehow!

ETA (I realize at the end of a couple of bad reps you can hear me say "aaaaah!" to him - that is because that sounds calls him off the toy on the ground. I'm really not that mean when I train, it's just a good noise to get out quickly that says "no you didn't earn that!")

2011-09-23T11:45:00.000-04:00

Last night I had trouble going to sleep early like I've been doing, so I finished my latest book I was reading (it was short - translated "light novel" from Japan, geeky I know), and probably didn't fall asleep till 11pm. (OK, that's late for ME anyway). I turned off my alarm, since I figured it would be raining anyway when I got up so no use getting up at the usual 6:30 to go hiking. Well I woke up at 6:33 anyway, so I went ahead and got up, and lucky me, it wasn't raining YET so I took Kiba and Strafe for a quick 30min walk at Fair Hill. Deliberately took a path that went down a hill and back up on the return so that we'd get at least a little workout even though I was making it a short walk. Good timing, since the rain hit just as I got in the car. Stupid rain. Been raining all day.

Finally heard back from the herding instructor I'd like to try, and weather permitting, we'll try Seri sometime late next week. Should be fun. I think her shoulder is holding up well (we'll see Ria again on Wed to check). i've even been doing a little more agility in training. A few dogwalks and even a set or two of weaves, but the aframe we've done mostly work on her stopping before she climbs it, as that slamming into it is one of the things that really aggravates her front end, as you can well imagine. She doesn't slam into it like a normal dog would - most dogs who "slam" take off EARLY and hit it hard as they are finishing their jump arc getting on. Not Seri! She fearlessly runs right up to the base of it, and fearless smashes right into it. Painful to watch. Not sure what I can do to retrain that - it's a factor of her recklessness, not really something I trained her to do. Right now I'm wondering if i can maybe do something like not allow her to climb up until she's released to do so - that might at least make her slow down a little and look at me before going up, but also think that behavior is A) very hard to teach and B) won't hold up at a trial anyway. So for now we'll keep strengthening, and avoid trialing, and see how she does.

Strafe and the dogwalk

2011-09-22T12:56:00.001-04:00

Now that Strafe is over a year old, I've been starting to work on his contacts more. You saw his see-saw last week, and we're also working on adding speed to the dogwalk approach. As I've mentioned previously, I haven't done a lot of dogwalks (we've only been doing them maybe every couple weeks), and when we did, i didn't do them at full speed, fast approaches because I wanted him to be mature before we risked falling off - or hopefully avoid falling off because he's more coordinated!

So last week I started adding more distance and speed to his dogwalk approach. Sometimes that totally messes up his striding, and sometimes it doesn't. I made a video today, which I hesitated to upload, but hey, nobody's perfect right? So here is the video, with good and bad reps included. We are working on Strafe learning to adjust his stride at the end of the top ramp, which is something I emphasize when I'm working with other people a lot - most dogs need to put a full stride on the down ramp (2 hits, in other words) if they're going to reliably hit the contact and exit in a balanced manner. Now, if you have a particularly large or crazy dog you can maybe get a one-hit down ramp, but that makes it much harder to turn and the dog is less balanced, and in my opinion, less safe as well.

Right now Strafe is often putting his feet down right ON the 2nd apex, the join between the top and down ramps of the obstacle. This is NOT what I want, and you can see when he does that, that he doesn't land properly and run through the yellow. I will probably be playing around with a couple things to work on it. i feel that he understands the "run" behavior, but just needs to learn where and how to adjust to run properly down the last ramp. This is not uncommon, and I have a lot of experience getting other people's dogs to do it, so I think we'll be fine. Some back-chaining, some work with a regulator, and maybe some more work with a plank on the table, but with a little more speed. We'll get it!

ETA later this afternoon - I went back out and put a stride regulator (small piece of white PVC) across the join between top/down ramps, and did maybe 8 reps at different speeds, and he was 100% perfect - some of them involved funny striding but it definitely helped him along the way to the behavior I want! I will do another video in a week or so to show our progress.

A rambling post with pictures.

2011-09-22T10:48:00.000-04:00

Apparently we now live in a rain forest. I had no idea... it's mildly rainy again today, after a brief misty period yesterday. I went for a walk this morning anyway - I've been getting up around 6:30am so I can go for a walk at Fair Hill every morning before it gets warm and before it gets popular. Fair Hill is fun to walk around. There is a carriage trail that is gravel/packed dirt, so it's never muddy even when it's been raining. And the park is huge, and the gravel/dirt trail circles the entire thing and has several other branches, so I can go walking in a different place and still not get my feet wet (since I have bad luck with waterproof shoes either not fitting well or not staying waterproof for very long).

Monday I took Strafe out with Kiba for his first ever long walk at Fair Hill. Why wait so long? Well, because i don't believe it's good for youngsters to go for long walks before they've grown. I try to keep working and walking sessions fairly short till they're pretty mature. He's been going on 15 minute walks off-leash around our property for a long time now, so he's certainly up for a 45-60min leash walk at the park. Also, my personal preference is not to walk more than 2 dogs at a time, and usually when I go I take whatever dogs are currently preparing for trials - so it's usually a mix of Drifter, Kiba and/or Seri, in any variety of combinations. Right now Drifter is still laid up for his stitches so he was out, and i figured it was time to get Strafe out!

Here's a pic from his very first Fair Hill outing:

He was a good boy, didn't pull in his harness, and only barked at one thing - a big unusual looking tree stump, which he walked right up and sniffed and quickly decided was no big deal. He also did his grumbley growley sound when we saw deer, but they ran off so he didn't get to sniff them;)
We walked about 45 minutes or so.

Monday afternoon I went to the New Balance store and bought some Minimus shoes to wear for non-running activities to try to strengthen my ankles and feet. So far I'm happy with them, although they get wet very quickly if the grass is even slightly damp.

For now I will continue to wear my Mizuno's for serious running, as they really support my flat feet and weak ankles very well, and I just feel faster and more agile in them. I did have the Minimus on when I did some dogwalk with Strafe the other day and a bit of running in them didn't seem to hurt...

Tuesday I took another Fair Hill walk, this time with Seri and Kiba, and went to a different parking area. This was the central area for the Fair Hill International Event every fall. It's always fun to see the horse jumps and sometimes pose the dogs on them. The grass was pretty wet though so we only posed on this cute bench which overlooks the Jumper ring, used for Day 3 of the Eventing.

Kiba is a willing subject for these but you can see from her face in both photos that she's starting to get a little annoyed . . . Seri on the other hand, is pretty much always happy!

Here is a really cool water jump for the cross country phase of the Event, just pretend they're in the water instead of in mud...

Another neat thing about Fair Hill is that it used to be privately owned, and used for fox hunting, so they have all these neat ways to get over and under the roads that run through the property. Lots of neat bridges and tunnels, all large enough for horses to fit through!

A tunnel under the road:

Aren't you jealous we get to walk here all the time? I didn't go often in the summer because it just got warm too quickly, but now that Nationals is approaching I'm trying to ramp up the fitness level for both me and my dogs until about a week or so before the event, at which point we'll level off a bit and just do maintenance so my dogs will be fit but not sore going in!

Drifter's neuter incision is pretty much healed, and his armpit stitches are looking MUCH better, swelling mostly gone, not pink or red anymore. Yay!

2011-09-20T11:42:00.000-04:00

OK, here's my WAO Tryout courses. I was very happy with how Kiba ran them. We ran them multiple times, as I assume everyone else will as well.

Clip

2011-09-20T09:58:00.000-04:00

Here's a short clip from one of our WAO Tryout runs this past weekend. I had a good time working through the courses and found some great opportunities for blind crosses. When I'm showing people how/when to do them, I often say something like "it will help you stay ahead - what if there was a threadle up ahead?" - well in this case there WAS a threadle up ahead, and sure enough the blind crosses worked great! Cue the jump, change arms, cue the jump, change arms, don't stare at your dog, be peripherally aware only, and KEEP MOVING!

WAO and the mystery lump

2011-09-19T18:02:00.000-04:00

I love this picture because it makes it look like he actually stays on the start-line...

Yesterday's Drifter's armpit stitches developed a small, soft lump at the end, so today I took him by the vet so they could check and let me know whether it was healing properly or not. Thankfully they said it is fine, it is just a bit of fluid and maybe some scar tissue healing up at the end of the row of stitches, sometimes it does that as it heals I guess. I don't care if it looks "pretty", I just wanted to make sure it was healthy. He's still getting antibiotics and rimadyl every day, and the stitches don't come out till next Monday since they're in such a funny place. While I was in, I asked about the biopsy results from the lump, but they hadn't come in yet. Well this evening I got a call from the vet and the results came in, and the mystery lump was indeed a lipoma, so it was just some fatty tissue in a strange spot! Hurray, NOT CANCER! So we didn't really need to remove the lump after all, but since Drifter was already knocked out and the vet got some suspicious results on examination, I don't blame him for deciding to remove it. Much better safe than sorry! Anyway, he seems to be healing well, although he's getting to be very fussy ("pet me pet me!" and always wanting to be on the couch) since he hasn't had any proper exercise since last Monday.

This weekend I was not trialing AND we had absolutely gorgeous weather, both cool and sunny, so I set up the WAO Tryout courses to be videotaped and sent in to the manager. Kiba ran them very well, and pending managerial approval, I will post the videos here as well. I want to make sure it's OK before posting the courses though. Kiba is doing really well at 20" (and even 22" in training) and I'm really hopeful we will be selected for the team.

2011-09-16T12:47:00.002-04:00

Drifter continues to do well. He's even figured out how to sleep upside down with the cone on his head (see facebook photo).

Here is Strafe's training session from today:

Knocked him out, removed some things

2011-09-15T14:46:00.000-04:00

Last winter I made a decision to have Drifter neutered this year. He is a fantastic dog and I think many people don't appreciate him for his non-agility-related qualities - he has great structure aside from his short, low neck, he has a rock solid temperament, he is not bothered by much. However, he and I do butt heads sometimes, and he did have trouble with 26", more than I'd prefer. He is a fast, powerful, intelligent, and generally healthy dog. But unlike many people, I don't feel a pressing need for all my dogs to be related to my "famous" dog. I'm perfectly OK with finding something I like that doesn't share blood with him. That said, his daughter is still intact and may be bred in the future. She is a nice dog, not as pushy as Drifter in some ways, but has different faults that are probably from her mother (locks onto lines of obstacles once in a while). She is more careful with bars though, and that is fabulous.

Anyway, if he's not performing stud duties, and he's on the decline as far as number of competitions and how much he's travelling, and I've got a young male coming along behind him that will be staying intact. . . time to neuter! i also want to avoid having to do an emergency type neuter later on, in case of prostate issues or something. His heart is still strong so he got the OK for it. His neuter was on Tuesday. But last weekend i noticed a small fatty-type lump in his armpit. It felt a lot like a small lipoma ("fatty tumor") but I had them check it out while he was in. It displayed most earmarks of a regular lipoma, except it seemed to swell a bit after manipulation, and the vet thought he spotted some mast cells in the smear of material when he aspirated, so they went ahead and removed the entire lump to send to Univ of Penn for a biopsy. The vet said he was pretty sure it was just a lipoma, but better to be sure. So I am waiting on a call with biopsy results sometime in the next few days.

Anyway, he went through the surgeries fine, and is now missing a total of 3 "lumps"... he's walking quite well, is already trotting on leash and lifting his leg to pee, and when the cone wasn't on his head he was even sleeping upside down, so he isn't in much pain. The stitches in his armpit area don't look too comfortable but he doesn't seem to be avoiding use of that leg in any way, so they probably look worse than they feel. He should be fine to come back for our next AKC trial the first weekend of October, and then USDAA in Ky 2 weeks later.

Today was only the 2nd chance I've had to work on Strafe's 2-by-2's, so he hasn't made much progress yet, but he's getting some more mild angled entries, so his understanding is getting better. I also worked his see-saw again today - he's been doing the low one for a while, and he's been doing the full height one with me holding the end, but today I faded out me holding it and got him running up it all by himself, rocking back and holding his position. I was very pleased - it looks how i want it to look! Yay! Hopefully more video this weekend since I'm home.

Conditioning again

2011-09-12T16:04:00.000-04:00

Recently had another conversation with someone about conditioning. Yet another person who is getting more serious about agility and realized that conditioning is pretty complicated! I applaud people like that who begin to take an active interest in getting their dogs fit! Preventing injury and giving your dog the competitive edge involves a lot more than just agility obstacles and handling skills or even jumping skills. Conditioning away from agility is very important, and I try to make sure the vast majority of what my dogs do has nothing at all to do with agility. Every single day we go for at least one 10-20minutes walk around our fields. And as I've mentioned before, my dogs aren't allowed to run "like greyhounds" unless I've told them to. They are limited to walk/trot/canter/sniff as their speeds when we are walking. Which is plenty! It keeps them from getting all bound up and sore, and limits the impact of the exercises, and also prevents stupid injuries from pivoting at high speed or running into each other. A few days a week I may release them to rip and run for a quick minute or two by making a "shhhhhhh" sound and running a bit myself - sprint work is good in small doses - but the majority of our walks are walks, and the dogs spend most of that time trotting, which is perfect. Generally we do about 15 minutes before breakfast and 15minutes in the evening as well. In addition to this, a few times a week when the weather is nice I take 2 of them on a leashwalk at Fair Hill for 30-60minutes. This has more hills and also makes me work harder, which is good because I'm lazy. Of course we do agility 1 to 3 times a week, but the last few weeks we haven't even done much of that due to the awful weather.

And the piece most people are missing which is SO EASY to do and the dogs love it - core work! Your dog's core is a very important collection of muscles, involving both the abdomen and the back, and it helps the dog accelerate, decelerate, turn, take off for jumps and land, control their speed on contacts, and power through weave poles. If you're only working one dog, it seriously only takes 3-5 minutes, 3 or 4 times a week! How easy is that??

Here's a much-edited video of a workout with all of my guys in the living room. I cut a lot of stuff out so you don't have to watch one dog do the same exercise in both directions over and over. I see a lot of people doing core work involving speed and jumping at the same time - I don't do that at all. i don't feel it's necessary to involve jumping in everything I do, and I would much rather save "jumping days" for handling work or jump grids. I don't jump my dogs more than 3 times a week, usually less, and always with a day of no jumping afterwards (except at a trial, obviously). I always do core work inside, with treats, and without a lot of speed. It's like lifting weights for dogs - no running needed. It's all about building muscle.

Pretty good weekend - TBAC AKC

2011-09-11T19:42:00.000-04:00

Only ran Kiba, again in 20". This is her last trial at 20" for her "trial period". Overall I am pretty happy with how it went. She did hit some bars, but it got better after I did the 22" jump line work last weekend. I just set up some difficult 24" warm-up exercises at the trial and she only hit 1 bar this whole weekend, and it wasn't height-related, it was handling-miscommunication related. she took off thinking turn, then realized it wasn't turn, it was straight, and tried to correct in mid-air. Probably would've happened the same way over 16". She Q'ed all other runs this weekend, and here they are - the camera battery died before the 4th one or I would've gladly posted it, knocked bar and all, because I ran out the rest of the course with enthusiasm and yet another lovely blind cross and I thought she handled it really well even when I started running harder.

My mother helped me get Strafe to hold still for a proper measurement as well. And basically he's good at looking shorter than he is. When he's leaning slightly or crouching slightly, he's about 20.25" (51,5cm) but when we turned him the other way and he saw the agility ring, he stood all the way up on his own - as tall as he possibly can. And when he does that, not only is his gorgeous structure suddenly very obvious, but he also is 20.75" (52,7cm) tall! So I have a feeling when he's all filled out and completely done growing, he will be closer to 20.75 than to 20.5 but for now we'll split the difference and call it that.

Speaking of Strafe, I had him hanging out in the bleachers with me this weekend, since it's not directly ringside but can still see the rings it is a good opportunity to learn to relax, and he did. He would watch for a bit, then he would lay down and just hang out, or wiggle and make "roooo" noises at people walking by. But overall, he's my most relaxed dog near the rings already, which is hugely exciting for me with all my visually-excitable dogs!

Here is Strafe posing with another half-brother, this time a 9-month old brother out of Mawlch kennel in Croatia, from the Bela x Fetch breeding. This brother is already taller than Strafe by a little bit, but he is all legs and no body!

366 Days Old Today

2011-09-08T10:52:00.000-04:00

I didn't post yesterday, but it was Strafe's birthday. In celebration, it's been raining all week long. Just what we didn't need after Irene. We basically live in a marsh right now. so unfortunately, no great pics of Strafe outdoors on his birthday. Here's a quick progression series of him growing. always fun to see the changes.

Strafe at 8 weeks, still known by his puppy name of Tizzle.

Strafe at 10 weeks, the day after he came to the USA.

Still 10 weeks. Just stinkin' cute.

12 weeks

3 and 1/2 months - legs have appeared!

4 months old, changing fast!

Somehow there's a gap in my pictures, I guess they're all mobile uploads on Facebook.

Skipping to 7 months old here. Halfway between pup and adult, looks-wise.

9 months old, looking more adult every day. Started growing lots of hair...

10 months. Ruff around his neck begins to get manly. Still cute though.

Just shy of 11 months. Looking gorgeous!

And one year old! A hairy adult who is still gorgeous!

tick tock

2011-09-06T09:46:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe how quickly time has passed. Strafe will turn a whole year old tomorrow. Well, technically maybe late tonight - Denmark is 5 or 6 hours ahead of us! It is raining again here, and because we are already so saturated, the ground is very wet. It is nice and cool and breezy, so we went out and started our "serious" weave pole training. I'm not in a huge rush - my goal is to have him doing 12 poles by early October, before I leave for Kentucky for USDAA Nationals. That's right around 13 months old and he should be physically fine.

Strafe has done a little bit of basics, just going through the poles, to get the concept down. But from here out i will be trying hard to do them a few times a week and slowly make it harder.

No, I don't throw the toy. Don't tell me I'm doing it wrong - all my dogs learned this way and it works just fine.

Family

2011-09-05T20:01:00.000-04:00

I was teaching in VA today, and got to meet another of Strafe's half-brothers. (He has a lot of those, but most are in Europe)

You should be able to immediately tell which one is Strafe. The other pup looks a lot more like Fetch. He's not quite 6 months old, and is clearly in a bit of an awkward stage. And despite the way the photos look, the other pup, Biz, is not quite as big as Strafe yet. I am guessing he will finish up larger than Strafe though. Strafe has been holding around the 20.25 to 20.5" mark for a while now (about 52cm). And he may put in a late growth spurt, but he seems like he's mostly done. He was always the smallest boy in his litter, and as long as he can confidently jump the 26"/65cm height, I'm Ok with his current size. He's very athletic and coordinated and always has been.

Biz is from the Sky x Fetch breeding, and lives in Virginia.

Sheep

2011-09-04T11:26:00.000-04:00

When Drifter was younger, I used to take him to work sheep about once a week, or once every 2 weeks. We made pretty good progress. He has some talent; I'm sure he wasn't anywhere near the next national champion, probably not even a USBCHA Open dog, but he progressed to the point where he could've muddled through a Novice course or a basic AKC course. His only problem was that he hated to lie down. he would pause, he wouldn't break them up, but he refused to just lie down. Which is amusing since when he's around other dogs he lies down quite a lot and even does the border collie creepy walk...

Anyway, I quit when I got super serious about his agility career; couldn't find the time to make the 40minute trek to the instructor's farm every week, while working full time and also training and conditioning for agility. That was probably in 2007 or 2008 that I quit? it was the year before we got serious enough to go to AKC Nationals, Tryouts, and tried out for IFCS team (and made it). Since then it's been all I could do to continue working AND doing agility AND conditioning (which is a lot), but now that i'm not doing the 40hour work week anymore, AND I have what appears to be a dog who can't do a lot of agility on my hands, I'm going to see sheep again.

I am afraid Drifter won't get another chance - with his crooked toes and heart murmur (and planned neuter coming up), I don't want to risk injury or overheating. But Miss Seri will get a chance. When I stopped going, Seri was still in the round pen and JUST getting the idea that she could make the sheep move without literally stepping on their heels. She was never one to grip (bite), so she isn't dangerous, but she had a bit too much enthusiasm. Now she's 5, not 18 months, so we'll see how she does. Since she held up so well with just cutting out contacts/weaves and leaving all the other exercise in, I think she will do OK with herding, as long as we don't go crazy with the amount of it. For now I'm sure she'll be in a round pen again so running will be limited. We shall see. I will probably also give Strafe a shot, just to see what he thinks.

Not sure when - I am teaching in VA tonight and tomorrow, and then I'll have to see when the nearby instructor has some time available to deal with an inexperienced person like me (though I at least have decent stock sense about jumping out of the way, and how to move them here or there).

QQ #4 for Nationals - finally!

2011-09-03T16:39:00.000-04:00

Kiba was a very good little midget today. After our discussion about bar knocking yesterday, I did make sure to do some difficult warm-up jumps (serpentines and convergence over 24" bar) to remind her to watch her feet. And it worked wonders. She was a tiny bit slower today, but I was also being careful not to push her, and slowing down and insisting on her contacts as well, since she almost missed them all yesterday (none were called but it was close). She also did well in Jumpers, but we did have a bit of a call-off moment where she got her eye on the wrong jump on a lateral send situation, so I pulled out the trusty old "LIE DOWN COME!!!" which worked because Kiba's awesome like that... so she Q'ed with a GOOD time but not an amazing one.

Here's our standard run from this morning. You'll notice I'm not being very aggressive. I just wanted her to pay attention to the bars and keep her feet up and hit all her contacts. I was pleased with her!

Tightrope Walking

2011-09-02T15:34:00.001-04:00

Day one of an AKC trial today. Despite the large entries in this area (we fill 2 and 3-ring trials all the time) the well-oiled machine of organized AKC secretary and club runs well, and despite a 1h45m drive, I got home around 2:45pm. I ran Trig for my mother who is having some allergy issues and figured it was better to just stay home. Trig ran very well for me, got 2nd in Standard and a nice run in JWW (left before I found out the placements) for a QQ. Kiba also ran pretty well, but was a little crazier than usual. She pushed every single contact in Standard but didn't get called on any of them, but also hit a couple bars in each run. I think that she just is so enjoying her increased speed and my more aggressive handling (blind crosses and lots of running) that she keeps forgetting that 20" is a lot harder than 16". Again, her actual jumping does not look bad, she is just a little more careless than she should be to jump 20" cleanly. She had the fastest time in Standard, moving at 5.23YPS, and was almost 2 seconds faster than Trig in JWW.

I have to keep a fine balance with Kiba, since she is, at heart, a soft dog. She also, when not feeling confident, does sometimes stutter step before jumping. I haven't seen a lot of that at 20" lately, and I believe that's due to the time spent at 16" building up her confidence. She's put on speed, drive, and some extra sheer joy in trialing since we did 20". She isn't worried anymore. However. . . that means she's running a bit carelessly. So now I have to introduce a little "hey, remember your job" into her joy. It saddens me a bit, because she is REALLY flying and having fun, but jumping over the bar instead of through it IS her job. So today after I got home, I gave her a few minutes rest, then took her out to our field and set up a line of jumps, including a parallel and extended double, all set at 22". Spacing was typical AKC spacing, 15-18 feet or so. And I ran ahead of her. And she hit bars, finally, since I so obviously induced it. In the course of normal handling work she does NOT hit bars. In a footrace on a straight line with 22" jumps, she did. And, meanie that I am, I corrected her for it. I marked the knocked bar verbally and stopped immediately (I'm quick), reset the bar, and started over. Because she is soft inside, this did make her stop and think. And it did produce a bit of a stutter step as well, but I ignored it and praised the heck out of her when all the bars stayed up. We did this a few times in each direction, me running like a wild thing, her being expected to keep bars up. She got it, and by the end she was starting to reaccelerate a bit and lose the stutter. But it IS a bit of a tightrope with dogs like her. Not correcting knocked bars leads to increased speed and confidence and joy, and also more knocked bars. Correcting knocked bars leads to less speed, a bit of a stutter step, less joy, but also less knocked bars. I have to balance it. She has outgrown the times when she would not knock bars at all because she was scared of them, and now she doesn't seem to think about it enough. . . so I put a little more "think" back on her mind. And hopefully she will remember tomorrow at the trial that she needs to pay attention to the jumps, not just race willy-nilly around the course, posting great times that do no good since bars fell down....

Don't worry, she'll still get rewarded at the trial, even if I do mark a bar verbally on course...