Let the Count Down Begin

This weekend was an outdoor trial geared to Regionals Warm Up. We had a great time, and I feel much more ready for Regionals - which is in 2 weeks! OMG.

The venue out in Millarville was very nice, weather was nearly perfect - a little hot if anything. I've got the most spectacular farmers tan/sunburn going on.

Spencer was amazing all weekend. I entered him in a full trial for the first time since he's started trialing and I wasn't sure how fast he'd fade over the weekend/8 runs. Saturday he was fast and confident and fun. Almost the closing Gamble, Rocked it on 2 Standard courses to finish off his Master Agility Dog of Canada (MADC) title. He did very well on the Jumpers as well, coming under SCT, however I didn't support a jump enough and we missed that (my fault, not his.)

On Sunday he was maybe a little worried or a little sore. He was a little off for the first 3 runs, getting progressively slower. I was going to pull him from Jumpers, the last run of the day because he just didn't seem very happy to be playing and there really isn't much point to drag him around the ring. I decided to keep him in, but if he didn't want to run, I'd take a line of jumps and a tunnel to make it easy and fun and just leave and have a party.

Took him for a walk on his flexi before and then played with him a bunch at the warm up jumps to help warm him up for Jumpers. The wind came up pretty good before our run and between that and the extra dogs milling around the gate he was not a happy dog waiting for the Judge to be ready for us. I tried to remember all the seminar advice I've been given on him and make sure I was focusing on improving my communication and connection with him.

We pulled it off and Q'd it coming in second of three, and finishing his Master Jumpers Dog of Canada (MJDC) title too! So proud of my bad little black dog this weekend. We're really starting to come together.

Good little baby dog!

Baxter was a very good dog all weekend. Going 3/4 on Saturday - and getting the Gamble (a mini and the main!) Missed the Standard popping on the 10th pole in the weaves, but I can work on weaves at home!

He faulted his weaves only once this weekend and jumped a DW contact once on the gamble on Sun (we went right back over it and he hit it that time) so I'm pretty happy with what we've been working on.

Sunday with Steeplechase (2x weaves) we were back to being a second and a little overtime. His weaves have slowed down again and I am wondering if that is due to the surface (grass has more grip) his conditioning or if something is sore.

He would have gotten the Gamble on Sunday as well (did do a mini to a blind tunnel entrance) however, I hadn't looked at the gate list before walking and didn't notice that Baxter and Spencer were back to back. Spencer was ready, but I thought I had 4 dogs to grab Baxter. Since I didn't, I just grabbed him, didn't potty him and threw him into the ring crate and then had to run Spencer. I've built the pre-run potty break into our warm up routine and I didn't even think about missing it with Baxter. Poor guy stopped on the main gamble and peed.

At Regionals since the boys only have one dog in between their runs I will have to remember to walk them during the last 10 min of break to potty them before walk thru on the day that we are first on the line.

All in all it was a great weekend with great weather to spend with my favorite little dogs. Next up is regionals!

And We're Back

Life, 2 jobs and 3 dogs can get a little crazy and stressful, so blogging falls a little by the wayside.

But, we're back.

It's been some interesting times.

Our awesome trainer Kim & HyperHounds moved to Kelowna in April. So we're working on finding a new agility alternative.

Baxter's been in to the emergency vet twice in 2 months. In March we went in after he was vomiting for a little over 24 hours after stealing a lick of salsa off the coffee table. Not sure if the salsa was the culprit or what the deal was, but it ended up not being the obstruction that I was afraid it might have been.

Then 2 weeks ago it was for the eyes. They were watery and sore looking for the Olds Trial, little bit of green discharge but super sore looking where the whites were all red and bothering him a lot. Again, nothing really conclusive as the culprit. His eyes were good, no scratches etc. but ears were hot irritated as well. Maybe seasonal allergies or just allergies period, so some eye drops to help with the irritation and some benadryl for 5 days.

Baxter also came up lame on Saturday at the Olds trial, April 19 & 20. Knocked the first bar in the first run (Jumpers) and then when we were walking after the run I noticed him limping a little on his front left. So that was it for him for the day. Seems to be a shoulder/muscle thing, not a foot thing. So we're going in to physio to get that looked at. (Same/similar issue that I took him to a chiro vet to have looked at last May and was told his front end was fine, uh huh.) Sunday he seemed fine, so I let him run and he still looked fine at the end of the day.

Spencer's first day at Olds was great, he was happy and a little more confident. Fun times - which is what I am working on with him. Confidence.

On Sunday however they turned Steeplechase into a fund raiser for an agility friend who was doing Shave for the Brave. Which is totally awesome. However, the runs were to music and while setting up the PA system for it there was a lot of really loud popping noises. I didn't notice quick enough that it was upsetting Spencer since he was in his kennel. He wouldn't come out of the kennel, so I had to pull him out and carry him out and bench him in the car. He wouldn't even walk once we were in the parking lot, just was a puddle of terrified on the ground. Completely shut down.

I pulled Spencer from Steeplechase (Baxter ran fine and he's the one who has some mild noise issues at home with fireworks and thunder) but for his remaining 2 runs Spencer was distracted, stressed and not into playing the game at all. Couldn't get him to do his bounce or bark tricks that help improve his attitude. Nothing. He looked bad enough in the final Jumpers run that the Judge actually came over after the run to talk to me about his skipping/knee issue.

This sums up how life feels right now.
Mostly right, some extra junk cluttering stuff up and something always going wrong.

So lately agility has been all about the stress and not so much about the fun. Or at least I'm struggling with focusing on the fun stuff.

Baxter forgot how to weave in Olds. After working on his contacts all winter he LAUNCHED his DW contact from about 1/2 way down the plank on Sunday (yep, that'll definitely help those front end issues ...) Wet Creek flooded for 2 months, so no practice there. Snow JUST quit falling (it's May and there was snow on the ground last week) to open up Wet Noses for practice. No agility classes until I find another trainer/group I want to work with. Worried about Spencer's knee more now after the last trial. Spencer's behavioral issues have been problematic lately, so worried about him and his fearfulness - which doesn't help his stress and fear either I'm sure.

Yep. Just a little stressed about the dogs and dog sports in general lately.

Not really a play bow - captured mid "bark" trick. This is my little dog!
My happy, sassy, bad little black dog, not all cringing and terrified =(

Positive first post back after a hiatus right?!? But on the bright side, it can only get better from here.

Justine Davenport & Jessica Patterson Seminar

This past weekend was the Justine & Jessica Agility Seminar put on by Kim/HyperHounds. 

When it was first announced I dithered, to do or not to do. I just wasn't sure. First I was like, No, thanks. Then maybe. Then I registered but had a few misgivings initially. Lots of thoughts ran through my head "It's all about "international" handling. I don't know that my dogs will work with that kind of handling/that hard of a course, what do I need all of that for?! I don't think it is right for my dogs"

Shake off those preconceived notions and lets get to work!

Let me just say that never have I ever been so glad and grateful  that I did something before! I had a working spot in the morning session and then on Saturday I audited the afternoon advanced session. Having the foundation building blocks and then seeing them put into practice in the afternoon session was a absolute light bulb moment. I think it helped that the afternoon advanced session was a little less advanced than the morning advanced session. But it was absolutely perfect for me.

The explanations from both Jessica and Justine made a whole lot of things in agility make sense, bits and pieces I've picked up from here and there and heard/tried to follow without knowing the whys. It's like a puzzle missing half the pieces and all of a sudden now I can see the final picture. OH, that's what you meant about turn my shoulders!! This handling WILL work with my dogs. It will actually HELP my dogs. I can teach the skills with nearly no equipment in my living room!

I'm so excited for the possibilities and I ended up bouncing out of there after Sunday super excited for the things I need to train instead of plodding out of the seminar with a list of things I need to work on. So awesome!

I worked Spencer (mostly) with Baxter there for backup in the Foundations/Beginner seminar. I've done work with the dogs on some of the skills they teach. We know backsides, we do multiwraps, we're working on tighter turns etc. Other things like how they train threadles and handle threadles are new.

Spencer worked for me. A little hesitant and stressed (the demo dog, Jessica's BC was eyeing him up pretty good from about 10 ft away from where we worked our little drills) but he worked through it. He was awesome! Baxter was awesome as well. I pulled him out for blind cross drills on Sunday and he did amazing. People commented that I must do a lot with him - HAHA - I don't blind cross anything but a tunnel with Baxter! Or rather, I didn't. Makes me rethink some things now, he does actually read them really nicely in the drills. Probably past time to actually put the foundation training in and see how well they might work somewhere else.

Some of the things we were shown, like how to use a blind cross correctly was just amazing. There were 2 jumps set in a 180 about 2 feet apart, we had to pull our dogs through that gap in the middle and every single dog, even the most novice dog who'd never seen agility equipment in his life understood the handling and came through the gap, not even looking at that second jump.

Both Justine and Jessica were SUPER nice and handled/tailored advice to people/dog teams individually and equally. Toy or food, doesn't matter. BC or a slower less motivated dog, doesn't matter. Everyone got advice to help them and no one got brushed off. 

I also loved how a lot of the stuff we were shown in the foundations class has a "Susan Garret/Say Yes Dog Training" feel to it. I've done a bunch of her stuff as well and really like it. Since the group of them worked together and trained together to come up with this handling system, there are parallels to other things I've worked on, which makes me feel a whole lot more comfortable with the whole thing.

It's also super awesome that these talented ladies live about a 3 hour drive from here and not across the country. Now to practice and teach these skills so that when they come back we can play on the hard stuff!

Happy Birthday Fluff

Six! Already! (Okay, well 3 days ago.)

Love, love, love my fluffy, handsome boy.

Speedy Baxter at Nationals (from his Steeplechase run, the only event he managed to get photographed in!)

LOVE this one!

2013 was a huge year for Baxter. We really came together as a team, agility wise and partnership wise.

Happy Birthday to the very best little Fluff in the world. Love you Snack!

2013 Year in Review

Wow, I can't believe its been a year already!

Looking back at what I said I'd like to accomplish, I don't think I did too badly. Not that it really was a challenging list to accomplish.

We did train some tricks. Baxter can sit pretty now - go go gadget core strength! Spencer has a few more naughty tricks in his repertoire, like bouncing (which means he is bouncing off people at thigh height when he gets excited at home ...) Penny is good at going to her kennel (I'mma call that a trick!) Body awareness is a work in progress - I need to work on it more so we can progress! Did manage to get Spencer going backwards up the stairs, so it's a start.

Distance skills are kind of hit and miss, but hey, I did work on them! Baxter has the confidence to go out and take obstacles now, so he's trying and that's the direction I want to go in. I'd rather him try and be wrong than not have the confidence to try. Spencer has awesome distance when we train by ourselves. In a trial situation with environmental factors and strange dogs he has a whole lot less distance, so working on confidence there. I also wanted to work on a verbal "Switch" (turn away from handler/rear cross at a distance) without having to rely on body motion - we've got it on the flat, now to bring that back on the equipment.

Speaking of equipment - fixed Spencer's chute and I think I have a good handle on his weaves (both of which broke in competition.) Now it's the frame and the teeter, which are going to be a little more challenging to fix.

I don't do cute or funny in the snow. I do death glare in the snow ...

AAC Regionals and Nationals were awesome! So happy about that, and happy that I went as well. With the Nationals in the Maritimes this year I think that is out, but I'm planning on Regionals in Lethbridge for sure.

This year points for Baxter were: 448.50 at Regionals and 439.44 at Nationals while Spencer got 398.46 at Regionals and 419.25 at Nationals.

Title wise this year Baxter not only obtained his ATChC at the very first HyperHounds trial he also got his Bronze Award of Merit (with HyperHounds as well!), won Regionals at 6" Specials and came in 2nd at Nationals in 6" Specials. He also got his first legit Steeplechase Q in 2 years of trialing! Titles and ribbons aren't everything, but they do show that you're getting somewhere in your training and how you stack up to other dogs in your class.

Spencer got his ADC, AADC and finished his AGDC at 10" Regular putting him in Masters everything. He also came in 4th at Regionals and then 12th at Nationals. As of November 2013 I dropped him from 10" Regular into 6" Specials - I think he'll be happier to trial at that height.

I did actually manage to attend an agility seminar in person in May with Terry Simons on course visualization and analysis. It was a good experience and really helpful. (getting into this was a fluke - but I'm going to count it anyway!)

Last, but very definitely not least I had a lot of fun with my dogs this year. We took most of the summer off of sports aside from Regionals and Nationals and just had fun doing stuff and taking pictures of the dogs doing stuff. Camping at Farragut for a week, plus various weekends out at the Pass. Hiking, swimming, fishing (Baxter LOVES fish) it was a fantastic summer for the dogs and I! Relationship building at its finest!

Here's to another awesome year of dogs and fun!

Family Portrait Jan 1, 2014 "Sunshine spot!"

Growing Up

Yet another year has gone by, and yet again I've failed to post about his birthday ON his birthday.

"Baby Dog" turned 3 on the 22nd. My Christmas baby <3 

It's like she doesn't love me ... never timely posts

This was a pretty big year for Spencer. Regionals, Nationals, up to Masters in AAC Trials. Camping, Swimming in a Lake, Nieces and Nephews. Lots of firsts and lots of accomplishments. Slowly but surely we're overcoming challenges (and then finding new ones!)

Love my spazzy little black dog!

Mish Mash of Goals & Ramblings

Ugh. Winter.

Our least favorite time of the year. The cold, the dark, did I mention the cold?

Winter looks almost pretty here, but it's a lie ...

During the blizzard on Monday/Tuesday this week I had to put pee pads down in the garage because neither of the Chi’s could go out in the crazy wind and potty in the back yard. Poor little naked dogs.

Winter is terrible, she puts coats and boots on me!

Winter isn’t very inspirational for dog training, especially since I like to work on things that are “fun”  (ie lots of motion and excitement – like agility!) However, in the name of being a better dog trainer and having dogs that are a little more well-rounded, this winter is going to be a little different.

Instead of being sad that I really have no where to train in the house (and no where to train outside of the house because it is too freaking cold and snowy) I have re-vamped the carpeted living room that really wasn’t being used for much into an area to use for training. Some of our agility equipment will even fit!

The focus this winter tho, will be going back to the basics with all 3 dogs. Foundation fun! Actually working completely through some of online course material I haven’t and participating in the Puppy Peaks Challenges. It’ll be good practice to work on training the foundations BEFORE I look at getting another puppy – so I can do it right then, or at the very least, more right =P

Last weekend I worked a CGN test put on by Kim & the Flyball Team. I’ve never actually seen one before and being me, didn’t want to enter the dogs in one without having watched one first. Now I’m a little sad that I didn’t at least bring Baxter to see where we are on things – may not have passed, but it would give me a good idea of where he is at, especially with being handled/groomed by a stranger. Ahh well. Having now seen one (and how basic it really is) I would like to work towards getting it – which means I really have to fix loose leash walking (among other things!)

This week we hit the local Pet Planet and worked on loose leash walking/attention and being happy in new/scary places. 

Anyone who has only met Agility Baxter doesn’t realize how uncomfortable he is in some places (like Pet Stores.) Tail down, unresponsive and trying to pull me out the door – seriously.  The reasons why he is stressed don’t particularly matter here, but I had 100% improvement over that  in one session with a clicker. Some good walking and attention. Some good choices in when to pay attention. Oh, and happy boy. So happy, me and treats and a clicker, he’s a happy dog, and he tries. 

(Just a note of interest here- the clicker is integral to a happy Baxter, I’ve tried to counter condition using a verbal marker in the past and treating for the same things I did this time, but he still wants to leave and doesn’t care about the cookies, the clicker seems to override that worry and give him something else to think about ?)

Spencer tried too. He is more uncomfortable in strange spaces and will take more work than Baxter to overcome that. So we’ll work on new environments and trusting me. Different stage of the journey, same path eventually tho! Also need to work on loading value into the clicker - or discontinue it's use with Spencer - he is uncomfortable with it being in my hand.

This weekend also marks the start of Spencer’s “Specials” agility career. We’re in the 2x4 Trial at WetCreek and I’ve got both boys running in 6” Specials. 

If we don't freeze to death in the -30 degree cold it should be a good time.