The Adventures of Two Urban Border Collies... and a Sheltie

The Agility Season Begins!

2011-12-28T14:04:00.001-07:00

This weekend begins the 2012 Agility season for us. Friday, Sunday, and Monday Summit and Soleil are entered in AKC. Summit has had seven weeks off from training and competition. Soleil has had lot's of training, proofing, and fun matches since her last competition and she is coming along so well!

We have two back-to-back weekends of AKC and then the third weekend is our first USDAA trial for the 2012 qualifying period. This will also be Soleil's very first USDAA trial. I am excited to run her on USDAA courses! I also entered her in Steeplechase and Grand Prix with the goals to get her qualified for Nationals since they are in Denver in 2012.

We went to a fun match on Monday and here are the videos.

Soleil's first run-through. I'm very happy with her dogwalk contact. She is really driving forward into 20/20 position. She tested her startline stay in both rounds. I was wondering when that would happen - she's been so perfect at the startline. I was a little worried ;-)

Round two. I wanted to get in a few more aframes. Also wanted to avoid the table because not only was it really slippery but it sucked up 5 seconds of course time. Both my dogs attempted it though...

Summit had a turn and he was sooo happy to play!

I am looking for a baby dog DAM team for Soleil for the FRAT March trial and the Rocky Mountain Regional in Albuquerque, NM. - Any takers?

I'm Baaaaack!

2011-12-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

It was an intense several months and although I was pretty good at posting video and updates on FB, blogging takes such more mental effort that with work being so intense these past several months, it was hard to find the time (and mental energy) to post.

I mainly want to update on Soleil's training and competition. She has done three AKC trials this year. The first two I just entered her in jumpers with weaves as I didn't think her dogwalk had been proofed enough for the ring. She moved up to Open at her second trial. She had her third AKC trial in November and was entered in standard for the first time. She had a really nice run and qualified with one refusal (she came back out of the chute barrel) and her dogwalk contact was good. She was absolutely WILD in jumpers both days and fell off the aframe her first standard run. That makes two dogwalks and an aframe she has fallen off of. Hopefully, she is now savvy enough to pay attention to where her feet are and not just going as fast as she can.

We have been struggling the last couple months with her generalizing the behavior between the teeter (4-on) and the dogwalk (2on/2off). She would often stop at the end of the dw with 4-0n. I brought back the nose target and we worked on reinforcing the nose touch to the target at the end of the dogwalk (I previously had faded the target once she was running a full dogwalk and think I faded it too quickly).

Here is an earlier video of her dogwalk during a standard run at a DOCNA trial.

Here is a video of her recent standard run (the first weekend in December).

It's taken some time but I'm happy with her progression. I haven't gotten to the stage yet of really proofing the release on the dogwalk. I've just been focusing on her driving with speed into the 20/20 position.

I'm starting to Send her to turning obstacles so that I can get ahead to set the line to the next sequence. She is really sending with confidence adn I feel like I'm not so late with my front crosses as much.

I have to say that I am thrilled with her jumping form. She rarely ever drops a bar and she is very good at judging her take off.

Convergence is something we need to work on. She doesn't always like to come in to me and can wing out with a wide turn instead of coming in. Although she is very good at converging over the middle jump of a serpentine when I am recalling (vs. pulling).

Our next competition is the New Years weekend. It's a 4-day trial but I only entered the dogs in three days. Meanwhile, Soleil has participated in several fun matches at different locations with different equipment. She is really starting to understand her job. Summit has been on Winter break. No training or competing but lot's of conditioning.

Here is Miss Soleil's jumpers run at her last trial. In hindsight, I should have trusted her sending skills and front crossed on the landing side of the purple jump instead of on the flat. This really slowed her down.

Updates and Soleil's Second AKC and DOCNA Trial

2011-10-19T14:39:00.000-06:00

Work is still taking up a lot of my time but I though I needed to post an update on our training and trialing.

A couple of weeks ago at the Terry-All AKC trial, Summit double-Q'd on Saturday. He would have QQ'd on Friday but he slid off the table (it was really slick and he wasn't the only dog to slide off). Sunday he had a bar in Standard. He was 50 percent Friday and Sunday. I am thrilled with our consistency. Now that I'm running a baby dog, I can appreciate how much of a team Summit and I have become.

Soleil did well too. She had a bar in Novice jumpers on Friday and then earned her title on Saturday. She ran her first Open jumpers course on Sunday and had a bar but it was a very nice run.

This past weekend she was entered in a DOCNA trial. She had some really nice runs and a couple of "Sheltie OTT" runs. She is getting very excited while in the ring. I'm still learning what works for her warmup routine. I tugged with her before a couple of runs and others, I tried food and keeping her calm. I think right now the food is the best choice.

Here are a few videos from the weekend.

Summit Friday Standard - he slid off the slick table. Poor guy really tried to hang on.

Summit Friday JWW

Summit Saturday Standard - QQ

Soleil Saturday Jumpers - 1st place and NAJ title. Don missed most of the run but did get the ending and her amazing wp entry.

Here are a few videos from last weekend's DOCNA trial
Soleil Beginners Standard - 1st place. She sometimes confuses the teeter behavior (4-on) with the dogwalk (2-on). I think she'll work through it as she gets more ring experience.

Soleil Jumpers run - 1st place

A short cameo of Soleil and I waiting for our turn in the ring. Thanks Don!!!!

MACH Summit and Soleil's AKC Debute

2011-09-19T15:24:00.002-06:00

I have been SO busy at work (and teaching) that blogging has just not been happening this last month. However, I just had to write about our wonderful weekend at the FRAAD AKC trial.

Summit just needed one more QQ for his MACH (and two more for Nationals). Friday was Excellent only and he was clean in Standard but that afternoon, he dropped a bar in Jumpers. Saturday he triple Q'd and earned his MACH!!!! He is now MACH ADCH Cedar Pinnacle View! (the third Q was in FAST which he won).

Could it get any better?

Sunday Summit double Q'd AGAIN to finish qualifying for 2012 AKC Nationals!

Could it get any better?

This weekend was also Soleil's AKC debut! Saturday she qualified and placed third in Novice Jumpers and Sunday, she won Novice Jumpers.

Could it get any better?

Soleil's first official measurement is under 14"!!! She will continue to jump 16" in competition (since she measures into that height class in USDAA). However, if her second and final measurement is under 14", she will get to jump 12" at AKC Nationals. She will be at the top of her class height-wise vs. the bottom.

So here is some video to share our wonderful weekend.

First is Summit's MACH run. The best part of this video is at the end. He grabs his leash as usual and I tug with him. Then Liz hands me my MACH bar for our victory lap. I ask him to release the leash, I drop it on the ground, he immediately picks it up again. I ask him to release, I drop it on the ground, he pounces on it and then does a play bow - he thinks this is a fun new game! I am thinking, "How do I do our victory lap when he has a leash in his mouth?" Finally the judge says, "Give me your leash."

Soleil's Saturday Jumpers with Weaves run. I thought she did a great job considering the busy venue (three rings) and the loud announcement during her run. I'm doing my best to give plenty of forward cues and not worrying about tight turns. I was so happy to her get her weave entry on the first try as well as keeping up all the bars. The sand in the back of the arena where the double was located was pretty deep.

Soleil's Sunday Jumpers run. I was so focused on my dog that I forgot where the course went (you see me decelerate suddenly before the left turn to the yellow jump). Again she nailed her weave entry the first time and kept up all the bars.

We have two weeks off (there are trials both weekends but I did not enter them - will spend time off hiking in the mountains instead).

Our next AKC trial is in three weeks and Soleil is entered in Jumpers again all three days.

Soleil's First Trial

2011-08-15T15:08:00.002-06:00

This past weekend Soleil debuted at a DOCNA trial outdoors in a beautiful park with a creek. What can I say except that I was so proud of her! She did awesome for her very first time in the ring. She was focused (a little excited), and other than her dogwalk behavior needs way more proofing, I was very pleased with her performance on all obstacles. It was a great experience for her and she had a lot of fun. She even qualified three times with three first places.

In DOCNA you can train in the ring and this trial I treated as a large fun match. It was two rings but one judge so only one ring was active at a time. Depending on the speed of the dog running in the ring before her, sometimes when we went to the line, she would lunge and bark as the dog before her was finishing. However, once I asked her to sit and removed her leash, she was all business.

She is entered in an AKC trial in September. Based on the feedback I received from her performance this weekend I've cancelled her entry in the Standard class because I think her dogwalk needs a lot more proofing. I do think it's important for her to continue to gain ring experience so she is still entered in Jumpers with Weaves.

Her next DOCNA trial is in October and then she has another in December. I may enter her in a few more AKC trials this Fall just in Jumpers.

Here are a few videos from the weekend. I think she is so stinkin' cute sitting at the startline!

Gamblers - great opening. Of course, I did not attempt the distance challenge. Just made up a nice little course for her to run. Got to train the dogwalk

Standard - 1st place

Jumpers - 1st place

She also had a great jumpers run on Sunday (one bar). I trained in the ring during her standard run. She then had a perfect stop on the dogwalk that afternoon in Snakes & Ladders and ended up winning the class.

This weekend we are in Laramie, Wyoming for USDAA and then the following weekend is a two day AKC trial. Summit earned a double Q last weekend in Durango so only needs one more for MACH and two for nationals.

Soleil Training

2011-08-03T14:57:00.002-06:00

This week we've been practicing sequencing full courses. When I looked at the video of her run at the fun match, I noticed although she ran the aframe, she didn't have as much extension over the apex as she normally does. I didn't know if it was because she was in a new environment and running on different equipment or perhaps it was because there was no stride regulator. At home, I always have a SR at the first slat to lengthen her stride over the apex. So this morning, I decided to take it off and see what she had. I am pleased to see that she doesn't need the SR and her Aframe performance at the fun match was just a baby dog's lack of confidence on strange equipment in a new environment.

We ran the sequence twice. She took the tunnel instead of the Aframe the second time and I had to quickly pick her up and send over the jump and then Aframe again.

Here is the second time. Still looking good.

The sequencing is going well. I just need to really remember that I need to incorporate lot's of forward cues. The courses we are running are Masters level courses. She is doing quite well on them; especially when I actually support each obstacle ;-) We begin each training session with DJS drills followed by some DW contact proofing (RS method), and then run a few courses. I am getting nice turns with a FC and RC but we need lot's of work on pulls. I think I'll go back to the flatwork and one jump work for pulls emphasizing lateral motion to cue the turn.

Both my Border Collies were almost two years old before I put them in the ring. I was also taking a lot of group classes with both. Unfortunately, group classes haven't worked out well so Soleil and I train only in our backyard. So she will be debuting in AKC at 15 mos. This is the only way to get her on different equipment and in a more exciting environment than our good ol' backyard agility.

She has a DOCNA trial in two weeks and then the second week of September, she is entered in her first AKC trial.

Soleil's First Fun Match

2011-08-01T12:41:00.001-06:00

It was a pretty quiet weekend. I worked half a day on Saturday and then Sunday morning drove about 10 minutes from my house to the fairgrounds for an agility fun match starring Little Miss Sunshine!

I was so pleased with how well she did. They ran small to tall and a very fast drivey BC (jumping 16") went in just before us and Soleil was going nuts, barking and lunging at the ring. I thought she would be totally OTT. She pulled me into the ring but by the time I put her in a sit, removed her leash, and lead out... Missy was all business.

I was thrilled with our sequencing, her jumping, and her weaves! She even performed the chute! Things to work on:
1. Train the tire!
2. Continue to proof 20/20 on the dw and put tunnels next to the dw (she was confused about the tunnel being so close to the downramp).

Here is the video. My plan was to front cross on the flat after the triple to turn her to the teeter but because I had to babysit the tire, I got too far behind. I did not want to decelerate before a spread in order to pull to the teeter. You can see I hesitate the first time because it took me until the triple to realize she had gone under the tire ;-) Before I could think about calling her to me, she headed to the teeter so I went with it but not how I wanted to handle this section. The second time she didn't hesitate and jumped through the tire.

This morning we trained the tire. And then did some sequencing.

We leave Thursday for Durango, Colorado (South) for a three day AKC trial. The following weekend, Soleil is entered in a two-day DOCNA trial. I will plan to get all of our runs videotaped. DOCNA is great for baby dogs because you can train in the ring and the atmosphere is so laid back.

By the way, Blogger is being weird again. I've been catching up on reading blogs and have been unable to post comments. Annoying!

Double-Double Q Weekend for Summit and Soleil's first Trial

2011-07-20T16:37:00.001-06:00

Work has been extremely busy and I've not had time to read my favorite blogs let alone post on my own blog. But last weekend was a fantastic weekend for Summit and I.

Friday - 1st place Jumpers, 2nd place Standard - QQ
Saturday - 1st place Jumpers
Sunday - 2nd place Jumpers, 2nd place Standard - QQ

So that leaves three more QQ's to finish qualifying for AKC Nationals!!! Oh, and he needs two more QQ's for his MACH which I guess he'll earn on his way to qualifying for Nationals. I really want to go next year as it is in Reno, Nevada.

Soleil's training has been going well. We continue to work the drills in DJS and continue to proof her dogwalk and weaves. Her teeter is looking great. She did go through a period where she would offer 20/20 on the teeter and 4-0n the dogwalk but on the advice of a friend, I began to train both obstacles in the same sequence and she soon figured it out.

So, I have decided to enter her in my club's DOCNA trial the second week of August. I want her to have her first ring experience in a fun organization that is low-key and allows training in the ring. I entered her in Standard, Jumpers, and the two types of Gamblers (we won't be doing the distance challenge). We may run a full course or we may do 7 obstacles and leave for a game of tug. I was tempted to enter Summit to do some contact proofing but decided I wanted the day to belong to Soleil.

Here are a couple of Summit's runs from the past weekend. The courses were pretty fun!

Friday Jumpers - 1st place

Friday Standard - 2nd place

Saturday Jumpers - 1st place

Sunday Standard - 2nd place (he released himself from his dw - bad boy)

Sunday Jumpers - 2nd place (can you see where I forgot I was going to do a FMFC? I remembered almost too late. Such a good boy, he not only kept up the bar but didn't take out my knees either ;-)

RM Regional and Soleil training videos

2011-07-07T10:31:00.003-06:00

A quick recap of the Rocky Mountain Regional held over the 4th of July weekend. The event was held in an indoor soccer facility without air conditioning and it was HOT! Luckily we finished fairly early each day and missed most of the hottest part of the afternoon.

One of our team members was focusing on World Team points and the other was a young dog. We did not Q as each of us had a single elimination. Friday Summit was very high and released himself from the aframe and took a wrong jump before I could redirect him. He had nice runs in Gamblers and placed 4th in Steeplechase Round 1. Saturday he blew his aframe contact and dropped a bar in Steeplechase Finals and in GP round 1, he missed the aframe contact again. The last time he missed an aframe contact was at the South Central Regional during Steeplechase Finals.... hmmm I'm seeing a pattern here. I tend to get very competitive and push him when I don't need to. He is fast enough and when I start to push, his brain explodes. Definitely a mental management issue on my part.

We did very well on the IHC courses. I watched a lot of runs on these international courses and there were many faults. We had one off course in IHC Jumpers (it required handling past several obstacles to a tunnel entrance that was not in the dog's line of sight) and then we ran clean in IHC Standard and placed second (Mary Ellen Barry with Maizy was first).

Steeplechase Round 1 - 4th place (Jen missed the beginning because she was busy watching Mary Ellen run in the other ring!)

IHC Jumpers - even with the wrong course jump at the beginning (a common fault), I really liked how we ran this tough course.

IHC Standard - 2nd place

Soleil's training has been going well. Here are a few videos from this week. I am using food for jump sequencing as toys make her too high and I want her thinking about jumping not blasting through for the toy. I am still using food to reward the 20/20 behavior. At some point (like the teeter), I will switch to using a toy as a reward for further proofing.

First time running entire dogwalk with a stop at the bottom. I'm really focusing on rear feet position.

Running aframe - she hasn't been on the aframe for about a month. Still looking great! She really has her striding down.

Jump sequencing

We have a week off and then a three-day AKC trial in Castle Rock. Hoping for double Q's for AKC Nationals!

Summit Rocked at the DAPPR USDAA Trial!

2011-06-29T11:55:00.001-06:00

A beautiful park in the Black Forest, perfect weather, USDAA agility, seven Q's out of nine runs and NOT A SINGLE BAR!

Pretty darn perfect!

I am so thrilled with both my dog's performance and his jumping. Saturday morning we had Gamblers. I did not attempt the gamble as it is not something I would expect my dog to do (a redirect at distance) so we worked our contacts and then left when the gamble buzzer went off. Then he placed third with a very nice run in Standard, GP I fell at the very end and although we lost some time, we did end up with a Q and 4th place. Steeplechase I did not execute a forward send very well and Summit did not turn and took a wrong course jump. Then we won pairs relay that afternoon.

Sunday, Summit won Standard, Q'd in Snooker, won Jumpers, and then won the IHC Jumpers class. I was very happy we ran IHC clean with no faults (lot's of handlers had faults) and then was thrilled when I found out we won.

Soleil had fun helping me scribe run (it was a long distance from the rings to the score table under the pavillion). She got to run off leash with a group of her Sheltie friends. She also got to play fetch and tug and visit the wading pools. She is starting to really turn on when she sees a dog running in the ring. She knows the game now!

Here are a few videos from the weekend. Feel free to laugh at GP. I really do look like a fish flopping on the ground. All I can say is it is a good thing I have a rear cross on the flat!

Grand Prix - 4th place

Masters Standard - 3rd place

Masters Standard - 1st place

Masters Jumpers - 1st place. This was a tough course and quite a few NQ's

IHC Jumpers - 1st place. Such a fun course and I LOVE threadles and pushes to the backside of jumps.

A Great AKC Weekend for Summit!

2011-06-15T12:23:00.002-06:00

We were down at Castle Rock for three days of AKC agility. Friday Summit won Standard in the morning and then had a beautiful run in Jumpers (fastest time overall) but dropped the second to last bar. Saturday we ran Jumpers first and he won by a full second. That afternoon he had a nice Standard run (third place) for his first Double Q for Nationals. Sunday, again we won Jumpers in the morning. I was looking forward to Standard in the afternoon. We had a great opening but as I rotated out of a front cross, my foot slipped in the loose dirt and down I went. I had just cued the Aframe when I started to fall, I immediately jumped back up but as I'm doing so, I see Summit half way on the upside of the Aframe looking down at me with concern (or puzzlement more likely) and just as I thought we were going to be ok, he jumped off the side. Dang!

I am so pleased with our performance this weekend. Specifically Summit's jumping. We are at a point now in our teamwork where a wrong course happens very rarely. Our NQ's have been because of a single bar in jumpers. There are a couple of factors that I believe have contributed to the improvement in his jumping.

1. Building his core strength. We do "On The Ball" exercises twice a week for 20-25 minutes each session.
2. Stretching (active and passive). Passive stretching after exercise (training, ball work, and following his cool-down after a run). Active stretching following his warmup before going into the ring.
3. Jump grids (from advanced jumping skills section in DJS)
4. Varying jump heights while sequencing during training sessions (20"-22"-24") which teach him to pay attention to his jumping effort.
5. Regular PT visits to catch any soft tissue issues before they become serious.

We have a heavy competition schedule the next three weeks and then a nice break.

Here are a few videos from the weekend. Including of course the blooper!

Friday Jumpers with Weaves - 1 bar

Friday Standard - 1st place

Saturday Jumpers with Weaves (1st place) (missing video of Standard)

Sunday Jumpers with Weaves - 1st place

Sunday Standard - NQ because of handler blooper.

This weekend is the Utah 4-Star event and I can't go because I am teaching (already had a substitute when I went to the SC Regional in TX). So I will be playing in AKC this weekend. I do need the double Q's for nationals but still would rather be at the USDAA trial. There are several top International-class competitors who will be in Utah who I would have enjoyed watching.

Soleil's agility training

2011-06-07T10:02:00.002-06:00

I need to take recent pictures of Soleil. She is so beautiful even though she has blown her coat. From what Sheltie people have told me is this is typical after they finish a heat cycle and her coat will fill out in the Fall. Personally, I think less coat makes her faster ;-)

So we continue to work through DJS. We haven't sequenced more than 3-4 jumps yet. She has seen the spread jumps and the tire. I am focusing on executing the turns on the flat.

She is weaving 12 poles now but I only have her weaving once a week. We do work on entries with two sets of 2x2's (4 poles) several times a week. As usual, the soft-sided entry is the most challenging.

The a-frame is at full AKC height now and she is figuring out her striding. She is looking good. So far I've just sent her over a jump and then cued the aframe while running ahead of her since I am encouraging lot's of extension over the apex and building confidence. At some point, I will add an obstacle after the a-frame and work on handling. I plan to turn her on the flat.

I am in the process of searching for a group agility class for her. A beginner/intermediate level would be great. She really needs to train other than my backyard and needs to get on different equipment.

Summit has had two weeks off of agility training. He's done ball work twice a week and jogs with me. Yesterday we worked a sequence for the first time since the Regional. We have a three-day AKC agility trial this weekend and then trials every weekend for the next three weeks. Hoping to get those 6 double Q's for AKC Nationals. This time last year Summit was already qualified for AKC Nationals. This year, we missed out on almost three months of competition because of his hamstring injury.

I really hope he isn't Mr. Onebar Wonder this weekend!

Soleil's Running Aframe

2011-06-01T14:25:00.001-06:00

Last weekend I decided to begin Soleil's aframe training. I have been hoping that she had the stride length for a running aframe. I started out running her over a very low aframe and with all the plank work she did this Winter, she ran over the low aframe with confidence and speed. I had it raised to AKC full height by the third day then I added a stride regulator at the top to create extension over the apex. I moved the stride regulator a few inches lower this morning and am happy with the results.

She appears to easily have enough extension over the apex and her second stride puts her in the yellow. The third attempt she has too much extension and speed and decides to try a one-strided aframe. I didn't see that until I watched the video as I'm trying not to look back or decel while she's running over the aframe. Shelties CAN fly!

She is focused downward until she pushes off from the second stride and then she looks up to see where she is going. I won't be practicing many aframes. At most maybe twice a week. Next week I'll add a tunnel before and maybe a jump afterwards so the aframe is in a sequence.

She certainly is a lot of fun!

SC Regional Report and Soleil Weaves 12 Poles!

2011-05-27T10:11:00.004-06:00

We returned home from Texas Monday afternoon. Since then I've had to play catch-up at work and just now have a chance to post. I loved the venue and the competition! Unfortunately, I was very sick Sat. and Sun. and wasn't able to handle my best. We did not get a bye in either Steeplechase or GP but we did get a team Q and our team won the relay. In Steeplechase finals, many teams had wrong courses. It was a tough course. I am happy to say we had a really nice run but Summit dropped a bar so no bye to Nationals. GP I overhandled a tunnel/DW discrimination and he came into me by-passing the dw for a refusal so no bye in GP. Summit had some really nice team runs and placements. I've posted our Team Relay run below. Our team won 22" Relay by over a full second. First to run is Stacy, then me, and Donna is third. Notice how differently Stacy and I handled the wrap to the aframe. She wanted to wrap to the outside so that Sobe (who had a running a-frame) had a straighter approach to the obstacle. For Summit, I liked the wrap to the inside as I knew I would get a tighter turn with him as opposed to the FC's.

Indy sips a Sobe on the Summit - team relay, 1st place

Soleil has been weaving 6 poles for awhile and on Tuesday, I added a second set of 6 poles. This morning, I began to move the poles closer until they became a single set of 12 poles. We ended this morning's training session with her weaving 12 straight poles. Tomorrow, we'll continue to proof entries from different locations, my motion (and lack of), and my position.

First is a short video of what Soleil is like when we go out the back door to train. Since I had the video camera with me I thought I would film. Her enthusiasm is so cute. She loves to go outside and train.

We have several weeks off before we trial again. My focus is now on AKC since we still need to get those 6 double Q's for nationals.

USDAA weekend, a dance routine, and road trip to Texas

2011-05-17T11:45:00.001-06:00

We were down in Pueblo this weekend for two days of USDAA. Summit did really well and he only had one bar the entire weekend. He got a GP Q, Snooker Q, and a Gamble Q. He also placed 2nd in round one of Steeplechase and then placed 2nd again in the Steeplechase Finals.

I love this venue. It's a large soccer field at the University and provides lot's of room for dogs to run off leash. Soleil was SUCH a GOOD girlie off leash. Stacy and I went out to the far end of the field with her new puppy, Witness, and Soleil. They played for a bit (well, Soleil herded Wit while he ran around with a toy in his mouth). All of a sudden, a BC goes flashing by chasing a ball. Soleil's chase drive kicked in and she took off after the BC, I called her name and she started to slow down, I called her name again and she immediately turned and came running back to me. I have never had to test her recall under those circumstances before and was very pleased with the result. She did take off after the dog one more time a few minutes later and that time she came back on my first recall.

Here is Summit's Steeplechase round 1 run. Jen and Bode (Summit's brother) took first!
In case you're wondering why the FC before the tunnel followed by the RC on the flat vs. just staying on the inside. The angle of the double posed a safety issue for dogs blasting out of the tunnel (they could hit the wing).

Steeplechase Finals - 2nd place (first place Kim Terrill and Steeple)
The straight line following the weaves was difficult. You had to set the LOM to move laterally into the dog's path and then a forward send to the last jump cueing the turn to the left with lateral motion (one step) away from the dog's path. Many dogs turned right over that jump.

Here is GP. I don't know where we ended up - maybe 6th place I think? I kind of ran this conservatively. Not sure why since I had intended to go for a BYE for our RM Regional.
I didn't know this until I looked at the video but he fell sideways on his right shoulder before the last jump. I think he's pretty amazing for falling that hard and then recovering enough to keep up the bar.

Donna, Jen, and I are teaming for the Rocky Mtn. Regionals and Nationals. Our team name is Triple Threat and we decided we needed a dance routine. Here is a sneak peak....

... hmmm, I think we need more practice.

Leaving for Ft. Worth, Texas tomorrow for the South Central Regional! This will be a large event because of the IFCS qualifying period. Looking forward to a new venue and seeing some spectacular handlers and dogs!

My team is the same from Nationals last year - Donna (with Indy), Stacy (with Sobe), and Summit and I.

A HOT and slippery weekend of USDAA

2011-05-09T10:26:00.002-06:00

The weekend temps were in the mid 80's which made for a very warm trial. Other than the heat, the weather was nice (no high winds or micro bursts) and by Sunday, the club had put out wading pools for the dogs. Summit had some great runs on Saturday with Q's in Gamblers (he won), Pairs (he and Bode won), Standard (3rd place), and Steeplechase (6th place with a bar) and then a bar in GP.

Sunday we had no Q's. The grass had dried up in many areas of the ring and was very slippery. Summit slid on his side after landing off a jump in Masters Standard so we cut the run short and left the ring. After over 2 months of rehab, I did not feel like risking another injury. I did run Masters Jumpers and he slipped just as he was setting himself up to jump the triple and dropped the bar. I watched the video in slow mo and could see his left rear leg slide sideways and out - Yikes! That was the leg with the hamstring pull. There were a couple of dogs who slipped and several who crashed into jump standards and limped out of the ring. Luckily, as far as I know, the dogs were all ok.

Masters Standard - 3rd place

Steeplechase - 6th place with one bar

Here is the jumpers run. Watch his left rear leg as he turns on the grass towards the triple.

Masters Gamblers - 1st place

Relay - with little brother Bode. 1st place by almost a full second.

Soleil had fun walking around the trial grounds, barking at the fast dogs in the ring (when we were sitting ringside), playing tug, and meeting lot's of new puppies.

This morning I added a third set of 2x2's about four feet from the end of the last set. She is weaving four poles (two sets) and then running through the gap of the third set. I will begin to move that third set closer until she is weaving six poles. That will be so exciting!

We worked on RTH over one and two jumps also. Mixing up extension RTH with foundation RTH. She is having no problems with 16" and she is rocking back on her rear, pushing off, and jumping with nice round form. She is also changing her striding and takeoff between the two jumps depending on whether I am cueing extension or collection. What a smart girlie!

Soleil's 2x2 weave training videos

2011-05-04T11:04:00.002-06:00

So this morning we did two sessions of weave training and I remembered to video. I had moved the 2x2's outside and so even though she had been weaving four poles inside, I did move them apart again for the first training session in a new location.

Once they are close together again, I'll continue to proof with varying location of dog and handler.

First session:

Second session: moved poles closer together.

It's Been a Rough Three Weeks...

2011-05-02T11:06:00.002-06:00

This weekend I finally got my Soleil back. Where did she go? Physically - nowhere. Mentally - Hormoneville, USA.

We've done very little training the last two weeks. Short two-minute sessions was all I got out of her. This is my first experience with a bitch in season and I certainly have a lot of respect for those who keep their girls intact. Not me - Soleil will be spayed sometime this year.

This weekend we progressed through the single set of 2x2's proofing entries with varying locations of handler and dog. Then added a second set on Saturday and started closing up the gap. This morning I closed the gap completely between the two sets of poles and she is now weaving 4 poles. I moved the set from the sunroom (where I could throw food on the floor) to outside and will begin to use a toy for the proofing stage.

We've progressed to Part 5 in DJS (jumping for breakfast was about the only training we did do while she was in season). She is very confident jumping 16" now and I no longer begin each training session at a lower height. She understands my motion and location cues for extension and collection/turning. She also understands the verbal "jump". This week I will introduce spreads (at 12" and work up) and the tire. I plan to do all her training at 16". There is a good chance she may end up measuring into the 12" class in AKC but I plan to jump her at 16" until she's older. I've carefully observed her jumping form at 12" and she is flat. She engages her rear more and has a much rounder form when jumping 16" vs. 12".

She is doing the full height teeter with speed and confidence. I've incorporated a jump before the teeter now. Mostly sending to the jump in order to get ahead of her to the teeter. Also doing a FC on the flat landing side of jump and then sending her ahead to perform the teeter. Still proofing her stop when I'm behind her - she's not a very patient girl.

The table has become a fun place to play and she's readily offering to jump up for a game of tug. It is time to add the down position. Someone asked me last weekend (at the trial), why I started training the table so early (since she was 9 weeks old) and why I spent so much time on it. I explained that I didn't really train the table, I just spent a lot of time playing tug games on the obstacle with all my puppies. Only after a year of table games do I begin to ask for a specific position and a stay. But by that time, my puppy is happily driving with speed to get to the table. I also like to end a training session on the table since right now I am only using food as a reward for jump work, plank work, and the teeter and I like ending each training session with a wild game of tug on the table.

I've started training a 20/20 on a travel plank. Again, haven't done much with this for the last several weeks. The 20/20 will be for the dogwalk.

I won't do any jump sequences with her until she's completed her jump training. I am confident she'll progress quickly once we begin to sequence as she knows all of the turns on the flat and responds quickly to my turning cues when we do flatwork.

This weekend Summit and I have a USDAA trial outdoors and Soliel will get to go. Now that Summit is all qualified for USDAA Nationals and has a bye for the Regional GP Finals in Texas, we'll be hoping to get another bye for the Rocky Mtn. Regional in July.

Summit wins Grand Prix and earns a BYE for the SC Regional

2011-04-25T12:48:00.008-06:00

Well it was a successful trip to Utah. Summit earned that last Steeplechase leg to finish qualifying for nationals and he won Grand Prix - earning him a bye to round 2 at the South Central Regional in May - woohoo!!!!

The trial was held outdoors on grass. We got lucky and the weather was almost perfect! Friday Summit had nice runs but for one bar in all 4 classes. The grass was thick and the ground very uneven; there were hills and dips and if there was a low-spot before the jump, the dogs were jumping higher. By Saturday he had figured it out and only dropped one bar. Sunday he had no bars.

I really missed Soleil! She has one more week to go and then she can start going to trials with me again. We have next week off and then three USDAA trials in a row. FRAC in Brighton, ACAT in Pueblo, and then the South Central Regional in Ft. Worth, TX.

Meanwhile I'll continue to work jump grids twice a week with Mr. Summit as well as jump sequences with variable jump heights (20", 22", and 24") and variable spacing.

Here is Summit's Grand Prix video. The weaves were really off set from the teeter so you had to push your dog out to get the entry (some dogs missed the entry). I also took a step past the weaves in order to set a nicer approach over the jump as well as the approach to the following jump. Some dogs got the tunnel after the a-frame. I made sure I was moving laterally towards the jump after cueing the aframe. I could have cued a much tighter turn over the jump but with the uneven ground, decided to be more conservative and give him plenty of room.

Masters Jumpers - 4th place

Steeplechase Finals - 1 bar, 7th place

A fun Snooker course with pushes to the backside of the jumps

Soleil is growing up...

2011-04-18T12:50:00.003-06:00

I love this picture of Soleil at 9 weeks old. Time sure does fly....
Summit and I (along with Jen and Summit's younger brother, Bode) will be heading to Utah this Thursday for a three day USDAA agility trial. Grand Prix, Steeplechase, and double games - can't beat that for FUN! The venue is a beautiful outdoor site with climate-controlled indoor crating. I am sad that Soleil won't be going with me. She came into season this past week. I just can't believe how fast my little girl is growing up! I've never left her at home before and will really miss her this weekend.

Meanwhile, it explains her less than normal amount of focus lately while training. We did get in some training sessions and I've discovered short and fast is the best approach. We started something new this morning - 20/20 training on the travel plank and she caught on very quickly.

So hopefully Summit will get his last Steeplechase Q for USDAA Nationals this weekend and we'll be all set to go to Kentucky in October.

A plan and a video

2011-04-14T12:27:00.006-06:00

Linda M. provided some excellent feedback on my videos of Summit's jumpers runs and suggested a training plan. I will revisit the Advanced jump training in DJS and incorporate different jump heights such as 18", 20", 22", and 24". Basically he is 1. jumping way too flat at 20". 2. He lacks the ability (or he is not bothering) to look ahead and adjust his striding between jumps. He jumps with such a flat trajectory and extension that he tends to land too close to the take off side of the following jump. He needs to learn to balance his strides to accomodate different distances between jumps. So jump training begins tomorrow (this morning we had wet snow).

Here is the video of my running Crook (Soleil's half brother)in Jumpers. Unfortunately, Don missed videoing a couple of the jumps at the end but it was basically a straight line and I had to really run hard. I certainly could have tightened up some of his turns but this is only the second time I've run him and I don't have a definite feel for his committment point yet. I love this dog! He is so much fun to run!

Soleil did her first RTH over one jump this morning. We also worked on the 2x2's which I am really enjoying since I can use a toy and she is much happier chasing and tugging than eating Bison lung. I really love watching her think through how to earn reinforcement. I've also noticed she is far more accepting of failure when a toy is involved vs. food.

We were almost done with this training session before I remembered to video. Dang! Will video tomorrow.

Bars!!!

2011-04-12T14:07:00.002-06:00

So after having such a great weekend in USDAA, we were back to dropping bars again this past weekend. Three days of AKC and one Q out of six runs. Four NQs because of bars and one refusal (I slipped in the loose dirt and almost fell and pushed Summit off his wp entry). We won Standard on Friday and would have won again on Sunday but for one bar.

Very frustrating but we'll continue to train and condition and practice jump grids and work on my handling and timing and and and .....

.... continue to be one bar short of the QQ's we need for Nationals.

Summit jumps very flat at 20". His jumping is much rounder at 22". Could this be the cause of the bars in AKC? On the other hand, he has had two months off for rehab and perhaps he is not in top condition yet? Does he respect the bars at 22" more than 20"?

I posted on the APHS Forum about considering moving him up to 24" because of his dropping bars at 20". The suggestion was that it was the obstacle spacing in AKC vs. USDAA that was more than likely the cause. So I've incorporated some variance in spacing between jumps in our training. I have also started training him at 24" (nothing new, I used to jump him that height last year in training). I think training at a higher jump height will make him think about jumping (using his rear) as welll as improve his conditioning. He looks really good at 24" and I can tell he is really making the effort to jump rather than just pulling himself over the bars.

Today he had his chiropractic appointment and he was in great shape. Only needing a minor adjustment.

Meanwhile....
Soleil is beginning DJS at 16". She is not totally confident at 16" yet so we are still at the offering stage. She also started 2x2's class. It is great to have her in a class again. We worked on sit stays inbetween our turn on the poles. She continues to challenge me with her lack of food drive. She is bored now with the bison lung so off to find something new and better.

This weekend at the trial I had her measured by two VMO's (non official measurement). She measured OVER 14"! She may drop down some when her shoulders lay back but it may not be enough to get her under 14". Luckily she is athletic and has some long legs that will make jumping 16" very doable.

I ran Crook (her half brother) in Jumpers on Sunday. We had a bar but he was only one second slower than the winning 20" time. Don did video us and I will post the video of Crook and I as soon as I get it.

Friday Jumpers with weaves - nice run but two bars. Ok so the story about the long start is 1. Summit does not like to face away from the course. He thinks I am placing him in the wrong direction. 2. the jump steward couldn't figure out how to replace the bars on the triple so there was this long delay while waiting for the triple to be reset and argue with my dog about which direction he needed to face.

Friday Standard - 1st place
The judges table count was really fast and I ran out of time to get into position. I should have not released him until I was ready. We had a wide turn to the weaves.

Summit gets GP and Steeplechase Q's for Nationals!

2011-04-04T11:20:00.001-06:00

What a great USDAA weekend! Summit placed 2nd in Grand Prix and WON Steeplechase! Now he only needs one more Steeplechase leg to finish qualifying for nationals. But at least he is now qualified to enter both the South Central Regional in May and the Rocky Mtn. Regional in July.

The best news is he only dropped a bar in a single class the entire weekend. It was in the Gamble which was the first class Saturday morning.

He also qualified in Jumpers (2nd place), Standard (2nd place), Pairs Relay (1st place) and got a Snooker Q. In Steeplechase finals I pushed him too hard and he missed the wp entry. I should have kept going on (I usually do) but for some reason (must have been thinking about the time plus faults rule of Round 1), I asked him to repeat the weaves and of course he missed it again, and then a third time. I KNOW this about him.. he does not like to be wrong and stresses up and loses the ability to focus. I thanked the judge and we left the ring since he was way past thinking at that point. I played a game of tug with him after we left the ring so all was good in his world.

I also got to run Crook in Steeplechase. He is Soleil's half brother. He is a puppy from a previous litter and has a different mother. He is young and wicked fast. We won 16" Steeplechase!!!!

Soleil got to play ringside and went shopping at the vendor booths. After sampling many different kinds of homemade treats, Miss picky decided the dehydrated Bison Lung was the winner.

This weekend we have a three-day AKC trial. Our plan is to run well and earn the QQ's for AKC Nationals 2012 which is supposed to be (so far) in Reno, Nevada.

Steeplechase - 1st place 25 seconds

Grand Prix - 2nd place (I was running conservatively for the Q and held his aframe contact). Now that we are Q'd for Nationals I'll be running GP more agresssively for the BYE.

Masters Standard - 2nd place

Masters Jumpers - 2nd place

Training and trialing

2011-03-31T14:32:00.001-06:00

Last weekend was three days of AKC. Because of his injury, Summit is behind in qualifying for AKC Nationals. This time last year he already had the six QQ's needed. This year, we have not gotten a single one yet and we didn't get them last weekend either. But we had awesome runs and he won Standard and FAST on Friday, I sent him off course in Jumpers that afternoon. Saturday second place in Standard, won FAST again, and two bars in Jumpers. Sunday won Standard (no FAST offered on Sunday) and dropped second to last bar in Jumpers. The dropped bars in both Jumpers classes were located in the same area of the ring where the ground was churned up and very deep. After his Jumpers run on Sunday, I scribed the next class and the judge said to me, "Nice run too bad about the bar; it is really deep back there and if you had run at the top of the class, he probably wouldn't have dropped the bar."

This weekend we have a two day USDAA trial and still need two Steeplechase and one GP leg for Nationals.

Soleil is doing very well with her training and I will post some video soon. She is now doing the full height teeter. She is driving ahead of me to run to the end and shifting her weight back as the plank drops. We are beginning to do a little proofing of the end behavior. I am going to start RS's drills to proof the release (on the flat) in preparation for proofing the end behavior on the teeter.

We started DJS this week. She is offering to jump the bar at 14 inches. Last weekend she was measured by a VMO (unofficial measurement) and she is 13 3/4" tall. I think she will definitely stay under 14".

We are playing on the table again. The verbal "table" has become a cue to have a rough game of tug. I enjoy pushing her back and revving her up and then saying, "Taaaaaaaaaaable" as I race her to the obstacle and play tug. Not asking for a position yet.

She is still running a low dogwalk and is close to 100 percent. However, I have decided to put a stop on the end. I will still have her run it for another month at the low height to maintain confidence and speed (I did this with Summit). Once I have the 20/20 on cue and proofed on the travel plank, I will raise the dw and backchain.

Here are the videos from last weekend...
EX. B FAST - 1st place with 80 points, 30 seconds

Standard - 1st place, 35 seconds

Jumpers with weaves - wrong end of tunnel. It was a stronger push than I anticipated and Summit didn't read it.

Saturday Jumpers with weaves - two bars (I actually caused the last one by moving too suddenly into him as he was over the bar). Would have been 1st place. I love his independent weaves!

Saturday Standard second place - we lost all the time on the dogwalk. Almost every dog bailed the dw at the end to take the wrong end of the tunnel. I should have trusted my dog but instead i way overhandled the contact (direct eye contact, shoulders turning into him, outside arm), poor boy didn't know what I wanted. You can see he's confused.

Saturday Ex. B FAST - First place with 78 points, 29 seconds
So I am not sure if I "broke" an APHS rule ;-) Did I cue my dog to diverge or did I send to a non-turning obstacle. My plan was to run a straight path along the gamble line and use the obstacle name for the aframe and see if he would figure it out - he did!

Sunday Standard - first place, 34 seconds
That little stumble at the end.... I momentarily forgot where I was going and was moving towards the chute when I suddenly realized, "Wait, we already did the chute!"

Sunday Jumpers with weaves - one stinkin' bar.

USDAA and Soleil's Teeter

2011-03-17T12:42:00.000-06:00

Summit had a great weekend his first trial back after over two months off. Friday was all team events and although Summit was a Rock Star - my handling was not. The first class was team jumpers. I was a nervous wreck and hoping his rehab vet was right and that he was ready to go back to work.

I pulled him off a tunnel and then sent him over the wrong jump - EEEEEEE for the team! I felt bad but my teammates were awesome and assured me my timing would improve and that Summit looked great and fully recovered. I started to relax and not worry about my dog and started handling better. Our team ended up with third place and the Bronze medal.

We didn't get either a GP leg or Steeplechase. I pulled him off a tunnel in Steeplechase (seeing a pattern here) and so he took the a-frame. He did have a nice run in GP but dropped the triple. He did get several titling legs though-
Snooker Q, won Gamblers, 2nd place in Standard, another Snooker Q, won Pairs Relay, and nice run in jumpers but dropped the third bar. Not bad for two full months off from agility.

Soleil is now performing a full height teeter dropping onto an 8" table. She continues to be very confident and fearless. Once she's performing the teeter without the table, I will switch to rewarding with the tug toy for the end behavior and food for the release.

Her running contacts still look good except that I am not exactly happy with how much time they suck up. I work and have limited training time. I am finding that these running contacts not only take a lot of time but are somewhat boring to train (what! did I say that?)...

Here is a video of Soleil's teeter session this morning. And a few from the USDAA trial.

Summit's jumpers run. Notice my abrupt pivot out of the front cross which causes him to drop the third bar (would have been 2nd place).

Summit's standard run - 2nd place

Summit's gamblers run - 1st place (there was grease on the lens so video is cloudy).

Running Contacts

2011-03-09T16:26:00.001-07:00

Well it certainly has been a learning experience. Who would have thought I would have spent thousands of hours carefully observing my puppy run on the flat, on a board, on a wide plank, and now on the actual dogwalk. The wide green plank has gone away and been replaced with the dogwalk plank. Although the wide plank was 16", I lowered the dogwalk flat on the ground and spent a week backchaining until she was running the entire obstacle. Dogwalks look funny when they are flat on the ground (and longer ;-)
Her gait and speed was good but we did have a problem with an ocassional rear foot (or two) coming off the side at the end. I put two jumps parallel on each side of the end which really helped keep her on the board. She had over a 90 percent accuracy rate the entire week so I raised the dw a few chain links, good; raised it again, and this morning, raised it to four chain links (13 inches).

She jumped the first attempt and then followed with five successes. I had my video camera set to film but forgot to turn it on. I did capture the second session and she was 4/4. The last attempt I could tell she was tiring so we stopped after the fourth rep.

1. I reached a point when I was back chaining the flat dw that I could no longer stay stationary and send her ahead as I couldn't throw the toy that far and have it land 20 feet beyond the end plank. So I had to figure out how to solve this problem. I tried sending her to a dead toy....

2. She does not drive to a dead toy at top speed.

3. I can't outrun her - that little girlie faster than me ;-)

4. When we start from the other end of the dw, I need to start running and throw the toy when she is on the middle plank. This not only allows the toy to land at least 20 feet beyond the end of the dw but also creates acceleration down the end plank.

5. If I throw the toy too late (after she's on the end plank), she can jump. I need to throw the toy no later than when she is on the middle plank.

6. I am peeling away laterally after I throw the toy and she is continuing to drive ahead on the dogwalk to get the toy.

7. I do not use a NRM with her. Good attempts - reward with tugging; Excellent attempts - big tug party; jumps - say nothing. just try again. She gets the toy but no tugging.

Friday - Sunday we will be at USDAA! Summit gets to compete and I need to get a measurement on Soleil.

It was a great weekend

2011-02-27T19:22:00.003-07:00

Friday afternoon Summit had a PT appointment and also an appointment with the rehab vet. He got a thumbs up from the vet and his PT! He's back to normal and can begin regular conditioning and agility training. We did a few bounce grids on Saturday and short sequences. Sunday I took him and Sage for an hour trail run on the Vista trail near Boulder. You have no idea how much it means to me to be able to have fun with my dog again. I'm not talking about agility competition but just everyday fun. Sage is retired from competition but she and I get to go for a run everyday and play in the back field in the evenings after work. Summit was on exercise restriction and all he could do was controlled drills and stretching.Not much fun for him or for me.

I spent the weekend catching up on some training with Soleil. Mostly RC work. I am really thrilled with her speed and striding across the plank. I really suck at throwing toys and a couple of times the toy ends up going straight in the air like a rocket and straight down. Soleil doesn't seem to care. Running the plank has become reinforcing in itself which is unexpected but I love it! That girlie sure does love to run!

I'm still shaping cute little tricks with Soleil every morning. Random stuff. This week it is all about pivoting on a board. I get so much enjoyment out of this and I think she likes it too.

Here are a couple of videos from out sessions this weekend. When I watch the video in slow motion I'm seeing a nice consistent running stride across the green plank.
Saturday

Sunday

Soleil training

2011-02-20T07:21:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of videos of training sessions. The first one is the teeter. I had the end of the teeter held up by a jump upright the beginning of the week and now progressed to a 24" table. She has absolutely no worries about the movement or height. I'm mostly releasing her from a sit stay but today I will send her around a cone first which will give me a head start.

After the teeter I worked on crosses on the flat around three cones. We learned this in Mary Ellen Barry's advanced flatwork session at the seminar. She is doing very well with the turns. Still working on a little impulse control and she starts to go into herding-mode at the very beginning. Interesting... when Summit would become too excited he would push into me from the front (cut me off). Soleil barks and runs in wild little circles.

Today we'll do running plank work and go for a hike on the South Mesa trail.
Summit is coming along well with his conditioning. He is doing three jump bounce grids and trotting for five minute sessions during his walks.

For Kathy - LOPivot

2011-02-18T11:51:00.002-07:00

Hopefully this is large enough. I think you can click on the image and make it larger.
Blue handler - leads out and cues an extension RTH (dog must not pass handler continue to dummy jump or cross behind handler to take #2 from the front side since handler's back is to the #2 jump). Red handler - FC on the flat landing side of #2 and move towards #3.

Seminar update

2011-02-16T15:10:00.001-07:00

So one of the problems with taking four days off to attend an agility seminar is when you return to work, it takes you a whole week just to catch up! '

The seminar was amazing (as I knew it would be) and although I had taken some of the same sessions last year, I came away with a notebook filled with notes and many light bulb moments.

Summit was still in rehab so I did all the Masters handling sessions and the Balancing Cues session with Sage. She did great and even though I really wanted to run Summit in the Balancing Cues session (the timing between him and Sage is very different), I still learned a lot by running Sage. It really was about the handler learning how to balance cues rather than strategy.

In the Balancing Cues session with Mary Ellen there were several learning opportunities and new understanding of how the balance of cues works.

1. Of the 6 cues available in APHS, ideally you have a 4-2 ratio of forward and turning cues. A 3-3 ratio (50/50 split) is too "balanced" and there is not enough differentiation between forward and turning.
2. Experienced dogs can cover for the incorrect cue ration (they recognize patterns and will anticipate) but you don't want to encourage this.
3. Perpendicular and Parallel Forward Sends: Parallel creates a much more difficult jumping effort for the dog and is important to practice.

I also came away with a much clearer understanding of why you use the OA for a Rear Cross on the flat. It differentiates it from a push. And of course, the IA is used for a RC over a jump because of the need for an additional forward cue.

APHS Masters Handling with Mary Ellen-
1. LOPivot... used to cue extension and the turn happens on the flat. Especially useful if you need the dog to bypass an obstacle or take the backside of the jump.
2. Tunnel discriminations are examples of convergence (well of course! but I never thought of it that way).
3. Relative Collection - really means a "turn" not collection since the dog is really deciding what he needs to clear the jump and turn.
4. Tight turns (involving true collection) vs. relative collection (ie., a regular turn) is all about the NET number of strides on a sequence not about getting the tightest turns. Example, in a 4-jump pinwheel configuration, handler may cue a tight turn over the first jump but then that sets the dog up to have to take two strides to get to the second jump vs. if the first jump was taken in extension and the dog had only to take a single stride to get to the second jump. Still end up with the same NET number of strides whether the dog turns with extenion or collection. Many times a dog can be faster taking jumps in extension and having wider turns (can set them up better for the next sequence as well) vs. a dog who is jumping with collection and having tighter turns but adding more strides between jumps.

Last year I took the full day APHS Foundation and Basic Skills from Mary Ellen and this year Jenn taught it. It was very interesting to see the slight differences. I learned a lot again this year in the session and some concepts were clairified.

Soleil did really well in the full day Foundation and Advanced Flatwork on Monday. We practiced the turns on the flat as well as the recalls to heel on the flat in the morning (as well as some fun stuff from Mary Ellen's DVD). That afternoon we worked Sends to cones and did some sequencing with three cones incorporating the turns on the flat (except for the push).

Mary Ellen was impressed with Soleil's toy/tug drive. At first she said it was probably not a good idea to practice "It's Your Choice" with toys with a Sheltie (just food). But after seeing Soleil bouncing up in the air to grab the toy in my hand while I was trying to do some cone sequencing, she told me, yes, probably not a bad idea to do a bit of "It's Your Choice" with toys too.

So there are the highlights of the seminar. I've been incorporating all I learned in Soleil's training sessions. It is really great to have new stuff to work on and have a deeper understanding of the APHS handling system as well as improving our mechanics with the turns on the flat and RTH presentations.

Summit had a PT session yesterday and he is back to 100 percent. Now I am gradually working on conditioning. We are doing thirty minutes of walking/trotting, three jump grids, yoga ball work, stretching, and some yoga dog positions. He should be ready by the second week of March for a three day USDAA trial.

Since the snow has melted the last few days, we've been able to get outside to train and I will film some of the cone sequencing with Soleil.

Mary Ellen Barry and Jennifer Crank Seminar

2011-02-03T13:54:00.003-07:00

Summit is doing fantastic with his PT and is healing quickly. The Rehab vet thought he would be fine for the upcoming CKC AKC 4-day trial in a couple weeks but I decided to be very conservative about his return to competition and cancelled his entry. That was hard as that is my favorite AKC trial of the year. But I think it's a good decision. His first trial will be a three-day USDAA the second week of March. He is on a DAM team (hoping to get his brother qualified for Nationals) and we'll be looking forward to getting that second GP qualifier.

Soleil has really matured in the last month. She turned 8 mos. old the end of January and I think she is absolutely stunning beautiful! She is so much fun and I love her Sheltie attitude. I took her ears out a couple weeks ago and so far, they have stayed tipped. With Summit on rehab, Soleil has gotten a lot of training - especially on the weekends. This is what we've been doing:

Flatwork with speed. The binder clips are gone and she's heeling nicely at my side. We've incorporated speed and turns on the flat. Now its finally easier to execute rear crosses on the flat now that she is driving ahead. She has a good understanding of lateral motion for the FC and RC. She is also learning pushes on the flat. The push was the most difficult for Summit and I'm seeing some similarities between him and Soleil in regard to "space". She is pushing well at a walk and trot right now.

Increasing duration and distraction while in sit/down stays.

I enrolled her in an advanced foundation class. This is her first official "agility" class. My goals were to get her in a group of other young dogs and work on focus in a distracting environment. She's done quite well so far. The instructor is having us sequence jumps (no bars). Simple 3-4 jump sequences incorporating pulls and front crosses. I've been continueing some of that at home and Soleil RC's, FC's and pulls around a jump upright. Its been fun (almost like *real* agility ;-) but once I start DJS jump training, I'll stop having her go through jump uprights without bars.

I haven't done any work with the teeter. I have continued with running plank work. The plank is still low and right now and I'm focusing on just speed across the board. We've had cold snowy weather for awhile now so training has been indoors doing precision work.
I've been very busy (which explains no blogging) coordinating the final details for my agility club's Winter seminar. I invited Mary Ellen Barry and Jennifer Crank back and I'm looking forward to four whole days of excellent APHS instruction! The unfortunate part is Mr. Summit will not be participating. But Sage and Soleil will be plenty busy at the seminar. I have Sage in the full day Balancing Cues with Mary Ellen, full day APHS Masters handling with Mary Ellen, and full day APHS Foundation/Basic Skills (for the RTH Flatwork, I will use Soleil) with Jennifer Crank. Then on Monday Soleil has a full day of puppy foundation and foundation flatwork with Mary Ellen.

Once the weather warms up I will be back outside training and hope to get some video uploaded next week as well as post an update about our 4-day Seminar.

Poor Summit

2011-01-18T12:09:00.002-07:00

It's been awhile since I posted on the blog. The weekend of the USDAA trial (and four days after his Chiropractic adjustment), Summit was dropping bars even more frequently than at the previous trial. He also missed two straight forward easy weavepole entries. So after having Stacy watch his jumping for me (he was pulling with his front again), I scratched him for the rest of the weekend. However, I was in charge of hospitality for this trial so I had be at the site from 7:00 a.m. until the last class ran. AND on top of that, I was really sick (flu, fever, and then head and chest cold by Sunday). So not the best weekend. I did play with Soleil ringside and we practiced our heeling and turns on the flat in a very busy exciting environment.

Summit saw a rehab vet the following Thursday for a complete work up and the prognosis is a pulled hamstring muscle (probably from compensating when the hip was locked). So that is actually good news that it isn't anything more serious and that he'll only be off work for about four weeks (although I may cancel his entry for a trial that is five weeks out just to be conservative). He is getting once a week PT appointments and at home, stretching, icing, and ball work.

Soliel is continuing to run the plank with only a couple of jumps (one was when I decided to try carrying the toy in my hand and throwing it as she exited the plank. Won't be doing that anymore). I've also been working on her heel work and turns using the binder clip idea from Mary Ellen's Foundation DVD. I was amazed how quickly Soleil caught on to nose targetting the binder clip. In one session she went to offering to nose touch the binder clip in my hand to walking at my side and targeting the clip on my pants. What a smart girlie.

*Note to self - if you train heeling with binder clips in the morning before work, don't forget to take them off your pants. It really does generate some strange stares and comments from students and faculty.

Here are a couple of videos of our heel work with a couple of recalls to side.

She is so much fun and she loves to train.

Monday she attended her first agility class. It is an advanced level foundation class. She was very focused when we worked even though there were several puppies in the class who she knew and played with as well as her sister, Belle. After the class, we let Soleil and Belle off leash to play (indoor building).

This week I will continue the heel work (switching to the smaller binder clips), more running plank work (I'm going back to using a stationary target at the end of the plank - food and toys), and working turns on the flat (emphasis on rear crosses), and simple sends around a jump stanchion (followed by a FC or Pull).

Last, here is a cute video I took while sitting at the kitchen table and just happened to have my video camera handy. The tall cupboard is where the dog's toys, treats, brushes, etc. are kept. I noticed the tennis balls were out of the cupboard the other day and two of my Border Collies were carrying them around. I wondered how they got them out of the cupboard.... well here is the culprit. Except this time, it's not tennis balls she's stealing.

Dropped bars and Running Contacts

2011-01-04T14:59:00.001-07:00

So the title sounds like a wild crazy Border Collie running amuck on the course. However, the dropped bars pertain to Summit and the running contacts to Soleil.

We were at a three-day AKC trial over the holiday. Indoors on nice sport turf. The courses were challenging all weekend and Summit and I had the best runs we've had ever. We were a solid team (well except for Sunday's afternoon jumpers when I pushed too hard through a turn and caused a WC). But overall I was thrilled with how well we did. The disturbing part was we ended up with a single Q all three days because of one, two, or even three bars. At first I thought he was slipping on the turf but we had shown at this same venue last Spring and Summit dropped a single bar out of six runs. So it wasn't the ground. Many other people at the trial also shared a concern since we usually don't have that many bars on the ground.

I was able to get Summit in to his chiropractor on Tuesday and his left hip was locked up and he was compensating on his right front which also caused wrists and elbow to be out of alignment. Dr. Jay adjusted him and was able to free up the hip. He said he should be ok this weekend but wants to see him again next week.

I knew there had to be something physical causing the bars. Another reason I never correct my dogs in the ring. With the exception of using negative punishment for lack of impulse control (start lines and contacts), I never blame my dogs. And even startlines and contacts need to be thoroughly trained and proofed before expecting the same performance under stress and pressure in the ring.

Anyway, here are a few videos from the weekend. The first is a standard run (one bar), then a jumpers run (first place), and finally Sunday's jumpers run with the wrong course towards the end. I almost have to say Sunday's jumpers run is my favorite for two reasons:
1. I loved that I could leave early at the second jump (with the LoPush) in order to get ahead of him going in to the box. There were few Q's on this course and the reason was most had problems getting the dog through the box with out the wrong course jump or the tunnel.
2. I liked the line I set in the box and how Summit turns over the jumps going in the right direction versus how most dogs landed facing in the direction of the tunnel and the handler had to use a strong call off.

We had a smokin' run going and at the end, I moved forward too soon (needed to use patience there) and did not let my dog land and turn before starting forward motion which cued the wrong jump.

Standard - one bar

Jumpers with weaves - first place

Jumpers with three boxes - wrong course

Soleil has been doing plank work for a week now. I bought a video camera and started recording the sessions a few days ago. The video below is with the plank raised 4.5 inches. After many sessions at 100 percent, I raised the plank to 6.5 inches. I video taped this session but haven't uploaded to youtube yet. There were two attempts that I thought might be jumps but when I viewed the video in slow motion, she was clearly running but just had more extension over the board than she usually has.

She loves to train RC's and barks excitedly when we get ready for another attempt on the plank. Here is the video at 4.5 inches (notice the peanut gallery behind the French doors).

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday is USDAA (yay!). Hoping to get that second GP leg for Nationals.

It begins...

2010-12-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Soleil - 7 months old

2010-12-24T15:35:00.000-07:00

Training and hiking

2010-12-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

We have a month off from competition. After week three I am starting to go through trialing withdrawal. However, we've been fairly busy doing lot's of trail runs in the morning, hiking on weekends, and some training. Summit hasn't actually gotten a lot of training except for a couple of drop-ins we did to proof contacts. Soleil though has been working hard on foundation and her recalls while off leash on a hike.

Her training is coming along SO WELL that I want to share a video of her weaving 12 poles! She is just so amazing for only 6 1/2 months old!

Ok, so the real story is Jen and I had just finished a training session with Summit and Bode and I asked Jen if she wanted to see Soleil's weaves (it was a joke). Of course Jen fell for it (I think) and said, "Wait, I must get this amazing act on film!"

Does Soleil look small for 6 1/2 months? She still seems so tiny but then I'm used to Border Collies.

So what Soleil and I have really been working on....

Proofing sit and down stays - increasing duration and adding distraction

Table games! The table is now at 16" and I am withholding reward until she offers a down. I need to move the table from the sunroom to outdoors because when its dinnertime and I'm gathering up the dog bowls from the crates, she immediately runs to the pause table, jumps up and lays down... waiting .... too cute!

Lot's of handling on the flat. I'm using two traffic cones (and if you've watch MEB's DVD, you'll know what we're doing). Also using jump wings for turns on the flat. She is getting MUCH better at recognizing which side to come to and has pretty much stopped crossing behind me.

Recalls to heel and circle work

Restrained recalls (on the flat and through a straight tunnel)

I ordered a Ready Treat from Clean Run and will start plank work this weekend. I'll start with a plywood plank about 24" wide and 8' long. I'll use this until we've worked up to 16" and then will transfer to the full dogwalk (lowered to 16"). But that will be several months from now.

One thing I've noticed different about Soleil (vs. the BC's at this age) is she can be easily distracted by her environment. When we train in a building or the house, she is 100 percent focused. When training outside in the back field, she can be distracted by strange noises (car door slamming for example) or movement (squirrel running across the fence). Many times she'll alarm bark at a strange sound. Most of the time, I can get her back but sometimes it's too much and we'll simply call it good and go back in the house. What is interesting is she can be ringside at a busy agility trial with hundreds of distractions going on around her (movement and noise) and stay 100 percent focused. Possibly a fear period she may be going through?

Summit hasn't been getting as much training but I have been working on some specific skills with him. Convergence has been our main goal. Not just on a serpentine but lot's of recalls followed by pushes. He is doing so well considering how difficult this skill used to be for him.

Also working on recalls over jumps at depressed angles.

After not having worked contacts in 8 months (other than those he saw at a trial), we are proofing the release again. After Nationals, I pretty much broke his 20/20. We did a drop-in at the Jeffco Fairgrounds last week specifically to train contacts. It was a fun course and we got to work lot's of different skills. Here is a video.

The course ended at the tire and after that I was making it up as we went; wanting to get in lot's of contact reps.

Our next trial is the 31st-2nd in Windsor at an indoor soccer field. Until then, we'll be training and hiking and taking advantage of the strange 60 degree weather in December.

Hiking, Training, and Tunnels

2010-12-06T12:20:00.002-07:00

Saturday Summit, Bode (Summit's younger brother), and Soleil went for a hike at Coot Lake. The boys were crazy and running through mud, weeds, and the edge of the lake. Guess who kept up? I brought home a muddy and burr infested very happy Sheltie girl (who promptly got a bath and blowdry). The biggest surprise was when she followed the boys into the lake. She got the zoomies and ran back and forth into and out of the water (along the edges). She seemed to think it was all grand fun! Later we posed the three dogs on a park bench. Soleil decided her sit stay was long enough and jumped off the bench in the first picture.

"Ok, fine.... I'm a very busy Sheltie girl but I'll stay for a picture!"

I've been slowly working through the stuff from the MEB Foundation videos. The list is getting long... we certainly don't lack for training ideas. Soleil is doing well with the teeter bang game, she offers to jump up on the pause table for a game of tug. Now I'm waiting for her to offer the down to begin the tug game. We are proofing sit and down stays. She will let me circle her and jog away while she holds position. Also spending time building lots of value for her release cue.

I purchased the Ready-Treat device from Clean Run yesterday. I will train her to drive to the RT on the flat and then start plank work. I will need to purchase a video camera so I can document our running contact sessions and watch them in slow motion. I've been carefully observing her running stride on the flat while she's out running with the other dogs in the back field and on hikes.

Here is a video that Mary took of restrained recalls through a straight tunnel. We decided to end the puppy training session with something fun. Mary cut it out of the video, but I am playing a game of tug with Soleil after each recall through the tunnel. I am not training tunnels yet, we just thought the dogs would like a variance on the restrained recalls on the flat.

Thanksgiving weekend trial

2010-11-29T13:04:00.003-07:00

What a great Thanksgiving weekend! Dinner with family on Thursday and then Friday morning we headed to the Black Forest (near Colorado Springs) for a three-day AKC trial. Great judge and great courses (its so nice to see challenges other than big circles and pinwheels). My whole goal that weekend was reminding Summit of his contact criteria. After we returned from Nationals, he's been pushing them and I've been letting him release himself. Friday we got second in Jumpers with a nice run. Standard he ran his dogwalk and A-frame (I think the teeter too ;-)
Saturday he had a nice dogwalk and teeter and when we got to the a-frame, he self-released and we left the ring. Sunday he was a good boy and held all his contacts until I released him. He ended up second place with held contacts. We had a nice jumpers run that afternoon but I called his name while he was over a jump and he dropped the bar.

I'm very happy with his contact performance on Sunday. We have the month of December off from competition so I plan on doing some drop-ins at local arenas to continue to reinforce his 20/20.

Soleil was measured by the VMO. She only measured 13.5 inches tall. So she is still under 14". She was great at tugging and playing with me ringside (while dogs were running in the ring and others walking by her on leash). She was 100 percent focused on me. I did not get the same focus when I tried some training with food. She was a bit distracted everytime a dog would pass her. So obviously, playing/tugging still remains her primary reinforcement.

I've decided to train her to jump up in my arms after an agility run. Anyone have ideas on how to train this?

Here is one of Summit's jumpers runs. I really liked how I handled the serpentine on the outside. I think only one other person handled it that way. Everyone else either front crossed the landing side of the jump after the weaves to handle from the inside or rear crossed the second jump of the serpentine and then another rear cross on the fourth jump after the weaves. I preferred not to rear cross the 4th jump and be in position to send instead. Since I could leave Summit in the weaves (you had to be able to leave your dog in the weaves in order to be ahead to serp), I found this strategy worked best for us. I was also in position to restrict his landing to create tighter turns.

I received Mary Ellen Barry's Foundation video last week. Six DVD set! So far I've viewed the first DVD and have started working with Soleil on some of the things in the video. Some of the exercises are familiar but with a different twist. Hopefully I'll make it through the entire DVD set by the weekend.

We'll be hiking every weekend until the New Years weekend holiday when we have a three-day AKC trial indoors on soccer turf. I love this venue! There is a bar/restaurant upstairs where you can sit and watch agility down below.

Soleil is 6 months old

2010-11-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Soleil will turn six months old this week. Hard to imagine how quickly the months have flown by. She is filling out and getting her adult coat. She is looking like a big-girl-sheltie now. She is still under 14" - it will be interesting to see how tall she ends up. She's got a lot of leg though and her groundspeed is amazing!

She has been on many off leash hikes now and her recall has been 100 percent (so far). She hikes with Sage or Summit and a friend's BC's (including her 8 month old BC puppy, Meg). She has a lot of her adult teeth in now. I am impatiently waiting for the time I can stop gluing her ears.

She's attended several foundation seminars and her focus has been very good. Happy to tug and work with me with the distraction of other puppies nearby. She's been to every agility trial (including a National event) since she was eight weeks old. She tugs ringside and is getting used to seeing dogs running in the rings without screaming. She is very good with other dogs and although very confident when meeting a strange dog, is very appropriate. She is a bit standoffish with people she meets for the first time but interesting enough, she adores children and gravitates towards them - her whole body wiggling.

Our training sessions mostly consist of sits, downs, backing up, stays, hand touches, target touches, going around a cone and jump wing, flatwork (which includes all crosses on the flat, pushes, pulls, and circle work). She is learning that reinforcement always comes from my side and she's getting better about not crossing behind me. Now that she has a stay with enough duration for me to lead out ten feet or so, we are starting the foundation recalls to heel on the flat. Her issue with the teeter board (see earlier post) is gone and she is happily playing the Bang Game. Other than the teeter game and tugging on the pause table, she hasn't been exposed to any agility equipment. I will however begin plank work with her the end of next Month (when she turns 7 mos. old) for running contacts.

Here are a few (ok more than a few) pictures I took of her last night. The last picture is of her Daddy on the podium at Grand Prix Finals - 3rd place (not sure what year this was taken). I think she looks a lot like him.

A competition video and a training video

2010-11-09T12:00:00.003-07:00

First, here is Summit's Standard run from Sunday. I love this run and really liked my handling. I was one of the few handlers who did a rear cross on the flat (between jump and teeter) but it was the best option for Summit. His 1st place time was 32.70 seconds!

Here is a video from Monday's training session at Mary's house. First a little background on the teeter board...
Last week I took my teeter board off the frame and put it on the ground (it has a three inch block underneath it). Soleil had a lot of fun jumping on it and making it move. The next morning, I went out with her to play on the board and it was covered with frost and very slippery. So I moved it into the sunroom and she offered to jump up on it. Well it made a noise on the tile floor and also the vibration was different. She was NOT comfortable and avoided it after that. So my goal that entire week was simply to build lot's of value for the teeter board. I put towels on each end to muffle the sounds and after a week, was able to remove the towels and she was happily offering to jump up and walk around on it without fear.

The video shows the first time she got on Mary's teeter. We lowered it as low as it would go and then put the pause table top under one end. Once she got on the board, I was clicking for any forward movement. When she reached the point where the board would tip down, I jackpotted that. We are not *training* the teeter nor am I asking for any end behavior. As you can see, she quickly becomes comfortable on Mary's teeter.

I will continue to play teeter games (eventually we'll tug on the teeter but right now her gums are sore from teething) until December. Once I start plank work for running contacts, I'll put the teeter board away as I don't want to confuse her.

Soleil - 21 weeks old

2010-11-03T15:57:00.003-06:00

Soleil is 21 weeks old and at the trial last weekend, she measured 13 inches. This puts her potentially at a mature height of 14" or slightly taller (so I've been told by several experienced Sheltie folks). Not the 15 1/2 inches I was hoping for but that is ok.

Here are a couple of short videos of the Little Miss Sunshine "Soleil"

Tracy Sklenar seminar

2010-11-02T12:46:00.005-06:00

On Friday, Soleil and I attended a full day foundation seminar taught by Tracy Sklenar. It was a great seminar and Tracy is not only a very gifted and knowledgable trainer but a good presenter as well. I would love to bring her back to Colorado.

Tracy was very impressed with Soleil's tug drive. I thought Soleil did very well keeping her head together for over 7 hours of instruction (we had a 1-hour lunch break).

We spent a lot of time on impulse control games (which also build drive). It's your choice, Levels 1,2, 3. and crate games, and Mother-may-I.

Focus work such as Focus Forward. We would put the dog in a sit stay and walk about 5 feet ahead and drop their favorite toy on the ground in front of them (we would be standing even with the toy about 3 feet lateral to the side). When the dog stops looking at us and focuses forward on the toy, you release them to the toy and then play tug. You eventually replace this later with a jump. This translates to the dog learning to focus forward on their "work" not on you. This is good for complicated lead outs on course where you don't want the dog turning and looking at you but looking forward at their line.

We did flat work and worked on beginning to train directionals. Left and right. She does it differently than GD who teaches his dogs to spin. I don't use directional cues over jumps but I will want them for Soleil's running contacts.

The main thing I took away from the seminar was her philosophy of training and how she sets up and manages her training sessions. She begins each training session with a game of tug to get the dog in "drive" then she will quickly get out the treats and ask for behaviors. This goes into a shaping session and then another break with a game of tug. Then training again. It's done quickly with no down time and the dog is highly motivated the entire training session.

Saturday and Sunday we had an AKC trial. Summit won standard both days (by several seconds) but had a wrong course in both jumpers runs. The first run I'm not sure why he continued on his line when I was moving laterally and cueing the turn. Let me know if anyone sees anything.

On Sunday, the sun was shining through the windows at the top and as I turned off a pinwheel, I was blasted in the face by sunlight and was totally blind.

Here is Saturday's Jumpers run. He takes the wrong jump at the begining (second turn). Not sure why.

Saturday's Standard run - 1st place 37 seconds

Sunday's Standard run - 1st place 36 seconds

This week I took my teeter board off the frame and put it in the sunroom (along with the pause table minus it's legs). I shaped her getting onto the board, walking and turning around on it and end to end so it tips at each end. The movement didn't bother her but once she left the board and it continued to move and made a noise on the tile floor, she was bothered by this. So for now, I'll be building great value for the board and will incorporate playing tug games on the teeter board like we do on the table.

She is progressing very nicely in her understanding of lateral motion. She is performing front and rear crosses on the flat, and pushes and pulls. We continue to work on stays. Her sit stay is progressing nicely. The down stay not so much. She went on her first off-leash hike on Sunday afternoon and I was very pleased with her recall response. It was 100 percent with the distraction of running with three Border Collies - including her BFF Meg, who is 8 mos. old.

I'm so pretty!

2010-10-28T21:25:00.003-06:00

...because I just had a bath and a blowdry.

Tomorrow I am participating in a full-day agility foundation seminar taught by Tracy Sklenar from Canada. I think she will be very impressed with how fluffy and pretty I am.

Soleil update

2010-10-23T11:26:00.002-06:00

The very cute (and precocious) Soleil

Soleil will be five months old this coming Tuesday. I can't believe how fast the time is flying. Upon returning from Nationals, I've ramped up our training. Up to now, I had spent a lot of time building tug drive and shaping lot's of behaviors such as position, box work, targetting, etc. followed by restrained recalls and chase games out in the field. Random recalls have been ongoing.

This week we started turns on the flat, conework, continued building value for her release cue (which also incorporates impulse control) and increased duration of stays.

1. Circle work both directions (acceleration/deceleration)

2. Front cross on the flat

2. Pulls

3. Extension Recall to Heel

Conework turning both directions. She is so cute. The second time we went outside to train, she saw the cone and immediately started interacting with it ;-)

Next week I'll add rear crosses on the flat, basic recall to heel, and figure eights in our circle work. I also took the legs off the pause table and we'll be playing tug on the table top.

Growth:

A friend of mine who is a VMO measured her for me at the last trial. She was smaller than I thought (12 3/8" tall). I measured her last Tuesday and she was roughly 12 1/2" tall. I've been having to redo her ears every two weeks because they've grown out but it's going on three weeks now and her ears are almost the same. So not much growing these last three weeks.

She will go on her first hike tomorrow. A fairly flat trail that is perfect for puppies.

Nationals update

2010-10-22T10:26:00.002-06:00

It's been a busy week at work and I've just gotten a chance to give a short update on Nationals. It was six long days in Louisville, KY. The first three days we only had one run a day which created a LOT of downtime. I am hoping they shorten it to just four days next year. The venue was ok. However there was a lot of dust which made it uncomfortable to watch in the stands for very long. USDAA is aware of the dust problem so I'm sure they will remedy that problem next year.

Summit ran VERY well. He was awesome! We had nice runs in all the team events and were sitting above the cutoff for team finals until a bobble during Team Snooker by a teammate. However, we still ended up 39th out of 205 Championship teams. Not bad for a young dog team.

I made a handling mistake in both the Steeplechase semi-finals (pulled him off a tunnel) and in Grand Prix quarterfinals (I failed to see a potential line to an off course tunnel at the start). But other than my handling errors, Summit ran very well in both tournament classes. The best part is he only dropped one bar (European Standard) and would have placed 4th but for the bar.

I am not happy about the handling errors. Especially pulling him off the tunnel in Steeplechase since I did the exact same thing three weeks ago at a local USDAA trial during the steeplechase run. After making that mistake at the national semi-finals, I don't think I will do that again. MUST SUPPORT ALL TUNNELS!

I also came home with a couple of training goals and a realization.

Training goals:
1. Convergence
2. Recalls to heel
We have both the above skills but I really saw them applied at a very high level at Nationals. Especially during the Steeplechase Finals. Both of these skills create tight turns and efficient lines. All the teams who made the finals were very skilled - good handlers and fast dogs. However, it really came down to who had the tightest turns and set the best lines.

Realization:
Ok, so not a total surprise but again, I was reminded that running a local trial just to be clean to qualify (or get a double Q), does not prepare one for competing at a national event. Not even close.

So my plan is to incorporate more agressive handling in our local runs in order to push myself to handle at the next level.

Meanwhile...

Soleil was the perfect puppy! Nothing fazed her! She handled the environment at nationals like a pro. She relaxed in her crate (indoor crating area was noisy), she tugged outside, inside in the stands overlooking the rings, and ringside. She slept through the night in her crate in the hotel room. She met lot's of people including children, other dogs and puppies. She pranced around the venue like she owned the place. I got to see several of her relatives run (including one who is on the US World team and one who is on the Canadian World team) and met her half sister who travelled all the way from Mexico to compete at the Nationals.

Here is a quick video of her running around the backyard yesterday. She does not ever stop moving so it is hard to get a video.

I plan on videoing some of our training sessions this weekend.

Edited to include GP Quarterfinals course map and analysis.

Summit went into the tunnel after wrapping #2 (wrapped to the inside). I was out of position and didn't see the line to the tunnel until afterwards. The rest of the run was clean and fast. Many teams faulted in the box (took the wrong course #18 after #15). Other common WC's were the wrong end of the tunnel after the triple, tire after the teeter (instead of weaves) and tire after the #10 Triple. And a few dogs with running contacts took #11 tunnel after the dogwalk.

More new titles for Summit and a few videos

2010-10-05T15:11:00.002-06:00

It was a fun-filled exhausting three days in Fountain, Colorado for USDAA. I drove up Thursday night after work and spent the night at a friend's house in Colorado Springs (Fountain is 15 min. South of the Springs). Friday was DAM team only. Summit had nice runs but dropped a bar in the first three classes (Team Snooker, Standard, and Jumpers). I was a little concerned and planned to take him to his chiropractor to get adjusted before Nationals. The last two classes (Team Gamblers and Relay), he did not drop any bars. Our team won the relay and we ended up 4th place overall (cutoff line for qualifying was at 13 teams).

Saturday was titling classes and GP and Steeplechase. Summit had a nice Standard run and placed 2nd which was the last leg he needed for his championship (SACH). He also took a tumble off the teeter which I never saw as I was already moving away towards the next obstacle. In Gamblers we had a nice opening and I got to proof several a-frames but the Gamble was not something we would be able to do so we left after the buzzer went off. Next was Steeplechase and I pulled him off of the tunnel at the beginning and he went up the aframe (elimination) but the rest of his run was nice. Grand Prix we placed 4th (holding dogwalk contact), Jumpers... again I pulled him off an obstacle at the beginning by not supporting the second jump long enough but the rest of the run was nice. Then we had Snooker at the end of the day. Now that there is no pressure for those Super Q's, I've decided I quite like playing Snooker. So I planned a nice flowing course that would give us a Q (remember, I don't care about SQ's anymore). We did a 5combo, 7combo, 6combo, 5combo and then finished the closing. I liked this plan also because I got to practice threadles. Well wouldn't you know, that was 4th place and a SQ!!! ... go figure. It was also the last Snooker Q for his Snooker Championship title (SCH).
Anyway, not a single bar dropped on Saturday.

Sunday Summit Q'd in Standard (4th place), Jumpers (6th place), and Gamblers (1st place) and earned his GCH, and in Snooker, we never made it to the first red (I recalled through the other end of the course and he took a jump on the way to me. Again, no bars on Sunday.

I can't believe we are leaving for Nationals on Monday. We have a three day AKC trial Friday-Sunday and I almost cancelled our entry but then decided it would be good to get some practice on dirt before Nationals. So this week will be very busy getting things organized and packed up for Nationals. Sage will not be going since I did not even try and qualify her this year. Soleil will be accompanying us to Kentucky. This will be her first BIG event. I will try and get pictures taken of her this week to post before we leave. She has grown so much and her coat is changing. She also lost a couple of teeth. She looks like a lean leggy racehorse and she runs like one too. She is one fast girlie!

Saturday's standard run. 2nd place and championship title. Yikes! I didn't get to watch this until Monday. I can't believe he was able to recover enough to clear the jump bar. He saw the Chiropractor on Monday and got adjusted. His right hip and neck were out of alignment. But he's good to go now.

Steeplechase. Bummer about the tunnel. I just did not go in far enough and moved laterally way too soon.

Grand Prix. 4th place. Wide turn at the end of the chute. All of the fast dogs had a wide turn here. It was difficult to get up there to cue the FC. The offset angle of the jump made a RC not ideal.

Sunday Standard - 4th place. We lost time going from the chute to the tunnel. I got behind him and panicked and called his name (too strongly) while he was in the chute to avoid the wrong end of the tunnel which he really wasn't headed for anyway and he came into me too closely and I had to push him back out again. Can't see it as the a-frame is in the way.

Sunday Gamblers - 1st place and championship title

ADCH Summit

2010-09-30T10:11:00.001-06:00

It's been a crazy two weeks with work, family stuff, and getting ready for Nationals. Meanwhile, Summit earned his ADCH! As you can see in the picture, Summit is very proud of his accomplishment - LOL! Actually, he is very happy about his flying squirrel laying on the ground next to me while I was taking the photo. I however, am very happy we've earned the ADCH and will be floating on air for some time to come. Especially since the three Snooker Super Q's were very difficult for us. I am Snooker challenged (although I am improving somewhat) but I can't say I like that game (Gamblers is my favorite).

We are leaving tonight to drive down to Monument for a three day USDAA trial. This trial is the first for the 2011 qualifying year. We have DAM team on Friday and then steeplechase, GP, and titling classes on Saturday and Sunday. This will be Soleil's second road trip and I'm hoping to get lot's of training and playtime with her ringside in between running Summit and working the other classes.

Soleil is changing every week (puppies do that I guess). Not just physically but her personality too. She's gotten taller and leggier and cruises around the backfield like a young race horse. Her coat is changing. The black guard hairs are coming in and also some softer, straighter golden hairs. She growls when she tugs and is really starting to lay back and put all her weight into tugging. She's also becoming very affectionate. She is less distracted by her environment and more focused on me. She is also beginning to want to cuddle more.
I will take some new photos of her and post them after the weekend.

Summit and I haven't done a lot of training this week. Just proofing contacts (he was pushing them at the last trial) and working on the rear cross drills in the October Clean Run (Clean Run Central by Annie Pyle). These drills are really teaching me patience - something I always need to work on.

It's not always about the Q

2010-09-20T11:58:00.005-06:00

Summit had a great AKC weekend. Saturday he double Q'd with two first places. He had two great runs and I'm feeling pretty good about our teamwork in preparation for Nationals next month. Sunday morning he dropped a bar in jumpers. That afternoon in standard, I decided to execute a handling strategy that would not have been my first choice if I wanted to run clean. However, if executed correctly, would create a much tighter turn on a 180 and would give my dog better turning information quicker. Well, my timing was slightly off and we had a refusal. The rest of the run was nice though. I had several people tell me later what a great run we had and too bad about the refusal. When I explained that I wanted to step outside my "handling box" even though I knew I may not execute correctly, they were shocked. "But didn't you want to Q? You could have won!"

The one thing I dislike about AKC is the double Q requirement. The one thing I really like about AKC is the double Q requirement. Hmmm.. let me explain.

If I have a clean run in the morning, I will choose to run conservatively in the afternoon in order to get a QQ. By conservatively I don't mean slow (like I could really slow Summit down on the course anyway). But I don't take risks. I handle efficiently. Unfortunately this doesn't really teach me anything new. The handling choices I make are based on a history of success.

However, if we do not have a clean run in the morning, the afternoon is wide-open for creativity and trying new strategies. Pushing the envelope so to speak. This is when I really learn about our teamwork and what skills we may be weak on or possibilities I didn't know existed. Yes, you can try this stuff in training but it's when a team is under the stress of competition that is really where the good feedback comes.

I have video from this weekend and will post as soon as I get them. Meanwhile, here are a few videos from the USDAA trial a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I don't have any of his Gamblers, Snooker, or Jumpers - just these few.

Grand Prix - 2nd place. Really wide turn at the beginning. Lot's of dogs went wide here. Not sure why. Although I think I could have improved my location (closer to the jump where the turn occurred). Also, my backward motion (albeit just a few steps) also cued the extension.

Steeplechase Finals - 3rd place. I caused the bar with my late FC at the end and then I almost fall on my face before the last jump.

Masters Standard (Saturday). Would have been 1st place. One bar. He actually only dropped three bars the entire 3-day trial but the only video I have is of those with bars (except GP) ;-)

Masters Standard (Sunday) - one bar. The grass was dead and slick on the takeoff side so may have contributed to the dropped bar as quite a few other dogs dropped the same bar

Soleil and Adrian

2010-09-12T08:16:00.000-06:00

USDAA weekend and getting ready for Nationals

2010-09-07T15:27:00.003-06:00

We had a fun three-day USDAA trial outdoors at a beautiful park at the fairgrounds. The weather was pretty nice. A little hot on Saturday but nice on Sunday and Monday. This location has very thick tall grass and there are usually quite a few dropped bars. Summit did have more bars than he usually does but I thought he did very well overall.

Saturday: Qualified in Snooker (4th place and one placement out of a SQ because I left out the #6 combo in the closing - duh!), Jumpers (forget placement), and Pairs (3rd I think), and placed 6th in Steeplechase Round 1 (with a dropped bar). Had a nice standard run too but dropped a bar. Had a great opening in Gamblers but the Gamble involved sending to a tunnel under the dogwalk to the teeter on the other side (layering the dw). I didn't even attempt the Gamble. As soon as I sent Summit to the tunnel and moved laterally, I expected a tight turn out of the tunnel in the direction of my motion, not exiting straight forward 15 feet ahead to the teeter. He was a good boy (and I told him so) and had a tight turn and came back to me on the other side of the dw.

Sunday: Qualified in Gamblers (a fun gamble involving a serpentine), Another nice Standard run but I sent him off course when I forgot for a split second where the course went next... but it was a nice run other than the wrong course jump. NQ in Snooker (we didn't get very far in the opening), 2nd place in Grand Prix and 3rd place in Steeplechase Finals.

Monday: Another nice run in Standard (one bar), Q in Snooker (again, one placement out of a SQ), NQ in Pairs (he missed a wp entrance and I didn't see it), and 2nd place in Jumpers.

By the time we ran Masters Jumpers there was a very high wind and the jump wings had to be weighted down with sand bags. I almost scratched since I saw no reason to run a jumpers course in high wind knowing a bar or two would come down. But when I walked it, it was so much fun (it included a pushout and a threadle), I wanted to run it and didn't care if we had a bar. Well no bars and second place (just 100ths off of first).

Summit earned his Tournament Master Bronze title this weekend. And he still needs that one SQ for his ADCH.

I am so happy with our teamwork. We are very much in-sync now. My timing is good and he responds instantly. I'm getting much better at setting efficient lines. What I did discover that we need to work on is his reading my turning cues for a FMFC (forward motion front cross). There were two places that needed a FMFC and Summit jumped fully extended and turned on the flat which gave him a very wide turn. I need to re-evaluate how I am cueing this. I'm pretty good at picking up the OA and rotating my shoulders into him but obviously those are not enough collection cues for him. Thoughts? Maybe more eye contact? his name?
I don't expect a lot of collection but at least some attempt to turn over the bar and not 20 feet on the landing side of the jump. The turn actually happens when I've stopped moving. We'll be working on FMFC's the four weeks before Nationals.

Soleil had a great time at her first outdoor trial. She played with a couple of BC puppies and met lot's of new dogs and people. We had our chairs ringside of the Masters ring and I was sitting there during one of the classes holding Soleil on my lap. She screamed at every fast dog that ran. I told Stacy, "I sure hope I'm up to handling this high-drive puppy!"

I put her on her long-line and we practiced circles. She's getting very good at reading my acceleration and deceleration. She was quiet in her crate unless I took one of the other dogs out of their crate and then she would bark "Hey, what about MEEEEEEE!" But after we left, she would stop barking and settle down quietly (according to friends).

So I'm getting excited about USDAA Nationals coming up in October. Our DAM team for Nationals is:
Donna Thomson with Indy, Stacy Peardot-Goudy with Sobe, and me with Summit. A FAST young dog team. Should be lot's of fun!

Next weekend is free and I think that Soleil may get to go for her very first hike (not offleash yet though, she'll have the long-line attached).

Soleil discovers the puppy in the mirror

2010-09-01T12:07:00.000-06:00

The Holiday Inn, Laramie, WY

RMATC AKC trial

2010-08-30T11:25:00.005-06:00

The Rocky Mountain All Terrier Club hosted a three-day AKC trial at Arena Sports which is a very nice indoor soccer field. I love running my dogs on this surface. Joan Meyer was the judge and she designed some very challenging courses that were fun to run. A lot of extension leading into technical sequences and then ending with extension again.

Friday Summit double Q'd with two awesome 1st place runs (no video). Saturday, I pulled him off of a tunnel (refusal) in standard and then he won jumpers that afternoon. Sunday he won standard in the morning and then popped out of the weaves in jumpers (I stumbled and he turned his head to look at me and came out). I was very happy with all our runs. There were a few places where I would have either changed my strategy (RC to tighten up a turn vs. FC, etc.) or I would have improved my location or execution but overall, I thought I handled well (even when we had a double Q on the line) and didn't play it safe.

I also realized that Summit didn't drop a single bar all weekend.

Saturday's Standard run. NQ (refusal at tunnel). I did not support the tunnel. But I am very happy to see his response to my shoulder's turning away and lateral motion. Great dog!

Saturday's Jumpers run. 1st place 21... seconds. I LOVED the ending. It was a straight-out sprint to the finish.

Sunday's Standard run. 1st place with 35 seconds. Had a bit of a wide turn at the jump before the table. I did a forward motion front cross and even though I left him on the dogwalk and didn't release until I passed the panel, it was still late. In hindsight, I would have decelerated and sent to the jump and then pulled to the table.

This was Soleil's second agility trial and she was AMAZING! She was quiet in her crate. The only time she barked was when I would get Summit out of his crate (to go potty or to the ring) and it was just a few little yips. On Saturday, she got to play with her two Sisters who were there (both went to performance homes). I also brought her long-line and there was a nice grassy park next to the building where we could play chase and tug while she could run dragging the line. She got to experience a lot of activity and met lot's of new dogs including an 8 week old Aussie puppy.

This coming weekend we have a three-day USDAA trial outdoors at a wonderful grassy site with a lake.

Beautiful Soleil - 13 weeks old

2010-08-25T12:25:00.001-06:00

Videos from FRAC USDAA trial

2010-08-24T13:02:00.003-06:00

Masters Standard - Second place

Steeplechase Finals - Elimination

I changed my strategy at the last minute (without walking it). What WAS I thinking;-)

Steeplechase Round 1 - First place

Masters Standard - Third place

Summit also qualified in Masters Jumpers both Fri. (1st place) and Sun. (4th place) and Gamblers and Pairs Relay but I don't have video of these runs.

A Weekend of USDAA

2010-08-23T09:40:00.004-06:00

Friday morning Donna and I drove up to Laramie, Wyoming for a 2 1/2 day USDAA trial at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. This is one of my favorite venues as no matter how hot it is outside, it always seems to stay cool in the arena. It's also a one-ring trial so no conflicts and one can relax and watch the Starters and Advanced classes.

The judge was Tom Kula and as usual, he had some challenging courses that were a blast to run! Friday we had three classes. Summit won Round 1 Steeplechase, qualified in Masters Gamblers, and won Masters Jumpers.

Saturday he placed 3rd in Masters Standard (I held all three contacts to make up for the quick releases in Steeplechase), he had a beautiful run going in Grand Prix but came shooting out of a tunnel at the end and past the plane of the next obstacle (jump) which originally was directly in front of the tunnel exit but by the time we ran, the tunnel had shifted and I didn't notice. So we had a refusal there but I was really happy with his run. Snooker.... I ran both Sage and Summit and it was one of those Snooker classes that had the Red-Color-same Red combo which I can't ever wrap my head around and so by the time the walk-through was over, I still didn't know what I was going to do. So I didn't make it very far in the opening with both dogs. They decided to run Steeplechase Finals that evening instead of waiting on Sunday. I was tired by the time we walked the course and since I won Round 1, I was last dog and changed my strategy (without walking it) and chose to RC the broad jump instead of staying on the inside and pushing out to it. My timing was off and my lateral motion into Summit to cue the RC cued the wrong course tunnel instead. Oh well, Steeplechase finals is for pushing for speed and trying new things and it was a good lesson learned.

Sunday we were 3/3 again. Summit placed 2nd in Standard with held contacts. Had a smokin' fast run in pairs and our team placed 5th. Our partner was Taz, a Keeshond, and who is Summit's age. That afternoon we qualified in Jumpers (4th or 5th?) with some wide turns on a very difficult course. Jen filmed some of our runs and I will post them as soon as I receive them.

So now Summit is also just needing a single Snooker Super Q for the ADCH title!

I am confident Summit will earn it soon. I am not so sure about Sage... but that is ok. She earned a MACH and because of the challenges we faced as a team, I never expected her to earn a Championship title at all.

Soleil had a lot of fun playing tug ringside, meeting new dogs, playing with a young Corgi and BC, and there was even a kid with a plastic tricycle for her to observe. She went for walks around the fairgrounds and met some goats. She was good in her crate even when she was not sleeping. This was her first hotel experience and we were on the 3rd floor of a Holiday Inn. Jen, Donna, and I reserved a suite and Soleil happily settled in the hotel room with four Border Collies and slept through the nights in her crate. I received a lot of compliments on her boldness and confidence.

This week we have a three-day AKC trial in Windsor at a very nice indoor soccer field.

Running Contacts and Soleils new BFF

2010-08-17T14:05:00.003-06:00

The half day running contacts seminar with Daisy Peel was awesome and I am very excited to teach Soleil running contacts. She'll have a running dogwalk and aframe and a four-on for the teeter. I have some preliminary skills to work with her on such as building rear-foot awareness and driving independently to a target. The same stuff I taught Summit but with a different end purpose.

This morning we worked on a nose touch to a target. She figured it out pretty quickly and was driving about five feet away from me to touch the target. We'll play with backing up and putting back feet on an object tonight or tomorrow.

Here is a video of the little Miss playing with her new BFF, Nova. This was at the DOCNA trial that we visited on Saturday. I should mention that all the chase games I've been playing with her paid off on Saturday. One time I let go of her leash to unwrap it from around a chair and she darted off towards the rings. Not trusting her recall (she was on a mission) I yelled "reaaaaady" and turned and ran the opposite direction, she immediately switched gears and spun around and chased me in the direction away from the ring. Luckily the ring was empty (this was a two-ring one judge trial). Thursday, Summit has a full day Masters level handling session which should be a great learning experience.

Another fun weekend and socialization continues

2010-08-16T11:40:00.001-06:00

We had a busy weekend and will have an even busier week. Saturday and Sunday morning I had the best trail runs with Sage and Summit. The weather has been on the cool side (67 in the morning) and perfect for running on the forest trails. Soleil got to visit a DOCNA trial on Saturday where she met lot's of new people and their kids and friends' dogs. I was very pleased with her focus in a very distracting environment. She performed sits and hand touches on cue. She also got to play with Jackie's BC puppy, Nova, who is the same age. Later Jackie and I walked down to the creek and Soleil had fun jumping into the water (yes! she loved the water). I brought home a wet, dirty, and very tired puppy.

Sunday I took her to a friend's house where she met Sage's littermate brother, Taz, and the other BC's including 6 mos. old Meg. Soleil was her usual confident self and although she was keen to play with Meg, the size difference was too great. Soleil will have to grow a little bigger first.

The training challenge continues and Soleil is now offering all four feet in the tuperware lid. At first, I found that although I clicked for all four feet, by the time I offered the reward, she had already moved her two front feet out of the lid. So once she was offering walking onto the lid with all four feet, I started to anticipate and click sooner so was able to reward for the correct position.

Currently on cue:
Nose touch (to my hand)
Sit (still fading the hand signal)
Down
Recall (pretty reliable in most cases. I use her name when I know she will come. If I'm not sure, then I use Pup Pup).
Ready (drop the tug and get ready for another game)
Go Potty

This afternoon I will be auditing a half day running contacts session taught by Daisy Peel. I would like to do running contacts with Soleil.

Thursday is the all day handling session and Friday we leave for Laramie, Wyoming. This will be the first trial I will travel to with three dogs. Luckily one is only 5 1/2 lbs.

Ricky's Training Challenge

2010-08-12T09:41:00.001-06:00

Summit enjoying his pool on a hot day

This morning Soleil and I participated in Ricky's Training Challenge. Our challenge? Shape Soleil to get all four feet in a large tupperware lid. We had a slow start with Soleil offering all the behaviors she's learned this week. Finally she looked at the lid and I marked it and then she took one step towards the object and I marked that... it went fairly quickly from there. She is such a smart puppy and shaping simple tricks like this is really improving my timing and concentration. A couple times I clicked late or didn't click a response when I should have but by the time she was consistently walking up to the lid, we were on a roll. By the time we finished with her breakfast (about 7 minutes), she would walk up and place her two front feet into the lid. I wish I had a video camera (it's on the shopping list!). We'll do some more when I get home from work this afternoon. So that was a fun and thanks to Ricky for posting about the Training Challenge! We'll need to think of more tricks to train.

The photo of Summit has nothing to do with this post other than I think he is really cute ;-) In the afternoon when I get home, I play frisbee with the dogs (not puppy, she's not allowed outside when the big dogs are running). After a few retrieves, Summit happily jumps in his pool and lays down until he's cooled off. He insists on bringing the frisbee in too though so I'm having to throw a wet floppy frisbee. Sage gets in the pool too but prefers to simply stand in the pool until her pads are cool.

Maybe my next trick is to shape Soleil to get in water?

Soleil visits friends in Boulder

2010-08-08T14:28:00.003-06:00

I was up very early Saturday morning to go for a 2-hour trail run with Sage and Summit. It's amazing how much TIME a puppy eats up in a day. Since I wanted to be out on the trail before it got too hot, that meant I needed to be up by 5am so I could train and play with Soleil and tire her out as she would be spending three hours in her X-pen while we went for the run.

When we returned, I immediately packed her up and we left for Boulder to go visit my friend, Judy, who has several Aussies. Sisu is her 6-year old competition dog and Merlin, her 6 mos. old puppy. Soleil got to play in the back yard and meet the dogs. We had to carefully watch Merlin as he thought Soleil would be great fun to play with but not only is he huge, he's going through that klutzy adolescent stage. So he got to perform fun tricks while calmly meeting Soleil.

As usual, Soleil was her very confident self. Exploring the yard, appropriately greeting both dogs, and digging a nice little Sheltie-sized hole in Judy's Hosta garden.

Training update-
Soleil is walking nicely on leash (only occasionally crossing behind to check something out). The hand touch is on cue. She is offering a sit and we'll start playing with a down this week. Her recall is very good right now and she goes crazy when being restrained for the restrained recalls. She is tugging harder now and her growl sounds like a Gremlin.
I feel like I've been taking my time with the trick/position training but right now I've really just been focusing on building play/tug drive and chase games. Her appetite has increased quite a bit so she is more interested in food now which is making it easier to shape behaviors.

Today Jen came over with Bode and we worked through the August Clean Run Central course (by Annie Pyle). We spent two hours running each sequence and analyzing strategy. Many times it came down to handler location to get the nicest turns. I replaced two of the single jumps with spreads since I always like to practice crosses, recalls, and Sends over the double and triple. Afterwards, Jen held Soleil for restrained recalls. Soleil loves this game and it really makes her crazy to get to me.

This afternoon, I decided to use the glue remover I bought at Sally's Beauty Supply to attempt to remove some of the excess glue on top of Soleil's head. It worked and she was such a good girlie to lay *mostly* quietly while I massage the oil into the fur. Then of course that followed with her first bath and nail trim. She was not a happy camper during the bath but when I took her outside in the yard to dry off, she forgave me and after rolling in the grass several times, she was happy to play tug.

We have another free weekend next week and then it's off to Laramie, WY for three days of USDAA. Soleil will get to meet lot's more people and since it's USDAA, she will get to hang out ringside (it will be interesting to see her reaction to a dog running a course since I never have her outside watching me train Sage and Summit).

That Thursday before the trial, I have a full-day seminar with Daisy Peel!!!! Stacy brought her out and I'm auditing the running contacts session on Monday and doing the full day high-drive Masters level session on Thursday. I am very excited to train with Daisy.

Soleil Update and PICTURES!

2010-08-04T11:24:00.010-06:00

Soleil (AKA missy, little miss, and pup-pup) is 10 weeks old today. She weighs 5.4 lbs. and is appx. 9 3/4 - 10" tall (I am not an accurate puppy measurer). We've been spending our time playing a LOT of tug games, chase games, restrained recalls (to a tug), and this week we've been working on hand touches and walking on a leash in the neighborhood. She has met lot's of new people, friendly dogs, and children. She has made several trips into the city (Denver) and has been in elevators and city parks and shopping districts. She is a Cosmospolitan Girl!

She is learning to live with Border Collies and is very respectful of their space. She received a couple of mild corrections from Sage and has learned that jumping up and biting Sage's face is not a good idea but following her around and laying next to her is OK.

She's not allowed to run in the outer field with them as she is too tiny and when my BC's are in drive, they would run over the top of her. But we do off leash walks around the field in the evenings with either Sage or Summit and that seems to work well.

She is not very treat motivated; much prefering toys so we've been using her mealtime for training sessions. This can get a bit messy as she is on a raw diet.

I've glued the tips of her ears. I may have used a little too much glue. Next time I'll know to use half as much. I haven't braced them yet, the hair isn't quite long enough on top. I will do that next week. They still seem to naturally carry pretty high up on her head.

Yesterday I got some pictures of her with her very first lamb riblet and then when we all went outside and I sat on the back porch hoping to get some non-blurry pictures of the little Miss.

Enjoying her lamb ribblet in the sunroom

Ms. glue head with her lamb ribblet

Rolling on the dining room floor

Observing a bug in the grass

The wobble board is her favorite place to perch

What! Did you say my name?

Watching Sage

Sitting pretty

"Where are you going Sage?"

"I'm going over to my favorite grazing area"

Checking out the grass with Sage

Handling Aggressively

2010-08-03T15:24:00.002-06:00

I meant to post these runs from the last trial but puppy has been keeping me busy. Both these runs are from Sunday. A double Q and both 3rd place. I am a bit disappointed with my handling in the Jumpers run in the afternoon. See, the story is... I wanted a double Q. So that meant being careful and conservative and not handling as aggressively as I should and not executing a strategy that would have set the best line and given my dog the earliest information. I played it safe because I had a QQ on the line.

Summit is long past qualified for AKC Nationals 2011 (if we decide to attend), he will certainly earn a MACH someday but it's not an immediate goal. So really, I didn't *need* the double Q. But I sacrificed my handling in order to ensure a clean Jumpers run to get it.

Hmmm...

Here is the Jumpers run

Notice how much SPACE I give him to land after the #3 jump. I could have tightened that turn up so much more. My FC was placed to give him room and avoid a dropped bar. Look how much time that cost us. Then after the weave poles, I stay with him in the weaves and I am on his right and then execute a RC (in order to stay out of his way). He hesitates at the finish jump (does a quick head check) and then takes the finish jump. I originally had walked the course with the plan of leaving him in the weaves and FCing the next jump in order to be on my dog's left and then run down the line to the finish. On Saturday's Standard run I did leave him in the weaves and FC'd a similar jump and he dropped the bar. So I gave up my original strategy and played it safe and RC'd knowing it did not set the most efficient line.

This is my goal; to handle as aggressively as I do in practice and trust the training. The goal is not the "Q" but to test our skills as a team. A failure of part of that test is simply information to bring back to the training field.

The Wobble Board Experience

2010-07-28T11:59:00.004-06:00

Soleil relaxing in the kitchen - 8 weeks old

Soleil's first time on the wobble board - 9 weeks old

So this morning I thought I would introduce Soleil to the wobble board. My plan was to start a game of tug to get her in drive and then gradually move closer to the wobble board and see if she would get on or put her paws on it. Well Missy had other plans. I had just laid the board down and turned my back to get her tug toy when I heard this big BANG. She had jumped onto the board, made it bang, and then jumped off and took off running.

Oh great, I thought. Now she's scared and I've totally ruined her first experience with the wobble board.

Nope! She zoomed in a circle and then before I could stop her, she jumped back on the board and made it go bang again. Then she saw the shiny screw in the middle and began to scratch at it and then growl because she couldn't get to it (it's recessed into the wood).

We then played tug on the board and she was happy to jump on and off. She offers this behavior. Nothing about the sound or movement concerned her. Actually, she thinks its great fun!

It's a Girl!!!

2010-07-27T13:37:00.002-06:00

It was a CRAZY week. I picked up my puppy on Thursday and that weekend had an AKC trial. Monday my computer at work was infected with a nasty virus so I spent all morning with IT. So then I had to play catch up the rest of the day. So this is the first chance I've had to post about Soleil.

She is the medium sized girl of the litter. She has very pretty classic markings. She suddenly became available the day before I was to pick up the boy. Her personality WON me over! She has spirit, confidence, and an ATTITUDE. She reminds me of a certain Blue Merle Sheltie girl in South Carolina ;-)

Her registered name is Little Miss Sunshine. And her call name is Soleil. When we arrived home Thursday afternoon, Soleil marched into the house and made herself at home. The Border Collies still don't know what hit them. She never whined and she confidently checked out her new digs and packmates. She went potty everytime I took her outside and she slept through the night in her little crate next to my bed.

That weekend, she went to her first agility trial (crated upstairs away from the general population) and was quiet in her crate while I was working or running Summit. She met lot's of people including children and played tug.

So far, we've just been playing lot's of chase games, restrained recalls, and tug. She is a growler and shaker when tugging. We started leash training this morning.

Sage is tolerant of her and Summit pretends she doesn't exist. I'm sure she'll win them over eventually. Speaking of Summit...
He double Q'd this weekend with a 2nd and 3rd place. I am really holding his A-frame contact at AKC trials in order to prepare for USDAA Nationals in October (where I will be quick-releasing all his contacts).

More pictures to come! We have three weeks off of agility competition so will be spending time training and hiking.

Back to basics

2010-07-09T12:21:00.004-06:00

Although I rarely ever run a full course in training, I do like to set up very technical short sequences to work advanced skills. This week I decided to work on the basics of cueing turns with motion (decel and lateral).

I really enjoy working through these simple sequences as it:
1. Gives me feedback on how my dog is reading my motion
2. Works on my timing (when, where, and how much decel I need for each dog).

I also worked a second exercise (squares) with a LOPush and then wrap on an angled jump.

Every once in awhile I made a point to walk back and release Summit from his starline stay and throw his toy behind him. It's so easy to get so involved in working sequences and take that start line stay for granted. I am guilty of this and so have made a mental effort to randomly reward his stays while training.

Nothing much going on this weekend. I am hiking the dogs Saturday morning and then working (from home) that afternoon. Sunday morning we'll do another hike. When we are not competing I try and get the dogs out for hikes every day. It's a great mental break for them to run off leash and just be dogs as well as contributes to physical conditioning.

A photo, a video, and a puppy update

2010-07-07T14:40:00.004-06:00

Summit - USDAA RM Regional 2010

Finally received the photo I ordered of Summit at the Regionals. I think this was taken during Grand Prix Finals.

We have two weeks off and have been having fun hiking in the mountains. Saturday Jen and I took the dogs hiking up the South Mesa for 3 1/2 hours and then went to visit puppies. Jen got some good video of them running around and playing. Then Sunday afternoon, Summit and I had an agility workshop (4 hours) and then Monday, I hiked a new trail (Flat Irons Vista). I really liked this trail as it started out at a large pond and wound its way up into thick trees which made it very cool for the dogs. It was a big loop and ended just North of the pond so the dogs could swim again and cool down.

Today I went to visit the puppies again. Wow! They sure changed a lot in four days. They were really running now - zipping around the back yard and investigating everything. I'm really seeing a lot of differences in their faces now. The tiny girl is STILL tiny. She will probably be small like her Mom. The big girl is fairly tall - even her bones are big. The boy and the other girl are in the middle.

Here is a video Jen took last Saturday. This is the boy tugging (and although you can't hear it very well, he was really growling while he tugged).

Two more weeks and he comes home with me. I plan to pick him up on a Wednesday and then take Thursday and Friday off from work so I can have four days to help him get used to his new home and routine.

I have also been going over the spreadsheet that I had developed for Summit's puppy and foundation training. I've made a few slight adjustments but everything else pretty much stays the same; especially the games.

This weekend I plan to hike the Vista trail again both Saturday and Sunday. And then the following weekend we have a three-day AKC trial in Castle Rock. I have been lax about keeping track of Summit's QQ's so I checked online and they show he has 11 Double Q's.

Just pictures...

2010-07-02T12:37:00.002-06:00

The End

DAPPR USDAA - Black Forest Regional Park

2010-06-28T12:31:00.006-06:00

Since I don't have the photos from the Regionals yet, a puppy picture should suffice. This is the boy relaxing on someone's arm. Is he not the CUTEST little boy ever!

This weekend we were playing in USDAA at a beautiful park in the Black Forest area of Colorado Springs. This trial was hosted by a new club and since this was their first USDAA trial, they were only able to offer titling classes - no tournaments. But we had double games which meant two chances to get those Jumpers legs for Summit and a Snooker Super Q for Sage. Well, the opposite happened. Summit got the Super Q and Sage got the Jumpers leg.

Sage was entered in Snooker and Jumpers each day. The Snooker course had three combinations with the #6 combination consisting of jump-a-frame-tunnel. I planned a course of two #7's (weaves) and a #6. She missed her a-frame contact in the opening (but got it in the closing) so she ended up with a Q but not a SQ. Sunday's Snooker course was TIGHT and there was no room to move and since motion is how I cue Sage, well.... we did not have success getting a Super Q or a Q for that matter. She never made it to the second red before we had a wrong course.

Sage had a nice jumpers run on Sunday and that finished her Jumpers Championship title!!!! So Sage is still needing that last SQ for her ADCH.

Summit was absolutely brilliant on Saturday. He WON Gamblers, placed 2nd in Standard, and 3rd place in Snooker for a SQ! We had a refusal in Jumpers and I scratched him from Pairs (with the kind permission of our pairs partner) because the trial ran very late and I had to get home.

On Sunday, since the trial ran so late on Saturday, they decided to run both rings at the same time. I looked at the Gamble and it was not something I would ever attempt with my dog (dog came out of a tunnel and had to be pushed out to take the tunnel under the a-frame. The Gamble line was in front of a jump perpendicular to the a-frame/tunnel discrimination so the handler had to layer two obstacles plus expect the dog to diverge away from the handler - that was not happening with my dog) so I scratched from Gamblers so I could spend the extra time walking the Snooker course in the other ring. Summit had a great opening in Snooker (even though the judge got in our way twice!) but then he dropped the #3 bar in the closing. He had a great Standard run but I moved to quickly from a pull from A-frame to tunnel and he spun away from the tunnel (didn't I say he was brilliant!). He had a beautiful Jumpers run on a tough technical course which would have been a 1st place but dropped the very last bar. At the end of the day, we qualified in Pairs with a 2nd place.

So it was a very successful weekend and I am very happy with both my dogs' runs. Jen got video of some of our runs so I'll post those as soon as I get them.

We have two weeks off and so will be spending that time hiking and swimming. I plan to take some time off from agility training also to give them a complete break.

Of course, I can't end this blog entry without including two more puppy pictures. Guess who they are?

Puppy Breath!

2010-06-24T11:06:00.002-06:00

Close up photo of the BOY

On Tuesday, I drove up to Nederland to visit the puppies. They are four weeks old now! How time flies... and they are starting to look like dogs instead of hamsters. Their personalities are starting to develop too. When I arrived, the breeder woke them up and fed them in the kitchen. Then we took them outside to the dog run to let them play and I was able to get some nice pictures.

I had initially planned to spend an hour there but by the time the pups started to fall asleep, it had been two hours! Where did the time go? The boy was the last to fall asleep. The three girls had curled up together while the boy decided to nurse on Momma and then continued to explore around the pen. Eventually, he did fall asleep on my lap.

All the puppies are confident and curious about everything. There is one tiny little girl who is just so darn cute and frisky. If I wanted a girl....

Little girl sleeping

The pups are starting to eat solid food but still nursing on Momma. The four of them outweigh her now. She is such a good mother.

Snack time

The boy taking a break on Joy's lap

Rocky Mountain Regionals - Summit earns a Steeplechase bye

2010-06-22T09:22:00.007-06:00

The Rocky Mountain Regional competition was a blast! First, Donna and I hauled her trailer so we could stay on the site. This was my first experience doing the "RV" thing and it was so much fun to have one's house just a short walk from the rings. Second, the hosting club did an amazing job which included a free barbecue dinner for all competitors Saturday night. Third, it was so cool seeing so many competitive teams from the West coast competing, and Fourth... Summit was amazing!

Summit and I had very consistent and fast runs. I am so thrilled with our teamwork this weekend. Friday he had a clean run in Steeplechase round one and placed 4th. Saturday he had a very nice run in Grand Prix round one and placed 4th. He then followed that with a smokin' fast run in the Steeplechase Finals and placed 3rd earning him a bye into the semi-finals at Nationals. He is also fully qualified for Nationals now since he got that last GP leg. He had a pretty nice run in GP Finals but dropped the second bar and then we had a wrong course towards the end of the run (I think I had stopped handling aggressively when he dropped the bar at the beginning of the run). It was a very tough course and I'm happy with how well we did on the challenges.

We also did DAM team but did not qualify since our team had two E's. All three of us were already qualified in DAM team so only did team for fun this weekend.

Summit also earned Q's in the regular titling classes. A Snooker Q (not a super Q since we dinked around on part of the opening and the buzzer went off before we finished the #7 in the closing). A Standard Q with a second place, and a Gamblers Q with 7th place.

Jen was able to film several of our runs.

Team Standard. This was a challenging course and many teams got an elimination.

Team Jumpers. Challenging course - Summit had a nice run with one bar.

Steeplechase round one - 4th place qualifying for the Finals.

Grand Prix round one. I was being a little conservative as I wanted that last qualifier for Nationals. We placed 4th (with my holding his dogwalk contact).

Steeplechase Finals - 3rd place and bye! Very wide turn after the broad jump. Most fast dogs went very wide here. 1. handler was behind the dog 2. handler cueing extension over the broad jump and no time to decelerate to cue collection over the jump. Many dogs also missed the following jump which was at a very shallow angle and a big dog stride took them past the plane of the jump. Some handlers chose to wait and pull (basically recalling their dog back to them and then turning and cueing the jump). I walked it for both and decided to do the front cross which would ensure that Summit wouldn't miss the jump.

A SUPER agility weekend

2010-06-14T10:28:00.004-06:00

Summit and I were down in Castle Rock, Colorado for a three day AKC trial. In short, out of the total six runs, he came home with FIVE 1st places and TWO double Qualifiers. I am so pleased with our consistency this weekend and the bars all stayed up!

The courses were nice and flowing but challenging. I liked all three judges this weekend and enjoyed the different style of challenges in each of their courses. I'm happy with my handling in all classes except Sunday's Standard run (I OVER handled a tunnel end discrimination and ended up pulling Summit off the tunnel completely).

Here are the videos. The courses had challenging lines with potential wrong courses. Places where the dog really opened up and extended and then had to collect again for the more technical sequences. In several courses, having independent weave poles (so handler could get downstream ahead of the dog) was critical with a fast dog.

Friday's jumpers run. The last sequence (the turn to the double and last 4 jumps) was challenging. The 4 jumps were off set in a zig zag and if the handler wasn't in the right position, the dogs either missed the second to last jump or the finish jump. Thankfully, I've worked a lot of the APHS zig zag exercises.

This was a really fun course and FAST. Summit's time was 35 seconds. Quite a few dogs missed the teal jump before the panel (it was off set enough the handler didn't set a good line, the dogs didn't take it). Quite a few dogs also popped out of the weave poles since they were weaving into the wall.

Saturday Jumpers with weaves. I liked the opening in this Jumpers course. The second jump (#3) of the 180 was off-set a couple feet so you had to push out more than a typical 180. Also, lot's of wrong course options after the weave poles; especially the line after the weaves. I had to use no motion as Summit took the yellow jump (3rd jump after the weaves) until he landed and I got his head. If the handler turned their shoulders too soon, the dogs continued on that line and took the jump in their path instead of turning and taking the orange jump. The ending was fun and I love how Summit read the wrap and turned over the bar. It would have been even more perfect if I hadn't BENT OVER! (must stand up straight when cueing wraps).

Saturday's Standard run. I really don't like long lead outs like this but I didn't like any other options but the LOP. Again, if you couldn't leave your dog in the weaves to get ahead and set a LOM to the table, the dogs had two wrong course options - the aframe and the chute. Many took the aframe if the handler was behind. Since I could leave Summit on the dogwalk, I chose to move laterally and FC the jump before the aframe (I wanted to be on the other side). But a pull worked well there too but then the handler couldn't get the FC after the tunnel and so FC'd the end of the teeter.

Sunday's jumpers course. The beginning was tough. MANY dogs missed the weave entry. I liked both the double FC (landing side of yellow and landing side of red) as well as a rear at the weaves. I chose to FC the yellow to shape my dog's path to slice the red so he landed seeing the weaves. He came over the yellow with a little too much extension and so landed a bit behind me and I had to wrap him around but it did set a really nice line to the weavepoles. Must practice this more.
The rest of the course was a bit strange (outer circle followed by inner circle). Some wrong course opportunities but most faults were bars as dogs were in extension the entire time. I am very happy to see Summit keeping those bars up.

We are leaving Thursday morning for Salt Lake City, Utah (Farmington) for the USDAA Rocky Mountain Regional competition. Summit has a fun DAM team with Donna/Indy (BC) and Kat/Whim (JRT). Should be a lot of fun!

Dustin 12/6/95 - 6/7/10

2010-06-08T11:28:00.000-06:00

A great dog has passed away. He had an incredible agility career and was an amazing dog. He had a lot of heart... even in the last year that he battled cancer.

ADCH MACH 5 TRIUNE’S MIDNIGHT COWBOY CD RN XF AXP AJP

SCH JCH GCH RCH,STCH-bronze, TM-gold

2 TIMES AKC/USA WORLD TEAM MEMBER

He is the grandsire of my puppy. He will be missed but he lives on in all his kids and grandkids.

Just a quick post of puppy pictures

2010-06-07T15:06:00.000-06:00

It was a busy weekend! Saturday I took Sage and Summit for a 13 mile run in the mtns. West of Boulder. It was supposed to be just 9 miles but we ended up going farther than intended (I can't resist those inviting side trails). Sunday was a busy day. Jen and I got together in the morning for a two hour training session with the boys - Summit and Bode (who is Summit's half brother and two years younger).

Then I drove up to Ault (about an hour North of Denver) to pick up two ewes (mutton for the dogs) and liver, kidney, and hearts. I buy meat for the dogs and lamb for us from a local sheep farmer.

On my way back from the sheep farm, I drove up to Nederland, Colorado to visit the puppies. This was my first visit. They are all so adorable. There is one small female who is so darn cute. Then there is Big Bertha who is the largest puppy and then there is THE BOY. He looks like he's going to be dark like his Daddy.

My camera did not take very good pictures indoors with the dim light but here are a few. After the visit, we went for a short hike in the National Forest and Summit tasted Moose dung for the first time.

The boy

The boy in front, tiny girl in back

This week we have a three-day AKC trial and then the following week, heading to Salt Lake City, Utah for the USDAA Rocky Mtn. Regionals.

A fun weekend in Texas and a puppy video

2010-06-02T07:05:00.001-06:00

Summit and I spent the Memorial Day Weekend at a fun AKC trial in Amarillo, Texas. The hosting club and venue were great! The courses were.... interesting. Very tight with lot's of traps for the big, long striding dogs. The small dogs did well all weekend but the large dogs did not. There was some grumbling from handlers who run large (non BC) breeds in the the 24" class and watching those dogs try and crank their bodies around on the tight turns on the course, I could understand why they were not happy.

Some of the challenges we saw this weekend I was not completely comfortable with. Normally, I walk a course with confidence in my strategy and with the knowledge that my dog and I have the skills to handle the challenges. This weekend, on all three Standard courses, I did not feel this way. We had a wrong course on each Standard run all weekend and qualified in Jumpers. The wrong courses in Standard were the result in the handlers path being very restricted while handling the dog through a box with wrong course options presented upon the dog landing from the previous jump. These were tough challenges for the big dogs (20" & 24" classes). But I brought home the course maps and have set up some of the challenges. Restricting the handler's path (mostly with the weaves) seemed to be a favorite theme of the judge at this trial. So something to practice more.

I couldn't help thinking about my puppy all weekend and then I got this video Tuesday morning. The first two puppies are girls and the boy (no white on the face and big white collar) is the third puppy climbing over the breeder's leg. He's very strong and doesn't need any help. Very determined I must say. I am going to go visit them on Sunday on my way back from a sheep farm (picking up mutton for the dogs). I'm bringing my camera so I can get pictures of the Mom and all the pups.

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/0375f2bb4ebc1087fce37339503a6aa1/video/14625881

We have this weekend off so will spend some time hiking in the mountains and perhaps I'll have time to get some yard work done!

Puppies!

2010-05-27T20:28:00.003-06:00

In the middle of the night on Tuesday, May 25th, four Sheltie puppies were born. Three girls and one boy.
Momma and pups are doing well.

Here is a video of the little boy...
http://sharing.theflip.com/session/284cd79d1948bb1825c0eb0da34820f6/video/14399159

And more...
http://sharing.theflip.com/session/d39c08296dcc6a47b891dbc5a3926467/video/14406504

I've only seen two short little videos of the boy yet I'm in love with him already. How can that be?

A friend and I are leaving early tomorrow morning for a three-day AKC trial in Amarillo, Texas. This will be the first road trip without Sage. I know she'll be happy she's not going (she hates car rides) but I will miss her.

I will post pictures of the puppies soon. In addition to the sire being a former member of the U.S. World Team. I found out that a half sister and cousin of the mom are on this year's world teams for the FCI World Championships. One on the U.S. team and one on the Canadian team. Very cool.

What a weekend!

2010-05-24T06:59:00.012-06:00

I've had an intense two weeks at work and haven't had time to write updates on the blog. Luckily most of the research classes I was teaching were in the evening so I had time to train the dogs every morning (the weather has been perfect). I have continued to train Summit with the bars at 20" and 22" (I randomly mix them up throughout a course). I've really been working on my arms (and I'm proud to say that the few bars he dropped this weekend were not because of a flinging arm as you'll see in the videos). We had USDAA a couple weekends ago and out of 11 runs, Summit dropped ONE bar. This was outdoors on grass. He had some Q's in the regular classes but we did not get that final GP qualifier for Nationals. He missed a wp entry that he had already nailed in Masters Standard (that section of the course was the same in GP). I took the entry for granted (not an easy entry) and verbally cued the weaves while I turned and took off too soon and he entered in at the second pole. We still have plenty of chances left for the GP leg this Summer.

This week I got to relax at a three-day AKC trial. Two rings, indoors...

I am really happy with our runs all three days. With the exception of a single bar in three of our classes, the runs were very nice. Of course, after watching the videos, I see places where I could have tightened up a turn here and there (its funny how you *think* you decelerated early enough when you are out there). But overall, we had no other faults but a bar.

Friday:
Jumpers with Weaves - one bar (would have been 1st place). Standard - one bar (would have been 2nd place).
Saturday:
Jumpers with Weaves - one bar (would have been 1st place). Standard - 1st place by 1.5 seconds!
Sunday:
Jumpers with Weaves - 2nd place. Standard - 2nd place. Double Q!

I have watched carefully when he dropped the bars this weekend and it seems when he is turning over the bar in extension (for the most part, the Saturday jumpers bar he was jumping into a wall) and I am ahead of him. Something we have been working on at home.

Friday Jumpers with Weaves

Friday Standard - I was late picking him up from the tunnel and as I rotated out of the FC (trying to stay out of his way), I said "weave" and hoped he'd find his entry independently. He did!

Saturday Jumpers with Weaves - he dropped the bar on the jump facing the wall.

Saturday Standard - 34.10 seconds. 1st place!

Sunday Jumpers with Weaves - 2nd place by two 100ths of a second

Sunday Standard - 2nd place and Double Q! (yes, I whipped out the OA at the jump before the teal tunnel. Last minute weakness as I watched so many dogs not read the turning cue and take the third jump past the tunnel. Also pushed him out too far to the red jump).

I am so glad I have video of our runs. It is so hard to remember everything you did out there while running the dog (it goes by too fast). I am thrilled to see the large improvement in my arms. I am happy with the lines I set. I do see where I had thought I had decelerated soon enough, I did not and cued more extension in the turns than intended (resulting in some wide turns). Fairly happy with the placement of my front crosses (except for Saturday's jumpers run where I went too far out after the weaves-pinwheel section and place my front cross too far from the take-off side of the yellow jump).

This Friday I leave for Amarillo, Texas for a three-day AKC trial over Memorial Day weekend. I have heard great things about this venue (indoor soccer field) and look forward to going.

Joan Meyer Seminar and a run in the mountains

2010-05-05T15:02:00.002-06:00

Last Friday I participated in a 4-hour seminar taught by Joan Meyer. It was excellent as usual and I really received some helpful feedback on my handling. So you guessed it..... ARMS!

Joan had a challenging course set up and at first we all ran it while she watched. Then she talked about the different cues we use to get our dogs around a course (the usual - motion, shoulders, arms, eye contact, verbal, etc.).

She next had us run the same course but removed one of the cues (arms). So with our arms bungied to our sides (we could move our shoulders but arms were stuck straight down), we ran the course again. This really impressed upon me how much impact motion and shoulders have on the dog. Summit responded very well and in fact, I was able to successfully cue a forward send without moving my arms. Imagine that!

The next time, we ran the course without using verbal cues. The only verbal we were allowed to use was the startline release word and the release from contacts (if your dog had stopped contacts). This was familar to me and the results were not surprising since I train my dogs using very little if any verbals anyway.

The last time we ran this particular course, we were allowed to use all cues. However, we had to carry an opened bottle of water (the little shorties) in the inside hand (so everytime there was a change of sides, you had to pass the water bottle from one hand to the other). I know this sounds silly and actually, I've heard of instructors making their students carry a bottle or cup of water while handling a course, but this really made an impression on me. It SHOWED me how it should feel to keep my arms level and quiet while handling my dog around a course.

We ran two other courses (a jumpers and then another standard) before we were done. There were some challenging weave pole entries and Summit nailed every single one. I actually sent him to the weaves on one of the courses because if you crowded the dog, they could miss the entry since it was at a severe angle and close to a wall. Summit drove ahead and corrected his approach slightly and entered correctly. YAY 2x2's!!!

I also got the opportunity to execute a rear cross on the flat and happy to report that Summit read it perfectly (dog was exiting a tunnel and needed to make a 160 degree turn left to the teeter).

This week I have a jumpers course set up and have been practicing front crosses, pulls, and wraps (simple, nothing complicated or technical) focusing on my handling and keeping arms low without flinging or chopping motions.

Saturday I took the dogs for a run in the mountains. We ran for 4 hours on the trails West of Boulder. I am continually amazed how so many runners can run in our beautiful mountains with an Ipod. I like listening to all the sounds of the forest. It was a great day although Sunday, I woke up a little stiff (hamstrings) but otherwise felt good.

This weekend we have USDAA. First outdoor trial in Colorado and the weather is supposed to be nice. Hoping to get that last GP leg for Nationals.

My dogs' playground

2010-04-29T20:53:00.005-06:00

Rear cross practice

2010-04-28T11:02:00.002-06:00

I finally got a chance to run the rear cross drill I posted last week. It had rained several days before we left for Utah and then Summit had two days off from agility training. So this morning, we ran all the rear cross sequences. The first two (blue and green paths) were very straightforward and doable. No problems. The next two were more challenging. The purple and red paths show how I cued each turn. These paths are very general as I'm not absolutely positive exactly "where" I was when I began lateral motion.But they show the basic idea.

To get the turn to the red jump, I needed to use deceleration followed by lateral motion to get the tighter turn. For the purple jump, I started lateral motion and the rear cross sooner so that I could then set a line to the purple jump. Neither of these were easy and I spent at least twenty minutes playing around with where I started lateral motion, location of the RC's, and the line I needed to set following the RC.

I also worked Sage on some of the other sequences (from the May Clean Run issue - Backyard Dogs) and she was perfect as usual. I SO need a puppy to train!

Tournaments, bars, and "I hate Snooker!"

2010-04-26T11:53:00.005-06:00

Driving to Salt Lake City for an outdoor trial in April? Am I crazy?

Well after a long drive in some scary weather, we arrived safely in Utah to enjoy a fun trial put on by a great club. We had perfect weather all weekend, and got to run challenging courses designed by one of my favorite judges.

I specifically travelled to this trial to hopefully earn a Grand Prix Q for the Rocky Mountain Regionals in June. We do not have many USDAA trials in Colorado and those GP Q's are hard.

Summit Q'd in Grand Prix with a 2nd place! Q'd in Steeplechase round 1 with a 2nd place! Q'd in Masters Standard with a 2nd place! Q'd in Relay (6th? our partner had two faults). and had the fastest time in Steeplechase finals, dropped a bar (more on that later), and still placed 5th. Gamblers was the last class on Sunday and since the gamble was not something I train my dogs to do, we decided to leave after Masters Standard and get over the pass before dark in case of another snow storm.

Titles:
Summit earned his TM (Tournament Master) and SAM (Standard Agility Master) titles this weekend

Bars:
He dropped only two bars the entire weekend. Saturday morning he dropped a bar in Jumpers. I wasn't surprised. It was the third bar at the beginning of the course that involved a 90 degree turn (pull) from a double. The grass was soaking wet from all the rain/snow the previous day and very thick. There were many bars coming down that morning.

The second bar was in the Steeplechase Finals on Sunday. I had rotated out of a front cross at the end of the weavepoles and flung my inside arm up in the air to cue the slightly off set jump and of course the bar came down. Breaking the flinging arm habit is obviously still a work in progress.

I was very aware of the timing and placement of my front crosses this weekend. I maintained eye contact, waited for my dog to commit to the jump before I started to rotate, I practiced rotating smoothly (no spin and go) and practiced PATIENCE. I got in several tough FC's this weekend (three FM FC's, and a FC landing side of a triple) without a single dropped bar. I think I am getting it! And Summit is obviously happy that I am finally getting it as he posted some VERY fast course times and the bars stayed up.

So he is now qualified to run in all three tournament classes at Regionals and is one GP leg away from being fully qualified for Nationals.

Sage was only entered in Jumpers Saturday morning (lovely run and a Q) and Snooker on Sunday. The Snooker course was tough to plan a flowing course and I knew that this was not going to be a course on which Sage could get a SQ. I planned a pretty tough strategy for Summit (and totally botched it) and so both Sage and Summit had ZERO points in Snooker. Both dogs took the same wrong course tunnel instead of the last jump of the 7-point combo (jump, weaves, jump). Of course, my lateral motion pushing out of the weaves cued the tunnel not the jump. I almost scratched Sage from the class but decided to just go for it anyway and it was the only class she was entered in. I really dislike Snooker (probably because I'm not very good at it) but I'm determined to improve my skills. It would just be nice if we actually got to practice playing Snooker more than six times a year. Maybe I can hire a professional Snooker handler for Sage's last Super Q?

The venue will be the same location for the Regionals. It was a great site with thick grass, lot's of open space for dogs to play, and a creek at the back of the field. It was quite warm on Saturday and after every run, Summit and I would race down to the creek and he would jump in and lay down (he loves water).

This Friday I have a Masters Handling seminar with Joan Meyer. This weekend we'll be hiking in the mountains (weather permitting).

More training and USDAA this weekend

2010-04-20T10:09:00.005-06:00

Monday we spent the day clearing the agility field. Then using the tractor, aerated the entire field. Yesterday after work, I set up the box drill from the May Clean Run (Backyard dogs). This is another set up that I can leave up for a week and practice many different skills. The jumps are at 22" since I have a USDAA trial in Utah this weekend.

I've really been focusing on staying more connected with Summit when executing front crosses. Maintaining indirect eye contact and keeping my arms and motion as smooth as possible. I think I've gotten into some sloppy habits while handling Sage because she is so forgiving. She rarely ever drops bars. Summit on the other hand is very "twitchy" and anything abrubt on my part will take a bar down. On the plus side, this means he rarely ever has a wrong course.

I also set up this drill in order to practice rear crosses which is another skill I could improve with Mr. Summit.

Off to Salt Lake City on Friday for a two-day USDAA trial. Hoping to get a GP or Steeplechase qualifier for Nationals.

Puppies and bars

2010-04-15T10:06:00.004-06:00

Very disappointing news on the puppy front. The x-ray showed no puppies and was confirmed when the due date passed and no puppies were born. I feel so bad for the breeder as she was really excited about this cross. I feel bad for me too.

Meanwhile....

Based on advice I received on the APHS Forum from Linda, I've dropped the bars down to 20" when training Summit. I expected since I'd been jumping him at 24" during training, that he would easily keep the bars up at 20" - not necessarily. He dropped a couple of bars on Tuesday, and one bar this morning. I found that my timing was a little off as well. It is definately much easier to handle a fast dog jumping 24" than it is 20". That extra split-second of "hang time" really helps. So from now on, when I'm practicing handling, Summit will jump 20". Once in a while, I will work simple drills at 24".

Feedback from the three training sessions this week. Contributing factors to dropped bars:

1. Sudden changes in motion (mostly acceleration)

2. When cueing a Forward Send, not being patient and waiting for committment and reconnecting with my dog (this was feedback I received at the February seminar too).

3. Eye contact. Especially when executing FM FC's. Again, staying connected instead of run, spin, and run.

So thanks to the helpful comments I received from blog readers. I was able to isolate some of the things I was doing that contributed to a dropped bar. Once I smooth out my handling and learn not to rush (patience!), I think I will see fewer dropped bars in competition.

I set up the jumpers course from the April Clean Run (Annie Pyle's article). I love this course. There are so many different ways to handle it and plenty of options for practicing crosses, sends, deceleration, etc.

I also ran Sage on the same sequences. She and I are so in-sync. She of course ran them perfectly each time. Except for contacts (which we are still in the process of retraining), there is not a lot of training or practicing that Sage needs.

Weekend results - 1 bar

2010-04-12T12:57:00.033-06:00

Summit had some awesome runs this weekend at the Mile High Golden Retriever Club AKC trial. The judges were Katherine Leggett and Terry Smorch. Both judges put out some very challenging courses that were designed to really test a variety of skills. I loved running all the courses this weekend and Summit and I did very well on them. I was very happy to see he had the skills to run all the courses clean. My intentions this weekend were to reinforce the stop and wait on the contacts since I'd been quick releasing Summit on the contacts last weekend in USDAA.

However, he dropped one bar in Friday's jumpers, Saturday's Standard, and Sunday's jumpers. This of course meant no double Q's. Which is disappointing considering how nice his runs were but for the one bar.

I've been watching our videos and really trying to see if I'm doing anything to cause the bar. I don't think I am. I have noticed that he tends to drop a bar while jumping in extension (as opposed to collection). I can cue collection and ask him to jump into me (convergence) which is a difficult skill - and he easily keeps the bars up (see Sunday's standard run - serpentine). He looks like sometimes he flattens out when he's in extension and maybe not picking his feet up?????

I jump him at 24" when we are training and he has a nice rounded form (he respects the bar) and rarely ever drops one. I am still going back and forth about moving him up to the 24" class but I'm not possitive that would "fix" it. However, it might start making him THINK about jumping rather than running over 20" speed bumps.

All in all, I'm very happy with how we handled the courses this weekend and confirmed we have many of the advanced skills to tackle these challenges.

Friday's Jumpers run - 1 bar

Friday's Standard run - Qualifying run. I stepped forward too soon at the start and Summit had a wide turn to the tunnel. I also wasted time after the a-frame. Summit released himself from the a-frame and I marked it. I was ready for that to happen though I wasn't fast enough and marked it after he took the jump. I think he knew what he was being marked for since I only use the "uh oh" for self-releasing contacts.

Saturday's Jumpers run - I overhandled the tunnel by picking up my outside arm briefly to pull him in (not really needed) and he pulled in all right, past the tunnel entrance. Otherwise a nice run.

Saturday's Standard run - 1 bar
This was a tough opening (very tight) and then many dogs took the wrong course jump instead of the teeter. Handlers motion was restricted by the weavepoles.

Sunday's Jumpers run - 1 bar

Sunday's Standard run - 1st place. I loved running this course and enjoyed the challenges. Many dogs NQ'd (especially fast dogs). The dogwalk/tunnel descrimination, the serpentine after the chute, and the ending with another dogwalk/tunnel discrimination and if the handler wasn't there to push the line from the yellow tunnel to yellow jump at the end, the dog's shot out and curled to the left and either ran by the yellow jump or took the wrong course red jump.

...and here is the video of Steeplechase Finals

2010-04-06T07:48:00.003-06:00

Summit wins Steeplechase Finals and Sage earns her Master Gamblers title

2010-04-05T11:20:00.003-06:00

It was a fun USDAA weekend. The first thing Saturday morning, Sage earned that last Gamblers leg for her Master Gamblers title! We've been working on this one for two years now. Between the small number of local USDAA shows and the fact that distance work is difficult for Sage, I'm quite happy that we've finally finished this title. Sage now only needs one Super Q for her ADCH. Sunday, the 7-point obstacle was a jump-weaves combination and so although she qualified, she did not get a Super Q. She was only entered in two classes plus Steeplechase. She missed the a-frame contact in Steeplechase so did not make the cut - off for the finals.

Summit had a very good weekend although he started out with dropping one bar in two of the earlier classes; Masters Standard and Grand Prix. But those were the only two bars out of the eight classes he was entered in. He qualified in Gamblers in the morning. Had a great run in Standard (one bar), had another nice run in GP (one bar) and placed third in Pairs, and then had a nice run in Steeplechase for a 5th place and qualifying for the finals. Sunday he had another nice run in Standard and placed 3rd, Q'd in Snooker. We had completed all three (could only attempt 3 of the 4 reds) 7-point combo and were finishing the closing when he took a red jump after the first jump of #7. So close! That afternoon, he ran a smokin' fast time in Steeplechase to win the finals.

I am really noticing a big difference in Summit's weavepole entries since I've been training with the 2x2's. In Snooker, there was so much distance between the red jumps and the weaves that I had to send him 20-30 feet ahead of me to the weaves. Twice he approached the weaves at a bad angle, self-corrected his angle of approach and nailed the entry. This was so amazing to watch! You could see that he clearly understoon how to FIND the entry.

We have AKC this coming weekend. And puppy news..... she is due on April 12th!

Fun trial weekend

2010-03-22T12:08:00.000-06:00

This weekend we had an AKC trial about an hour away. It snowed all day Friday and into the night. Saturday morning the roads were ok until I got on the freeway and then all the slush had turned to bumpy ice ridges. There were cars and semi-trucks stuck alongside the road. Just when I was going to turn around and go back home, the road conditions improved and I could actually get up to 50 mph. The normally one-hour drive took me two hours. The trial had a delayed start because of the snow so everyone who arrived late was able to walk and run at the end of the class.

I only entered Summit in this trial. After Sage earned her MACH, I've decided to pull her from competition for awhile to retrain her dogwalk contact. She will still compete in USDAA in the classes that do not have a dogwalk. She needs just one more SQ and two gamble legs for the ADCH. I can avoid the dogwalk in Gamblers (unless its part of the gamble in which case I'll not attempt the gamble) and Steeplechase does not have a dogwalk. I need to not only retrain but thoroughly proof her understanding of the criteria before I put her back in a standard class in competition.

My goal with Summit this weekend was to proof his training and to trust his obstacle independence. He had one qualifying run out of four but I couldn't be happier with our runs (with the exception of Saturday morning's jumpers run. I was tired and stressed from the two hour drive and didn't handle very well). Saturday's standard run offered many opportunties to try new things. I shaped a v-set at the start to set him up for the correct tunnel entrance. I decided to do a push off the dw and rc the jump to see how he handled the push and how tight he turned with the rc (as opposed to the fc at the end of the dw). I left him in the weaves and set a diagonal path away from the weaves (layering a jump) towards the a-frame. He stayed in the weaves. I pushed his teeter a little and he did slide off the end. I verbally marked it an you can see him raise his hind leg to attempt to put his foot back on the board. Sunday his teeter was flawless. I also attempted a challenging lateral lead out which worked very well and I'm glad I decided to try it instead of playing it safe for the Q. That afternoon in jumpers he won the class by two full seconds. The jumpers course was challenging with a fast dog. You needed to set the line three obstacles ahead - there was no opportunity to call off if you didn't set the line correctly.

It was a fun weekend and I'm glad of the information I got from trying different handling strategies and trusting his obstacle independence.

I am also seeing the result of the work I've been doing with the 2x2 weaves. His weavepole entries were flawless. I am sold on this method!

Summit's Standard run. At the end, he slipped in the turn and took a nose dive, he didn't recover enough to jump clean so took down the bar. He had a minor bloody nose after his run. I didn't know how it happened until I watched the video and saw the nosedive. Poor puppers!

Summit's jumpers run - 1st place (22 seconds).

This Friday, Jen, Donna, and I leave for Albuquerque New Mexico for a USDAA trial. Hopefully Sage can earn that last Super Q and a gamblers leg for the ADCH. Summit needs GP and Steeplechase Q's for Nationals.

Sage's MACH run video

2010-03-19T12:59:00.004-06:00

I NEVER get tired of watching it!

MACH Sage!!!

2010-03-15T09:57:00.004-06:00

Sage with her bear, 9 weeks old

On Saturday, at the Rocky Mountain All Terrier Club trial, Sage earned that final double Q for her MACH. Saturday morning she had a lovely Standard run with a time of 38 seconds and that afternoon, she had another nice run on a difficult jumpers course. So my wonderful girl is now MACH Sage. The picture at the top is Sage at about 9 weeks old with her favorite snuggly toy. MACH video will be posted soon!

Sage, laying in my arms at 5 weeks old

Sage smiling for the camera (about 16 weeks old)

Beautiful Sage all grown up (C-Spot Win camp)

A fun drill and those amazing 2x2 weavepoles

2010-03-06T13:18:00.005-07:00

After our morning run I set up this drill and worked both dogs. The purpose was to work on convergence, serpentines, threadles, a push out to the backside of a jump, and I threw in a 270. I started with the white numbers and worked #1-9 for awhile. Then started with the white numbers and after #5, worked the black number sequence.

Drill 1:
Send to tunnel and ask for convergence over #3 (RTH).
Decel and send to #5, then either push out to backside of #6 (and then on to black circle #7) or threadle between #5 and #6 and continue through the sequence ending at #9.

Drill 2:
Begin with white circles to #5 and then black circles (threadle between black circle #6 and #7), then the 270, and back for another threadle between #11 and #12 and continue the sequence ending at #14.

The 2x2 training is going very well. I'm following the procedure recommended by Mary Ellen Barry during the weaves session at our seminar and also the article she published last year. (A New Twist on Training with 2x2Wweaves. April, 2009, Clean Run).

We have progressed from step 1-4 fairly quickly and it is just amazing how much understanding the dog develops of looking for the entry. Tomorrow I'll progress to step 5 which is the addition of the second set of 2x2's. Since both my dogs already know how to weave (and they are very good about staying in the poles while I move forward or lateral), I will stop at the 4-pole stage since all I want to work on is entries. However, once the new puppy is old enough to start weaving, I'll purchase an additional set (so I'll have a set of 6 poles).

A hike in the Rocky Mountains

2010-02-28T19:47:00.011-07:00

Jen and I spent most of the day on Saturday hiking the mountains West of Boulder with our four dogs. It was a perfect day for a hike - 50 degrees and warm enough that the ice on the trail had turned to slush and the slush had turned to mud. I brought home two tired and very muddy dogs. After a bath, they crashed out in the livingroom and I was able to get some work done to prepare for the classes I'm teaching this semester.

Border Collies on a mission!

Summit and his half brother, Bode

Sage at the head of the pack - waiting for the others to catch up

Jen, Summit, Bode, and Sage

Lone white wolf...

Bode and Summit taking a short break to pose for a picture

They have arrived!

2010-02-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

The 2x2 weavepoles have arrived. They were sitting on my front porch when I came home from work this afternoon. Beginning tomorrow morning, both Sage and Summit will be having fun running through the poles. I'm especially excited about Sage's new high powered (obnoxious) clicker that she can hear. Her WP entries are pretty darn good but like Summit, they can always improve! Since we can't train outdoors, let's play with shaping independent WP entries.

Shaping breakthrough

2010-02-25T14:17:00.002-07:00

So the shaping with Sage on the contact board has been going very well. I have been experimenting with different ways to mark behavior and had the idea of trying one of those old fashioned clickers (the obnoxiously loud kind that nobody uses anymore). I had found one when I was cleaning out the closets several days ago and had set it aside to throw away. I use the quiet click (designed by Karen Pryor) and have never had Sage respond to these.

She did respond to the loud metal clicker! I wondered why I hadn't thought of that before (she has some hearing in her right ear and can hear higher frequencies - voice, herding whistles, etc.).

So last night we had a short session and it was much more productive. It didn't take her long to figure out the new marker.

I ordered two sets of 2 x 2 weaves (two weeks ago after the seminar). They are supposed to arrive today and so even though there is still snow on the ground (too icy to train outside), I'll be spending time training entries with both dogs in the sunroom with the 2x2's.

I am using the revised version by Mary Ellen Barry (which I learned from her during the Weaves session at the seminar). Its a slight modification of SG's method.

Puppy Breath?

2010-02-22T12:02:00.002-07:00

Summit on his first hike at 10 weeks old

The breeding has taken place and now it's just a matter of waiting until puppies can be confirmed (sometime the middle of March). Hard to believe I just may have a puppy this Summer! I'm so very excited. And I know Summit will be happy to have a little Sable boy to play chase with.

Summit's winning runs at CKC and shaping session with Sage

2010-02-18T10:27:00.014-07:00

No MACH this weekend for Sage. She was 50 percent with a dropped bar in jumpers on one day and two missed DW contacts. Summit also was 50 percent. He had two winning jumpers runs and took second in standard. There were appx. 84 dogs entered in the Ex. B 20" class and there was some very competitive dog/handler teams entered so I was pretty thrilled about the placements. Summit would have had a first place in Standard but for a dropped bar (the finish jump was in the middle of the ring and I pulled up quickly instead of maintaining my forward motion past the jump).

Here is Summit's second place Standard run. At 35.13 seconds, he was just 3/10ths of a second off 1st place. I'm very happy with this run. I do make him hold his contacts at local trials now so was really thrilled with his course time.

Here is Saturday's Jumpers run - first place. It was a really nice course. Sage qualified as well.

Another first place jumpers run. This was a very tough course. I had fun on it and liked the challenge of timing my lateral motion to cue both turns out of the tunnel (although I think I overdid the lateral distance a little at the first tunnel exit to the 180). Many dogs took the finish jump after exiting the tunnel the second time. Also quite a few dogs took the incorrect jump on the inverted 270. It really was quite a challenging course and I'm very pleased that Summit did so well. His time was 22 seconds.

I had a fun training session this morning indoors (back field is muddy and icy). I practiced extension RTH on the flat with Summit (by the 15th rep, he was starting to get it that he couldn't bump into me).

Then I started a shaping session with Sage on the contact board. She made me laugh several times. She immediately picked up that I wanted her to interact with this object. At first I marked and rewarded any contact with the board. Then I decided I wanted her standing not laying down on it. She laid down on the end (not marked), she scooted over and laid down in the middle (not marked), she then scooted all the way to the other end and laid down (not marked). She rolled over on her side (not marked), she put her head sideways flat on the board and held it there (not marked), by this time I was laughing so hard at all the behaviors she was offering all in less than a minute. Finally she jumped up and had her two front feet on the board. I marked that and threw the treat. This started her on a roll of figuring out which feet I wanted on the board (I eventually will want back feet only). Anyway, we ended the session with her now figuring out that getting on the board with all four feet and not laying down got rewarded.

Not sure if the retraining will hold up in the ring but I'm having fun playing the shaping game with her.
In the past, I've used timing and placement of reward to shape her behavior. Last weekend, I came up with the idea of using one of those old fashioned clickers (the really obnoxious loud ones).

Mary Ellen Barry and Jennifer Crank Seminar

2010-02-10T10:21:00.000-07:00

Well it was an intense four days! Both instructors were absolutely amazing! This was the first time I have chaired a seminar and was hoping things would run smoothly. I did have a few nights where I woke up in the middle of the night panicked that I would forget to take care of something for the seminar. I would run downstairs to my laptop and send myself an email with a list of items I didn't want to forget to do the next morning.

I learned so much. Although I have been applying the APHS system for over two years, watched the Foundation VOD, read all the handling articles, and worked through the DJS book with both dogs, there was still a lot of information I was missing or misunderstood. The two that really stood out for me was the blending of the arms (and dog not passing the plane) and the importance of the extension RTH.

Although I really worked the other RTH presentations with Summit (collection); I neglected the extension RTH since I misunderstood the importance and Summit extended just fine, thanks :-)

So we'll be working that one starting with it on the flat.

The feedback I received was that Summit collected well and had really nice turns while sequencing. I need to support a Forward Send longer (wait until I see his head turn over the bar) before I turn and leave. I am getting too far ahead of him on the course. I also need to rotate my shoulders more when I pick up an OA to cue a FC. He passed all the RTH drills with flying colors except for the extension one.

I worked Summit in all of the sessions. I did switch out with Sage one day to let her run. She did not have the foundation skills to handle the highly technical European courses but she did well on the Masters course work.

I also learned a lot in the Weaves session. Mary Ellen did a demo of her version of the 2x2's. I am mostly happy with Summit's wp entries but would like more independence. Once he's in the weaves, I can leave and he'll continue to weave to the end. However, he missed several difficult wp entries in Jennifer's European coursework sessions. So Tuesday morning, I ordered two sets of 2x2's and will work on both Sage and Summit's entries. Mary Ellen said if the dog already knew how to weave and you just wanted to train entries, that 2 sets would be sufficient. I also learned some good information on handling entries; mainly that you should be facing the direction your dog needs to move toward to hit the correct entry. This way the dog does not cut across your plane to hit the entry.

I have the dogs with me at work today. This afternoon we are headed to the National Western complex to set three agility rings for the CKC Cluster Show this Friday-Monday. My agility club is hosting the agility part of the show. After the rings are set, club members get to do run-throughs in the standard and jumpers rings with their dogs.

Another QQ for Summit and planning for the FRAT Seminar

2010-02-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

We were down at the Black Forest this past weekend for a two-day AKC trial. The results are....

.... Sage STILL needs one more double Q for her MACH. She was 50 percent for the weekend. Nice runs but was called for the dogwalk contact in both Standard runs.

Summit won Standard on Saturday with a smokin' time of 36 seconds! He got second in Jumpers for a double Q. Now we are down to just 4 QQ's to finish qualifying for Nationals.

Sunday, I pulled Summit off a tunnel (yes, I can pull off a BC from a tunnel) by dropping my arm and moving laterally too soon. Darn! I have done that before and even walked the course with that little song in the back of my head (do not drop arm and move laterally before dog has committed to tunnel). When he got to the teeter, it was not slide to the end and wait for release but slide to the end and BANG and GO. Sigh... he's been pushing his teeters lately in competition. So he got his NRM and I thanked the judge and we left the ring.

That afternoon I asked David to help me get the teeter out of the snow bank but the bottom 1/8 of the board is frozen in a solid block of ice.

Sunday afternoon I just played with jumpers since neither one of my dogs Q'd in the morning. I decided to try different challenges with each dog.

Sage: lateral leadout, move laterally away from the poles about 5 feet while she's weaving. She Qualified with 3rd place.

Summit: lateral leadout (I dropped my arm too soon and pulled him off the second jump), extreme distance from the weaves (WooHoo! I started moving laterally when he was half way in the poles and was able to get 30 feet away by the time he exited). Pushing for speed (I know... I just wanted to see how he handled the pressure - he dropped one bar and had one wrong course).

I could have run the course with Summit to qualify. It was a nice course, we could have run clean but I really wanted to proof our training. I learned a lot on that run.

I've been very busy finalizing last details of my agility club's annual 4-day Seminar. It starts this Friday and we are having Mary Ellen Barry and Jennifer Crank out to teach.

I am participating in all 4 days of course!

I'm signed up for the full day Masters handling with Mary Ellen on Friday. The full day APHS Foundation/Basic Skills session with Mary Ellen on Saturday. The half day APHS handling (masters level) with Jennifer Crank and half day European style coursework that afternoon. Monday I have another handling session with Jennifer Crank and then a half day weaves session with Mary Ellen.

I am going to have some tired dogs by the end of the four days. I'm looking forward to learning a lot from two great instructors who use the same handling system that I do.

The Adventures of Two Urban Border Collies... and a Sheltie

The Agility Season Begins!

I'm Baaaaack!

Updates and Soleil's Second AKC and DOCNA Trial

MACH Summit and Soleil's AKC Debute

Soleil's First Trial

Soleil Training

Soleil's First Fun Match

Double-Double Q Weekend for Summit and Soleil's first Trial

RM Regional and Soleil training videos

Summit Rocked at the DAPPR USDAA Trial!

A Great AKC Weekend for Summit!

Soleil's agility training

Soleil's Running Aframe

SC Regional Report and Soleil Weaves 12 Poles!

USDAA weekend, a dance routine, and road trip to Texas

A HOT and slippery weekend of USDAA

Soleil's 2x2 weave training videos

It's Been a Rough Three Weeks...

Summit wins Grand Prix and earns a BYE for the SC Regional

Soleil is growing up...

A plan and a video

Bars!!!

Summit gets GP and Steeplechase Q's for Nationals!

Training and trialing

USDAA and Soleil's Teeter

Running Contacts

It was a great weekend

Soleil training

For Kathy - LOPivot

Seminar update

Mary Ellen Barry and Jennifer Crank Seminar

Poor Summit

Dropped bars and Running Contacts

It begins...

Beautiful Soleil - 7 months old

More video

Training and hiking

Hiking, Training, and Tunnels

Thanksgiving weekend trial

Soleil is 6 months old

A competition video and a training video

More Soleil videos and a cool overlay of Summit and Indy

Soleil - 21 weeks old

Tracy Sklenar seminar

I'm so pretty!

Soleil update

Nationals update

More new titles for Summit and a few videos

ADCH Summit

It's not always about the Q

Soleil and Adrian

USDAA weekend and getting ready for Nationals

Soleil discovers the puppy in the mirror

RMATC AKC trial

Beautiful Soleil - 13 weeks old

Videos from FRAC USDAA trial

A Weekend of USDAA

Running Contacts and Soleils new BFF

Another fun weekend and socialization continues

Ricky's Training Challenge

Soleil visits friends in Boulder

Soleil Update and PICTURES!

Handling Aggressively

The Wobble Board Experience

It's a Girl!!!

Back to basics

A photo, a video, and a puppy update

Just pictures...

DAPPR USDAA - Black Forest Regional Park

Puppy Breath!

Rocky Mountain Regionals - Summit earns a Steeplechase bye

A SUPER agility weekend

Dustin 12/6/95 - 6/7/10

Just a quick post of puppy pictures

A fun weekend in Texas and a puppy video

Puppies!

What a weekend!

Joan Meyer Seminar and a run in the mountains

My dogs' playground