Agility training

amberdyan said:
He looks super confident! : )
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He is so confident and just loves objects that move -- he'll RUN to wobble boards and he plays on the skateboard if it's on the floor so the teeter moving is nothing to him! He's been playing on little tiny teeters since he was able to walk haha

I don't necessarily wanting him to doing 2o2o on the teeter (we'll do 4 on) but he was offering it and I let him for now.
 
YAY Pox!!! And YAY Crossbone (from your earlier post!!!) :D

Jari just had an awesome night at run throughs (instructor is away at Nationals so she set courses and had a "free for all" night of run throughs LOL). He did the weaves ALL OF THEM multiple times with speed and happiness. Hopefully all the work we've been doing retraining them is working. I also only did easy entries with him on the course to continue to rebuild his confidence. But the rest of the coursework we've been doing is all Masters level so we're getting there!!!!!!
 
Well, took P and Georgie out to breeder's house for some practice. Nothing big today, just want to get them on her equipment and used to the idea of working out there. Georgie did some nice work but was unsurprisingly terrible at the weaves. Have a few ideas on her, we'll see if we can work it out.

Payton was balls to the wall awesome, bangin' weaves and great contacts and some beautiful jump work too. Which is actually disappointing because I was hoping to get some work in and teach him "look, weaves here, weaves there, ALL WEAVES THE SAME. DO WEAVES." But he obviously "knew" it was just practice. Sigh. On the upside, at least she saw him run like he is supposed to. PROOF MY DOG IS ACTUALLY NOT TERRIBLE. SOMEBODY ELSE SAW IT.
 
Baby dog's first time on our teeter at home!
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I love how confident he looks! It's a refreshing change from some baby dog teeter videos I've seen lately.

Gusto and I had a great seminar yesterday, although he was definitely flagging by the end of the day. I'm a touch worried about how well he will hold up over 2 days of camp in May, but we shall see. Hopefully he will have enough get-up-and-go to make it through the weekend!

We leave Thursday for our first big trial of the year, and I am so excited. He's just been amazing lately, and we are both reading each other better and just working better than we ever have as a team. It's a fairly distracting trial (indoors, two rings, and a huge glass wall with reflections), but he loves the footing and I have hope. If he is happy and fast and stays with me, we will sort the rest out later.

Meg's running 2 classes each day as well, and she's actually refused to let me go to barn practice without her the past few weeks, so she's actually been 'trained' a bit. Sometimes I have trouble finding that balance with her where she's happy training (because she generally doesn't want to anymore), but not so high at the trial that she has no obstacle focus. Not that she needs to get anything, but if I'm going to keep paying for her entries, it would be nice if occasionally she didn't pop out of the poles to play-bow and growl at me!
 
And that is what I get for being excited and thinking life was going super for once...Gusto crashed a jump last night at practice (he got startled by something behind him right before taking off). He was a little hesitant about jumping again right after, although he cheerfully and quickly ran through tunnels and did the dog walk. He got over the jumping quickly as well, and had a spectacular course with some complicated handling and was just completely ON.

And now he's clearly sore today. Not lame to walk, but doesn't want to jump up on my lap or into the car. We got in for a chiro appointment, and it's just a muscle issue, but really? Great timing. The vet didn't think I had to write off the weekend - ice and aspirin for today and tomorrow, heat and Back On Track blanket after tomorrow, and see how he is. But it's a 4.5 hour drive each way. Almost $300 for the hotel room (which I don't pay if I don't go), $300 worth of entries (a loss at this point if I stay home).... Ugh. I am feeling very grumpy and sorry for myself right now.

I'm going to do my laundry and pack my car like I'm going to go. And see how he is tomorrow, I guess.

All complicated by the fact that he's on a team for Saturday, and it screws things up for others if he can't run.
 
BostonBanker said:
$300 worth of entries (a loss at this point if I stay home)....
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They won't refund for injury with a vet note? I know some trials refund fully, and some keep an administrative fee but refund the majority. I'd be pretty ticked if a trial I entered wouldn't refund anything for an injury. After all, that's not something you have control over, and most trials have a wait list anyway so it's not like they'd lose money.

The team thing does make it a little messy. If it were my dog, I'd pull from the trial. It may be a minor muscle injury now, but if he's not healed up when he runs he could make it worse. Not what you want to hear, I know. :(
 
They won't refund for injury with a vet note? I know some trials refund fully, and some keep an administrative fee but refund the majority. I'd be pretty ticked if a trial I entered wouldn't refund anything for an injury. After all, that's not something you have control over, and most trials have a wait list anyway so it's not like they'd lose money.
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It's pretty hit or miss around here; the ones that do offer refunds tend to only do it up until a week or so before the trial. When he injured his shoulder two years ago, we had two weekends worth of entries already out. I just missed the refund date on one; the other never did send me the check (and I never bothered pursuing it because it was only one day of entries and minus the secretary fee - it was basically nothing). I run USDAA, so no entry limits, which means not wait list ever.

Staying home isn't bad advice, regardless of whether or not I want to hear it. I'm still waiting and seeing. The good thing is that Gusto is NOT a dog who would ever ignore the pain to run just because I ask him to, and his drive is never going to outweigh his good sense about his body. If he's hurting, he is going to make it very clear and not run. Given all the work I've done the past 18 months to deal with his stress issues over agility, I wouldn't ever ask him if he was hesitant. I'm not going to ruin that work for one trial.

Meg's entered a bit as well, although I won't make the drive just to run her if he is still really sore (no disrespect to Meg, she just doesn't need to). I'm trying to see if there is a chance that I could sub her for Gusto if we get down there and he doesn't seem 100% for team. I could also just skip Friday (team isn't until Sat) if he seems fine but I want to give him the extra day.

He's definitely more comfortable since getting home from the vet. He's jumped into my lap twice, and just took the long way (over the back rather than over the seat) into his usual spot on the back of my arm chair.
 
We drove down to the trial since Gusto looked 100% all day Thursday. He's also been completely fine all day today, AND managed to pull off Qs in both PIII Standard and PIII Gamblers. He'll do team tomorrow as long as he still doesn't appear sore in the morning. It could be very hit-or-miss depending on the team, but those two qualifiers today pretty much made me happy enough for the whole weekend!
 
BostonBanker said:
He's also been completely fine all day today, AND managed to pull off Qs in both PIII Standard and PIII Gamblers.
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Yay! Awesome! I'm glad he's feeling better!

Kili has a trial on Sunday. We'll see how it goes. She hasn't been to practice in 2 weeks since she was spayed last week. I just managed to eek the surgery in before she came into heat and before it affected her full April trial schedule.
 
YAY! Go Gusto!! I'm so happy for you, BB :D

Good luck to you and Kili, krissy!

Kimma's been weird again lately, so we're going to lay low (still have trials entered, but not doing any classes really) and see how she goes. She did well at our trial last weekend (she got zooms in standard, but they were happy zooms, and then our jumpers run after was awesome with one little boggle that cost us the Q), but she was weird at class Monday and again today during a ring rental. I hate stress. Sigh.

Jari, OTOH, has been amazing? I don't know where it's coming from, but I'm really hoping it continues!
 
I hate stress. Sigh.
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Preach it. I am so darn sick of stress. I don't care if my next dog is so human aggressive that I have to run it in chain mail, as long as it doesn't stress down.

It was a bit of a bizarre weekend for us. Gusto had the two good runs on Friday. Team was Saturday, and he didn't E in any classes (yay!). He was one of a very small percentage of dogs in any height/division who was clean on a very technical jumpers course, and he was clean in Standard as well. Little bobbles in snooker and gamblers kept our points low. That, and a weave issue with his teammate, kept the team from qualifying which was fine. I had people who haven't seen Gusto run in eight months or so coming up to rave about how much better he is - but I was thinking he was really slow. So on the plus side, he's so much better; but it still isn't what I'm getting in training. But clean on masters level courses. I guess I need to be happy with what I'm getting right now!

We left early on Sunday. I was hurting pretty badly, and I hadn't slept well the night before. We got in two runs, with a fairly good standard course that was only a fail because he ran past the chute, because I was so focused on keeping him up and running that I forgot to cue it. He missed the gamble, but that's fine. Those are my weakness in training.

So, a PIII standard and gamblers Q for Gusto, and Meg also got a PIII standard and snooker Q (which would have been a super Q if I had heard the timer go off). Sometimes it feels like a waste of money to keep running her at trials, but she still is so happy to go out on course. So on we go.
 
Kili's trial on Sunday was... both really good and disappointing.

It was disappointing because she didn't get a single Q... and I'm starting to get a little frustrated that we can't seem to get out of Starters. However, that said, I should cut her some slack. She had surgery 12 days prior and hadn't had any exercise until the day before... never mind practice! And besides that... although she had a couple of minor "naughties" this was probably her most consistent trial in terms of focus. Even her second standard where she was a little distracted and naughty she never once took off and ran laps or anything... she just didn't really want to wait for me after her contacts (but she didn't really blow them either).

First standard... SO CLOSE. She did her 2o-2o on the frame, but then didn't really wait for me to actually release her and ended up cutting in front of me instead of taking the jump... so she got a refusal. And the rest was clean and perfect. Frustrating to be so close!

Second standard she was naughty on waiting for me to release her from her contacts, and she missed a jump coming out of a tunnel. And she had some trouble with her weave poles. But she never took off or left me.

Steeplechase was awesome! She was clean, she just missed her weave pole entry so I had to take her back to try again. And she was 3 seconds over time. They had some tight course times. She's a FAST dog and the rest of the course was perfect and clean... and she was 3 seconds over just from one minor error? I feel like that's too close of a course time, but that's just me.

Jumpers... this was probably what made me feel this trial was a disappointment. She just needs 1 more to get out of Starters, and she blew this one one the first obstacle by refusing the chute, she also went wide on a jump and got a refusal.

So yeah... my first instinct was to be disappointed and frustrated. But when I really thought about it, this was probably one of her best trials... she just didn't Q. Someone even remarked that she did really well... because at the last trial hosted by this club I think we only got through Jumpers in its entirety... both her standard runs were like 3 obstacles before I pulled her out of the ring. ha ha. So yeah, by comparison, 4 months later I guess this really is a HUGE improvement!
 
Steeplechase was awesome! She was clean, she just missed her weave pole entry so I had to take her back to try again. And she was 3 seconds over time. They had some tight course times. She's a FAST dog and the rest of the course was perfect and clean... and she was 3 seconds over just from one minor error? I feel like that's too close of a course time, but that's just me.
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Is AAC steeplechase scored like USDAA? Because there isn't a course time for USDAA. The qualifying cutoff is based off the top 3 dogs in the class (they average their times, and you have to be within 25% of them). So you could have a great run, but if there are a few really fast dogs in your height class, you may not make the cutoff. My dogs sometimes are just plain out of luck, because they are in the usual BC height class. They can get into the top scores if a few of the super fast dogs miss contacts or knock bars, but they just can't match the ground speed if everyone is clean.

Congratulations, though! I know how hard it can be to see the good of a performance when it doesn't meet your expectations, but it really does sound like she's made some huge improvements.

Siri will be joining a group class when we get back from vacation.
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Yay Siri!
 
BostonBanker said:
Is AAC steeplechase scored like USDAA? Because there isn't a course time for USDAA. The qualifying cutoff is based off the top 3 dogs in the class (they average their times, and you have to be within 25% of them). So you could have a great run, but if there are a few really fast dogs in your height class, you may not make the cutoff. My dogs sometimes are just plain out of luck, because they are in the usual BC height class. They can get into the top scores if a few of the super fast dogs miss contacts or knock bars, but they just can't match the ground speed if everyone is clean.
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Yup, that's how it's scored.

Iz didn't Q in chasing steeples until she dropped to vets as we were in a very competitive sheltie based class. Kili i believe is in 22" specials which tends to have a lot of BCs in it.
 
MandyPug said:
Yup, that's how it's scored.

Iz didn't Q in chasing steeples until she dropped to vets as we were in a very competitive sheltie based class. Kili i believe is in 22" specials which tends to have a lot of BCs in it.
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Huh, was not aware of this. That's a little annoying. I was wondering how the course time could be set so low. I blame the judge. She didn't miss a weave pole entry all day except for Steeplechase... and it was because the judge was standing right beside them and she was all "Hey, who are you and why are you here? Can I say hello?" and I had to call her back and ask her to do the weaves (which she then did right away and quickly)... and she's a speed demon through the rest of steeplechase since it's so straight. (Obviously joking... not the judges fault that my dog has to say hello to people... at least she's stopped noticing ring crew for the most part now!)

I can't remember how many BCs are in her class... fortunately I think that actually most of the BCs run either 22" or 26" regular, but yes, we do have some which is a pain. We tend to get most of the sporting and non-sporting large breeds.
 
krissy said:
Huh, was not aware of this. That's a little annoying. I was wondering how the course time could be set so low. I blame the judge. She didn't miss a weave pole entry all day except for Steeplechase... and it was because the judge was standing right beside them and she was all "Hey, who are you and why are you here? Can I say hello?" and I had to call her back and ask her to do the weaves (which she then did right away and quickly)... and she's a speed demon through the rest of steeplechase since it's so straight. (Obviously joking... not the judges fault that my dog has to say hello to people... at least she's stopped noticing ring crew for the most part now!)

I can't remember how many BCs are in her class... fortunately I think that actually most of the BCs run either 22" or 26" regular, but yes, we do have some which is a pain. We tend to get most of the sporting and non-sporting large breeds.
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Okay next time you're in class with dan he'll be standing right next to those poles to proof that ;)

Yeah that's how they do it, so it's a game that's hit or miss for a lot of people.
 
MandyPug said:
Okay next time you're in class with dan he'll be standing right next to those poles to proof that ;)
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No doubt!

My second set of 6 poles arrived today so I have a full 12. Yeah, no problems. She was fast and didn't miss poles. Her problem recently has been that once she starts going fast, she's so long that she'll miss one and do every other. But the fact that she did these fine makes me wonder if the spacing is off on other poles we've seen. These ones are "standard" 24" spacing, but I know some clubs still have old equipment so maybe they have narrower spacing....
 
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