Morning Star trial: Walter's farewell to 22" specials!

Our last trial of 2009!

The weather outside was relatively warm and the inside of the building was crazy warm. So much for a nice cold trial for Walter. Hopefully it will be good and cold at their January trial, but after that, next year I'll probably just do one day instead of two since it's basically a summer weather trial. Save some money and spend it on the (very few) venues that don't feel like summer in the middle of fall or winter. Anyway, enough whining! I'm sure the wee little short-haired dogs appreciated the warmth, and it made for comfortable hanging-out-between-runs-in-a-t-shirt time.

FRIDAY

Three Standards: One run was a Q, one was botched by weave issues, and the other I can't remember what the goofs were.

Three Gamblers: One run was a Q, two weren't. Tough gambles today for sure but always fun to give them a try. Our Q rate in Snooker is much higher, but I'll take a Gamblers run over a Snooker run any day!

Speaking of trying, tried a new dish for my Kingston trial tradition of take-out from Lotus Heart Blossoms Vegetarian Restaurant: Pasta Mediterranea - delicious! Will definitely get this again.



SATURDAY

Three Standards: Weaves botched in all three runs, some other miscellaneous goofs too here and there in two of the runs.


Walter hanging out in hot summer-like temps.

One Snooker: A decent Q.

One Jumpers: A fun Q. I love nice, flowy courses that don't present off course options at every turn.

And last but not least: One Steeplechase. I hadn't originally signed up for this, but in the morning decided to add it on since it was a gorgeous, fast, fun, flowing course, exactly what a Steeplechase is supposed to be, and it had two frames instead of two weaves. So, it looked like a fantastic way to end our day and to celebrate the end of Walter's time as part of 22" specials. However, when the time came around late in the afternoon Walter was getting tired and in his previous course (Standard) had big trouble with the weaves, so I was second guessing about my decision to add it on. Anyway, the worry was for naught as we had a blast over Walter's last ever 22" jumps. He ran wonderfully, no weave issues at all, Qd with 8 seconds to spare, and took first (though in an admittedly very small height class :) )

I could not have asked for a better run with which to say farewell to 22" specials!

I admit I shed a few quiet tears back at his crate after that run. I'm just a really sentimental person when it comes to goodbyes, and in a way that run was a goodbye to... oh no, here come the tears again... I guess, to the innocence with which I started on the agility journey with Walter four years ago this coming January. I found myself thinking ahead to the day Walter and I will have our last ever run together. I just feel so grateful to Walter for all he has given me and the experiences I've had and friends I've met, all thanks to his willingness to play the game of agility with me.

I love my dog! 16" vets here we come!!!

For posterity's sake, here's our last ever 22" Jumpers run and the last part of our Steeplechase run (the first part didn't make it on video):

Dream Fields trial

It was cool in the morning but warmed up to a sunny 11 degrees which qualifies as hot in Walter's books. Despite the cool morning, he wasn't as peppy as he usually is in cool weather and was definitely low energy by his last run. I'll limit next season's non-winter trials to four runs max. Probably doesn't help his energy level that we have a rousing session of fetch and tug after every run, but that's the best part so won't give that up of course.

Gamblers: Opening went as planned. Did the teeter mini once but went with him the second time since he was so hesitant the first time. Lucked out with perfect timing arriving at the main gamble - that was fun! As far as Masters gambles go, the main gamble was pretty darn easy, unless you have a fast and/or tunnel loving dog, so Walter did well and got a Q.

Snooker: Walter ran well. It was a nice unSnookery Snooker, so it was fun. Walter didn't slow down / demotivate in all those tunnels as much as I thought he might. Q despite the botched weaves at the end.

Gamblers and Snooker:


Jumpers: The first half felt good though slower than Lucy's run, but the second half turned quite slow. I had walked the last line of the course with a rear cross having never thought to use a front cross, but when I saw someone else use the front with great success I thought I'd give it a try. Weird wavey arm after that but Walter was very forgiving and knew what I meant. Q.

Jumpers:


Steeplechase: Walter was slowing down, but fortunately the course had two frames intead of two weaves. But it was a tough-for-us soft side entry so he got the wrong entry. Even on the restarts from a straight approach it took several times before he'd enter at the first pole. On the bright side, he didn't pop once he got the entry. 20 seconds over time, definitely no Q!

Team: I probably would have scratched this run if it weren't Team because Walter's energy level had definitely waned, but we had a go. He easily let me lead way out -- a sure sign that he's tired! Weave issues: twice he entered correctly but immediately popped, then finally he skipped a pole AND popped at the end so we ended up incomplete. Then I sent him over a wrong jump; I think he quite enjoyed our partner's 6" jump height. Heh. On the bright side, he did a great 2o2o on the dogwalk. Our partner is having a-frame issues so they incurred some faults as well.

Only one more trial for Walter this year, which will be his last time over 22" jumps. As of January he'll be a 16" vet. Woo hoo!

Practice

Been a while since we had a practice. But given how today's trial with Lucy went, I thought it would be very good to remind Walter about his dogwalk contact in advance of tomorrow's trial.

So I got him all hyped up (easy to do when it's cold, he's fresh, and I'm holding a favourite toy in my hand), sent him over a jump to the dogwalk at a distance, and ran fast past the end of the dogwalk. Walter took the bait! So we did that a few more times and the next times Walter didn't fall for it, good boy. Will make a point of doing this king of thing at least once every practice, however few and far between they are.

Gave him a break, then worked a wee bit on the wrap weave entry using six poles, with distance. Well, not really a wrap entry, but a jump at 90 degrees so the entry was not straight on. He did great so I made it a bit harder, and he still got it. We don't work on weave entries very much so I was surprised he did so well. Soft sided entries are a whole 'nother thing but we'll work on that this winter. Maybe.

That was it, only had him out for about ten minutes total. Was going to do a third session but thought he'd lose his zest so we ended it there.

Morning Star trial, Ta-ta to 2o2o on the teeter

Recently I started thinking of no longer requiring 2o2o from Walter on the teeter. It's not his favourite obstacle; he's slow on it; I think he'd probably hit the yellow most of the time without 2o2o anyway; so really, why not let go of the 2o2o? So I started that this trial, similarly to how we abandoned 2o2o on the frame, just saying "okay" after he tips it. It's much more fun this way, for both of us. Definitely keeping 2o2o on the dogwalk though - we luck out with the a-frame most of the time, but I doubt we'd be so lucky with the dogwalk.

He was in 6 runs on Saturday and 5 on Sunday, for a total of 6 Standard runs, 3 Jumpers, and 2 Snookers. It was a bit cool outside, but bummer -- inside the building was toasty warm most of the time. So Walter wasn't his most fresh or invigorated self, but still a good sport.

Saturday's Standards were tricky and we had several goofs in all of them including botched weaves in all three (two pops and one missed entry). Sunday's Standards were nicer but still gave us trouble. The great news is he did clean weaves in the last two. We ended up with 1 Standard Q. Oh yeah and on a few of the dogwalks he either didn't do 2o2o or self-released, but this probably has little to do with the teeter thing since he did that last weekend too.

We got both Snookers, nothing particularly exciting to write about though. Didn't include any weaves - one course didn't have weaves, and the other had them as #7 so I planned around them.

We got two of the three Jumpers. Of note, one of them was the very first time I got to run Walter AND Lucy on the same course at a trial!!! (Check out Lucy's blog for the details of her fantabulous weekend.)

Got video of most of the runs but won't bother posting most of them since they really weren't particularly exciting. A few goofups I scratched my head about until watching the video back, where it so clearly shows that I sent Walter right over that off course jump, right into the offcourse weaves, and so on.

I will, however, post two videos. First, the Jumpers run on Saturday for which I got to run both dogs! :-))) It was the last event of the day so we were all on the slow side.



And, since Walter's clean Standards are so few and far between, here's that one. Again, not very exciting as it was warm and we were slow, but it shows the current state of our new teeter performance... and oops, the lack of 2o2o on the dogwalk was MY fault - I released him way early in the panic of being so close to a Standard Q. :>

AARF trial: Bronze, Bronze, and Bronze!

Our annual trip to AARF for their October trial. This year's trial was quite small, but friendly and fun as always. And I was excited to see they now have breakaway tires -- I think of the places we trial at, they're the first and only ones with breakaway tires.

For some reason there were hardly any regular dogs there. In fact, some of the classes had ONLY special/vet dogs. For all of our classes we were within ~5 of the first five dogs in the running order which was a reallllly nice change. Do the walkthrough, get the dog, and go. I liked it!

Friday was fantastic. We had great weather: cloudy and downright chilly. So chilly, in fact, that I was bundled up in my winter coat for much of the day. 7 degrees (45F) in the morning, up to a cool cloudy high of 12 (54F). A bit rainy too in the afternoon. But no complaints from me; Walter LOVES this weather and ran happy and peppy all day.

Friday Jumpers: An offcoursey course but we made it through clean for a Q.

Friday Standard #1: Our first Standard run since spring. A flowy course, Walter did all of his weaves (woo hoo!), and he got a Q. This one little Q gave him three shiny new titles: Expert Standard Bronze (10 Masters Standards), Versatility Bronze (3 expert bronze titles -- he already had Snooker and Jumpers), and Bronze Award of Merit (10 Masters Standards plus 25 Masters Games). AARF is one of the clubs that give out these crazy huge ribbons for the Awards of Merit so I'm glad Walter got his Bronze here. One of the competitors is also a photographer who kindly agreed to take Walter's ribbon photo which I'll add here later.

Friday Gamblers: Didn't try the minis as they weren't our cup of tea, and the main involved a send to a sharp offside weave entry which is certainly beyond our skill set. Walter gave it a good try though.

Friday Steeplechase: This one had two sets of weaves; he popped the first set at the end so I waved him through; second set was clean (woo hoo!). Got his second ever (!) Steeplechase Q.

Friday Standard #2: We had an offcourse jump, but a decent run overall. It was two sets of 6 weaves which Walter didn't have a problem with.

Friday evening we continued our Kingston trial tradition of getting takeout at Lotus Heart Blossoms Vegetarian Restaurant. Tried a new dish this time, Barbequed Tofu Rice Bowl. The tofu was bland (but certainly edible), but the rest of the dish was delicious, with lots of veggies and sauce. Definitely a keeper.



I wanted to file a complaint with Mother Nature on Saturday. The last forecast I had heard was for Saturday to be the same as Friday. Woo hoo! Well, it turned out to be a sunny and hot day reminiscent of friggin July or something! 15 degrees (59F) first thing in the morning, already warmer than Friday's high, going up to a sunny and felt-much-warmer-than 18 degrees (64F). Oh well, what can you do. Walter was in his slow and unsharp mode for all but his first run of the day.

Saturday Gamblers: Did a lateral teeter/chute mini twice, good boy! Then when the buzzer went he ended up going on the dogwalk heading directly AWAY from the gamble. Although he got the main gamble (a distance serpentine with a couple of extra jumps thrown in), we had eaten too much time with that dogwalk mishap so were 3 or 4 seconds over.

Saturday Snooker: We were going along fine until halfway through the closing when he ran past what I thought was an obvious jump. Too bad so sad!

Saturday Standard #1: An early teeter offcourse, followed by great weaves (woo hoo!), then he felt like doing a running dogwalk so we went into training mode.

Saturday Standard #2: A brutal start requiring a lead out to a tough-for-us weave entry. Needless to say I messed that up, then he got the wrong entry AND popped. Oh well. The rest of the run was nothing to write home about. Poor Walter was feeling the heat.

Saturday Jumpers: It was hot, hot, hot. How can 18 degrees feel so darn hot? Walter was slow but ran clean and under time for a Q.

So yeah, yesterday was FUN -- Walter was loving the fall weather and ran with pep and enthusiasm. Today, not so much, just too stinkin' hot so he was flat flat flat, just not fun for either of us when he's flat as a pancake. How dare it be hot on one of our rare cool-weather season trial weekends! Maybe I should consider starting up a new Snow Agility League or something... ;-)

Dream Fields trial: Tumble #2 and Gamble #5

I think Dream Fields trials are my favourites -- Walter always feels so at home there. Anyway, a great day today with Mr. Reliable in which he went 3 for 4. Video below.

Gamblers: Scary moment at the dogwalk! We were going at a decent speed, I shaped his approach but not enough -- he started to scramble on the up ramp and then fell from the top. He landed upright and seemed ok, so I figured I shouldn't turn it into A Big Deal and instead just keep going, keeping a close eye of course to make sure he was ok. If memory serves, this was the second time he's fallen from the dogwalk, first time being quite a while ago. Anyway the gamble was doable for us and many others. His fifth Masters Gamblers Q -- hooray for gambles designed for Not Tunnel Sucks. ;) Oh and hey I just realized this is the ONLY Gamblers Q including Starters and Advanced that I've caught on video!

Jumpers: Last weekend: 3.9 YPS and over time by 2.5 seconds. This weekend: 5.2 YPS and under time by 9 seconds. Go figure. Q.

Steeplechase: We haven't entered Steeplechase since May 2008-- in the cool season we usually "save" our weaves for Standards, and in the warm season we don't enter Standards or Steeplechases because of the weaves thing. But this one fit into the day's schedule well so why not. Two sets of weaves -- during the first set I started clapping, and LOUDLY! What the!?!? The only times I've clapped on course before have been to help get his attention for a turn, so no wonder the poor guy pulled off the weaves. So, incomplete on the first weaves and over time by a couple of seconds.

Snooker: Getting warm and muggy... Planned the opening to not need the #6 weaves so we Qd with the minimum 40 points.



Hoping for cool, happy weaving weather next weekend when Walter runs in Standard for the first time (except for Nationals) since April!

Dogz trial: The super-dork and the slow-poke

I was feeling extra-specially dorky today after one of the nose pads on my glasses fell off and got lost as I was swatting at flies early in the day. Hopefully the lopsidedness wasn't too noticeable, but it feels weird for sure so off to the glasses repair shop tomorrow.

Wow, they sure weren't going to run out of Q ribbons with today's courses being what they were. The day started with two Standards, neither of which Walter was entered in but from what I saw they took more than their fair share of victims.

Then it was Gamblers, and NOT ONE of the ~35 dogs in the event got the main gamble. And, it's not like dogs were coming close to getting it: only one dog made it beyond the second of the five obstacles in the main gamble. And, no, it wasn't Walter. Oh, and there were no mini gambles to have a try at, which was a bit sucky.

Then Snooker. Holy combinations, Batman! The 5, 6, and 7 were three-jump combos, and the 4 was a two-tunnel combo. But hey, no weaves so I wasn't going to complain. Went for a non-exciting 5-2-3 in the opening since the combos would have eaten up a lot of time. So we had just enough points for a Q and actually had about 6 seconds left over.

Last, Jumpers. Walter was quite slow for this run, about as slow as he's ever been, I guess because of the heat. It was only about 22 degrees (72F), but felt warmer than that. I had to slow down and wait for him at a few spots and even started cheerleading at one point, poor pup. This run reminded me of the reason we don't do a lot of summer trialing, although what trialing we have done he generally hasn't been that slow. Anyway, his slowness (3.94 yps - typically he's in the 4.5-5 range for Jumpers) combined with the tight SCT gave us almost 2.5 time faults, so no Q. I can't remember the last time we ran clean but with time faults on a Standard or Jumpers course - was probably back in Advanced due to non-NQing bumbles. Well, at least we were in good company today as there were quite a few clean Jumpers runs save for time faults.

Here's our Jumpers run, the only one of the day we got on video:


Having fun though, and looking forward to more trials in the weekends to come, though hoping for cooler weather!

Fetchin' frenzy

In my paranoia (isn't life fun as a worry-wart!) about the potential for Walter to injure his front end, over the past months I've been cringing more each time I throw a tennis ball, tug, or other such toy for Walter and see him dive into the ground, swinging his rear around and twisting his shoulders as he stops to pick up the ball. Seeing a post on Susan Garrett's blog about this sort of thing recently wasn't much comfort!

But Walter loves to play fetch on our daily walks at the park. So I'd like to find safer ways to play the game.

One thing we sometimes do to mix it up is I tell him to back up, then toss the ball at him. He can easily and safely catch it with all fours on the ground, unless my throw is wonky. Which happens a lot when one is a klutz! It's fun once in a while, but not the same thing as throwing something for him to chase.

One alternative that seems to be working well is the same normal game of fetch, but using a Hol-ee Roller toy. It's bigger than, say, a tennis ball so it sits higher up off the ground, and the holes in it make it super easy for him to grab. So, he doesn't have to lower his head as much to grab it, and being so easy to get a hold of, he doesn't miss it and then stop sudenly to turn around and get it. He just runs up to it and scoops it up, then slows down to turn around much more gently. I'm no physiology expert, but playing fetch with this thing looks a lot easier on his body than with the usual fetch toys.

And, the Hol-ee Roller is great for tugging - easy to hold, and stretchy to make for a more comfortable tugging experience for both of us. BUT!!! beware of teeth - all those holes mean not much protection for human hands, as I keep learning the hard way!

Oh and no I don't own stock in their company :)

Cat drinking from faucet

Boring post title, but this is one seriously funny video. Actually gets funnier and funnier towards the end. Caution: Not recommended for viewing with food or drink in your mouth unless you're looking for an excuse to buy a new computer.

A couple more thoughts

came to mind and made me smile after writing that last post.

Better a vet than at the vet's!

and my favourite:

Putting Walter in vets isn't the beginning of the END of his agility career;

Putting Walter in vets is the beginning of the EXTENDING of his agility career!

Feeling much better about the whole thing now :)