Walter's agility blog

Last post

2009-11-28T21:46:00.004-05:00

I've made the leap and integrated all of Lucy and Walter's blogs into one single blog. So from now on, updates on Walter's agility fun will be at www.muttsandaklutz.blogspot.com. Hope to see you there.

Going back to school!

2009-11-24T20:39:00.001-05:00

A certain blogosphere friend (I won't name any names, coughELFcough) planted a seed in my mind a few months ago, and this week the sprout burst through the soil. I had written that I haven't taken agility lessons in years and that the one school I'd really like to take lessons with is out of town. The suggestion was made to perhaps consider taking occasional private lessons there.

Well, I finally decided that Yes! I want to do that! I will do that! Now! I was going to wait until getting my future third dog, but I owe it to my current dogs to try to become the handler they deserve.

I'm pretty excited about it. Many of my favourite agility teams train out of this school. The dogs are happy; the handlers are quiet and smooth with good attitudes; the communication between dog and handler is a thing of beauty. Plus their handling system seems to have a number of things in common with whatever mishmash system I've ended up with over the years, so hopefully it won't be too much of a confusing retrain for the dogs.

So the plan is to head out there with both dogs for a private lesson every three or four weeks or so. It won't be cheap, but is anything in agility cheap?

It's been so long since I've taken lessons, and I've never taken lessons with a place whose handling style I really and truly admired. I'm going to have to remind myself to keep a wide open mind and be ready for lots and LOTS of constructive criticism, especially since I've been set in my ways for so long and have developed tons of bad habits.

Looking forward to it!

Tips for teaching a dog how to beg

2009-11-23T17:53:00.003-05:00

How to teach your dog to beg in five easy steps.

1. Get a good amount of your dog's favourite snack. Probably something like hot dog or steak works best.

2. Sit down on your comfiest chair.

3. Start eating the snack.

4. Make it clear to your dog how delicious the snack is, being sure to include many verbal indications such as "Mmmmmmm" and "This is soooooooo good".

5. Voila! By now your dog should be staring at you, a stream of drool hanging down to the floor -- an expert at begging, after only five easy steps.

Ok ok sorry, that was my sad attempt at humour.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been an utter failure at teaching my dogs to beg / sit pretty. I used the luring technique, holding a treat over their head. They'd either stand up, or paw at my hand holding the lure, or both.

At the seminar this weekend we got a few pointers and now both my dogs are on their way to becoming expert beggers. The tips were basic common sense, no earth shattering rocket science involved, but really did the "trick". Using the same luring technique (surely it can be taught by shaping, but the less patient/skilled should feel no shame in luring IMO):

If the dog stands up to reach the treat, hold the treat lower, closer to their head.
If the dog puts their front paws on your hand or arm to balance, hold your hand/arm more vertical so that they can't. Also, make sure you're holding the lure far enough toward the back of their head so that they won't be tilted forward when reaching for the treat.
At first, reward even very short-duration attempts. It will take time for the dog to develop the core strenth required for holding the position for a longer time.

Oh, and probably a good idea to use soft treats rather than something crunchy to prevent the treat getting caught in their throat thanks to gravity.

You can bet I'll post a photo of Lucy and Walter here if when they finally manage to hold a nice beg!

BTW if anyone has any alternative trick names for this, I'd love to hear them. Neither "beg" nor "sit pretty" particularly appeal to me but I'm not creative enough to come up with anything better :)

Chris Zink seminar - day 2

2009-11-22T18:00:00.003-05:00

Wow, another full day.

Some of the topics discussed included strength training, endurance training, proprioception training, stretching, and a variety of injuries such as medial shoulder instability, iliopsoas strains, biceps tenosynovitis, and jump down syndrome. The afternoon was spent working dogs over jumping exercises.

Chris strongly recommends teaching dogs to "beg" because of the benefits it has for the dog in terms of developing core strength. I tried teaching this to L&W a while ago but for whatever reason (okay okay I know I'm a pathetic trainer!) had no success whatsoever. She had a few suggestions for some of the problems I've had, and bingo! Both Lucy and Walter are now on their way to learning this basic but valuable trick. I will be very excited to see their progress with this considering I once thought I'd never be able to teach it to them, especially Walter. Once they've got the beg down pat, next will be the difficult but great-for-the-leg-muscles beg > stand on two legs > beg!

Lucy was my working dog for today. She was part of the Level 2 group, working an exercise on bounce jumping. The jumps started far apart and gradually came closer and closer (4 or 5 feet). For a few of the close ones I ran when I should have walked so she was going too fast and had to do some crazy/scary maneouvre by the time she got to the last jump. Sorry Lucy!

So yeah, it was certainly a full weekend. Many topics other than the ones I've mentioned were also discussed. Also it's entirely possible I've misunderstood some things so please take what I wrote with a grain of salt. One last thing I have to comment on is how well the seminar stayed on time. It was really nice to know that when Chris said we'd start up again in 15 minutes, we really would start up again in exactly 15 minutes, whether or not some people hadn't returned from their break yet. Punctuality is a very good thing :)

I would definitely recommend this seminar to anyone else doing agility and would go again if she comes back in a few years, both as a refresher and to see what new material gets added.

Chris Zink seminar - day 1

2009-11-21T19:09:00.006-05:00

I've been really interested in learning something about dog structure lately, so no way could I pass up the chance to attend Chris Zink's "Coaching the Canine Athlete" seminar, less than an hour's drive away. Originally had an auditing spot but figured what the heck, upgraded to a working spot. Oh, and it's held at a new place we'll be trialing at this winter, so a side bonus is being able to give Lucy and Walter treats all over the arena :) Walter got to be the worker today and I'll probably work Lucy tomorrow.

Though the entry fee wasn't cheap, I feel like I got my money's worth after only today.

We received a packet of several articles she's written, which will be neat to read later. Took 10 pages of notes today alone. There were lots of videos and photos as part of the presentation.

Here are some of the topics she discussed: ectomorphic vs endomorphic vs mesomorphic; effects of spaying/neutering before puberty; weight to height ratio; rear angulation; front angulation; dewclaws; a bunch of stuff about all the gaits; exercises to teach a dog to trot instead of pace; effect of different body types and performances on the dogwalk, a-frame, weaves, teeter, and jumps.

My favourite part was learning about front and rear angulation. I'd heard these terms before and tried googling about it once or twice but couldn't really find anything that helped explain it. If I understood correctly, more rear angulation means less stability, less ability to turn efficiently, whereas less rear angulation leads to more stability, better ability to turn efficiently, but also more stress on the legs, increased chance of CCL rupture. Something in the moderate range is good for agility dogs. As for shoulder angulation, I can't remember what effects it has, but crappy rear angulation is much preferred over crappy front angulation. Like most GSDs, Walter has "wonderful" shoulder angulation, woo hoo! His rear angulation is maybe the high side of moderate (from what I saw comparing him with today's other canine participants), but nothing too exagerated. Of the dogs in our little working group (which included a golden, sheltie, JRT, malinois, and ACD), Walter had the most shoulder angulation (good) and the second most rear angulation (not so good). I had a look at Lucy afterward and was surprised to see that it looks to me (not that I'm any expert after just one day of learning about it) like she has quite a straight shoulder, at least compared to Walter. But her rear angulation is nicely moderate.

Another interesting bit was the discussion about the weight to height ratio. Walter's is 2.5, Lucy's is 2.2. A general rule of thumb is that anything greater than 3.5 is in the danger zone; 2.0-3.5 means you should be careful, take care to run on only good footing, limit how many full height jumps they do, and so on; <2.0 is easy street. I'm glad both dogs are toward the low side of the middle range, especially since I thought Walter would be higher up on the scale.

Chris is a big proponent of not spaying or neutering before puberty. Lucy wasn't spayed until after her first heat, but only because the shelter didn't know if she had been spayed or not. The day after I brought her home, she went into heat. Walter on the other hand was neutered right around 6 months. That was just The Way Things Are Done as far as I knew back then. Food for thought about what to do for a future dog, although probably s/he won't be a puppy, so someone else will have made that decision.

Learned today that pacing is neither a natural nor a healthy gait for dogs. Just my luck that both my current dogs and my old childhood dog are/were all pacers. Actually, not luck so much as me inadvertently teaching them to do that, which she suggests is the main reason why some / a lot of dogs pace. Learned an exercise using pvc poles as cavaletti to teach the dog to trot instead of pace. Also she showed a neat way involving footwork (by the human) to encourage dogs to trot instead of pace. A very handsome big dobie did a great job of demonstrating these.

My least favourite part of the day was where we had to get our dog to trot by our side for about 70 feet while everyone else watched. Sounds easy? Well, it wasn't so easy for many of us, and she seemed a bit impatient with our shortcomings as handlers. We had to get our dog to trot as fast as they can without breaking into a canter, all the while not looking at the dog, but also at the same time looking at them out of the corner of our eye so we could sort of see what they were doing. I was first up on this exercise and Walter was being goofy, kept jumping up at me and biting at his leash. Anyway eventually he settled down and got the job done. Lots of others had problems too - handler looking at dog, dog pacing, dog cantering, dog giving too much heads-up attention, handler not keeping up with dog, and so on. If I had one suggestion for improving the seminar, it would be for her to be a bit easier on us for this exercise. She seemed to be a bit impatient, and her impatience seemed to be stressing some of the people out. I was glad to have gone first, otherwise watching everyone else getting stressed out may have resulted in me dreading my turn and wishing I had audited instead ;)

But the rest was great!

Looking forward to more information overload tomorrow.

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

2009-11-14T20:29:00.015-05:00

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

2009-10-25T21:59:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-24T18:43:00.004-04:00

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

2009-10-11T19:37:00.007-04:00

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!

2009-10-03T20:23:00.008-04:00

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

2009-09-27T18:41:00.007-04:00

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

2009-09-20T18:39:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-18T12:17:00.005-04:00

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

2009-09-15T19:14:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-14T09:10:00.001-04:00

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 :)

Day 2 - And more thoughts on Walter as a soon-to-be vet

2009-09-13T19:05:00.008-04:00

Sinus cold continues, but not too bad.

Gamblers was first. An okay opening including the jump/chute/jump mini gamble, but Walter went into the wrong tunnel in the main. Didn't call him off the wrong tunnel since he was going out of his way to go to a far tunnel, a good thing!

Next, Jumpers. It felt like a nice run, and it was a Q, but in watching the video back I like yesterday's Jumpers run better -- Walter seemed more into it and I seemed less bossy. Anyway, here's today's Jumpers:

Last, Snooker. Like yesterday, went for four reds to avoid the #6 weaves in the closing. But unlike yesterday, it wasn't quite as smooth, and three of our four obstacles of choice were three-obstacle combos, so we ran out of time just before the #5 in the closing; no Q. There were a couple of awkward snookerish moments in there, so I wouldn't have felt that great about the Q anyway.

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Ok - here's where I get all wordy and whiny - long blog coming up!
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Walter had a massage today by the very popular local canine massage person who had a booth on site. She noticed he seemed tight in between his front legs, and it showed on his face when she manipulated him there, perhaps a knot. She asked if he lands heavy when jumping, which I think he kind of does. She showed me a stretch to help with that area, which I will add to our routine. But, this really confirms three things for me: (a) he'll be started on a regular massage regime; (b) he'll be started on a regular chiro routine; and (c) more and more I'm thinking of dropping him to 16" vets before his sixth birthday, probably in January just because it's the start of a new year though I could do it any time.

That last one is a subject that's been tugging at my thoughts since Walter turned five in July, becoming eligible for vets. The thought of Walter as a vet forces me to accept that he's getting older and to think about his mortality. Also it would suck that there would not be any further height drops to look forward to when he gets OLD old. And, quite simply, I enjoy watching videos of Walter athletically jumping 22" -- seeing him over 16" jumps is just not the same thing. These must sound like pathetic, selfish reasons for delaying putting him into vets, and they are. But in a nutshell, what gets to me is that, in my mind, I can't help but think that dropping Walter to vets is the beginning of the end of his agility career. [sniff... boo hoo... WAAAAAAH!! okay I need to get a grip!]

BUT. As a 16" veteran dog...

Would Walter be unhappy or somehow feel a lack of satisfaction? Nuh uh.

Would he enjoy and be more comfortable jumping 16" instead of 22"? Safe to say, yes.

Would his body undergo less wear and tear and hopefully allow him to keep doing agility well into his senior years? I hope so. I would love love LOVE for Walter, who wasn't bred for agility and doesn't have the world's best structure, to still be doing agility five years from now. Dropping him to 16" soon is probably one of the best things to make that happen, along with stretches/massage/chiro and putting forth a more focused effort to cue smoother turns for him.

I am definitely very grateful that the AAC is so welcoming of its veteran dogs. Not only do they offer a vets class, to begin with, but also, dogs who drop from Regular to Specials to Vets don't have to restart their Q counts for titles. Plus, as of this year they've dropped the "S" and "V" prefixes on all titles. Pretty darn cool eh.

I know there are far more important things going on in the world and who the heck cares about something as trivial as this. Still, it brings a tear to my eye to think about Walter as a vet. But, once the deed is done I'm sure I'll get over it quickly and will have no regrets! And will stop whining about the whole thing here on my blog :-)

P.S. I hope it's understood that I have no judgement toward people who keep their dog in Regular or Specials for as long as they want. Every dog is different. I just feel that for Walter, this is the best thing.

Day 1 - ADSC trial (All Day Sneezing and Coughing?)

2009-09-12T15:29:00.007-04:00

Thank goodness that for today's All Dog Sports Club trial we were only signed up for two classes and that they were the first two of the day, cause I have a cold :( Snooker followed by Jumpers, a Q in each, with Walter running like a dream, really attentive and fastish (for him - dogwalk aside!) - he loves flowing lines where he can just open up and run. The Snooker video is missing the start and the Jumpers is a bit too zoomed in since my cheapo camera doesn't always cooperate with zooming out. But anyway it was quite a fun morning with some fun courses; the judge is from Saskatoon, where years ago I dreamed of moving to...

The Snooker allowed for a nice flowing opening with four reds so we did that instead of needing the #6 weaves in the closing, a good thing too since he ran right past them. Not crazy about how I chose to handle the ending to the Jumpers run from the tire to the next jump, but Walter didn't seem to mind too much. Lots of people stayed on the left of the jump after the tire, then rear crossed the next jump for a much more flowing line than the way I handled it. Oh but hey, tons of front crosses in that Jumpers and I'm glad to see I don't seem to be bending forward nearly as much as I used to.

Back for three more tomorrow.

Guides Canins trial

2009-09-06T21:34:00.004-04:00

Woo hoo! Fall is here and with it, the start of Walter's trial season. We don't do much agility in the summer due to the heat.

Just three events both days for Walter, and camping onsite Saturday night, fun! Except for the nearby snoring, which this time definitely wasn't coming from Lucy, unfortunately... Oh, to be able to sleep through anything like the dogs can.

Saturday Gamblers: Not really our best run ever, though much better than Walter's first ever run here last year - just watched the video of that run again and it's frigging hilarious - we must have had a thousand faults! Anyway, back to this weekend: Opening was okay but his confidence wasn't there for the mini, and then for the main he was sure the fact that the tunnel was snaked under the dogwalk meant that he was to take the offcourse dogwalk after the tunnel. Oh well.

Saturday Snooker: The darned weaves were #5 so I had to decide whether to run for the safe Q in case he botched the weaves which would mean 4 7s and a very choppy course, or just say what the heck, go for a nice flowing course and see what happens at the weaves. I went for the latter and lo and behold, he did all of the weaves! and finished the course in time. Yay! Q.

Saturday Jumpers: (Video below) Rats, in watching the video back it looks like I went way too deep in the pocket of the pinwheel at the start of the run and pushed him off the far jump. Later on I watched as he headed toward the offcourse tunnel and didn't call him off it in the interest of keeping his motivation up. But then he had a weird spaz moment when something outside the ring (no idea what) caught his attention. Bizarre!

Sunday Snooker: Weaves #6. Decided again to just go for a flowy course, come what may at the weaves. This time he entered at the second pole and then popped at the end, so no cigar.

Sunday Jumpers: (Video below) Walter came flying out of that chute and I did a crappy job of telling him where to go next so we totally missed the jump after the chute. Would probably help if I actually practiced leadouts and being in the right place for them, but leadouts with Walter The Creep are such a headache, in more ways than one! Anyway for the rest of the run I ran mostly silently to focus on body language and was pleased with how he responded to that.

Sunday Gamblers: Missed both minis, then on the main had trouble with a send ahead to a tunnel. The judge blew the whistle but then realized she shouldn't have so we got a rerun. Better with the opening this time, and managed with some difficulty to get the tunnel in the main and got a Q, our first Gamblers Q this year! The main gamble was a go-on jump to far-away tunnel (a known problem for us), then layered jump and a tire. After he took the first jump he turned around, but I held my ground and what a good dog, he turned back around to take the tunnel instead of backjumping toward me. Probably 90% of the dogs got this gamble no problem. There are some drawbacks to not having a tunnel suck!

I didn't feel like hassling people to film most of our runs but did want to see our Jumpers to see how he's handling the jumps (seemed choppy in Jumpers at Nationals) and what my handling is like, so thanks to Indy's human and a kind stranger, here they are:

He looked comfy with the 22" jumps so no plans yet to drop him to 16". Very glad I stuck to my plan to not "fix" mistakes. Overall I was very happy with how he ran this weekend. That's my Walta-boy!

At least I didn't forget the tent

2009-09-03T09:30:00.006-04:00

Monday we packed up and headed off for our annual two-night camping trip at Sandbanks.

We were about two hours into the three hour drive when it struck me that somehow I had managed to forget to bring the dogwalking bag that comes along every time I leave the house with the dogs. No big deal, it just had some poop bags in it. And the dogs' haltis. And my camera, cell phone, and wallet. Fortunately the gas tank was full and I had about $30 cash on hand and lots of poop bags in the car. Had also packed some spare anti-pull collars/harnesses, otherwise the lack of haltis would have been the dealbreaker. Wallet -- who needs it? Anti-pull shoulder-saving dogwalking devices -- gotta have 'em. As for the camera, well, it turned out to be kind of liberating not feeling obligated to dig it out every time the dogs struck a pose, and besides, the photos would have been no different from the ones from last year.

Fortunately the trip was pleasantly uneventful, so the lack of cell phone and wallet wasn't a problem though I wouldn't recommend leaving them at home.

The weather couldn't have been better:

Usually we go earlier in the summer, but this time the water was much warmer and the water level was low so we could easily wade across the mouth of the Outlet. The early sunset was nice, and the nights weren't nearly as cold as I thought they might be.

Our site neighbours were all quiet - woo hoo! So no blasting stereos or drunken partying into the night. The only sound we heard at night was snoring, but I realized the second night that it was coming from Lucy!

All in all it was a relaxing trip, but maybe next year it will be time to try somewhere different. Not sure anywhere can compare to the dunes though... that's always my favourite part of Sandbanks.

Happy dog

2009-08-15T11:13:00.003-04:00

New dog!

2009-08-14T17:18:00.008-04:00

Meet Pancho! Here's his writeup on the BARK website (that's the rescue group Walter came from):

If you're a dog and your ear itches and you need to scratch it, BUT some very interesting doggie play is suddenly occurring 30 feet away, what do you do? WELL, if you are little PANCHO, you keep that hind paw glued to your ear and run at all speed... on three legs! What a cutie this boy is, quite an original :0) Pancho is about a year old and weighs just 20 lbs. We think he is an Eskimo - Chihuahua or MinPin mix and his character is typical for his breeds. He is an affectionate, comical and smart little sweetie. He loves to cuddle, loves to play with toys, loves to be part of everything we are doing.... and yet he respects boundaries and isn't pushy or overly needy. He is just a very sociable and "interactive" boy. He is vetted, neutered and microchipped. Pancho is a bit insecure and needs time to get used to new people. Once that is done however - and it is not difficult - he is very friendly and loving with them. He needs a patient person who will give him time to adapt. Pancho is fine with our cats. He gets along with the other dogs and plays with them a lot. His favourite companions appear to be small and medium sized females. He also loves to play with toys and will chase a ball quite happily. Pancho is potty and crate trained. He is food and toy motivated and very smart, so calm, positive and consistent leadership should make training him a breeze! Pancho will make a wonderful companion for playing, walking and enjoying life with a family that has another dog or is home at least part time. His small size makes him quite easy to bring along just about anywhere!

Doesn't he sound neat? Ok, maybe the fact that he kinda looks like a mini-Walter makes me a bit biased. But if this were two years from now, I definitely would have inquired to find out more about this little guy. He seems to meet everything on my wish list for my next dog: small, a rescue, a mutt, about a year old, good with cats, build suitable for agility, likes toys, good with dogs... But with Lucy 6 years old and Walter 5, I need a few more years between them and a future new dog, otherwise I'd end up having three geriatric dogs at the same time. Can you say "VET BILLS"!

So in a few years I'll definitely start keeping my eyes open for a new dog like Pancho!

Nationals videos

2009-08-10T19:28:00.003-04:00

Here's the video from Sunday at Nationals. Walter's jumps look particularly choppy in the Jumpers run. Will keep an eye on that for sure.

Also, I forgot to post a link to Walter on tv! How could I forget Walter's 15 milliseconds of fame! A local news station aired a montage of clips from the prequalifier, in which Walter appears twice. The video quality is attrocious: I filmed my tv while it was playing, and the rabbit ears were not in a very cooperative mood so the picture was a tad fuzzy. This link opens the video in You Tube. If you want to skip to the parts with Walter, just click on "1:03" and "2:09" in the video description section.

Fun match

2009-08-09T17:34:00.003-04:00

Played around at a fun match over easy 16" jumps. After last weekend I didn't want to do anything technical, just keeping it easy and fun, so instead of Masters we ran the Advanced Standard with the added element of some distance. We had fun :-)

Woo hoo: Wider weaves!

2009-08-03T10:39:00.007-04:00

As of September 1st 2010, the required weave spacing in AAC must be 24". Currently the permitted spacing is between 18" and 21". There was some discussion about weave spacing earlier in the year on the Yahoo list, and though I emailed my Regional Director to express my support of changing to 24" weaves, I didn't really expect anything to change, so this news was a welcome surprise!

Here's an article from Clean Run about weave spacing.

And here's a really neat video showing dogs of all sizes going through 20" weaves and then through 24" weaves.

I rarely practice weaves with Walter (nevermind weave entries) because it just seems so hard on his body. Definitely looking forward to trying the new wider weaves!

AAC Nationals - Day 2

2009-08-02T12:50:00.006-04:00

If yesterday's 6:30am start was painfully early, today's 6am start was downright brutal! (Though necessary given the 600 dogs running.) The last time my alarm was set for 4:30am was for driving to Kingston for a trial. For much of the morning I walked around feeling like if I closed my eyes for two seconds I'd be out like a light.

First class of the day was Jumpers. I didn't really like this course - it seemed like a big boring (not necessarily easy, just boring) jump grid exercise. Come to think of it, it's the first time I've come across a course that I actually found uninteresting. Anyway, we managed a clean run.

Then it was Gamblers. It was a fun opening including both minis. Like yesterday, the main was definitely doable, but I messed up and once again sent him into the wrong end of the tunnel. A bit disappointing that I messed up both main gambles, but oh well!

Finally, Standard. A wretched rear cross toward the start with Walter jumping almost from a standstill! What a good dog to put up with my bumbling, I tell ya. I had planned a front cross there but got caught in spectator mode. Popped the first set of 6-weaves but did the second set great, yay!

And thus concluded our time in the 2009 Nationals rings. We ended with 382 points, in 20th place out of 29 dogs in the 22" Specials class.

Here's the video of today's runs:

Overall, Walter ran well although of course he slows right down in the summer heat (not that he's super speedy to begin with!), and he was comfortable and happy as evidenced by his typical startline barking. He wasn't too distracted as he sometimes is at a new venue and was comfy enough to do 2o2o on his teeters and dogwalks. But my handling was definitely sub par this weekend (even for my low standards) - rough and choppy, getting in Walter's way, sending him the wrong way, and so on. Oh and our startline stay, which already was nothing to write home about, really went to pot as I didn't want to delay things by insisting that he sit before releasing him. Will have to work on that for sure!

Walter was super-good at hanging around in his shade tent as well as in the sometimes-really-crowded main areas. If it weren't for the supervised isolation aspect, with a little more work he could maybe even pass the Canine Good Neighbour test! He sure has come a long way in the manners department.

On a side note, I'm thinking about dropping him to vet's next year. He doesn't need the extra time, but it'd be nice to have the option of running him at 16" especially in the summer -- I think he'd like that. If he's spry and fresh in the winter then he could still jump 22" for winter trials if he really wanted to. I dunno. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, what a fun way to spend a weekend with my dog and friends. Hanging out, doing some agility, watching a lot of great runs... All a 20-minute drive from home! A bunch of the top dogs were local, including the dog who won Walter's class, who also won last year's Nationals - amazing! The winner of the prestigious 26" class was also a local dog, and what I think is pretty funky is that this dog, who thinks nothing of flitting off to Europe once or twice a year to compete in the worlds, also plays flyball. How many world team agility dogs are also allowed to play flyball? Nifty eh.

Cheers!

AAC Nationals - Day 1

2009-08-01T11:09:00.013-04:00

The 2009 AAC Nationals are being held right in our backyard, at the Nepean National Equestrian Park! Almost 600 dogs entered in the six-ring circus. It was a warm, sunny day, but not too humid.

First up was Standard (link opens up the course map in a new window). Managed to get in a bit of a leadout to help him up the dogwalk. Near collision after the #2 tunnel! The weave entry was a problem, no surprise there, but amazingly after that he weaved all the way without popping! Of course, I forgot to rear cross the weaves and then messed up the out-jump right after by giving him no cue for it whatsoever.

Next was Jumpers. Didn't get quite as much of a leadout as I wanted and then didn't run fast enough to get ahead and failed to cue for jump #5, so Walter goes shooting toward the offcourse tunnel. A hard calloff (sorry Walter!!) for which I'm still hanging my head in shame! :-( "Come" to think of it, "COME!!" doesn't sound too different from "TUNNel!!" -- poor dog must have been so confused. Since when do I say "come" in agility anyway? Sigh. Poor Walter deflatedly managed the rest of the course and we got in a decent rear cross at jump #12.

Finally, Gamblers. I didn't try the teeter mini because I wasn't crazy about the approach angle to the teeter, but the weave mini was certainly doable. But, Walter was once again in last-pole-popping mode. The final gamble was definitely doable but I gave him WAY too "get out" to get him off the tire and over the jump so he was understandably quite certain that I also meant to get out to the far side of the #4 tunnel. What a good dog!

Here's the video, but it's not all that exciting, what with my bumbling, pokey handling and Walter in summer slow mode.

At the end of the day Walter had his first ever chiropractic session. So many people in the dog sports world including a ton of local folks swear by chiro (and massage of course), not only for treatment but also for prevention, so I figured why not? He wasn't too sure about the guy bear-hugging him for so long, but of course he was a very good boy and just waited patiently until it was over.

Back for three more runs tomorrow!

Oh deer!

2009-07-31T10:43:00.015-04:00

Look what we came across today! (Click on the photos to see more detail.)

After I had a chance to zoom in:

Of course, I reeled Lucy in and put Walter on leash and halti as soon as I saw them. The wind must have been wrong since the dogs didn't notice until I pointed them out. Lucy got excited and started barking and rearing but Walter kind of wondered what all the fuss was about. Actually I think he was probably scared but trying to come across as indifferent, secretly praying he wouldn't have to get any closer to the beasts.

This photo is my favourite from this morning's adventure - if you look closely at the detailed version you can see the deer at the right edge of the photo. This is the closest Lucy's ever been to a real live deer - she was a very happy hound.

This could have been a neat photo if I had the right camera and knew how to use it. Oh and I think it's time to re-adjust Lucy's halti.

One of the deer was quite interested and didn't stop staring at us, but the other seemed to want us to just move along. So we did.

Qualified for Nationals!

2009-07-30T18:54:00.005-04:00

I haven't been posting much lately as I've spent the last month consumed with my "job" as Volunteer Scheduler for the 2009 AAC Nationals. 300+ volunteers and 1000+ shifts = oh. my. GOD! What a huge job. I think I sent and received more emails in the last two weeks than I have in my entire life. Thank goodness for the support and guidance of our Volunteer Coordinator Extraordinaire and for the amazing software program that made it possible. I can NOT imagine doing that by hand. [shudder] It was fun, and I was soooo impressed by how eager people are to help out, but I'm so happy to have my life back now!

So today was the one-day pre-qualifier for dogs who missed Regionals due to injury or other valid reasons. Like Regionals, there are six rounds (two Standards, two Jumpers, two Gamblers), judged on a points basis. Standards start with 100 points, Jumpers with 75 points, faults deducted. In Gamblers you keep all your opening points, then if you get the main gamble you get 35 points added to your opening score. Bonus points for being clean under time. There's the option to drop out after accruing the minimum 350 points required to qualify for Nationals.

I guess I ruined the suspense with the blog post title, but here's the play by play:

Standard #1: A really nice, flowing, straightforward course. Walter ran really well, no weave issues, stuck his teeter and dogwalk. We got 5 faults which I think must have been a missed frame contact (!). Score: 95 points.

Jumpers #1: Hmmm. Okay now I'm starting to stress a bit: Walter, Mr. Reliable Poopy Pants, has not yet had his second poop of the day. Please oh please don't poop in the ring... this would be a terrible first time for that! So anyway. I led out and Walter was a star, holding his sit-stay (well, with the usual creeping of course). However, in his haste to catch up he knocked a bar. Somewhere else he got a refusal. This was a challenging course, definitely making up for the easiness of the Standard. Score: 65 points. Aggregate: 160.

Gamblers #1: Still no action in the poop department! Gah! Well, as someone commented the other day, dogs aren't machines, so even Mr. Predictable Poops has the right to be unpredictable now and then. Well, this Gamblers course was super for Walter. He got both minis, one of which tested a distance dogwalk, the other a distance teeter. For a not-a-tunnel-suck, he sent out to his tunnels quite well. We were in a good place when the buzzer went and he did his thing great! The test was a distance frame and an out-tire. So he got the gamble! 76.78 points. Aggregate: 236.78.

Standard #2: Finally! He had a good BM before this run. Phew. Another pretty easy, non-trappy Standard and he went clean. Given all his weave-popping in practice lately, I was amazed that he didn't pop despite it being so hot. What a good boy: 108.75 points. Aggregate: 345.53.

Jumpers #2: Man, another brutal Jumpers course. It was not pretty. Walter was clearly tired and hot and I was not exactly on my game so we ended up with 3, count'em, 3 refusals. But, at least we managed to avoid costly offcourses. 56.47 points. Aggregate: 402.

Gamblers #2: Woot! We'd already scored the minimum 350 points, so we didn't run this. No point, much rather save his enthusiasm for the weekend.

But, we did go and do the warmup run after the Jumpers. 90 seconds to do whatever you want. Toys/food weren't allowed, so I petted him up for sticking his contacts. He seemed to enjoy the relaxed, easygoing time in the ring.

I scratched him from the Steeplechase tomorrow since that was to be my consolation prize if we didn't qualify. So, we'll enjoy a nice day off tomorrow and be ready for an EARLY start to the day on Saturday.

Last qualifier prep fun match

2009-07-21T22:45:00.001-04:00

A bit of a shock to find that the Standard course tonight was the Challenge course from Sunday! Well, we gave it a try. It really wasn't a good run - I went into it in defeatist mode, and Walter wasn't enjoying it. Our second try I ran him at 16" instead of 22" and went into it with a better attitude; he looked MUCH happier this time. It was fun trying the tricky handling bits and I just kept going when we went off course. Oh I should mention we tried the weaves in our first run but once again he kept popping at pole 10. Not wanting to demotivate him, we skipped the weaves on the second run.

We did just one try on the Gamblers course since it was getting late. Unlike other fun matches, this one I treated like a real run instead of just practicing the gambles. We ran at 22" this time since it was a nice wide open course. Walter ran great, getting a mini twice (tunnel to jump) and the main gamble in time. The challenges in the main gamble were a distance frame (heading away from the line) and an out tunnel with an offcourse jump possibility. I wasn't sure if he'd do the frame but he was pretty confident, and the out tunnel wasn't a problem.

This was probably our last practice before the one-day qualifier next week. My goal is to avoid costly off-courses but at the same time not overmanage him and keep him happy. If we don't qualify for Nationals then we'll do one of the Steeplechases on Friday just for the fun of it and then get ready to watch lots of great teams!

Dogz trial

2009-07-19T18:47:00.004-04:00

Three classes for Walter at today's trial, held at the beautiful Dogz facility. Those folks sure know how to put on a fun, friendly, relaxed trial.

Gamblers: One of our best Gamblers runs: I didn't flake out and get all panicky in the opening; Walter did both mini gambles (one tested a distance dogwalk and the other was a straight forward jump-tunnel-jump line); when the buzzer went we were pretty close to the main gamble; in the main gamble, Walter sent out really well to the tunnel on the far side of the frame/tunnel discrimination. Too bad I mishandled the part after that so he ran past a jump, but we would have been a bit over time anyway. Still, I was really happy with this run.

Snooker: Yay, a no-weaves Snooker course! Walter ran super well and attentively; dopey me caused him to backjump in the closing after yet another fumbled rear cross.

Jumpers: Surprisingly, Walter had a really nice energy level despite the increasing heat. He ran great and lucky me, all of the crosses were at tunnels! Though I came close to messing us up with a near fall after the first tunnel. But I stayed on my feet and Walter stayed on his and we came home with a Q. Not sure how he managed to keep the bar up on that yellow in the far end of the ring - I think he was on the wrong lead. Thanks to Nat for catching this run on video:

Ever since Walter's down time from his lump removal, we haven't quite been in the agility groove, but at this trial we were back on track. He's such a good boy. I wasn't sure how it would go since I had the impending farewell to our old cat friend on my mind, but Walter didn't seem to distressed by any sad vibes. He was probably just glad to be out of the house.

Oh and today I got to see the new Challenge class for the first time. It confirmed my desire to NOT enter this for a long time. It was basically a huge Snooker course. Almost every obvious obstacle was an offcourse. Ugh. I used to run Snooker courses asking Walter to jog at my side the whole time and though he was very good at that it really wasn't much fun for either of us. So nope, we won't be doing Challenge any time soon. As one competitor with a long striding big dog put it, it was a 23 obstacle course that required 22 "HERE!!"s! Lol.

No flank steak for supper

2009-07-18T08:46:00.005-04:00

A problem Walter and I have been having lately is he seems to have forgotten that in this game of agility that we play, I'm the one who's allowed to do the rear crosses, not him. Well, I've started noticing that when we're out for an offleash walk, he crosses behind me *constantly* and now that I think about it, he's always done this. I've heard of some trainers who never, even when not doing agility, allow their dog to cross behind them; I guess I can see why!

So this week we've started working a simple exercise twice a day as a reminder. For his breakfast and supper, I place the bowl ahead and out to one side, with a lid on it so he can't reward himself for flanking me. I lead out such that he has to go around me on the opposite side of the bowl and we post turn to his reward.

The first few meals he needed a couple of tries before he understood, but this morning he was bang on and confident.

Gotta love simple exercises that can be done in the comfort of home!

Fun match

2009-07-17T19:08:00.003-04:00

In the first Standard course, Walter could not for the life of him complete the weaves without popping. Revved him up before each resend but still he'd pop at the tenth pole. Afterwards someone suggested it may be because he was looking at me anticipating a toy, which makes sense. Oh well. He had fun on that run, was nice and peppy.

In Snooker, I asked the judge to really follow him closely along the dogwalk since he got spooked by that at a trial recently; well, maybe it's because he knows this judge too well, but he wasn't worried at all about it this time.

The Big Oh-Five!

2009-07-17T09:09:00.005-04:00

Happy birthday Walter! Five years ago today, a sweet stray dog gave birth to ten puppies only a short time after being rescued from homelessness and arriving at her foster home.

They all found great homes, including his mom. Just a slight bit of family resemblance eh?

Walter on the day we met, about five weeks old.

Walter at two and a half months, in the middle of one of his awkward ear stages.

All grown up. This photo is from a few years ago but is one of my favourites. So happy and relaxed.

Here he is, officially five years old, keeping our elderly, ailing cat Gizmo company.

Qualifier prep fun match #3

2009-07-07T08:33:00.002-04:00

Standard and Gamblers today. Once again, the Standard had two sets of 6-weaves instead of 1 set of 12-weaves. What the! Surprisingly, he didn't have trouble with the slightly soft sided entry but did with the wrap entry - took a few tries before he entered the right side.

Gamblers: The mini was a threadle at a distance - brutal. We tried, but no cigar. The main gamble was a straightforward tunnel/jumps sequence which wasn't a problem.

Qualifier prep fun match #2

2009-06-30T22:52:00.000-04:00

Today was Jumpers followed by Standard. The handling of the Jumpers course involved a lot of standing and pointing while the dog circled around, which neither Walter nor I get particularly excited by, so our enthusiasm level wasn't great. In fact, at one point Walter trotted between two jumps - oy! Oh and this was the type of course that not only had a lot of offcourse options, but also was really hard to remember - a lot of going over the same jumps and through the same tunnels again and again, so any momentary "where am I going again?" was rewarded by a guaranteed offcourse. If I'm not mistaken, all of us forgot where we were going, at least once. And, um, some of us a lot more than once. :-)

Standard: Warmed up first by putting him through the weaves once rewarding with his soccer ball. Then, secretly gave the soccer ball to the judge to throw for him if he did good weaves during the course. I thought it was a pretty straight forward course but he surprised me with an offcourse at the teeter. Looking at it after though it was no wonder since I had set him up at the startline looking staight at it. Anyway, he weaved great twice and got the surprise soccer ball reward both times. Good dog!

There was light rain during our first Standard and it started coming down more heavily during our second so it was a good opportunity to give lots of reward in the rain since going out and deliberately practicing in the rain isn't exactly the highest on my to-do list...

He stuck all his dogwalks and teeters today, what a good boy.

Oh but once again he (almost) flanked me, ignoring my front cross and heading for the wrong tunnel entrance. Interesting trend in him since we started practicing again after his foot episode.

Qualifier prep fun match

2009-06-23T21:56:00.003-04:00

Walter's not going to be doing a lot of agility practice this summer since he gets flat quickly in the heat, so we'll be taking advantage of a series of fun matches that use previous Regionals or Nationals courses as our main form of practice for the next while. Plus they're in the evening, so it's not tooooo hot.

We went to our first one tonight and had a great time. First it was Standard. A pretty straightforward course with 2 sets of 6-weaves instead of the usual 12-weaves. I would sure love to see that more often! The first set he got the entry and popped immediately, possibly because I rear crossed, but the rest he did well including another rear cross.

Then it was Gamblers, and it was the same course we had set up a few months ago. He got the jump/frame/tunnel gamble great on his second and third try (on the first I had fumbled my timing for frame to tunnel), and the final gamble posed no problem at all on both tries.

Both courses involved a flip away from frame to tunnel -- the judge suggested I should be careful with the timing of the flip cue because he responds quickly, so if it's too early he's prone to leaving the frame before hitting the yellow.

Oh and another thing I'll need to remember for summer trials: he slows right down in the heat so his commitment point is pretty different than normal.

Fun match - Dogwalk!?!?

2009-06-21T15:07:00.003-04:00

Lucy and Walter shared a spot, Lucy taking the two Standard runs and Walter the two Gamblers.

On his first run I tried having the judge feed him at the start line while I led out, but he was quite sure this was an evil plot to distract him so that I could run away and abandon him forever and ever, so he had none of that. Oh well.

Lots of troubles - I mean, challenges and things to work on. Let's see...

- dogwalk/tunnel discrimination a few jumps into the course with no lead out

- dogwalk: He strided over the contact AGAIN!! Egads!! I mean, what the!? This is a dog whose dogwalk I have never ever ever had to worry about. But then the Gamblers run last weekend, and now this one -- Well, but the rest of his dogwalks today were fine.

- distance teeter: He used to have this but it's been a while so better dust it off before trying it in competition again.

- flip away contact to tunnel: the mini gamble of frame to tunnel went great, but the main dogwalk to tunnel wasn't happening as there was a nearby tunnel in front of him that he kept taking instead of the one under the dogwalk.

Gadzooks! I mean, All Dogs trial, Day 2

2009-06-14T21:44:00.005-04:00

Three runs today:

Gamblers: This was just after Lucy had done a fabulous job on her return-to-trialing run, so I was not entirely present for Walter's first run of the day. It started out decently enough, then all of a sudden he jumped over his second dogwalk contact!!!!!! To understand the gravity of the situation you must know that Walter has NEVER, EVER, not in practice or trials, missed a dogwalk contact! Once in a while he won't stick 2o2o, but at least he's always trotted through the yellow. After that our run went to pot as I tried to recover from the sheer shock of it all. It wasn't pretty. Got a 16-point mini gamble (that was before The Incident) and could potentially have gotten the main gamble but I was late on a "pip" cue for turning away from frame to tunnel and we ran out of time anyway.

Jumpers: An ok run, but definitely on the slow side. What a good dog to run in the heat for me. Picked up a Q.

Snooker: Wow, Walter really sprang back with great energy! Not sure if it's because clouds had rolled in or what, but it was great to see. It was such a neat course offering lots of flow, tunnels and jumps only (woo hoo! like yesterday's Snooker, no weaves! this judge is great :D), with everything multi-directional in the opening AND the closing. Never have I seen anything like that. A ton of people went for four reds with a really nice flowing course but I hadn't thought to do it so hadn't walked it, so I stuck with the original plan. Could definitely have thrown in a fourth red as he finished in 38 seconds with a Q.

TO WORK ON: At least three times this weekend I took my eyes off my dog and lost track of him, resulting in not so great stuff. Need to remember to keep an eye on him. Also need to do some work to remind him that blind crosses are a no-no. But considering other than one short practice on Thursday he hasn't done agility in six weeks, I think he did a great job.

Oh and Walter received a ton of compliments on his new cool coat. Doesn't it look spiffy? The sponge-like fabric stays wet and cool for a long time and did an amazing job. Walter doesn't take heat very well, but provided he was in the shade and wearing his coat, he wasn't even panting despite highs of 24 (26 with humidex) (75-79 Fahrenheit).

All Dogs trial - Day 1

2009-06-13T21:50:00.006-04:00

Glad to be back in the trial ring! In keeping with my promise to Walter to limit his summer trial load, today he was entered in only two classes, Snooker and Jumpers, which were the first of the day.

Snooker: This run felt mushy, not surprising I guess considering his long layoff. First, he was a bit nervous of the judge on the first dogwalk contact so didn't do 2o2o. Then, he paused for a few seconds on the teeter after tipping it, looking worriedly at the nearby sideline. But it was a fun course, with (WOOT!) no weaves, and the #7 was a single tunnel. Gave him a nice smooth opening and made it through to #6 of the closing before running out of time. So a Q, but not a particularly nice one.

Jumpers: Definitely a better and happier run than the Snooker, but with an off course and a run-by on the last jump. Here are some shots from Jumpers:

Trying to push myself to race Walter instead of jogging along at his side. This resulted in taking my eyes off my dog quite a bit...

... And here's where we went off course ("don't take your eyes off your dog!"):

I've gotten ahead of him again, driving a straight line of jumps, so he opens up to leave out a stride.

Back for a few more runs tomorrow.

Back at it!

2009-06-11T21:47:00.002-04:00

Today was Walter's first agility practice in six weeks. His foot's all healed up now so he's good to go.

Was our first session using green fee time at a great facility that also hosts fun matches and trials.

It was hot and muggy so we didn't do too much but despite the heat I did ask for one set of 12-weaves which he did great! Happy soccer ball party for that.

Ontario Regionals (Nepean Equestrian Park)

2009-05-31T17:28:00.000-04:00

I'm proud to say that my timing was great this weekend! Not in the rings, of course, but outside them as I wandered from ring to ring to ring to ring to ring to ring (six ring circus) trying to catch as many friends' runs as possible. Got to watch some of my favourite agility dogs in action plus a bunch of other great agility dogs I'd never seen in person before.

All but the littlest, shiveringest dogs seemed to thrive in the cool temps, which would have been perfect for Walter too. Saturday was a cool, breezy 11 degrees for most of the day, "warming" up to a high of 16 in the late afternoon. Sunday was more of the same but with the added bonus of hail and a bout of heavy rain. Doesn't get much cooler than that for this time of year; normal would be a high of 22.

Parts of the site were a bit swampy given all the rain in the last few days, but the rings seemed in good shape. The oodles and oodles of goose poop blanketing everywhere didn't seem to distract the dogs at all.

Brought Walter and his well-wrapped foot for a couple of hours Saturday afternoon to hang out and get used to the site in case he gets a spot in the one-day qualifier in July. Apparently there will be quite a number of people applying for it this year, so no guarantee we'll get a spot, but oh well. I'm sure Walter would be able to get over the disappointment. ;-)

"Ha! All you suckers have to run around and work up a sweat while I can just relax here with my bo-bo and soak in the sympathy. And the sympathy treats." :P

At the top of the bank that overlooks four of the rings.

No Regionals debut for Walter this year

2009-05-19T19:07:00.004-04:00

Back in December, I wrote "If all goes well next spring and Walter remains healthy and injury-free, it will be a lot of fun to run him in what would be our first Regionals."

Well, fortunately, Walter has remained healthy, but unfortunately, he hasn't remained injury-free. There were some complications with the healing from his recent lumpectomy, so he's now looking at at least another two or three weeks of recovery time, which means we definitely won't be going to Regionals this year.

Still looking forward to watching friends' runs since Regionals is right here in our hometown.

B is for benign

2009-05-14T21:49:00.001-04:00

Great news: Walter's latest lump tested to be benign, though to my surprise this lump wasn't infundibular keratonizing acanthoma which he's had several times including most recently last December. This latest lump was a benign histiocytoma; the lab is confident that the whole lump was removed, so there's no need to go back and take any more out. Phew!

Poor lumpy Walter

2009-05-07T20:54:00.006-04:00

Walter developed yet another lump, this one on top of a toe. It grew a lot quicker than lumps he's had before. It was removed today so now he's got a great big bandage on his foot. Looks pretty dramatic but as usual the lump was just sitting under the skin so the only chunk of him that's missing is the lump and some skin, no bone or muscle or anything like that.

Walter is such a good, patient patient. But the poor guy: After having been in twice for two blood draws earlier this week, this morning while waiting in the reception area he dove under the chairs every time a tech came out to bring the next patient in for their appointment. But he's always so good at the vet's, so scared but doesn't put up a fuss, nobly going along with everything they do to him. Quite different from Ms. Lucy, Drama Queen Extraordinaire!

Needless to say I scratched him from all of the agility trials and fun matches he was to be in over the next few weeks. And given the location of the incision which doesn't lend itself to fast healing, there's a good chance he'll need to be scratched from Regionals, last weekend of May. Bummer since it's in town this year so it would have been our first time participating. Disappointing, yes, but it was a stressful week and day not without a few complications and worries so I'm really just so relieved that the lump is gone and Walter can start to heal. There is however a chance they may have to open him up again later on if they didn't get enough of a margin (depending on what the biopsy shows) but they took off as much of the area as they could given the limited amount of skin in that area available for stitching him back up.

Now it's a matter of keeping the wound dry and limiting how much he flexes his foot so we're all camping out in the living room for the next week, sleeping on the floor so there's no jumping on and off couches and beds and going up and down stairs.

One thing's for sure: if by chance he heals up super fast and gets the vet's ok for entering Regionals, he sure won't have been burnt out from too much practicing! Lol.

Dream Fields trial, EXJBronze

2009-04-18T19:42:00.003-04:00

Been a while since we've been at Dream Fields on a Saturday, but the days were switched up from normal and I have to say it's nice to have the Sunday off to relax. Walter, however, was feeling pretty relaxed today, not his usual sharp self. His nose touches during warmups were wimpy, and overall he seemed a bit flat. Half way through the day I learned that one of Walter's fellow 22" Specials competitors was lost to cancer recently and well, that just about did it for me. Being emotional is exhausting, never mind trying to run around a course in that state.

But, life and agility go on, and Walter ran pretty well, all things considered. Watching the video back I'm asking for trouble releasing the dogwalk contact so quickly so often, so I'll try to be more careful about that. Also, what is up with my rear cross arm signal? Yikes, I'll have to get a handle on that (so to speak).

Gamblers: Ran out of time halfway through the closing and then he ran past the last jump. But, Walter the non-tunnel-suck did a nice send to the tunnel, good dog!

Snooker: A lot of dogs had trouble getting enough points before running out of time. Fortunately, Walter and I didn't have that problem: We got blown off in the opening for back to back obstacles of choice. :-D Oh well, I'm trying to not overhandle too much and if that's the price then so be it.

Standard #1: A Q, but not a particularly nice one, with two bungled rear crosses and several really wide turns.

Standard #2: Aye aye aye, this run was doomed from the start when I had to go back and reposition Walter at the startline after he moved too far to the side of the first jump. I hate feeling like I'm wasting people's time so then I rushed myself and gave up on the idea of leading out. The rest of the run didn't get much better! It's fun to have a run that's so full of goofs every now and then.

Team: Our partners Helen and Tucker went clean, but Walter missed a tough weave entry and we weren't enough under time to make up for it. Video of this run will follow later.

Jumpers: My handling of the threadle was pretty bad - poor Walter had no idea the turn was coming. And my rear cross at the end - augh! But Walter ran great especially considering it was about 12 hours into his day. He got a Q and his Expert Jumpers Bronze title (10 Masters Standards Jumpers Qs). Yay Walter! The Expert Jumper! Ha. Now if only he could get an expert handler!

Yes, yet another practice at Red Gate

2009-04-15T20:09:00.000-04:00

At tonight's group practice we ran a couple of standard courses that we made up based on the obstacle layout that was already set up, then we practiced the mini and main gambles from the 2008 Alberta Regionals (Gamblers #3).

In the standard courses, Walter's first set of 12 weaves was good, then on his second and third runs he kept popping near the end. Sigh. Finally he managed to pull off a nice, fast, complete set of poles which are in the video below.

The tunnel/teeter mini wasn't an issue; the jump/tunnel/tire one needed some support to keep him out to the tire. The main gamble I broke down into jump/jump/tunnel then the tunnel/jump/jump then put it all together and he did great. I expected he might be reluctant to go ahead to the jumps, but I guess he had enough momentum going that it wasn't a problem.

Here's a short video:

One step forward, two steps backward...

2009-04-14T17:46:00.003-04:00

Started working on some rear end awareness games in recent weeks (and we've only been doing agility for... how many years now? oh well, better late than never), with the secret hope that it may help Walter's weaves become more consistent. Plus, it's just plain fun. So far we've done walking backward, walking backward up stairs, and rotating around perch with hands on the perch, feet on the floor. Would like to have him walk through a ladder, only problem is I don't have one. Perhaps a visit to the hardware store is called for... I tried shaping him to put a rear foot onto an object on the floor, but it just wasn't happening. It was a LOT easier to shape walking backward up the stairs.

If you have a back feet awareness game you'd like to share, I'd love hear about it.

Practice at Red Gate

2009-04-13T19:52:00.001-04:00

A number of specific exercises were on today's to-do list, but who can say no to a fun Regionals course already set up and numbered? So we started with that, with the video camera rolling. Didn't film anything else so that the battery would last until the end for Lucy and Walter's playtime.

Ok, so I was listening to a "best of" Platinum Blonde CD in the car on the way to practice and heard this song and thought it begged to be used for a dog agility video. So I couldn't resist. There you have it.

These are the specific exercises we worked on:
- Zig zag rear crosses as demonstrated by Steve and Meeker of Agility Nerd. I don't know if I had the jumps too squished together, but our first few tries he ran way too far out ahead, running ahead clear past the next jump. So I had to really hang back and steer from behind.
- Across the feet, once again demonstrated by Steve and Meeker. Several local handlers make great use of this move, inspiring me to add it to our skill set. We got a start on it today.
- Back tunnel i.e. send them into one end of a c-tunnel, then back into the end they just came out of. Would come in very handy for some gambles. Didn't make much if any progress on this. If I was right there at the tunnel exit it was ok, but as soon as there was more distance he either wasn't picking up on the cue and came toward me or else turned around looking for some other obstacle.
- "Get out" to take the out-tunnel at a frame/tunnel discrimination. Oooh, we're rusty on this. Took the frame the first few times.

Lucy got some practice time too today which went really well.

Apples and oranges

2009-04-11T21:34:00.002-04:00

A year ago, an agility instructor asked what had drawn me to having dogs of two very different breed types, Lucy being mostly scenthound and Walter mostly German shepherd. I had never thought about it that way before, but the more I thought about it the more I realized they really are very different from each other in so many ways, whether due to their breed or just normal dog to dog uniqueness. So, I thought I'd make a list of some of their differences.

To Lucy, strangers are friends she hasn't met yet who just might have something edible to give her. To Walter, strangers are to be approached with reservation and caution. (Though he has come a LONG way in this department thanks to a lot of helpful "strangers".)

Lucy is calm and sits quiety while waiting for her collar and leash to be put on for a walk. At the mention of "do ya wanna go fer...", Walter barks, spins, barks, jumps, barks, then finally leaps onto the stairs where he gets his collar and leash put on.

Riding in the car, Lucy is calm and quiet all the way between home and destination. Walter is fairly calm and quiet until we exit the highway. He has decided that the sound of the turn signal combined with my hand reaching for the stick shift as we exit the highway can only mean we're almost there. Cue hyperactive bark-barking for the next five minutes!

To Lucy, tugging and toys are ok for a few minutes, but nothing is more exciting than the prospect of something (anything) edible. For Walter, treats are ok, but nothing is more exciting than the prospect of a thrown toy or game of tug.

Lucy finds onleash walks and skijoring to be relaxing and enjoys every minute from start to end. So many smells to be smelled! Walter considers onleash walks and skijoring to be only a means of getting from point A to point B. "Are we there yet?"

Lucy can be offleash only where small furry animals or large furry deer are scarce. She has a good recall unless she's entered Hound Mode. Walter can be offleash anywhere and has a great recall.

Lucy is a resource guarder with other dogs (except Walter). She thinks all treats belong to her and Walter. Walter has no problem sharing his treats with other dogs and will sit politely beside them while everyone is given a treat.

Lucy is the submissive dog at home but seems to put on airs of dominance with strange dogs. Walter is the top dog at home but is not so sure of himself with strange dogs.

Lucy thinks big, tall, macho male dogs are the hottest thing ever. (Walter being the exception because he's just a big goof.) Walter thinks big, tall, macho dogs are kind of scary until he gets to know them.

Lucy snores to beat the band. Walter wakes himself up with a start everytime he farts.

At home, Lucy hangs out mostly in the living room regardless of where I am in the house unless it's the kitchen, in which case she is totally there. Walter will rouse himself from all but his deepest, coziest naptime slumber to follow me from room to room.

At home, when she's not hanging out in the living room, Lucy is always getting in my way and tripping me up (or vice versa, of course). Walter seems to know where I'm going before I do so we rarely trip over each other. (See Roxanne's post about this same difference between her two dogs.)

For all their differences, of course they have some things in common. For instance, both are terrific at walking on leash. If by walking on leash you mean pulling my arms out of their sockets!

Back to the instructor's question about why a hound and a german shepherd... The answer is that at the time I got Lucy and Walter I really didn't know anything about the different breeds (woops, bad dog adopter I was! no research at all! tsk tsk!) and wasn't involved in any dog sports at the time so my only criteria for a dog was that it be youngish. Through involvement in the dog sports community I've learned a lot about different breeds, so my next dog acquisition will be a bit more researched, though s/he will most likely be just another mutt looking for a home. :-)

Tucker and Walter Team Relay

2009-04-03T19:52:00.005-04:00

Here's the video of Tucker and Walter getting a Q in Team from our last trial, March 22nd. It was a miracle that Walter completed the weaves -- normally when he's going that slow it's a sure sign of an impending pop.

Red Gate practice

2009-04-01T18:15:00.003-04:00

This week's courses were Jumpers 2 and Gamblers 1 from the 2008 Nationals. For the Jumpers, needed a few retries to get the opening line. For the Gamblers, well, we were not in the gambling zone tonight! We had trouble turning away from the tunnel to the teeter in the mini, and also with pushing out to jump #3 in the main. Lots to work on when the practice field opens...!

Dialectize this!

2009-03-28T20:06:00.002-04:00

Here is a couple uh different versions uh my last post, courtesy uh De Dialectizer, dig dis:

Wednesday, Mawch 25, 2009
Photos fwom a spwing wawk Wow, is my @#$%^& point and shoot camewa evew pathetic. And wow, am I evew bad at using it. Twied the auto and spowt settings but neithew did a pawticuwawwy good job. Anyway, took a bunch of photos duwing a wawk on this wovewy spwing day. Hewe awe the ones I wiked fow some weason ow anothew. P.S. Oh, dat scwewy wabbit! Yes, poow Wucy is on weash the whowe time. I've weawned the hawd way (though not the hawdest way, since she's stiww awive...) that in most pwaces if she's wet off weash, within two minutes she'ww be off wike a bat outta heck fowwowing hew hound nose, nevew to be seen again untiw my seawch wucks out and I happen to find hew, fwitting to and fwo in hew stoned hound mode (if you've evew had a scenthound you'ww know exactwy what I'm tawking about; I wondew if tewwiews awe the same way?) and hopefuwwy get cwose enough to get a howd of hew. My heawt just can't take it anymowe, so extenda-weash it is. Oh, dat scwewy wabbit!

Ok, enough Elmer Fudd already. Here's the "hacker" version. (Has anyone NOT come across this... ummm... "writing style" on the web? Too funny.)

\\\\////\\\\////EDNSDDAY, MRACH 25, 2009
PHoTOS FROM A SPRING WALJK W0W, IS MY @#$%^&& POINT 4ND SHOT CAMAR4 EVaR PATEHTIC and wow, amn 1 3var bad at using it!!!!!!!111 tr3id teh aUto and sprot settinzg but nietehr difd a particularly gpood job ANYWAYT, TOOK A BuNCH OF PHOTOZ DURING A W4LK ON YTH1S OLV3KLY SPRINGD AY,,, hree r teh oNez i 7iekd fro sOme resson 0r 4notehr!!!!!!!!!!!11~ YOU ARE LAME p s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111~~~ LOLOLLLOOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111~~ yes, poo rlucy si on leash teh whol3 tim3,,, lolollololoololololo~~~~~~~ ololo ive 7eaarnEd the hard waY ((though not thE ahhrdest way sinc3 shes stIlL live,,, !!!!!!!!!!1~ .. ) thazt in /\/\ost placez if shes let off l34sh, within two jiuntes shhE"77 b3 off li3k a Bat Outrta heX0r followin gharr hound nose, nevar to b eseen again ntil my searcH lXu0rz ou tand i ahppw|\| yo fin dher, flittiing too anD fro inm her stoN3d hoUnd mode (1f ypou'v3 ever had a sceNthound youl7 kjnO\\\\////\\\\//// exaCtyl 2what im talkin gaboput;; i wonsdari f tetrreirs 4r the sam3 w4y?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????? lololo~~ ) A|\|D HOPEFUL7Y GET cLOSE 3nOUGh tO GET A HOLD OF HER... YM J3ART JUST CAN'T TAKE IT 4MYMORE, SO EXTENDA-7EASH IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111~~~~~~

Photos from a spring walk

2009-03-25T19:00:00.006-04:00

Wow, is my @#$%^& point and shoot camera ever pathetic. And wow, am I ever bad at using it. Tried the auto and sport settings but neither did a particularly good job. Anyway, took a bunch of photos during a walk on this lovely spring day. Here are the ones I liked for some reason or another. P.S. Yes, poor Lucy is on leash the whole time. I've learned the hard way (though not the hardest way, since she's still alive...) that in most places if she's let off leash, within two minutes she'll be off like a bat outta heck following her hound nose, never to be seen again until my search lucks out and I happen to find her, flitting to and fro in her stoned hound mode (if you've ever had a scenthound you'll know exactly what I'm talking about; I wonder if terriers are the same way?) and hopefully get close enough to get a hold of her. My heart just can't take it anymore, so extenda-leash it is.

Dream Fields trial

2009-03-22T21:45:00.016-04:00

Well what do you know, our second trial in a row with a 50% Q rate (3/6). But, unlike last weekend, weave woes were upon us again. Two clean sets, two bumbled sets. Walter's the steady, reliable type in agility, except when it comes to the weaves deparment, where this boy sure keeps me guessing!

Here are all of today's runs, except Team which was filmed on my team partner's video camera which is a lot better than mine; I'll post the link to that run later.

Gamblers (NQ): A theoretically do-able gamble for us with two "out-tunnels" at a frame-tunnel discrimination. He got the first out-tunnel, but the second time I didn't give him enough of a run in so he stalled out. (I ommitted the opening of the run from the video since the camera wasn't zoomed in so a bunch of people's faces got caught in the shot. Wasn't any fancy footwork by either of us in the opening anyway.)

Snooker (Q): Opened with a 5 and two 6s so we wouldn't need the #7 weaves of the closing. Walter was feeling good! I completely forgot to do my planned front cross at #5 in the closing which led to an "oh crap" moment followed soon after by a fleeting moment of shock at no refusal having been called. Must have been within a toenail of being within the refusal zone. I love his weaves in this run - good speed and it looks like he might actually be using his rear end. Ran out of time part way through the weaves but I couldn't have cared less!

Standard #1 (NQ): Good run except botched weaves where he missed a pole towards the end then popped. Might have been due to my rushed/off sync "go-go-go" (I was out of breath by this point - dratted cold), who knows. Didn't bother fixing them.

Standard #2 (NQ): Woops! This run got off to a bad start when I didn't set up his line properly so he ran past the second jump; then when we went back around to the jump he ended up jumping over the wing. This exciting start didn't get caught on video thanks to my %^&* camera having switched itself to photo mode. More botched weaves: skipped a pole in the middle; went back to retry and he popped; finished them off by waving him through. Ugh. From looking at the video it looks like I got too far ahead of him in the weaves. Walter will have to work a little harder at training me to hang back until he's finished weaving.

Team Relay (Q): Tucker (a steady sheltie vet who has had an amazing 100% Q rate so far this year) and Walter strike again! This is the fourth or fifth time the two have teamed up, and the third time they Qd together. So, all three of Walter's Masters Team Qs to date have been with the T-man. For our first two Qs together back in November Tucker had our back, running clean while Walter picked up five faults (weave popping, no surprise), and we were under time enough to Q. This time, for once Walter ran clean (close call right before the weaves though - no idea how he managed to weave right to the end given how slow he was going) and we were under time enough (by less than a second!) to make up for Tucker's tunnel refusal. Nice teamwork, boys! The video will be posted here later.

Jumpers (Q): I was so beat by this time, exhausted by a long day and fighting off the tail end of a cold, but Walter was still doing well so we gave it a go. The leadout was a spur of the moment decision, but it worked out. The run felt good and a few of my front crosses look a tad better than normal in terms of being less late and leaning over a smidge less (goodness help me when I get a small dog - guaranteed I'll be running the entire course hunched over), though still tons of room for improvement. Nat caught this run on video too, from a different angle and on a much nicer camera. Thanks Nat! Here's the video:

Wow, after three back to back trial weekends, it feels strange that our next trial isn't until a month from now. But I have to say I'm looking forward to the break and it will surely be good for Walter too.

Velcro

2009-03-21T17:40:00.005-04:00

The other day while watching some of Walter's agility videos, the following line popped into my head, which could be quite suitable for a t-shirt or something:

"I don't have a velcro dog; my dog has a velcro handler."

:-)

Red Gate practice

2009-03-18T21:28:00.005-04:00

Our second group practice where we run some previous Regionals/Nationals courses or Masters courses by judges who'll be judging at this year's Regionals.

First we did this Standard by a judge who'll be at Regionals this year. It was a lot of fun, flubs included.

Then we worked these mini and main gambles from the 2008 BC/Yukon Regionals, though in the teeter-weave gamble the weaves were replaced by a jump and in the other mini there were no weaves as a possible offcourse. He got all of them on his first or second try. Good boy!

Morning Star trial - Day 2 - Expert Snooker Bronze - and 3 LAAs!

2009-03-14T14:49:00.010-04:00

Well this turned out to be our best trial Q-wise (and weaves-wise, and fun-wise) in a long time, breaking the 50% mark with 6 out of 11 Qs, or 7 clean runs out of 12 if the Team run is included (see yesterday's post). Our Q rate has been pretty low lately with usually one random glitch getting in the way of many Qs. Once upon a time back in the land of Starters and Advanced I would have considered a 50% Q rate to be pretty low for Walter's runs since Qs came really easily for us back then (except for Advanced Standard!), but nowadays I'm a happy camper if we're in the 30% range.

So anyway today we had 6 more runs. No videos from yesterday, but today all but one run got filmed so I'll just post the video. The non-filmed run was another Snooker with a Q. Compared with his waning energy level last weekend, I was happy with Walter's enthusiasm and energy over the weekend, despite it being pretty warm inside the building. He looks better in his final run of today (the Snooker in the video) than in his first run of the day (the first Jumpers in the video). I was especially glad that he did great weaves as the very last obstacle of his very last run of the trial. Usually when he's tired his weave footwork gets messed up and he pops, but here he single strides all the way to the end.

Oh and no dogwalk refusals this weekend although from the hint of worry on his face he's not a huge fan of dogwalks.

So in the end he picked up 2 Standards (out of 3), 3 Snookers (out of 4), 1 Jumpers (out of 4), and no Teams (out of 1). He needed 2 Snookers for his first Expert Bronze title (10 Masters Qs) so he's got a new title, Expert Snooker Bronze. Not surprising that this little momma's boy's first area of "expertise" is Snooker. :-)

Something really exciting happened at the trial today: not one, not two, but THREE dogs -- an All Canadian, a miniature poodle, and a spaniel (?) -- got their Lifetime Achievement Awards today on the VERY SAME COURSE! 100 Masters Standards plus 125 Masters Games = W O W ! There was huge applause and many teary eyes as one dog after the other got their last required Standard Q for their LAA.

Morning Star trial - Day 1

2009-03-13T14:15:00.003-04:00

A fun day with Walter now totally comfy at this venue, no scatterbrain moments at all (on his part at least), even in the wide open airy fairy ring. I was really happy that he nailed all five of his weaves today, no popping -- woo hoo!

He was in 6 runs today. Picked up a Q in Standard and Snooker, and he ran clean in Team (yay weaves!) but our partner had some weave troubles so no Q there. Having messed up my fair share of Teams lately due to weave issues, I could totally sympathize! :-)

NQ'd in the other Snooker due to a dropped a bar in the closing leaving us 5 points shy of a Q. Also NQ'd in both Jumpers, one thanks to an early cue sending him into the wrong tunnel end, the other caused by ... ack, can't remember. Oh well.

Supper was the Masala Dosa dish from the Lotus-Heart-Blossoms Vegetarian Restaurant. Though the menu states the dish can be veganized upon request, and I requested, when I went to pick it up I asked if this was the vegan version, just to be sure. She said yes except the soup. So I said thanks but no thanks for the soup, hence the big empty space in the photo. Why oh why would they give someone a non-vegan soup, and not even mention it, when the vegan version of the dish is what was requested? I didn't make a fuss about it, but it made me wonder if they didn't quite know what they were doing, surprising since it's a veggie restaurant. So who knows if the version I got was vegan. Oh well. It tasted ok but was a little bland. Oh yeah and the papadum is in crumbs because a certain dog who shall remain unnamed jumped onto the container. :-)

Ok, back to agility: On to day 2!

Red Gate practice - dogwalk discovery

2009-03-09T20:07:00.002-04:00

Took Lucy and Walter for some practice time at Red Gate. Wanted to see what Walter's dogwalk was like after his refusals at Sunday's trial. Today he refused it once, which was the one time he was carrying some speed. Seems we have some confidence building to do with taking the dogwalk at anything faster than a slow lope.

Here's a short video of the few dogwalks (including the refusal) that got taped before the camera battery died.

Guides Canins trial (Complex Sportif de Saint-Lazare)

2009-03-08T22:40:00.015-04:00

Walter's prime trialing season is November through March as that's when it's coolest and therefore when Walter most enjoys agility. Unfortunately, that's also when there's the greatest chance of risky driving weather. Well, luck was with us this weekend as the driving weather was good, unlike this time last year.

In the interest of avoiding a 4am wake-up call in complete darkness due to a planned overnight Hydro outage and driving to places unknown in the wee hours of the morning, we made a last-minute decision to drive down Saturday evening. We set up and checked the place out, watched some of the action, then headed over to the Best Motel Ever, otherwise known as Motel Belair. Ok, so the room was tiny, the bathroom narrower than a gnat's closet, and everywhere you look is yet another crudely done handyperson fix-up job, BUT it had everything I like in a motel: a fridge, a microwave, cable tv (what a treat), and a tv with a snooze button. The best part? All of this for $46 plus $5 dog fee! Only catch is, when I checked in the woman asked if I had brought a blanket. I had (as usual, for throwing over the bed). So she said, "Great, so the dog will sleep on the blanket on the floor. I don't want dogs on the bed."

Riiiight.

Walter being an obedient pet, sleeping the whole night demurely on the floor. Riiiight.

So, on to the trial. This was our first time at this venue, and typically Walter is always spaced out for his first several runs at a new place so I wasn't expecting much today. What do you know, he didn't have a single spaced out moment all day! Amazing! Right from the start of his first run he ran as though he had been there umpteen times before. That was a real treat. Not to say that we racked up the Qs, but he did get a Q in his first run, a nice flowy Standard, which thanks to Spring Forward weekend set a record for our earliest run ever, at about 6:50am. Well ok technically 7:50am, but it still felt like 6:50 to us.

He would have picked up a second Standard Q except he was nervous of the dogwalk. It's an aluminum dogwalk that's on the narrow and springy side so I guess he remembered the springiness from his first run and decided "nah" for the second time, which caught me by surprise as it was an easy straight on approach. After four or five attempts I switched sides to make it different and then he finally took it. What a brave boy. Rest of the run was good.

Our third run was Snooker and curses, the 12-weaves were #6 so we had to go for four #7s in the opening in order to not have to count on the weaves in the closing. Not sure why I was so paranoid about the weaves since he did them great in both Standards, but oh well. Double curses, the #7 was a three-obstacle combo so it ate up a lot of time and we had a few miscues which ate up more time so the whistle blew just after we started the closing. NQ.

I'd been spying on him every now and then as he spent his down time in the car; the little goof was always sitting up and watching things. At other trials recently he's started to lie down and rest, maybe even sleep, so his energy level has been pretty good the whole day long, but not here, not today. Darn.

Fourth was Jumpers, which was around 2:30pm. Even before we started the run, he wasn't nearly as perky and excited as he had been in his first runs of the day. Sure enough, on the startline he only did a couple of barks instead of his usual "yip yap! yip yip! yip! I am Walter! Hear me bark like a girl!" The course allowed for a number of rear cross opportunities which I wanted to try since we haven't done many rear crosses lately; didn't quite work though since he was on the slow side so my timing was terrible. Missed a jump due to a nearby dummy chute (my fault, didn't bother "fixing" it). Overall he felt sluggish during this run, but especially after the chute call-off (video below) - poor guy looks so dejected. He must have been so sure that the chute was next, and indeed that's where I was leading him, ... sigh. After the run we went out for our traditional post-run game of fetch and tug which Walter usually goes nutso for, but he was more interested in making snow angels than doing much fetching or tugging. :-)

His last run of the day was supposed to be Steeplechase, but since he seemed to be feeling tired and hot (both the facility and the outside temperature had warmed up quite a bit since the morning), I figured he wouldn't have been particularly appreciative of having to run a Steeplechase with not one, but TWO sets of 12-weaves, so I scratched him.

Here's the only run we got on video today, Jumpers. Check out the cool videoing vantage point from the second level!

Just have to say, this facility, which is actually a multi-sport complex complete with ice rink and lots of hyper hockey-gear-clad kids running around in the hallways, is FANTASTIC for agility. Though crating is limited, no matter where you set up you can easily see both rings at all times. Neat upper level balcony for filming. Too bad non-entered dogs aren't allowed in the building (which is why Lucy stayed home), but that's ok; I'll definitely plan to come back next year.

Red Gate practice

2009-03-04T18:17:00.000-05:00

The first of six group practices where we set up a previous Regionals or Nationals Standard or Jumpers course plus some mini and main gambles. Today we started with this Standard course, two tries at it. Walter loved the -4 temperature and showed it with a great level of enthusiasm. Fun! For the life of me I couldn't get a particular landing-side rear cross to work smoothly. A different handling strategy worked better. Both sets of 12-weaves were clean, yay! Oh and note to self, if I'm way ahead of Walter at the frame and running fast, good chance his "natural running frame" will naturally not involve the yellow bit!

These are the mini and main gambles we set up afterward. We didn't get around to trying the frame-jump mini gamble, but Walter didn't have trouble with either of the other two, until on another go at the main gamble I asked him to take the offcourse jump to mix it up. After that, I couldn't get him to go back to taking the out jump for the life of me. Heh.

If only the ambient air temperature at all trials could be -4 degrees (or less)!

Introducing "back"

2009-02-21T12:14:00.002-05:00

Had a quick 10 minute practice today with just the tunnel. Worked on sending ahead and finding the entry. Then introduced a new skill, "back", which means do the obstacle you just did in the opposite direction. So, I sent him to the near side of the c-tunnel, then immediately sent him back in to the far side. This skill would have come in VERY handy at a few gambles where the far side of a c-tunnel was the first obstacle.

New blog feature

2009-02-14T21:36:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I lament the fact that I have not one, but oh about seven different blogs to document Lucy and Walter's activities. I mean, I prefer that format for my own use because they're really training logs so it makes tracking each dog's progress in each sport really easy, but it must be a hassle for anyone who visits to have to check each blog individually to see if there's an update. So, I invite you to check out our revised home page, muttsandaklutz.blogspot.com, which now has a nifty new feature on the right side showing each blog's latest update.

Maybe the new feature isn't all that useful though since there is the whole RSS / site feed thing? I have NO clue what that is or how it works, but I'm guessing if you're set up for site feeds then you don't have to actually visit individual blogs? (If anyone would like to enlighten me on this, I would appreciate it :-)

Anyway, hopefully the new updates gadget will be useful to someone out there!

Neat site - Hip dysplasia and CCLR

2009-01-29T19:30:00.005-05:00

Saw this site about canine lameness mentioned on a local agility list. The site has videos of dogs walking, trotting, and climbing stairs with a normal gait, with hip dysplasia, and with a cranial cruciate ligament rupture. There are normal videos as well as some hi-tech videos using sensors and computers. It loads kind of slow on my computer so I haven't watched it all, but it is neat.

Fortunately, so far Lucy and Walter haven't experienced these conditions, although my childhood dog Snoopy developed, around age 7 or 8, some kind of condition where both knees had to be operated on within a few years of each other. All I can remember is it was something about the ligaments giving out on her and being replaced with artificial ligaments. I assume this must have been CCLR?

For more info on CCLR from a fellow blogger, check out Roxanne's post about her dog's experience with CCLR, treated with TPLO surgery.

Tagged

2009-01-28T18:29:00.004-05:00

Nat from Dream Dogz tagged me in the 5th photo thing. Hmmm let's see... Well, not a particularly thrilling photo:

Lucy and Walter trying to sleep, December 2007. Wait a minute, December 2007...!? Oh boy. I only have three photo folders: "have been printed", "not to print", and "to print". This photo was in the "to print" folder (though in retrospect, I'm not quite sure why, lol). Guess it's about time to load them onto a disk and get the darn things printed eh!

Few of the blogs I visit haven't already been tagged with this, and I can't remember which ones they are, so I'll politely bow out of tagging other blogs. Thanks though Nat, it's a fun tag and was a really good reminder to get my photos printed! :-)

Group practice: gambles

2009-01-25T18:59:00.007-05:00

At today's group practice we set up a few gambles from a previous Nationals. After spending much of last year's practice time working on distance stuff, Walter's at a point now where I no longer panic upon seeing every single gamble course map. He now has a nice little (though not complete) repertoire of skills that come in useful for distance.

The first gamble was a series of jumps, basically a two-jump go, then come back over a couple of angled jumps. I don't have the course map for it. Anyway, it went well.

In the other part of the building was a teeter and jump, set up for additional practice opportunities. First we did a go-teeter / here-jump, which went fine. Then I tried a go-jump / here-teeter, which went not so fine. What was I thinking. Poor Walter hasn't been taught to independently find and take a straight approach to the contacts, so he stepped on the teeter from an angle, slipped up his footing, and got a scare. Accompanied him to the teeter a few times and he seemed to be ok.

Then we worked on the main gamble (1-2-3-4) from the 2008 Nationals. Walter surprised me by taking the correct tunnel entrance every time, but I think it's because he's a big dog and by the time he landed from the jump, he never even saw the wrong tunnel entrance. What I was REALLY happy to see is that he read my push/"get out" from 2 to 3 really well. Previously he didn't really respond to that kind of thing.

Finally we worked on the other main gamble (1-2-3-4-5) from the 2008 Nationals, but replaced the frame with the teeter and space didn't allow for the #5 jump. Walter did this one at a practice last summer so it wasn't completely new to us. Anyway, he read the turn away from 2 to 3 well, but refused the teeter by running past it with a worried look on his face. After accompanying him for a few passes on the teeter, he felt better about it and did a good job with the gamble.

Morning Star trial: Walter's MADC and ATChC

2009-01-04T08:18:00.012-05:00

Well there's one goal for 2009 accomplished: Walter got the third and final Standard leg needed for his MADC and therefore for his ATChC. Nice to have that one done!

We were there on Friday and Saturday, seven runs each day. No videos, wasn't in the mood to find and beg people to film our runs.

Masters Snooker #1, 2, and 3: What the bejeebers, Walter's best class and we didn't get a single Q. In the first one, he took back to back obstacles of choice (an offcourse possibility I hadn't considered), tweet. In the second, he took a 2 in the opening instead of the 6 that we needed so we were 3 points shy (again, not something I foresaw when walking the course). In the third, which was the last run of our second day, the weaves were 7 and since I didn't want to have to ask him to weave at all, our choices were three 6s and make it through to 6 in the closing, or two 5s (teeter) and two 6s (three-jump combo) and make it through to 5 in the closing. I opted for the latter. The reds were pretty spread apart (almost all four corners of the ring), as were the 5 and 6 from the 2 (to transition to the closing), so it was a LOT of mileage to try to squeeze in to 55 seconds, but we gave it a good run! So much fun. Ran out of time just as we got to the 5 in the closing. Had some of our turns been tighter (or, perhaps, less wide, since they weren't exactly tight to begin with), we probably would have had enough time.

Team #1 and 2: Dang dang dang. Both times my partner was clean but I had a 5-fault bobble and we weren't enough under time to be able to make up for it, though on one we would have had it had we been less than a second faster. Partner for first one was a sweet GSD or GSD mix; partner for second was an aussie with a fondness for blond dogs who managed to stay on track and not come to visit Walter. Goofup on the first course was Walter popping at his usual place toward the end of the weaves; goofup on the second was my handling error which caused a refusal at the weaves. Oh yeah and another thing, in his first team, which was his very first event of the trial, he had a bit of a scary teeter when he went running up it as if he thought it was the dogwalk. Fortunately he was just fine and didn't have any teeter or dogwalk issues for the rest of the trial.

Jumpers #1, 2, and 3: Good first two runs so two more Jumpers Qs, but on the third, I thought I could get in a front cross but ended up rushed and out of place. It was right after a chute. Being so rushed to get there I lost track of where exactly I was positioned and also lost sight of Walter, so for a moment I just stood still and held my arm up hoping he'd take the oncourse jump and not the dummy jump right next to it. A moment later, the "ohhhhhh" from the crowd told me he'd taken the dummy. I had been practically blocking the correct jump though, so he had been a good boy and we kept going, no point "fixing" that. Later in the course he ran past a jump, no idea why, but again the "fix it! fix it! fix it!" gremlins kept their distance so we were able to just keep going.

Standards #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6: Walter needed one more Standard for his MADC and ATChC, so I had entered him in all six Standards, taking the approach that "you can't lose 'em all!" (saw that line in an agility blog or magazine article recently). Well, it worked! Not only did he not lose them all, but he actually Qd in 3 of them (the second, fourth, and sixth). The NQs were caused by (a) a dogwalk refusal (I had given him a bad approach) plus a runby on a jump (didn't fix it); (b) ran past weave entry plus popped at end; and (c) ran past a jump and popped out of the weaves right after entering. Interestingly, one of the judges designed two of this weekend's Standards (as well as one of the Teams) with two sets of 6-weaves instead of the far more common one set of 12-weaves. (However, those aren't the ones we Qd in.)

General notes: Walter ran well all day both days, just a few momentary lapses causing some jump runbys (none of which I "fixed", so take that, dagnabbed gremlins!). Even with seven runs each day his enthusiasm level was good, though now that he has his ATChC I can be more choosy in what to put him in so will cap it at six runs per day. Also, now that he has his ATChC, I'm going to go on a ribbon diet. For the last year or so I've been taking all Q ribbons and placement ribbons only if he Qd, but really, except for a few particularly meaningful ones, they all get shoved into a box, for that non-existant day in the future when I'll finally figure out what to do with them. I'll still take them at venues that do ribbon presentations, since I'd feel kind of rude to decline it. But at venues that have self-serve ribbons I'll pass unless it's a venue from which we don't already have a ribbon, or if it was a particularly memorable run.

Delicious veggie burger from Lotus Heart Blossoms Vegetarian Restaurant

Goals yesterday and today

2009-01-01T08:15:00.003-05:00

Every January I like to have a look back over the past year and see how we did with the goals set a year ago, and set more for the upcoming year.

So, starting with last year's goals:

Add tunnel/contact discriminations and "out" to skill set
We made some progress, and these skills came in handy for Walter's first Masters Gamblers Q, but at this point I'm not convinced that there isn't some fluking going on with the discriminations so more work is needed.
Add hard and soft weave entries to skill set
Didn't do any work on these other than a few living room sessions -- I've just been happy if he's able to weave all the way through without popping. It's totally cool to watch a dog independently nail a tough entry, but it just hasn't been a priority for us since aside from an occasional weave gamble one can generally futz about to help the dog get the entry. So we've focused on acquiring other skills this year.
Improve distance skills and have a try at Masters Gamblers
Done! After fluking his way to a Q in his two first tries at Advanced Gamblers in July and September 2007, Walter took a hiatus from Gamblers to work on distance skills. He entered his first Masters Gamblers class this past June and earned his Gamblers title in November.
Take time off trialing this summer to train a running frame
Nah. His completely untrained "running" frame (we abandoned 2o2o and didn't retrain anything in its place) hasn't caused the problems that Lucy's has, so why try to fix something that isn't broken?
Achieve fully independent contacts
Good progress made with lateral and send-ahead distance, though his speed and confidence need work.
It'd be awfully nice to get two more Advanced Standard Qs for his SAADC
Done! Walter had breezed through the Advanced Games, and with his second ATR Q in January sealed the deal on his having earned a Q in every advanced games course he had ever been entered in (yes I'm quite happy about that brag). However, those Advanced Standard runs sure were a long time coming and are our ultimate anti-brag: Took us about 15 tries at Advanced Standard to get the three Qs needed for his SAADC title which he got in April.

And so, here, in no particular order, are my goals for 2009:

Solidify tunnel/contact discrimination skills
Improve speed and confidence on dogwalk and teeter at a distance
~~Turn Walter into a tunnel suck~~ Get Walter to be happy about sending ahead to tunnels (we've blown a few gambles due to this issue)
It'd be awfully nice to get one more Masters Standard Q for his ATChC!
Get back into playing Steeplechase! (given his weave issues he hasn't run Steeplechase since the spring since I wanted to "save" his good weaves for Standards)
Edit on 4-Jan-09: Forgot a big one, which is to get a lot better at cuing tight turns.
And another: Add 270s to skill set.
And yet another: Some general things to aim for: Trust my dog more by letting him work at a greater distance and not babysitting every obstacle; Run faster!

Lucy and Walter 2008

2008-12-19T18:58:00.003-05:00

Our second annual compilation video:

I had a lot of fun making the video as a little souvenir of our year.

Didn't think of it until now but I should have also included mention of Walter's first ever 0 point Snooker. :-)

Bo-bo

2008-12-18T19:09:00.004-05:00

Walter gets little lumps from time to time. Some of them are growths on top of the skin just like his mom gets (um, by mom I'm referring to his actual mom, not me). Sooner or later those go away on their own. But some of them are under/in his skin and they grow slowly but steadily and need to be removed. His latest of those was on his right arm. Didn't bother him at all until this week when he started to lick and nibble at it quite a bit. So in he went today to have it chopped off. Unfortunately for him and my wallet he had to go completely under because of its proximity to a vein. The good news is he's fine now and will be sporting a lovely Christmas tree decoration until next week. This is the first time we'll have had a Christmas tree in our house, and his even has a fancy golden star at the top! Thanks to the co-op student at the vet's for making the bandage look so darn cute. In this photo, Walter's still a bit groggy and trying really really hard but somewhat unsuccessfully to not look completely exhausted.

Not so agile

2008-12-07T21:08:00.002-05:00

Don't get me wrong, I was rooting for underdogs Andrew and Dan (who finished in third place on tonight's series finale) on this season of The Amazing Race, but the scene from a few weeks back where poor Andrew simply could not figure out how to march is one of the funniest things I have ever seen on tv. Here's hoping he doesn't come back in a future life as the dog of someone with aspirations in agility or, heaven forbid, freestyle.

AAC Regionals and Nationals

2008-12-01T12:59:00.007-05:00

Exciting news: The 2009 AAC Ontario Regionals as well as the AAC Nationals will be held right here in Ottawa! Both will be at the Nepean National Equestrian Park, a mere 20 minute drive away. Regionals will be on May 29th to 31st, Nationals July 30th to August 2nd.

If all goes well next spring and Walter remains healthy and injury-free, it will be a lot of fun to run him in what would be our first Regionals. Last year's Regionals were a 7 or 8 hour drive away. I didn't go because it coincides with a really busy time at work and would have entailed several days off, but also we were still a really green team back then with only a few Masters runs under our belt, so probably best to wait another year before "jumping" into something way over our heads. Of course, we're still pretty green but at least we've accumulated another year of experience. Lucy will definitely be sitting this one out as she will still be on trial hiatus at that point while we work through some issues.

Walter's the sort of dog who's always very aware of his surroundings, so I've learned that any time we go to a new place for a trial he tends to be a bit unfocused for his first few runs, running past obvious obstacles while eyeing the new scenery. So, my biggest challenge will be to try to keep his focus as best as possible, on top of dealing with whatever course challenges are presented!

Whatever happens, it will be fun to have the opportunity to watch competitors from all over the province and country right here in our hometown.

Getting itchy for the ATChC

2008-11-17T19:48:00.005-05:00

Well, not really; that was my attempt at a clever post title.

After this weekend's trial which brought Walter his first two MTR Qs, he is now 2 Qs away from the ATChC title, which requires 3 Qs in each of Masters Standard, Jumpers, Snooker, Team, and Gamblers. One more Standard and one more Team and Walter will have his ATChC. As Walter has been getting closer to reaching this milestone, I've started to get the feeling that it would be somewhat anti-climactic, that I would be left with the "What now?" feeling. (Of course, there are tons of skills that we could use a "little" bit of work on as you can see if you've watched any of our videos!) The ATChC is the last title awarded in AAC, with awards of merit awarded afterward: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Lifetime, each with a requisite number of Standard and Games Qs. For example, the Bronze Award of Merit requires 10 Masters Standards and 25 total Masters Games.

These awards would be something to keep in mind, but they would be much longer-term, at least with our current Q rate. Compare that with Walter's 2008 year, which has been a really fun year in terms of advancing to higher levels and earning new titles.

Well, what should arrive in my emailbox yesterday evening but a long email from the AgilCan yahoo list describing a bunch of changes to the AAC, including requirements for level move-ups, Masters Games titles, and the ATChC title.

A big change is that the Team Relay component has been removed from the Games and ATChC title requirements, and is now (as of January 2009) a separate stream unto itself. What news to receive on the very weekend Walter gets his first 2 MTR Qs! Heh. I'm glad I'm a pretty easygoing person, so this doesn't actually bother me. So, the new ATChC title "will require four Masters Qs earned under at least two different judges in each of Jumpers, Gamblers and Snooker plus three Masters Standard Qs earned under at least two different judges".

Details have yet to be announced on grandfathering and transitioning to the new system. A lot of great ideas for this have been expressed on the AgilCan list; I'm interested to see what comes out of it. Anyway, I think what it means for Walter's ATChC is that he still needs only two Qs: either, under the old system, a standard and a team, or, under the new system, a standard and a gamble (since he already has 4 Jumpers and Snooker legs). Gee, and just after I thought we didn't need to worry about gamblers Qs anymore with his new gamblers title. Again, it comes in handy to be mellow and not get upset about such things :) (However, I completely understand being frustrated about the changes if one has a dog who is close to retirement and has been struggling to get their final gamblers (or snooker/jumpers) leg only to find now that they need two legs in their toughest event. Hopefully the transition rules will consider such aspects.)

Another brand new change is the creation of a bunch of post-ATChC titles which "include “Expert” awards for each game and “Versatility” awards recognizing a combination of skills". I won't go into the details here, but it will be fun to have some more titles to work toward after the ATChC.

Another exciting change is the creation of a new games event, the AAC Challenge, similar to Masters Standard courses but emphasizing "more technical handling challenges". And, to add a more competitive aspect to it, the SCT "will be determined after each height class runs by multiplying the fastest clean-run time achieved in that height class by 1.2." Yikes! It will certainly be fun to watch but I will probably hold off on entering that one for a while.

So yeah, lots of changes to AAC agility for 2009!

Morning Star trial - Day 2

2008-11-16T18:46:00.001-05:00

[follow along in the highlights/lowlights video at the bottom of this post!]

Gamblers #2: Half a second away from a Q due to wasting six seconds in getting to the start of the gamble. (Sent him to the nearby tunnel just as the buzzer went off but wasn't about to call him off the tunnel since we have enough problems as it is with him being a Not Tunnel Suck!) combined with some hesitation in sending out to a tunnel (what else is new). Still, my Not Tunnel Suck did a pretty good job of re-sending out to the tunnel instead of going to the nearby tempting dogwalk.

Team #2: Complete repeat performance of yesterday. Good partner! Bad popped weaves Walter! This time we squeaked in with less than a second to spare when the 5 seconds were added on. Phew!

Standard #3: Decent run in a pokey sort of way, except for entering the weaves at the second pole on an easy straight-on approach. Possibly due to me not hanging back enough. Took him back and he did them fine. Oh and since we had already NQd, I really pushed his frame on the homestretch and he totally missed it, earning what I believe is his first ever missed contact in competition. The video playback showed he came in really deep to the frame, so his first stride hit higher than normal, then he sailed over the apex, landing lower than normal (but above the yellow) and decided a third hit would have been extraneous.

Standard #4: In which I attempt to set a new world record for loudest attempted call-off. Sigh. Any time that any kind of handling is required immediately following the weaves, I am in trouble because if the run is clean up to that point and he weaves clean, I lose it for a second and - poof! - we end up making a mistake. In this case I completely forgot to do the rear cross after the weaves, which means I needed to try a hard push out to the far side of a c-tunnel, and Walter SO does NOT push well, so into the wrong end of the tunnel he went despite my ear-piercing "WALTER COME!" My poor dog and everyone else within hearing range (likely the entire city of Kingston). Not exactly my proudest agility moment.

Snooker #2: A clean but not terribly thrilling run where we did the #7 frame three times and made it through to the end of the closing, including the #3 6-weaves.

So, overall not a bad trial for us. He's definitely a lot more comfy in this ring now, and he did several great sets of weaves on the first try. The courses were fun and presented a lot of interesting handling challenges.

Oh one last side note: The entrance to the facility was being redone so the pathway was makeshift on grass with boards on top, but the worn out grass combined with the rain and heavy foot/paw traffic made for the muddiest trial I've ever been to! Kind of weird since the actual trial was indoors. But, my pants were completely spattered with mud within hours of the start of each day. And let's not even mention the inside of the car...! Still, I'm definitely looking forward to their next trial, muddy paths or not :)

Here's the highlights/lowlights video.

Morning Star trial - Day 1

2008-11-15T17:54:00.005-05:00

[note highlights/lowlights video in post from Day 2]

Hoo boy. 6 classes today and 5 more tomorrow, all in the big, wall-less, airy fairy Ring 1 with weird stadium lighting, echo-y sounds, and potential threats lurking at every corner. Walter hasn't run an awful lot in this ring and when he did, he most always lacked focus. Looking around a bit bewildered, running past jumps, slow to respond, that sort of thing. As a handler, kind of like being used to driving with power steering and all of a sudden it's gone and you need a ton of oomph just to move the wheel a few inches. So my hope was that this full-fledged immersion would, by the end of it, help him realize it's nothing to worry about, and oh yeah, can I please have my power steering back?

Jumpers: Actually not too bad a start to the day. Took the wrong end of a c-tunnel, could be because he was in his la-la land but more likely it was bad handling. Handled a four-jump serpentine well (well enough anyway) to my surprise as we haven't practiced serps in ages. Then ran past the second last jump in traditional la-la land style.

Snooker #1: Losing position on course + taking eyes off dog = backjumped red + TWEET

Standard #1: Argh - a tunnel refusal early in the course took us out of the running for the third Q we need for MAD title. Bummer since the rest of the course went fine including fabulous weaves (offside, sending him ahead and keeping wide lateral distance).

Standard #2: A dogwalk/tunnel discrimination right off the bat and for some reason I decided to try it running with him instead of leading out. Needless to say that didn't work - ended up with a refusal. Great weaves again (same as before: offside, send, give him lots of space) but this required a hard push to the next jump and Walter does not push well so another refusal as he ran past the jump.

Team: Walter popped his weaves close to the end but, being Team, 5 faults such as for popped weaves are "ok" provided you come in at least 5 seconds under SCT, so I hand-waved him through the last three poles. Walter's partner, a steady little sheltie vet, went clean and we were fast enough to get a Q, Walter's first in MTR.

Gamblers #1: Scratched him from this event as it was the last of the day, he and I were tired, and it was a hard gamble that he didn't have a chance of getting anyway (send-ahead to the far end of a c-tunnel).

Off to the motel where a good night's sleep was challenged not only by the usual insomnia but also by a couple of doofuses who kept knocking on each other's door and speaking at full volume in the hallway at 1:30 in the #@$^&*&% morning. The dogs, however, had excellent motel manners and were quiet and relaxed the whole night including when other dogs started barking. Seems they're maybe finally getting used to the whole motel thing?

Dream Fields trial - Houston, we have a gambling problem!

2008-11-09T12:58:00.020-05:00

Wow the day was a long one, first run around 8:00am and the last run around 8:00pm. Walter spent most of his down time in the car where it was cooler and certainly quieter. He must have been able to catch some z's because his energy and enthusiasm level wasn't too shabby at the end of the day. He was entered in team, three gamblers, a jumpers, and a standard. I was hoping we could maybe pick up one of the Qs Walter still needs for the big title, i.e. team, gamblers, or standard.

Team Relay: Our original partner had to scratch due to an injury (get well soon!) so we ended up running with a lovely black GSD mix rescue who was willing to run twice. Walter and I had to run the second half of the course since our partner had run the second half in their official run. Unfortunately the second half had a most brutal soft side weave entry, and due to the proximity of several jumps on all sides it was impossible to give him a nice straight-on running approach. Anyway, he got the entry but popped right away, and then he was in Weaveless Walter mode, where despite several attempts he was unable to get the entry and then popped at the end to boot. Sigh. Oh well, our partner had also made an error so at least I don't feel too bad.

Gamblers #1: Consisting of three jumps and a tunnel, the two tricky bits were a send-ahead to a tunnel which Walter is notoriously bad at (not a tunnel suck and I've neglected practicing such things), and a sharp turn away to a jump with a very tempting trap jump at the line. Walter impressed me by taking the tunnel no questions asked, and then for the turn away part I cheated by calling him in and then sending back out. Good boy - he sent back out, but wasn't sure about where he should be sent out to so he went past the last jump instead of taking it. Close but no cigar, but I was still glad that he had done pretty well. Oh and he did a 14-point mini gamble consisting of non-double jump, teeter, and tire at an easy lateral distance.

Gamblers #2: Another jumps/tunnel gamble, and surprisingly/deceptively easy-looking. This one I thought he had a better chance at since the tunnel send was more lateral than straight-ahead. However, he surprised me early in the gamble by pulling in after jump #1; I had thought it would be an easy line for him. Never thought I'd be able to send him back out, but yep, back out he went. Handled 4-5 as a front cross and he easily sent out to #5. So he got his second MG Q! Kind of a close one though as he had been dangerously close to refusal territory when he came in after #1.

Gamblers #3: The instant I saw the course map for this one I thought "oh well, at least we have a chance at the other two gambles" since this one involved not only the weaves but also a slight turn away afterward with a tempting decoy jump at the line. Well can you imagine the shock I was in when he nailed the main gamble! Yes, I was pretty much over the moon. After his noncompletion of the weaves in his earlier team run, for him to nail the weaves like that... Well, he sure does keep me guessing in the weaves department. Perhaps not all that surprising though as I already knew Walter needs lots of space at the weaves, which was impossible to do in the team course but which that gamble line ~~forced~~ reminded me to give him. This was Walter's third MG Q and therefore his Special Masters Gamblers Dog of Canada title. Woot! (um... for the record, I never use that word, but figured this was an appropriate time to try it :)

We sat out Snooker and Steeplechase so I could get some volunteer time in.

Then it was Jumpers. I had a front cross planned at the tire and my front crosses ~~aren't as good as my rear crosses~~ ~~could use some improvement~~ suck so I asked someone to record our run (our only run of the day on video). Good thing too because it clearly shows how messed up my front cross was. While walking the course I didn't plan to be in the pocket so deep like that, but there I am running right up to the standard for crying out loud. So the best I can tell is my front cross ended up way too late with me ending up in his way and by the time he saw the jump it was too late. Oh geez and what is my arm doing fully extended when I'm right next to the jumps? Argh!

Finally, Standard. Wonder of wonders, even after a long day Walter was able to weave all the way to pole 10, but then POP! Hand-waved him through the last bit, not sure why but whatever. Then he didn't hold 2o2o on the teeter so we went into training mode and did it again. (Not a punishment, just a way of reminding him to take his time to stick the 2o2o.) Then he came in between the two jumps on a 180 which I hadn't supported enough, but I didn't bother "fixing" that.

So yeah, it was a long but fun day especially with Walter's one-day gambling addiction. I would have been thrilled to get just one MG Q today, but to get two on the same day was a blast!

Dream Fields mini trial

2008-10-24T10:28:00.000-04:00

What better way to spend one's Friday night than running in circles making strange gestures and sounds to one's dog? :-)

First up was Gamblers #1. Walter had a reasonable chance at doing the main gamble. He did the mini twice (teeter at 18' lateral distance) and racked up a good number of points in the opening. On to the closing: jump heading away from you, to lateral frame 18' away, 180 turn away to tunnel under frame, then back over jump #1 and back out to one more jump. We didn't have quite enough umph for him to go all the way out to the frame (that was the part I had been worried about, especially with the tunnel being a possible offcourse), so he came in. But wonder of wonders, he let me send him out again, looking unsure but he did go out and do the frame, yay! He easily nailed the turn away to the tunnel which was 21' away from the line -- all that "pip" work has been sinking in, woo hoo! Then he took jump #4, and just before he was over the final jump the buzzer went. This is the second MG main gamble that he has successfully completed but over time due to a handling bobble early in the gamble. This time only .58 of a second kept him from the Q. Next time!

Gamblers #2: Hmmm, gonna have to save that "next time" for another time! This main gamble was brutal, involving a frame/tunnel discrimination where the dog has to take the "out tunnel" not once, but twice. No surprise, couldn't even get Walter to take the tunnel the first time. Next year to work on: send-aheads to tunnel!

Snooker: The $%^& weaves were #5 instead of the usual #7. Since Walter's weaves are unreliable, I always try to plan the opening so that we don't need them. Usually that means doing three #6. So I did the math and hooray! We could still Q without the weaves by doing four #7s (frame/jump combo) (or three #7s plus 1 #6, but I liked #7 better, and besides, why not go for gold!), so that's what we did. Walter did just great, a really nice opening. For Walter's frames I try not to watch the yellow to see if he hits it (que sera sera, though he's never missed a contact in competition), so I was listening to hear if the judge called out the points or not; sure enough he got all four 7s. Our transition to the closing wasted some time because his last #7 took him right to the exit gate, but after a few seconds he consented to come and do the rest of the course. The buzzer went as he was half-way through the weaves, which he did perfectly, yay! I was so out of breath by the time we got to the weaves, it was all I could do to squeak out the usual "gogogo" for him. He took a Q, 1st place out of 9 22" specials dogs, and best run (which Walter hasn't seen many of since we made it to Masters) although the 1st place and best run are kind of silly since he only had one point more than was necessary for a Q; for some reason he was the only 22" specials dog who Qd.

Standard: By this time it was about 10pm. That probably sets a record for Walter's latest agility run! It was a nice straightforward course, the only tricky area being a tunnel/jump set close together where the first time they take the jump, the second the tunnel. Walter ran fine except for problems at the weaves. First, he entered at the second pole (I should have hung back which helps him get the entry); let him finish them and he skipped a pole somewhere I think. Took him back to try again; this time he got the entry but again skipped a pole or two and/or popped, can't remember. Sigh. Why couldn't he have goofed up the weaves in Snooker and saved his good ones for Standard? Oh well, isn't that always the way. :^)

It's the end

2008-10-22T20:13:00.002-04:00

of green fee season 2008. As of this weekend both of our green fee fields will have been put to bed. Won't have a chance to get out this week, so that's that. Glad to have had the use of two nearby fields again this year; who knows what next year will bring.

Last KK9 practice of the year

2008-10-17T16:36:00.004-04:00

Have been working on discriminations lately but still really struggling with getting him to take the far obstacle. A past instructor suggested that Walter's space bubble might be smaller than a lot of dogs' due to his GSD blood (thinking of protection work stuff), so maybe that has something to do with it? Oh well. On the bright side, 180 turn from contact to tunnel "pip" is going great. A recent Clean Run article on this confirmed that I was kinda sorta going in an okay direction with that, e.g. using the verbal only, no arm cue. Decided that pip has a built-in release component, and Walter finally seems to be buying that, at least on the dogwalk. However, when I tried pip from teeter to jump, he really really wanted an "ok" first. Also, using a jump to pip to after the teeter was too confusing so instead we used a toy.

The other practice field is open for another week or so and then green fee season comes to an official close.

Startline fun

2008-10-12T23:06:00.002-04:00

Came upon this entertaining video while surfing today. Too bad it's only border collies, but fun to watch nonetheless. Ever seen a dog back up on the start line? Me neither until now!

Out practice

2008-10-05T21:14:00.002-04:00

With the limited time left before the agility fields close for the winter, "out" is the focus again. We worked on it earlier in the summer and made some progress -- it even got Walter his first MG Q -- but we haven't maintained it and being a new skill it's kind of gone by the wayside.

Anyway, worked on outs today using side by side jump/teeter and jump/jump. Tested him with some heres too and he does seem to be picking it back up but lots more work is needed.

2-day AARF trial (Kingston)

2008-10-04T21:32:00.017-04:00

This was Walter's second time at AARF. While driving home from his first AARF trial on October 7th 2007, I swore I'd never ever EVER trial Walter there again. (Not because there was anything wrong with the facility or trial itself, which are great!) A few hours after coming home from that trial, the sting started to wear off; I tried to keep an open mind and opened up the possibility of going back. Then a year passes and the memories of that trial now get a "them's the blows" chuckle from me, so... After vowing never to return, what did I do but sign him up for not one, but TWO days at the very same trial one year later. If he would have the same sniffiness this time around, this had the potential to be a very long and depressing trial! But, I was curious to see how he'd be, and with the need to make the most of the cool-season trials, well there ya go.

Well, he was a different dog this year! None of the constant sniffing that he did inside and outside the rings last year, which he had never done anywhere else except for one run last summer when the dog before him had ripped a toenail on the second obstacle unbeknownst to all and bled allll over the course. Is his 180 turn-around because the weather was cooler than last year's trial? Is it because the rings have been moved down further towards the woods and for some counter-intuitive reason the track-laying critters don't come around anymore? Is it because Walter has matured and is more into the game now? Who knows but I sure did like what I saw this weekend.

FRIDAY (weather: nicely c-c-c-ool for much of the day, requiring warm coats and even mitts from time to time. Perfect agility weather for Walter and for many of the other dogs who were looking so peppy out there. 3 degrees in the morning, slowly warmup up to a partly cloudy 12 degrees)

Started with Jumpers #1. Whaddaya know, he was terrific and clean and got a Q! Last year's sniffyholic was nowhere to be seen.

Then it was Standard #1. Clean except for a wrong weave entry plus he popped out afterwards.

Standard #2: Woo hoo! A nice run with several crazy "TRUST YOUR DOG" moments and he got a Q! Weaves were on-side, "yesgogogo".

Gamblers #1: There are good things about having a dog who's not a tunnel suck, and there are bad things about having a dog who's not a tunnel suck. Walter, the Not Tunnel Suck, had a hard time being sent out quite a distance to the tunnel of the main gamble. He finally got it, but then instead of taking the out-teeter he took the here-6-weaves so it was an NQ. Brilliant job on the weaves though. We tried one of the mini gambles which was tunnel under dogwalk to layered jump on far side of dogwalk. I thought it would be no problem for him as he's done these before, but he came in instead of taking the jump.

After the trial we headed to our motel. I had brought along a kettle and some insta-noodles to supplement the cold but delicious fried tofu I had brought, but thought what the heck, I'll just have a quick peek at the yellow pages to see if maybe, just maybe Kingston has a vegetarian restaurant? Well what to my hungry eyes should appear on the last page of the restaurant listings but an ad for a veggie restaurant, yeah!! So off we went.

First though we stopped at the first place we could find for the dogs to get out and stretch their legs a bit.

Beautiful big tree on the banks of the Rideau Canal.

Another photo op on the banks of the Rideau Canal.

Memorial cross for the workers who died building the Rideau Canal.

Apparently even chimney thingies are in on the ribbon trend. No idea what this ribbon is for.

Lotus Heart Blossoms Vegetarian Restaurant. Associated with Ottawa's Perfection Satisfaction Promise Vegetarian Restaurant, but a completely different menu.

Not to play into the stereotypes, but there were a ton of Green Party signs in the neighbourhood of the restaurant. Of note, this election campaign was the first time that a Green Party leader was invited to participate in the televised leaders' debates.

Back at the hotel. It might not look like much, but the pasta was actually quite tasty. Garlic, salt, and pasta, what's not to love?

Lucy was not entered in this trial but happily came along to hang out with us and enjoy a feast on the cow patties in the pastures surrounding the agility fields.

SATURDAY (weather: coolish in the morning but quickly warmed up to sweater-only for much of the day. Too warm to be ideal agility temps for Walter but still not too bad. 5 degrees in the mornin, quickly warming up to a partly cloudy 14 degrees.)

Standard #3: I was maybe feeling a bit cranky from getting hardly any sleep due to the @#$%^&* motel doors that kept opening and slamming shut and opening and slamming shut and people making no effort to speak quietly in the hallways even past midnight. So I wasn't going into the run on the best of notes. Then, I came this close to forgetting to remove Walter's collar for the run. Scratch that -- actually I *did* forget to remove his collar but someone kindly alerted me about it just as I was starting to lead out. He ran past a jump and probably got a refusal at another messy point, but his weaves were perfect. (offside, "yesgogogo")

Standard #4: Walter had a loopy moment at one point, then at the weaves he got the entry but then immediately popped, doing his best imitation of a dog who's never seen weaves before. Took him back to restart and he entered on the wrong side but what the heck he kept weaving so I let him and we just kept going. On the bright side however, he had a brilliant startline stay while I led out to the far side of the second jump to be able to overhandle the #3 tunnel/frame discrimination to make up for our lack of skills in the discrimination department.

Gamblers #2: Bummer, this gamble was very much like yesterday's, with the exact same sendout to the tunnel, same direction and end of the tunnel and everything. So we never got to the rest of the gamble which included an out-over with two side by side jumps which he likely wouldn't have gotten anyway. One of the mini-gambles was identical to yesterday's: tunnel to layered jump behind dogwalk and he got it fine this time.

Snooker: Ok, would be really nice to get a Q today and running out of chances... No weaves in this course, just jumps, tunnels, frame, and a ton of combinations. We played it safe and did the #5 tunnel three times; not our prettiest run ever but not terrible either and he picked up his 6th MS Q.

Jumpers: Last run of the day. Walter was surprisingly perky and animated despite it being close to the end of a long couple of days. He ran beautifully and picked up his 5th MJ Q.

So yeah, the two-hour drive home was quite a bit more enjoyable this time than it was last year. Yay Walter for being so much fun to run!

Dreamfields trial

2008-09-28T16:39:00.002-04:00

I wasn't overly optimistic about coming home with any Qs today since three of Walter's five classes have mandatory weaves and the other two classes are Gamblers where ya never know what you're gonna get. Walter has however been practicing his weaves at home almost every day for the past few weeks -- a quick pass or two before breakfast and supper.

First up were Gamblers 1 and 2 and the main gambles were potentially something Walter could have gotten. The first gamble was a tunnel passing under the dogwalk, layered tire, far side of a c-shaped tunnel, dogwalk, jump. Walter checked in with me after the tire and while I was trying to redirect him out to the tunnel he stepped on the dogwalk. Tweet. The second gamble was a teeter heading at a sharp angle away from the line, then a lateral jump, turn left towards the line for a jump and then two more jumps close to the line. He did the teeter but crept in towards me while in 2o2o so didn't have a hope of seeing the far jump. Tweet.

Standard 1, Standard 2, and Team: In Standard 1, the weaves were the #4 obstacle in. Well, lo and behold he didn't pop! So then the pressure was on for the rest of the course since we now had a chance at a Q. Walter got the job done, pretty slow but still well under time so he got his first Masters Standard Q after three almost-clean MS runs save for popped weaves. Standard 2, yes! another clean set of weaves! But we had already goofed earlier in the course with a refusal at a tunnel and taking the frame instead of tunnel at a discrimination. Our Team partner was Tucker, a debonair sheltie. Walter ran according to plan (and yes! another clean set of weaves!) but I had walked the course wrong and included a bonus jump. Our partner got an offcourse, so it's just as well.

I was so glad and surprised that Walter did three sets of flawless 12-weaves, especially since it was warm and humid. For all the weaves I hung back to let him get the entry which was marked with 'yes', then followed along at his side saying a steady 'gogogo' through to the end. I never used to do anything like clapping or tongue-trilling or saying anthing while he weaved, but given his popping issues I've been open to trying anything. We've been using the 'gogogo' in practice recently too. I wonder if it helps him know that yes he's doing the right thing, so just keep going. Anyway it seemed to help today. Oh and for all three sets of weaves today he was on my left side in case that has anything to do with it.

Weave practice at field

2008-09-26T19:33:00.005-04:00

12 straight weaves, nice coolish and cloudy evening. Said "yesgogogogo" every time. Popped halfway through on first try. Then, it was hit or miss as to whether he'd pop towards the end or not. Seemed to do better with me on right side which is the opposite of how he used to be.

Only did the one session because it was getting dark.

Walter has a WORLD-CLASS startline stay!

2008-09-26T17:12:00.005-04:00

Got a kick out of seeing a dog competing at the FCI agility worlds who has the same scootchy-butt startline stay as Walter, only minus the barking.

Here's Walter's startline stay:

And here's the world-class dog's startline stay (the first dog in the video): fciagility2008.cleanrun.com/usa-large-team-standard.

;-D

Practice

2008-09-16T19:59:00.005-04:00

Weaves: Took a different approach this time. Put two sets of six weaves and a set of 12 slightly angled wams at different spots in the field. Included one or two sets as part of a few different 6-8 obstacle sequences. The idea is that the weaves are just part of sequences, not a big deal, so just do them, darn it! ;-) He did just great on all attempts, no popping, woo hoo!

"Out": Was going to set up a little sequence we saw at this weekend's trial, but it turns out a similar sequence was already set up. It's just a c-shaped tunnel with a few jumps along the outside of it. You take the jumps on the outside. It looked a little bit like this:
/
- C
\
At the trial, about half the people ran with their dogs between the jumps and tunnel (that's what I did). Others had cooler skills to rely on and layered the jumps behind the tunnel. So today we worked the "out over" skill. Ok we don't have that skill yet apparently! He kept wanting to take the tunnel, but once he took the first jump then the rest weren't a problem. Gotta keep working on our "out"s.

"Pip" (turn 180 away from me): Frame/dogwalk to tunnel/chute are coming along really well, but today he had trouble with frame to jump. He wasn't responding to the "pip" and instead went ahead to some non-obvious jump out in front of us. Tried pip on the flat and it was weak there too so we'll need to do more maintenance work.

All Dogs trial - day 2

2008-09-14T18:10:00.005-04:00

First up was Gamblers, first thing in the morning. The main gamble included 12 weaves so I wasn't very optimistic. Well, even our opening was pathetic. We couldn't even get the very do-able mini-gamble of jump-tunnel-jump; he kept doing his best sheltie imitation and spinned in front of the tunnel. And overall we weren't in tune and had only 21 points in the opening. Yikes. We didn't try the other do-able mini gamble of jump to frame because it was raining and the frame was known to be slippery even when dry. On to the closing: the #1 was right at the exit gate and Walter could not be convinced that in fact the run was not yet over and demanded his end-of-run reward. So we didn't even get to the weaves! Ha!

Jumpers: About a 4 hour wait between Gamblers and Jumpers might be part of the reason that his usual crispness wasn't quite there. Not a terrible run, but an uncharacteristic knocked bar in the opening line; also took the far end of a c-shaped tunnel instead of the correct close end. Video below.

Standard: I hereby declare a new title which Walter has proudly earned: WlSMADC (Weaveless Special Masters Agility Dog of Canada). Haha! This was the third MS run in which our only glitch was the weaves. It was really hot and humid and the sun had just come out but I thought he had a chance of doing the weaves because they were only #3 in. Shortly before his run I hosed him down and pumped him up with his soccer ball that he gets in practice for doing clean weaves. I made sure to hang back and send him ahead to the weaves but he popped 5 or 6 poles through, then weaved between a few more poles of his own accord. "Good try" and we continued with the rest of the open and flowing course which he handled really well including sticking his teeter and dw.

Here's video of the only run that was filmed, today's Jumpers.

All Dogs trial - Day 1

2008-09-13T19:47:00.006-04:00

Yay, the September two-day trial at one of our favourite venues!

After hearing earlier this week about the tragic, sudden, and unexpected loss of a local agility competitor's wonderful dog who should have had many, many more years of life, the concept of really enjoying the day regardless of the q situation or other "problems" was fresh in mind.

Jumpers: One glitch where I inadvertently pulled him off a jump in anticipation of a sharp turn to the tunnel to the left. Otherwise a good run in typical Walter style.

Snooker: With Walter's weave-popping issues and the 12-weaves being almost always #7, Snooker for Walter and me is becoming a simple game of how-to-do-the-#6-three-times-for-the-Q. (Ok, to add some spice maybe I should try for four #6s sometime.) This was a nice course with the teeter as #6 and the obstacles were all spread out so not a lot of offcourse potential. Walter is really a great dog for Snooker (when he hasn't got it in mind to pay his dues to the zero points club) so he made my job easy and yes we got our Q, as unexciting as it must have been to watch. :-D Didn't bother asking him to do the weaves in the closing -- if he's only got a finite number of clean weaves in him I'd rather save them for Standard and Team!

Standard: I had signed him up for this in the hopes that it would be a cool or even better, downright COLD weekend so that Walter would have a chance of doing some clean weaves. Bummer, it was a nice hot day so no surprise, weave issues. But the saving grace is at least it wasn't our THIRD MS run botched only by botched weaves: he had pulled a strange manoeuvre earlier in the run by exiting the tunnel from the same end from whence he had entered.

Gamblers: This was a totally doable gamble for us (a couple of jumps and a tunnel to a laterally distant teeter followed by an out-over with two side by side jumps -- exactly the sort of thing we've been working on), and in fact he actually did complete the main gamble, but a bit of a glitch between the jumps and tunnel ate up some time so he was over time. One of the mini gambles was right up our alley too: tunnel to dogwalk at lateral distance; he had no problems with that and sort-of held 2o2o so he did it twice so we had plenty of opening points. Certainly I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get the Q, but at the same time WOO HOO! he did the gamble, timer be darned. Plus at the end of a long day, for him to have any go/out oomph left in him was fantastic.

Another try at Gamblers, Jumpers, and Standard tomorrow.

Practice - weaves

2008-09-11T19:39:00.003-04:00

Hoo boy, Walter's weaves were nowhere to be seen tonight. Popped towards the end every time we tried the 8-poles. To get any success I had to bring them down to 6 poles. Dang! Also played around with some miscellaneous distance stuff.

Guides Canins trial

2008-08-31T09:02:00.002-04:00

Our first time at the gorgeous Guides Canins trial in Saint Lazare, Québec. The facility is just fantastic, three rings going at once, hundreds of huge trees all around the site providing plenty of shade, shower facilities and indoor washrooms available, and even their "outhouses" are fully equipped washrooms with plumbing and sinks.

Since the first walkthrough was to be at 7am Saturday morning we arrived Friday evening around 5:30pm to set up camp and here I was thinking we were plenty early to find a site, but actually it was already Tent City Extravaganza. However, there was lots of space around the Starters ring so that's where we set up, which turned out to be convenient since it was easy to watch our friends' runs in that ring.

Friday night in the tent Walter was a bit restless at first but eventually we all fell asleep. It amazes me that with all the dozens and dozens of dogs onsite, not a bark was heard all night long.

Thanks to friends and a kind stranger, all but two of Walter's six runs were caught on video.

Here are some run-by-run notes.

Saturday

Standard (ring 3): I didn't take the time to set him up properly at the start resulting in a runout on the #2 tire and often when we make a mistake at the start, or more specifically when he knows we've made a mistake at the start, the whole run falls apart. Should have just kept going with him when he went to the frame, but oh well. However, despite the myriad of mistakes, he still seems fairly upbeat throughout. Oh and for the first time in a while he weaved all 12 poles beautifully on the first try! Woo hoo! Anyway I can't stop laughing at myself while watching this run so I thought I'd share it with the world so y'all can feel better about any tough agility runs you might have had lately.

Gamblers (ring 1): He was uncharacteristically flat while waiting his turn, but in the video he doesn't look too bad. The first part of the main gamble was the weaves and of course he got the wrong entry and popped so no cigar.

Snooker (ring 1) (didn't get caught on video): This run was around 4pm after a long break for us. The 12-weaves were #7 and I knew I couldn't count on them for the closing (nor the opening obviously), so I had planned a nice course that covered the #6 teeter three times for an easy Q without the weaves. Well, I set him up in front of a red, released him, and he went around the jump and directly onto the nearby dogwalk. Woo hoo! We have now become official members of the Zero Point Snooker Club!

Jumpers (ring 2): Not a terrible run, but an uncharacteristic knocked bar due to my cueing the turn too desperately kept us from a Q.

Sunday

Jumpers (ring 3) (didn't get caught on video): Several mistakes and runouts but some decent parts too. Can't remember the details.

Snooker (ring 1): Again with the #7 being the weaves, we had to go for three #6s (two-jump combination) in the opening to get the Q. I can't get over how much Walter forgives my pathetic attemps at handling. Anyway we made it through for a Q, our first and only Q of the weekend! :-D

Some general notes:
- He didn't do 2o2o at all but not once did I go back and make him do it again (training in the ring is allowed in AAC). Maybe I should have, but I guess I figured since he can be a bit weirded out at new places I didn't want to risk demotivating him. Not that he necessarily gets demotivated by redoing contacts, but well you never know.
- In retrospect from watching the videos, he wasn't all that unfocused considering it was his first time here and that his runs were constantly changing from one ring to another. Actually he handled himself pretty darn well all things considered and was upbeat throughout.
- I led out on several runs and he did minimal scootching-forward on all of them, yay!
- Ok I really need to work on providing less foggy and crouched-over body/arm cues. Honestly how he manages to decipher from my wimpy arm positions and everything else what I'm asking him to do is beyond me.

In summary: despite our ultra-low Q rate, it was really a lot of fun and I am definitely looking forward to trialing at Guides Canins again next year.

More weaving fun

2008-08-25T22:08:00.003-04:00

I think I've been pushing Walter for too much too soon weave-wise recently, in anticipation of an upcoming trial. I need to slow down and ensure success to get Walter to be a Happy Weaving Boy. So today we did 8 and only 8 poles. All of his four attempts were clean, woohoo! From watching the video, he's single-striding all the way through every time which is good since his footwork has been inconsistent lately. (Lately as in the last six months or more!) I wonder if throwing the reward lower would help encourage him to lower his head a bit? I kept a wide lateral distance on every pass tonight, wonder if that partially explains the lack of popping.

The plan as it stands at the moment is to give him a day or two off, then next time do only 8 weaves just like tonight, perhaps making it as part of a short sequence. If that goes well, then next time up it to 10 poles, and so on until voilà, he will be a Happy Weaving Boy with all 12 poles! Thinking positive here :-)

Of course we worked on a few other things too:
- flip away from dogwalk to tunnel on far side - good
- dogwalk/tunnel discriminations - still need to clarify my body language when he's to take the closer obstacle

Photos from July 27th Krazy Kanines' fun match

2008-08-24T18:40:00.007-04:00

Forgot to post about the fun match back in July. For the first time ever in an event situation, Walter actually broke his start line sit-stay to take the jump before being released! gasp!! The game was Gamblers; he did the minis well but the main gamble included the frame to the far end of a c-shaped tunnel, one of our weak areas for sure, so no cigar.

Here are a few photos from the day. Walter jumped 16", our usual practice height, instead of his competition 22" jump height. Many thanks to the photographers who offered all their photos at no cost to everyone.

The week before the match we had a painting party to freshen up all the equipment, some of which dates back to the 90s. Doesn't the see-saw look so bright and happy. Please excuse the bird droppings next to Walter's foot.

Apparently Walter wanted to try a 1RTO contact on the dogwalk today. Actually I think what happened here was I had started to praise him up for sticking 2o2o and he started to self-release but caught himself just in time to stick the one rear toe. I love his eager expression and high tail in this photo.

Nice on-the-flat photo but too bad about that jump standard!

Here's a jumping photo from an uncommon angle. Would have been neat to see it with him jumping 22"; oh well.

Weaving practice again

2008-08-24T09:44:00.004-04:00

Started with the 8-weaves. Tried a few times putting his toy as a target, but then when he popped and went to the toy, it sucked to have to tell him that no I would not play with his toy with him because he had goofed.

Couldn't get a single popless pass on the 10-weaves so we went back to 8 poles and no target. Finished with three good, clean passes in a row on the 8-weaves and lots of soccer ball fun.

I think I noticed today that he didn't pop the 8-weaves when I was at quite a lateral distance. So maybe I've been crowding him and distracting him from his job of finishing the poles.

Plan for next weaving practice:
- start with 8 poles; increase to 10 if 8 are very strong
- give him lots of lateral space
- have him do another obstacle or two before throwing the toy.

Weaving practice

2008-08-21T22:01:00.002-04:00

Warmed up on the 6-weaves then jumped straight into 12. Walter was popping left, right, and center. Well maybe not center, but if he could have, he would have. Eventually I smartened up and reduced the number of poles so he could be successful again. Poor dog!

Here's the video...

Practice: Weaves

2008-08-20T19:01:00.004-04:00

Went to the field that has the good weaves. Brought his half-deflated soccer ball which he loves-loves-loves but which has been collecting dust on the top shelf of the bookcase. Alternated mini-sessions at the weaves with some general distance stuff. Didn't use the wams at all today.

First mini-session: 6-weaves. First couple of tries he blew most of the way past them and weaved only the last 2-3 poles. But he was in a good mood, excited, anticipating his soccer ball so we tried again. After a few tries he was doing it right.

Second mini-session: 6-weaves. Only a few attempts and all were right on. Teased him before each set with "do you wanna weave"? and then he'd get all excited and dive into the poles. Rewarded with thrown soccer ball and game.

Third mini-session: 12-weaves. Amped him up before each send. First pass: me on left; he pops on my side between poles 9 and 10; I hand-wave him through 10-11-12; he gets cheese treat (lower value than soccer ball). Second pass: me on right; he pops on my side bewteen 10-11; I hand-wave him through 11-12; he gets cheese treat. Third pass: me on left; again he pops on my side between 9-10; I point to the poles and say "more weaves" and he goes and does the last three poles; he gets cheese treat with excited praise. Fourth pass: me on left (I think); he does them clean, yay! We stop there.

General notes: Once he's excited and high, sending him ahead to the weaves from quite a ways back, hanging back until he's in the poles then catch up to him and walk alongside.

August K9 Kup

2008-08-17T21:24:00.002-04:00

I was really happy with Walter's level of enthusiasm today! He actually wagged his tail on the table, which must be a first for him. AND, he barked on course for the first time ever not including start lines! Ok, so it was while lying down on the table, kinda sorta the same idea as being on the start line. He was nice and peppy in Snooker, the second run of the day, despite the increasing heat.

Weaves: I was bound and determined that one way or another, Walter would complete the 6-weaves in the standard, even if I had to hand target him through every single gate. After several tries he did it (without hand targeting), yay! The trick seemed to have been to start him from quite a ways back and use a peppy voice, and throw in a rear cross to help pull him into the entry, although I have tried those approaches with him before without success. The 10-weaves in the closing of Snooker got his goat but he did weave a few of the poles including the last three, so it was a good try.

Frame: OH MY! Like in the July K9 Kup, I decided to push his speed on the frame in standard. Well, unlike in July, this time he came within a hair of his toes of missing his first ever contact in competition! Actually I didn't check the results so I'm not sure if the judge called it or not but I would guess he probably did, as would I have! The rest of his frames today were fine.

More gambling

2008-08-16T21:08:00.002-04:00

Played around with some more gambles today. I keep all the gamblers course maps from trials I've been to together in one envelope. It's our homework file and it's fun to pull a course out and see if we can make progress towards being successful on a tough gamble.

One of the gambles today included an "out over" where there are two jumps side by side as well as an offcourse jump at 90 degrees, along the gamble line. At first he took the closer of the two side by side jumps so I stepped in to help him get it. He seemed to pick up on the concept but it could be he was just patterned to it.

We also tried a tough one where a frame and straight tunnel are side by side, parallel to the gamble line; the dog goes out to the tunnel, then turns around to go back in that same tunnel, then turns around AGAIN to go back in that same tunnel, then goes straight over a jump. I remember watching that gamble back in the spring (during Walter's gambling hiatus) and it was brutal. When a dog got it, the whoops and hollers could be heard for miles, no doubt. Anyway, yep it was hard!! We'll have to work on that one again.

Gamblin' practice

2008-08-13T19:21:00.004-04:00

Had a lot of fun trying several gambles. Walter really impressed me today!

First we tried this gamble posted on Johann's blog a little while ago. Lo and behold, he got it on the first try, although just like Johann he turned right in to me after #3 but sent out to the tunnel. Tried it a couple more times to make sure it wasn't a fluke. We'll have to work on the turn-away because each time he turned in to me but he always sent out well to the tunnel. A few months ago he would never have been able to do the out tunnel. What a good boy!

Then we tried 1-4 (too lazy to set up 5 and the second dummy jump) of this gamble from the 2008 AAC Nationals held this past weekend in New Brunswick. The distances I set up were probably not as far as they should have been, but he couldn't put a foot wrong. Well, to my low standards anyway! :-D

We also tried the two mini gambles in this course, also from the 2008 AAC Nationals. The teeter one wasn't a problem but we (and I do mean "we" - my shoulders are always pointing precisely where I don't mean them to!) do need to work on c-shaped tunnels.

However, just because he can do this in the comfort of his home practice field doesn't mean he'll be comfortable working so far at unfamiliar venues! Hopefully his overall comfort level will continue to improve as he gains more confidence.

Practice

2008-08-11T20:29:00.005-04:00

Turn away from contact to tunnel: "pip" coming along well. Starting to get some distance on it.

"Go": Realized this has been severely neglected what with all my focus on increasing lateral distance. Did some work on this using baited target or toy, over a straight line of jumps/tire.

Practice: discriminations. Also a swim and a walk.

2008-08-05T19:15:00.002-04:00

Today's video reminded me of the value of reviewing video of one's practices when training alone. Yikes. Here's a video of today's practice and for the first time on this blog, some video of Walter just being Walter!