USA North Central Regional Championship

My Schutzhund club hosted the North Central Regional Championship over the weekend.  It made for a LONG 3 days.  2 days were mostly just sitting around all day but Sunday was alot of fun.  Friday we setup and then did dinner for the draw (competitors draw an item to find out what order they trial in).  We sat up there most of the day to supervise people who wanted to use the field for practice.  Saturday many went to tracking while others of us waiting at the field.  We had food for sale in case anyone came back early.  The field was open for practice all day so we had to be there to supervise for that too.  Then we did helper try outs and the Regional meeting.  The meeting was quite different then any other club meetins I’ve been to.  Nate asked if I would bring Vada on Saturday so he could use her to try out.  She loved it and he did a great job with her.  He got picked to work the back half of the SchH3s and he did a great job!  Saturday night Karl and I went out to dinner ourselves.  I wasn’t feeling very good from being out in the sun all day but eating helped.  I was exhausted from doing nothing all day but  having to chat with people – it’s not that I don’t enjoy it but it sucks the energy out of me.   Sunday was fun.  It was obedience and protection at the trial field.  We had alot of people come and watch.  Some I had never met and some I hadn’t seen in a long time.  I updated the club website with scores from obedience and protection as they were announced.  That was fun.  Others who can’t attend appreciated know the results right away too.  Mom stopped by for a few hours on Sunday to see me too.  And Copper and Vada.  She said she enjoyed watching the trial too.  It was nice to be able to visit with her.  Seems we’re over due to get together for dinner again.

Karl was super busy all weekend at home.  He got all of the flooring laid in the Library!  It looks GREAT!

           

Tonight is the 1st of 3 classes on Conditioning the Performance Dog that I have Copper signed up for at Stone Mountain.  I’m looking forward to learning alot.  I hope they do ball work too so I can get him started on his ball.  Class is every other Monday as they give us homework to work on for 2 weeks.

Good Training Week

It’s been a productive dog training week so far!

Our session with Terry on Monday was great.  Worked on a lot of skills and talked about when to use the threadle arm and when not to use it and a shoulder turn would do.  Lots to work on.

On Tuesday in class there were a few challenges that we worked on with Terry but not as hard.  I felt good about how to handle them.  Vada and I ran pretty well.  A few things to work on.  I really need to start a list!

Last night before I left for Seven’s Super Puppy class I worked him on perch work, shaping the down on the table and weaves.  I also did perch work with Copper and Vada.  They all did great.

Tonight I have my database design class so I won’t be able to do any dog training.  But I am caught up and got my homework done a little early – that feels SO much better then rushing at the last minute!  I’m going to start working on my next homework early before class now too!

Hopefully I can keep this productivity up.  Unfortunately, I won’t have any time with my own dogs for the next 3 days.  😦

Nothing Exciting

It was a typical week.  Vada’s agility class on Tuesday.  Seven’s obedience class on Wednesday.  My database design class on Thursday.  Friday we took 4 of the dogs for a walk at the park we found by our house.  We took Copper, Vada, Narc and Sonic.

Saturday I was able to make it to Schutzhund training. Narc and Vada both did well.  I never know what to work on with Vada in protection.  I don’t really have any Schutzhund goals with her now that we have our SchH3.  After training some people were standing and sitting around and I let Narc out while I helped Mike load the tent in his car for the Regional this weekend.  Narc stayed on the fringes of the people but when one of the guys talked to him and focused their attention on him, he started barking and pacing.  He came to my side for support which was nice.  It’s a good reminder that he needs more socializing though.  I was able to get close to one of the guys and call Narc over and he was mostly ok with that.

Yesterday I had to work most of the day.  I put in 7 hours.  So much for a weekend day.  😦  But this will enable me to take part of Friday off to go and work at the USA Regional without having to take PTO.  After I got home from working and running errands I was exhausted.  I laid down for 2 hours.  Got up and did a little more work and then went to bed.  I hope I am not getting sick or anything.

Tonight we have a lesson with Terry.  I have not done much homework since our last lesson in July.  Kind of makes me aware of how little training I actually do at home.  😦

MAC Fall USDAA Trial

What a weekend!  I’m so glad that we are done trialing til the end of October.  My plan was to pull Vada from the start line when she broke.  It is not easy to do as then the handler doesn’t get to play either.  The first run was Gamblers.  She was holding her stay so nicely and then they made me move her since I was over the line.  I should have told them to just give me an E and start the clock.  But I went back and moved her.  I hope she did not take that as a correction.  That threw me off and the rest of the run was pretty crappy – on my part.  The next run she broke right away and I pulled her.  The following run was Pairs so I could not pull her.  I just did a lateral lead out.   We had a nice run with my instructor, Alex, and his Golden, Logan, and we Q’d!  That was our first time in Masters Pairs.  We had 2 more runs for the day and I pulled her off the line on each run.  On the last run I was able to lead out a few steps longer but that was the only progress that we made.

On Sunday I started out the morning on a bad note by accidentally taking 2 of Vada’s allergy pills instead of my daily pills.  I figured she is 1/3 of my weight and I took double her dose so it couldn’t be that bad.  Wrong.  It made me quite tired and out of it.  Maybe comparable to taking 8 benedryl.  I pulled Vada off the line on our first run.  She had been basically just popping her butt up and I would say “nope” and she would stop and I would walk her off the course.  Next was Pairs so I just did a lateral lead out.  I screwed up our run though.  I did a lateral lead out  in Gamblers too since I was crabby and sick of not running.  For the last 2 runs of the day I just said “no” once her butt came up and stopped.  Once she sat I started leading out again.  Then told her good girl and then released her.  It worked on both runs.  So I will continue to do this and hope that eventually she will just relax and settle her butt on the start line.  I was totally off the whole day and bummed about pulling her off the line and not having a stay and generally feeling sorry for myself.

Sunday night I slept for 12 hours!  I went to bed as soon as we got home – for a nap – but ended up sleeping all night.  I definitely needed it!  Monday we were able to stay home all day except for a trip to get toner for the AMBOR newsletters and a long overdue trip to the grocery store.  Karl got the newsletters done.  I’ll get them mailed out today.  Then we can start working on the next issue.  Karl got all our hay put away too.  I spent the day cleaning out the pantry for the groceries we bought.  I also worked on cleaning up files on my share of the network drive.  I’ve cleared off almost a gig in just duplicate files.  I didn’t get any planned tasks done but these were things that needed to be done or started.  We ate dinner at home last night too!

I’m looking forward to the short week and hopefully having a little bit quieter month.  I have to help out at a few events that I’m not competing at this month.   The break from trialing will be nice but I would rather be spending the time at home relaxing with the dogs and working on fall projects.

Updates

Last Thursday I started a database design class at HTC.  It’s going to be harder then the other classes.  It’s alot more theory and less programming or working with databases.  Lots of learning vocabulary and definitions.  Just another challenge.  🙂

Last Saturday Chris came out and did helper work at Schutzhund.  Narc and Vada enjoyed it.   It’s amazing how dogs react differently to different helpers.

Last Sunday Vada and I did an agility demo at the Minnesota State Fair with Animal Inn.  She did well.  She was great with the environment.  Nothing phased her.  She let people pet her.  We had issues with the lot attendants telling me a place to park very far away but it eventually got straightened out.  We were very tired by the end of the day.

Tonight Karl and I are meeting at the Washington County Fairgrounds for the MAC general membership meeting.  MAC is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary this year.   This weekend we are entered in the MAC USDAA trial.  Monday we have nothing planned – just a day at home!  And the weather is suppose to be beautiful the whole time!

Tracy Sklenar Seminar

I spent much of last week getting ready for the seminar we (MMBC) just hosted with Tracy Sklenar.  It was so worth it!  I tried to do most of it on my lunch breaks.  One day I ran to the U to pickup the key for the “barn.”  Another day I met Denise at the storage facility to get stuff out of the trailer and storage locker.  It was raining that day, of course!  Thursday night our private agility lesson got canceled due to the rain and we had to go to TCOTC to get a check from Jim for Tracy (both club signers were out of town over the weekend) so we went over to the barn and dropped off the equipment.  Then Friday I only had to worry about picking Tracy up from the airport and getting snacks for the weekend on my way to the airport.  Her flight was on time which was very refreshing.

Saturday Karl worked Fringe in the morning session called Nothin’ But Net.  They worked on focus and relationship building.  Karl really enjoyed it.  I worked Seven in the afternoon session Jumping Skill and Body Awareness.  I wasn’t sure since he doesn’t have a sit stay but Tracy suggested I use his crate since he knows crate games.  Seven did a great job.  He really liked the fit discs.  We worked on his sit stay too.  He was able to do all of the jumping exercises too.  I was very proud of him.

Sunday I worked Vada in both sessions – Fancy Footwork and Finding Lines and Turn Cues.  It was excellent and we learned alot.  I feel like I’m finally starting to get it and struggling alot less.   We worked on her start line stay and I am now tasked with pulling her off the start line if she breaks at trials.  I am not looking forward to it but maybe if *I* have the consequence of not playing then I will work her start line even more.  It’s been going well since the seminar so we shall see how this weekend goes.  I have alot of homework to read so I guess I’ll be doing alot of that and maybe not so much running.  But it’s something I want to fix so “there’s not time like the present” to get it over with.  I will be very happy once we get through this and I have a lead out.

It was great to see Tracy again and spend the weekend talking dog training and agility.  She’s coming to IA in November and I’m planning to go out there again.  I’ll probably work Vada one day on handling and Seven one day on skills.