Susan Salo Seminar

Susan Salo was here for 5 days at the end of October / beginning of November doing a jumping seminar.  I worked Vada in the 3 day Foundation seminar and audited the  2 day Repeaters seminar.  Karl audited the Foundations seminar too.  MAC hosted it and it was held at TCOTC.

I have audited the seminar in the past a few years ago in IA.  And we have the DVDs.  It was good to hear the information again and be able to ask questions and watch dogs do the grids.  It was nice to get Susan’s feedback when Vada did the grids too.  She basically said Vada powers through things and doesn’t always think about them.  But I did notice that Vada has made tons of progress over the past few years.  We need to do alot more bend work too.

It’s amazing how important jumping skills are!  Can’t wait til I can setup grids in the yard again in a few months.

Vet Visits

The Friday before the CPE trial I got Copper into the vet to have his lymes titer checked and his chest lipoma aspirated.  Both were clean!  No lymes and no lymph node cancer.

The following Tuesday Vada went in to see Dr. Heather again.  She was out as expected.  Then we went to agility class right from Dr. Heather’s.

She seems to be holding this adjustment well.   I think they need more running around the pond time to help strengthen their muscles to keep their bones in place.  I’d like to get back to doing conditioning exercises with Copper and massage again too.

That Wednesday Copper started in the Polishing class at Total Recall after Seven’s Proofing class.  I’m going to rotate between Copper and Vada each week.  Copper did well and really enjoyed it.  He’s totally fine with the other dogs in a controlled situation where he feels safe.  I’m going to bring him again this week.   I forget how much he already knows.

Our First South Paws CPE Trial

Near the end of October I had Copper, Vada and Seven entered in a CPE trial. This was our first South Paws trial ever.  They usually do their CPE trials down in Cannon Falls and that is just too far to travel.  This trial was at Leatherdale.  It worked out well since I was bummed about missing the November ACTS trial due to my Phoenix trip.

I was able to make it to Dogue Spot that Friday night for open ring time.  Seven was awesome.  Did a start line stay too!  Vada rocked as well and I worked on Focus Forward on some jumps.  Copper and Prozac had fun playing on the equipment.  The flooring is just carpet over cement so I did want to jump Copper much.  And he had a busy weekend coming up.

Vada was entered in everything.  Copper and Seven were entered in 2 classes each day.  This was their first indoor trial of the winter season.  I crated out of the van since it was pretty nice out.  That also gave me an opportunity to warm them up and cool them down.  Although with Vada being first on Sunday it created a bit of stress as they would clear the course and then expect me on the line immediately after clearing the course.   I kept my cool though and did not let them rush me.  One time they totally skipped me and then went back to my jump height.  I did learn later from Susan Salo that a good idea would be to warm up the dog, toss them in their crate, walk the course and then run the dog.  But still, when they choose to rent a facility with limited crating, they encourage crating outdoors and the trial fills – they need to be a little better about scheduling walk thrus and starting the ring.  They should rush people because they judge has an early flight.  There are other areas that could be tightened up.  If it continues to be a problem there then I will just not enter the day that it’s big to little.  Another idea would be to leave Vada in a down stay outside the ring while I walk the course – like we do in class.  And if I do some more studying and become more confident in how to handle courses, then I won’t need to walk as long either.

As part of my warm up with Vada, on the walk in I threw her toy for her to retrieve.  That seemed to take the edge off.  I was less nervous at CPE too.  She had a start line stay in every single run!  That made my weekend!  I was thrilled!  All of our work was able to shine through once we took the edge off of her and me.

Copper did the warm up jump ok.  His first run was kind of scary though and I was worried that he would jump wrong and crash a jump.  But I think he was just adjusting to the footing.  His jumping got better after that.  Before one of the runs I was warming him up on the jump and a big out of control lab started charging at him.  He took offense and starting charging at the lab to warn him off.  I yelled his name and he came back to me.  The woman continued to try to do stuff with the dog as it ran around out of control.  So we just walked away to the other corner of the ring.   It was a class where all levels are combined.  You don’t really see that in the upper levels.  Scared the crap out of me though.  We just had an issue with a stray lab in our yard a few weeks ago.  Copper charged it but it just stood still so there was no fight and Copper let his guard down eventually.  He’s too old to be acting like a 2 year old scrapper!  Seven did a great job – as usual!

Vada Qd in –  both Level 3 standard runs which finished her title, Level 3 Full House which moves her up to Level 4, Level 3 Jackpot and Level 4 Wildcard.  Still no Level 2 Colors to finish her CL2 title.  We’ll get it one of these days!

Copper Qd in- Level 3 Full House , Level 3 Colors which moves him up to Level 4, and Level 3 Jackpot.  He needs one more each in Level 3 for Full House, Snooker and Jackpot to finish his CSL3 title.  That is my CPE goal with him.  I’ll keep letting him run as long as he is having fun and he is safe but only a few classes a day.

Seven and I had just enough little bobbles to only Q in Level 4 Jumpers.  In one of the classes were were barely over time.  They were all very close.

Prozac was not entered in this trial.  I go back and forth about entering her as she does seem to do well in CPE.  But with her being hot or cold and with her crate behavior, I usually lean towards leaving her home.  If not for the crate spazzing then I would probably keep doing CPE with her.  She was awesome and had a blast on Friday at Dogue Spot.  They have open training every other Friday.  I’m looking forward to the next one already!

It was a pretty good weekend!  It was nice to do CPE again after a summer of USDAA.