July 2014

The CPE trial in Rochester went well!  All of the dogs ran really well.  Saturday we had a very high Q rate.  Sunday, not so much.  But I felt like I was off on Sunday.  Plus, the classes may have been classes that are harder to Q in.  We ended Saturday with all 4 dogs NQing in Wildcard.  All 4 dogs were entered in Wildcard because they all need Wildcard Qs.  Letty and Narc each needed 1 more to finish the level they were at.  So it was fitting that all 4 dogs NQd.  And for a variety of reasons.  But Sunday ended with all 4 dogs entered in Wildcard and all 4 dogs Qd!  🙂  My goal with Seven for the weekend was to not make him redo any weaves.  I was mostly good.  On one he popped at the end and I tried to fix it quick but we made a mess.  And then I was out of position for the rest of the course and he was handler focused.  I tried to rear cross on the tire and he stopped right in front of me and I stumbled as I tried to not step or fall on him.  I went down hard!  Luckily, if I am going to fall, it was on turf.  So, that was his punishment to me for breaking my promise.  The dogs were all pretty good at the hotel.  I did not sleep very well.  First night in a hotel room is always hard.  But it saved me 5 hours of driving.  They have almost no grass there now.  And my non-smoking room smelled like smoke. Gross!  But I still like the suite feature with the 2 rooms.  The dogs have room to stretch out then.

Last week I worked from home taking an online SQL querying class.  It was nice not having to do the commute each day.  And I spent some of the lecture time out on the porch swing with the girls.

Tuesday was our last Confidence Building class at TCOTC.  I really like the class.  We have this week off from class and then we start a second session of classes to continue to build ring confidence.  Last week I worked on reporting in.  It’s nice that I can modify it for my IPO trialing challenges.

Saturday I drove up to Duluth to the ADAA USDAA trial.  Gorgeous day weather wise.  Uneventful trips there and back.  I wasn’t horribly tired.  I just entered the first 3 class.  I still wasn’t done til 3pm.  And not packed up and hitting the road til 4pm.  It was a smart decision to not enter all classes.  And it got up to 86 degrees!  The dogs were not use to it.  I ran 5 dogs but only Letty and Vada were entered in all 3 classes.  It worked out really well with the classes and dogs and I was never rushed to have to run dogs back to back or worry about moving them. 

Letty’s classes were all P2 – Gamblers, Standard and Pairs.  We had no Qs.  She ran Gamblers really well.  She did the gamble but just barely missed hitting yellow on the aframe.  But she came straight down and not off the side.  And the distance was pretty far.  She ran pretty well in Standard.  We had a bobble in the middle – I should have handled a tunnel/dogwalk discrimination better.  I knew it but didn’t make a point of focusing on it during the walk thru.  She slowed down a little after that but not terribly.  But by Pairs her brain was MIA.  She did 2 jumps but then didn’t turn.  She was heading out of the ring and looking at something that was not there.  It was weird.  We had to redo our weave entry too.  And so did our partner.  We missed making time by 1 second!  HOWEVER, she ran first and she ran right to her leash while I passed the baton and she could have cared less about the other dog in the ring.  A much better experience than last time with the Siberian Husky.  🙂  And actually, the husky was coming out of the ring as we were going in so I rushed her out and tugged with her.  That might have set the stage for us not being connected well for that run.  Maybe she smelled him and was looking for him.  Who knows.  I’ve been marking her and rewarding any time she she’s him and she’s gotten more comfortable with him.  She’s so weird sometimes!

Vada had an awesome day.  She nailed her gamble in P3 Gamblers for a Q.  In Standard we had a smooth pretty run.  Heartbreakingly, she dropped 1 bar.  So no Q there.  It seemed like her back was getting sore as the day went on.  I’d pet her back and she’d sit down right away.  I’m so paranoid about entering Pairs in case she comes up lame right before.  So we ran Pairs and she dropped 2 bars and got called on her dogwalk contact.  She only had to run 8 obstacles.  😦  Amazingly we still Qd.  Her partner is fast enough and very consistent.  We Qd by only 1 second!  After she ran I had Carol M massage her. She worked on her shoulders a lot.  And she found some knots in her ham strings.  She checked her back before we were done and her pelvis was square.  Once she touched her back she sat down.  But then Carol found a ligament or something that was tight.  She worked it and suddenly Vada popped into a stand again.  Whew!  And now she gets a break next weekend too.

Narc ran P1 Gamblers and Pairs.  We had a few bobbles in the opening.  I was babying him too much and I didn’t do a warm up jump so he wasn’t prepared for the surface.  Bad handler/trainer!  But he nailed the gamble and we had enough points in the opening.  His 2nd Q towards that title.  He also Qd in Pairs with his partner for his 2nd Pairs Q.  We had 10 faults – a bar and maybe his dogwalk contact.  I think we got lucky with a good partner!

Seven ran P3 Standard.  I knew he wouldn’t weave and I was ok with that.  But the judge was standing right by us and she blew the whistle and it freaked him out.  Poor guy.  I’m not sure what I am going to do with him.  Maybe just CPE?

I also ran Fringe in Masters Gamblers and Standard.  We had to redo the weaves in the opening which threw off my timing for the gamble horn.  So it was a mess getting to the gamble and she was too handler focused by then.  But we had good parts.  She ran awesome in Standard and we Qd!  Her first Masters Q.  It was nice to run a dog with a start line stay and stopped contacts and a nice table down.  🙂

Sunday was IPO training.  We had a good turn out.  Letty did really well with her obedience in obedience and protection.  Lots to work on before her BH in a month though!  I’m a little nervous and anxious and excited.

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Summer 2014

Seems like it’s been forever since I posted but really it hasn’t been that long.

I wrapped up our obedience classes at TCOTC for the summer. But then Laura went ahead and added a class that I just had to register Letty for! It’s based on a class that Denise Fenzi did on the Fenzi Dog Sport Academy. It’s a Ring Confidence class. It’s mostly focusing on making the ring the great place to be and working on proofing them for distractions. We have 1 class left last week of the 6 week class. Then we get a week off and then we’ll start another 6 week class. Letty is doing great. We’re working on her down stay while the other dogs are working too.

We also completed Shade’s online tracking class. We made a lot of progress over those 6 weeks! Still lots to work on but we have a plan.

The weekend after CPE Nationals I entered Letty in St Cloud’s AKC trial. It is outdoors. I was focusing on getting Letty qualified for the AKC Invitational. Since Vada had run 3 days at the CPE Nationals I did not enter her in the AKC trial in case she came up lame. She was sound but I’m sure a weekend off did not hurt her. 🙂 It was another rainy weekend. I was getting frustrated with Letty’s weaves. Finally on our JWW run on Sunday she finally Qd. It was a gorgeous run too! And it finished her AXJ title. Still needed MACH points to get her qualified for the Invitational though. Sunday after the trial I stopped at On the Run to catch the last half of the Tracy Sklenar seminar. Karl was already there as he audited all day.

4 weeks ago Vada saw Dr Julia again. She thought she was looking good and said we could go out 3 months til our next appointment. However, her right wrist was a bit sore. She could not find an injury though. So I got exercises to work on it and a plan if it doesn’t get better – changing her Adaquan schedule to 3 weeks instead of monthly.

The next weekend was an AKC trial at OTR. I entered all 3 days. It was our last weekend to try for MACH points. And I liked the judge’s courses. However, once the weekend started I realized that I like his courses because they were challenging. Challenging doesn’t mean Qs! LOL So I just resigned to having fun running my dogs and hoping Letty would weave. She ended up Qing in Standard for her 2nd leg. And she Qd in JWW for her first MACH points! And, not to be outdone, Vada earned her first ever QQ! I was so happy to reach the goal of getting Letty qualified for the Invitational! Now we work on getting her even more comfortable with running different places. She’s already made huge progress on that.

Vada turned 11 years old on June 27th! She is the last dog birthday of the year. So we celebrated with pup cups for everyone.

At the end of June we went up to Little Falls for the TIM USDAA trial. Karl ran Fringe and Seven. His first trial back in a long time. He ran really well. Fringe nailed all of her contacts and was super responsive to his handling. The highlight for me was Letty running in P3 Jumpers for her first time and Qing! I ran Vada and Narc too. I don’t think Vada Qd in anything but she had some nice runs that were really close. Just 1 blooper. I can’t remember if Narc Qd. In Gamblers he was .14 or something over time. Heartbreaking!

Since the qualifying period for the 2014 AKC Invitational is over I have been trying to keep Sundays open for IPO training so we can get back to focusing on that and maybe entering Letty for her BH in September.

Fourth of July weekend I entered the AKC agility trial at the Vadnais Heights Sports Center on Friday and Saturday since I had Friday off. It was our first time trialing at this place. We loved it! The dogs could dig in to the turf so well! Lots of room for crating. Sadly, there will only be 1 more trial there and then the new owners won’t be renting to dog clubs. Letty ran amazingly well even in her first run. I was very happy! I think she picked up a JWW Q on Friday. She’s getting called on her contacts a lot. We need to work on that.

IPO training got canceled that Sunday. But we were going lure coursing in the afternoon. It was really hot but we were able to keep the dogs safe. I think Vada and Prozac are 1 or 2 away from their CAA titles.

Since training had been canceled I was able to squeeze in a session with Warren on Thursday. I wanted to get 1 more in before I went to the north central open training day at Deb’s in WI.

The open training day went really well. It was 10 hours of driving and an early morning. Letty was pretty distracted in obedience. We worked on ring entrances. Then we worked on focused heeling. It was hard for her. We did lots of play with the ball. I also wanted to do the jumps with her. She did great on both of them! Her bitework session was amazing. Chris B worked her. He hasn’t worked her in a year and she’d never been to that site. I had my plan and we did it and it went great. So Chris asked us about other exercises so we gave them a try and she did awesome! Lots to polish up on though. Vada got to do some obedience too.

Sunday we had training with Warren. I figured it was time to work on more control and obedience. It was a mess. It got better but we are definitely out of balance again.

Yesterday the girls saw Dr Heather. Vada was kind of a mess. And her wrist is still pretty sore. I had been doing her exercises for a week or two and then totally forgot about them. 😦 Her back was sore and her shoulders and her hips. Letty had a few spots she needed adjusted but she wasn’t too bad. I had Dr Heather look at Vada’s eyes too. She thought that maybe they were starting to get a little foggy – typical old dog. And maybe a bit of a cataract starting. As time goes on I am questioning Vada’s retirement more and more. She still loves to do things so it’s hard.

Then I drove up to Forest Lake for Al’s funeral. Karl met me there. It was a really nice funeral. People had fun stories to share and lots of nice things to say about him. I’m so very sad for Denise. 😦

This weekend is 2 days of CPE agility in Rochester. I’m looking forward to it. I really like the facility and it’ll be nice to stay down there and not have so much driving. And all 4 dogs get to play since it’s CPE!

Work continues to be crazy busy! But next week I am in training all week for t-sql. It was be so nice to not have to do the daily drive for a week. I’m so tired of sitting in traffic.