Rally and Agility

On Monday after work I tracked Letty in some crazy clover field.  She did great!

Watch out for bumble bees!

On Wednesday I took Vada, Fringe and Seven to see Dr Heather.  All got adjustments.  Vada was her normal outness.  But otherwise Dr Heather thought she looked good.  Fringe held her adjustment from last month so doesn’t need to be seen again for a few months.  Seven’s last adjustment was in January and he didn’t need much work. She didn’t have any other suggestions for his cancer either – other than the CAS she had us put him on.  So lots of good news.

Thursday I took Letty and Narc to see Dr Julia.  I feel like they have been doing really well and I was excited to get more exercises to do.  Letty is doing well.  Still not 100% in her gracilis but better.  I’m able to legally jump her and increase the jump height 2″ each week.  The other exercises all stay the same.  Next checkup is mid-September but we’re to see Dr Heather in the middle to get her sacrum adjusted since it is always out and the tight gracilis might be pulling it out.  Narc is about the same.  The only change to his exercises is to increase the time on the diagonal leg lifts from 10 seconds up to 15 seconds.  Next check up is in 8 weeks.

On our way to Dr Julia’s I stopped at Warren’s and did bitework with Letty.  It worked out great and she did well.

Friday I drove down to Fort Dodge IA (it is 4 hours).  The rally trial started at 1pm.  Bad vibes in that building.  One side was particularly bad.  Lots of stressed and reactive and crate guarding dogs.  Letty did not want to be there.  That threw me off my game.  Vada did not want to be there or do that course either.  It had lots and lots of halts.  Letty passed level 2 and 3 with 88s so I pulled her from trial 2.  She earned her last URX leg in Trial 1 so she is done!  She has 3 UROG legs but they can sit in case one day we ever go back to it.  Vada had a 95 in level 2 and a 91 in level 3 in trial 1.  So it was a RX leg but not a ROG leg.  So no way to finish her UROG title.  😦  We walked out of our 91 scoring run and right into the other side of the building and right into the ring and scored a 100.  While I was in the ring Letty heard my voice and was barking.  Twice the lady sitting in front of my crate yelled “SHUT UP” to her.  The 2nd time I stopped in my run and looked at her and gave her a dirty look.  I was thinking about telling her to quit yelling at my dog.  She was more disrupting than Letty was.  So it was nice to score well and win the class.  In our level 3 run we scored a 99 and placed 2nd.  The 100 score also earned us High in Trial!  We won an adorable chalkboard that was painted with rally symbols.  Vada finished her URX2 also.  So we will enter the MMBC trial in November to finish our her grand.  I was hoping to finish and be done this month but I didn’t keep my mental state clear in the 2 runs that we failed.  I hope that Letty is not ruined for all indoor obedience.

Vada URX2 and Letty URX

Letty URX

Vada URX2 and HIT

Vada’s HIT Award

Every time I go to this trial I have to take a picture on this deck.  I have pics back to Sadie and Copper from the first time I went there to compete in UKC agility.

Vada and Letty in Fort Dodge

Vada and Letty in Fort Dodge

Carol L-S had me drop off a dog with his owner on my way back home in Albert Lea.  The owner arrived at the gas station right after me and the dog was quiet as a mouse so it worked out really well.  And saved Carol 3 hours of driving.

Saturday the girls and I drove to Little Falls for the TIM USDAA trial.  Letty and Fringe both missed the weave entry in Gamblers.  Need to practice that angle!  I was able to put Letty out to the jumps after the weaves so I was thrilled about that!  Then we ran Standard.  Vada went into the wrong end of the tunnel since I stopped to babysit the aframe.  She’s jumping 20″ great!  Letty dropped the bar after the weaves.  Fringe ran it perfect and finished her MAD!  So in Grand Prix I was not connected with Fringe and it was VERY ugly!  In Snooker Letty and I ran out butts off and earned our 3rd SuperQ and her PKM!!!  My first dog ever to have earned all 3 SQs!  I think Seven and Vada only ever earned 1.  Then I goofed on Fringe’s run and she took 2 reds in a row.  Then I goofed up Steeplechase with her and didn’t support jump 2 and she back jumped it.  The rest of the run was gorgeous after we regrouped.  Jumpers was really hard!  I made a complete mess with Letty.  After dropping 2 bars in a row due to my handling she was ready to quit.  Then I wasn’t able to support a jump so I just ran a line out and she was thrilled and happy.  Then I ran Vada at 16″.  I did better but we had a few off courses since I was late. She didn’t mind a few extra jumps.  🙂  Then Fringe got to benefit from my learnings with the other 2 and we had a really nice run and Qd.  The only C22 dog to Q!  There were some tight spots too and she handled them really well.

Fringe MAD and Letty PKM

Fringe MAD

Letty PKM

Sunday I went to Elk River and tracked and then went to Warren’s to do obedience and bitework.  It was just me and he did obedience.  Stopped at Dairy Queen and was home by noon.  Then I was a bum the rest of the day and didn’t get anything done.

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Agility and Rally

I’ve been doing more tracking to get ready to trial for our IPO1 again in October.  A few times I have been able to go over my lunch break.

Letty Tracking

Article Indication

Letty Tracking

Letty Tracking

I finally got to use the docks at Twin Lakes one morning.  I went to go tracking and saw the dock open so we changed plans.  Didn’t last long either until some high school kids came to the BOAT dock to fish.  I did find another area by the fishing pier where the dogs could swim from land.  The down side is that it very gradually gets deeper.  Might be a good place to walk Sonic though.

Quest had his dental just over 2 weeks ago and he’s doing great.  He had a little front tooth removed but the rest were good.  He has not been peeing on rugs since he started the antibiotics.  We did not redo bloodwork (an oops on their part I think) but I think he’s probably pretty good.  I could redo it again in a few weeks to make sure that his kidney values are good but the fact that he is not peeing on rugs any more says a lot.  He just seems to be feeling better overall.  Couse I’ve also been able to quit forcing that nasty stuff in his mouth twice a day and quit poking his back for his subQ fluids.

I was able to train with Warren on a Thursday.  And then again with he and Robin on that Sunday.  We started working on the call out.  It was not pretty.  I think I need to start it with him just sitting in a chair far away and do lots of reps.  I was able to have Robin video the Sunday session.  Letty looked great and I did not see any physical signs of fatigue with her leg.  On Thursday I think we over did it and she was too hot and walking funny on the walk out.

I brought the girls and Seven to the Duluth USDAA trial.  I only entered Saturday.  It was a HOT day and hardly any breeze.  Fringe Qd in Steeplechase and Jumpers.  She was 1 point short of a Q in Snooker.  Letty went into lure coursing mode in Snooker and ran across the ring.  I got her back but then was rushing so pulled her out of the weaves.  We had little bloopers all over.  Vada ran at 20″ in Standard and ran great.  She popped the weaves though which is odd.  She did Jumpers at 16″ for vets.  Poor Seven was scared of the whistle.  Seems to be worse up there.  I was wishing I had left him home.  Poor boy.

Monday Sonic had an appointment with Dr Jina for some bloodwork.  On Thursday he had crashed.  He could not stand up and he could not stay standing.  I was not able to get him in to the vet on Friday since I was the only one in the office and I was already going in late in order to drop Quest off for his dental.  Saturday they were booked as always.  But he started getting better.  Sunday night he was chasing after other dogs playing ball.  Monday we discovered that some of his bloodwork was off and he was anemic.  He was taken off of Previcox.  So we scheduled an ultrasound on Tuesday.  She found nothing.  He was put on Gabapentin.  Once he started showing signs of pain Karl started giving him the Gabapentin.  Dr Julia thought it might make him weaker so we held off.  He’s also getting baby Tylonol.  Since nothing was found on the ultrasound we are waiting 2 weeks and doing bloodwork again.  If it’s still the same then they think it is just his ‘normal’ and we can go ahead and schedule a dental for him.  Karl is very hopeful that the dental will make him feel a lot better.  It did wonders for Vada and Reba and Quest.  Sonic crashed really bad over the weekend so Karl put him back on Previcox.  He seems to be slowly getting better again.  Poor guy.

Thursday after work I drove to Madison for an AKC agility trial on Friday at CSZ.  I was curious to see what the facility was like.  The footing is amazing.  It’s like Rochester but brighter.  The trial didn’t start until 11am.  It was nice to sleep in and go tracking in the morning but it made for a late night.  Vada and Letty loved the footing and both ran well.  No Qs though.  Letty hacked up a treat and some other treats and stomach foam on her way into the ring for the last run.  The judge let me still do my run even though it was an NQ.  It was an amazing run!  After the trial we drove to Rockford for UKC rally trials.  It was about an hour and a half avoiding toll roads.

I first crated on the cool carpet but quickly realized that we were by a loud metal banging door and it was freaking Seven out.  So we moved to the new crating room and he was much happier.  The building used to be a bowling alley.

Neat carpet

Crating room

The facility was really nice.  It has nice new rubber mat flooring.  The ring was nice and big.  Vada earned 3 more Grand legs.  I messed up her stay in her first level 3 run since I was so freaked out about her breaking.  So in the next 3 trials I just kept my mouth shut.  She had a 100 going.  She also earned 3 more legs towards her URX2.  She needs 2 more legs for each title!  She earned placements on 6 of her 7 qualifying runs.  She tied on most of them for first but got beat out on time.  In one run I goofed on a sign and had to redo it and lost 3 points.  But we were just focusing on calm and smooth and connected and not rushing.  Letty earned 3 Grand legs and 3 URX legs.  Her first Grand legs.  She needs 1 more leg for her URX.  She hates rally.  She did pretty good on Saturday so I added a trial on Sunday.  We got thru it but it was horrible.  The building did not stress her out at all and it was clean around the ring so very little distractions.  I think she just hates rally.  She also had diarrhea on Saturday probably from rawhides on Friday night so maybe she just didn’t feel good.

UKC Rally Ribbons

Crating Area

Rally Ring

Watchers

Vada Refuses to Fall Asleep

Sleep Letty

Sleepy Seven

Found a Baskin Robins!

For possible future reference:
8/1/2015 – T1 (Letty not entered so she can get used to the building)
RO2: Vada 100 2nd place
RO3: Vada NQd on sit stay

8/1/2015 – T2
RO2: Vada 100 1st place – Letty 98
R03: Vada 100 2nd place – Letty 98

8/2/2015 – T1
RO2: Vada 100 2nd place – Letty 98
RO3: Vada 99 4th place (ticked jump) – Letty 94

8/2/2015 – T2
RO2: 96 (redid halt-down-sit sign and some other point off) – Letty 95
RO3: 100 3rd place – Letty 98

Letty’s official 2015 AKC Invitational invite arrived in the mail and we are entered.

2014 Invitational Invite

Here is the video of Vada’s CATCH3 run that Steve recorded for me.

My Dog Sports Skills: Book3: Play! book came in the mail and they used one of the pics that I sent them.

Mom and Copper Published in a Book!

I just realized that I never posted a pic of Narc’s new collar.  He hasn’t had a chance to wear it out in public yet.  Maybe on Thursday he can wear it to his appointment with Dr Julia.

Narc’s New Collar