Here is Rowan’s jumpers run from last weekend. I was very pleased despite her dropped bars.
You can see at the beginning how excited she was to see all those people setting the bars for her – I would imagine that her sister, Jazz, is the same way! Her time was 20.35 on a 105 yd course.
Today I practiced full speed on 16″ jumps to correct knocked bars… she did very well collecting herself and picking her feet up while maintaining speed.
Rowan came away with 8 out of 10 Q’s from the weekend. From my prior post, I committed to working on well-placed front and rear crosses, solid contacts and weave poles, speed and my “close to me cues” I feel like I did all but the last one really well this weekend! And I got to see a speedy side of Rowan and I feel like there is more speed there- I’m still smiling! I did drop a couple bars here and there… but I either cued her over the top of the jump or was pushing her for speed – My fault. When she q’d with no faults (or stupid handler moves) she was in first place… with 1-4 seconds difference between the 2nd place dog. In her last run she ran faster than Elinda’s BC!!!! (ok, ok… Kip q’d and Rowan didn’t …but the speed was there!) This was our first run of the day Sunday in standard Level 2:
Training opportunities: I need to work on tightening up turns… especially the wrap, game strategy- so I don’t loose her attention (It will help when I am not chief course builder), tire entry at an angle, and taking the a-frame from anywhere I cue it.
I will put up another video when I get a chance!
I have a trial this weekend in Elma. I will be chief course builder for the Top Dog club. Rowan is entered in level two which I hope will be a bit of a challenge for her. I am confident that she can do all that I might ask of her this weekend. I am committed to working and rewarding her weave pole performance, varying my position at the contacts and getting the touches, and pushing to get to a tight front cross or rear cross where relevant. and to Run! I like the games at CPE and NADAC… especially snooker. It will give me a chance to use my “close to me” cue as well. Elinda and Heather L. will be there. Should be fun! more to come……..
I was asked several weeks ago to make the cake for my friend Rachel’s baby shower. I said “sure!” and then proceeded to panic in my waking hours and have nightmares about what I was going to make, how it would turn out, if it would taste good and mostly, if it would look good. And for some further background, Rachel and I took a cake decorating class together and Rachel often creates amazing looking food/baked goods- so the pressure was on to make the cake look good. And just to add to the pressure, there were other known foodies going to be there as well. This is an event that Rachel will remember forever – the baby shower for her first child… the cake must be memorable – in a good way. Can you feel the pressure? And in true Sagitarian style, I left it to the last minute.
My friend Kate helped me with the tip to use the Joy of Cooking’s Vegan Chocolate Cake recipe and that the frosting on the back of the Hershey’s cocoa can was tried and true. It kind of feels like a dirty secret – a bit of a cheat because it is so easy- but is a good start and I would not be using a cake mix… which was never an option in this case. We also discussed the element of decoration and Kate told me about some cupcakes that she made that had a square of Fran’s chocolate on them as decoration. Armed with a solid base I proceed. I -as usual- worried that 24 cupcakes for the 24 people who had RSVP’d would not be enough and that I would need to make a small cake, as well. I also wanted to decorate the cake simply but be sure it was coordinated with the cupcakes. I decided on English toffee from a candy maker at the Olympia Farmer’s Market for the top decoration and got some ribbon for the cake. I baked the cake and cupcakes on Friday night and the cake recipe couldn’t be easier! (and good!)
Dairy Free Chocolate Cake
Preheat oven to 350. I lined, greased and dusted the cake pans.
Sift together in a large bowl:
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 cup plus 2 T sugar
6 T unsweetened cocoa (I used dutch )
1 t baking soda
1/8 t salt
Combine (sift) together.
I added the following to my mixer bowl:
1 cup cold water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 T white vinegar
2 t vanilla
Stir in dry ingredients until combined. Measure into the pans and bake for 15 -20 minutes for cupcakes, 25-35 minutes for cakes.
I head to bed thinking about which frosting I will make to fill the cake and whether or not the chocolate frosting will be ok in my color coordination. Then I have my final dream about the cake in which my friend Emma – who is always very nice and supportive in real life – takes a look at my finished product and when asked what she thinks says – “uh, they are ok…” I wake up in a worried state.
The frosting came together nicely and I fill the cake with cherry preserves.
Hershey’s Chocolate Frosting
(using the new special dark cocoa)
1/2c butter, melted
2/3 c. cocoa
3 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. milk
1 t. vanilla
Beat ingredients together. Add more milk to thin and more powdered sugar to thicken.
With a little “cool cake – hot knife” maneuvering the end results is a mostly smooth cake with a lovely ribbon decoration! And there was plenty of cake remaining. Rachel was able to take whole the cake home to Kyle.
Success! I think that I could do this again!
So Banjo has not quite learned that agility is a team sport. The way he sees it is that I come along to get his ball out of the bag for him and get him warmed up on a few jumps. Then – he could just do without me. I have been trying to get some video of this fun trick that he does off the dogwalk and teeter. I want to document it and then phase it out of our agility training 
Sorry for the poor quality of the video … it’s from my digital camera!
Well – I have been glued to the FCI dog agility world championships. The USA Large Team won the Silver Medal and the Midi USA Team got 4th! I am such a geek… I have all the results printed and am checking off the runs that I watch on the subscription only website: http://fci2007.agilityvideoservice.com . Yes – I paid $19 for the all access pass. Me and a ton of other agility fanatics – I’m sure!! (Elinda had the same courses all printed out when I got to her house to train on Friday!) There are some crazy breeds running – and one Staffy Bull from Germany. And on that note there were two staffords at the NADAC nationals a week or so ago… check out their runs! It’s free. Check out Tate & Pokey.
Both these competitions and the USDAA Nationals coming up soon has me thinking about my agility future with Rowan… I think the next class I enter her in will really push me as a handler and will let me see what we have (and need more of) as a team.
And just to continue the Stafford fiesta -here’s a photo of Grace at training!
