14 days… November 2, 2011

Any one of my good dog pals can tell you that I am serious about Foundation Training… perhaps obsessive is a better word. Don’t worry, I may be off the deep end right now in terms of planning, reading, toy and training tool organization and note taking but once the “Little Man” is here and the work begins it will all balance out. Having plain ol’puppy time is priceless!

I have started my planning with an organizational system for my foundation training into these building blocks: PLAY – TRICKS – SELF CONTROL – SOCIALIZATION

PLAY – games, toys, tug, and team building with me

TRICKS – behaviors that lend to solid proprioception skills, agility foundation, the Recall and the basics. There will be a detailed list and I really want to get the rear end awareness that I could never quite capture with Rowan.

SELF CONTROL – Impulse control, impulse control, impulse control. did I mention impulse control? My favorite sources are the Controlled Unleashed games & Susan Garret’s crate games.

SOCIALIZATION – I will be using the Sophie Yin Checklist to get exposed to anything and everything. I also already have so many puppy play dates with other dogs and kids set up – I could schedule them all into 2013. And classes start the weekend after he arrives.

More on all this later -Rowan is staring at me and wants to go to bed… little does she know I will be dreaming about puppy breath!

New beginnings, countdown to Puppy!!! October 22, 2011

On November 15th this little guy (name still to be determined) will be coming to live with us. He is coming all the way from England and is a bit earlier than I had planned to get my next puppy… But one cannot pass up such a wonderful opportunity. And he’s already crazy for toys!

I started a notebook and have been reviewing my training books to ensure that he gets all the foundation and expose as I possibly can fit in – ha! I decided that now would be a good time to reinvigorate the blog and document our progress. Today, I shopped for him at the trial – three new tuggable toys just for him. I think Banjo may get jealous.

I look forward to introducing everyone to the Little Man when he arrives. Until then, let the planning begin!

Happy Birthday Banjo October 31, 2008

We estimate that around this time of the year is Banjo’s birthdate. Dave always laments about Banjo’s horrible life with two different owners and this time in “lock-up” at the Animal Shelter before we got him… but that 5 weeks of his life has not impacted his overall look at the world too memorably 

Look a him now at 2 years old:

He and Rowan are great pals… and his most favorite things in the world are Dave and his ball… agility is down on the list.

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Banjo’s First Trial and weekend video July 28, 2008

I am tired… but here is some video until I can get some commentary up here!

I will add details soon!

NW USDAA Regionals in Review July 4, 2008

Well… first off we survived the heat. It has been very cool here – in the 60′s on a warm day…. that is until the weekend of the USDAA Super Regionals which gave us temperatures of 100+ on the field on Saturday afternoon. Needless to say my black, muscled Stafford didn’t fair too well. She had the Stafford Community Pool to use – provided by our friends and neighbors Karen, Kersten, Prot & Idgie – and she had fans, cool pads, etc…. but it was just not enough for my girl. We bombed the Grand Prix run and scratched the Steeplechase run. I do have to say that Rowan does have a marvelous work ethic – all things considered. I think my favorite run was this gamblers run… she had nice contacts and good speed. The gamble itself was brutal. No dogs in our class got the gamble – I’m not sure how many in the whole class were successful.

Rowan is still a young dog in lots of ways and we will take forward building steps to get us back there next year! Her overall performance and work ethic in the Advanced runs on both days were wonderful… she’s such a good girl! You will note that I did choose to run off the line with her in most runs… I have found that she has lost some confidence coming up to the line in competition and I want to build that confidence. So we are back to the games up to the line and I am getting toys back into training. She is very receptive!

Here are some more of our weekend runs:

Standard

Jumpers – 3rd place an a Q

And Pairs… my half and I think we qualified!

Running with the Bulls May 19, 2008

I have not been feeling like much going on is very “blogworthy”…. maybe it’s more like I haven’t felt like blogging. But I guess this past weekend was fairly worthy!

I attended the Fleet Feet DAM team trial in Turner, OR. What a wonderful trial – despite the heat. It was one ring and all team event. I was on the Running with the Bulls team consisting of Rowan, Proton the Staffy, and Zoe the Aussie. Alas… no video. I just didn’t feel like getting it out of the case and asking someone who I didn’t know very well to film me. Oh Well. I do wish I had it now… I really want to get better about filming so I can evaluate my handling.

We did well as a team. Karen and Zoe really carried us with many clean, fast runs. Rowan and I had some faults that just added points to our overall time and I feel like she ran really well! She got all her contacts… minus the teeter flyoff… but she was in the yellow – downed bars were due to me calling her over the bars… (I could just hear Daisy saying – “you’re late!”) But overall she ran nicely – I was very pleased with her consistency. She maintained good speed – I never felt like I was cheerleading her. And I felt like I was consistent with my handling overall and I pushed my comfort zone a bit here and there with good success. No course seems too difficult due to the courses that we run in class Wednesday nights and there was some good challenge that we have not been getting in the Starters courses.

We were 3rd going into the final run – team relay and ended up 14th overall! That’s the Q Prot and Rowan needed for Nationals!!

We also Q’d for a second time in Grand Prix – so that wraps up her Q’s for Nationals in the Grand Prix as well.

Next stop – Super Regionals!

Also in the works: The new Fitness Challenge started last week, Banjo needs to get weave poles down because he will have his first trial in August, I need to decide if I am going to run team in Regionals and then if I am going to Nationals…..

Last Weekend – USDAA TRIAL April 19, 2008

Rowan and I competed at the RAT USDAA trial in Elma with many of our friends. Rowan wasn’t feeling very well… and still isn’t but I hope to get that taken care of today at the vets office. We dropped a lot of bars in Grand Prix – which is not like her – and continued the trend in Steeplechase. I got her a massage and pulled her from her last run in Jumpers. Kelly said that she seemed to be sore in her hips and mid-back. I need to find her a chiropractor.

We did – despite not running our best – get our final leg for our AD title!!! That was a snooker Q we needed… and I didn’t get that on tape. Oh well. Here is our best run of the weekend – gamblers. She dropped two bars here but that was due to me queing her over the bar and accelerating… both things I need to work on in handling and training.

Cone update April 3, 2008

Quick update! Rowan is doing fine – but is still wearing the cone. She will until next Wednesday – but I think she is fine. The seed was tinier than I could have imagined! Geesch! But no surgery was needed just a local, microscopic glass wear and a dental tool – with a steady hand. Oh and did I mention the Specialist! Everything else looks A-OK with her eyes. I can’t wait to get back to agility – the course from last night look really challenging and fun. I hope to get the map and set up pieces.

My grandfather passed away. I’m glad he did not have to be in the hospital too long – not even 24 hours. But I do wish I could have seen him. I go to Eastern WA for the funeral and family time this weekend.

Call you grandparents or parents! Tell them you love them.

(Added later: Last night’s course map)

This weekend – CPE L2/3 March 17, 2008

I had a fun but exhausting weekend at the Top Dog CPE trial. It is my home club and I was asked to be chief course builder. I really need to train some other folks to do that so I can work 1/2 days. I came home last night and went to bed until morning – 12 hours. But Elinda and Heather Leu were there and Dave and Jen came to visit so that was wonderful! I was glad that Elinda got to meet Dave and Jen – it brings parts of my life and very important people together for me. I had fun running Ariel. She was looking for mom all weekend but she did get through all the courses. One run should have been a Q but due to time set by the judge – it was not…. bummer cuz we worked hard for that.

Here are some videos from my runs this weekend. Rowan was quite fast… probably because I was confident in her abilities and these courses… I was not nervous. I went into the weekend wanting to work on speed.

This way one of my favorite runs – despite the teeter fly off… Elinda said that she hung on… but just not long enough. That is not a typical problem for us – I am not concerned.

The next run is jumpers – day end on Sunday. I was quite pleased with that run… she didn’t flatten out to get more speed and I am running faster now too! I never thought I could make it to the tunnel for the cross – but I did! I was commenting to the judge through the run. She had challenged me to layer the tunnel but I chickened out (which I told her while running) and then still made that cross (and I told her – “but I will do this!”) . I don’t have my time yet but I will edit this when I do. I am interested to see what her yps were.

The last video is of my friend Heather’s dog Sligo – her puppy in training. He wanted to be sure we knew he was there…. see how gently he taps that bowl? This is documentation for Diane.

I have two weeks off of trialing now but start my clicker class next week. That should be fun! I have to say that I am looking forward to a Saturday at home as much as I love to trial!

Round one – our Q March 11, 2008

Thank you to Suki for the video and wonderful editing – so high tech!

and the snooker that was not to be… don’t blink! I’m not sure how I thought I could out run her to turn off the jump after the triple that she could not take…. maybe someday that will work for me.