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!
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.
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.
Long Time Coming… updates March 9, 2008
Well, There are many things to report and not much time to do that in… It is about 10pm on Sunday the 9th and I am feeling the loss of the hour sleep last night – especially when the clock went forward two hours and the alarm went off at 5:30 (3:30!)
Couple Things First:
1) Edi… now Dizzy D has a new home with my brother and she is just perfect. She has the best temperament of any Staffy that I have known. Great Dog… and it’s nice to have her close by.
2) Fitness challenge
6 weeks in now and I am feeling great! Down two sizes and almost 20 pounds from when I started the diet. I know I ran faster this weekend with Rowan as well! But – geesch – it takes up so much of my time… It’s where I want to spend my time right now but some things -like blogs- gotta give – sorry folks (Camille – you especially)
Now to the interesting stuff!
USDAA Trial number 2 update – in brief. I went to the WAG trial in Corvallis this past weekend. My Grandparents and Mom came to watch. It was wonderful to have them there… they had never seen me run or even met Rowan. I could hear my Grandmother cheering me through the weave poles – or the wiggle-waggles as she called them. What a hoot! There were three Staffords showing this weekend. I got to spend some time talking with Sarah with her girl Tess. And Suki and Richard were there with Stevie Ray. Go Staffords! I am not certain where I sit with the completion of my Starters Title – I believe am 1 Snooker leg away at this point. I also wanted try to qualify in Steeplechase and did!!! Suki has a video of the first round run and here is round two – the final.
Rowan represented the other three Staffords there this weekend in that run and did not disappoint with a second place finish! We won $23! I was very proud of her and happy with my handling. There are always places to improve… but what fun would it be if we all started out perfect??
Good night – More to come soon… like the shortest snooker run (for me) ever!
Our first USDAA trial January 27, 2008
This was the weekend that I have been training for – well at least so far. I wanted to get Rowan into USDAA as soon as I felt we were ready and when I felt that we could run with the “big dogs”! I was anxious and excited for the weekend to come. Elinda was there and the gang from Fido’s. I also found out a few weeks ago that the Canadian Stafford Brigade was going to be there as well. It was great to see them all. And – even though there is no really-quality video that came out of the weekend due to the fact that operating that camera with gloves is just plain tricky – I had a blast!
Rowan didn’t feel too well on Saturday (note to self – do not give Rowan a raw bone just before a trial!) … and I pulled muscle on Sunday but we managed to get through 8 runs and we ran 6 of them clean and qualified. On Saturday we ran the Grand Prix local qualifying round for the nationals. …and we QUALIFIED (see above)! That was my biggest thrill of the weekend despite I was quite late in doing the front cross after the weave poles – I was just so excited to have made it that far on the course I forgot where I was going next! She ran that course better than the Starters courses. So now I am able to go to the Super Regional in June for Grand Prix or I need to get one more Q in Grand Prix and I am qualified to go run that at Nationals in October. Just two legs more legs to finish her Starters title. Sa-weet!
Rowan’s contacts were really nice this weekend. She kept most bars up – only dropped them when I cued or called her over the bar. I need to continue to work on weave poles. We ran Pairs Relay with Prot. I wish we had gotten that on film but the camera was being a little bugger. It would have been a good run to watch. We got 1st. And her times could have been a bit faster – but that’s about my speed at this point… and I am working on that. The It’s a Dog’s World Fitness Challenge begins tomorrow!
Last trial 2007 January 4, 2008
What a year! Rowan and I started trailing this year and I took my time getting her started. We did mostly CPE which I was very pleased to start in – It is a good venue for baby dogs. Here is a video of the Standard run which completed our legs for that part of the CPE Level 2 title… just a few more legs in the games to go.
What will 2008 bring? Well, I will write more about that soon.
Happy New Year everyone! Here’s to many wonderfully fast runs and success in 2008!
Another Video October 21, 2007
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.
Goals Achieved! October 15, 2007
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!
