I guess it's summer now

It was such a long, miserable and cold winter that I am really trying not to complain about the weather. But would it have been too much to ask to have at least a little bit of a spring this year? You know, days that are nice and clear with highs in the 60's and low 70's? Because aside from a couple of weeks of highs in the 50s with lots of rain, we pretty much jumped from "freezing" to "hellishly hot" just like that.

We actually set this course up last night. The circumstances were not ideal -- it was 86 degrees, somewhat humid, and Luke & Kaiser had just had a vet visit. I probably SHOULD have taken the girls for a run, but I've been a bum about that lately, and I thought that agility sounded like more fun.

And.... I about died. OMG, by the time I wrapped up the second dog I was pretty much gasping for breath. Secret ran first and pretty much did the best of anyone. I did video the runs from last night but I didn't do anything with them. The little dogs were very "meh" about the whole thing (didn't help that they broke into an open food bag in the garage....).

I'm home this morning and a bit before 10:00 a.m. I figured I'd go out and give it another shot, thinking it would be cooler and go much better. Well, it did go much better, but cooler it was not. I checked the weather when I was done and the real-feel was already 84 degrees. Sheesh. I will say, though, that for as miserably hot as it was in the sun, we all sat in the one corner of shade in the back of the yard when we were done and it was quite nice.

And now it's getting close to 88 degrees out there and Kizzy is sunning herself on the deck.... The rest of us are hunkering down in the air conditioning the rest of the afternoon until I have to leave for Petco. I did think about taking them down to the river before I have to jump in the shower this afternoon, but we just put Advantix on the other day and I figure we'll let that soak in a bit more.

I got confirmations for the 4th of July trial this morning, so either a draw was not needed or we made it in on our chosen days. I should probably book the hotel today since it's a holiday weekend, I suppose. Looking forward to a fun weekend at that trial!

Stupid weaves...

Yesterday we left home at the buttcrack of dawn (that would be 4:38 a.m.) to drive over to Sheboygan for some AKC fun. I entered this trial more or less at the last minute after the trial secretary posted that they still had openings. It's been a nice, cool spring, so I thought we'd take a chance on some possible rain and do some agility outside. Because at least it would be cool, right?

Or not. It was freaking hot! Hot AND steamy, because it started raining as we were walking the first course of the day. It stopped before we started running (except for the brief, tiny shower that started right before Secret ran), which more or less just made it super humid and gross.

That said, this trial site was perfect! We truly had the best of all worlds, as we got to run in some really lovely outdoor grass rings and the dogs got to spend their day in the comfort of the air conditioning in their lovely indoor arena. We would gladly go back to Sheboygan Dog Training Club in the future! It really was a beautiful site. The roads on the majority of the drive were crappy and bumpy, but the 3 hour and 10 minute drive really wasn't that bad. And the trial didn't start until 8:30 -- that extra half hour was pretty much the deciding factor between me driving over the day of vs the night before.

Now.... I can not grumble about the courses because I knew full well the style of this judge going into this. His courses are about as vanilla as vanilla can get. We ran in Karl's JWW ring in Cannon Falls and it was the course I likened to a NADAC Open Jumpers course with a set of weaves thrown in. But whatever, we were just going to have a fun day of playing agility outside. The biggest surprise was the spacing. It felt like I was walking a teacup course. The bars were already set at 24" when I walked it so I didn't stride it out like I normally would, but it was tight. I don't think Secret minds that, though. The short spacing tends to work well for her.

Secret did well on this course. As I mentioned above, we had a quick little shower right before going into the ring. All this really did was make things slick for us. I think it was the landing of the triple where she fell onto her shoulder, but she picked herself up and kept going. I used all blinds in this run. Her weaves started out a little cautious but then picked up speed nicely. Secret got 3rd place, 9 speed points and her MXJ on this run!

Kaiser seemed happy to be running outside! I always feel like he jumps better in natural lighting and he did really well yesterday. I got in all fronts with him except where I threw in the blind between 14 & 15 (with nothing else in the path I figured it was safe!). Kaiser won his class (and there was actual competition this time!) and got 17 speed points.

I was concerned about the start of this course for Secret because it didn't allow for much, if any, movement on my part. She did well with it, though, and was running very happy through the first part of this course. I picked her up on my right out of the #9 tunnel, which was my original plan, but it was solidified when I saw dog after dog going to the a-frame instead of the table when the dog was on the left. I raced her off the table to squeeze in a blind cross before the teeter. This was a risk, because the off course jump was only a short 6 strides from jump 14.

Secret had a great teeter and moved off confidently over the triple and through the tire. She hit her weave entry and then got a totally blank look on her face as she veered off towards the fence to her right. There was a peanut gallery sitting just outside the fence, but I can't imagine that would be that much of a distraction. Watching the runs in the Std ring, I would venture to say that AT LEAST 50% of the dogs were faulting at the weaves yesterday. There is absolutely no reason for it that I can see so far as course design goes. It was a very straightforward entry. And it wasn't even the entries that were getting dogs. Many were getting pulled out by something after they were already in. Someone suggested maybe it was the breeze coming in from that direction. I have absolutely no idea, but it was the oddest thing.

So of course I had a complex when it came time to run Kaiser. His run started great, too, and he got his table!! Yay! That is always reason to celebrate! I was waffling back and forth on whether or not to push for a front before the teeter or to hold back and cross him on the exit (which I knew he wouldn't really like). I got enough of a head-start off the table that I was able to get there in time for the front. Kaiser hit his weaves and stayed in them, so I figured we should be home free. I *may* have took off for the finish jump a stride too early, but Kaiser is not known for leaving his weaves early. But he did, at pole 10, and that was that. We became one of the 50%+ who faulted at the weaves.

We were completely done, packed up and on the road by 11:45 a.m.! It's probably a little insane to drive almost 6.5 hours for a trial that lasts just over 3 hours. Oh well, it was fun! And we got home just after 3:00, which meant we still had plenty of time to go swimming. By the way, I do not suggest walking 1 mile each way in flip-flops... The dogs did not understand my need to walk slower than usual. It was the perfect day for a swim, though, and everyone enjoyed themselves. And Secret managed to completely destroy the new Chuck-It bumper that I *just* got (this was its 2nd trip to the river). Sigh. That was the last one available at Petco, too, so hopefully we get a new shipment in soon. I work tonight, so I'll have to look for a replacement. Because lord knows Secret isn't going to chase a boring old tennis ball into the river...

I sent in entries to the AKC trial at Think Pawsitive for the 4th of July weekend (to run Friday/Saturday). We don't have any more AKC planned until then, unfortunately. The only thing we have in June is NADAC in La Crosse, so odds are high that everyone will get to play a bit that weekend. Maybe even Kizzy, we'll have to see how adventurous I'm feeling.

Swimming!!

It was 82 degrees when I got out of work today. I don't have any scheduled shifts at Petco until Saturday, but do have the option to go in and sit through a few more hours of training videos -- But who could do that on such a lovely evening? So I came home and took the dogs to the river for a swim.

I was waffling because the water in the local waterways is still so very high and fast from recent flooding. I had no idea what to expect from the little river that goes through our local park. I decided to take the chance and walked the dogs down. On the off chance that we wouldn't be able to swim, at least we'd get a walk out of the deal. FYI, they are all a bunch of raging lunatics when they know there is swimming to be had.

The water was, indeed, very high and quite fast. I did not throw their toys out nearly as far as usual -- especially when I looked up once to see Secret's new bumper floating in a little whirlpool created by the rapids, but no Secret. Secret had gotten pulled downstream and was trying desperately to swim back upstream towards her toy. I finally convinced her to swim sideways towards me and then sent her back out to get the bumper (questionable, perhaps, but hey, it's new!  ;o) ). After that I was much more careful about where I tossed the toys and kept everything pretty close to shore and away from the swirling waters of the little rapids.

I kept the little dogs on 6' leashes to avoid the bedlam that could surely ensue with two dogs roaming on 20'+ flexi leashes. Four dogs, two on leash, is just more or less a pain to deal with at the river.... We may have to rethink this plan in the future. Kaiser enjoyed splashing in the shallow water as usual. The big surprise was when Kizzy went charging in to the water! I don't remember that from her last year. Thankfully I'd brought an extra tennis ball along and she enjoyed fetching that from the shallow water several times. I think the two of them would have more fun down there on their own on flexis next time. Maybe I'll just have to make two trips!

My knees are still farked up from the weekend and I think I sprained the big toe on my left foot. Awesome. Hopefully everything works itself out for the trial on Monday.

3 Days of Agility Fun -- CKC AKC Trial

Our 3-day agility extravaganza is behind us. At the end of the day today part of me was like, "Phew, glad that is done," but then again, it sure would be fun to go back for more tomorrow!  :o)  Judge Lisa Patterson brought some fun courses with her (I don't remember her courses from the last time we saw her, I should look them up) and Kaiser & Secret had a very good weekend.

The only downside was that my knees were absolutely wrecked at the end of the day on Saturday. I have no idea what that is about, other than to think that maybe my ancient turf/trail runners have ran their last trial and need to be retired. I iced my knees last night, took a ton of Advil & Ibuprofen and switched to a new pair of trail runners today and things went much better. There was still residual pain from yesterday, but it definitely didn't get any worse. Considering the old shoes have holes in them, it's probably time for them to go in the garbage. I have an attachment disorder to shoes...

Our weekend started off with a Standard run on Friday. Kaiser needed just one more Exc Std Q to move up to Masters for the rest of the weekend, so the pressure was on (self-imposed, obviously). He put in a really nice run. I led out near jump two to get the front cross on the landing side of three. His running a-frame set us up nicely for the front cross to 8. You couldn't be a lazy handler at the chute because it was almost like a backside send to jump 10, which many handlers didn't make because they didn't follow through after the chute -- I almost did the same with Kaiser, but was able to shoot forward at the last second to support the jump. He had a nice teeter and didn't jump off the side for the first time in several trials. I stayed on the inside of the tire and handled the weaves from the right, doing what I think might have been my only rear cross off the weekend into the tunnel. Kaiser had a great dog walk and then..... Bounced the table.

Groan!!!! I thought we would be okay on this table set-up because he wouldn't be coming at it with a ton of speed. Oh well. Stinker. To his credit, it's not like we've practiced the table in the last several months or anything. From there it was just a fun and fast finish.

Secret was having a ball on this run. It was really, really nice until I pushed for a blind while she was on the teeter and ended up pushing her straight to the off course jump ahead of her. Totally my fault. The rest of the run was really nice, including weaves that got faster as they went and a nice zippy finishing line.

Kaiser NQ'd in JWW, but I'll take the blame for it. He was not happy with how much I crowded him at the entry and then when I scooped him up at the end to push up to 9 he read it as a push out and took the off course jump 12. Looking back, I wonder if he would have been happier if I had front crossed before and after the weaves to stay out of his space. Oh well.

Secret had a nice run full of fun blind crosses. She earned a Q and 10 speed points on this run.

Saturday started with JWW and the big dogs were up first. Secret was the second dog on the line, but we had plenty of time to prep and she was ready to go. I did a front cross on the landing of jump 13 because the angle was just a little off for the blind, but otherwise I was able to use blinds everywhere else. This was a really nice run for Secret with 13 speed points! That's her second-highest score for JWW.

I stuck with fronts on this course for Kaiser and we still had a couple of close calls where he was veering towards off course jumps. We managed to keep it clean, though, for a Q and 22 speed points. That straight four-jump finish certainly didn't hurt anything. He loves those finishes and really turns on the afterburners.

This was a fun Std course. There was no babysitting to be done on the a-frame if you wanted to be in place for the front cross after 3. Jump 8 was REALLY close to the weave poles (the judge said it was the minimum of 4'), which meant that you had to be careful not to get in your dog's way (if they are sensitive to that sort of thing). With Secret I stayed ahead of her and it wasn't a problem. With Kaiser I opted to layer the jump and stay out of his way, especially after crowding him the day before.

I managed a cross on the landing side of 9 with both dogs, and even got the front with Kaiser before the chute (blind with Secret). The majority of the rear crosses done there were pretty ugly, either earning refusals or resulting in the dog turning the wrong way out of the chute and having to look for the handler.

I was hopeful that the table in this location would be Kaiser-friendly. It was again right off the dog walk and this time into the wall with nowhere to go. He stopped! He stayed! Good boy! With both dogs I led off the table a bit to be able to support a straight line for the next few jumps. Many handlers were behind and their dogs took the off course jump 4 as a result. The dogs had a lot of speed coming down that line and over the triple, so then you pretty much had to slam on the brakes for the teeter. Both dogs were excellent. Kaiser got that last Q for his AXP and Secret got 18 speed points on this run and QQ#4!

Kaiser was entered in T2B this weekend because of the small size of the trial and because I opted out of running Kizzy and figured I may as well blow that money on Kaiser.  :o)  This was a really lovely run, but I started pushing too hard around that top turn and Kaiser ended up crashing jump 14. Darn. My fault.

We stopped at Petco on the way home from the trial because my coworkers wanted to meet my dogs. There is no way I'm bringing all four in at once, so I figured this was a good opportunity to start with two of them. I had reservations about bringing my two most anti-social dogs in first, but Kaiser & Secret were angels and made a great first impression! The store was a madhouse with people everywhere -- many of whom had no qualms about reaching out to pet them without asking. I was worried about how Secret would react, but she actually did really, really well! They were model citizens, if you don't count Secret standing up on the counter to beg for treats.  :o)

When we got home last night the dogs went nuts and pretty much ran laps in the yard for the next few hours. Ideally I like to practice the art of staying quiet on trial weekends to reserve our energy, but my knees hurt so bad that I just let them do whatever they felt like doing. I figured it would bite me in the butt with Secret, but it ended up being Kaiser that was more pooped today.

Today started with T2B and Kaiser just was not feeling it. I led out a bit to do the weaves on the left side and he missed the entry. There are no refusals counted in this class, so I fixed it. Then I failed to support jump 5 because I was trying to move into position for a front cross, so he ran past it. He got better as we went along and finished strong. Once again he was the only dog in the 8" Preferred class, so by virtue of running "clean" he got first place and 10 points. This was his only Q of the day.

Std was kind of a mess for the little man. He looked hard at the dog walk but I was able to get him over 2, but then he cut to the inside of 3 and I didn't fix it. He missed his weave entry again and I didn't fix it. He did get his table again, so yay!! Then he was a good boy and held his dog walk with me running ahead to get in place for the front cross after 15 for a nice finish. No QQ on his first time in Masters.

Secret was having a good, good run. Considering it was day 3, this was a really zippy run from her, weaves and all! Then I did the same as I'd done with Kaiser, pushing and running ahead to beat her to 15 -- and I pushed her, once again, straight ahead to the off course jump. I screeched (FYI, I hate it when I do that) and she *almost* was able to put on the brakes, but her momentum carried her over the jump for the fault. It was such a nice run, too. Stupid handler!

Our weekend ended with this fun JWW course. When I looked at the map this morning I almost squealed with delight -- Look! A wrap! It's sad that this is the most exciting thing we have ever seen on an AKC course in our year of trialing in this organization.

Kaiser went off course at the tunnel and took the wrong end, so we were done there. He was also running very slow and stuttering on this run.  :o(  His slower-than-normal speed did make it easier for me to hit my spots, though, which means that I actually did make it into position to do a Ketschker/Jaakko at 9 (I'm pretty sure it would be classified as a Jaakko since I used my outside arm, but I get so confused by these terms, lol). I also made it for the front cross after 13, which shows just how much slower than usual he was going. I was worried that he was having tummy troubles from 3 days of treats (plus the treat I picked up for them at Petco for the drive home that he didn't even finish), but I could NOT get him to go to the bathroom on any of our walks today. Of course, immediately following this run he had a giant bowel movement -- totally normal, just huge -- so I think he was "backed up." He sprinted off with a relieved look on his face after that, so this could have definitely been the source of his "offness" today. Why he was holding it in I do not know....

Secret's run was picture perfect on this course! Her 6th run of the weekend was just as happy as her first, even with the weaves right at the beginning! I ran ahead at the weaves and did a blind on the landing side of the jump to guarantee the proper side of the tunnel. Then I beat her down the line to get in place for a really nice Jaakko turn at nine that worked just beautifully. For the record, I do believe I am the only one in the entire trial who opted for this route. A surprising number of handlers (by far the majority) wrapped to the inside, despite this not being the best line for the dogs (in my eyes, at least). Those who did turn to the left all rear crossed to get the turn. Several dogs went out to take the start jump as an off course. I'm happy I stuck to my guns with my handling choice because it worked beautifully. I finished the course with blinds and Secret got a Q and 9 speed points on this run. I thought it would be a little higher than that, but it's still good for day three. Plus she was just .02 seconds over the round number, which means she was .02 seconds away from 10 points instead of 9. Oh well.  :o)

I was thinking of taking the dogs swimming when we got home this afternoon, but I've been lazy and napped instead. I did take Kizzy out to start a new training plan, though, that I hope will help with her trial behavior. I need to stop carrying her reward/motivation on my body and teach her to play with me and accept delayed gratification. Our first session was tough for me because I want that gratification as much as she does, but I held my ground and did not carry treats on me for any of it. I just had a simple box of four jumps set up and had a bag of treats on the deck. Kizzy started out agreeable enough and I kept the exercises VERY short. The sun was out and it was like 72 -- which I think is perfect, but apparently the Klee Kai thinks she will die of heat exhaustion in this weather. It didn't take very long before she was standing under the deck refusing to come out. Of course when I grabbed the bag of treats she was all like, "Whee! Let's play!" But I wasn't playing that game. We ended it there and I went in the house to cut up the rest of the treats in the roll.

We went out again after dinner to try again. I brought the treats out in a small cooler to be able to place them in a different part of the yard (eventually I want to have several "treat stations" so that she doesn't know where the reward will come from). She did better, but definitely still had her moments where she gravitated towards the cooler and sniffed around a lot. She did much better about recalling to me when asked, though. The bigger problem in this session was running around the start jump when I'd set her up to wait, and then bypassing a jump and running straight to the cooler when we would head in that direction. I think this is going to be very good for her...

A new toy for running!

I have looked off and on for one of the hands-free leash setups for running with the dogs, but always balked at the price of them. The skijorring rigs, especially, always seemed so spendy. Last week a friend was asking about various brands on Facebook and one of our friends piped up that she was very happy with her gear from Iron Doggy. I was not familiar with this brand, so I went and looked it up -- and liked what I saw, so I decided to bite the bullet and give it a shot.

The shipping was super fast! I ordered it at the end of last week and it was scheduled to be delivered Tuesday (today), but it actually was in the mail when I got home last night! I wasn't going to go for a run at 10:00 p.m., though, so it had to wait for today. And unfortunately I also desperately needed to finish mowing my lawn that I started on Sunday (and then it grew so much that I had to do the whole thing tonight anyhow...), so I just took the girls out for a quick two-mile spin to see how things went.

When I opened the package I was dismayed to see that I'd somehow ordered the short leash (the "sidekick") as my second leash. I thought I'd ordered both the same length and wasn't sure how it was going to work out to have two different length leashes. It was actually pretty perfect, as the length of a big dog on the short leash works out to be pretty much identical to where the little dogs run on the long leash. It wouldn't work out as well to have both of the little dogs out at the same time, but it rarely happens and I think the short leash is still long enough that it could work out. Kizzy would be stuck on the short one, though, since Kaiser has some weird aversion to being anywhere near me when we run...

I'm really happy with this setup! I haven't had my hands free while running for quite a while (well, I suppose the treadmill, but I think my form is different on there anyhow). The dogs didn't pull me along as much as I'd hoped, but that's probably a good thing.  :o)  Kizzy's leash actually stayed bouncy and loose for pretty much all but when we saw a bunny and while Secret did tend to stay out near the end of the leash, she didn't feel like she was pulling as much as she usually does (and I've come to rely on!). I'm sure it's the elastic and this is probably a good thing. There is a chance that I'm being pulled along more than I realize, too -- or maybe it helps to have my arms free -- because my pace was actually fairly decent for this run, even despite getting stopped by traffic three times. I can't complain.

Secret and I went to visit Dr. Marta for another adjustment yesterday, so Secret should be good to go for our 3-day agility extravaganza this weekend here in La Crosse. There wasn't much of a puppy update to report -- Marta tried doing an ultrasound on Gwen last week and they didn't see anything, but the progesterone test pretty much said 100% positive that she was pregnant. There's a good chance that maybe there are only one or two puppies in there and they were missed on ultrasound. Who knows. She was going to try again and see if they could see anything. If there are only one or two puppies then I don't need to worry about finding a way to say no when I desperately want one.  :o)  I have a friend who might be interested, too, so maybe I could pawn one off on him and live vicariously...

I have officially started at Petco finally! I'll be making my first employee discount purchase after my shift on Thursday, to buy some more FreshPet Vital for the trial this weekend. I tried that stuff before our last AKC trial and I'm hooked. The dogs love it and I don't have to cook or cut anything. Sold!

I was not 100% sure that I was hired to be a dog trainer because all of my hiring paperwork just listed me as a sales associate. Everyone keeps introducing me as the next dog trainer, though, so I guess it will happen eventually. Right now I'm just taking in the culture and learning how everything works. So far so good and I'm enjoying my time there. The dogs seem to be doing okay with the craziness of me leaving the house at 7:00 a.m. and getting home at 9:30 p.m. -- but thankfully it's not an every day occurrence, so we'll be okay.

In addition to our fun three-day weekend coming up, I also entered one day of AKC on Memorial Day over in Sheboygan, WI. It's an outdoor trial, and for some reason I've been wanting to do one of those again. We really don't see too many around here anymore. I figure we train outside, maybe the dogs would like to run outside for a change. I figure if the weather sucks I'll just toss the one day of entries and stay home. I hope it's nice, though!

Weekend Catch-Up

Did your weekend consist of anything other than watching the International Team Tryouts (ITT, formerly known as WTT, or World Team Tryouts) on the internet? If your answer is yes, then you accomplished WAY more than I did this weekend. After a solid week of rain we finally had a couple of days of BEAUTIFUL spring weather, and I spent the vast majority of it sitting in front of a computer screen.

I had contemplated (quite seriously so) making the drive to Hopkins, MN to watch the event in person for the first time ever. This was the first year I would have ever had the opportunity to do so, as in previous years I've always had to work. When it was announced that the entire thing would be broadcast on the internet, though, I couldn't really justify the gas money and time spent away from my own dogs who never see me. Not only that, but watching it on the internet very likely presented me with a better view of the action than I would have had in person. Win-win!

I watched EVERY SINGLE RUN of the entire weekend. Okay, I might have fast-forwarded through a couple by the end of the day Sunday... It was a lot of runs and I had to watch The Amazing Race.  ;o)

There were many of the teams you would expect to see at an event of such caliber. Some of the teams, though, just made me scratch my head. I consider AKC Nationals an event for all dogs. If you work hard enough you can qualify, go, and if you run three clean runs you may just have a shot at the finals -- even if you don't have the fastest dog there. But this is the tryouts for two major International teams. Teams that are expected to showcase the best agility that this country has to offer. It is beyond my comprehension, then, why some teams would choose to travel completely across the country with a dog who doesn't have a shot in hell at making the team. Spend your money at Nationals. Go and have fun -- but what are you proving by attending tryouts with a dog that gets 15 time faults on every go-round (I'm not pointing fingers, this would be Secret!)? And not only that, by the end of the weekend you could TOTALLY tell what dogs were just not familiar with this style of agility -- several were just shutting down and completely demotivated by Sunday. What is the motivation of these handlers, I wonder. What are they trying to prove?

Speaking of time faults, though -- Holy bejezus. If I thought that the course times in UKI CH Jumpers were tight, they've got nothing on what's expected of a team at ITT! Maybe that is part of the problem. Maybe some of these "average" teams run very comfortable times at regular trials on more flowing courses. I'm sure it's kind of a "holy shit" moment to put in what you thought was an amazing run on a very tight & twisty course and then find out you had time faults. There were some SMOKING runs that I saw -- Runs that would win any local-level trial and likely have like 30 speed points -- and they were over SCT. Seeing that basically ingrains in my head that I will never attempt to enter ITT without a truly speedy dog. At least not in the 26" class. The lower heights were slightly more forgiving, but not much so. The Klee Kai could probably do it.  ;o)  Too bad Kaiser can't jump that high and Kizzy is light-years away from competing at that level (let's be real, competing in general, lol).

I would love the opportunity to travel and do agility abroad some day, but it's looking like it will be a while before I have to worry about that. Maybe by then I'll have an extra week of vacation at work to blow on travel. Ha!

I did do slightly more than sit on my butt in front of the computer (but not much). I was perusing Facebook Saturday morning between classes at ITT and came across this course map posted by a friend attending a trial down in Chicago. She keeps telling me that I have to go down there to an AKC trial because they get all of the fun judges who bring challenging courses. Apparently it's what people down there ask for -- versus up here where people with bitch and sob if you have a backside or 270 on course.

When I saw this course map I could not pass up the chance to give this course a try. It was like our own fun little piece of ITT at home (because the ITT courses are 140' long and don't fit in my yard). It was SO FUN. Kaiser was the only one to get it on the first try. Secret was a little high at first and it took us a bit to connect -- plus I always run her first for some reason, so she has to deal with me figuring out the course, too.

I elected to run Kizzy with food the whole time to work on her focus. I broke the course up into sections and eventually put it all together and she actually did it! Yay little crazy dog!

On Sunday I just set up a big speed circle with seven or eight jumps and then plunked the weaves in the middle of the yard to work on those, too. Jumps were set at everyone's competition height to get them thinking a bit more than when they just blaze through the hoops on the ground. Secret did great at 24". It's good for her to learn to go over big jumps fast.  :o)  Her weaves were also super nice, which I haven't seen for a while.

I think Secret's chiro appointment made a world of difference. I can tell she feels so much better, so I have to try hard not to let her get so overdue in the future. Then, of course, I went and flushed it all down the toilet with our frisbee game tonight -- where Secret had a misstep and ended up going ass-over-teakettle on one of her catches.... Oooooh, it just made me cringe. She seems pretty tough, though, and didn't seem affected by it. It's probably a good thing we have another adjustment coming up next week!