Weekend fun

We finally squeaked in an agility play day yesterday. I received Kathy Keats' Agility Coach newsletter in my inbox earlier in the week and thought that the drills this month looked super fun for the whole crew (well, except Luke -- sorry Luke -- he played on the first one but I didn't make him do the second). I had to work at Petco yesterday, but the 1-9:30 pm shift is absolutely ideal in my book. It allows for sleeping in, being lazy, playing agility and even fitting in a shower (MUCH needed yesterday, lol) all before work! Of course by the time I left for work I felt like I needed a nap already, but it worked out.  :o)

The course maps are in the video, but in case anyone found them interesting and would like to set them up for themselves, I'll go ahead an include them here as well. There was one other exercise that we didn't do. Check out Kathy's web page to sign up for the newsletter yourself. She also has a Facebook page. This is, of course, not to be confused with Ann Croft's Agility Coach page -- she's the one who does the Happy Hurdle drills that we enjoy so much (and haven't set for a while, we should do that!).

I don't know how much attention anyone pays, but note that I'm now running Kaiser with the food stuffable tug toy for his turns. This has absolutely nothing to do with building any sort of tug drive for him in agility (although I suppose this would be a cool side effect). No, it's just my way of trying to get around the "you can take a toy into the ring but not food" thing for the upcoming weave pole competition at the State Fair. I figure if he associates the toy with food, then it's almost like having food in the ring, right? Granted, Kaiser will work without food -- I'm not worried about that. I just think he might go faster if he thinks I'm carrying the reward on me and why shouldn't he get the same advantage as the toy-motivated dogs? I've always thought that this rule is terribly unfair (fun matches and UKI both will allow toys in the ring, but not food). I understand the reasoning behind it -- because there are stupid people out there who can't manage to run with food and not drop it all over the floor -- but it's still unfair to the dogs who aren't interested in toys. Oh well. You work around it, no big deal.

We went down to the river Friday night, just the one here in Sparta. Apparently the mosquitoes have hatched since our last visit because as soon as we got within about 30' of the river they absolutely swarmed me! I told the dogs that this was proof that I loved them, as I didn't immediately turn around and go home. No, I suffered through it so that they would get their fun time in... And now I itch like absolute hell.

I think Kizzy needs some time in a life vest to get her confidence up. She wants the ball and was trying hard to get it, but she would give up if it went out far enough that she had to swim (she did fall in once, though, so.....). She CAN swim, but I just don't think she's confident about it. If the weather cooperates today I might truck everyone down to airport beach for some good swim time. It's been off and on raining for the last 30-45 minutes or so; I have no idea what is in store for the rest of the day... Other than that it's blessedly cool out for the end of July and it looks like we have a beautiful week in store for us!

I'd like to get in another 18-pole weave practice today yet, too. Secret has a chiro appointment tomorrow morning, so I'm guessing this would be the last time I'd set that up before we head over to the fair on the 6th. I suppose I could set it up for Kaiser, but I don't want to undo Secret's adjustment before the trial this weekend (any more than her day-to-day life activities does it already!) and then I figure she'll have had enough weaving over the course of three days that I don't want to throw it at her again until Wednesday. Secret has always nailed the 18-poles, though, so I'm not too worried about her popping on me. She'll be fine, with Secret it will definitely be more about her level of motivation to weave on that particular day and if she cares about her toy in that environment.

The final confirmation for our Coulee Kennel Club AKC trial finally came through yesterday. Wow. I'm glad they didn't cancel the trial since it's the only AKC trial I don't have to travel for, but I have no idea how they can host this without losing their shirt. Friday has 37 runs. THIRTY SEVEN. Secret is the only 24" dog and Kaiser is the only 8P (that's not unusual...). Saturday has 55 runs. No, I did not forget the "1" in front of the 55. We picked up another 24" dog that day, Kaiser is still alone, and Kizzy's Novice JWW class has 6 entries. Sunday has 50 runs and Kizzy's class drops down to 4 runs. Sigh. I mean YAY for short days and getting done early and all, but that's ridiculous. There were several factors involved -- there are AKC trials in St. Paul and Racine on the same weekend, which are the two directions that La Crosse pulls entries from (considering, you know, there are apparently no longer people in La Crosse that actually do agility since there are no classes to take...) -- and while neither of those trials filled either, they were at least advertised. The CKC trial was never listed on the FDC web site, the premium wasn't out there, and it wasn't included on any of the emails they send out. So yeah, they basically added a trial to their calendar this year and then completely failed to advertise it. Oh well, hope it's a fun little crowd.