CKC AKC Qs QQs & NA

I decided to just write this whole post in acronyms.  ;o)

This is going to be a brief yet overdue update. We got to play three days of AKC here at home this weekend! It was the Coulee Kennel Club trial and our judge was Katherine Rudolph. I "know" her from our trials over on the other side of the state, but my brain never connected that she was a judge (hello, she did Kizzy's first measurement....). She runs golden retrievers and is very conscientious of the large-dog style of running and designs her courses accordingly. She was also familiar with the turf at FDC and said that she purposefully designed her courses to not have tight turns that would cause dogs to slip and fall. To her credit, I don't think I saw anyone slip all weekend. The courses were not technical, but I didn't consider them so easy as to be boring. The dogs definitely liked them, and that is what matters most.

I don't have video from Friday and I'm too lazy to take a picture of the course maps. Secret brought home QQ #15 and I think it was 31 points that day. Kaiser got a Q in Std (which he needs), but kind of went off the rails in JWW. It was totally my fault, though, because I was late for the front cross after jump 3 and he went off course. I was so incredibly tired from my draining week at work that my brain more or less shut off at that point and he just did whatever he wanted from there on out. The trial was very, very small again this weekend -- we started running @ 2:00 and were on our way home by 4:00.

Secret had another super day on Saturday. She earned 14 speed points in her JWW run in the morning. Her Standard run was the fastest in the entire class! Unfortunately she jumped a bit flat coming out of a tunnel and knocked a bar. We need single Qs, though, so I wasn't upset in the least. I would have preferred the 24 points from her Std run, though!

Saturday was Kaiser's day for a QQ -- this was his 6th. His jumping was much better than it was on Friday, too, and it got better all weekend. I wish I knew what was up with this and why he's being so hesitant on day one. He's the opposite of Secret -- She starts out crazy and fast and gets slower at the end of the weekend, whereas Kaiser starts out slow & hesitant and gets better as we go.

Kizzy was super, super good on Saturday! We had too many refusals to qualify in Open JWW because it took her a little time to find her brain, but she did the whole course, including her weaves this time. We ran Standard at the end of the day and she was a good, good girl! She missed the weave entry again, but that was pretty tricky coming off the a-frame like that. She ended up with a score of 100 and her NA title! On to Open for everything!

Kizzy is the only one with video from Sunday. Again, I'm very pleased with how she ran! Okay, so she was pretty naughty on her dog walk and teeter in the Standard run, but aside from that I think she did awesome. The Open courses were barely any different from the Masters courses, so she stepped up pretty nicely, I think! She even hit her weaves on the first try in both runs this day!! Our JWW run wasn't the prettiest in the world because, well, we still don't actually have a rear cross. There were two spots where I just knew I wouldn't be able to get into position to beat her, so I did ugly landing-side rear crosses, let her spin and then kept going. Not pretty, but it worked and we got through clean for Kizzy's very first Open Q!

Kaiser had a really great day. He dropped the third from last bar in Standard on an otherwise lovely run, keeping him from another QQ. I had been hoping he could go 3/3 in Std for the weekend because that would have finished up his Master Std Preferred title, but it will have to wait for next time. Secret got QQ #16 on Sunday but not a whole lot of points -- only 18 in Std (she wasn't that slow in this run, I think it was wheeled tight) and dropped down to 7 points in JWW in a run where I felt like I was pulling her along. She was the first dog on the line and I don't think I spent enough time getting her going prior to the run. As it stands she would need to get 45+ points per QQ if her next four days are perfect. Yeah.... I just don't want to be one of those teams that MACHs on points. Whatever. It is what it is. As a side note, on Friday she officially qualified herself for AKC Nationals! (Kaiser needs 61 points.)

Did I post here about the Jamberry nails I had made? A friend on Facebook was hosting a "party" and posted a picture of these custom nails she did with a picture of her dog on them. I was like, "WHAT ARE THOSE? I NEED THEM!" So I joined her party and made my own nails. I attempted to put them on for the first time Saturday night. While I need some practice in applying them correctly, they are still SUPER CUTE! I will probably go bankrupt designing and ordering custom nail wraps now.

Tonight I took the dogs for a walk, but before doing so I took Kizzy out and did a quick training session with her to remind her how we behave on our contacts. She'll get there at trials eventually -- the current trend seems to be that she's great on day one and a leaper on day two. Tonight she was fabulous. I started pushing my distance, both laterally and running ahead of her -- and SHE HELD HER BOTTOM! I tossed treats back at her to reward her. This is huge progress! Hopefully some of it sticks at trials.

This weekend we are playing USDAA in Madison on Sunday. The run sheets were posted on their web site. We have 460 runs on Sunday. Four hundred and sixty. There are "only" 330 on Saturday, so I guess I picked the wrong day... It will be a very, very, very long day because Kizzy is one of the last dogs to run. Hooray. Can't wait. Oh well, I'm looking forward to the agility part of it at least.

Happy Hurdle Practice

I finally managed to make it home in time to work the dogs before it got dark. I've been in all-day meetings at work again this week and yesterday I didn't even get home until 6:30. I'd planned on training yesterday, but so much for that idea. Today I got home at 5:00, so I figured tonight's the night!

All I knew I really needed/wanted to do was work Kizzy's contacts and weaves, but I figured if I was going to set stuff up I may as well do something that worked me as well as the dogs. Hence the Happy Hurdle set-up. This is the most recent course posted. It really appealed to me when it was first posted -- it wasn't as "crazy" as some of them have been. I knew the dogs should do well on it.

Kizzy did super on her weaves, but was king of pooing out on me about halfway through the course -- hence the food you see on the "most successful" attempt. Her contacts, table, etc. were all rock solid tonight, so I guess we'll see how that sticks this weekend!

Secret and Kaiser both had a hell of a time just getting through obstacle four on this course. Secret kept taking the wrong tunnel entry and Kaiser kept pushing out over that jump -- which is why you see the handling choice I did for his portion of the video.  :o)

My knee has been farked up for a while. I ended up bracing it before Kaiser's turn because it started to buckle on me again. Sigh. I hope it can make it through the 16 runs this weekend.

I was supposed to be off work on Friday because of the trial, but the report-out from this giant meeting is scheduled for 11:00 that day. I don't really feel like I can miss that, so this should be interesting. The dogs might end up coming and sitting in the van while I'm at the presentation. It's scheduled to go until 12:30 and if it runs late AT ALL then I would never make it home and back to the trial in time. We'll see, I'll figure out something.

Therapy Dogs

This weekend Luke, Kizzy and I started a new chapter in our lives -- that of a pet therapy team! We haven't gone through any official certification and I don't really have the time (or let's admit it, the desire....) to go through those classes. Maybe one day.

A while back I found out that the nursing home where I go to volunteer to help with bingo with the Lions club is cool with dogs coming along (well, if you don't count the one staff member who is crazy scared of dogs...). I believe it was in the beginning of September that I started to look into the possibility of volunteer opportunities with the dogs. The only requirements that they had were that the dogs be current on everything and that the activity director meet the dogs first to give the okay.

I filled out the application and went through the background check last month, but then it was one thing after another that caused us scheduling difficulties and kept putting off our ability to get together. We finally made it work last week and the dogs and I got the grand tour. I didn't have to work at Petco until 5:00 on Saturday, so we planned for me to go in at 11:00 for our first visit.

It was just a super visit! Luke was his normal chill self who was great about meeting everyone, but Kizzy was the real surprise of the day. She was born to be a therapy dog, apparently. She repeatedly jumped into any lap offered and cuddled right in to make herself at home. The smile she (and Luke, too) brought to so many residents' faces was just priceless. The staff member that went around with us told me that she had us linger with one resident a bit longer because it was one of the rare times she'd ever seen the woman express any sort of emotion (we were in the Alzheimer unit). Another woman just hugged and squeezed her for the longest time with a giant smile on her face.

We kept our first visit to an hour. I didn't want to overdo the dogs on their first visit and it was pretty much time for lunch by then anyhow. Kizzy slept the entire short ride home, so it definitely is tiring for them. I'm looking forward to our next visit.

There was a NADAC trial in town this weekend and I didn't go. At all. It was kind of weird, but kind of not. Several people in town for the trial stopped by Petco Saturday night and I got to visit with them, which was nice. I was hoping to maybe drive over to visit a bit on Sunday, but the day just got away from me and it got too late to bother. Saturday was busy with Secret's chiro visit, the therapy dog visit and work at Petco, but I kind of did next to nothing on Sunday. Oh well, those days are good to have.

We have three days of AKC coming up this weekend! It's another tiny trial. We follow that up with a day of USDAA the following Sunday, so I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks!

Last-minute decision

A while ago I saw that Contact Sports Zone was hosting several run-throughs on a series of Friday nights. My schedule never allowed for me to go, but I always thought it would be a great opportunity to check the place out. The next one was scheduled for this past Friday, October 10, but I brushed it aside since I've been team-teaching a class at Petco on Friday nights. I was in the store to pick up some stuff on Thursday and found out that I didn't actually have to do the team stuff anymore, and the 4:00 dog wasn't going to be coming anyhow. Okay, cool, I have Friday night off.

I think it was around 2:00 on Friday afternoon at work that I realized, "but wait, there are run-throughs tonight." I was able to head out any time after 2:00 that day, so I started trying to figure out the logistics of going. Doors opened at 5:45, walk at 6:00, run at 6:15, two-hour drive... I just had to leave home by 3:45 and I'd be golden. But did I *really* want to make that drive on a Friday night? REALLY?

Well, yes. Yes, I did.  :o)  So I hustled home, tried to act "normal" so that the dogs would actually go to the bathroom (they always know when something is up and then nobody goes because they just want to leave). I changed clothes, threw together treats and out I went (and I realized later that I forgot all of Secret's fun toys, stupid me!). Luke stayed home, but Secret, Kaiser & Kizzy all got to go along for the ride.

It's a super easy drive to Canine Sports Zone. The first hour was all on I90 to the Dells, then you get off on Hwy 12 where it's almost all 4-lane roads. The drive is actually only about an hour and forty-five minutes, so that's pretty sweet.

I LOVED the facility. Absolutely loved it. It was everything I'd hoped for where Kizzy is concerned and more. The owner of this facility really lucked out with this find, as it is just perfect for agility. The floor rocks and I am just in love with the whole solid wall/closed door thing.

I brought one crate inside to let Secret chill and acclimate to the place. Kaiser got shoved in with her for a bit before his first turn, but I opted to keep Kizzy in the van between her turns. We had plenty of time between each dog so everything worked out fine.

When we went out to walk the course I was like, whoa. The person running the evening said at first that it was an AKC course and I was like, umm, I've never seen an AKC course anything like this. Apparently while I was outside getting my dogs she corrected herself and said she had an AKC course picked out but then found this one. I think she was thinking it was USDAA, but when I asked if I could see the map I saw it was actually UKI (the senior/champion designation at the top gives it away). Ah, that explains it.

I ran Secret at 20", since that is her USDAA height and I didn't feel any need to jump her at full height when I knew I wouldn't have time for a full warm-up/cool down routine. Kizzy was the lone 14" dog, but I really needed to give her a go at that height to see how she would do for USDAA. Kaiser got to jump his usual 8".

During Secret's first turn she acted like she'd never done a backside before on jump two. I was super proud of her flip off the dog walk into the set-back tunnel. She was very wide after the broad jump into the weaves, but got it, and had a strong finish. We had enough time left to start the course over again and then spent a little time schooling the broad jump to the weaves. During her second turn Secret had a completely flawless run, so we had a party and called it good with that one.

Kaiser was a space cadet for his first turn. He was in total la-di-da-di-da mode looking all over the place and taking random off-course obstacles while he was sight-seeing. He was stressing over something, although I'm not entirely sure what. His second turn was much better. He almost got through the run clean, just bypassing the jump after the teeter. I schooled his dog walk and teeter to finish his turn.

Kizzy was super duper awesome! She was a complete and total spaz, but once we got going she was very focused and exceptionally well-behaved. There was a "novice" course nested inside the champion course, but it was hardly any easier so for simplicity sake (for my brain) I just ran her on the main course. I never attempted the tunnel under the dog walk with her because I knew nothing good would come of trying, so instead I turned her to the inside after the dog walk and just ran to that next tunnel. Her weaves rocked all night, she never missed her entry and she never popped out. All of her contacts were 100% awesome with hits on the a-frame and stops on the dog walk and teeter. I am just absolutely thrilled with how she ran on each turn. There was no sight-seeing, no "what's that?" moments, no thoughts of leaving me on course. AND she totally sailed through the 14" jumps with no problem. We absolutely needed this and it was totally worth the drive.

The drive home reminded me that I hate driving in the dark, and that this is what I'll be dealing with for the next six months of trialing. Sigh. The adrenaline rush of running stuck with me for about the first hour and a half, though, which basically just meant I had to push through that last half hour in familiar territory, which wasn't that bad. We got home a little after 10:30, so it's not like we're talking midnight or anything. But for someone who is usually sleeping on the couch by 9:00 on a Friday night, well...  ;o)

We took it easy yesterday. After sleeping in and hanging around the house most of the day I finally got off my butt and took the dogs for a 3-mile hike out on the bike trail. Today I had to go in to run puppy playtime at Petco, so I packed Secret, Kaiser & Kizzy along for the ride so that we could go for a walk somewhere different on the way home. I left Luke behind because he was being gimpy on our walk yesterday; he must have tweaked something while chasing his jolly ball the other night.

Everyone did well waiting in the car and we hit up a new portion of the bike trail on the way home. I parked in West Salem and we walked towards Bangor. There was a lot of excitement when we first started off, with tons of emergency vehicles leaving town and heading towards Bangor. We could see them all lined up on the road from the trail, but I couldn't see what was going on. Turns out there was a car accident, I guess. At any rate, we didn't encounter anyone on our walk and I really enjoyed that section of the trail. It's fun to get out to walk in different areas.

As it turns out, I'm not scheduled to work at Petco next Sunday, which means that technically I could go to the NADAC trial that day. I need to figure out what I'm doing. I suppose by tomorrow, since that's the closing date....

Well hello again, USDAA!

I've been saying for a while now that when Kizzy grew a brain I would return to USDAA. Kaiser and Luke are done with their days in this organization, but Secret is about halfway to her PDCH in her P3 classes and I'd like to see if we can't get that done. Nevermind that we have zero P3 gamblers Qs or that we have plenty of snooker Qs but no SQs...

I've been looking at the USDAA event listings going out for several months and it always seems like I have to give up something in order to attend one of the trials. This was holding me back, and I especially won't give up an AKC trial at this point when I'm closing in on Secret's MACH (and starting December 1 we're going to start the qualifying period for the next Nationals which is closer to home). So then there's NADAC. I don't travel for NADAC trials anymore, so this means giving up a trial right here at home in favor of having to travel. Hard choices!

At any rate, I impulsively decided to go ahead and enter one day of a USDAA trial at the new agility facility down near Madison -- Canine Sports Zone. I know a few people that have been there and everyone raves about the facility. Great footing, plenty of parking, plenty of crating, etc. Plus it's just under two hours from home, so that's pretty much a winner. But the best part?

Do you see that wall? That is the wall between the competition ring and the exhibitor area. Do you see that it is entirely solid? With DOORS? Part of me feels that I should trial Kizzy at this facility and nowhere else for the foreseeable future. I talked to a friend last night who went to the first trial at this facility and he said he feels the ring is perfect for a green dog. Not only do they not have to deal with the visual distractions outside of the ring, but he said it's also strangely quiet in the arena. I'm looking forward to it.

There is an AKC trial at this facility in January that I've already been planning to attend, but this USDAA trial will give me a good opportunity to check the place out before then. So, on Sunday, November 2, Secret will take a stab at USDAA again and Kizzy will make her debut -- in the 14" Championship class! I have never ran a dog the CH division of USDAA, so that will be a new experience. We'll see how it goes; if I feel she'd do better at 12" I'll just drop her down to Performance, but I figure we'll give it a shot.

This will be Secret's first time in the P20 class (we have not trialed since the height reorganization). I'm sure she'll go "wheee!" at the 4" height break from AKC. Will it be enough to help us get a SQ? Time will tell, I guess (it will mostly depend on the competition, though, I'm sure -- and the fact that there are never enough dogs in the P20/22 class to not be combined). Secret is running everything except for MC Jumpers, which was unfortunately only offered as Biathlon combined with MC Std on Saturday. Boo. Oh well, that's okay, she's got enough on her plate with Std, Snooker, Pairs, Jumpers and Grand Prix. Kizzy is entered in Std, Snooker and Jumpers for her first USDAA trial. There is no way I'm putting her in the ring with another dog until she gets her wits about her a bit more. Starter Standard will be the very last class of the day, so if the day is getting long and she's experiencing a brain meltdown, we may head home after Secret's last run. We'll just play that one by ear.

I'm looking forward to this trial! I do enjoy the different challenges in USDAA courses, there is no doubt. I'm less of a fan of how many runs there are ($$ -- this day will cost more than running all 3 dogs in AKC) and those stupid SQs. The USDAA Sounding Board has recently blown up again with the subject of SQs and the unfairness of combining height groups (the new rule for 2014 is worse than the old one in many cases), so I guess we'll have to see if USDAA ever listens.

Outdoor Agility!

Yesterday was our second outdoor trial of the year. I admit that I took a risk with the Memorial Day trial, as we know it can be hot and/or rainy that time of the year (it was both). When I entered an outdoor trial for the first weekend in October I figured it would be dry and cool, as that is "normal" for fall in these parts. I woke up to snow yesterday. SNOW!

I knew we weren't going to be experiencing any sort of beautiful fall day -- checking the radar in the morning revealed that this lovely weather was tracking directly southeast into the location of our trial near Madison. Awesome. The good news is that it wasn't sticking on the roads, so travel was safe. Also good was the fact that the trial didn't start until 9 a.m. and I only had a two hour drive. We left home right around 7:00, since the trial was starting with Time 2 Beat and I didn't need to be there for that.

The snow accumulation ended before the Dells, so that was good -- at least we shouldn't have to worry about running on snow at the trial. The temperature wavered between 34 and 37 degrees for the drive. The rain was actually starting to break up a little when I pulled into the trial site, but unfortunately the weather was following me down and it picked up again soon after. We never dealt with anything heavy, more just a constant light rain or drizzle. But at least it wasn't snow at the trial!

Master Standard was up after T2B. Several people were grumbling that it would be better to run JWW in the morning with the hope that the weather would clear up by the time we got to Std. There was no guarantee, though, so I didn't see much point. Besides that, it's AKC -- I don't even think it's an option to run in an order different than what was published.

I understood the grumbling a bit more once I got on the course to walk it, though. The contacts weren't rubberized. Whoa. When was the last time we've been to a trial that didn't have rubber on the contacts? Some people thought that the a-frame and dog walk were painted rubber, but frankly, once you paint over rubber it's absolutely no better than painted sand. The teeter was absolutely painted sand, and not even very textured. That said, my equipment at home is not rubber so it's not like my dogs have never seen this before -- I just didn't expect to go to a trial with this surface. In the rain.

The judge at this trial was Ilze Rukis. We know Ilze from her NADAC days and when Kaiser did TDAA, but we've never shown under her for AKC. I like Ilze, which is one of the reasons why I chose this trial. I was a little disappointed to hear a small group of people standing over the course maps talking about areas they perceived to be "NADAC-like" because Ilze is a "NADAC judge." It perturbed me a bit -- not only because Ilze doesn't actually judge NADAC anymore, nor because judges don't even design their own courses for NADAC, but because I don't think any of those people actually do NADAC so what the heck would they know? Whatever. I thought Ilze's courses were fun and am looking forward to running under her again in La Crosse next month.

Tall dogs were up first, so Secret was my first dog to run. I actually planned on doing a reverse turn at 3 to get a nice tight turn into the tunnel, but Secret was way ahead of me so I just had to pull her in. I did a blind before the a-frame and ran ahead to "scoop" her into the weaves and by some miracle it worked and she stayed in. Hooray! Unfortunately I didn't support the jump after the weaves enough for Secret's liking with the questionable footing, so she cut in and didn't take it -- or the double that followed. That's one thing I learned yesterday -- don't take anything for granted when the footing isn't perfect, because Secret will choose self-preservation every time. If I didn't make it perfectly obvious, she didn't do it.

Secret didn't have a problem with any of the contacts. She did pull up at the jump after the dog walk because she was balking at the person in a giant fuzzy coat sitting in the back corner -- the lady kept lowering her head every time a dog came towards her, which just made her a giant fuzzy blob. I think the dogs would have been better off seeing a human face at least. Oh well, I'd be more upset about it if we hadn't already NQ'd. Despite the errors, Secret still posted a good time and ran well. I know we need single Qs, but I'd rather they come from Std than JWW!  ;o)

Kaiser had a super run. The rain was wrapping up by his turn. Kaiser loves running outside -- he just jumps so much better outside with natural lighting. The cool temperatures (it got up to about 45) were to his liking as well and he was just a happy camper. I knew I couldn't pull off the same weave entry that I'd done with Secret, so with Kaiser I stayed on the right side and ran ahead to really point out the entry to him -- many dogs were entering at the 2nd or 3rd pole and I know Kaiser is prone to the same thing if the entry is too shallow, so I made sure to show him where to go and it worked. He had a really nice rear cross out of the poles into the chute and then I made sure to verbally support the jump more than I had done with Secret. There was a fine line here, though, with that off course jump so close. I stayed down on the inside, though, and we made it through -- and he stayed on the table! Yay! With a clean finish, we got a much-needed Std Q. There were very few Qs on this course, so I'm pretty proud of the wee man for getting through this one.

The rain was pretty much done save for a few spits here and there by the time we got to JWW. The wind was picking up, but it wasn't that bad. The footing, which had been holding up to the weather remarkably well, was getting a little more slick in spots (mostly just affecting the handler), so I took note of that during the walk-through.

I opted to leave Secret at the start for this run, which is something I very rarely do. I really wanted to beat her to do a cross at the top of the tunnel, though, as I really didn't like any of my other options for the 4-7 sequence. This worked really well and I got in for a front cross between 5 and 6, but then I cued too tight of a turn and didn't support 7, so she ran right past it to the inside. The rest of the run was really nice. I shaped the turn coming around 13 so that she'd be slicing 14 and not look at the off-course jump and it worked beautifully. Again, a really nice run with just the one flub. No points. Darn.

I led out again with Kaiser, but with him I held back and opted for a rear cross at six. I made sure to push out to seven and support the jump. At 13 I held my breath for a bit as I worried he would back jump it on the wrap due to how close I was, but he came through nicely and I was able to shape the turn. He seemed oddly distracted and looking off to the outside of the ring as he was coming by 15 so I called his name and he kind of took the jump sideways, but good boy for saving it! He turned on the afterburners for that final line and took off way early for the second-to-last jump, but thankfully he didn't crash it and he kept all the bars up.

So there you have it -- when has this ever happened? Kaiser got a QQ (#5!) and Secret didn't Q at all. I know I struggled with running outside more than the dogs did. They thought it was great. The ring reminded me a lot of my yard at home in that it wasn't flat and even. That took me a bit by surprise. I know the ups and downs of my yard and don't really notice it anymore, but you definitely notice it more in an unfamiliar area. The ring also had a noticeable slope; we were running uphill on the dog walk, for instance. There is a good chance that I was being more cautious and taking short-cuts, which led to Secret missing the jumps. Who knows, I get very spoiled by trialing indoors all of the time. I'm glad I got to this trial, though, if nothing else just for Kaiser. He just does so much better outside.

I did not for one second doubt my decision to not enter Kizzy at this trial. The ring was surrounded by snow fence, but the in and out gates were completely open. There would have been nothing to inspire Kizzy to stay in the ring if she felt like going to visit. In the Novice class they actually did have one dog go rogue -- he took off after the dog who had just left the ring and it took like five minutes for everyone to round him up. Yeah. Glad that wasn't Kizzy.

We got home at 5:00 and Secret spent the next few hours going absolutely crazy. I threw tennis balls for a good long time to wear everyone out, but apparently it didn't come close to taking the edge off. At one point while she was outside running laps she pulled one of the giant weeds out of the ground and thought it would be a good idea to bring inside for show and tell. She finally settled down once it started to get dark out, but man, it was nonstop there for a bit.

Today has been pretty low key. It's another cool day, I'm sure it's beautiful at the trial. At some point I should get my butt in gear and take the dogs out hiking or something. We went out on Friday and I got to pick sticky weeds out of the girls for what felt like forever. That kind of dampens my desire to go out on the trails, I guess. I should also school Kizzy's contacts and weaves a bit more. I'm not sure if we'll get to the NADAC trial the weekend before AKC or not. I have to get Secret into the chiro and that Saturday may be my best option. I'm still waiting to see the work schedule for Petco, but I'm going to guess I'm working that Sunday. We'll have to see how things work out.