FUN-Raiser = Fun!!

We had a blast down in Davenport, IA this weekend at our first ever NADAC FUN-Raiser. I'd heard rumors of how they are run -- No running order, no gate sheet, no set order, etc. As someone who is very fond of structure, I wasn't sure how well I would handle it -- But we went with the flow and it was an all around great group of people there over the weekend.

Secret was her usual awesome self. She qualified 8/12 for the weekend -- going 3/6 on Saturday and 5/6 on Sunday!! More about that in a bit...

I was surprised at how Secret handled the turf at Quad City Dog Center. My boys don't have any problem with it and I've seen many very fast dogs run on the surface with little to no problem. Secret's feet were shaved on Friday before we left and I never thought it would be an issue -- She was sliding ALL OVER THE PLACE. She really wiped out a couple of times on Saturday. I have absolutely no idea how to explain it, but she seemed to get better as she got used to the footing.


Chances was up first on Saturday. It was an interesting little course, as it allowed for a "choice" halfway through. As your dog came out of a tunnel you had the option of a hoop or a jump going into a bi-directional tunnel. Whichever one your dog took first (whether or not it was the one you directed....), you had to then take the other obstacle on the way back. So many Novice handlers tried for the harder "out" on the first pass, only to fail and have their dog take the inner hoop -- Secret was no exception. She even shimmied over the line a bit on her way through, but apparently not with all four feet because it wasn't called. Thankfully she stayed out on the second pass and finished the run clean for her first Chances Q!

Open Regular was next and it was a lovely run (with a couple of diggers....) until she got distracted by something and totally spaced out for a second. She cut in past a hoop and then saw me and went, "Oh! Was I supposed to take that?" As a result she turned around and went backwards through the hoop. Other than that it was a lovely run -- She made up for it and put in a super Regular round 2 for another Q.

We had time faults in Open Jumpers and Elite Weavers, which is always a bummer. She was lagging to begin with in Jumpers and then I started to cut out on her line in preparation for a front cross, causing her to follow me and miss the jump. Due to her snail-like speed in that round, it caused us to be 4.5 seconds over time. Elite Weavers was very nice, but again it was like pulling teeth to get her to move. I was pleasantly surprised when she was ONLY 2.5 seconds over time. I expected more. She easily made time in Touch-n-Go, thankfully.

Sunday.... Oh Sunday. What fun that was. Thunderstorms -- BIG thunderstorms -- started to roll into Davenport shortly before Open Regular was to begin. I tried to take Secret out to go potty and had to give up when she heard the thunder. I could barely get her out of her crate before the run, so I didn't have high hopes. Thankfully we did make it through the first run -- slowly. Just as she finished, before I was able to get her leash on, there was a giant crack of thunder and she bolted a few steps out of the ring and stood there in shock. I tried to call her back into the ring to avoid getting eliminated, but she was frozen with fear. Another rumble of thunder went through the building and I jumped for her to get her leash on before she could take off. The judge must have taken pity on me for the thunder situation, as we didn't get Eliminated and ended up with a Q in that round.

The storm was at its high point when it was time for our next round. Honestly, I should have scratched it. I could NOT get Secret to come out of her crate for anything. I pretty much had to drag her out and as we waited our turn I couldn't even get her to look at me. She was so scared. Much to my surprise, she actually did start to run the course with me -- We made it three obstacles before a low rumble made her skirt around a jump. As I was getting her back, a REALLY loud clap of thunder terrified her out of her wits and she made a beeline for the exit. The leash runner had to blockade her to keep her in the ring until I got there. I let her go hide in her crate, she wasn't interested in anything else.

THANKFULLY there was quite a bit of time between Open Regular and her next class, Novice Chances. The storm held on as long as it could, but thankfully it passed and I was actually able to get Secret to go potty before Chances. I literally had to DRAG her out into the grass. Once she was out there a few minutes (I continued to drag her around...) she realized that it wasn't thundering anymore and she got much better. I worried that she would think the arena was a scary place because of her last run, but she bounced right back and got another Q in Novice Chances. Yay!!!

The whole extreme fear thing took a lot out of her and I wasn't sure Secret would be able to make it the rest of the day. It was a long weekend, after all. She was a trooper, though, and ended up finishing the day with Q's in everything -- she even made time in Elite Tunnelers! She was pretty done by Hoopers, but thankfully Novice time is very lenient. So even though she trotted a good portion of it, she was still well under time.

So lesson learned -- Pack the thundershirt for away trials. I wasn't aware that it was supposed to storm, so it didn't even occur to me. Guess I should just keep it in the car!

Secret finished her OAC and OJC titles this weekend. Is it possible that she is in Elite in four classes already? She still needs one more Novice Chances Q to finish up her Novice Versatility award -- And one more Open Q in Touch-n-Go to finish up that title. Baby Girl is on a roll!



(PS, the boys have videos on my YouTube channel as well if you want to see them!)

Secret and Lexie are BFF

My dad shot this video outside the office this morning -- Secret heard them around the corner and ran off to say hello. She loves Lexie!



We leave tomorrow for Iowa! Yay!!!! Secret has been doing awesome on her dog walk and discrimination work this week.

Trial pictures up already

GreatDanePhotos already has the pictures uploaded from the trial this past weekend. Secret's pictures can be viewed by clicking here. I need to get a shirt made for her.... But I don't know that there are any "shirt-worthy" shots this time (not the photographer's fault -- the weather sucked!).

I think we'll see Amy again in July, so hopefully we can get a good shot then.

She got some good shots of Kaiser!

And Luke is still looking pretty spry for almost 7 1/2. :o)

Secret's First Outdoor Trial!

She rocks. Really, I could end the post with that. 'Nuff said!

Yeah right. Like I'd really stop there! :o)

Secret continued her streak as the best baby dog ever and totally blew me away at her first outdoor trial. I hemmed and hawed and waffled about making the three hour drive on Friday because the weather report was not favorable. BUT, Accuweather claimed that Savage, MN was only supposed to have spotty showers (despite the wicked radar all around the Cities) and that it was actually supposed to be DRY from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. Considering the trial started at 5:00, I thought it was worth going. I do, after all, really hate flushing money down the toilet.

The weather was gorgeous when we left the office at 1:00 p.m. We didn't really hit any rain until Cannon Falls, and it was (as predicted!) spotty. It wasn't raining when I pulled into Savage Park and parked the customary 10 miles from the trial site (okay, not THAT far, but it feels like it). But by the time I checked in and schlepped my crates clear across Timbuktu, the skies open up and dumped on us like nobody's business. I hadn't even set up my stuff yet -- it just sat out in the rain and got soaked while I stood helpless under a tent. The dogs were still in the car.

After realizing what a horrible conflict I'd have by running three dogs in Elite Weavers at a small trial, I moved the car and my gear to the other side of the rings to be closer to the action. I elected to not set up my tent, as it would have been more trouble than it was worth to try to do that in the wind & rain. Instead, I set up the crate/x-pen and wrapped the tent around it. It worked. For the most part.

I did not have high hopes for Secret's Hoopers run. Not because it was her first time running Hoopers. Not because it was an outdoor trial. And not because it was raining. But because it was thundering. I'm pretty sure I freaked out about that more than she did. I was certain she would absolutely shut down. And really, she was pretty ooged out coming out of her crate and then waiting our turn (although she saw a Cardigan Corgi right before it was her turn, and boy does she LOVE Cardigan Corgi dogs, so that made her happy). As soon as we stepped to the line and I took off her leash, though, she was all business! I didn't try for a lead out because I was so worried about her freaking out and shutting down -- so I was a little surprised when she actually took off and ran in front of me. Go Secret! Our first test involved two hoops side by side -- requiring us to take the "out" hoop. We practiced "Hoop Weaves" on Thursday, but we did not practice "out" hoops.... So we had to go back and fix that, but she got it on the second try! After that we did the serpentine-thingy test that was no problem at all.

Weavers was just plain awesome. It was Secret's first Elite run in ANY class. I have a "history" with Elite Weavers with Luke. It took us FOREVER to finally get a Q in that class and for a very long time those Q's came very far apart. Time was always an issue. I feel that the times in that class are tighter than any other in NADAC. I probably only feel that way because Luke had issues qualifying. He almost always makes time now -- Largely because I improved my handling and tightened our turns, but also due to the move to 24" weave poles. But still, we all know that Secret is not the speediest beast on the planet right now and I really had my doubts that she would make time.

She rocked it. She nailed every entry and she got faster as the run progressed! Her third set of poles was FANTASTIC. Yes, still hopping, but she was blazing! Go, Seeker, Go! :o) She came in two seconds under course time and won the class! Against very experienced dogs!! (Like Luke, who skipped a pole in the third set, so we just kept going.) Running three dogs in a small Elite Weavers class darn near killed me, but I recovered quickly when I saw how well Secret did.

It was pouring for Tunnelers. By that time I was so wet that I didn't really care anymore, but I wasn't sure if Secret felt the same way. Apparently all was good for her, though, since she didn't even feel like holding her stay at the start (naughty, naughty -- but then again, I hadn't asked for one the entire day). We recovered from that little bobble and she put in a good run. She slipped a couple of times and I think adjusted her speed accordingly -- So it wasn't blazing fast, but it was plenty fast enough to make time in Open and win the class. I checked and she was one second under Elite time, which is good, but we'll continue to work on improving that. She was, after all, only 0.3 seconds faster than Kaiser. From watching them run around the yard together, I'm pretty sure she can shave a few seconds off that. lol

Apparently running in crappy weather is even more exhausting than running in a normal trial. The dogs all crashed HARD for the trip home -- which is good, because then they weren't begging me for their dinner (which they didn't get until we got home at almost 10:30). I was exhausted all weekend trying to catch up on my sleep (I had to work at the shelter at 10:00 on Saturday, so it wasn't THAT bad), but it was totally worth driving up and running in the rain. So proud of my baby girl.

Thanks to some awesome friends who were willing to stand out in the rain, I have video!



I am uber-excited about our trip to Iowa this weekend!!! This week we will be working discriminations every chance we get. The a-frame is still in the garage...... Sigh.

Playtime (video)

Secret was actually playing somewhat nice with Kaiser the other night. Still taunting him enough to frustrate him, but hey, she's not knocking him over like usual. Times like these are when I miss Max. He was such a great playmate for Secret -- But I'm sure he's doing awesome in his new home!

It rained yesterday, so we did nothing in the wet grass. I did manage to drag out the weave poles after working at the shelter on Tuesday, though, and we got in some good practice time. I set up a trio of jumps on one end (set of 12 poles) and a trio of hoops on the opposite end. We worked entries at various angles, threw in some rear crosses and also focused on maintaining speed through the poles.

Even with the Jolly Ball employed for ultimate motivation, Secret did not want me leaving her in the poles. She weaved fastest, by far, with me right by her side or just slightly ahead. If I left her in the poles she slowed down considerably, so I guess I'll be babysitting her in her Elite Weavers run tomorrow. We need as much speed as possible. Thankfully NADAC doesn't require any tricky handling, so going way ahead to get into position isn't really required. Meanwhile, our homework is to maintain speed and motivation independent of my position.

Cross your fingers that Mother Nature cooperates tomorrow. The weather forecast isn't appearing to be in our favor. I will run in a light rain, but if it storms I'm sure they will call it off and perhaps just try to squeeze those three classes into the trial over the rest of the weekend (and of course, we won't be there!).

Thundershirt! Bring on the storms!

Secret's Thundershirt arrived yesterday! Yay! There wasn't really so much as a cloud in the sky, but of course we had to try it on and model for blog pictures. :o) And from what I've read, they suggest acclimating the dog to the shirt during non-stressful times so that they don't always associate it with bad things -- so yesterday was as good a time as any!

Secret was.... Well, not pleased when I put it on. She kind of just froze up on me and wouldn't move. It made me wonder, does it work by making them comatose and unable to react to anything around them? lol


She was just odd and very reluctant to move in it. Yes, the Thundershirt is very snug, it's suppose to be (like a firm, secure "hug" around their body). But it's also very stretchy and easy to move in, so that's no excuse. I ran inside to grab the camera (okay, it's my phone) and she never even moved from the spot where I left her. I took a video to show just how much she didn't want to move in it. lol




The good news is that she quickly improved. I just left her in it while I went about my ritual of de-pooing the lawn before mowing. Eventually she started to wander around and graze like a cow (this is not a reflection of the Thundershirt, this is a daily occurrence....).

But then something notable happened! The neighbor kid (the good one, not the evil ones) must have had some friends over after school and they came out into their backyard to play tetherball -- and their tetherball set-up (seriously, who has those at home?) happens to be right next to my fence.

Normally this sort of sound (screaming children coupled with frequent random loud slapping noises) would send Secret into the garage to hide. It's happened several times when the other neighbors are out playing baseball or basketball. But this time Secret continued to go about her business helping me to "pre-mow" the lawn. It was a warmer afternoon, so eventually she ended up under the shade of the deck and was watching/listening to the ruckus next door, but she made no move to go hide in the garage!

So hey, thumbs up for the Thundershirt already! I will have to think of other ways to put it to use -- Maybe I'll try putting on her and going for a walk in the "scary field next to the tracks" that she hates so much. There is a possibility for storms coming up this weekend, but I'll be working at the shelter and am not keen on leaving her in it for a full day unsupervised. Regardless, I'm sure it will see plenty of use.

By the time I took it off her, Secret was back to her usual sassy, happy self.

I did enter the MMBC trial for this coming Friday -- All three dogs are doing the three offered classes (Weavers, Tunnelers & Hoopers). Cross your fingers for good weather. If it's cruddy outside I'll probably just save the gas money and scratch -- but who wants to do that?? We'll go into it with little to no training time, unfortunately. Last night I had to mow everything (seriously, Kaiser was getting lost in the yard it was getting so bad!) and I'm at the shelter tonight and tomorrow. I'll have to at least drag the weaves out into the yard. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit anxious about Secret's first time running in Elite!

Discrimination!

Ha! I caught them! Secret and Kaiser love each other. Most of the time it appears as though they are trying to kill each other with their rough-and-tumble all out play style. Seriously, I yell at them all the time -- Last week Secret must have gotten Kaiser in the foot because he hobbled around on three legs for several days. He asks for it, though, by jumping up and yanking her tail all the time. But there are moments where they can be calm and snuggle together.

Secret says, "It's a lie! She photoshopped that picture above!"

I think the dogs like "wash the bedding day" as much as I do. I wish they wouldn't shed so stinking much. The amount of hair that comes out of the lint trap is kind of gross....

At any rate, as planned, I set up a nice little discrimination exercise with the dog walk last night. It was nothing fancy, just the tunnel under one end with hoops and jumps and weave poles thrown in for a bonus. For a treat, here is my super awesomely horrible Paint drawing:

I ran out of room. That should, of course, be 12 weave poles. ;o)

We warmed up with the poles. For the record, Secret weaves awesomely fast for her jolly ball. Even then, though, she still hops. She is a hopper. That is all there is to it. But she got down really low and hopped really fast, so I'm happy with her. :o)

Despite my super poor handling (I found myself having to support her through the pinwheel more than I would have preferred), Secret did awesome. She never got one wrong, even when I forgot what I was doing and didn't cue her until the last second. (Note to self, don't work Secret last. I lose all brain power and forget that she doesn't handle the same way as the boys.) Her dog walk performance was slower when faced with the discrimination, but I blame myself for that because I was throwing fuzzy signals to her because I wasn't trusting that she would get it right. Bad handler. She still drove nicely to the end position, though, and her dog walk performance in the other direction (without the tunnel underneath the approach) was super.

I have to give myself a pat on the back for not drilling her into oblivion with this exercise. I actually managed to keep it decently short and I quit while she was still happy and motivated. We finished with a nice hard entry into the weaves. Secret will be in *ELITE* Weavers at our next trial, so I'm really pushing her for speed right now. Luke and I struggled with time in that class for so long.... I'm very interested to see where Secret's time will be.

Speaking of -- I've more or less decided to make the trip to the MMBC NADAC trial in Savage after all. I'm working that weekend, but they are offering three classes on Friday night (Tunnelers, Weavers & Hoopers). Secret has yet to run Hoopers, so I want to get that out of the way (especially if I want to try to get her into Champs!), and technically Kaiser still needs one Hoopers Q, too. Luke could always use another Weavers Q and I'm still trying to round out his Elite Hoopers Q's and finish his Superior title. So..... That all makes it seem like a good idea to drive almost 400 miles round trip in a day for a total of 9 runs. It would be Secret's first outdoor trial, too! Entries close on Friday, so I have to get that in the mail soon....

Is it any wonder why I have to have a king-sized bed? Bed hogs.

Storms Suck

Spring is awesome. Storms are not. We have a big one passing through here this morning and Secret isn't a happy camper.

She's not a quaking puddle of fear, thankfully, but she stresses. Right now she's sleeping against the wall behind my computer desk -- This appears to be her safe spot to go to any time she hears a loud scary noise.

I finally ordered her a Thundershirt. I've been thinking about it for a while, but I finally caved when I was on the web site last week and saw that they come in PINK!!! Wheeeee! They say it's been shipped, but sadly it wasn't here in time for this storm. Oh well, I'm sure there will be others.


I was a very poor blogger and didn't take any photos -- But the dog walk is out at home! Yay!!! Secret "helped" me mow the lawn Friday after work, and with that out of the way, I managed to drag the dog walk out into the yard by myself on Saturday after my shift at the humane society. The a-frame will have to wait until I have help, as I don't really feel like throwing my back out attempting to move that by myself. Besides that, I discovered that the wheels on my a-frame mover are flatter than flat, so I need to go fill them with air first anyhow.

While we definitely need to get back to work on discriminations (because really, I feel we barely even touched on that last year and now Secret is seeing them in trials...), I thought our first session with the dog walk would be better spent on driving into end position. All three dogs benefited from a brush-up on this skill, really.

Last year Secret's contact work was pretty much all done for food, but I decided to use her beloved Jolly Ball to really encourage drive & speed. We started by doing a couple of "bottoms" (not the whole contact) and then sending to the next obstacles (hoops on one end of the dog walk, jumps set to 22" on the other side). I figured this was a good place to start since she apparently forgot her 2-on/2-off at the last trial! We only had one four-on stop this time, so that's good.

Once we moved on to doing the whole dog walk, I alternated between having her hold her stop and doing a quick release. I think we may start doing a few more quick releases in practice because it seems to keep her energy up higher and results in a faster overall dog walk performance. I realize that it's a slippery slope to a self-releasing contact, so I'll have to watch her and see what she does. Overall, though, I'm very impressed with how her contact performance has held up with so little training over the winter.

Next time, discrimination work!

Lexie is here!

What is Secret peering at under the table? What is making her thump her tail so fast that it is a blur on camera? lol

Why, it would be Lexie! Lexie arrived yesterday from Canada and today was her first time meeting my crew. I think it was a little overwhelming for her at first. Kaiser was the worst, surprisingly. Secret snarked at first but then wanted to be best friends. Luke has not yet acknowledged Lexie's presence (as is usual with new additions, it seems).

Lexie decided that being under the table was her "safe spot" to go to when the other dogs were around. Secret & Luke can't fit and for some reason Kaiser left her alone there. But when my dad brought out the treats and my dogs started mugging him, Lexie was definitely interested in what was going on!

Here's a shot of the little cherub from above. Lexie is going on a weight loss program. She's done pretty much nothing (except eat....) for her seven months of life and it shows. If we are going to turn her into an agility star, we have to start by getting her in shape. :o) And how better to do that than to take her along on walks with us?


I can't believe how small she looks next to Kaiser. There aren't many dogs that make Kaiser look big!
And she's an absolute midget next to Secret. Secret is very interested in Lexie. I'm sure some day it will be mutual. :o)

I wish I had more to share, but we honestly have not done a lick of training since the trial last weekend. Nothing. Partly because of the weather, partly because of my schedule, and partly because I'm just lazy. We should be able to do something this week, though. My contacts are still in the garage.....

Secret's 5th Trial!

I actually had to look back to see which trial this was for Secret. It is hard to believe it is number five. For some reason it feels like we've been doing it longer, but I guess five trials since the end of February is actually pretty good. lol

As you can see, Secret had a good day! We got up at 4:30 a.m. and made the drive up to Lindstrom, MN. I was ever so thankful that they decided to push the start time back to a more respectable 9 a.m. vs. 8:00. I don't think I would have been able to get up any earlier and still function. I made Secret ride in the back on the way up there so that she would actually sleep.

Because this is what she looks like when she tries to sleep up front and the end result is that she doesn't sleep well (this was the drive home):

So we arrived at Oasis Equestrian Center at about 8:22 a.m. -- Pretty much leaving me just enough time to get stuff set up and to potty the boys. Secret, being the girl she is, refuses to potty quickly, so she had to wait until after the boys finished running Elite Regular. Thankfully we did have plenty of time for her to find the perfect spot before going in to run Open Regular.

I'm very happy with how Secret ran this weekend! I was even happier after watching the video because while running, it felt like she wasn't moving that fast, but on video she's actually looking pretty awesome. We had an interesting development with contacts, though -- Secret more or less lost her two-on/two-off on the dog walk, and even did a four-on at the a-frame once! I would stand there and wait for her to get into position and she would just stand there and bark at me, so eventually I just had to say fine and keep going. We need to get the contacts out at home to revisit this, I guess. Truth be told, though, I think it's almost a miracle that her contacts held up all winter with zero training.

Secret Q'd and got first in the first round of Regular. The second round was great right up until the end when she dove into the off course tunnel under the dog walk. Uh, Secret, did we forget what an RFP is? Again, lack of training.... She Q'd and got 3rd in Touch-n-Go coming in a good 8 seconds under time, so that's fantastic. Chances was an NQ all thanks to me calling her name right before the jump and causing her to cut to the inside. It happened on the other side of the line, so there was no opportunity to fix it.

I was surprised to see that Secret came in 6 seconds under time in Open Weavers considering we had to fix a spot when she cut in on the inside of a hoop and she got progressively slower (coming almost to a stop at the end) in the last set of (12) poles. Who knows what was going on in her head there, but thankfully she was covering enough ground earlier in the course to make up for it. Oh, and if you watch the video, take a gander at the blind cross I threw at her. No idea where that came from. I do blind crosses when the dogs are in tunnels, but never out in the open like that. I did it to Kaiser, too (but not Luke). I blame it on my lack of sleep. Thankfully it worked in both cases. Maybe we should train for something like that in case my brain blows up again in the future.

Open Jumpers was Secret's final and 6th run of the day. Thus far she's never done more than 5 runs in a day and I didn't know if it would be too much for her -- But darn it, that extra run was only $5 more, so all three dogs ran 6 runs this time. There was a long straight line of jumps that went straight into a serpentine with a VERY tempting off course jump at the end. I knew I wanted to get in a front cross with Secret since she doesn't yet send terribly well on the rear crosses and I didn't want to be behind her. I left her at the start and did a running wait, which seemed to jazz her up. I released her when I got to jump three and came nicely down the line and read my front cross cue nicely.

(I stole this photo off my friend, Robyn's, blog -- Thanks, Robyn!)

I ran Secret in Proficient at this trial, so she was in the 20"+ category. I feel that she handled it very well, but I could tell that her back was starting to get tight by the end of the day. She carries all of her stress in her back. I'm trying to make more of a point to massage her regularly. I also put liniment on her Friday & Saturday and that seems to help. I think it's something that I'm just going to have to get in the habit of doing or I'll end up with two crippled dogs on my hands (I shouldn't say that, Luke is well managed these days).

For whatever reason, YouTube isn't giving me an embedding option right now. So here's the Facebook version instead!



In other exciting news, Luke got his NATCH 2 on a lovely Chances run!



And now I am sad because we have no more trials until Memorial Day weekend.

And JUST IN CASE you were wondering, this is the annual Hawaiian Shirt trial. :o) That should explain my choice in attire. lol

We have a new family member coming!

It is official! In a week and a half we will have a new family member joining us! :o) No, she is not mine and will not be living with us -- But she will be coming to visit often because I plan to steal her away several times a week to train. Yes, I will be training a Scottish Terrier in agility. Fun times, fun times. lol I can't wait!

Currently her name is Pink (my parents are leaning towards Alexa/Lexi but my dad is waffling for some reason) and she is coming from Stalwart Kennels in Alberta, Canada. I found her through one of my scottie agility contacts, who let me know about her because she was turning out to be more petite than the breeder wished and they thought she would make a great agility candidate with her fine bone and spunky attitude. When we received the pictures, my dad was sold and we managed to talk my mom into it.

My parents have been without a dog for about a year and a half, since our Westie, Buddy, passed away at age 15 1/2 in November of 2009. It's been much longer since they have had a Scottie, as Cody passed away about a year and a half before Buddy. My dad is a long time Scottie lover and has dearly missed having one in his life. We are so excited to welcome the new addition.


We are curious to see what my dogs do. Pink is seven months old, so still very much a puppy. Secret likes puppies and small dogs in general, so I think she will be okay. Kaiser likes all dogs and especially girl dogs. Things might change for Kaiser.... Pink is coming on a breeding contract, so Kaiser might lose his boy bits here in the future. Time will tell -- We have to see how hard it is to manage. And Luke? Luke still doesn't think he's a dog so I'm sure he'll just ignore her.

My dad is flying to pick her up at the end of the month, so you can expect to see an update on "Pink" come May 2. :o)

New Collar!

The collar addiction continues. :o) Secret's new Chuckle Pup collar arrived in the mail. And after I finally figured out that it's adjustable (it was a bit snug at first), I had Secret model for some photos.

I saw the pink sheep ribbon posted some time ago, but I'd already ordered Secret's bling-bling collar and didn't think she needed another so soon. When I saw the ribbon posted again, I jumped on it -- Because, what female Border Collie doesn't NEED a pink sheepie collar???

Many thanks to Adrienne at Chuckle Pup for designing & creating this lovely collar for us!

Ugh.

Ugh. That's just how I feel. Secret's expression captures it well. Winter has returned to the upper midwest.

That was during our walk yesterday. It was towards the beginning of the storm. Even Secret thought the blowing wind and icy snow kind of sucked.

But not for long. She was pretty damn gleeful once we got home and she got to play in it. Super duper frisbee fun for all!

There's the Jumpers course (with a couple of hoops since a couple of my jumps are still buried under contact equipment in the garage...) we've been playing on for a few days. It's an Elite Jumpers course that I pulled off someone's blog last week to play with bonus lines for Luke. I've been running Secret at 20/22" and she's doing great. I'm glad I made myself practice on Monday when I was super tired because it doesn't look like we'll have any other opportunities before our trial this weekend!

And lest you think that a snow storm might stop Secret from doing what she loves..... Nope. She still went for a swim! Only Secret....

Video! Clean Run Backyard Dogs

Okay, I was not happy with the video that I posted yesterday. I thought it was way too far away and I hate that you can't see anything.

So I did a different one last night. I set up the Backyard Dogs course from the April 2011 issue of Clean Run. It happened to be the page I turned to during breakfast yesterday and I thought it looked challenging and fun -- And it was!

Secret did awesome. She stayed motivated & focused even through her break and kept up her toy drive (we used the Holee Roller for all of this). I'm very proud of how well she did. The jumps are all set at 20" for Secret and I think she should do just fine at the next trial at this height.

One nice thing about having three dogs is that it allows me to work through all of the exercises without wearing anyone out (besides me, that is). If you want to see what the boys did, here are their videos!

Kaiser


Luke

April Showers....

This is the scene in my yard following the storms that rolled through this weekend. One lone hoop remains standing amongst the carnage. Half of the plastic blew down, too -- Honestly, I would love to see if we could go without that retched plastic this year, but I have a feeling nothing will have changed with the stupid neighbor dog.

The first big storm came through Saturday evening. I was glad that it waited until I got home from work, but the timing of the storm also meant that we got little sleep Saturday night. First I had to convince Secret to even get on the bed (versus hiding in the closet) and then she was unsettled and moving around until the storm finished in the wee hours of the morning.

Another whopper blew in on Sunday, unfortunately while I was working at the shelter. We had a tornado warning, huge hail and tons of wind. I worried about what I'd find when I got home, but thankfully they seemed none the worse for wear. I dare say Luke seemed more stressed than Secret, and he's been doing better with storms lately. At any rate, I was happy to see that Secret didn't seem too bothered. The wind was blowing quite a bit against the house in the evening and she didn't seem disturbed in the least. Apparently it's just the thunder/lightening combo that upsets her.

We got in some training time Friday afternoon after work! I haven't gotten the contacts out of the garage yet, so we are focusing on jump work right now. I found a decent Open Jumpers (NADAC) course in my pile and decided to set that up for everyone. I took video -- It's about a million miles away, but you can still see some of it. :o)

Pictures from the trial

My friend, Jessica (who runs the cutest Boston Terriers!), sent me a couple of shots that she got of Secret at the trial this weekend. I *adore* the first shot. Look at Secret go! She looks, I daresay, SPORTY and FAST! lol It must be from one of her Open Regular rounds on Saturday by the looks of the course design behind her.

No idea which class this is from, but look at the focus and attention (and the cute ear standing up). :o) Very nice & efficient turn over the jump.

It's nice to see that Secret has decent form over the jump. Sometimes in the video it looks like she's just hurling herself over with very little effort. lol

I have to decide in the next few days, but I'm leaning towards putting Secret up to 20"+ Proficient at the next trial. It's on dirt, so I wouldn't have to worry about her having such crappy footing (like on these mats). I want her to have at least a couple of 20" trials under her belt at Open before I move her up to Elite. We should get oodles of practice in at home at 20" (or higher) before the Easter trial, so she should be fine.

There aren't any more NADAC trials in La Crosse until the end of July, so I'm trying to nail down my trial schedule and figure out what I'm doing. We are doing the Easter weekend trial back at Lindstrom, but I haven't decided on one day or two yet. If the trial would start at 9:00 instead of 8:00 it would be so easy to just drive up (three hours) the morning of, but I'm not thrilled with the idea of getting up at 3:30 a.m.

On any normal year I would be planning to go to the MMBC trial at Savage Park on May 21 & 22 -- But I recently learned of a NADAC Funraiser being held at Davenport the following weekend. Not only are entries cheaper at Funraisers, but that trial is indoors on the best turf around. I love MMBC, but that trial was *miserable* last year with horrid weather.

Our only real option for June is to head back down to Davenport on the 11 & 12. NADAC is dying in this area, it seems. Otherwise we could always branch out and try something else, but that will depend on if Secret gets over the teeter issues she developed this winter. We'll see. If she starts getting close to qualifying for NADAC Champs, I suppose we'd just stick with that route until after October.

Oh to have a limitless supply of funding, then we could just trial everywhere every weekend in every venue. :o)

Secret's 4th Trial!

Secret had her fourth NADAC trial this past weekend, held at Family Dog Center in La Crosse, WI (our "home turf"). It was her first time ever attempting to go for three days in a row -- You have to remember that two of her first three trials were single days, so this was a lot to ask of her!

Secret did awesome. She qualified in 9/12 events over the three days, earned her Novice titles in Jumpers & Touch-n-Go and earned her first Open Q's (six total!).

Everything started Friday night with games -- Secret was in Open Weavers & Tunnelers, and Novice Touch-n-Go. Perfect night! Yay! It ran a lot later than the last Friday night trial FDC had and we didn't get home until after 10:00. This was Secret before we went to bed:

I was a bit concerned about how she would hold up for Saturday because all of the dogs were pretty pooped (me, too!). She did start to fade as the day wore on -- Open Tunnelers was downright sad and she trotted through 3/4 of the course and somehow still managed to come in one second under time. She woke up in time for Novice Jumpers at the end of the day, though, and had a great run! We didn't Q at all in Regular. The first run was completely my fault because I was very late on a front cross and she went off course to the a-frame. In the second run, everything was going great until we got to the a-frame and she bailed!! It took four tries to get her back on the thing -- all I can figure is that she got corrected for going on the a-frame in that direction on the first run, so she thought it was "bad." Thankfully we got past it and there weren't any other issues.

Here is how worn out Secret was after the trial on Saturday -- yes, she slept like this for some time...

Because Jumpers was the first run of the day and I figured she would have plenty of energy, I decided to go ahead and move Secret up to Open Jumpers on Sunday. My eyes bugged out of my head a bit when I saw it was a 20 obstacle course -- the same number that Elite had, only the course was reversed a bit. That's kind of how Open was all weekend, though -- The courses were practically the exact same, with the exception of a set of weaves being replaced with a tunnel and the tunnel being removed from under the dog walk. (hence why I think staying in open is silly...)

Secret Q'd in Open Jumpers and had a great run in Open Weavers! I was late AGAIN with calling her to turn out of a tunnel in the first round of Regular, so she went off course up the dog walk on an otherwise very nice run. I cleaned up my act and we managed to Q in the second round, finishing up a very nice weekend.

Here's our video!