Dear Anonymous....

I know I should ignore and/or delete this comment that was made on the last trial results post. Biting comments made under the veil of anonymity don't have much merit, after all.

But I can't. Ignorance irritates me, which is why I feel the need to respond.

It is a well known fact that course times in NADAC are less lenient than in other organizations -- We'll use CPE and AKC as an example, for in those venues almost any dog should be able to achieve Standard Course Time. One of the reasons that NADAC does not fault refusals is because it has been stated that the SCT is an obstacle in and of itself. For many dogs, a refusal or two will put them over course time. Luke has always been a great example of this with his Weavers runs.

Apparently I missed the memo that any dog who runs at less than 7 yps is assumed to have a Q rate of at least 80%. Funny, I seem to see a lot of teams out there moving at speeds less than "noticeably fast" who still struggle to Q consistently. Isn't that what keeps us coming back to this game?

Our dogs are living beings with minds of their own. Just because one is not moving at a blinding speed does not mean they are not capable of making mistakes. OR that the handler is not capable of making mistakes.

I have never claimed to have World Team aspirations with Secret. I am well aware of where she is at in her training. She has been a "precise" dog from day one and has been coming out with more speed at each trial. We are on a completely different journey than a team who has speed out of the gate and struggles for precision.

When you get a puppy from rescue and have no idea of their parentage, it's generally a crap shoot. Secret's litter did not turn out to be high-drive performance superstars (Secret's brother is very much like her despite their different upbringings). They are thinkers. They also ended up freakishly tall and very much unlike the compact little speeding bullets that are so popular in agility today.

Secret is not yet two years old and I am excessively proud of how far she has come in this time. This is a dog who had zero interest in toys, no motivation to run, and not a whole lot of desire to interact with me. Anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time knows what we have gone through.

So thanks, Anonymous, for your incredibly insightful comment. And for reminding me to not allow anonymous posting in my comments section. Good day!

It's done!

It is official. Our entries to the 2011 NADAC Championships left in the mail yesterday and my credit card is smoking from the PayPal payment sent yesterday afternoon. :o)

And yes, those entries included one for Secret!

I stapled a little note to her entry explaining how Secret started to trial in February and has had a grand total of 16 days of trial experience. In that time she has managed to get all but one Chances Q (and the stupid Hoopers Q, but I said I had entered & Q'd in the class every chance we had). As a formality, I requested that she be considered for second chance entry if she didn't get in on the merit of her achievements. But come on, she's gotten 53 Q's in less than six months. If that isn't merit, what is?

I wonder if she will be the youngest dog in attendance? Coming in a very close second (by ONE day!) will be our friend Robyn's dog, CeCe -- Another amazing achievement there! And CeCe actually got both of her needed Hoopers Q's, so they beat us in that race. lol Can't wait to see how the baby dogs do!

FDC's Grand Opening Trial = HUGE SUCCESS

The Grand Opening of the new arena at Family Dog Center was a huge success -- Not only for them (largest trial ever!), but also for Secret. She - Was - AMAZING.

The short story is that Secret Q'd in 10/12 runs from Friday - Sunday, earning first place in all but two (and really, one of her 2nd place runs was a "no time" run because they failed to start the timers, so she got SCT). Secret earned her Open Touch-n-Go title as well as her Elite Regular title, going 4/4 her very first time running in Elite!

Friday was just super fun. Everyone was very excited to finally see the new addition at Family Dog Center. It's been in the works for some time, so it was great to see it completed. The turf was a bit slick on Friday (Secret totally face-planted in Tunnelers), but they added a lot of sand to it overnight and I thought it ran very well for the rest of the weekend. There were a lot of unfortunate "accidents" on the turf (of the soiling nature) and Secret ALMOST became one of them, but thank heavens I can read her squat and I got her outside in time. Whew.

Secret seems to like the new arena! She was raring to go from the beginning on Friday and started off the evening with a Tunnelers run that came out at 6.0 yps! By far her fastest time ever!!

She Q'd in Touch-n-Go, earning her Open Title in that class, but the judge was in the middle of the arena and we once again had some issues (although not nearly as bad as last time). Our judge was Lorne McGee, who is about the nicest judge on the planet, so I spoke to him after everything was done on Friday and he was kind enough to come over and spend some time with Secret. I am so thankful for the time he spent with us and his help over the rest of the weekend to get her used to having someone in the ring. He stepped out into the middle for several of our classes and Secret finally seemed to get used to the idea -- So YAY for that!

Saturday started out with two great runs in Elite Regular. I definitely made the right decision to move her up to Elite for this trial -- She handled the courses with ease. I also felt really good about my decision to move her to Skilled, as she just seems so much happier and more comfortable at 16". The 16" Skilled division at Champs is going to be horrendously competitive, but who cares -- We just want to have a good time. :o)

We NQ'd in our first Elite Touch-n-Go run, but I have to take all the credit for that one. If you point at the tunnel, you should expect your dog to take it. lol The rest of that run was lovely, though -- Including a WRAP at a hoop. Can you believe it, a wrap in NADAC?! There was a lot of buzzing in the course walk when that was discovered, but I was thrilled to see something different.

We wandered outside for quite a while before Chances, but apparently it wasn't long enough. Thank goodness that Secret has long legs and it's pretty obvious when she's heading towards the squat position. I stopped her short before she could start anything and excused us from the ring. We barely made it to the grass before she went, so THANK YOU, Secret, for holding it. :o)

Secret rocked the Jumpers courses both Saturday & Sunday. She was moving very nicely and we only had one near off course on Sunday morning when she started to head for the tunnel, but thankfully she listened and was able to turn in time. We like Jumpers courses! One more Q is needed for her EJC title. Woot!

The day continued in marvelous fashion on Sunday. Hoopers was her second class and I picked a pattern with lots & lots of front crosses -- Which is good, because Secret wasn't terribly motivated for this class, but she likes front crosses and it kept her going. She did hoop weaves again! She was the first dog on the line and they didn't have the timers figured out, so she just got SCT for that run.

I wasn't sure about the Chances course for Secret, because it involved being restrained at the dog walk again -- But thankfully I could go with her further than the last time. I thought for sure we were done when she came to me off the dog walk again, but believe it or not, she actually SENT back out to the jump! I about fell over, but was able to compose myself to call her back to the next jump, as it appeared she was on her way to an off course tunnel. The next difficult part for us was a switch out to a tunnel. She did it! From there it was a pretty easy call through a hoop and then a run out. I started celebrating way too early (with two hoops to go, lol), but thankfully she managed to keep running a straight line and we got a much needed Open Chances Q!

Secret was starting to drag by the end of the day (despite the Power Boost supplement I was using for the first time -- but still, when you're tired, you're tired!), so her Regular runs weren't quite as speedy as on Saturday, but they were well under time. My only surprise was that her second run was six seconds faster than the first. While it was happening, I thought the second run was soooo slow, probably because she trotted through two hoops. Watching the video, though, she did make up time nicely in other spots. (Speaking of video, sorry for the poor quality in the last half -- Somehow the camera got turned to "night shot" mode and I ended up with a lot of blurry video.)

Overall, I am just beyond thrilled with her performance. When I first started running her in February it was almost a joke that we might possibly finish our requirements for Champs Qualifiers by the deadline. Well, baby girl ended up just one Chances run shy (I don't count Hoopers, because she's qualified every time we've seen the silly class so there isn't much I can do about that...). I don't know about you, but I think that is pretty darn amazing.



(The boys have videos as well -- If you click on the video it should take you to YouTube and you can find them there!)

I got video! Dock Jumping!!

Sorry for the crappy photo quality, but it's just a couple of still shots that I pulled off the video. Yes, video!! I got video! Bethany was willing to stand on the safety of the shore with the camera and film us -- Because after all, standing in 90 degree water isn't really all that cooling, and you pretty much risked your life trying to walk on the slimy landing anyhow. lol


Secret was a SUPERSTAR. I had no idea what to expect, so I didn't even think to get the camera out at first. After a couple of tries, I realized I had an awesome little dock jumper on my hands, so I ran to get the video camera -- So the first jump in the video is actually her third or something. Then the dock started to get pretty slippery and the jumps weren't so spectacular, but I am SO EXCITED to get her jumping off a carpeted surface at the competition.

There was zero hesitation on Secret's behalf, so I'm really hoping that it translates to the dive pool at the State Fair. I am going to try hard not to get sucked into a "comfort zone" at this dock that I found -- There was nobody there and it was pretty much perfect -- But instead I will try to keep finding more docks to practice on so that Secret continues to gain confidence in new settings.

But eeek! It was so fun! I won't even try to get into how hot it was, though. Bethany and I pretty much started to sweat the instant we stepped out of the car. It is so gross here right now. Secret actually would lay in the shallow water to rest between tosses -- she's never done that before. Although the water was easily 90 degrees, so I'm not sure how cooling it was!

Here is the video! Clips from Luke & Kaiser are included as well. We tried to get Rascal to jump in, but he didn't really want any part of it.

This heat is deadly...

So yeah, the heat index has been well over 100 the last few days. So what did I decide to do? Why, I set and ran the above course posted by Steve at AgilityNerd! I set it on Saturday, which was by far supposed to be the coolest day until about next Monday. But it was still pretty hot. I'd actually placed all the jump bars Thursday evening after working at the shelter, but then it rained all day Friday and we weren't able to play.

I took my time finishing the set-up on Saturday, so as not to kill myself before we even started. I let the dogs wander around while I picked up poo, but then stuck them in the house while I built the rest of the course.

I had to do some slight tweaking due to my dog walk having an 8' center plank vs. 12' -- but it was easy enough by just shuffling the jumps on the bottom a bit lower.

I'd watched Steve's video several times to get a good idea of how he handled the sequences -- He did the option without the dog walk in his video, though, whereas I did the one with the dog walk. Having stopped contacts was definitely to my advantage for getting into position for the ending.

Secret really impressed me! The weave entry took a couple of tries and I ended up shaping the entry more than I would prefer (by pushing her out slightly after jump 4) -- But the second time I brought her out she was getting it much better on her own.

Really, the only part of the course that we could not seem to conquer was the line from 9 to 10. I never really got it set to my satisfaction -- I couldn't make it feel right and even the boys (who have much better sends than Secret) even had their share of issues because the line was so off. I tried to stay ahead of Secret (haha!) on the right and then even tried staying on her left and doing a rear cross, but we never got through that section without a spin or off course.

Secret did three reps on our first try and then was just done from the heat and humidity. I tried to get weaves out of her and she walked through them. I let her rest in the air conditioning while I gave the boys their turn (holy heck, Kaiser nailed it!), then I brought Secret back out and let her run it a couple more times at 8". She was nicely refreshed and did great, including super nice weaves. I was about ready to fall over dead by that point, so we called it quits.

I was actually too wiped out to put everything away, so I left it out with the hopes that maybe we would get a shot at it again on Sunday. No such luck. It was just way too miserable outside. All we did yesterday was wander slowly around the yard while I put everything away to keep Kaiser from peeing on it any more than he already had....

Tonight we are going on a search for a dock. Quite honestly it's probably too hot even to do that, but the dogs are starting to get a bit pent up so we will see what we can handle. I'd love to say that you can expect to see video, but I'm kind of hesitant about activities that could lead to the camera being dropped in the water. ;o)

Dock Jumping!!! Yay!!!!

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's.......! Okay, that is totally not Secret in the above photo. Thank you, Google Image Search. ;o)

But maybe it COULD be! lol

Going out in today's mail are the entries for Secret's (and Luke's) VERY FIRST DOCK JUMPING EVENT! I am so excited I could pass out. I have been wanting to try this event *forever* but they are never anywhere near here and always conflict with my agility schedule.

I happened upon an event being held at the Wisconsin State Fair next month. The competition runs from Monday through Thursday -- and since my day job is fairly easy to get away from, that works out perfectly!

Of course, I stumbled upon this two days away from the closing date, so there really wasn't much time to dawdle with entry decisions. I sent a quick e-mail to Bethany to see if she wanted to schlep along and when she said she was game, I said, "Yay!"

So.... Monday, August 8 will be Secret's dock jumping debut. It is the day before her 2nd birthday! I have no idea what to expect. Maybe I should try to find some sort of dock to practice on before then....

Sharing Spaces

Sorry Kaiser -- I had one picture that you looked good and Secret looked awful, but this is her blog so her good picture wins. ;o)

Because this what happens when I try to use Photoshop -- hahahahahaha --

At any rate....

Secret has never been much for sharing. In fact, while I wouldn't go so far as to call her a resource guarder, she does happen to think that the world and everything in it belongs to her (if she wants it, that is). If Kaiser takes a toy or chewy that she thinks she would like to have, she barks until he gives it back. If Luke gets to a ball before she does, she barks. If she wants to lay somewhere, she lays on top of Kaiser (for real....). You get the idea.

She also has never been fond of sharing space with strangers. She's not fond of strangers, period. This is not for lack of socialization when she was younger, but I feel a good deal of it comes from *me* not generally being comfortable around strangers and she feeds off this.

For all of this and more, I'm very proud that Secret was able to go to the river and totally not freak out when we found other people on the little beach last night! We've been very spoiled on our trips lately and have had it all to ourselves. There was a trio of younger adults (I feel so old to say something like that) that were hanging out when we arrived. When I asked if they were okay with the dogs they claimed they were leaving, but then were interested in the dogs and hung out for a bit.

And Secret was actually okay with it! Well.... She kept giving them a wary eye, but she managed to engage with me and her toy and move past that. In Secret's world, that's great! This, coupled with how well she did outside the ring at the trial on Saturday, makes me very happy. I don't know that I mentioned it, but she was actively seeking out individuals to say hello and was also interested in several dogs. I don't think her tail ever touched her belly the whole day. :o) I'm happy to see a more confident dog emerging.

Another bonus of the day yesterday -- Secret managed not to lose the brand new $9 Water Wubba that I bought. lol I'm always hesitant to take brand new toys to the river, but Secret seemed to have such a love affair with the old busted up Wubba that was destroyed on our last trip that I thought this one would be safe. And it was. We love the Wubba, I guess!

Fat Chances!

I had an entertaining discussion with my friend, Robin A, at the trial on Saturday. She has an interesting philosophy regarding the difficultly level of the Chances class. Or perhaps I should say, a sliding scale. It ranges from "Slim Chances" (where it can be assumed that you have a reasonably good chance at succeeding) to "Morbidly Obese Chances" (where you essentially don't have a chance in hell). We all agreed that Saturday's course was right there in Morbidly Obese land. For Secret, at least!!

But Chances aside, Secret had a really good day! She Q'd in 3/4 runs and got her Novice Hoopers Title! See that giant blue New Title ribbon? MAC has the largest I've ever come across. Love me the ribbon bling-bling.

Hoopers was up first and I was happy to see HOOP WEAVES in the course! Not sure why -- I mean, Secret has only practiced them once and then I never touched on them again. I have no idea why I thought that it would be a good idea to plan a course with the HW. That said, I did have a back-up plan in place if everything fell apart, but it involved getting the "out" hoop of a side-by-side pair in the middle of a pinwheel, and that took a couple of tries last time we saw it.

The first test was just a big arch of hoops up at the top of the ring, then the HW test had a single hoop prior to the HW to start. Secret entered on the wrong side the first time, so we had to restart the test (thankfully it wasn't very far). She got it right the second time, did one weaving motion and then stopped and barked at me. I'm sure the fact that these hoops were made of the most giant PVC I've ever seen probably threw her off a bit -- Mine at home are simple 3/4 and this looked almost like 1 1/2"! Definitely more of a "jump" over the bases. At any rate, I got her going again without missing any part of the pattern and then it was a quick turn and run through the finish hoop. Secret Q'd and got first place -- Out of TWELVE dogs! :o) It was nice to have some actual competition for once. Usually the trials are so small that we're lucky to have two other dogs in our group.

Secret got a bit of a break before her first round of Open Regular. I am so happy with this run of hers! She was happy, sassy & moving! Considering this, I was pretty shocked when I looked at the results and saw that she was listed as having 10 faults for that run. Uhhh...... I may have come off a bit psychotic as I looked into this, but gosh darn it I was not going to take an NQ for such a nice run!

My friend, Rich, was timing that run -- But he was also video taping for me, so he was no help. lol The scribe could not remember what the call was (or if it might have been written on the wrong line) -- and since I was late in looking at the results (because hello, I assumed it was a Q!), I don't blame her for not remembering. THANK GOODNESS I had the video tape. In a break between rounds I approached the judge and asked her about it and explained that I had it on video if she would like to watch. Thankfully Pam Smith is a wonderful & kind judge, so she readily agreed to it. After watching the video she proclaimed that it was, indeed, a clean run and she took care of it with the score table. Phew!

The second run was not quite as awesome as the first, but still good nonetheless. Secret was spooked by the giant fan RIGHT at the start line and I was happy she managed to get through the first hoop in a straight line. I'm not sure if she wasn't a fan of my blind cross before the weaves or what, but she was especially slow through them and then she went, "Ooh, what is that?" at a big white spot on the floor right after them. It made me feel better to see a couple other dogs sight in on some of the painted spots on the floor.

Positive note -- She actually went to the bottom of all of her contacts this time! Yay, Secret!

Finally we had our Open Chances class. They switched the schedule around to try to avoid conflicts between the two rings, so we ended up running Open before Elite. I'm not sure that it matters, but I would have liked to have gotten a feel for the course with the boys first. Oh well. No matter what, the course was well beyond her capabilities at this time. Good heavens, this course even looked challenging at the Novice level! It really was one of the more difficult ones we've seen lately. And from the looks of it, Sunday wasn't much better so we didn't really miss out on anything. :o)

The first road block was that Secret had to go to the end of the dog walk with me nowhere near her and being forced laterally away from her. She didn't like that. Then I had to somehow convince her to go way out to a tunnel in la-la land while I stood there at the line (having left myself no room, of course). She came right to me off the dog walk and started barking and bouncing at my feet because I was acting like a crazy person (in her mind, at least). It quickly became evident that she was not going to send out that far to the tunnel, but then she crossed over the line and it didn't matter. I moved a little closer and did achieve a reasonable send, then I moved back across the line to practice the rest of the course.

The next part was two hoops that you took as a 180 -- You (or your dog) could choose which to do first, but then you had to do the opposite on your way back to the tunnel. Secret went between them. hahaha Silly girl.... Whatever, keep going! I tried to send her back out to the tunnel, but nope, not happening -- She needed more help with that. And finally, you had to get the "out" tunnel under the dog walk -- So up the dog walk she went. Truthfully, though, in looking at the video it is obvious that I did not assist her in any way with choosing correctly. I was also a little too sharp in my correction of her choice, which I felt bad about after seeing how happy she was to go sailing up the dog walk. We made the run out fast & fun, though, so we ended this dreadful course on a good note.

So that makes Secret's Champs tally:

8/10 Regular
0/2 Chances
2/2 Jumpers
2/2 Weavers
2/2 Touch-n-Go
2/2 Tunnelers
0/2 Hoopers (but we have our Novice title now!)

I have to send our entries for the La Crosse trial soon -- I'm planning to keep Secret in Skilled, but let her start to run Elite now. She seems happier at 16", so why not? She still needs to get one more Open Touch-n-Go Q for that title, but otherwise she's at Elite in everything other than Chances (and Hoopers, of course). I think I'm going to shoot for running her in 5 classes each day, plus perhaps 2 on Friday night. We'll see -- I need to figure out what the boys are doing.

Good heavens, I almost forgot to add her video. :o)



I went through our trial sheets and realized that this was only Secret's 13th day of trialing. Aside from two full weekends in La Crosse and the Funraiser weekend in Iowa, all of her trial experiences have been single days. She has managed to accumulate 43 Q's in this time, which I think is pretty amazing for my baby dog. (We won't compare her to where Kaiser was at this time in his career, lol -- that would be sad -- for Kaiser....) But I do wonder how she'll take four days down in Springfield come October.

The boys got their runs lumped into one video since they only had five between them. I had thought Kaiser should take it easy with all of his recent medical stuff, but he showed me that I'm silly and that he's ready to rock and roll. He was having a blast! And poor Luke... We just never clicked in our two classes.

Chances are....

I still can't get over how long of a dog Secret is. Please ignore the copious amounts of dog hair on the dog blankets. It would appear that my dogs will never all come together and decide to dump their hair at once. They think it is better to take turns so that our lives will always be fuzzy and filled with hair.


As I have no doubt mentioned several times now, Secret is running Open Chances at our trial on Saturday. To date, I believe we have worked specifically on "Chances Skills" exactly once. So... I figured that might be a good thing to do last night! Bethany & Rascal came over to play, and I set the following course that a fellow blogger posted -- It was the course they ran at Quad City Dog Center this past weekend (which we sadly could not attend).


I love how she included the lines for all three distance tests, giving us plenty to work with. The boys got to play, too, of course. Luke was awesome and pretty much could do no wrong. Kaiser was a bit put off by the heat and the distraction of Rascal -- He did the distance line but took the a-frame, then didn't really feel like going out to the hoops anymore. Ah well, he has perfect weaves at a distance, so I let him get away with it. He tends to be more willing to cooperate at trials and hates repetitive drilling. Northern breeds.... lol


My goal with Secret was, of course, to be successful at the Open line. Once we got over the distraction of me carrying the toy (?? hello, I always have it, dear!), Secret surprised me and sent out to the hoops in stupendous fashion. And then she took the a-frame. Okay, try again!

Never happy to be wrong and thus feeling the need to try something different, Secret skipped the furthest hoop, but she did get the tunnel and I kept going -- At which point she entered the first weave pole and then ran over to me (thus crossing the line). I may be guilty of not supporting the weaves since she pretty much always nails (and holds) her entries, but it still surprised me.

Her best run of this session occurred when I stuffed her ball down my shorts (that was lovely, trust me) to A) not distract her and B) make sure she will still run well without a toy as a "lure." She nailed it and I gave her a break while we worked with Rascal. When it was Secret's turn again she decided she didn't feel like working anymore and trotted off the start line and went around the jump.


It was hot, she saw Rascal getting food and she just wasn't giving a rip at that point. So I did something I haven't had to do for the longest time and put her back in the house while I worked with the other dogs. Someone was NOT happy and I heard her barking several times. Ah well, that's life!

I brought her out when everyone was done and ran her through again with the bars still set at 8" (we'd been doing 16" previously, so still not a huge effort). I also brought out her Jolly Ball for a change -- I got my happy & fast Secret back and she totally nailed it, easily with me handling from the Open line. We ended with a few reps across the dog walk and the a-frame.

Chances will be Secret's fourth & final class of the day on Saturday. We'll see what kind of mood she's in. Ultimately it all comes down to the course, I'm sure!

Gorgeous weather = Course work!

We are heading into a heat wave for the next few days. I didn't have anything going on last night and the weather was a gorgeous 82 degrees with low humidity. I was feeling really, really lazy and almost just opted to do more work on the double box I set up Tuesday night after working at the shelter (maybe I'll talk more about that later), but then I called up Bethany to see if she wanted to bring Rascal over to play. I figured if they were coming, perhaps I could inspire myself to do a bit more.

After digging through my giant book of courses (which is really super disorganized these days!) I located a fun looking USDAA Advanced Standard course that would work with where I moved my dog walk after the latest mowing. I made a few alterations out of laziness (my teeter & table are STILL in the basement, so obstacle #9 became a wrap jump and #12 became a jump -- I also only used a set of 6 poles because I was too lazy to correct spacing for my set of 24" poles vs. this map, which is probably spaced for 20" poles) -- but other than THAT, the course was as you see here:

We had a lot of fun with it! Highlights involved Secret mastering the turn from the tunnel up the dog walk -- I mean seriously, when did she learn that? I never taught it to her, but she was super awesome. The thing I was most proud of her for, though, was absolutely nailing her weaves and staying in them while I sprinted laterally away from her to get in position for a front cross between 12 and 13. Replacing the teeter with a jump actually made the course a whole lot harder, as with the teeter you at least get a stop to get in position to send into the tunnel. A rear cross into the tunnel at that angle did not work so well, so it was pretty much required that I get the front cross. Thanks to Secret being a GOOD GIRL and holding her weaves while I ran away from her, I was able to easily get into position to show her where to go next.

Of the four dogs, Secret was the only one to run it cleanly several times. She was just like, "Psh, this is too easy, give me something harder!" Baby girl rocked it and I'm very proud of her! I don't even recall the last time we saw a chute (not at all this year, I can tell you that) and that was a non-issue -- Now I just really need to get that stuff out of the basement... It would be nice to get her going on the teeter again.

Normally I wouldn't get all excited about double-box work, but Secret was super-duper awesome Tuesday night. As usual, I had absolutely no plan when I set it up. I just felt we needed to do SOMETHING and it required the least amount of effort to set. ;o)

There has been much discussion on the Clean Run list of the "blended front cross" and of course the Ketschker. My tired brain was happy when I realized the double-box offered several opportunities to work on these skills. I seem to recall trying a Ketschker with Secret back when I first heard about them -- I also remember it being a giant flop, but I am persistent and determined, so I decided to try it again.

Now you must keep in mind that I'm far from an expert on these two maneuvers -- In fact, both are pretty much as new to me as they are to Secret. Somehow the two of us actually managed to put our brains together and figured it out, because she ROCKED IT. Aside from Secret pulling up short before a jump on one blended cross due to my abstract cue, and then turning the wrong way on a Ketschker once, she got every single one of them that I threw at her. It was just so much fun and happily, Secret seemed to agree! I was jumping her at 16" and I have to say, she seems to enjoy herself and have more confidence at the lower heights. I used to think, "She's a 26" dog no problem," but structurally I just don't think she's up for it. I do hope she'll eventually be as happy & confident at 22" (which would be her Performance height in USDAA), but we'll see. Seeing as we don't exactly have any USDAA trials on the horizon, I'm trying to not worry about it and just do what is best for her.

As I mentioned earlier, we have another few days of gross heat & humidity ahead of us, so I don't imagine we'll be doing much of anything. We are heading to Minneapolis for a trial next Saturday. I just entered Secret in the four classes she needs for Champs qualifiers -- Two rounds of Open Regular, Open Chances and Novice Hoopers. Here's hoping for a perfect day. :o)

Boring!

Secret thinks life is pretty darn boring right now. We can't go swimming for a bit yet because Kaiser is still healing from his neuter (soon, though -- soon!). We aren't doing much agility at home right now -- Again because of Kaiser, but also due to a fun summer cold I'm experiencing. I'll suck it up one of these days.

And that stupid Kaiser is getting all the attention AGAIN, she says. Not that he is enjoying it all that much -- Kaiser went to the vet this morning for an abscessed anal gland that popped up. Believe me, Secret, you should not be jealous of such things. I've never had this problem with any of my dogs before, so it was a new experience. Poor Kaiser, though, it's not a fun one.

I must get a plug in, though -- I LOVE MY VET! I really appreciate them getting me in on short notice when we need it. I also appreciate the phone call at 7:00 p.m. after seeing my facebook post to ask if I needed pain meds to get him through the night. :o) He wasn't that bad, but again, just more reason to love my vets.

This whole experience makes me wonder if I should take Secret & Luke in to get their glands expressed. Granted, I should probably learn to do it myself -- But until then, it probably wouldn't hurt to go get them taken care of. If I were to be honest, I always thought that anal gland issues were only a symptom of dogs who ate a crap diet filled with corn and other nasty fillers. Apparently not; lesson learned. Luke & Secret have both, on occasion, had some bum-licking phases -- So more or less, I think it would be a good idea to get it done. I bet Secret will just LOVE it. Yeah......

And for anyone dying with curiosity, here is what an abscessed anal gland looks like:

Not really something you want to have to deal with! Kaiser agrees -- He thought getting his butt shaved this morning was pretty awful, but not as awful as when the vet went to express the infected side. I'm pretty sure Secret will get muzzled for her experience!

Fun Frisbee Video!

Poor Kaiser got "tutored" on Monday (see sad evidence below), so I have been avoiding agility this week to spare the little guy. I don't think it's fair that the other dogs would get to play and not him, so we are occupying ourselves with other fun things. Kaiser doesn't care about frisbee or fetch, so he's not missing out on anything.

Kaiser with his thrice daily icing ritual...

We did set up a Chances course to play with on Friday -- I figured maybe it was time that Secret actually started to learn those skills now that she'll be in Open for the next trial. It was a nice little course that included a turn away into weave poles at a distance and a discrimination between a tunnel and a line of jumps (with the jumps being correct). She nailed the first part, but the discrimination proved to be difficult for her -- but we got it! Sadly, no video, so you just have to take my word on it. ;o)

It's been a while since I've made a "fun" video of the dogs, so I decided to put together a frisbee montage from our play session last night. I don't think I've updated anyone on Secret's disc "skills" for quite some time -- She's made a ton of progress from the beginning, especially when you consider she originally had zero interest in discs whatsoever. Now the only thing holding her back is me!

Well, and her complete inability to play with more than one disc. That's probably going to be the major thing that keeps us from ever really trying to get into disc dog events. If I try to hold several discs at once, she'll just stare at me while I throw them until I'm down to one -- and then she chases that one. She figures, "Why waste my energy going to get that one when you have another right there?" We've overcome a lot of obstacles in her training, so I suppose we could just keep working on this one and see what happens. Meanwhile, though, we just have a lot of fun! :o)

Lexie came to visit!

My parents were busy doing "Butterfest things" all weekend, so Lexie got to come over to our house to play! She was there when we got home Saturday evening and then came and spent the whole day on Sunday. Secret thought this was super fun! And Kaiser -- Well, I think Kaiser made great strides into improving his relationship with Lexie. ie: She learned to stand up to the little fart.

Lexie got to start her agility training yesterday. She's a spunky little thing who can run quite fast (relative to her size, at least!). I think she shows real promise.

But ultimately, I think her favorite part was playing with Secret.

Another day, another trial

Not that I mean to come off blase about it or anything. :o) We had lots of fun down in Davenport again this past Saturday! Although I could *really* do without the whole getting up at 3:30 a.m. part. The dogs didn't care -- breakfast came early and they got to sleep the entire way there -- No skin off their noses! Thankfully it was a small trial and we got home around 7:45 p.m. We survived, and we (okay -- I) were happy to have a day of doing nothing yesterday.

As you can see, Secret had another successful trial! I was glad that I kept her in Open Regular, because she really does do better when she has a bit of time to settle in before her first run. Big dogs ran first at this trial, too, so had she been running Elite she would have been first on the line. Nope, I'm glad I kept her at Open. As a result, she put in two really nice runs and earned her Outstanding OAC title! First time I've put one of those on a dog....

Oh wait, I just realized that I'm completely mental. After a quick peak at the NADAC title chart, I just realized that you need 100 points in Regular for the Outstanding title. The 60 point requirement is for all the other classes. Well crap. I guess I take back the title. And now we have an unearned title ribbon (actually, two -- more about that later). Boo. Well, ignore that part in the video, I guess!

After two such stellar Regular rounds, I thought Secret had Touch-n-Go in the bag. A Q in that class would finish her Open Touch-n-Go title (like, for real this time, not the fake title I just discovered we didn't earn).

Cut to reality -- Secret totally FREAKED OUT at the judge. The judge was standing well inside the ring, next to the a-frame (the second obstacle on course). As soon as I took off her leash, Secret absolutely froze and fixated on the judge. I couldn't get her to acknowledge me for the release or anything. When she finally did start her run, she made her way to the a-frame barking and growling at the judge. Her entire mo-hawk was standing on end as she came over the a-frame. This behavior continued for the ENTIRE run, with Secret repeatedly whipping around to keep the judge in her sites. At one point I made a point to put in an unplanned cross just to keep myself between her and the judge. I so do not need an aggressive dog report on my record....

The run was an NQ for going off course and skipping a hoop (I wasn't going to correct ANYTHING on this run!), but I'm shocked that the judge didn't give us a big fat E for her behavior. When the class was completed, the judge did come find me to discuss the incident. She asked if this was normal behavior for Secret and I explained that no, she had never done anything like that before. She explained to me that if Secret behaved like that again she would be excused from the remainder of the trial (which would totally suck if one was doing both days, I suppose). I *completely* supported her on this and told her that I agreed 100%, and apologized profusely for Secret's behavior.


The judge stayed back against the wall for our next class, Novice Chances -- But I will admit that I was a little on edge and overly cautious about Secret's behavior. I did something stupid and took a step back during the send portion of the course, which caused Secret to cut in from a jump. I thought VERY briefly about trying to send her back out, but then I realized, "Hey dummy, you've never taught her that." lol So we just finished the course. I wrote a big fat NQ in her book -- So imagine my surprise as I was walking past the score table later in the day and saw the book open to Novice Chances. Kicking myself about my stupid handling error, I glanced down to confirm our NQ score. Q. What? How?

Normally -- Yes, normally -- I would go to the trial secretary about the error and inquire to have it fixed. I really hate to take things that aren't mine. That evil little greedy part of me won out, though. We *need* these Q's for Champs. We only have three days of trialing left to get them and Open Chances is going to be hard. So I took it. :o( It completes Secret's NCC title as well as her Novice Versatility Award. I hate it. I hate that I can't be proud of a title. It happened once with Kaiser in TDAA and I kept him in that class until he rightfully earned the Q. I'll make up for it with Secret -- Maybe I'll make her get an extra Open Q or something.

The last class of the day was Secret's first time in Elite Jumpers. I have to admit I'm kind of sad about this. I thought that as long as she stayed forward and we didn't have to make any corrections she would squeak in under time. Alas, she was 0.59 seconds over time. Obviously she was not going as fast as I know she is capable, but it was still disappointing.

Watching the video made me uncomfortable. I hate how she is jumping 20" when she is stressed. Her form is horrible and the landings look painful. I don't have any problem with how she jumps at home, but she is so tight & stressed at trials. I am okay with how she was moving in her two Regular rounds -- but she obviously started stressing at Touch-n-Go and never improved. Because of that, I've decided to move her back down to Skilled.

Now..... The hard part is whether or not to run her in any Elite classes (because points split at the Elite level) or if I should just start running her and see what happens. It may well be that I just keep her running at 16" -- although if that's the case, I'm pretty much wiping out my USDAA goals (she would be 22" in Performance). If I keep running her at Skilled, I can run her in Skilled at Champs, which I think she would enjoy more. There comes a point where it's hard to transition up to Proficient because you essentially "lose" your Skilled points. Alternatively, you can always transfer Prof. points down to Skilled.

Ultimately, I have to do what is best for her. And right now, that means jumping 16". I wish I could explain why I have an issue with Skilled. It is totally irrational! But I'm sure you'll understand when you see the Jumpers class.... (or even how she's jumping in Chances)

Hot Fun in the Summertime

If Blogger allowed me to use background music, there is no doubt that you'd be hearing a little "Sly & the Family Stone" right about now.

Summer has arrived. And since I'm too lazy to pack up the dogs and drive to water, I do the next best thing -- We play with the hose. Well, when I say, "we" I actually mean, "Secret." Luke has no interest, but will allow me to hose his belly to cool him off. Kaiser will sometimes come in for a sneak attack at the hose and if it's REALLY hot he'll let me mist him. But more or less, they both stand back and watch the madhouse of Secret & the hose.

She's really only interested in the JET feature. It is the only one that is fun to attack. It's a great way to wear her out on a hot day. It's also the reason why I can't get a hose nozzle to last more than one season, as she can't seem to limit her biting to the stream...

When I get tired of manually watering the lawn, I set up the sprinkler. Last year Secret really had no interest in this. Apparently things have changed, as she'll sit and play in the sprinkler for about as long as you let her (and this is following a play session with the hose!). The little goofball got absolutely soaked last night. There is no telling how much water she consumed...



We've managed to get some training done between heat waves. The a-frame is finally out in the yard, so we've done some work with that (driving to the bottom, etc.). I've also been doing plenty of flowing lines with Secret to work on getting her to extend over the jumps more. I hate watching her trial videos and watching her jump with zero extension. She's much better at home, so I'm sure it's just another manifestation of stress.

I pulled out the weaves the other day to make a deposit into the "fast weaves bank." lol I used a Kong Squeaker ball and was actually testing her ability to work through distraction by squeaking it while she was in the weaves -- But it actually ended up being a motivator for her and she was a fast little squirt. Still hopping.... But fast. I keep waiting for her to reach the point where she discovers how much easier it would be to single step, but maybe she just isn't built for it. She also carries a lot of tightness in her shoulders, but we continue to do stretching exercises and perhaps it will change one day. Probably not, though. She's a happy hopper. :o)

Inspired by some of the totally wicked rear crosses I saw at the weave poles while watching online coverage of one of the USDAA regional events, I decided to set up a pattern that would require the same maneuver at home. I have to admit that I have been pretty bad at practicing this sort of stuff since going through the 2x2 program -- So Secret's first reaction was, "Wha???" She got it on the second try, though, and rocked it for the rest of the session. She also did better at maintaining her speed as I drove ahead of her -- Yay for Kong Squeaker balls.

So the plan is to head down to Iowa this Saturday to try to get a few more Q's under our belt. I'd love to do the full weekend, but I is 'po and need to cut back. Plus hey, I'll get a day off on Sunday to be a bum! I just need to decide if I want to get up at 3:30 a.m. and save the cost of a hotel, or if I want to fork out $70 and potentially be a better partner for my dogs. I think they will zonk out in the back of the car if we leave at 0-dark-thirty and be fine -- it's me I'd worry about. lol

Secret is actually standing pretty well in her chase for last-minute Champs qualifiers. She has 4/10 of the required Regular Q's (from Open or Elite). She has completed the requirements for Tunnelers, Touch-n-Go, Weavers & Jumpers. Woot! She won't be able to finish Hoopers since we'll only see it one more time before August -- If she Q's on that run she'll finish her Novice title and technically she'll need 2 more Q's from Open. But hey, I call it "good faith effort" considering we never see Hoopers around here and she just started trialing at the end of February. We actually do stand a chance at finishing the Chances Q's -- You know, if she has a 100% Q rate. lol We'll see. I think she'll get close enough that Sharon will let her in.

I still question my sanity of wanting to run three dogs at Champs. In three different height classes......

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!).