Happy Birthday Kizzy!

Today Kizzy turned two years old! And she spent most of it in the car... Well okay, it wasn't that bad. But to make up for it I bought her a birthday cupcake at the trial today and we came home to celebrate and share with everyone else.

Kizzy did well at the trial today, but she was still a little too vocal to get to stay inside too much. She had some quiet time in the crate while I ate sitting next to it. Her favorite part of the day was when she got to sit on a chair at the table and look cute enough to make everyone give her part of their lunch. Seriously, though, it was the quietest she was all day.

We also played and tugged and jumped over the practice jump a few times. We tried watching some agility, but it always just ended in screaming so we'd have to get up and leave. The trial ran quickly today and we were out by 2:30, so ultimately she didn't have to spend that much time in the car. She got a duck foot to chew on on the second trip out, too!

Then she was even nice enough to share the rest of her cupcake with everyone else. That was so nice of her, and they all agreed.

I'll do a full trial write-up later because I forgot the course maps at the trial, but here's a sneak peek -- Secret finished her Excellent Standard title today! That means tomorrow is her very first time in Masters and we get to start earning MACH points!!

This toy ROCKS

You really would have thought that I'd pretty much tapped the bottom of the barrel during my quest to find toys that Secret would play with. While I did buy the Tug It training toy for her, I never bought her any other food-stuffable toy.

I had an epiphany after our last ring rental at Family Dog Center. Kizzy equates toys with certain obstacles (jumps and tunnels) and food with other obstacles (contacts and weaves). What would bridge that gap better than a food stuffable toy?! I figured the Tug It was not the best option for taking to training time at FDC due to the higher likelihood of food coming out and being left in the ring. Enter the search for something more appealing.

The Predator-Prey Bungee Reward Pouch seemed to be just the ticket. Kizzy has shown much interest in natural fur toys in the past (okay, she likes all toys) and it has a velcro pouch to keep the food contained. Score!

It arrived on Tuesday and immediately passed the test when Kizzy did the teeter for it! Previously she was saying, "No way, Jose" to the teeter unless I had food (which I do not understand because she doesn't seem to fear it...). This reward pouch has bridged the gap to where she will now pretty much do anything for the toy. I randomly stop tugging and pull a treat out to give her and then go back to tugging. She thinks this is awesome, as do I.

We really put it to the test last night when I ran down to the first week of FDC's open agility night (and I was the only one who showed, so Thursdays are now canceled and we'll have to shoot for Wednesday's earlier time slot). I still "broke the rules" of the arena and randomly opened and treated Kizzy a few times, but she was doing everything for the tuggy. Sweet.

It was a super great practice overall. I brought a crate in to simulate the trial environment as much as possible. I was kind of bummed that nobody else had showed up because I was really hoping to see what she did with the distraction of other dogs present. Oh well, hopefully next time.

The arena had been cleared in preparation for the trial this weekend, so Travis helped me drag out the contacts (all 3 AKC) and then I just threw jumps and a tunnel in random spots to connect things. I didn't care about a course, I just wanted her working on different equipment.

This was Kizzy's first time seeing a new dog walk. There was absolutely no hesitation whatsoever. I should probably set my criteria better, because while she did not leap any of her contacts, nor did she stop (but that was my fault because I was going crazy with the toy to reward her). I'm sure that will bite me in the ass one day and I'll get to go through the fun experience of retraining her dog walk like I do with everyone else. You think I'd learn, yes?

Zero problems with the teeter again (I think she likes that one even more than the one at home), the a-frame was still just as fun as it was the first time, and we successfully weaved away from home. Due to room and convenience I only put out a set of six. I figured there was no reason to try to over-face her.

We went into the arena three times. All three times were simulated like a trial, going in with her new tug leash (AKC-legal -- Secret's aren't) and encouraging play before starting. Still not sure how we're going to handle NADAC rules, but whatever. There were a few times when I lost her briefly on the edges of the ring when she got distracted, but she came back quickly -- and didn't pee this time, which was great.

After the first two sessions I could tell that Kizzy was starting to get tired, so I moved the jumps from 12" to 8" to make sure we ended on a positive note. On that trip we did our longest sequence without reward, including the a-frame, the weaves and the teeter. Success!

Granted there were no distractions of other dogs to encourage screaming, but after her first trip into the ring Kizzy didn't make a peep in her crate. She did "sing" just a little before we started while I was getting ready, but after that she settled right down. I'll test her a bit at the trial this weekend, but I'll guess she'll still spend the majority of the time in the car again.

She was totally pooped last night, so that little brain definitely got a workout! I have work stuff going on next Wednesday evening, so unfortunately we won't be able to attend the next open ring time. I'm hoping to do a ring rental next Saturday, though, and then we'll shoot for the next few Wednesdays.

The pressure is on, because Kizzy is now officially registered with AKC and NADAC! I'm tossing around the idea of driving over to Think Pawsitive to do one day of AKC at the end of December and sticking Kizzy in JWW (not sure if I'm brave enough for Standard yet). Unfortunately the closing date of that trial is the Wednesday prior to the NADAC trial, so I can't wait to see how she does. I suppose worst case is I can enter her and pay the $19 then just scratch if I determine she isn't ready.

I didn't take anyone else with me to open ring time last night. I debated, and had I known I would have been the only person there I probably would have brought them. Oh well, Secret & Kaiser get to play all weekend. Secret just needs one more Standard Q to move into Masters and needs to Q in both JWW runs to get us into Masters at the Hounds trial. Fingers crossed! Kaiser, amazingly enough, needs just one Open Standard Q to move up to Excellent and technically could move up in JWW if he Qs both days. We'll see how it goes!

I've been feeling pretty blah all week, so today I elected to stay home and rest up for the trial this weekend. I totally needed it -- I felt so much better when I got up (at 10:00....)! It was a beautiful 52 degree day with clear skies, so the dogs and I all went out and got some sun therapy on the trails with a nice, easy 3.6 mile walk. When we got home I introduced Kizzy to the broad jump finally, and also brought the chute outdoors for the first time with her. In a matter of minutes she was running through the full length with no problem. She was a little iffy on the broad jump at first and ran around it a couple of times, but then she figured it out. After all that I came inside and cleaned a bit -- including pulling off my mattress so that I could clean up Kizzy's treasure-trove under the bed (so much ripped paper and toy stuffing...). If only all sick days were so productive!

That was tricky (but fun!)

We were bums again today, but once again 3:30 rolled around and I told myself that if I didn't go out and set something up that we wouldn't have a chance to practice agility in the daylight again for two weeks. I also wanted to give Kizzy a shot at her weaves in a course setting, so it was now or never.

I decided to go for the most recent Happy Hurdle Day course posted by Ann Croft on her Agility Coach Facebook page. It feels like it's been a while since we've ran one of these and this one looked fun. I do not have video because when I took the camera out I couldn't find a spot that didn't cut off part of the course. Plus it was getting dark fast, so I decided to just focus on running the dogs.

Secret had another happy day, but she really, REALLY pointed out her dependency on my motion. She really dislikes wraps right at the start and will often come to a stop and bark at me, so I was better off wrapping her to the left on jump 2 instead of the right. However, going that direction I had to be careful not to lose her into the weaves, but we figured it out.

Lack of motion was also an issue on jumps 5 and 6. I knew I had to leave ASAP to book it down to support jump 8, which means that I often failed to really "show" jump 6 to Secret and she would stop short. It's like, really girl, have a little initiative... But still, this is something I know about her and need to remember to support.

She thought it was great fun to race me through the straight tunnel and because I was rarely anywhere near jump 8 to support a tight turn she ended up going wide consistently, but we did avoid any off courses. The entry to the weaves at 10 is tricky and fun. We were able to successfully complete a rear cross at the weaves, but it was much faster for me to blind the tunnel and get into place to support her entry with me on the right. Not easy, but we got it done.

I'd leave her in the weaves as soon as I dared so that I could sprint off for a blind between 12 and 13. I handled this a couple of different ways (running past 13 and front crossing or pushing to the backside and front/blind crossing) and the push to the back side seemed smoothest/fastest. After that it was a pretty straightforward finish.

Secret was the first dog out today and usually everything feels fairly easy with her. After our first couple of attempts at this course, though, I was saying to myself, "Dang, this is kind of hard!" It was loads of fun, though, and it felt great when we conquered it. Would have been nice to have video, but oh well.

Kaiser really struggled with having those two tunnel entries so close to each other. It was like a magnetic field pushed and pulled him every time he got in that area and he just didn't know what to do. lol He struggled a bit more with the second weave entry and wasn't happy with the rear cross today for some reason. We never got a completely clean attempt because on the best one I peeled off the second set of weaves too early and caused him to pop in my attempt to beat him to the cross. Oh well, he still rocked.

Kizzy did pretty awesome, too! I started her session by just having a weave refresher. She was struggling with staying in after pole 10 at first, but she got over it quickly. Once she was solidly weaving all 12 we started to play with the course. This is the first time we've really incorporated the weaves into any obstacle sequencing and the first time she's done them out of a tunnel. She did great! I still stopped to reward after almost every set of weaves to keep things happy, then picked up right where we left off.

The second entry was a struggle. I have not touched on crosses at the weaves yet so I was not going to even attempt a rear cross (I know, huge hole in my training of 2x2....). That left the run and scoop from the right, but Kizzy got way too high on my motion cues to even notice the weaves in front of her, so we consistently had to reset them.

Jumps 12 to 13 was another struggle spot for her. Kizzy has always read the cues to take a backside easily enough, but I guess I've never asked her to take a backside and then jump into me. Lesson learned, something to work on. I also have failed to work on come to heel because when I tried to run past 13 with her she would cut behind me to take it from the wrong side. Again, something to work on! Good thing she reminds me that she's still a green dog, or else I might just forget.  :o)

Back to the darkness tomorrow. I haven't ran since Wednesday, so you can guess what this slacker will be doing.

Windy Day!!

Holy cow was it windy today! We are home this weekend -- skipping the NADAC trial in La Crosse. I thought it would be harder than it was, but honestly I was totally fine staying home today.  :o)

We were incredibly lazy for the majority of the day. The wind outside was just horrible and I decided that we'd just nap until it died down. By the time 3:00 p.m. rolled around I realized that it would never happen and that if I wanted to do anything in the daylight I'd better get my butt in gear.

http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=475

A new Exercise of the Month was shared on the Clean Run list this past week and I thought it looked like fun -- and bonus, looked fairly easy to set up since it consisted only of 8 jumps. So yes, that right there was why this drill was the winner for today.... Hindsight being what it was, maybe I would have been better off with a course that didn't have many jumps. The wind was blowing them over left and right. I could have made an entire blooper reel from the jumps that fell during Secret's session today.

She was a wild woman today! I always love it when that Secret comes out to play. Not only was she high as a kite, but she also didn't put a foot wrong, so she had a nice, short session. I'm thrilled with how well she did. I've been feeling kind of bad lately since I feel the majority of my time has been spent with Kizzy and Secret has been starting to act a little needy. I think she was happy for the one-on-one time. Sometimes it's hard to spread yourself evenly between four dogs...

Kaiser was pretty much Mr. Perfect today and was happy, happy, happy to play agility. He had some wide turns in spots, but I'm very happy with how his wraps continue to improve in general. He only did one back-jump right when we first started and then he was golden. I think he's taking to this "non-NADAC" stuff very well.  :o)  Next week we are back to play AKC, so I guess we'll see how that goes.

Kizzy was a little rock star today. It's so fun now that she's able to play on the same exercises as the other dogs! In her first turn I had all of the jumps set at 12" and ran her with a toy (the udder tug). After Kaiser's turn I brought her back out to work on the teeter and dog walk (with food) and decided to go ahead and run her through each drill once more -- that's why she has one run on each drill at 8" with food. I was curious to see if I noticed any real difference. I still feel as though she's a little more focused with food and gives me a little better distance because she's not so intent on getting the toy, but I'm happy with her in both cases. I think she's doing great at 12", too!

Earlier this week I brought the chute into the basement because it was wet, dark and miserable outside. No surprise, Kizzy took to it pretty much immediately. I have yet to try her on it outside where she can really run through the full length, but today was not the day to do it with all of the wind. Hopefully tomorrow is better.

Life since daylight saving time ended stinks. It's already mostly dark by the time I get home and the most I can do is a quick pick of the dog poop I can manage to see. Ugh. We went for our first run in the dark this week -- I did 5k with each pair of dogs (boys/girls). We survived and I'm sure I'll get used to running in the dark, but I still hate this time of the year. Blah. At least our trial season goes year round. I often have non-dog friends ask if we take a break. Can you imagine how depressing winter would be if I didn't have agility?!

Ring Rental!

This was one of those very rare weekends where I was free AND there happened to not be a trial going on at Family Dog Center. They have something going on there darn near every weekend, so it is next to impossible for me to ever get in for some ring time (to date, I don't think I've actually done a ring rental.... at least not since the new arena went int). I called on Friday and confirmed that there was nothing going on, so I made plans to bring the dogs in on Saturday.

The number one goal was to get Kizzy on new equipment in a new environment, but you pay for a 45-minute session, so I figured I may as well bring in Kaiser & Secret to get some play time in as well. I found out when I called in that the Time 2 Beat course from last Sunday was still set in the arena and I figured that would work just as well as anything. It's kind of a bummer that there wasn't a dog walk set up for Kizzy, but I figured it was WAY more important for her to get on a new teeter and her first ever a-frame, so this was as good a set-up as any.

There is a general "no food in the arena" rule on the turf, which I quickly broke. I didn't have much choice because the freedom went to Kizzy's head and she took off exploring the arena straight away. Not only that, but she decided she needed to leave her calling card as well (funny that there is the no treats rule, yet the arena has been pissed on millions of times....). Likity-stiks are allowed, but that was not enticing her at all. Screw it, I whipped out the bag of Charlie Bears, figuring it was the least likely thing to leave any pieces on the floor.

After that I had her with me! It was a really great session and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to do this! As I figured, Kizzy quite enjoys the a-frame and took to it immediately. It was set at 5', which I was happy for, and she had no issues with it. The biggest surprise, though, was the teeter! Absolutely no hesitation whatsoever and she did it numerous times. Great!! Kizzy also saw her first double, winged jumps, panel jump and 20' tunnel and handled them all in stride. We ran the entire T2B course, minus the set of 12 weaves. I should have split them into 6, but I was lazy, so in Kizzy's second session I did attempt the 12 with her... Probably shouldn't have done that quite that way, but I did... She actually did quite well. I only got one full set of 12 out of her and didn't push for anything else. More or less I just wanted to see if she would weave away from home and she did. We also worked on putting her harness on after she ran and she did really well. Gave me hope that I'll be able to catch her after a run!  :o)

Kaiser was a good little man and was pretty much Mr. Perfect except for simply NOT being able to wrap one of the winged jumps to the left without cutting back to jump over the bar again. He was just so conflicted about it for some reason. lol No issue in the other direction.

Secret did really well on her first time out with the jumps all set at 24". I forgot her frisbee at home so she had to play with the udder tug, but that seemed okay. She was a little weird about the teeter at first, so who knows what's up with that.... But she got over it and was fine. I brought her back in for one last quick spin while the bars were still set at Kaiser's 8" and expected her to be happy and fast. I didn't grab a toy before this run and instead just got her jazzed up with treats like I do before a run at a trial. Good lord, that run was pathetic. I stopped her about halfway through because I will not encourage trotting on course. I went and got a toy and revved her up a bit before trying again. She still wasn't as fast as she'd been in her first session, but it was loads better than what she'd just done. Sheesh. Really? I haven't seen that side of Secret for a long time. Not sure what that's all about.

When we came home I made sure I hadn't broke Kizzy's weaves (they were fine!) and worked a bit on the dog walk since she hadn't seen it at FDC. I also pulled the tire into the yard so that we'll be able to incorporate that on a regular basis now, as that was definitely revealed to be a gap in Kizzy's training. Oh, and the chute... We still need to introduce the chute one of these days!

After seeing the 12 poles at FDC I was finally "inspired" to start the process of introducing 12 poles to Kizzy the correct way. She surprised me at how quickly she took to it! I started with the two sets about 12' apart and moved them together pretty quickly. We struggled with rewarding in the middle and starting again with me on the right for some reason -- Kizzy was happier when I just let her keep going. She developed a rhythm quickly and the result is in the video! I'm tickled pink with her progress.

AKC Trial & Kizzy Update!

We had another fun weekend playing AKC at Family Dog Center this weekend. We had two new occurrences this weekend -- Secret got her very first AKC NQ on Sunday (phew, the pressure is off!) and Kaiser FINALLY got his last Novice JWW Q to get out of that class!

Kizzy got to come with this weekend, but she spent most of her time in the car. It was planned that way and I really didn't even give her any opportunity to sit and scream in the kennel indoors. Amazingly enough I never heard her make a peep in the car (by the way, her crate was clipped shut for extra security despite the fact that the windows were up...), not even as I walked away. I've never thought she has an issue with being crate, though -- it's more an issue of being pissed off that she's missing out on all of the fun stuff in front of her.

Because there is so much dang downtime at AKC trials, I knew I'd have plenty of opportunity to get the little screamer out to play and socialize. We got in lots of time at the warm-up jump playing and tugging and I did have her spend a few short stints in the crate with me standing there to reenforce the rules. We only had one real over-the-top reactive episode where she went freaking nuts as an older lab puppy walked past us. I pretty much scooped her up and took her straight out to the car after that, so hopefully she made the connection. Likely not...

Secret's first time in Excellent was a Standard course. Our judge this weekend was Joan Mullen and there were several opinions floating around about her, but I liked her courses well enough. She made several tweaks to them over the weekend that resulted in more flowing paths than what you see presented in the maps.

The only real spot I was unsure of on this course was from the dog walk to the tunnel under the a-frame. My first inclination was to front cross after the dog walk so that I could push into the tunnel. After watching the small dogs run, however, I determined that this presented a very ugly path with 99% of the handlers who attempted it. The walk-through was split, so it was nice to have already decided my plan by this time and I walked/planned for a rear cross at the tunnel. It worked very well and put me slightly behind so that I was driving as Secret came out of the tunnel, which made for a nice speedy finish. Secret was the only Q in 24" Excellent -- her time would have taken 3rd place in Masters.

Kaiser was up in Open Standard next. He would need to Q in both Standard runs this weekend in order to get his title and move up to Excellent. Well, it quickly became evident that we didn't haven't to worry about that.  :o)  I lead out all the way between 2 and 3 in an attempt to catch his attention for the turn and avoid the off course tunnel, but he went right past me and took the tunnel anyhow. After that he got two refusals at the weaves (?!). I knew the table was going to be difficult for us coming off the a-frame since he's always hauling ass off that obstacle and I was right -- springboard! Then he hopped on from the back side because I didn't correct it, so that was likely another fault. We finished strong, though, with a fantastically speedy dog walk where he totally skittered to a stop right at the bottom -- GOOD BOY!

Secret saved my butt in JWW! I don't know if it was the knee brace that caught me up on the front cross from 1-2 or what, but when Secret went into the tunnel I suddenly found myself toppling helplessly forward. I wish I had it on video to see what happened and how I actually managed to recover, but it felt like it was happening in slow motion for about a million steps! It was a 20' tunnel and by the time Secret came out I had almost gotten my feet back under me (seriously, at one point I wished I would just fall over to make it end, lol) and we somehow managed to keep moving forward to jump 3. I was so out of position by this point and did the ugliest rear cross you've ever seen on the landing side of 4 and bless Secret, she kept the bar up and kept going. After that I regained my composure and managed to finish the course with a series of blind crosses as planned. I had a few people come up to tell me they were impressed with my recovery and thought surely I'd fall over. lol

 Kaiser was a fabulous little man for his JWW run. I did a short lead-out to avoid the front cross this time.  ;o)  I was able to stay ahead of him to keep his attention for the turns, so no off-courses this time! In order to be able to beat him to the front cross from 14-15 (to pull him off the tunnel) I needed to keep some fairly big distance at the weaves, so I stayed behind the 10/12 jumps. Admittedly I was a little concerned about his ability to nail the weaves after his refusals in Standard, but he was back to himself by this point and sailed through them. I got in the front cross and he Q'd with a time that was like twice as fast as any other dog in the class.... I think it was only like 5 yps, though, so nothing mind-blowing. But hooray for our Novice JWW title! That took long enough. We got several compliments on his weaves at a distance for that run. I try to avoid saying stuff like, "I would hope a dog who has his V-NATCH could weave from 15' away" and instead say thanks. lol

JWW Started the day on Sunday. Big dogs were first on this run and I don't think I spent enough time getting Secret ready for this run. She was moving nicely, but not quite as into it as I feel she has been lately. I ran the course with a whole slew of blind crosses again and was one of the few to (successfully, at least) run the left side from the weaves up to 17 (yay for being fast(er)!). I was ahead of Secret on the closing line and okay, I'll admit that I just ASSUMED she'd continue on down the line with me. I'm not typically in the habit of having to tell her to take something in front of her, so I was a little surprised to see her go just to the outside of the last jump. Say what? I have no idea why -- the only possibly reason I can come up with was that it was a funky/weird looking set of wings unlike any others on course. I believe we've had refusals on that set of wings at previous trials and then Kaiser went and refused a jump with those wings in his JWW run as well, so who the heck knows. It's something I will definitely be conscious of in future runs at FDC, though! Oh well, in a way it's a relief to get her first NQ out of the way, although it would have been kind of nice to have waited until she was in Masters so that we'd at least get some speed points out of the one Q run.  :o)

Kaiser's debut in Open Jumpers went very well. Jump number 8 was the one with the wonky wings in this run and he cut to the outside after doing a slight stutter in front of the jump. That's why I feel there is just something about this wing design, but that's so weird. I've never sensed that they pay any attention to wings on other jumps! You can have one refusal at Open and still qualify, so I knew Kaiser had to hit his weaves. Seriously, I normally don't even think twice about this being an issue with him, but he's been perplexing me with some minor weave issues lately... He was fine, as he normally is, and we finished the course great -- taking care to actually direct him down the last line instead of assuming he'd take the jumps as I'd done with Secret... Live & learn! First Open JWW Q!

Secret was more like herself for our Excellent Standard run later in the day. She had a bit of a wipe-out from 8-9 like numerous other dogs (sigh... the flooring...), but this was otherwise a very nice run!! My only concern here was the weave poles, as someone went a little crazy taping them with black duct tape (on green turf) and it really, really stood out and presented a much different picture than we are used to seeing (weaves are never taped here for NADAC trials). Secret didn't seem to have a problem with this and picked up speed in the weaves as she went. Her time on this course would have been good enough to win the 24" Masters class! Both days she would have gotten in the neighborhood of 18 speed points in Standard, I believe.

Kaiser finished the weekend strong with a perfectly clean run in Standard!! Has he had one of those in AKC yet? lol It was a very nice run and he even nailed the table! I knew I'd have a better shot at this one because I could ease him over jump 9 and hopefully have a little more control at the table. He certainly thought about bouncing, I could tell, but skittered to a stop and waited. His dog walk stopped a little high this time but was still pretty nice and he had no problems with the excessively taped weaves. That's our second Open Std Q, so just one more before he, too, gets to play in the fun classes!

Because this is not nearly long enough already..... Look what happened! Kizzy learned how to weave! In just a week of once-daily sessions the little squirt learned how to weave six straight/closed poles. I'm fantastically pleased with the wee girl. She's doing great!

Tonight I set up a long straight sequence into a tunnel to work on driving forward (and to see if I'm fast enough to beat her...). She did well, but she does have an issue of running around jumps when she's going super fast, so we're working on that. I also wanted to see if she was ready to do contacts for toys -- and the answer to that would be no. She's a wild woman on the dog walk and didn't give any thought to stopping and she was hesitant at the teeter with just the tug as incentive. I brought out treats and she had no issues with either -- giving me auto stops on the dog walk and running all the way to the end of the teeter.... So I guess we have some work to do there.

I've also continued to work on being able to touch/handle her in the middle of our working sessions when she's high as a kite and there has been significant improvement. Still absolutely no idea what she'll do in a trial setting, though! I really need to do a ring rental to get her some training time out of our yard....

Quick update - Trial report, etc.

I was playing on Google maps this morning after an article I read and was surprised to see that there is suddenly a street view available for my house! This is a pretty new addition to Google maps, as it hasn't been that long since I was tinkering on there. The picture is not new, though, because it still has my gravel driveway. It must be from last summer, I would guess.

At any rate, I chuckled when I zoomed in because you can clearly see Kaiser sitting in the window seat, watching the world.  :o)  It's nice to know that Secret doesn't hog that spot all day long and lets the others have a turn.

We had a NADAC trial here in La Crosse this weekend. By "we" I suppose I should clarify that THE BOYS had a trial. Secret and Kizzy got to sit this one out. I had several people ask me where Secret was on Saturday. The reactions were a little surprising when I explained that I don't think she likes NADAC. The biggest one was, "But she's so good at it!" --- I'll admit, she got her 13 Elite Chances Q's faster than either of the boys, finishing her NATCH when she was only three years old. But she TROTS on the majority of Chances courses. I don't care if she's "good" at it if she thinks it sucks bad enough that she trots through the course.

I stopped entering Secret in the games classes (Weavers, Touch-n-Go, Tunnelers & Hoopers) after finishing her Elite Versatility title because she doesn't seem to enjoy those classes at all. She hates Chances, which leaves Regular and Jumpers. What is the point?! We don't need to earn 5,000 points in those classes with the inability to achieve higher titles. She doesn't care if she doesn't run NADAC anymore. So yes, I think I'll just save my money and spend it doing things I feel she does enjoy more, like AKC (and I'm sure we'll get back to a USDAA trial eventually).

The boys, on the other hand, do quite enjoy NADAC so I'm sure I'll continue on a more limited basis for them (considering that Luke is going to start cutting back and Kaiser gets to play in AKC now). They both ran very well on Saturday!

I have no video and I didn't take ribbon pictures OR pictures of the course maps, so this will be a pretty dull recap. Kaiser qualified in both rounds of Regular, which I feel largely redeemed me from my horrible handling at Champs... It's nice to know that we can, in fact, still do agility together.  :o)  Not only that, but he had some smoking fast times, too. His was the fastest time in Round 2 of all dogs and he was right behind Konfetti (winner of the 2013 Triple Crown at Champs!) in Round 1.

The Chances course was a total gimmee at this trial, but I'm starting to think I am doomed to never Q in this class ever again. The only contact was the a-frame and it was at the start with no discrimination or line, so no reason to fault it. Then a send out to two tunnels side by side, but the far one was pretty obvious. Then just a push out to a jump, call back, send through the tunnel, a bit of a turn away from the a-frame and run out with your dog. Luke got it just fine but knocked a bar on the turn after the far jump. I was further ahead than I expected with Kaiser (because holy hell, I am getting faster!) and found myself literally on top of the line without realizing, causing me to stupidly take a step back as he was coming out of the tunnel. Naturally he followed my body and boom, so much for that.

Kaiser had Weavers up next. He was stressing at the start for some reason (yawned) and it took three tries to get him in the first set of weaves. It reminded me of Round 3, the Weavers-focused round at Champs. Do we have issues with weaves being at the beginning of courses now?! I have no idea why... At any rate we recovered and ran clean and we squeaked in under time. Can I say right now how much it irritates me that a small dog can have such a massive blunder like that on course, easily wasting 10 seconds, and still make time? Luke and I struggled for years in that class, coming in with time faults after perfectly clean, faultless runs. I've always thought that the discrepancy was terribly unfair.

Both dogs got to run Hoopers at this trial. Kaiser because he was running on a free day, and Luke because I figured I only had to pay for his runs that day and he'd enjoy it.  :o)  It was a numbered hoopers course, which I could take or leave, but we had fun. Luke had one very close call where I screeched and he literally slid to a halt in front of a hoop, pushing it over 6" out of place as his paws slid into the base. Apparently that is not a fault, because he Q'd. lol Hoopers is always fairly exhilarating with Kaiser and somehow we also managed to get through clean.

Jumpers was last and I knew it wouldn't be a Kaiser course, although he ended up going off course where I hadn't really expected. After that happened I had fun and threw some blind crosses at him. I actually did several blinds with him that day that he read well (typically always where there wasn't a real off course opportunity, granted). It helped my knee a lot... (that started hurting on Tuesday, yay...)

Luke's Jumpers run was kind of a hoot. You know how I mentioned earlier that I've gotten faster? Well, that's putting me in places I didn't plan on being! Bless Luke, he handled it really well and actually managed to keep the bars up as I continued to get in his way.

In other news, Kizzy's weave training has finally begun. I would like to actually give trialing a shot with her one day, which means she needs to learn this skill eventually. After the initial introduction to the first weave base (2x2) outside with toys, I moved the weaves into the basement to commence training on the mats. She's just too high with toys and we can't get enough repetitions in. We'll get a lot more done with food to start and can move on to toys once she gets the hang of things a bit more.

So far so good! She's catching on remarkably fast in the three sessions we've had downstairs. Surprisingly, she also auto-sucks to the table (that never got moved outside this year...) for some reason. We'll see how long that lasts.  :o)  Speaking of, I should probably take Kaiser into the basement for some table work this week. We get to play AKC all weekend!

Transports and other fun stuff

Today I picked up a couple of dogs being admitted to Border Collie Rescue of MN. I tend to get contacted when there are dogs in my neck of the woods and I'm always happy to give back when I can -- especially to the rescue that brought Secret to me!

This was a nice pair of dogs. They are farm dogs through and through and probably don't know a whole heck of a lot about much, but they are both super sweet. The girl, "Cheese" (in back) looks full border collie and the boy, "Basil," looks part English Shepherd to me, but who knows. It's unfortunate that their people couldn't keep them anymore, but I'm glad that they contacted BCRMN instead of dropping them at the shelter. For as nice as they both are, I have a feeling they will find homes very quickly!

We didn't do a whole heck of a lot else today, but I did get around to setting up the latest Happy Hurdle course this afternoon. Every now and then Ann Croft puts out courses that make my eyes bug out, but most of them tend to run very well. We had fun with this course today.

There was no real "pretty" way to get jump two for Secret. The backside wrap was very demotivating for her due to my lack of movement. One plan that I walked and then forgot to execute was to run her past the plane of 2 on the right side and do a blended cross to send her around the far wing, which would have been a longer path but would have provided a better/straighter shot into the tunnel.

Kaiser drives fine into such tight wraps (surprisingly enough), so he didn't find the beginning nearly as demotivating and I could handle it pretty much however.

The top of the course was the next "interesting" spot. Nothing ever seemed to run as smooth as I would have liked, but by far it felt best to run the dog past the top wing of jump 7 and front cross to show them the correct side of 7. I did pull each dog to the bottom a couple of times but it always felt awkward and more prone to having them ignore my come to hand signal and take the jump from the wrong side.

After that the course was pretty straight forward. I was reminded on several occasions that I need to continue to move and support the tight wraps or else Secret get sticky in front of the jumps.

Speaking of, I think I might need to get her into the chiropractor before our AKC trial in a couple of weeks. When we first started playing on this course Secret refused the first jump and went out of her way to the tunnel several times. That is peculiar behavior for her. She also didn't have the speediest weaves on the planet (well, until I got the Jolly Ball out later and then they were much improved), so I'm just thinking it might be worth it to take her in again. So much for saving money after visiting several times last month...

We have NADAC next weekend and I do not plan on entering Secret -- so I'll have to decide if I should take her in this week or next. Probably next, I suppose, so it's "fresher" before the trial. It will, after all, be her first time in Excellent and we want her feeling her best!  :o)

The 10k girls!

Today the girls and I hit a new milestone -- We ran 10k! Yes, a whole 6.2 miles. I was going to do an out and back, turning around at 3 miles, but then I thought, "How stupid is it to run 6 miles when I can just throw on an extra 0.2 and make it a full 10k?" So I did. And between 2.5 and 3.1 miles I was really regretting that decision, because that last portion before I turned around was ALL uphill...

We went out the same route that I like to do for our 5-mile runs (previously our longest distance) and it turns out that section of trail is perfect for the 10k length because the turn around point (3.1+/-) is where the trail crosses the road, which is a super easy marker and good spot for a stretch.

It's also apparently a good spot to accidentally turn off your GPS without realizing it. ARGH!!! I was reaching the spot where I figured surely another mile would knock off (shortly after nearly getting run over by a stupid bicyclist who wouldn't move over to pass us on the trail...) -- And since that mile had been almost all downhill, I was curious to know the time. When I looked down to check why it hadn't marked off another mile, I saw that I had ended my workout at the turn around point. *sob*  My first actual 10k wasn't even going to go in the books.

Well, whatever. I started it over from there and figuring that my average pace has been around 11:10/mile on these runs lately, I should have done the entire 10k in 1:10 and change --- Oh! I suppose it's worth mentioning that I finally hit my goal of running a mile in under 10:00 last night! I was surprised because I totally did not feel like running yesterday, but I somehow managed to push out 9:53 in my first of three miles. Yay for completing a goal! Now to set a new one, I guess...

The girls continue to be fantastic running partners. I was concerned if they would make it the added distance today, mostly because they were pretty darn sacked out at home before we left. I had nothing to worry about, though -- around mile 5 Kizzy started lunging at the end of the leash towards lord knows what and they were both still way out in front at the very end. I do wonder if there's a limit to how far I should be running them, but I figure they'll tell me. Right now it's more or less just an hour or so of trotting for them, which doesn't seem to be too strenuous. Kizzy is proving her husky heritage with her stamina, though, that's for sure. I feel bad for leaving Kaiser & Luke at home, but I know Luke couldn't handle the distance and I'm not sure about Kaiser (he'd probably be fine, I'm sure).

Tomorrow I'm hoping to actually set a drill and play agility with everyone! I love weekends.

Back to the FUN stuff! (and Target, too!)

First things first! A couple of days ago a friend was tagged on Facebook in a picture of her dog modeling the T-Rex costume at Target. Sweet! The costumes are out! So I swung by on my way home from work tonight to see if I might be able to find Kaiser on any of the stuff he modeled during his photo shoot.

There weren't any costumes in the pet section, so I started scouring the store for the Halloween section to see if the pet costumes were by the people costumes. Score! In the far back corner of the store, there they were!

I found the skunk, the hot dog, the knight and the cowgirl (I think it was the same one, but I thought ours had been cuter...), but they didn't have all of the sizes available. Kaiser definitely was not on the small skunk or hot dog, though (that went to a terrier and a dachshund, respectively). I was looking for all of the small costumes and darn near missed it -- When all of the sudden, RIGHT in front of me, was Kaiser! He's a bee!!  :o)

I was thrown off because he's on the medium package. Truth be told, the costume he's wearing IS a medium (except for the head piece, that's small) because the costumes all ran crazy small. It sounded like they planned to put him on small packaging regardless, though, so who knows what happened. The medium package says it's for dogs up to 50lbs, so maybe they just think people will think he's a husky. Woe to the husky owner who thinks a medium will fit their dog, though! lol

I haven't decided if I'll actually make my dogs wear it at any point in time or if I'll just put the package away for safe-keeping (because YES, I bought one!). I didn't buy the winter coat because I just don't feel like we'd get any use out of that whatsoever, and the tag is smaller.  ;o)

I am so excited that they used my little man for a costume!!!

As I mentioned yesterday, Secret & Kaiser got to play after Kizzy had her fun. The drill setup from Kizzy's Novice exercises had an equal number of Intermediate/Advanced options to choose from, so I chose three at random. After I'd walked the third one a few times I realized that we'd actually done that one before. Oops. Oh well. At that point it was the sixth exercise I'd committed to memory that afternoon and there was no way I was going to try to retain a 7th.

In the weeks going into NADAC Champs we worked on nothing but speed work (and the dog walk), so it was nice to get back to some super fun handling exercises. I so much prefer this style of agility! After seeing just how nicely Kaiser went back to the tight work I started wondering if I made a mistake to focus so much on distance/speed (granted, that was mostly for Secret's benefit). Maybe he would have been better off to stay in a bit more handler focus. Who knows. Too late now. I was just happy to have my sassy, barky little man back and he was eager to play!

Secret did great, too! I popped those jumps right back up to 24" on her and she did great. Only dropped one bar the whole time and I'm sure it was my fault.

I'm thinking we're going to be doing a lot more AKC in 2014. My next decision, though, is a conflict the first weekend in December. There is a NADAC trial here at home (i.e.: No travel) and an AKC trial in Milwaukee (Hounds for the Holidays). Apparently the H4TH trial is HUGE (three rings) and honestly I'm kind of excited about the idea of having actual competition... There's a good chance, with two AKC trials before then, that Secret would be running Masters by then, too, so we'd get a chance to start working towards her MACH at last. Yeah.... I'm leaning that way.

But then I was (perhaps foolishly) thinking that MAYBE Kizzy would be ready to do a few runs at the NADAC trial in December. Maybe we can split it up and do both. We'll see!

When did this happen?!

Today I went and scrounged up some Novice Jumpers drills from Steve over at AgilityNerd to do a bit of a test to see where the Kizzy-dog is at in her lack of training. The wee one blew me away just a little! To date, especially when training with toys, we've had a bit of an "obstacle commitment" issue where she'll run by a lot of stuff. Tunnels have also been a bit of a struggle at times because she seems to sometimes think she's going to miss out on the party if she goes in there.

Not today, though! She strapped on her big girl pants and held it together for 12 whole obstacles in a row for three different drill sets! And I only got bit once while getting her to release the toy!  :o)  Such improvement all around. She is also doing well with the increase in jump height -- I've moved all of her jumps up to 10" now.

Kaiser and Secret got to play on a few of the big dog (i.e.: Advanced) drills. Hopefully I'll get around to editing those eventually as well.

We are enjoying a nice, (much needed) quiet weekend at home. Yesterday we went out for a five-mile run (okay, I only ran 4+ miles and we walked the rest). I was planning to go to the track at the school today, but instead we ended up playing agility and I guess now I'm going to go fail at play tennis with my parents before dinner.

Champs 2013 -- Videos!

Kaiser

Secret

Luke

The Adrenaline Crash

One nice thing about Facebook is that it lets me know I'm not alone. I've had this funk about me more or less since I got home yesterday. Part of it is exhaustion that I need to recover from, but it feels like I'm just depressed -- which, according to the throngs of folks that feel like me right now, is apparently pretty normal after running on adrenaline for five days.

Seriously, though. I actually cried when I got home. And not happy, glad to be home tears, either. It reminded me of when I actually did have "issues" and would just cry out of the blue for no reason at all. Stupid hormones. lol

Today I just didn't really feel anything. Work sucked. I didn't want to be there and almost called in, but I hadn't gotten around to checking my e-mail at all while I was gone and assumed I'd have a ton of stuff waiting for me. Not so much. Half the people seemed to think I wasn't going back to work until Wednesday anyhow, so I should have stayed home!

I actually felt like running tonight (weird, right?), but the lawn managed to actually grow some real grass (vs just weeds) while I was gone, so I mowed that instead. I also set up a few jumps and worked Kizzy for a bit. I'm actually feeling inspired to get her going now that the build-up to Champs is done.

I haven't put together my videos yet, but I have watched them (I'm missing one of Luke's, so I'm not sure if I'll start posting them before I get that or not...). Many times. The videos make me both happy and sad. I could not be more proud of all of my dogs. They all ran just fantastic in every single round. I am sad because I am extremely disappointed in myself. I know I'm being too hard on myself because it was mostly good, but *every single one* of Kaiser's errors was me, me, me. I really let my nerves get to me while running him and I have nobody to blame but myself for not reaching our full potential. He was amazing. He nailed every contact all week long -- all of our errors were me sending him off course. Sigh. I'm sure I'll stop hating myself soon enough, but for now the blame for not achieving my goals is squarely on me and I'm busy kicking myself. So often I say, "Oh, he's just being a Klee Kai." Or not. Maybe he's just doing exactly what I told him to do. He's such a trier.

Secret was pretty dang awesome, too. She really thrives off the energy at Champs. She has been getting faster overall for a while now, but she was cruising happy & fast down in Springfield. Part of me wonders how much of it is footing related. For financial and convenience reasons we obviously trial most frequently here in La Crosse -- it is no secret that their footing is not ideal and all three of my dogs tend to run more cautiously to avoid slipping. I think running weekend after weekend on that turf is detrimental to Secret's performance in the ring... Or I could be completely full of crap. Who knows. It will be interesting to see how she runs at the upcoming AKC trial I guess.

Luke did not put a foot wrong all week, so we will just ignore that little failed start line stay in the final round.  ;o)  I feel so blessed to have had these runs with the old man. And to think I was waffling on entering him at all. I guess he showed me!

Nobody was happier to be home than Kizzy. Immediately upon being released into the yard she reverted to a semi-feral state and ran around for a solid 30 minutes not letting me touch her. That was fun, considering I was trying desperately to get everyone treated for fleas after hearing about other owners finding them on their dogs down in Springfield. I didn't find any on mine, but honestly I didn't go looking, either. I knew that if I found any I would immediately shun my dogs and not let them near me. lol  I can't help it... That was always an issue I had at the shelter. I'd be loving up on a new animal that came in and as soon as a flea was spotted it was like they had leprosy. Poor critters, they can't help it. So hopefully they didn't bring any friends home, but everyone is treated now and will hopefully be fine.

Meanwhile, I am now broker than broke and we probably won't be doing much trialing in the coming months. We'll plan on AKC this month and next. I don't particularly care for the person judging NADAC in November, so I don't have to feel bad about not attending that trial. We'll have to see about December, as Lorne will be in town and we quite enjoy him, plus there is no AKC that month. Perhaps Secret will get that month off and Kizzy will be ready to play? hahahahaha  We'll see.....

Maybe a sugar high will get me out of my funk? I finally went through and sorted my goodie bags last night after I got home and this entire bag is candy.... I think they may have went a little overboard! One friend said she left it at the hotel for the workers. That was a good idea.... I'll probably end up taking it to work. Anyone want some candy?! I'm not eating it -- I actually lost four more pounds while at Champs!  :o)  Hooray for stress and not having time to eat.

Champs 2013 -- Day 4 (The End)

That's Luke's 6th place ribbon from Round 5 yesterday. I have no idea why it took so long for them to be posted, but it was finally put out this morning. Yay for another good placement for the old man!

Sunday at Champs is the final round -- Round 7 -- for most teams. Some don't have a snowball's chance in hell of making the finals and run for fun or as a last ditch effort for placements (ahem, Secret). Others are under a little more stress because they are teetering on the edge of the finals cutoff. And still others are so far ahead of the rest of their group that they could pretty much poop in the ring and still win. lol  (Seriously, there were several people who were THAT far ahead). At any rate, Round 7 is generally pretty fun because most people really put it out there -- and I'm no different!

Seeing as Kaiser was in 11th going into the last round, I really didn't think there was even a remote possibility of him making the finals. Because of this, I decided I was going to go for broke, run like hell and see if we could knock it out. I really didn't feel nervous (umm... thank you Xanax...) and I felt totally at ease with this run. It started out great for about the first 10 obstacles or so, but then Kaiser blasted through an off course tunnel that I hadn't really even been concerned about. I opted not to fix the hoop he missed and kept going -- I even threw some blind crosses at the little guy. While he still doesn't read them as well as Secret and Luke do, he is getting better about them. He knocked the bar after the a-frame running full out, but finished with another great dog walk. Kaiser didn't get have a single contact fault all week and that is pretty awesome. Now if only we could fix that steering. Oh well. Somehow we were scored as having 65 faults on that run, which tells me he must have missed another obstacle. I don't know how or which, but it really wasn't worth reviewing/arguing. After seeing the results and how many other dogs in our class faulted on the run I kind of regretted not fixing the error and just taking the 10 off course faults -- but oh well, I still don't think it would have helped us at all. They did end up taking 7 dogs from our class into the finals instead of the 6 we expected. Kaiser ended up in 11th.

Much like the 7th round in 2011, I decided to push Luke for everything he had. This round was a Jumpers-focused round with 26 obstacles (all jumps except the contacts and weaves). Luke has seriously been rocking his Jumpers runs lately, so I figured I would drive just as hard as I do in a typical Jumpers round -- complete with multiple blind crosses (he has picked up on those so naturally!). This was a somewhat risky plan because even though he was in 9th place, everything was so close that if we had a big blunder it would easily knock us out of the finals. I did briefly consider playing it safe and doing rear crosses to float him through the course a little easier. Seriously, though, what fun is that? I *like* running him pedal to the metal and gosh darn it, that's what I was going to do.

He was FANTASTIC. Every moment of that run was just smooth as silk. In a class filled with super fast border collies, Luke was fast enough to come in 4th place! What a good boy. That score moved us up to 8th place overall and solidified Luke's spot in the finals (they ended up taking 12).

I had more or less exactly the same plan for Secret. Stay ahead and blind, blind, blind. Once again she just blew me away. She has really stepped up to the challenge this week -- the dog who seems to detest showing two days in a row has stayed on fire for four days! Unfortunately we had the slightest of bobbles. I made eye contact with her before a turn and she must have read it as more of a turn than it was, because she cut to the inside of a jump. We probably wasted at least three seconds fixing that and then it was just perfect after that. In the end, Secret got another 9th place and was 0.36 seconds out of the ribbons. Without the bobble she would have had a very nice placement. Darn it. That means that Secret did not get any ribbons at Champs this year which is kind of a bummer, but she did end up placing 14th overall in her division which is a HUGE improvement from last time. The mistakes she made this week surprised me, but they were made out of enthusiasm and excitement. I'm thrilled with her performance.

Running in the finals with Luke was an amazing experience and I'm so thankful to have had it. The course was fun -- the most challenging part was definitely the beginning. When we lined up to walk the course we all were thinking the same thing -- "Is that line for US?" All week long there have been extra challenges for the people participating in Triple Crown and all of the Stakes classes, but the distance challenge for us regular folks were pretty basic and simple. This, however, was a game changer.

The start of the course was jump, tunnel under the a-frame, jump (to the right of the frame). There was a line placed between the jump and the a-frame and the distance requirement was to start from behind the line and handle the first three obstacles from there. If your dog had no start line stay it was an automatic 5 point fault for you being over the line. That said, which is worse -- the five point line fault or a ten point off course if they take the a-frame? Hmm.

At any rate, I had full confidence that Luke could do this. In fact, I had a little TOO MUCH confidence because I left him on the start line (having said the word "tunnel" in his ear to get him turned on to it) and promptly turned my back and walked away. What a freaking idiot. It's one thing to leave him at home or to leave him at a local trial and know that he will stay -- but this is Champs! The energy is different! He was totally amped in that ring. Moron. Just as I was getting into position to start, I turned my shoulder and what should I see but a black dog on the a-frame next to me. Seriously, can I just have a do-over on that one thing?!

And with that I decided that I was going to run as fast as I possibly could and blow all those NADAC people away with some fancy blind crosses. hahaha  (Seriously, I cannot tell you how many people I saw handle with nothing but rear crosses all week long, even on slow dogs who would obviously run much better if their handler would just get IN FRONT of them.)  This week I really felt my hard work pay off in the running department. I was able to get ahead and stay ahead and really had a lot of fun doing it. I crossed in spots on this course that I'm pretty sure not a single other handler did (maybe some small dogs, I didn't see them all). And it. Felt. Awesome.

Results from the Finals round haven't been individually posted, but the overall standings were posted on the website by the time I got back to the hotel. Looks like the 15 faults we picked up in that round bumped us back down to 9th place overall, but seriously, that is so awesome. You can't imagine what kind of dogs we've been competing against in the 12" Veteran class, so I am beyond proud of Luke for holding his own in that group of dogs. Considering this is very likely his last Champs, I am so happy he was able to go out with a bang. Third time is a charm!  :o)

The awards ceremony ran kind of late and it was 8:00 p.m. before we were packed up and out of there. The dogs spent a lot of time in the stall today and they did very well considering. Kizzy even seemed to have gotten used to it and was much quieter in the stall, so I felt okay leaving her in there to watch more runs today (which was nice!). Everyone is flat out at the hotel now and I'm sure they will be so happy to be back home tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the fenced in yard, that's for sure! We sure are spoiled with that.

I'm not so much looking forward to the drive, but I am looking forward to being home. There is a NADAC trial in a couple of weeks and I was planning on just entering Kaiser for his free day. I think now, though, I'm going to have to enter Luke, too, so he can come and brag about his amazing achievements this past week.

Champs 2013 -- Day 3

The highs and lows of agility.... This morning I found out that there had been a scoring error last night. One of the dogs (the dog who happens to be pounding our entire class) was erroneously given 30 faults on a clean run (reviewed by video), so when the scoring was redone the whole class was bumped down one placing. It didn't do anything to Kaiser's overall standing, but it did change his 1st place to a 2nd. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

And Round 5 was definitely a "lose some" round for Kaiser and I.... It was a three hour wait between our walk through and Kaiser's run (the first of my dogs today). In that time I managed to leave the screaming hooligan (i.e., Kizzy...) in the stall to watch some runs. And after watching said runs I started to doubt my plan with Kaiser and decided, on the fly, that I simply had to change my handling plan and do something that I hadn't even considered walking... Fast dog after fast dog (hell, even some slower ones) were all missing a turn and taking an off course hoop. That was my biggest concern with Kaiser on that course, so I stupidly decided at the last minute to rear cross that sequence.

Dumbest idea of my life. Taking the 10 off course faults and having a happy dog would have been better. I was stressing out hardcore before the run because I was sincerely worried about my change of plans. Gah, what is wrong with me... At any rate, Kaiser started off much slower than usual and was already hesitating coming out of the tunnel two obstacles before the problem spot (because he thought I was nuts, no doubt). Well, the rear cross did get the turn away that I needed, but Kaiser was so thrown off by me at that point that he ran off to a different off course obstacle. We recovered and he was good for a while, but then for some reason he pushed WAY out to another off course hoop on the way to the a-frame. Sigh. Twenty faults and a lot of time wasted. The only consolation was that much of the class struggled in this round, but it still bumped Kaiser right back down to 11th place. He is way out of finals contention.

Luke's run was nearly perfect. There was one part that I tried to handle with too much distance for no reason at all and he slowed down and was unsure for a couple of strides, but otherwise it was just beautiful. He pulled another 6th place with that round and moved into 11th place -- which I believe is the last dog to go into the finals. The placements/scores in the dogs from like 5th-11th is amazingly tight and could flop around very easily.

I apparently screwed up Secret's run this morning. The start was hoop, hoop, "out tunnel" under the dog walk. I did a little lead out and was well in position for the out and she appeared to be going to the tunnel. I focused too much on getting into position to blind cross her exit to the tunnel and she pulled on to the dog walk ramp. Then she argued at me a bit and wasted a little more time before going into the tunnel, after which she ran a FANTASTIC course. I'm not entirely sure what's going on here in Springfield, but she is easily running faster than I think she ever has in a trial. It's fun to see! On the other hand, she's kind of turned into a naughty brat here, too, because today she decided she was going to try to jump up and grab the shirt of anyone who walked near us. Ummm.... What? Something to watch closely tomorrow. At any rate, she ended up 12th in that round. Easily within shot of the ribbons without that fault, but oh well.

This post is void of pictures because the ribbons from Round 5 had not been posted by end of day today and because my friend, Jen, visited us and I didn't spend time hanging in the stall with the dogs. Sorry dogs.

Round 6.... Hmm. Sharon held a briefing following team and before the walk-through. There have been a lot of briefings and rule changes (this morning Sharon added faults for anyone who didn't go to the start line when they were supposed to, anyone who didn't finish the course running with their dog and anyone who turned to look at the clock before they had their dog on leash). Surprise, surprise -- Sharon threw EGC into Champs. Round 6 was the "speed course" of the week and consisted only of hoops and tunnels. It was to be scored like EGC, which more or less means if your dog misses an obstacle JUST KEEP GOING because you've already lost those points and you are just wasting time if you fix it. Wide turns and alterations of path are also dinged, to a lesser level. Sharon repeatedly stressed that you were supposed to JUST RUN on this course.

Much like Round 5 this morning, Round 6 also shuffled the standings a bit. Many of the dogs who have been placing very low made it into the ribbons with their slower yet clean & accurate runs. Quite a few of the top dogs picked up several faults.

After stressing Kaiser out so badly this morning I honestly just wanted to go out and have fun with him. He was ready, but a little wild.  :o)  We had a wide turn on a serpentine into a tunnel and then he cut in and missed the hoop after that tunnel, likely thanks to my handling choice in that spot. He also sliced a turn and missed a hoop before a tunnel -- but every single one of my dogs missed that hoop (as did many, many other dogs). Seriously. Every one of my dogs. You'd think I'd learn? At any rate, apparently he had a couple of wide turns because Kaiser ended up with 22 faults for 10th place in his class. It actually moved him back into 9th overall, though, which tells you how much the scores shuffled in his class.

Luke was super awesome. I really pushed him on this run and he ran great. I'm pretty sure I was likely the only person to throw in two blind crosses through an "S-shaped" sequence, but it worked beautifully for Luke. As I mentioned above, he did miss the one hoop and then he turned wide on a 180 hoop sequence. He ended up with 11 faults and 16th place, but the 12" Vet/JH class was one where things REALLY got shook up in the placings and despite placing 16th, Luke actually moved into 9th overall. That class was one where dogs who previously were nowhere near the top were in the ribbons and it really reordered things. I'm quite certain that Luke's group takes 11 into the finals. It's so tight in there, but we just have to keep it clean and I think we'll be good!

Secret shocked the hell out of me tonight. This is a dog who doesn't like Hoopers and she doesn't like Tunnelers because she finds neither of those obstacles highly motivating. Well... She's on crack this week and apparently tonight they were loads of fun! I threw the same blind cross sequence at Secret that had worked so well with Luke, but Secret was hauling ass through there and I was late on the second one. I had to scoop her up from behind me (fault) to get her in the tunnel and then she missed that one dratted hoop. She must have gone wide on the 180 sequence for another ding because she ended up with 12 faults and finished in 12th place in her class. But get this -- she was over two seconds faster than Luke's run, and I thought his run was great! Wow. That is really fast for Secret. I look forward to seeing the video for that run. Secret remains firmly in 15th place with really no hope of going higher (or lower, unless she gets a bazillion faults).

So.... This week is definitely not going quite as hoped for the little K-man. The faults have just added up too much for us. I was really hoping for a placement or two for Secret -- and we still have one more shot, so we'll see what tomorrow holds. My steady, reliable dog forgot to come with us this week, but who the hell cares -- this dog is pretty fun to run!  :o)  After coming so close to the finals in 2011 with Luke, I'm really proud of him and how well he's stepped up to the challenge. I've pushed him all week and he's been amazing. Rock on, old man.

Champs 2013 -- Day 2!

The boys were very bored this morning. But they were both pretty cute sporting their Back on Track jackets (okay, Luke is squeezed into Secret's...).   :o)

Last night was kind of rough. I think I might have mentioned in yesterday's post that Kizzy was a bit off. Well, right before we went to bed she blew out the back end and then about five minutes after the lights turned off she yacked in bed. Poor Kizzy. The stress of the day just got to her. I'm happy to report that she did much better today! She didn't get much to eat this morning and didn't have any more diarrhea or vomiting. By the time dinner rolled around she was back to bouncing and leaping while I prepared their dishes. Her big excitement of the day was when she broke out of the crate in the car and jumped out the car window.... Thank GOD someone I know (through Facebook, at least) saw it happen and grabbed her. I found out about this later when she messaged me on Facebook to see how Kizzy was. Ummm.... WHAT?! Well, I'm glad I know and I'm glad it turned out well -- so now Kizzy is back in the stall. I gave her a bully stick and at 12" long, that sucker should last her a while. It seemed to go better. We'll see.

Luke was up first this morning without too long of a wait (he was 29th in the ring). Round 3 just happened to be almost an exact replica of round 5 from 2011 -- the Weavers-focused course. There were only three differences -- the distance line, swapping a tunnel for the hoop at the start and the long set of weaves was cut to six. This was the course that Luke finally placed on in 2011 so I had my fingers crossed. He ROCKED it with another fantastic run and ended up in 6th place! I really couldn't be happier with that run. So we improved on two counts -- first we got a placement in an earlier round (3rd vs 5th) and he also bettered his placement (he got 7th on that course last time).  :o)

Secret seriously nailed that course, too. She was hauling ass, especially considering it was weaves focused (hooray for sets of six that are apparently more motivating!). Because of her recent feelings that she doesn't have to stop on contacts, I babysat the dog walk at the end more than I perhaps normally would have -- and since she was charging off faster than she typically runs I was more or less left in the dirt when I released her. She was sending ahead of me so well that I think I just forgot to say anything, so she stopped and spun in front of the last tunnel. I'd say in total we wasted at least three seconds, and that's just how far out of the ribbons she was. Bummer. I love how happy she is running, though! She is living up to her "sassypants" label as we wait in line, that's for sure. Bark, bark, bark, bark....

In 2011 Kaiser won on this course fairly handily (he had a giant bobble where he almost went off course and then I had to reset the weaves), so I also had high hopes for him. Well, it wasn't mean to be. He was a very good boy and gave me a stay at the start, but he still missed the entry to the first set of weaves. It took three tries to get him in the poles, which was a HUGE time suck. Not only that but on one of the resets he back-weaved for 10 faults. I had to fix the third set of weaves as well (same set as 2011), so that was more time. Yeah... Nowhere near the placements for that run. I liken this to Round 3 in 2011, though -- Kaiser does NOT like waiting so late in the day for his first run (he was in the last group today) and he goes a little crazy. He got 30 faults in round 3 last time, though, so I guess I'll take the 10!

Round 4 this afternoon/evening was a really fun course! It didn't seem familiar in the least, which was nice for a change. It was a more "technical" course (for NADAC at least) and many of us felt that this course would really shake things up a bit -- and it did. Many classes got rearranged a bit after this course.

Luke was awesome, awesome, awesome on this run. I really pushed him -- but I pushed too hard and released too soon on the dog walk. It was close -- really close. And because there are some 12" dogs running out of order I had to wait until almost the end to see if it got called or not. It did. Without the 10 faults it would have been another 6th place run, but ultimately I think it knocked him into 18th or something. Overall, though, he's in 13th place and well within reach of the finals if he continues to run as awesome as he always does.

I worry about Secret for as dead as she acts in the stall, but it's deceptive -- apparently she's learned that she needs to store her energy for the runs and then it just EXPLODES out of her. lol I thought that tonight's round would really be her time to shine. And she did -- she put in a *fantastic* first half of the course with a beautiful sequence from the dog walk through a tricky (for NADAC) serpentine into the weaves. Then it was a race to get her into the "out tunnel" under the a-frame (behind a line). I take the blame. She was charging ahead. I really felt like she had locked on to the tunnel and I'm sure I started to take a step away just prior to her actual commitment point. Bam, she pulled off and touched the a-frame. She may have only touched it with three paws, but when I attempted to resend her she climbed right back up the frame. 10 faults. Then I gave up and crossed the line for 5 more faults. Those plus the added time we spent in that area kind of sunk us. After today Secret is in 15th place overall. I'm still crossing my fingers for some placements for her, though. I know she has it in her!!

Tonight was Kaiser's night. This was kind of a replay of day two in 2011, really. Bad first round, awesome second round. It's kind of funny to think that Kaiser did so well on the more "technical" course with more off course opportunities, but he was just awesome. The awesomeness started with a fantastic lead-out that let me get a head start on the dog walk (thank you, Kaiser!!) and he stopped nice and deep so I could release him without wasting time begging for a creep. His serpentine was super nice, especially considering that it required him to jump right into me and we know how much he "loves" that. I was a little behind when he came out of the tunnel under the a-frame and he pulled in to me and ALMOST flipped out to take the hoop backwards. I wasted a lot of time in that spot trying to ensure that we stayed clean, but as soon as we were past it he was right back into gear and just flew through the end. I was worried about the final stretch because Kaiser has a habit of running past the a-frame when he is running at full speed. Not only was he running full out coming out of a tunnel, but it was also an "out frame" with that tunnel under it (we just don't see "out frame" that much). Blessedly the jump before the frame was more or less pointing them right at it, so Kaiser didn't even flinch. I was ahead of him saying, "Go! Go! Go! Go!" And he did.  :o)  Even with that GIANT bobble he was over a second ahead of the second place dog.

Several dogs in Kaiser's class struggled on this course. The standings got shuffled quite a bit and Kaiser is now in 8th place. We think 6 dogs go into the finals and if he can keep running clean there is still a shot. I don't know, I just need to focus on having fun with him and not putting so much pressure on us.

Can't wait to get our pretty blue ribbon tomorrow!  :o) Time for bed, it's almost 10:00. Hoping to actually sleep tonight....