We went over to Dog Logic today for a Show and Go. It was cold and a little wet but we had fun. They're very nice and always willing to help with a course.
They had a nested course and you could do novice or excellent. I had planned on trying both but I walked the excellent standard course first so we just stuck with that. Venus did great on her first run, no refusals, off courses, or knocked bars. Yay Bean! She didn't hold her dog walk contact so I made her go back and get on it. The 2nd to the last obstacle were the weave poles. She hit the entry fine, yay again. She then noticed the pretty tinsel on the tops of the weave poles and had to stop and check that out. As she got tired it got harder and harder to run that course. She really struggled with all the weaves after that and I'm not sure why. Maybe the spacing was different. She switched to hopping instead of single stepping and would end up hopping out of the poles.
The jumpers course didn't go as well. She was tired and wanting to be a velcro dog. We made it through though and it wasn't too bad. On that course she did want to enter on the wrong side of the weaves though. I really need to work on that.
At the end of the day I found out that the courses were from the 2005 world championships. The jumpers was kinda different but the standard was set up mostly the same. Here's a link to that coure map. 2005 Large Team
I will try and work weaves in the next two days and get some new video up.
Brandy
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Monday's lesson
Our lesson on Monday with Rhonda went well. It was Venus and 3 excellent level BCs lol, kind of an interesting group. Venus can be fast but she doesn't compare to the speed of those dogs but she did have the advantage of tighter turns. She will wrap around a jump to switch directions beautifully if I just hang back a little.
There was a sequence that was the dog walk to 3 jumps. I decided to send her on the dog walk and I would get on the other side of the 1st jump and do a front cross. She didn't pull off the dog walk even though I was moving away from her. I was very happy to see that. She did hesitate to make sure where I wanted her but as soon as I told her to go bottom she did and held it until I released her.
We have to work weave entries! We worked a very similar thing Monday as we had in the weavers course on Sunday- a 90 degree right turn to the weaves. She was entering from the wrong side. Once she entered correctly she did a great job doing all the weaves. She doesn't seem to be one to pop out of the poles, yay.
This Saturday I'm going to try and make it to a show and go. I think they will have excellent and novice courses set up so I may try Venus doing the excellent courses. I'm also going to try and see what I can get her to go there.
Brandy
There was a sequence that was the dog walk to 3 jumps. I decided to send her on the dog walk and I would get on the other side of the 1st jump and do a front cross. She didn't pull off the dog walk even though I was moving away from her. I was very happy to see that. She did hesitate to make sure where I wanted her but as soon as I told her to go bottom she did and held it until I released her.
We have to work weave entries! We worked a very similar thing Monday as we had in the weavers course on Sunday- a 90 degree right turn to the weaves. She was entering from the wrong side. Once she entered correctly she did a great job doing all the weaves. She doesn't seem to be one to pop out of the poles, yay.
This Saturday I'm going to try and make it to a show and go. I think they will have excellent and novice courses set up so I may try Venus doing the excellent courses. I'm also going to try and see what I can get her to go there.
Brandy
Monday, December 10, 2007
NADAC Toys for Tots Fundraiser
I took Venus to a NADAC trial yesterday in Youngsville. We ended up Qing 3 out of 6 runs. I'm very happy with her overall performance yesterday.
Our first run was Weavers. I wasn't thinking or something but decided to start at the start line with her. Well there were 3 tunnels and then the weaves. By the time I got past the 1st tunnel she was in the 3rd lol. We were over time in weavers so no Q. She attempted to do all weaves correctly but she forgets she has to slow down to enter the weaves. She tends to fly into the entry and miss curving back for the 2nd pole. So she ends up weaving the 1st and 3rd poles. She did that at the first two sets of weaves so we had to fix that. Then the 3rd set she entered on the wrong side. She started to head the wrong way out of a tunnel at one point and I told her to "come". There was a tunnel kinda between us that she was supposed to take next. She headed for it and it was like she realized I didn't tell her tunnel so she came back to me. Even though it isn't what I wanted it was what I said so I was very happy she listened to me. We ended up with a 2nd place.
Tunnelers was next. Venus had a beautiful confident run in there. She wasn't hesitating like last time. The run was clean and fast so Venus got a Q and 1st place.
This week I kept telling myself to remember to make Venus hold her 2o2o for a while at the trial. I released her very quickly at the last trial and that's not what I want to do. The first regular run was set up nicely so I could do a front cross while she was holding her contact on the dog walk. She did it beautifully! At the start line I accidently pushed too hard and pushed her off the tunnel she was supposed to take, whoops. The rest of the run was nice and she got her first regular Q and a 1st place. The second regular run was the same course in reverse. She missed one jump that I had to send her back to do. Everything else was going well until we got to a jump that had timers on it. Somehow she jumped between the jump standard and the post with the timer on it. So I made her go back and fix that one. Again she held her contact very well and I left her on there and went on to the next jump and then released her. We didn't Q that run because of time but we did get another 1st.
The next run was jumpers and it was a wonderful course. It was basically an S with one more curve and line of jumps on it. I decided to use this course to try running ahead of Venus like Rhonda has said. It worked great. By the 4th line of jump where we were headed towards the finish line I just took off and told her to go! Another clean fast run for a jumpers Q and 1st place.
Our last run was Chances. Venus struggles on distance so I thought it would be a good thing to work with her. Since it was our 6th run of the day and we'd been up since 5am she was exhausted. The more tired she is the closer she likes to stay for me so I figured she wouldn't Q this round. It started off well but when we got to the distance part she didn't want to do it. I finally convinced her to go over the first jump, she missed the 2nd one because she'd moved back close to me but she did do the 3rd one. The rest of the run was nice.
Overall I was so happy with her performance. She was very focused, had no wrong courses, and no knocked bars! I definately think she'd ready for some AKC trials.
Tonight we have our lesson with Rhonda. Hopefully Veni has rested enough today to really be on tonight!
Brandy
Our first run was Weavers. I wasn't thinking or something but decided to start at the start line with her. Well there were 3 tunnels and then the weaves. By the time I got past the 1st tunnel she was in the 3rd lol. We were over time in weavers so no Q. She attempted to do all weaves correctly but she forgets she has to slow down to enter the weaves. She tends to fly into the entry and miss curving back for the 2nd pole. So she ends up weaving the 1st and 3rd poles. She did that at the first two sets of weaves so we had to fix that. Then the 3rd set she entered on the wrong side. She started to head the wrong way out of a tunnel at one point and I told her to "come". There was a tunnel kinda between us that she was supposed to take next. She headed for it and it was like she realized I didn't tell her tunnel so she came back to me. Even though it isn't what I wanted it was what I said so I was very happy she listened to me. We ended up with a 2nd place.
Tunnelers was next. Venus had a beautiful confident run in there. She wasn't hesitating like last time. The run was clean and fast so Venus got a Q and 1st place.
This week I kept telling myself to remember to make Venus hold her 2o2o for a while at the trial. I released her very quickly at the last trial and that's not what I want to do. The first regular run was set up nicely so I could do a front cross while she was holding her contact on the dog walk. She did it beautifully! At the start line I accidently pushed too hard and pushed her off the tunnel she was supposed to take, whoops. The rest of the run was nice and she got her first regular Q and a 1st place. The second regular run was the same course in reverse. She missed one jump that I had to send her back to do. Everything else was going well until we got to a jump that had timers on it. Somehow she jumped between the jump standard and the post with the timer on it. So I made her go back and fix that one. Again she held her contact very well and I left her on there and went on to the next jump and then released her. We didn't Q that run because of time but we did get another 1st.
The next run was jumpers and it was a wonderful course. It was basically an S with one more curve and line of jumps on it. I decided to use this course to try running ahead of Venus like Rhonda has said. It worked great. By the 4th line of jump where we were headed towards the finish line I just took off and told her to go! Another clean fast run for a jumpers Q and 1st place.
Our last run was Chances. Venus struggles on distance so I thought it would be a good thing to work with her. Since it was our 6th run of the day and we'd been up since 5am she was exhausted. The more tired she is the closer she likes to stay for me so I figured she wouldn't Q this round. It started off well but when we got to the distance part she didn't want to do it. I finally convinced her to go over the first jump, she missed the 2nd one because she'd moved back close to me but she did do the 3rd one. The rest of the run was nice.
Overall I was so happy with her performance. She was very focused, had no wrong courses, and no knocked bars! I definately think she'd ready for some AKC trials.
Tonight we have our lesson with Rhonda. Hopefully Veni has rested enough today to really be on tonight!
Brandy
Monday, December 3, 2007
New A-frame and Lesson change
If you were wondering what Rio's comment about a new toy was about, we are building an a-frame! It's not done yet but is slightly more complete than what you see in the above picture. We have slats on one side now. Each side is 9x3 and is too heavy for me to move much.
Rio is one of our Sheltie buddies, go poke around at the Agility Addiction blog. That's his owner and her wonderful Shelties that are very good at agility.
With it being dark and cold by the time I get home Venus hasn't gotten to practice much lately. We have a lesson with Rhonda next Monday and Venus will be working in the advanced group. I hope we're ready for that. I'm very excited because I love watching that group work. My novice Sammy with the excellent BCs, it might be amusing. We'll see what happens, I will keep faith in Venus and myself.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Recent videos
Ok so 3 new videos since I promised a video a while back and then never got it up here. If you decide to just watch one, watch the last one.
Friday's video is teaching Venus to jump with me close to the jump. She didn't like the idea and would hesitate to jump at first. She'll get better though so we are working on it.
Sunday's video we are working various things. First lead outs, I wanted to go to one side and have her still take the obstacles in front of her. Some of Friday's new stuff added in a small sequence. Last part is me getting ahead of Venus. This really increases her speed and she thinks it's great. I just have to trust her to do what is behind me and not cheat by going around. So you love the shed "obstacle"? I figured she loves to chase her brother around it so why not use it.
Today's (Monday) video we went over to Beth's to work on her equipment. This is the first good video I've gotten of Venus on the contacts. I am very happy with the teeter and dog walk, although you will see a running contact in the video it isn't what I wanted her to do. She is supposed to do 2o2o because I don't trust her not to bail off. I put it in the video anyway because it's pretty. She does the a-frame two different ways. When she jumps over the top her striding is just right to stride down once more into the yellow and then off. If she doesn't jump it her striding is just above the yellow and I have to make sure she comes on down instead of off. Plans are to build my a-frame this weekend and then I can encourage the one I like more. (The last A-frame clip is my favorite.)
Brandy
Friday's video is teaching Venus to jump with me close to the jump. She didn't like the idea and would hesitate to jump at first. She'll get better though so we are working on it.
Sunday's video we are working various things. First lead outs, I wanted to go to one side and have her still take the obstacles in front of her. Some of Friday's new stuff added in a small sequence. Last part is me getting ahead of Venus. This really increases her speed and she thinks it's great. I just have to trust her to do what is behind me and not cheat by going around. So you love the shed "obstacle"? I figured she loves to chase her brother around it so why not use it.
Today's (Monday) video we went over to Beth's to work on her equipment. This is the first good video I've gotten of Venus on the contacts. I am very happy with the teeter and dog walk, although you will see a running contact in the video it isn't what I wanted her to do. She is supposed to do 2o2o because I don't trust her not to bail off. I put it in the video anyway because it's pretty. She does the a-frame two different ways. When she jumps over the top her striding is just right to stride down once more into the yellow and then off. If she doesn't jump it her striding is just above the yellow and I have to make sure she comes on down instead of off. Plans are to build my a-frame this weekend and then I can encourage the one I like more. (The last A-frame clip is my favorite.)
Brandy
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Workshop
I learned a lot watching the masters workshop in the morning. I saw some different ways of looking at courses and some things I should try and teach Venus.
When it got time to do the novice workshop I had to run Clover. Now, I really do love Clover and she is a very special dog to me. She helped me with most of what I know about agility. But I generally do not enjoy running Clover as much as I do Venus. Clover is slower and I have to convince her to come on along the contact obstacles. She doesn't fear them and they are usually her favorite things to do so she enjoys taking her time on them. She also tends to leave me and what I'm doing to go do whatever she feels like. Clover has run out of the ring at the end of a course before and likes to pick and choose random obstacles.
Rhonda's feelings on her were that she likes staring at herself in a mirror. In a lot of ways that does describe Clover. It is what makes her such a great conformation dog. Clover's conformation career has been amazing; Akc Ch at 7 months old in 4 weekends with a 5pt major win, Can Ch in 4 days undefeated with 3 BOB wins, multiple BOB and group placements, and two Samoyed national specialty AOMs.
So basically Clover was kinda blowing me off on the first run. It wasn't unexpected between her personality, silliness lately, and the fact she hasn't really been worked since the national in Sept. The longer we were there the better she was doing, until she heard gun shots in the distance. Clover has always had noise issues and we have worked through a lot of them. I don't let her go hide just because of a scarey noise and she learns to work through it. I remember a long time ago deciding to reward her with going in a tunnel to get her mind off of the noises at Beth's house. Clover went in, and didn't come out. She was good yesterday though and worked through it until I was done. She was a little unfocused but continued to work. On our next turn she was even for stressed and I had a feeling that she would make a run for the car. Sure enough after we ran once and headed towards the start to go again she took off for the car. Beth was prepared and grabbed her and brought her back. Clo wasn't happy but did work for me the rest of the time.
I think I could have gotten more from working with Venus but it really did help me realize what a good agility dog Venus is turning out to be. I'll have a video of the newest thing Venus is learning in a little while.
Brandy
When it got time to do the novice workshop I had to run Clover. Now, I really do love Clover and she is a very special dog to me. She helped me with most of what I know about agility. But I generally do not enjoy running Clover as much as I do Venus. Clover is slower and I have to convince her to come on along the contact obstacles. She doesn't fear them and they are usually her favorite things to do so she enjoys taking her time on them. She also tends to leave me and what I'm doing to go do whatever she feels like. Clover has run out of the ring at the end of a course before and likes to pick and choose random obstacles.
Rhonda's feelings on her were that she likes staring at herself in a mirror. In a lot of ways that does describe Clover. It is what makes her such a great conformation dog. Clover's conformation career has been amazing; Akc Ch at 7 months old in 4 weekends with a 5pt major win, Can Ch in 4 days undefeated with 3 BOB wins, multiple BOB and group placements, and two Samoyed national specialty AOMs.
So basically Clover was kinda blowing me off on the first run. It wasn't unexpected between her personality, silliness lately, and the fact she hasn't really been worked since the national in Sept. The longer we were there the better she was doing, until she heard gun shots in the distance. Clover has always had noise issues and we have worked through a lot of them. I don't let her go hide just because of a scarey noise and she learns to work through it. I remember a long time ago deciding to reward her with going in a tunnel to get her mind off of the noises at Beth's house. Clover went in, and didn't come out. She was good yesterday though and worked through it until I was done. She was a little unfocused but continued to work. On our next turn she was even for stressed and I had a feeling that she would make a run for the car. Sure enough after we ran once and headed towards the start to go again she took off for the car. Beth was prepared and grabbed her and brought her back. Clo wasn't happy but did work for me the rest of the time.
I think I could have gotten more from working with Venus but it really did help me realize what a good agility dog Venus is turning out to be. I'll have a video of the newest thing Venus is learning in a little while.
Brandy
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Monday's Lesson
We had a lesson with Rhonda last night. I usually split a one hour lesson with two other people but neither of them could come last night so I did a 30 minute lesson by myself. It was wonderful, we got to run 6 different courses and I couldn't have asked Venus to do it any better.
Venus hit every single weave pole entry last night! Her speed started off nicely one the weaves. She got tired after we'd worked a while and they slowed some but were still nice. Rhonda had me running fast when there was a line of jumps and Venus did fine taking all the jumps even though I was ahead of her and not staring at her.
Right now she is a 20 month old in season Samoyed and seems to really have her mind in doing agility. She is already faster and more consistant than Clover ever was.
Friday I have the 3 hour workshop with Rhonda. I'll be taking Clover in stead of Venus because there will be an intact male there. I have to pull some jumps out tomorrow and make sure Clover remembers what I expect from her.
Brandy
Venus hit every single weave pole entry last night! Her speed started off nicely one the weaves. She got tired after we'd worked a while and they slowed some but were still nice. Rhonda had me running fast when there was a line of jumps and Venus did fine taking all the jumps even though I was ahead of her and not staring at her.
Right now she is a 20 month old in season Samoyed and seems to really have her mind in doing agility. She is already faster and more consistant than Clover ever was.
Friday I have the 3 hour workshop with Rhonda. I'll be taking Clover in stead of Venus because there will be an intact male there. I have to pull some jumps out tomorrow and make sure Clover remembers what I expect from her.
Brandy
Monday, November 12, 2007
Venus is in season :(
Of course as my luck would have it Venus came in season today. This really messes up a bunch of things I had planned for us.
Our lesson tonight was canceled so I asked Beth (our regular instructor) if we could come work the broad jump to get ready for the trial this weekend anyways. We got to go do that so she has seen a real broad jump now, yay! She did very well with it and didn't seem to have a problem. She did very nice on all the other obstacles this evening also. She held her dog walk contacts and hit them on the eay up, very nice a-frame, weaves went well with just a little entry problem, and the teeter was nice.
It was very nice to prepare us for this weekend, and then to find out for sure Venus is in season. I am so bummed that we have to pull from the trial this weekend as we were really looking forward to it. I didn't even enter Clover in conformation so I could focus on agility with Venus plus Clo was blowing coat.
Our lesson with Rhonda has been moved to Monday and Venus should be able to do that one. Next Friday we have the workshop and I don't think Venus can do that so I will take Clover instead. The problem with taking Clover is that I'm not really running her anymore. I can't work specific issues between Venus and I if I have Clover there but it's better than not doing it at all. I will plan on taking notes on the courses we run so that way I can work them at home with Venus.
It looks like our next AKC trial won't be until late January and I'm not sure if I can get the time off work or if I want to go to the mountains in January. I don't do well with snow.
Just because I have no good agility videos to share I'll post this one. It shows how much hair has come off of Clover.
Brandy
Our lesson tonight was canceled so I asked Beth (our regular instructor) if we could come work the broad jump to get ready for the trial this weekend anyways. We got to go do that so she has seen a real broad jump now, yay! She did very well with it and didn't seem to have a problem. She did very nice on all the other obstacles this evening also. She held her dog walk contacts and hit them on the eay up, very nice a-frame, weaves went well with just a little entry problem, and the teeter was nice.
It was very nice to prepare us for this weekend, and then to find out for sure Venus is in season. I am so bummed that we have to pull from the trial this weekend as we were really looking forward to it. I didn't even enter Clover in conformation so I could focus on agility with Venus plus Clo was blowing coat.
Our lesson with Rhonda has been moved to Monday and Venus should be able to do that one. Next Friday we have the workshop and I don't think Venus can do that so I will take Clover instead. The problem with taking Clover is that I'm not really running her anymore. I can't work specific issues between Venus and I if I have Clover there but it's better than not doing it at all. I will plan on taking notes on the courses we run so that way I can work them at home with Venus.
It looks like our next AKC trial won't be until late January and I'm not sure if I can get the time off work or if I want to go to the mountains in January. I don't do well with snow.
Just because I have no good agility videos to share I'll post this one. It shows how much hair has come off of Clover.
Brandy
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Lesson on Monday
I have been wondering hwen I would have time to train Venus away from home again before next weekends trial. I had forgotten we have a lesson on Monday so I will hopefully work some stuff out there. Venus and I take a monthly private lesson with Rhonda Carter and we are going to a 3 hour workshop of hers the following week.
So here's my list of things to work on:
1) Venus not cutting me off, if she isn't sure where to go next she zips in front of me and jumps up. She almost tripped me at the trial several times.
2) Me giving commands earlier than what I have been
3) Me actually using commands that I know she knows, I tend to forget and give her less commands that have broader meanings
4) Weave entries when she's excited
I am going to move my weave poles along with a jump and tunnel into the front yard. We've never trained out there so I think it's a good place for her to work on focusing and she should be excited enough to go fast. I'll set that up tonight or tomorrow at lunch and get a video.
Brandy
So here's my list of things to work on:
1) Venus not cutting me off, if she isn't sure where to go next she zips in front of me and jumps up. She almost tripped me at the trial several times.
2) Me giving commands earlier than what I have been
3) Me actually using commands that I know she knows, I tend to forget and give her less commands that have broader meanings
4) Weave entries when she's excited
I am going to move my weave poles along with a jump and tunnel into the front yard. We've never trained out there so I think it's a good place for her to work on focusing and she should be excited enough to go fast. I'll set that up tonight or tomorrow at lunch and get a video.
Brandy
Monday, November 5, 2007
Leaps & Bounds NADAC Trial
The trial didn't go as well as I had hoped but I did see some things we need to work on. We got there about 7:30am and it was chilly outside. By the time I got Venus out of the van she was hyped and leaping all over the place. I worked her some on the warm up jump and weaves and she was great. Venus and Clover were both in the Novice Proficient 20+ class.
Novice Jumpers:
We started off with about two good jumps. Venus then spotted the ring crew and this is one downfall of having a very friendly dog. She bolted over to go visit but quickly found that the person was no fun and wouldn't pet her. She came flying back to me and tried to jump on me. There was one more jump to get her over and then a nice serpentine of two jumps and the tunnel. Venus loves serpentines so I thought it would go well. She took the first jump of the serpenting, spotted the tunnel and then shot through it. I got her back around and over the jump to the tunnel. She did the next jump and then cut too close to me and missed the next jump. I got her back over it and then the rest of the course was nice.
Novice Regular:
When I brought her to the start line she was focused on a shirt someone had hung on the fence. She did listen to me even though she stared at the shirt over the first jump and heading to the dogwalk. Since she was moving a little slow she did hit the up contact but I would have liked to see her full speed to see if she remembered to hit it or not. She held her bottom contact ok. She came a little further off than I would have liked but she was holding the position and I'll give her the benefit since she's never seen a dog walk without slats before.
She did the distance on the jumps very nice. NADAC requires some distance on their regular courses. She saw another jump straight ahead and was heading towards it but I did get her to turn to where the next jump was instead. Unfortunately the turn was tight and she knocked the bar on that jump. She did nicely and didn't go into the offcourse tunnel, many dogs went into that tunnel. She did a little turn in front of me and almost tripped me but we'll work on that. She did good until the weaves, I am pretty sure that I didn't give the command early enough and she didn't see the weaves. The rest of the run was nice and I loved her a-frame.
Despite the knocked bar she ended up with 1st place!
Novice Weavers:
I didn't get a video of this course but it had good points and bad points. I was able to call her off of all the traps that were out there. She came very close to going in a wrong tunnel at one point but she turned and came back. The weaves were disappointing. She didn't get the entry on her weaves any time we ran that course. There were 3 sets of weaves and two she just kinda ignored and ran past and the third she got the entry but went past the 2nd pole and came back after the 3rd pole. She went over time on that course. Venus earned another 1st place on that run though.
Novice Tunnelers:
Clover ran first of the two on this course. She was such a bad dog! I can't even explain what all she did. She did the first 2 or 3 tunnelers and then was just kinda messing around the rest of the course. She had a good time though and that's what is important. I don't have a video of that run, too bad because it would have gone along great with agility laughs. Since Venus and Clover's runs were so close I told my mom to not worry about videoing and to just hide with Venus. I knew if Venus saw me running Clover she would scream and maybe make things worse.
Venus' run was nice. She took no off course tunnels and made time whoo!! After her weavers course she realized there were times I didn't want her to go straight to the next tunnel. Because of that if she could see more than one tunnel she would check back with me on which one I wanted her in. I'll work her some more on reading cues and going on without me. Venus got her first Q and came in 3rd in her class.
Overall I was happy with the day. I was only disappointed in Clover because she is better than that she just decides to be silly sometimes. Venus was trying for me, she is young and doesn't get this whole routine yet. She had a good time though and I think she really wants to do exactly what I want her to. We'll get there as we learn more together. With the time change it is going to make it harder to train. I will probably work her during my lunch breaks.
This weekend I have a conformation show with Bacchus and Clover and then the following weekend Venus is entered in a 3 day AKC trial.
Here's the video of Venus' runs from this weekend. Yes, I know I need a better camera for this and I'm working on figuring out what kind. Suggestions are welcome if you know of a good camera for videoing agility somewhere around $200 or less?
Brandy
Novice Jumpers:
We started off with about two good jumps. Venus then spotted the ring crew and this is one downfall of having a very friendly dog. She bolted over to go visit but quickly found that the person was no fun and wouldn't pet her. She came flying back to me and tried to jump on me. There was one more jump to get her over and then a nice serpentine of two jumps and the tunnel. Venus loves serpentines so I thought it would go well. She took the first jump of the serpenting, spotted the tunnel and then shot through it. I got her back around and over the jump to the tunnel. She did the next jump and then cut too close to me and missed the next jump. I got her back over it and then the rest of the course was nice.
Novice Regular:
When I brought her to the start line she was focused on a shirt someone had hung on the fence. She did listen to me even though she stared at the shirt over the first jump and heading to the dogwalk. Since she was moving a little slow she did hit the up contact but I would have liked to see her full speed to see if she remembered to hit it or not. She held her bottom contact ok. She came a little further off than I would have liked but she was holding the position and I'll give her the benefit since she's never seen a dog walk without slats before.
She did the distance on the jumps very nice. NADAC requires some distance on their regular courses. She saw another jump straight ahead and was heading towards it but I did get her to turn to where the next jump was instead. Unfortunately the turn was tight and she knocked the bar on that jump. She did nicely and didn't go into the offcourse tunnel, many dogs went into that tunnel. She did a little turn in front of me and almost tripped me but we'll work on that. She did good until the weaves, I am pretty sure that I didn't give the command early enough and she didn't see the weaves. The rest of the run was nice and I loved her a-frame.
Despite the knocked bar she ended up with 1st place!
Novice Weavers:
I didn't get a video of this course but it had good points and bad points. I was able to call her off of all the traps that were out there. She came very close to going in a wrong tunnel at one point but she turned and came back. The weaves were disappointing. She didn't get the entry on her weaves any time we ran that course. There were 3 sets of weaves and two she just kinda ignored and ran past and the third she got the entry but went past the 2nd pole and came back after the 3rd pole. She went over time on that course. Venus earned another 1st place on that run though.
Novice Tunnelers:
Clover ran first of the two on this course. She was such a bad dog! I can't even explain what all she did. She did the first 2 or 3 tunnelers and then was just kinda messing around the rest of the course. She had a good time though and that's what is important. I don't have a video of that run, too bad because it would have gone along great with agility laughs. Since Venus and Clover's runs were so close I told my mom to not worry about videoing and to just hide with Venus. I knew if Venus saw me running Clover she would scream and maybe make things worse.
Venus' run was nice. She took no off course tunnels and made time whoo!! After her weavers course she realized there were times I didn't want her to go straight to the next tunnel. Because of that if she could see more than one tunnel she would check back with me on which one I wanted her in. I'll work her some more on reading cues and going on without me. Venus got her first Q and came in 3rd in her class.
Overall I was happy with the day. I was only disappointed in Clover because she is better than that she just decides to be silly sometimes. Venus was trying for me, she is young and doesn't get this whole routine yet. She had a good time though and I think she really wants to do exactly what I want her to. We'll get there as we learn more together. With the time change it is going to make it harder to train. I will probably work her during my lunch breaks.
This weekend I have a conformation show with Bacchus and Clover and then the following weekend Venus is entered in a 3 day AKC trial.
Here's the video of Venus' runs from this weekend. Yes, I know I need a better camera for this and I'm working on figuring out what kind. Suggestions are welcome if you know of a good camera for videoing agility somewhere around $200 or less?
Brandy
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Distance
Today I worked Venus with some distance work. She did pretty well. I had a hard time releasing her from the dog walk but had I used "ok" which is her release work it might have gone better. I loved her doing the nice 2o2o at the bottom even though I was far away.
Weaves were pretty fast tonight most of the time. She was happy to do them which is always a plus. Clover hates the weaves and likes to avoid them I have have put in a lot of time with Venus and getting her to love the weaves.
After I got her to quit turning into me on the line of jumps before she did them all then we worked on when I did want her to turn away. It was a very tight turn to get her away from the tunnel at the end but she did it fine.
Venus has her very first NADAC trial this weekend. This will be her 2nd time ever competing in agility and she's only run one run before. This will be her first time at a trial doing contacts so we will see how it goes. She's entered in 4 novice runs: regular, jumpers, weavers, and tunnelers. I also have Clover entered in novice tunnelers.
And just for fun some Halloween pics of Bacchus! He is feeling left out.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Venus training Oct 29
I wanted to work Venus on some 270 degree turns today over jumps. That lead to working several things today. First with the 270s we worked her staying out to come around the jump and back to me. Then I switched it up for her sometimes calling her to me instead of sending her out. I have to really switch what I'm doing to get her to come back to me before taking the jump. When she was on my left I she naturally would tend to go out around the jump but on my right she would pull in more.
With the jumps set up like they were I decided to see where her "left" command was today and I was pleasantly surprised. I got her to turn left over the jump and take it with a hand cue also. After that I tried without the hand signal so I could be sure she was listening rather than just taking the cue. No problems there. I then switched it up some and would turn right or go straight so that I knew she was paying attention to where I wanted her instead of just assuming we were taking the left jump. Again, no problems. When Venus is thinking and doing well she will pick things up well and I use those times to really test what she's doing. As the final test I layered the jump on the right and told her to go left. Whoo she went and did it!
Then we worked serpentines and threadles. She's done serpentines before and she seems to really like them for whatever reason. We've never done the threadles before and my handling isn't very smooth on them. We eventually got through it though.
I noticed in the video from today that my hand is high in the air again. I still need to work a bit on that. She was a little slow today but that's not really a surprise at home. She's usually faster when we are new places; they are new and exciting.
With the jumps set up like they were I decided to see where her "left" command was today and I was pleasantly surprised. I got her to turn left over the jump and take it with a hand cue also. After that I tried without the hand signal so I could be sure she was listening rather than just taking the cue. No problems there. I then switched it up some and would turn right or go straight so that I knew she was paying attention to where I wanted her instead of just assuming we were taking the left jump. Again, no problems. When Venus is thinking and doing well she will pick things up well and I use those times to really test what she's doing. As the final test I layered the jump on the right and told her to go left. Whoo she went and did it!
Then we worked serpentines and threadles. She's done serpentines before and she seems to really like them for whatever reason. We've never done the threadles before and my handling isn't very smooth on them. We eventually got through it though.
I noticed in the video from today that my hand is high in the air again. I still need to work a bit on that. She was a little slow today but that's not really a surprise at home. She's usually faster when we are new places; they are new and exciting.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Venus' Story
Venus is a Clover daughter and is probably going to be my true agility dog. She's smart, fast, and fun! Most of my posts will be about our daily training, what goals and accomplishments we are working on, and what silly things she's decided to come up with.
Venus, who I also call Veni or Bean, is currently 19 months old and is showing some potential for doing some great things for me. She really seems to love agility and loves learning whatever new thing I might add to it.
She is also built to run agility and even when we aren't working she is doing crazy things like jumping the other dogs and various things that might get in her way of running full speed. She had a problem on the dog walk for a while, she would spread her rear wide when she ran full speed to pass the front legs through. That usually resulted in her falling off the dog walk. We have done a lot of work on that so that she doesn't fall anymore.
Things we are currently working on:
Weave pole speed- it is getting much much better
Hitting the up contact on the dog walk and teeter- she launches up onto these missing the contact
Distance- Venus has had a problem wanting to run right beside me so I am encouraging her to move away more and more
Venus has competed in one trial so far. It was at the Samoyed national when she was 17 months old. It was raining and she was so excited she was leaping on me outside the ring. I couldn't get her to focus enough to go over the warm up jump. I feared the worst for that run. She was only entered in jumpers because I didn't feel she was ready for standard yet.
She actually went in and did way better than I ever expected. I had entered her to support Sammy agility and for experience. She ended up with a 2nd place and time of 36 seconds.
Venus, who I also call Veni or Bean, is currently 19 months old and is showing some potential for doing some great things for me. She really seems to love agility and loves learning whatever new thing I might add to it.
She is also built to run agility and even when we aren't working she is doing crazy things like jumping the other dogs and various things that might get in her way of running full speed. She had a problem on the dog walk for a while, she would spread her rear wide when she ran full speed to pass the front legs through. That usually resulted in her falling off the dog walk. We have done a lot of work on that so that she doesn't fall anymore.
Things we are currently working on:
Weave pole speed- it is getting much much better
Hitting the up contact on the dog walk and teeter- she launches up onto these missing the contact
Distance- Venus has had a problem wanting to run right beside me so I am encouraging her to move away more and more
Venus has competed in one trial so far. It was at the Samoyed national when she was 17 months old. It was raining and she was so excited she was leaping on me outside the ring. I couldn't get her to focus enough to go over the warm up jump. I feared the worst for that run. She was only entered in jumpers because I didn't feel she was ready for standard yet.
She actually went in and did way better than I ever expected. I had entered her to support Sammy agility and for experience. She ended up with a 2nd place and time of 36 seconds.
Clover's story
In Dec of 2003 I got a new puppy, Clover, and she became my very first agility dog. After doing some training in the backyard with lots of help from a friend online I finally found a local class that fit well with us. I had just started the class but our National was coming up and I wanted to run her there. We did one day in Charlotte, NC in the fall of 05 and didn't Q either run. Her standard run was close but she didn't jump the entire broad jump. Not long after that was a one day trial at the national. Again we didn't Q either run but again one was very close with a knocked bar causing the NQ.
In January 2006 Clover went to WV to be bred. Between the pregnancy, motherhood, and raising puppies Clover and I took a long break from agility. We didn't do another trial until November of 2006 in Concord, NC. It went much better.
November 18, 2006
Novice Standard Preferred- 1st place 63.97 seconds
Novice Jumpers Preferred- 2nd place 42.18 seconds
November 19, 2006
Novice Standard Preferred- 1st place 68.72 seconds
Novice Jumpers Preferred- 1st place 41.51 seconds
Wow what a weekend that was! It was our very first Q ever and she did it all four runs. To make it even better she was competing in conformation that weekend and took a nice Best of Breed win one day and made a cut in the group. I was exhausted but she held together fairly well. Plus her kids picked up a few conformation points.
Our next trial wasn't until March of 2007 in Charlotte, NC.
March 10
Novice Standard Preferred- NQ- In a very rare performance she leaped off the dog walk missing her contact
Novice Jumpers Preferred- 1st place 45.18 seconds for her NJP!
March 11
Novice Standard Preferred- NQ- She slipped on the up side of the a-frame and came back down that side
Open Jumpers Preferred- NQ- I pushed her for speed while still having control. I got the speed and she tried to listen... We'll leave it at that :)
Somewhere during the summer we went and did a NADAC trial. We had a blast there and Clover Q'd 3 out of 4 runs. She was 1st in her tunnelers class and she loved running full speed there.
In September of 2007 it was time for the National again. All I asked Clover to do was to Q in her standard run to earn the title.
Spetember 11
Novice Standard Preferred- 2nd place 71.4 seconds for her NAP title!
Open Jumpers Preferred- NQ- She knocked the second bar because she was too busy looking at puppies outside the ring.
Novice FAST Preferred- NQ- We had the exact amount of points needed but she went around the last jump instead of over, causing us to go over time.
Because of the way Clover is built I haven't felt comfortable jumping her at 20 inches. When talking to people it seems to be split 50/50 on whether or not running agility would do her any damage so I'd rather be on the safe side. Clover is basically retired from agility at this point. She may come out for special shows and I'll let her play in tunnelers at NADAC trials. I might also use her at seminars until my next dog is ready enough for those. She likes agility ok and does it for me but she doesn't seem to love it most of the time. I don't think she'll mind the retirement as she has plenty of other things to do.
She has been a great dog to learn with and wonderful about letting me figure out what I need to do. She just goes with the flow and allows me to fumble through as I learn with her.
Brandy
Doubletake Samoyeds
In January 2006 Clover went to WV to be bred. Between the pregnancy, motherhood, and raising puppies Clover and I took a long break from agility. We didn't do another trial until November of 2006 in Concord, NC. It went much better.
November 18, 2006
Novice Standard Preferred- 1st place 63.97 seconds
Novice Jumpers Preferred- 2nd place 42.18 seconds
November 19, 2006
Novice Standard Preferred- 1st place 68.72 seconds
Novice Jumpers Preferred- 1st place 41.51 seconds
Wow what a weekend that was! It was our very first Q ever and she did it all four runs. To make it even better she was competing in conformation that weekend and took a nice Best of Breed win one day and made a cut in the group. I was exhausted but she held together fairly well. Plus her kids picked up a few conformation points.
Our next trial wasn't until March of 2007 in Charlotte, NC.
March 10
Novice Standard Preferred- NQ- In a very rare performance she leaped off the dog walk missing her contact
Novice Jumpers Preferred- 1st place 45.18 seconds for her NJP!
March 11
Novice Standard Preferred- NQ- She slipped on the up side of the a-frame and came back down that side
Open Jumpers Preferred- NQ- I pushed her for speed while still having control. I got the speed and she tried to listen... We'll leave it at that :)
Somewhere during the summer we went and did a NADAC trial. We had a blast there and Clover Q'd 3 out of 4 runs. She was 1st in her tunnelers class and she loved running full speed there.
In September of 2007 it was time for the National again. All I asked Clover to do was to Q in her standard run to earn the title.
Spetember 11
Novice Standard Preferred- 2nd place 71.4 seconds for her NAP title!
Open Jumpers Preferred- NQ- She knocked the second bar because she was too busy looking at puppies outside the ring.
Novice FAST Preferred- NQ- We had the exact amount of points needed but she went around the last jump instead of over, causing us to go over time.
Because of the way Clover is built I haven't felt comfortable jumping her at 20 inches. When talking to people it seems to be split 50/50 on whether or not running agility would do her any damage so I'd rather be on the safe side. Clover is basically retired from agility at this point. She may come out for special shows and I'll let her play in tunnelers at NADAC trials. I might also use her at seminars until my next dog is ready enough for those. She likes agility ok and does it for me but she doesn't seem to love it most of the time. I don't think she'll mind the retirement as she has plenty of other things to do.
She has been a great dog to learn with and wonderful about letting me figure out what I need to do. She just goes with the flow and allows me to fumble through as I learn with her.
Brandy
Doubletake Samoyeds
The First Post
I decided to call this blog agility laughs for several reason.
1) Agility should always be fun and if it isn't it's time for a break
2) I run a breed that is known for their smile, they also enjoy laughing at things
3) Those same dogs generally enjoy being laughed at so if they find something entertaining to do they will do it
So on to info about me and the dogs. My name is Brandy and I live in North Carolina. I have been involved in dogs my entire life (23 years) and have grown up training them. I started competing in conformation shows when I was 4 years old and it is still the dog event I'm most active in. I have found agility interesting for years but never really had the right dog to do it with. By the time I saw agility I had several old dogs and a young, stubborn, lazy one.
In 2005 I competed at my first agility trial. I have been getting more and more involved since then but I am still very novice.
I run Samoyeds and they keep it very interesting. I never really know what to expect from them at each trial but they are fun. I mostly do AKC but I have really enjoyed NADAC and won't hesitate to enter their trials.
The Dogs:
Clover- Am. Can. Ch. Wintersong's Lucky Charm NAP, NJP, HCT, CGC
Venus- Ch Doubletake's She's Got It
Bacchus- Doubletake's Mighty Fine Wine
Brandy
Doubletake Samoyeds
1) Agility should always be fun and if it isn't it's time for a break
2) I run a breed that is known for their smile, they also enjoy laughing at things
3) Those same dogs generally enjoy being laughed at so if they find something entertaining to do they will do it
So on to info about me and the dogs. My name is Brandy and I live in North Carolina. I have been involved in dogs my entire life (23 years) and have grown up training them. I started competing in conformation shows when I was 4 years old and it is still the dog event I'm most active in. I have found agility interesting for years but never really had the right dog to do it with. By the time I saw agility I had several old dogs and a young, stubborn, lazy one.
In 2005 I competed at my first agility trial. I have been getting more and more involved since then but I am still very novice.
I run Samoyeds and they keep it very interesting. I never really know what to expect from them at each trial but they are fun. I mostly do AKC but I have really enjoyed NADAC and won't hesitate to enter their trials.
The Dogs:
Clover- Am. Can. Ch. Wintersong's Lucky Charm NAP, NJP, HCT, CGC
Venus- Ch Doubletake's She's Got It
Bacchus- Doubletake's Mighty Fine Wine
Brandy
Doubletake Samoyeds
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