Agility Laughs

NADAC next weekend

2010-09-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

Found a NADAC trial that was still open by the time I found out I had the weekend off work! Lucky me! We're doing 12 runs next weekend and hopefully we'll bring home some new titles.

No agility?

2010-09-17T11:54:00.001-07:00

For planning on doing so much agility this year I haven't done hardly any. My boss decided to retire so I had to find a new job. Once there I didn't want to push for time off, then it was summer, and then Venus babies were old enough to show.

Venus did pick up a Q in starters gamblers at the Feb USDAA trial earning her AD. So far her puppies are doing well in the show ring. 3 of the 4 show puppies have earned points towards their championships. Two of those are taking some herding lessons already. I put Venus in a few conformation shows since the National is coming up and she hasn't shown in about 2 years. She showed wonderfully but I don't think she finds it near as much fun as agility.

I am hoping to do one trial in Oct before the National and then she'll get to do one day of AKC at the National.

Updates

2010-02-19T13:20:00.000-08:00

Venus and I have been working on the 2x2 weave method and so far so good. We are taking it slow to make sure she understands the entry and collection. Really this is the most important part for her since she knows how to weave once she's in them. Her problems are getting in the correct spot and then collecting to hit the next poles.

We are doing a USDAA trial on Sunday. I went ahead and entered her in 26" but we're only doing 3 runs. Hopefully she'll get her starters gamblers Q for her AD. Then she's also in Grand Prix and Advanced Standard.

CPA USDAA trial!

2010-01-22T10:53:00.000-08:00

The trial had a huge entry, they ended up adding a 3rd ring and judge. First thing that happened at the trial was Venus had to get measured. 21.5" :( After months off of agility she is jumping 26", 5 runs a day, for her first trial since July! What was I thinking lol. With only one bar on the warm up jump she kept going under it. I finally worked her at 22", then 24", then 26". It finally clicked with her that she was jumping 26".
Saturday Results:
Snooker- NQ- She knocked the bar on the first red and was over the 2nd jump so we got whistled off
Gamblers- NQ/3rd- She knocked the first bar again, all other bars stayed up, I really didn't give her any information on the gamble so she didn't do it
Standard- Q/2nd- I forgot where I was going after the a-frame so we had a bobble before the weaves
Pairs- Q/2nd- Nice easy pairs run
Steeplechase- NQ- I was a horrible handler! I told her to go up the a-frame, that was not where we were supposed to go.
Sunday Results:
Gamblers- NQ/3rd- Took an offcourse jump during the gamble
Standard- Q/1st- Nice run for us
Snooker- NQ- My anti-weave dog decided to cut through the weaves on the way to the next red
Grand Prix- NQ- Took a jump the wrong way
Jumpers- NQ- 1 bar down, otherwise great run
Monday Results:
Snooker- Q/1st- Yay snooker Q
Gamblers- NQ/2nd- Just couldn't get her to do the gamble in time
Standard- Q/2nd- Messy run but got it done for her SSA!
Jumpers- Q/1st- Wonderful jumpers run!

Just need a gamblers Q for her AD

We are back!

2010-01-01T16:46:00.000-08:00

All done with puppy stuff now so we are back. Venus did a show and go today and was a good girl. Very nice weaves, kept bars up, nice contacts. Not bad for being out of shape and having been off for 3 months.

Our first trial is USDAA Jan 9-11!

Link

2009-10-22T15:49:00.000-07:00

There's a link the the right under Agility Blogs section to the blog with Venus puppy updates. Please continue to look there until January most likely.

The USDAA trial

2009-09-09T21:55:00.001-07:00

We got no Qs all weekend, but that is because we didn't go. Venus came in season so no agility trials for her. What this really means though is no more trials until next year. She was bred this time so puppies are due late Oct and will go home the very end of the year. I'm going to keep in her as good of shape as possible so she's ready to go ASAP after the puppies leave, plus it will be easier on her for the whelping.
This blog probably won't have much else on it until next year. I may decide to do some Bacchus updates but right now he's just getting things figured out.
For puppy and Venus pregnancy updates go to http://doubletakesamoyeds.blogspot.com/

We will have a puppy cam!

We're going to go for it

2009-08-14T10:26:00.001-07:00

Looking around online and on the USDAA website I can't find any Samoyed that has an ADCH. So I think Venus and I are going to push for it. I just have to keep my fingers crossed that she will measure under 21".
With that in mind we have a USDAA trial coming up August 29 & 30th. We have 10 runs between 2 days so we'll see what happens.

Weaves are still up and down and if she is going to do them and do them correctly or not. :(

Today's weaves

2009-07-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

So I've come up with a plan on weave negatives and positives. We are working on both ends of the weaves here, entries and popping out.

1) No collection into the poles= lie down
2) Misses first pole and starts at 2nd= finish weaves with no encouragement & no reward
3) Entry good= "Yes! Go, go, go" to the end
4) Popping out of poles= lie down
5) No collection into pole 2 but continues at 3= no encourageent/reward
6) Perfect poles= "Yes, go, go, go" and big rewards at the end

I had a friend mention this and she may be onto something here, it makes sense that if Venus misses the entry etc, that if I pull her out of the poles it can increase our popping out issue. I also thing it makes her weave less independent and sh checks with me too often to make sure she is right. We will see if this seems to make a difference.

I finally got enough speed today to see the not collecting issue. It took until the 4th try for her to finally collect. We cross a big flat open field to get to the agility course. I left her in that field about 20 feet out from a jump. I called her over the jump and to the weaves and she had lots of speed. We'll try that again tomorrow.

The good and the bad

2009-07-14T10:25:00.001-07:00

We've been working weave poles. Not a whole lot to update on that. Some days feel better and others feel the same. I'm nt getting much drive at all when practicing at home so I know there is no improvement when she needs to collect into the poles.

Videos from Concord like I promised.
I do love the twitchy excited move at the startline, she is ready!

Concord- Good and Bad

2009-07-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

So we ended up with 1 Q out of 8 runs. Not a very good average but we had some very good runs.

We did get our last Open Standard Q! Venus now has her OA, yay. It took until Saturday to get it though. So here's a run down of our runs.

Thursday Open Standard- It looked like a tough course. Venus promptly NQd on the weave poles. We got to the A-frame which I knew was going to be a problem. It was A-frame and then the tunnel off to the right. Straight ahead of the a-frame was the off course table. Venus loves to suck to the table anyways. She decided she only needed to stride down the a-frame once and then leap off missing the yellow. She hit the ground and then leaped onto the table. We left the ring after that.

Thursday Ex JWW- Weave poles got us again. Other than that it was a nice clean run. I was very excited that Venus was running fast and listening. I planned a front cross but she ended up ahead of me so I had to rear cross the jump. I was afraid that would cause her to turn early and miss the jump further out. I had seen many dogs do that. After I crossed her head turned towards me and I said "out jump" and she headed for the far jump and took it! Yay Veni.

Friday Open Standard- Weave poles weave poles weave poles. Again. She did think about doing them though. She got in them and then stopped.

Friday Ex JWW- She was heading for the poles then stopped to wait on me. We also had a bar down but another nice fast run.

Sat Open Std- We Q'd by the skin of our teeth. She got her weave poles this time! he got a refusal at a tunnel, there was the table off to her left that she went towards and when I got her back she kinda spun at the tunnel. Then she got a table fault because she forgot to slow down while jumping on the table and slid off the other side. Her a-frame and teeter were close calls. She did end up with 1st place!

Sat Ex JWW- Weaves got us again. Otherwise it was a nice fast run. I sent her out away from me and she'd come close when I asked her to. I got lots of compliments on this run.

Sun Ex Std- By far one of our worst runs ever. We stayed at a hotel since Wednesday night. She didn't get much run or play time since I didn't have any other dogs with me. By day 4 of the trial she exploded mentally. At the warm up jump she was barking her head off and paying no attention to my movements. In the ring she ended up flying off the teeter, almost sliding off the table, not holding her dog walk contact, ignoring the weaves to take the more fun tunnel, skipping a few jumps, and knocking a bar. I almost took her out of the ring after the teeter fly off. I had her down and decided to keep going because she needed to run this out of her system. Best of all I have this run on tape!

Sun Ex JWW- Weaves and a bar again. Otherwise a nice run with her. I have this on tape.

Overall I am thrilled with our JWW runs. We have a weave pole problem to work on but other than that we're doing well. We've been nailing the complicated parts of the courses no problem. We've not have any refusals or wrong courses (except weaves) on any of the ex jumpers courses.

Confidence or Hormones?

2009-06-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

I am hoping Venus' new found speed is confidence and not caused by hormones. I think Clover is coming in season and Venus might be reacting to that.

Here's some changes Venus and I are working on. I am talking less while running her. In a straight line I am expecting her to take the obstacles in front of her unless I say otherwise.
Only doing crosses when there is a turn. Before I have put crosses where they were convinent for me. Now I am trying to plan them when a turn is the next 1-2 obstacles away. We'll see if we can get adjusted to this and work as a good fast team.

A Whole New Venus!

2009-06-23T16:02:00.001-07:00

Ok so I have been taking some lessons with Lynne Stephens and Karen Mielke at Dog Logic. Some of the things we have been doing there have helped Venus with her confidence I think. She is now very hyped up and running fast courses. The downside is that I have to relearn how to handle this dog but it will only be a temporary thing.

I have decided that she might not get her last open leg at the Concord trial because of this. My goal is to have a happy fast but controlled dog. I will require her to keep bars up, hit her contacts, and complete all weave poles. Other than that she might run by a jump or take an off course and we will just keep going. I am going to try to plan to handle her like a fast dog that needs a bit more direction than I usually do with her.
Normally a slight turn of my body will pull Venus with me in a split second but now it is taking more than that.

Concord will be 4 days, July 2-5. Venus is in Ex A JWW and Open Std. We'll see wat happens.

First USDAA trial

2009-05-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

So we finally went for it, entered our first USDAA trial. It is 2 months since Venus was last in season which usually means she is hormonal and super velcro dog right now. Because of that I didn't enter pairs (didn't want to cost someone else a Q) and gamblers (no going to upset the velcro dog).

My plan was blown away when I didn't have velco dog and instead I had a kinda distance dog, distance for Venus anyways.

Anyways the outcome for this weekend:
(Saturday)
PI Standard- Q 3rd place
PI Jumpers- Q 2nd place
PI Snooker- NQ (down bar)
Performance Speed Jumping- Qualified for round 2 with a 3rd place

(Sunday)
PI Standard- Q 1st place
PI Jumpers- Q 1st place
PI Snooker- Q 1st place
Performance Spped Jumping round 2- 2nd place!

I'm thrilled with our runs and she had some nice times. Sunday she was less than 5 seconds off the fastest 2 dogs and in standard less than 1 second between her and the fastest dog. Both days she was around 20 seconds under SCT in standard and 9 in Jumpers. Go Bean Go!

Left & Right

2009-04-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

We made huge progress on left and right last night.Venus has known left and right spins for a while but I haven't added them onto a course. I have tried in the past working left and right over a jump with maybe 50% sucess. I think she is mostly guessing. I would sit in a chair to give no body cues and send her right or left over the jump.

Last night I tried something different. I sent her jump right. Once she did that correctly she easily repeated. I then stood beside the jump with it to my right. She had to come towards me and the jump but I wanted her to turn right over the jump so she had to turn away from me. That took a while but she eventually would come, jump, spin right.

Next I went pastthe jump about to the middle and called her to come jump and turn right. She picked that up fairly quickly. Again it was a right spin rather than turn but that is fine.

Finally in that same position I gave come jump..... right jump. Tada! You could see the lightbulb come on when she saw the 2nd jump to her right. She finally understood the point of the whole thing. We repeated that several times. Then I gave the command come jump and waited to see if she would take the jump off to the right without the command because of habit. Nope, jumped and straight to me. Yippee!

We repeated all those steps with left and it went much faster. There was a serpentine type set up with a 4th jump out there. I used this to practice left and right. I'd send her over a jump give a left or right so she'd turn that way and take the next jump and I'd give another left or right. She nailed it probably 80% jumping away and towards me.

Off topic but a fun note I showed Flirt this past weekend. She's not finished yet and was in the 12-18 month class. Took Best of Breed both days and picked up a Group 3 & 4! Yay for the puppy!

A Very Long Time

2009-03-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a long time but haven't really done much either. I will try and go through everything that has gone on.
First up is Bacchus' agility video from Concord, please laugh and enjoy.

In December we had a conformation show. Bacchus picked up the last single point he needed so we are just hunting majors now. Flirt was winners 2 of the 3 days so that was nice. Clover took Best of Breed and got a group 4 on Friday. She was also Best of Opposite on Saturday. Venus was compared against Clover both of those days so that was fun.

We also did a show and go mostly to work on Bacchus' jumping, barking, biting clothing issue. Well of course he did none of that at the show and go. Venus ran well though. People were impressed by the amount of drive my Sams have. Lol!

Venus had a strange lump on her head and we had a big scare that it was a mast cell tumor. She's been seeing a range of vets and as of right now it is nothing, just a hyper reaction to a bite or injury. She's been seen by my regular vet, an internal medicine specialist, a specialized surgeon, and an opthalmologist. We do a punch biopsy this week to be sure it really is nothing.

Jenn came down this weekend and we went to watch all 3 days at the AKC National Agility Championship. Wow what a blast that was. It was great to see Ronda and Pyro do some of their runs. They won the 16" Std class with a beautiful run. They were so close in the challengers round coming in 2nd. It really made me miss competing with Venus. She is going out of season so I can do some trials without worrying about that. There is a trial coming up soon but it is full except for Friday which is Exc only. I might just enter JWW and go play for a few hours that day.
I have some videos to put up late of Venus running with Jenn. Finally got a vid of her dog walk that is so pretty right now!
Brandy

Lots of Updates- Greensboro & Concord

2008-11-17T08:31:00.000-08:00

Greensboro-
We only showed Clover on Saturday and she had a very nice Best of Breed win. Sunday we also have Bacchus and Flirt. They were winners dog and winners bitch and both earned a point.

Concord-
What a day Friday was. First we have Open JWW for Venus. She had a beautiful run! 9 seconds under course time, no faults. So she was 3rd place got a Q and earned her OAJ title!!! Whoo!
It is looking like a big conflict between conformation and breed so I move Venus to run first in Open Std. We have an ok run, 1 refusal at the weaves and 1 offcourse since she couldn't resist a dog walk until she was on it lol. Ended up with a Q though and a horrible time of 1 sec under SCT. Something didnt work right with the timers and they asked if I wanted to run again for time. Since I was in a hurry for conformation anyways I said no ad went to go show. Somewhere between Venus' two runs Bacchus attempted his run which consisted of do 2 obstacles and then jump on me.
Bacchus goes in and is Winners Dog but he was the only one. Flirt took Winners Bitch for 1 pt. Then we go in for breed and the judge can't take his eyes off of Bacchus. He ends up giving Bacchus Best of Breed over some very nice specials! Clover took Best of Opposite to him. He also made a cut in a very nice group.
Saturday we only had Flirt in conformation and nothing for her that day. Bacchus put on an entertaining performance in agility again. Venus pooped in the ring in Ex JWW! Our first time ever in Ex and she poops! I was so embarassed. I had just walked her but she was being stupid about the grass being wet. I don't really remember what happened in Std as far as why we didn't Q. It was a fairly nice run and I know there was a refusal at the weaves. I'm pretty sure it was another refusal somewhere.
Sunday we had Bacchus, Clover, and Flirt all in breed again. Flirt lost. :( Bacchus was Winners Dog and Best of Winners for another point. Nothing for Clover. Venus was very very slow on Sunday. I'm not sue what was going on, maybe she was just very tired. She had a pretty run in Ex JWW with 1 refusal on weaves. Other than that a clean run so I am thrilled with that. In Open Std 2 refusals but neither of them on weave poles! She did those right the first time.

Overall a very good 2 weekends. We hae a lesson with Ronda tonight so I might have another update tomorrow. There was someone videoing at the trail so I will post those videos when I get them.

NADAC Trial

2008-11-10T07:08:00.000-08:00

This trial was very interesting. Bacchus was wild and crazy and Venus was weird and hormonal.
Nov Weavers-
Bacchus- He was very wild and never did a set of weave poles correctly. He'd do a tunnel and then run around crazy and come back and do the next tunnel. I did tell him sit at one point so I could get him to settle and he actually did sit so that was good.
Venus- She had an idiot owner in this run. I forgot the NADAC rule about no collars so we had to quit the run.

Nov Jumpers (Sat)-
Bacchus- Wild and crazy again but he put a good effort into it. Knocked a bar and came back over a jump the wrong way.
Venus- She knocked a bar so I had her down and we left the run.

Nov Jumpers (Sun)-
Bacchus- He had me very worried about this run. He left the warm up jump when we were working that and went to visit people. He was erxtremely hyped so I had no clue what would happen in the ring. He was on the verge of out of control the whole time but did well. He did a nice call off on a tunnel and was trying to listen. As we got close to the end he leaped on my play growling and being wild. I got him to quit that and we finished up the course. He was entertaining.
Venus- She looked to me like she slipped after a tunnel and couldn't get her fet right to jump so she knocked the bar. I was going to let it go but she was so upset that she totally shut down.

Nov Chances-
Venus- Still upset from the previous run she was off in her own little world here.

Nov Reg 1 & 2-
Regular 1 Venus Qd and got her title! She was doing a little bit better dealing wth the hormones and had a nice run. Regulr 2 I didn't care abut I just wanted her to stay happy. Itwas very messy but she did ok.

Nov Touch N Go-
Another Q for Venus! She seemed much happier during his run.

Tunnelers-
Venus did well but we had a collision with each other and then she missed the last tunnel. I did get her in it but we were over time so no Q. There were a lot of dogs missing that last tunnel.
Bacchus washyped outside the ring watching tunnelers. Once we were in the ring he did good and would wait to find out which tunnel I wanted him in. He's understanding that the point of this game to go do the things I want and I think he likes that fact that there are some tricks out there with offcourse obstacles. He ended up with his first Tunnelers Q.

I am crazy!!

2008-10-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

We have a show coming up later in November and I must be insane. It's a 3 day show with agility and conformation. So here is the schedule:
Friday & Sunday
Conformation- Flirt, Bacchus, Clover
Agiity- Bacchus (1 run), Venus (2 runs)
Saturday
Conformation- Flirt
Agility- Bacchus (1 run), Venus (2 runs)

Flirt will be the most important thing since she's a paying clinet dog rather than one of my spend your money dogs lol. Hopefully I won't overly stress myself. And yes I know those that know me are saying yeah right about that.

This weekend is the NADAC trial. I hope that when I get off work at 12 that I can make it over to the trial in time for Bacchus and Venus' runs. Hopefully I can find someone to video all of the craziness. 8 runs on Sunday! I don't think I'm ready.
Brandy

Last National Report and Veni video

2008-10-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

The rest of te National was ok. Bacchus got 4th in his weight pul class. Flirt was 4th in her Sweepstakes class and 2nd in her regular class. I also made the cut in breed with Ana, a friend's special.

I've been working weaves with Venus again trying to get the speed back.

Our next trial is a NADAC trial Nov 1 & 2. Bacchus and Venus are both doing Jumpers and Weavers on Saturday. Sunday Bach is doing Jumpers and Tunnelers, Venus is in Jumpers, Chances, Tunnelers, 2 rounds of Regular, and Touch and Go.

Samoyed National- Tuesday

2008-10-09T19:34:00.001-07:00

Ok so I had a lot going on that day at the National. Flirt (client puppy) had Futurity. Venus and Bacchus had agility runs. I got my friend Donna of Wintersong Samoyeds to show Flirt for me. It was Flirt's first time in the ring and they did great together/ Flirt was 3rd in a class of 14.
Venus' first agility run was Open Standard. She was hyped up (barking while doing the warm upjump) and I was concerned about her keeping bars up or not. She did 2 jumps and went wide and missed the 3rd. Then we had 2 refusals at the weaves and she never did do them correctly. Her table performance was interesting, she kinda slid onto the table. Her contacts were wonderful. The teeter was fine, the a-frame was nice, and the dogwalk was beautiful. Overall I was very happy with the run as a whole. Then we had our JWW run and again nice but some problems. I was able to leave her at a tunnel and run and she blasted out of there.
Next up was Bacchus' first ever run. I was very nervous about what kind of craziness he might decide to do. He stayed calm and ran well. He was slow and very distracted. I'm not really surprised since he hasn't really done agility anywhere away from home. He had one refusal that was my fault for confusing hm. Weaves took a little bit to get started because of the distractions. He got his first Q and a 1st place.
Then we had FAST which was the first time for Bacchus and Venus. Venus did a wonderful job and had a nice run for her first Q in FAST. Bach's run was random and sporadic lol. I was avoiding contacts, wanted him to do weaves, and he had never seen a chute which was part of the send.

Lengthy National Updates- Herding

2008-10-06T17:14:00.000-07:00

Ok so I will start with Monday and go from there with results and thoughts etc.

Monday- Herding
This was one of the worst things I have seen in a long time. The sheep were flighty and heavy at the same time. The first JHD run there was an opening in the fence and the sheep could wedge themselves behind a gas tank and you could't get them out. The sheep didn't want to be near people or dogs. One dog pulled from th morning JHD run based on how the sheep acted the day before. The other two dogs in the morning struggled and both were backed down a little by the sheep. Neither dog gave up though and they did a great job trying to move the sheep.
So my first run was Venus' 1st leg of her HCT. We made it through and she passed.

Next was Bacchus' 2nd leg of his HCT. He passed and earned his HCT.

Then it was time for Bacchus to attempt the JHD course. One of the 2 dogs from the morning ended up deciding to do HCT instead of JHD. The other dog started ff well but then was limping. I probably caused most of our problems in his JHD run but it was tough.

The blue is where the sheep came in the fence. We had a big problem navigating that area. The pink X nar that is where the sheep would often get "stuck". They would turn andstare at Bacchus but he seems to have enough power that they won't do anything more to scare him. I could send him along the fence there and get the sheep moved. We did ok with the bottom left panel (green square) when looking at the picture. We had real big problems at th 2nd pink X. Bacchus is the greenish arrow and the shep are the grey. To get them out of that cornerI sent him against the fence. Once the sheep moved they took off bac to the pen where they started and I would have to start over. If I sent Bacchus in the other way they would just bolt back the direction we had come from and be back at the pen again. We'd start over and work out of that first corner and get stuck again at the 2nd corner. We did manage to get the 2nd panel (green square on bottom right) somehow. I think it was pure luck. I couldn't figure out how to get the sheep off the fences and into the center panel. We ran out of time. :(
Bacchus was the only dog to make it through 2 panels that day so that was really good. I didn't get video on my camera but someone else did. Once I get that I will post it.
Venus then had her run fo her 2nd leg of the HCT. By this point the sheep were irritated and were refusing to move for many of the dogs. They would charge the dogs and refuse to move. When the Border Collies came in to change stock they had to grip the sheep multiple times to make them move. Venus was doing well until she got charged and hit by a sheep.

That night her foot was a little bit swollen but it was fine by the next day.

National Updates

2008-10-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy week so far. Quick update- Bacchus got his HCT and 1st leg of his NAJ. Venus got the first leg of her NF. Flirt took 3rd in Futurity and 4th in Sweeps!
Lots of things to talk about after I get home.

Happy Birthday Clover!

2008-09-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

The first night I saw Clover

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY CLOVER!!!

Clover is an amazingly special dog and I will never have another like her. She was MY first dog. My others were never actually registered in my name. I will never again have a champion at 7 months old. I will probably never again have a 2 time National Specialty Award of Merit Winner. She was my first ever agility dog.
Clover is the easiest dog I have ever lived with. She learns easily and wants to please. She tries her hardest to never be a "bad dog". She is the mother of my first actual litter.

Clover is a lovely girl and very sweet. She never causes trouble with any other dogs. Clover is a once in lifetime dog that we have been so blessed to live with.
Brandy

Ugh... A-frames! & Rio

2008-09-22T06:03:00.000-07:00

I am still trying to figure out what to do about Venus' aframe. I'm just not finding anything so far that works well without some degree of injury (leaping when she's hyped up, slamming her front, or jamming toes!)

It's looking a bit crazy for my agility day at the National. Thy are doing Ex Std starting at 8am. After that is Ex JWW. There are a total of 42 runs between those 2 classes. Next will be Open Std which Venus is in. Flirt (client dog) is at 9am after 6 dogs, then there are 15 in her class. Pretty much I need 9-10 am to focus on Flirt and that looks like when Venus will be running. Of course. I have someone to cover Flirt for me but I had really wanted to take her in for her first time.

I can't believe I leave on Saturday and I have NOTHING done! My list today is mow the grass, do lots of laundry, gather show clothes, wash dogs, plus i have to go to work.
2 people I am staying with have laptops they are brining, I think. Hopefully I will have internet access and can update this blog. I may use it for results too so it might be non-agility for a while.

Ok one of my all time favorite Shelties is going to be in his first agility trial Oct 4th and 5th. Rio is one of Jenn's dogs and he's just adorable. Hehe before we went to Canada Jenn had to go to work or school one morning. After she left we decided to go back to sleep. Rio cae and took a nap with me. He's jut that sweet cuddly kind of dog. He is nervous about things sometimes and it is a huge deal that he has made it far enough that he is ging to be in an agility trial! I hope there is video!
Brandy

Todays practice

2008-09-18T16:25:00.001-07:00

I took Venus out today to work on contactsd and motivation. It was a wonderful training session! I took a target for Venus and worked a little on driving to the target. I kept food on the contact the whole time so it was all her rewarding herself. I wasn't worried about her rewarding something bad because if she jumped off too high she would land past the food and I could get it then before she could. She thought that was a fun game. I put it at the end of the a-frame and got beautiful contacts from her. She was doing a 2o2o most of the time and driving to it rather than trotting down to it. Then I tried the dog walk. First time was a little slow but then she started running quickly up and across and only a little slow down on the down side.
I then decided to try it with the weaves. The first time was about her normal speed but the 2nd time she flew through the weaves to get to it. We even started back away from the weave poles and she drove to them, hit the entry, and blasted through them all. Yay Venus!
Brandy

Crazy Venus!

2008-09-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

Venus has been very hyped up the last few weeks. The weather has been awful lately. It is either extremely hot and humid or raining. Neither of which work to go tire her out.
Saturday I took Venus and Bacchus herding. We went through exactly what we needed to do for the HCT and JHD at the national. I was still very nervous about it. Both dogs did fairly well, it was mostly me having the problems. On Sunday we went herding again. This time in a different location and totally different sheep. It went well and we were able to use it like the trial. I think both dogs and I will be fine at the national. Bacchus held his stays amazingly well.

Today I took them both out to do agility. I had my mom come along to help with distractions. It was the perfect night to work on this. The woman who owns the equipment had her dogs out in their fenced yard. There is another fence that backs up to the field and those dogs were out and barking. My mom was standing around playing with Venus. It was a big test for Bacchus but he did extremely well. This worked for Venus some too because she got even more hyped up when she saw me working Bacchus. She did pretty well but several misses on the a-frame. She also had one crazy a-frame performance. She ran up, did a huge jump over the top and landed in the yellow. *sigh* I was glad to see the ethusiasm tonight though.
Brandy

Not much going on

2008-09-04T09:15:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates this last month. We really haven't been doing much. It's just so hot outside that I haven't been training anybody.
We may be doing a show and go this weekend but it just depends on my schedule and the hurricane! It is scheduled from 9-1 on Saturday. Of course I work 9-12 and it is about a 30 minute drive to the site. Hmmm, by the time I get there I will have to squeeze everything into 30 minutes during a very hot part of the day! I'd like to take Bacchus and try him at a semi-trial like situation before the Sammy National. This is all assuming that Hurrican Hanna doesn't rain on it too bad to cancel. It'd be good for me though if they reschedule for Sunday.
We haven't had a lesson with Ronda in a long long time. I thin the next one is Oct 6th which will be the day I get back from Kansas so I won't be going to that. For those that are interested here's our preliminary schedule for the National:

Saturday September 27th- Leave NC and head out for the National. We'll stop somewhere and stay when we get tired.
Sunday Sept 28th- We continue along and arrive in Cameron, MO for herding on Monday.
Monday Sept 29th- Bacchus tries for his 2nd leg of his HCT and 1st leg of his JHD. Venus will try for both legs of her HCT. Then we head over to Topeka, KS and get unloaded and set up for the show. That night is novice weight pull which I might put Venus in.
Tueday Sept 30th- Agility for Venus and Bacchus. Venus will be in Open standard and JWW and Novice FAST. Bacchus will be in Novice JWW and Novice FAST. Then weight pull competition for Bacchus.
Wednesday Oct 1st- Relax! As of right now we aren't doing anything that day.
Thursday Oct 2nd- Dog class judging for Bacchus.
Friday Oct 3rd- Another day of relaxing and watching for my group.
Saturday Oct 4th- Best of Breed competition for my naked Venus.
Sunday Oct 5th-6th- Drive home and rest.
If I end up with a little more space I will be taking a puppy to show which will add showing her on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Nothing like a dog crazy week!

Here's a couple of recent videos since my last post. The first is just a little practice I did with Bacchus. I really need to quit procrastinating and start training him a 2o2o. I tried to keep him slow and calm on the weave poles. I am really afraid he is going to break one.

This next video is Venus' cool new trick. I've always wanted a dog that would do this.

Recent training

2008-07-23T19:12:00.000-07:00

I have mostly been working Venus on her a-frame. Here is the first video of just seeing what her aframe is like when I run and do crosses. This run is what I do while training her. This is her natural aframe performance.

This next video is a little of Bacchus. Look at him focusing with the dog barking! I am so pleased with the focus I got from him that night. His first trial will be in September at the Samoyed National. We'll be doing JWW and FAST if they offer it. He doesn't know contacts yet. If we do FAST we will avoid the contacts and just run for experience.
The next part if working Venus on the aframe again. You will see her tail is down while working. She is nervous there sometimes because there are dogs in a fence that bark at her. At trials I generally don't relax and just run with her aframe like I do at practice. I figured since I can't seem to get that through my head maybe I can train her to my stupidity! First you will see me slowing/stopping. You may notice most of the runs are from the right to left side of the screen. That's because the woman who owns the equipment has a pvc square on one side. Since Venus understands that I wanted to see her aframe without that square involved. To get that on the down side we had to go right to left. The first run is the wrong direction and I think she responded to that box. 2nd and 3rd runs you will see she comes off high and to the side. 4th-6th runs are nice. She goes right to the end of the board.
Then I switched to leads outs at the aframe. The first one wasn't much of a lead out and it was a very nice run. That is her aframe that I love! The next one she came off high. Next 2 are good but one going the wrong way with that box.

We did one more training session with the aframe on another day. This time I worked bending over as she comes down. Thats another thing I tend to do at trials despite the fact I know it makes her jump instead of go down the contact. The first time she jumped off high. The next time was in the yellow but higher than I wanted. The rest were clean.

I'm going to try and video a game we play in the house tomorrow. It is a way to work agility in the house some without actually having obstacles in the house. It is how Venus has learned some things like "go around". I was shocked at how well she understood it at a jump when I had never used it that way before.
Brandy

Concord Weekend

2008-07-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

Lots of good, lots of ugly, and some bad. Out of 8 runs Venus Qd in 2 and had to leave the ring early in 3.
Froday- We started with a standard run. I made a mess out of that run. Venus refused her weaves on the first try. Then I turned to the table too soon and Venus turned with me instead of taking the jump. After the table I tried to get her into a better angle for the chute. I turned her too late so she missed it. Then she didn't hold her dog walk contact again, so she had to lie down and leave. In JWW she refused the weaves the first time. Then at a serpentine I didn't make it clear enough which jump I wanted her to take so she came back to me to see. I had an accidental blind cross too. I find myself getting in her way a lot on front crosses. When I did it I knew she was going to land behind me. The only thing to do was to stick out my hand and hope she read it. She did. It was a very nice run on a tricky course.

Saturday- Just beofre leaving on Friday I was talking with some people and we were dicussing liking running a particular dog over another. On the way to the show Saturday morning I started thinking about that more. When I was running Clover I never would have picked an agility trial over a conformation trial. With Venus I will. Why do I enjoy running Venus so much more? I think it is the fact that she loves it and she loves to run. So it finally hit me, like everyone has been telling me. I have to quit trying to control every little thing and let her run fast. That was my goal for the rest of the weekend. It also meant I needed to trust her to do things a little better.
In standard it started off very nice. I called her while she was taking a jump and caused her to knock the bar. She hit her weaves wonderfully in this run, probably because I was more relaxed and letting her just run. I left her at the table. She was in a sit and I walked away to the next obstacle. Since it was the a-frame I thought she might miss the contact with the speed she was going to have since I left her. Add to the fact I tried to front cross there, yeah she missed it. I also got in her path a little and caused a refusal. She held her dog walk nicely though. She did her parts of that run very well and ran fast. She was so happy when we left the ring.
In JWW she was running good but knocked a bar. She also refused her weaves in there. I felt she should have kept that bar up so she had to lie down and leave.
Sunday- Because of the speed the day before she was hyped to run on Sunday morning. In typical hyped up Venus fasion she knocked the 2nd jump (4th obstacle). Plowed down the triple, she hit the bar with her chest which is what she usually does when she's not thinking. I attempted to get away with downing her and then continuing to run. It didn't work and we got whistled off the course. Oh well.
I started stressing that afternoon about our JWW run. I had finally gotten my mom to come watch us and all she saw that morning was Venus being bad. I wanted her to see us run and I just really wanted to run. This run was probably slower than I would have liked because I was nervous and careful. We talked about "bad bars" before going into the ring and I really didn't want to have to stop running the course because of that.
Venus held up her end of the run. She had another clean run, hit her weaves, and had no faults. She came in 2nd place to a very nice BC.
Brandy

First Open Jumpers Leg!

2008-07-03T18:32:00.001-07:00

Whoo Venus was on today! It started with a run jumpers course. It was a clean run and we got lots of nice comments on it. She did something funky at the weaves but I'm not sure what. Venus ended up with a score of 100 and 1st place out of a class of 14! Yay Venus!
Our standard run went very well except a few things. She didn't hold her dog walk contact. I was testing her with running on like I do in practice and she didn't hold. Since she's been kinda down lately and I was in shock I let it slide. That will probably come back to bite me. She did her weaves poles on the first try, another yay! When we got to the A-frame I got a little nervous about it and I leaned forward. (Newsflash for me- that doesn't help them go lower on the board and makes her more likely to jump off) She missed her contact on the a-frame. Other than that a very nice run.
A friend of mine videoed the jumpers run on her camera. Hopefully I can get a copy of that. Here's the standard video but I have to warn you the quality is bad on it. Some dog of mine slimed the lens and I haven't been able to get it off. Add that to the fact it's meant to take pics not video so it has bad quality anyways.
My favorite part is the nice turn from the tunnel to the dog walk.

Monday's lesson and trial tomorrow

2008-07-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

Monday's lesson went very well! I was so proud of Venus. She was back to her typical self. She ran very well, hit her weave entry every time and ran with nice tight turns.
She has my hopes up that she will be my lovely dog to run again this weekend. We have 4 days of trials and I'll be home each evening to post. I plan on getting video but I have to get batteries!
Brandy

Bad Blogger- Again!

2008-06-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

Ugh I haven't blogged in a while. I need to catch up with what all has been going on.
June 2- Lesson with Ronda
I had a slow unmotivated dog all night. It was hot but I don't think that's what her problem was. After she comes in season she seems to have a false pregnancy a few weeks later. She acts really odd, gaurding toys, won't play with the other dog, not very interested in food.
June 8- Sanford Trial
I had the same dog that I had at practice. It was a mess, and it just didn't go well. She was unfocused and just not with me. We weren't a team at all.
June 16- Another Lesson with Ronda
It started off with the slow boring dog. She came around a jump instead of jumping it and just looked bothered to be there. I pushed her through one course ok and it's like a switch flipped. Oh yeah, agility! I know how to do this!
The rest of the evening was much much better.
June 21- NADAC trial
Our first run was tunnelers. The one class that we could title in if it went well. I didn't warm her up at all. We just went in after watching Border Collies (her favorites to watch) and I got her revved up and let her go. It started off well until I fell after the 3rd tunnel. She was zipping around me considering diving on the ground to cuddle lol. The rest of the run was nice and she Qd!
The next run was Chances. She has been really clingy lately so I wasn't sure if she would be able to do the gamble or not. No problem, and she ran the course wonderfully.
The next runs were jumpers and regular. Qs in both of those runs. I was happy how both went and she was running nicely. I felt like I had my dog back.
Last was weavers. I didn't stay to see if she Qd or not but I think she came backwards out of a tunnel. It just didn't look right when I saw her heading for the last tunnel. She did 2 of the 3 sets of weave poles correctly on the first try. She ended up weaving 5 times and getting all but the one correct with one try. Yay Venus!
4 Qs out of 5 runs last night, I'm thrilled.
Brandy

Upcoming trials

2008-05-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

We had a lesson on Monday. Venus did very well especially considering she was in season and hasn't worked in a while. We had weave pole entry issues again. *sigh*

Upcoming Trials:
June 8th- AKC- Sanford, NC
June 21st- NADAC- Youngsville, NC
July 3-6- AKC- Concord, NC

Update on Bacchus:
OMG this dog is so cool. After 7 days of training the channel method he has amzing weaves. This was filmed on the 8th day. He even is letting me do rear crosses!

I've been slack!

2008-05-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while but there really hasn't been much going on. Venus was entered in a trial last weekend but she came in season. :(
I've been working Bacchus on his weave poles. Here's the latest video:

I'm entering trials tonight so I'll post in a few days what trials we're going to.

Perry, Ga trials

2008-04-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

So we went down to Perry, Ga for the agility trials and conformation shows. The conformation shows sucked for us all weekend. It was one of the worst weekends we've had in a long long time. Oh well.
With Venus being so brainless lately I thought I'd use these trials as training. Friday morning started early and Venus had to be measured. She ended up measuring 21 3/4 for her final measurement. I don't have to stress about that anymore.
Our first run was Open JWW and I knew it was going to be bad. It started at the warm up jump, Venus was barking as she was jumping. Then when I was walking her into the ring she was hopping on her hind legs to get to the start line. Venus jumped 2 jumps and then plowed through the third one. I downed her and we left the ring. She looked shocked that I had stopped the game so soon. Then we did down stays outside the ring, she wasn't happy.
That afternoon was our standard run. The run started off ok except Venus missed her a-frame contact. Since she doesn't have a command or specific behavior for it I let it go because she doesn't know anything different. All the more reason for me to quit being lazy and get my a-frame painted and together for her. We had a little problem at a tunnel under the dog walk. It was teeter to the further tunnel entrance. I don't think I rotated enough for her to see the tunnel entrance. The tunnel was u shaped under the middle of the dog walk. When I sent her to it she saw the dog walk. She gave me a weird look since it was a bad angle to get on the dog walk from but she tried it. I got her off the dog walk but she stepped on it again to get back to the side I was on and then into the tunnel. It was a sit on the table and that went well. No sliding off the other side! Then we got to the weaves. Venus weaved! She hit the entry and weaved 12 poles like she's never had a problem. Blew my mind completely.
Saturday we started with JWW again. It was a very nice run and I got to play with my handling a little bit. Again Venus hit her weave entry without a problem. She did pop out at the 10th pole but I started her again and she was fine. Next was a jump to the tunnel and then to another jump. Instead of running to and along the tunnel with her I stayed on the other side of the jumps. I sent her over the jump and to the tunnel and I stayed on the landing side of the next jump. It was beautiful but I tend to get excited about things like that and forget we still have more of the course to run. Luckily Venus picked up the next jump and we were back on track. I rear crossed the 2nd to the last jump and caused her to knock the bar. Ahh we were so close to that Q.
In standard we had teeter to the far end of the tunnel again. Venus headed straight for the wrong end of the tunnel after the teeter. I called her off but her head was already in the tunnel so I think we got a fault for that. She did come back though and I got her around to the other end of the tunnel. Of course by then she was thinking I was nuts, she was going in the tunnel, I called her away, and then sent her into the tunnel lol. Then we had issues at the dog walk to a tunnel. It was one of those where the tunnel went from beside the down side of the dog walk and came out on the other side. She had no clue what I was trying to get her to do after she went down the dog walk. She went back on the dog walk once and probably had a refusal there too. She hit her weaves again no problem and weaved all 12. The table was close since it was a down. She wobbled on the edge some but didn't fall off. It was a straight line to the finish and we were running and for whatever reason she didn't take the last jump. Since she had been so good otherwise (no missed contacts, good weaves and table, no bars) I didn't go back and make her do it. I just let her jump in my arms and be happy.
Sunday morning we started with our standard run. We had the same dog walk to tunnel thing again that day. We do the dog walk and into the tunnel and it went great. As we are running I start hearing a whistle. I look at the judge and hear her say just let her keep running. I had no clue what had happened and I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what we did wrong. We got to the weave poles and again Venus hit her entry and was weaving. Unfortunately she had to stop and sniff something so we got a refusal. I started the weaves over and she did fine. Another sit on the table that went well, then we finished up the course. OMG, we did it, our first open Q! I was so excited but nervous because what had the whistle been about?
The judge came over and it was because the e-timers had messed up. They told me I could take the time they had which was wrong or I could run it again. I was going to run again because I thought it would be good for Venus. They told me all I had to do was complete the course, bars, contacts, refusals, etc didn't count. The problem with the timers turned out to be that when a dog would start in the excellent ring it would start the timers in the open ring. The more I sat there and stressed while they worked on the problem the more nervous I got. What if I couldn't get Venus to weave and we went way over time and lost our first Q. I decided to leave it alone and take the time we had. We were 10 seconds under course time even with the timers starting early. Yes it might knock me out of a placement but I'd still have my Q. We ended up with a 3rd place anyways! The 1st and 2nd place dogs had no faults so we couldn't have beaten them with a faster time anyways.
We had a 6+ hour drive home so we decided to leave after conformation and not worry about the JWW run.
Sorry I have no video because I thought every run might be a down and leave the ring after a few jumps like our first run Friday.
Brandy

Lots going on.

2008-04-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

Ok so I've decided to start training Bacchus for agility. Clover is also doing some training, since I am interested in running contacts and she is retired I figured she'd be a good one to experiment with. I will post videos of them as I go.

Venus was supposed to have a lesson with Ronda last week but the weather was so bad that it was cancelled. She hasn't gotten to train in a while now.

We had a conformation show this past weekend and Clover was Best of Breed both days and made a cut in the group. That was nice for my first show of the year.
We leave on Thursday for Perry, Ga for conformation and agility. It's always a busy weekend but this will be my first attempt there at juggling both despite the fact I've said I'm never doing conformation and agility at the same show again. I never learn.

A friend of ours was hit by a car last week while he was walking. Of course whoever hit him didn't stop and kept going. Both of his legs are broken and when he gets out of the hospital he's coming to stay with us. This will be a chance to put Venus' talents to good use. Venus will pick up anything and bring it to anyone. She'll even get coins of the kitchen floor and bring them to us. Since he will be in a wheelchair and in bed if he drops something he can use Venus to get it for him. I hope she'll listen and work for him. It'd be helpful for when he's here by himself. I'll see if I can get video of her working that tonight.
I don't think I've shown this before but it's an example of things Venus likes to do and learn.
Venus loads silverware in the dishwasher. This video was after 3 or 4 days of training.

Brandy

Good Dog/Bad Dog

2008-03-24T07:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we did the AKC trial in Youngsville, NC. Venus got her first official over 2 years old measurement! She measured 21 1/2, yay. Venus has always measured at 21 1/2, we measured her at that at 9 months old, at 17 months at her first trial, in Jan her under 2 by the VMO, and now her 1st over 2.
So now onto the runs:
Open Standard- There were so many nice things about this run. I started with a 2 jump lead out, she was so excited but stayed like a good dog. The tunnel entrance was beside the dog walk on the far side from me. I didn't really want to have to run all the way with her because I would be stuck and she'd get out of the tunnel and I wouldn't be in a spot to tell her where to go next. I decided to use "get out" and it worked great. She went into the tunnel no problems. She missed her weaves on the first try but we got all 12 on the 2nd try, yes! That is a big improvement over what we've done at recent trials. She did great on holding her contact at the bottom of the dog walk but almost messed up the table. I told her go table and she blasted full speed at it. I yelled table again hoping she'd think about the fact you can't blast onto it. She flew up, slid across, and wobbled on the edge, somehow she stayed on. Lol, someone told me later that my dog has good brakes. After the table was the broad jump, yes in open. Venus ran right across it, silly dog. I had been so nervous about that in novice and we had no problems, of course we had a brain when we were in novice also. The rest of the run was nice though.
Open JWW- It was a very tight course and I had no clue if Venus would be able to control herself or not out there. The answer is no but I never got to really find out on the tight part. She crashed the 2nd jump on the course and I was mad. I didn't do a front or rear cross there, I wasn't in her way, and I didn't say her name. I saw no reason for her to do that other than out of control craziness which I don't like. I called her back to me and told her down. She looked shocked that I asked her to do this in the middle of an agility trial. She dropped her head and tail and I again told her down. Lol, she laid down and rolled over and looked pitiful. I thanked the judge and we left the ring. He might have let us keep on running but I wanted to make a very clear point to her. Since it was only the 2nd jump she knew I wasn't happy and I was ending the game very early.
Whenever we've finished a course she loves to jump into my arms and have me hold her. It works out well because I think it's cute and I can't be upset with her when she's up in my arms. So even after a messy run we are both happy. Well there was no jumping in the arms so another clue to her that I wasn't happy.

At the last two trials I have gotten lots of very nice compliments from people about Venus. Mostly from people who saw her at the seminar. There are two things I keep hearing again and again; they've never seen a Samoyed that has as much speed/drive/motivation as her, and that I should be happy with the wild and craziness and that it will get better as far as me knowing how to handle it.
Brandy

Charlotte, NC trials

2008-03-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

Ok so there is a reason that I call this blog agility laughs. If you are running a Samoyed in agility you have very few options. Mainly, laugh with them or turn red, hide your face and never appear at an agility trial again. (I actually did the 2nd choice after an obedience match with one of my Sams many years ago.)
Venus did her most Sammy like performance this weekend. She is still trying to listen and she doesn't seem to mean to be bad but she was out of control. If I got too close to the ring gate while walking by she would try and drag me into it. I love the enthusiasm with this dog!
We ended up with 4 NQs this weekend. I wasn't surprised. Her behavior about agility lately has been crazy. She's just so excited she does things like flying off the a-frame or wildly doing the teeter. We had lots and lots and lots of weave refusals this weekend. I'm going to see if I can go to someone's house and work weaves where she'll be excited enough for there to be issues.
There were handler issues also, again not surprised. For some reason I don't seem to be able to get it through my head that I can't push Venus off away from me. It just doesn't happen at this point. I need to do a cross of some sort so she knows where to look next. Eventually I will have that ingrained in my mind and remember to do it.
Run first, think later. Examples: flying off the top of the a-frame, crazy out of control teeter at our lesson, literally running into the tunnel at the trial. Hopefully the thought will come back soon. Our next trial is March 23.
Here's a fun video for everyone.

Brandy

Seminar and Lessons

2008-03-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

Ok, so let's start with the Silvia Trkman seminar. The courses were difficult but doable. Venus had a very good time and I learned to think a little differently. One thing she focused on was making the best line for the dog. Some places I saw it on my own but others I didn't and I would have handled it in a way that was tougher for the dog.
Remember how hyped up I said Venus was at the warm up jump during the last trial? Well since she is really liking agility this excitment is becoming her usual thing. I didn't warm up with a jump with her at the seminar, and that was a huge mistake. The course was jump then a-frame and that's as far as we got. Venus flew over the jump, up the a-frame, over the top, and never touched the down side. She was ok and didn't really seem bothered by her fall other than maybe that was a bad idea.
Despite being hyped she still listens which surprises me. Silvia liked her speed and thought we could get some nice times. She also said I need to quit trying to slow her down and control her, lol. I am still having a hard time with Venus' speed but it's getting better. I didn't video because it looked like most people were wanting to watch and not fool with a video camera.

Then last night was a lesson with Ronda. Venus had some nice runs and started off with nice weave poles. The longer we worked the worse they got though. She started a little out of control on the teeter and tire, but she did some very pretty a-frames. We have our next lesson the end of March with her.

We have a trial in Charlotte, NC this weekend. It will be Venus' first 2 day trial. We'll see how that goes.

And since I haven't posted a video in a while here's one of some things Venus is learning.

Brandy

She did it!!!

2008-02-26T17:41:00.000-08:00

We did the trial in Youngsville, NC yesterday. It was a 2 ring 1 judge trial so we didn't have to get up extremely early to make the drive out. When we got there Venus was very hyped up. We walked around and watched for a while to calm her. Eventually it may be fun to run her when she is pumped up like that but I'm not ready for it. I don't think she could mentally run like that and still listen either.
It came time for Open JWW and we went to work on the warm up jump. She was blasting over it at full speed ready to zoom somewhere as fast as she could. She listened though and behaved well. We went and waited at the ring for our turn, Venus isn't patient and kept trying to lunge into the ring. :) I'm glad she's that excited about doing this.
It was a nice course that I thought would be good for our first open run. It started off great and Venus was flying! She was ahead of me for the weaves but she hit her entry! Yay Bean! Jenn, a friend of mine who is my online agility instructor, thought maybe I've been crowding Venus on the weave poles at trials since I don't get near as close when I'm training. I really think she's right because Venus did much better out ahead of me. Check out the link to her blog Agility Addiction
over there------------------------------------------>
She did end up with a refusal on the weave poles because she entered so fast she didn't turn back in time to get the 2nd pole. It's always one issue or the other on the weaves but I'd rather take the speed issue than the entry issue. I started her over and she did a wonderful job on all 12 poles.
Silly dog, knocked the very next bar. Again she was flying and was 2 more jumps ahead before I could say anything about the bar. Since she was that far ahead I didn't down her but I did call her back to me to make her settle. There was no cross at that jump, I didn't call her, and it was her first run of the day so I couldn't think of any good reason for her to have knocked that bar other than being on the verge of out of control. I think I caused a refusal calling her back to me but at that point it didn't matter. The rest of the course was good until the last jump. She doesn't understand "go on" yet and she turned back into me at the last jump and went around it. Since we had NQed with the knocked bar I didn't worry with it.
The next run was Novice standard. We just needed the one leg for our NA. Again she was nice and fast, I think I'm getting better at handling her with some speed. We did a beautiful rear cross at the tunnel. She was far enough ahead I crossed before she was in the tunnel. She locked onto the tunnel when I said tunnel and did a very nice job. We had issues at the weaves again. She missed the entry, I was standing very close. The course was coming off the a-frame, the tunnel to the left, a jump to the right, and the weaves straight ahead. I wanted to be close to be sure we got weaves instead of the tunnel. Since it was novice I wasn't real concerned with a refusal on the weaves since they don't count, yay.
The rest of the run was going great until the end. She came out of the shoot and went to the left some and saw the table. If there is ever an obstacle that will draw Veni's attention and make her take an off course it is the table. She was running full speed for that table. I called her and she slid to a stop very very close to the table. It blew her mind that I wasn't coming over there and she seemed a little upset that she had gone off somewhere without me. Remember she's my velcro dog. She came flying back to me and over the very last jump for a Q, 1st place and the last lef of her NA!
Venus ended up with a 100% Qualifying rate in AKC Novice!!! I am so thrilled with how she's done so far.
Brandy

Whoops!

2008-02-08T17:04:00.000-08:00

It seems I forgot to actually post the last post I made. Atleast it had saved and I could just add it!

No real updates because we haven't been doing much. We've been working weave entries again but she does so good at home. I found another trial to enter, yay! Our next trial will be in Youngsville on Feb 24.
Brandy

Venus NAJ!

2008-01-31T19:14:00.000-08:00

Yay Venus! The runs were much better on Friday and I didn't feel like such an idiot running her, lol. We had a little bobble in JWW where I didn't give her enough information. She ended up with a nice time and 3rd place. In standard she had a very nice run, held her dog walk contact yay, and had a little bit of issue with the weave entry. She ended up with her first 100 and a 1st place in the Novice B 20' class! We just need on more leg in standard for her NA. Venus is 5 for 5 in AKC so far.
Look at her a-frame, I really hope she will keep that and it will stay her natural striding on there.

We have no more agility until March, ahh!!! March 2 we have a seminar with Silvia Trkman, March 3 a lesson with Ronda, and 8 & 9 an AKC trial!
Brandy

BTCA Trial

2008-01-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, so we went and did the trial in Sanford yesterday after lots of stress. On Friday they were predicting 2-4 inches of snow here and worse to the south and east of us. Guess where Sanford is? So I was trying to decide if I needed to drive over while it was snowing on Saturday and get a hotel or just wait here and try in the morning. When I looked at the premium list there was only one hotel that allowed dogs. I figured it was probably booked so I stayed home to wait and see. The roads were fine in the morning so we drove down.
Our first run was jumpers. It looked like a nice course with a couple of front crosses. The problem was the very first obstacle. It was a curved tunnel followed by a double. In excellent several of the people that led out the dogs came to them instead of in the tunnel. Since Venus had problems getting in the tunnels at the show and go I didn't want to risk it. I had to start with her on my left but then quickly needed her back on my right. I didn't want to rear cross the double because I thought she might knock a bar. The plan was to do a front or blind cross after the tunnel. That didn't happen and I messed her all up.
Second run was standard. Another nice course where I decided to be a really bad handler and try to mess my dog up. Our goal was for Venus to hold her dog walk contact which she did!
So final results are better than expected. Venus Qed in both standard and JWW and came in 2nd in both.
Our next trial is this Friday!

Brandy

No Lesson but Practice

2008-01-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

Our lesson with Ronda was cancelled this week. I was stressed about not getting one more practice in before the trial so Beth let me come out on Monday. She gave me a few sequences to work.

Venus held her dog walk contact well which is what I was worried most about. Bars stayed up, weaves were good, and she was paying attention. She is actually starting to look for obstacles so I was able to do have her do a pinwheel while I stayed to one side of it. I then worked her on just the serpentine part of it so that I could get either or out of her.

Sunday is our trial and I'm very excited. I had been so pumped for the trial back in Nov when Venus came in season and we haven't had a chance for an AKC trials since then. This will be Venus' first standard AKC run and her 2nd AKC jumpers run. Wish us luck! I plan on posting as soon as we get home and hopefully I can get someone to video.

And just for fun, Venus' newest trick:

Brandy

Happy New Year!

2008-01-03T16:31:00.000-08:00

Venus and I went to a Show and Go on the 1st at Doglogic again. The course was hard and Venus and I struggled on it. I have a video of her doing one run on each course. She refused almost every tunnel that day which is odd for her. She had a hard time with the weave entry on the standard course so we worked that after it was over. Again she didn't want to hold her dog walk contact there. I am hoping it is just that equipment and that it isn't going to occur at trials. I was thrilled with the weave entry on the jumpers run!
Here's the video from the show and go.

We have a few things coming up this month:
Jan 14- Lesson with Rhonda
Jan 20- AKC Trial
Jan 25- AKC Trials

Brandy

Show and Go

2007-12-15T18:55:00.000-08:00

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

Monday's lesson

2007-12-13T13:25:00.000-08:00

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

NADAC Toys for Tots Fundraiser

2007-12-10T07:46:00.000-08:00

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

New A-frame and Lesson change

2007-12-03T20:19:00.000-08:00

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.

Recent videos

2007-11-26T19:55:00.000-08:00

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

Workshop

2007-11-24T17:46:00.000-08:00

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

Monday's Lesson

2007-11-20T17:18:00.001-08:00

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 is in season :(

2007-11-12T17:50:00.000-08:00

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

Lesson on Monday

2007-11-07T16:29:00.001-08:00

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

Leaps & Bounds NADAC Trial

2007-11-05T09:03:00.000-08:00

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

Distance

2007-10-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Venus training Oct 29

2007-10-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

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.

Venus' Story

2007-10-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

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.

Clover's story

2007-10-28T17:55:00.000-07:00

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

The First Post

2007-10-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

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