Lots of Updates- Greensboro & Concord

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

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!!

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

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

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

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.

Crazy Venus!

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

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

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

Bad Blogger- Again!

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

I've been slack!

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.

Lots going on.

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

Distance

Today I worked Venus with some distance work. She did pretty well. I had a hard time releasing her from the dog walk but had I used "ok" which is her release work it might have gone better. I loved her doing the nice 2o2o at the bottom even though I was far away.

Weaves were pretty fast tonight most of the time. She was happy to do them which is always a plus. Clover hates the weaves and likes to avoid them I have have put in a lot of time with Venus and getting her to love the weaves.

After I got her to quit turning into me on the line of jumps before she did them all then we worked on when I did want her to turn away. It was a very tight turn to get her away from the tunnel at the end but she did it fine.

Venus has her very first NADAC trial this weekend. This will be her 2nd time ever competing in agility and she's only run one run before. This will be her first time at a trial doing contacts so we will see how it goes. She's entered in 4 novice runs: regular, jumpers, weavers, and tunnelers. I also have Clover entered in novice tunnelers.

And just for fun some Halloween pics of Bacchus! He is feeling left out.