The USDAA trial

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!

A Very Long Time

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

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.

Ugh... A-frames! & Rio

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

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

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

Concord Weekend

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!

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.

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

Good Dog/Bad Dog

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

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

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