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.

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.

No Lesson but Practice

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

NADAC Toys for Tots Fundraiser

I took Venus to a NADAC trial yesterday in Youngsville. We ended up Qing 3 out of 6 runs. I'm very happy with her overall performance yesterday.
Our first run was Weavers. I wasn't thinking or something but decided to start at the start line with her. Well there were 3 tunnels and then the weaves. By the time I got past the 1st tunnel she was in the 3rd lol. We were over time in weavers so no Q. She attempted to do all weaves correctly but she forgets she has to slow down to enter the weaves. She tends to fly into the entry and miss curving back for the 2nd pole. So she ends up weaving the 1st and 3rd poles. She did that at the first two sets of weaves so we had to fix that. Then the 3rd set she entered on the wrong side. She started to head the wrong way out of a tunnel at one point and I told her to "come". There was a tunnel kinda between us that she was supposed to take next. She headed for it and it was like she realized I didn't tell her tunnel so she came back to me. Even though it isn't what I wanted it was what I said so I was very happy she listened to me. We ended up with a 2nd place.
Tunnelers was next. Venus had a beautiful confident run in there. She wasn't hesitating like last time. The run was clean and fast so Venus got a Q and 1st place.
This week I kept telling myself to remember to make Venus hold her 2o2o for a while at the trial. I released her very quickly at the last trial and that's not what I want to do. The first regular run was set up nicely so I could do a front cross while she was holding her contact on the dog walk. She did it beautifully! At the start line I accidently pushed too hard and pushed her off the tunnel she was supposed to take, whoops. The rest of the run was nice and she got her first regular Q and a 1st place. The second regular run was the same course in reverse. She missed one jump that I had to send her back to do. Everything else was going well until we got to a jump that had timers on it. Somehow she jumped between the jump standard and the post with the timer on it. So I made her go back and fix that one. Again she held her contact very well and I left her on there and went on to the next jump and then released her. We didn't Q that run because of time but we did get another 1st.
The next run was jumpers and it was a wonderful course. It was basically an S with one more curve and line of jumps on it. I decided to use this course to try running ahead of Venus like Rhonda has said. It worked great. By the 4th line of jump where we were headed towards the finish line I just took off and told her to go! Another clean fast run for a jumpers Q and 1st place.
Our last run was Chances. Venus struggles on distance so I thought it would be a good thing to work with her. Since it was our 6th run of the day and we'd been up since 5am she was exhausted. The more tired she is the closer she likes to stay for me so I figured she wouldn't Q this round. It started off well but when we got to the distance part she didn't want to do it. I finally convinced her to go over the first jump, she missed the 2nd one because she'd moved back close to me but she did do the 3rd one. The rest of the run was nice.

Overall I was so happy with her performance. She was very focused, had no wrong courses, and no knocked bars! I definately think she'd ready for some AKC trials.
Tonight we have our lesson with Rhonda. Hopefully Veni has rested enough today to really be on tonight!
Brandy

Leaps & Bounds NADAC Trial

The trial didn't go as well as I had hoped but I did see some things we need to work on. We got there about 7:30am and it was chilly outside. By the time I got Venus out of the van she was hyped and leaping all over the place. I worked her some on the warm up jump and weaves and she was great. Venus and Clover were both in the Novice Proficient 20+ class.

Novice Jumpers:
We started off with about two good jumps. Venus then spotted the ring crew and this is one downfall of having a very friendly dog. She bolted over to go visit but quickly found that the person was no fun and wouldn't pet her. She came flying back to me and tried to jump on me. There was one more jump to get her over and then a nice serpentine of two jumps and the tunnel. Venus loves serpentines so I thought it would go well. She took the first jump of the serpenting, spotted the tunnel and then shot through it. I got her back around and over the jump to the tunnel. She did the next jump and then cut too close to me and missed the next jump. I got her back over it and then the rest of the course was nice.

Novice Regular:
When I brought her to the start line she was focused on a shirt someone had hung on the fence. She did listen to me even though she stared at the shirt over the first jump and heading to the dogwalk. Since she was moving a little slow she did hit the up contact but I would have liked to see her full speed to see if she remembered to hit it or not. She held her bottom contact ok. She came a little further off than I would have liked but she was holding the position and I'll give her the benefit since she's never seen a dog walk without slats before.
She did the distance on the jumps very nice. NADAC requires some distance on their regular courses. She saw another jump straight ahead and was heading towards it but I did get her to turn to where the next jump was instead. Unfortunately the turn was tight and she knocked the bar on that jump. She did nicely and didn't go into the offcourse tunnel, many dogs went into that tunnel. She did a little turn in front of me and almost tripped me but we'll work on that. She did good until the weaves, I am pretty sure that I didn't give the command early enough and she didn't see the weaves. The rest of the run was nice and I loved her a-frame.
Despite the knocked bar she ended up with 1st place!

Novice Weavers:
I didn't get a video of this course but it had good points and bad points. I was able to call her off of all the traps that were out there. She came very close to going in a wrong tunnel at one point but she turned and came back. The weaves were disappointing. She didn't get the entry on her weaves any time we ran that course. There were 3 sets of weaves and two she just kinda ignored and ran past and the third she got the entry but went past the 2nd pole and came back after the 3rd pole. She went over time on that course. Venus earned another 1st place on that run though.

Novice Tunnelers:
Clover ran first of the two on this course. She was such a bad dog! I can't even explain what all she did. She did the first 2 or 3 tunnelers and then was just kinda messing around the rest of the course. She had a good time though and that's what is important. I don't have a video of that run, too bad because it would have gone along great with agility laughs. Since Venus and Clover's runs were so close I told my mom to not worry about videoing and to just hide with Venus. I knew if Venus saw me running Clover she would scream and maybe make things worse.
Venus' run was nice. She took no off course tunnels and made time whoo!! After her weavers course she realized there were times I didn't want her to go straight to the next tunnel. Because of that if she could see more than one tunnel she would check back with me on which one I wanted her in. I'll work her some more on reading cues and going on without me. Venus got her first Q and came in 3rd in her class.

Overall I was happy with the day. I was only disappointed in Clover because she is better than that she just decides to be silly sometimes. Venus was trying for me, she is young and doesn't get this whole routine yet. She had a good time though and I think she really wants to do exactly what I want her to. We'll get there as we learn more together. With the time change it is going to make it harder to train. I will probably work her during my lunch breaks.
This weekend I have a conformation show with Bacchus and Clover and then the following weekend Venus is entered in a 3 day AKC trial.

Here's the video of Venus' runs from this weekend. Yes, I know I need a better camera for this and I'm working on figuring out what kind. Suggestions are welcome if you know of a good camera for videoing agility somewhere around $200 or less?


Brandy