Oh Yeah, You Blend

Video of Nina’s Hoopers run today. Our last run of this weekend’s Four Seasons NADAC trial and our first Hoopers Q! In Novice Hoopers you do at least three “non-test” hoops (in this case, the white ones down the middle), then a “test” set of hoops (a mini course the judge has set, there are usually three or more you can choose from), then at least two “non-test” hoops again (the “tests” we did were the four red hoops on the right first, then three blue hoops on the left in a pinwheel shape).  I think we did both sets of test hoops pretty nicely, but you can see that I mis-timed my rear cross (where you change sides by crossing behind the dog) when we did our second set of white hoops (before we went to the blue hoops), which pushed her off the hoop (and she sure let me know) – just goes to show you how sensitive dogs can be to your body language, she did exactly what my body language told her to do, even though it wasn’t what I intended to tell her to do!  Thank you Jen for the video!

Nina earned her Novice Jumpers With Weaves leg #1 with a clean run today at the DOTCORNY AKC trial at Boome Towne!  I am thrilled!  Not only did we fulfill the Prime Directive (as always: have fun), but we got the super-mega-extra-awesome-bonus brought to you by the letter Q and the number 1!!!!

What helped: Novice starting MUCH later in the day meant I got to walk the dogs before we even left for the trial, then spent a lot of time playing frisbee, so Nina had a chance to scrub off a lot of her crazies.  She was still fast and excited, but able to focus (and her contacts were great, she jumped up on me on the table, so we automatically NQ’d in Standard, but she was reasonably quiet and didn’t jump on and off the table a zillion times), and our Jumpers With Weaves run was just awesome, we had real teamwork and connection, I gave my cues when I needed to and she listened and ran her heart out.  I remembered Paula Goss’s advice and gave her rear cross cues on the takeoff sides of the jumps and it made a real difference, her jumps were clean and smooth, and she knew where I wanted her to go early enough that she didn’t get frustrated and herdy and I could just stay out of her way and let her work. Yay Nina!  What a good girl! I guess I’ll keep her.

It was also so nice that so many CPE people were there, and even the people I didn’t know were very helpful and nice.  Lisa and Mari and Sue were super-supportive and helpful and having Jeannine and Holly there to keep things light made it so much less stressful than I was worried it might be.  I was a bit intimidated coming into this weekend, but once we walked out on the course for our first run, I remembered it wasn’t brain surgery, it was just another agility trial for Nina and I to play at, and IT WAS FUN!

Thanks to Jen K., who recorded two of our runs this past weekend at All Dawgs CPE, I now have video of Nina and I running agility!  Well, Nina is running, I am sort of bustling.  I look like I run even slower than it FEELS like I run!

Here they are.  (Warning, agility speak follows): The first one (where I’m wearing a green top) is a Jackpot run (it’s CPE Gamblers, and this was a traditional distance gamble), we didn’t qualify because I ran into a pillar instead of ending up where I’d planned to for the gamble.  Graceful?  Moi?  The second (where I am wearing a blue top from the SVCA national specialty last year) is a Snooker run where we scored a 51 (highest score possible!) with a triple 7 (AKA super Q), we crashed into each other going into the closing sequence but fortunately they’re sometimes pretty lenient about that in CPE (especially in the games classes) or we wouldn’t have qualified.  I love Snooker, it’s my favorite of the games, and that was our second-best run of the whole three day weekend (our best was a really tricky Standard), so I am really happy Jen recorded it! In Snooker, there is a numbered course of six obstacles (numbered 2 through 7 and each with a different color) and four single jumps (“reds”), you have a certain amount of time to perform a red, then any “color” obstacle from the numbered course, then a different red, then any “color”, then a third (also different) red, then a “color”, then you must perform the numbered course.  In this course, the #7 obstacle was two tunnels.  You are scored one point for each “red” and whatever the numbered value is for the “colors” (so you get 7 points for performing the #7 obstacle, 2 points for the #2 obstacle, etc.).

She is not running at her real top speed in either of these since both runs were toward the end of the day.

Nina and I had an awesome weekend at Ebb Tide CPE this past weekend.  Beautiful fall weather with blue, blue skies, running and playing and swimming, and agility!  Nina finished her second level 4 title (Fun Games – CL4-F), and we had a great time hanging out with friends.  Demi was there so we got to see her too, she is growing like a weed!  All in all, a lovely way to spend a weekend.

So Nina and I went to our first Agility Association of Canada trial at Act On Agility in Flamborough, Ontario.  In the morning was a CPE trial, where Nina earned her first Level 4 title with a Q in Jackpot for her Level 4 Strategy games title (CL4-S).  That was the only Q all day, at least partly because I am sick and couldn’t even run at my usual slow speed.  AAC was a blast, Steeplechase in particular was huge fun, big, wide-open, fast-running courses, just what Nina likes.  Our table performance…wasn’t, but overall it was a lot of fun and I was very happy with how she ran.  AAC is very hard to qualify in, but it was a load of fun and the people were super-nice (of course they were, they were Canadian!).  It was nice to be able to speak my native language, eh?

Nina was awarded the judge’s first annual “WAHOO!!” award for enthusiasm at the TDAA trial this weekend.  It made me smile and get a bit misty, she has such a huge personality in that little body, and her love for agility is obvious to everyone (even when the teeter is a launch ramp, and we won’t discuss that nasty old table).  I hope the day never comes when she doesn’t love playing the agility game with me, and I really do treasure each run we have together (even, and sometimes especially, the disasters).  I love my Nina, I’d have a dozen more Ninas if I could, if Tish has half her mother’s magical whatever-it-is, I will be a very, very lucky person.

Today Nina finished her last TWO CPE Level 3 titles, earning her Level 3 Standard title (CL3-R), and Level 3 Handler Games title (CL3-H) at All Dawgs, which means her “alphabet soup” changes to just “CL3” now. Her Colors run today was one of her best agility runs ever, she was beautifully smooth and accurate, she got her weaves on the first try for the first time ever at a trial, and she ran the course in just over SEVENTEEN SECONDS!!!  Mari said Nina banks the curves in the tunnels, which is why she rockets out of them so quickly. She also qualified in every run today, and it was a hot, hot day.  Back for more tomorrow!

Nina, Tish and I were at Ebb Tide this weekend for CPE agility.  Nina finished her Level 3 Strategy Games title.  I got us a No Time today when I forgot to take her collar off (dogs must run naked in CPE)…my only excuse is that I normally run her in a slip lead, but I’ve been using a collar and leash lately since the slip lead had become a signal to her to go ballistic with enthusiasm (or “more ballistic with enthusiasm than normal”).  But she did wonderfully and coped with the heat with her usual good grace.  Boy do I love my Nina girl.

Demi’s dad Ron brought her by for a visit, I was so looking forward to seeing them and seeing how she’d grown that I was sad to see that he hadn’t entered the trial.  But he showed up with Demi to visit me anyway!  What a sweetheart, I was so, so happy to see them both.  Demi looks wonderful, she is going through a gangly phase (surprising just how gangly these short-legged dogs can be when they’re growing up!), but she is beautiful and so sweet and friendly.  If she’d had a tail I’d have kept her, her head is almost exactly between Nina and Emil.  She and Tish had a good wrestle and zoom around.

Lisa and Austin were there of course, Austin looks wonderful, he has a Basset brother Hobbes who is his BFF.  He has a great life and he is obviously very loved.  He is gorgeous.  He and Tish also had a good play date.  I realize now that I forgot to ask Wendi to take some pictures of them playing!

It is kind of a weird experience to see these little dogs that I brought into the world (literally, in Austin’s case) out there living their lives.  They were born here, in our guest bedroom.  They played on our deck and we cuddled them every day.  And now they live with other people who cuddle and love them.  They have their own lives now. And so far anyway, this litter seems to be doing wonderfully.  We are so fortunate to have had such wonderful homes that wanted our puppies.

And Tish.  Little Tish.  Now that the decision is made and Loki has gone to her (also wonderful) new home, I can finally allow myself to fall in love with Tish.  And I have fallen hard.  What a baby dog she is!  She loves everyone and everything, wants cuddles from everyone, wags her tail and does her funny “please pay attention to me” growly-bark at people.  She is adorable.  She has almost all her adult incisors now, so when she looks up she looks like she’s wearing too-big dentures since her jaws haven’t caught up yet.  She is just so exactly what I was hoping for, so cuddly and loving and sweet and smart and a little monster at the same time, Jeannine says I’m in trouble: she has all Nina’s attitude.  I am happy.  She swam, too!  Just waded right into the pond like she’d done it a hundred times, what a girl!

…are up here. More great Wendi Pencille pictures. We qualified in only one class (NADAC is harder to Q in than CPE), and Nina regressed to herding me again, but it was fun.

On August 15-16, 2009, Nina completed all of CPE Level 1 with her Strategy Games Level 1 title, and earned her first Level 2 title with CPE Handler Games Level 2 (CL2-H) at Boom Towne Canine Center in HOT weather.