Some coursework and some weave work. We also worked her running dogwalk but I needed Sue to toss the reward so no video!
I am learning I can trust her and she is learning to be responsible for her obstacle performance. I can’t get over how awesome her attitude and work ethic are!
Alice’s first time in a two ring trial environment and she did great! Some zoomies, some slow runs, but overall really happy with where she’s at. Plus she earned her Open FAST Preferred title today!
Nina was Nina, every run is a blessing. Some almost Q’s.
Zhora was awesome, 5 for 6 with a triple Q today (QQ #102). Especially considering we had a huge ring conflict at the end of the day today and I basically ran Alice in Novice Standard and the other two girls in Mast Jumpers in a space of like 10 minutes. Two ring trials are so stressful when you have dogs in different levels.
Zhora Saturday Master FAST (Q, second place):
Alice Saturday Open FAST:
Alice Saturday Novice Jumpers (OMG I AM SO THRILLED WITH THIS RUN! I wish the start had been videoed, but holy moly I could really feel some mojo happening here!):
Zhora Saturday Standard (Q, first place, 3.72 YPS, 27 points):
Nina Saturday Standard (NQ):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (NQ):
Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ):
Alice Saturday Standard (NQ):
Zhora Sunday FAST (QQQ, third place):
Alice Sunday Open P FAST (Q and OFP title, zoomies but came back and worked and how about that distance?):
Alice Sunday Jumpers (NQ but weaves on first try! Focused = slow with this baby dog):
Zhora Sunday Standard (QQQ, third place, 3.723 YPS, 28 points):
Nina Sunday Standard (NQ):
Alice Sunday Standard (NQ but some good stuff):
Zhora Sunday JWW (QQQ, second place, just a few minutes after Alice’s Std run, 4.283 YPS, 15 points):
Nina Sunday JWW (NQ, handler error after the blind cross disconnect):
What a great three day weekend! Now that the AKC instituted a rule where if you have a class dog and a class bitch, you have a point available, it’s worth my while to show Alice and Orbit!
I’m very fortunate to have a great co-owner for Orbit in Ruth, since she and Jim not only give him a wonderful home, they’re also willing to bring him to shows and show him!
Friday we showed to judge Kathryn Madden, who was just delightful to show to. She was SO complimentary about the dogs, she said “the FRONTS on your dogs! You must be very proud!”). She gave Alice BOB for the point, and went on to give Alice Owner-Handled Group 2 in a large and competitive OH herding group. Later, when we were getting pictures done, she said “she’s a fabulous working bitch! Bring me a working dog any day!”). Not only that, but Alice made the cut in the regular group under judge Marie Ann Falconer. It was such an impressive group and I was so shocked that she made the cut that at first I thought the judge was just naming breeds when she walked past us and said “The Swedish Vallhund”.
Saturday we showed to Marie Ann Falconer. She also gave Alice BOB for the point, and then Alice went on AGAIN to take Owner-Handled Group 2 in yet another large and competitive group under judge Christina C Miller (who walked up and said “You’re my number 2”). Ms. Falconer passed us on the way out of the OH group ring and congratulated me and said “I cut her in group yesterday!”.
And then today, under judge Dianne P Miller (who was a little rough with the dogs on the table, in my opinion), Orbit got BOB and the point.
I was thrilled with how they both showed, and am so thankful and grateful to have awesome co-owners! Orbit loves his family.
What can I say about this dog? MACH 5 at 6.5 years of age with TWO breaks for puppies. She’s amazing. I am humbled and grateful to have her as my agility partner. Judge Mary Mullen’s courses were tough but really fun! I have some kind of crud so I was tired and winded and hoarse, but we got it done!
I decided to try running Nina in Preferred. She isn’t having trouble with 8″ but it’s worth a try. Well…she sure liked it…she can run even FASTER if she doesn’t have to really jump…love that dog so much. Agility is her bacon bits.
And Alice! SO HAPPY with how she is coming along! I learned that, at least right now, she is more like Nina than Zhora for warmup. She doesn’t need revving up, she needs focus work. You’ll see in her Standard run she’s a bit crazy (that was when I revved her during warmup), whereas in her Jumpers run I did more focus/shadow handling type stuff and she was much more focused. Good to know! She earned her second Open FAST Q and had a LOVELY T2B run including 12 weaves. I am still very much not fixing much, if anything, with her, so I am happy as long as she engages with obstacles and stays with me. I am very impressed with the distance and independent obstacle performances she is showing!
Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ but ALMOST a Q):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (NQ, weird haunted weave poles for many dogs):
Zhora Saturday FAST (NQ):
Alice Saturday Open FAST (Q, note my “OH SHIT” moment when I see her take the dogwalk!):
Nina Saturday Standard (NQ):
Zhora Saturday Standard (Q, second place, 28 points):
Alice Saturday Novice P Standard (NQ):
Alice Saturday JWW Nov P (NQ):
Nina Sunday JWW (NQ):
Zhora Sunday JWW (Part 1 of MACH 5, close call! Fourth place, 17 points):
Alice Time 2 Beat P (NQ, but lovely run!):
Nina Sunday Standard (NQ….never stop being Nina, Nina…):
Zhora Sunday Standard (MACH5 ZHORA!! Third place, 29 points):
HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Jan Robles and Cora on Cora’s CD title! Cora is now Alkemi Corona del Roble LS CD! Cora also has her Senior Barn Hunt title and a FastCAT title. She’s just 18 months old, her mom Jan Robles is no slacker! Cora is the Puppy Formerly Known As Popcorn.
Various training videos from today.
We love judge Sherry Jefferson even when she isn’t our sherpa on an Invitational trip.
What a great weekend! Zhora was perfect, earning three double Q’s (two of which were TRIPLE Q’s), and is now just two QQ’s away from MACH5!
Nina had a perfect weekend….of NQ’s, but every weekend I get to run with Nina being happy, fast, sassy, naughty Nina is perfect.
And Alice! Alice earned her very first agility title (Novice FAST Preferred) and her first Novice Jumpers Preferred leg. She also jumped off the dogwalk. My best guess is that she was looking at the ring crew, suddenly wasn’t sure what she was doing, and bailed, like Sue and I trained her do. She was fine going across it afterward.
Nina Friday Standard (NQ):
Zhora Friday Standard (part 1 of triple Q and QQ # 96, first place, 31 points, 3.99 YPS):
Zhora Friday FAST (part 2 of QQQ, first place):
Alice Friday Novice FAST (Novice FAST title!):
Nina Friday JWW (NQ):
Zhora Friday JWW (part 2 of QQQ/QQ 96, second place, 15 points):
Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (QQ # 97, 17 points):
Alice Saturday Time 2 Beat (NQ):
Nina Saturday Standard (NQ):
Zhora Saturday Standard (QQ #97, third place, 27 points, 3.75 YPS):
Alice Saturday Standard (jump off the dogwalk, my best guess is that she was looking at me or the ring crew and suddenly didn’t remember what equipment she was on so she bailed off):
Alice Saturday Jumpers (Q! 4.137 YPS):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (QQQ/QQ 98, fourth place, 19 points, 4.66 YPS):
Zhora Sunday FAST (QQQ):
Alice Sunday Open FAST (would have been a Q only I overhandled and pulled her off the jump in the middle of the send):
Nina Sunday Standard (NQ):
Zhora Sunday Standard (QQQ/QQ 98, third place, 30 points, 3.97 YPS):
Judge Kristine M Schmidt wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. She’s from Long Island and is a little brusque. I don’t know, I’m not looking for a new BFF, just a fair judge with fun courses, and she provided those!
Her courses were really technical and challenging but still fun, and they were quite devious in that often the solution you found for the challenge created a whole new challenge!
Nina had a perfect NQ weekend but ran fast and happy and sassy and I will take ANY NQ’s like that! Love her! She didn’t knock any bars all weekend either!
Zhora had a FAST Q on Saturday (her only Q that day), and QQ #95 today. Our “slump” (such as it is) is I think because she’s kicked up a notch in speed and distance and it’s taking me a while to adjust my handling to it so our mojo is off. She’s amazing. I love her so much and she loves this game so much. I am very lucky to have her.
And ALICE! Her first time doing “real” agility and she ACED it. Beautiful FAST Q (her second NFP leg!), beautiful Standard Q (her first NAP leg!) and got the zoomies in Jumpers, which I was happy about! She seems to stress up like her mum and grandma, which is perfect. I dared to fix the weave poles in Standard but I USED her zoomies in Jumpers and was thrilled she came back and worked with me even with an attack of the crazies going on. Just thrilled with her. My goals are simple: show her how much fun this can be, get some experience under her belt, find the holes in my training, zero expectations otherwise. We are doing one day a weekend plus games on other days if appropriate. I am going to be strict with myself per Melanie Miller’s advice and fix just about nothing.
There is a HORRIBLE wind storm going on here, big branch off the tree in front…we are SO glad we put the money into trimming that tree and taking down the dead ones!
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (NQ):
Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ):
Zhora Saturday FAST (Q):
Alice Saturday FAST (Q, NFP leg #2!):
Zhora Saturday Standard (NQ):
Nina Saturday Standard (NQ):
Alice Saturday Standard (NAP Leg #1!):
Alice Saturday Jumpers (ZOOM!):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (QQ #95, 16 points):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ):
Zhora Sunday Standard (QQ #95, 29 points):
Nina Sunday Standard (NQ):
Lobo’s owner Jan Robles says:
“LOBO’S CRAZY 8S BRONZE
Crazy 8s is a fun two minute search for 8 rats hidden along with four litter tubes. Your dog earns 10 points for each rat, a climb, and tunnel. A false alert is minus 20 points as are failures to climb or tunnel. A second false alert is a NQ. 500 points are required to earn the Bronze title.
My Little Man loves this game. “
Lobo is Alkemi Beowulf del Roble LS and Zhora’s brother. This is Lobo’s THIRD breed first. Jan and Lobo are a force of nature!
SO happy with how she is coming along. Various videos of coursework and weave pole work. Very happy with how her start line stay is coming, I need to remember to be very clear about actually handling the first obstacle for her though. I LOVE her attitude and sticktuitiveness, and how she’s starting to reallyy build speed.