Oh Yeah, You Blend

Allegany and the surrounding area is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been. It’s just beautiful. I could live there. We had a great time at the Olean AKC trial today, even though I pulled Nina from her FAST run for not even thinking about a sit stay, and I pulled her from her Standard run for nipping me during our table attempt (she DID get her teeter though!). This is our Jumpers With Weaves run, an NQ for the off course early, it was a nice quiet run for the most part, although I wish I’d handled the rear cross differently (I knew we’d NQ’d). Tish got her temporary measurement done today, so we’re set until next year when she turns two, that takes a bit of pressure off me for the National Specialty, since it’s one less thing I have to think about then.

What a great finish to the weekend! Nina ended up finishing three titles this weekend (Open Tunnelers, Novice Touch N Go and Novice Hoopers), Tish earned her very first NADAC Q (in Jumpers), AND Riley and Austin came and ran wonderfully today! It was so wonderful to see the puppies out there playing agility (check out Austin’s awesome start line stay!), and aside from some naughty running out of the ring to visit, they did really well. Austin’s mom Lisa is an experienced handler (although she is used to somewhat slower dogs!), and Riley’s dad Chris is learning fast.

Austin Novice Tunnelers:

Austin Novice Jumpers:

Riley Novice Tunnelers:

Riley Novice Jumpers:

Tish Novice Tunnelers (she left to go visit Riley!):

Tish Novice Jumpers (and first NADAC Q!):

Nina Elite Tunnelers:

Nina Open Regular:

Nina Open Jumpers:

Great day 2 at Four Seasons NADAC agility today! Tish was awesome, running fast and staying with me, in her Tunnelers run I made my front cross too late, bad handler, and then Tish forgot something in the light blue tunnel and had to go back for it, her Jumpers run was also lovely, I sent her wide around a jump and then got a bit too “fixy fixy” about it before finally making the right decision and going on, she is developing some lovely obstacle focus and is starting to build some speed! Nina was amazing today, we went five for six, earning her first two Novice Touch & Go Q’s, her first Elite Tunnelers Q, and her very first Chances Q. She did several obstacle discriminations. Things really seem to be coming together with her, I made some silly handling errors, but overall we’re really starting to work as a team. I did let the start line stays go..bad me..she knows it’s NADAC and will let her run.

Lots of video today thanks to helpful kind people!

Nina’s Open Regular run:

Nina’s Novice Touch & Go 1:

Nina’s Novice Touch & Go 2:

Nina Elite Tunnelers (first Elite run ever!):

Tish Novice Jumpers:

Tish Novice Tunnelers:

We had fun today at Four Seasons NADAC, Tish ran in Tunnelers only, she was a bit distracted but came back and worked with me, and she ran FAST, which is what I was hoping for, she tries her paw at Jumpers and Tunnelers tomorrow and Sunday too. Nina did very well, our Tunnelers run today was one of the best runs we have ever had, too bad I didn’t get anyone to record it for me – she was perfect and rocket fast, we had the fastest time out of ALL the Open dogs, 5.83 yards per second, faster even than the fast big dogs!  This is our Weavers Q from today (there is a running joke among some of my agility peeps that Nina is on crack because she is so crazy and fast, that’s what you can hear Jeannine talking about at the start of the video), I made one handling error near the end, but overall a pretty nice run (even if she was crazy at the start!), and her weaves are really coming along well, the practice is paying off, she got them on the first try two out of three times!

Lisa and Austin finished Austin’s very first agility title today at Boom Towne CPE (the first of many I’m sure). Introducing Alkemi Austin Healey ST CL1-R (that’s the CPE Standard Level 1 title)!!!

..and congratulations to Austin, who earned his first CPE Q today in Fullhouse! His mom Lisa can no longer claim that he is defective! 😉

As for us in AKC, no Q’s today, but our Jumpers run was lovely (I messed up her weave entry by not being where I meant to be, but she was perfect on the second try – we had a bar down early which was our NQ, a great run anyway, very smooth!). Our Standard run was LOUD, I messed up the front cross early and it was a mess from there. Still, we had three for three start line stays, which is HUGE – I had to take her off yesterday for not even sitting at the start for Standard, but I guess it made a point!

Horsefeathers – Wendi Pencille’s great photography of Nina and Tish from this past weekend at Ebb Tide CPE agility. You can get some sense of just how muddy it really was – it was boot-suckin’, pudding-like mud. It was FILTHY. But we had fun – Tish ran fast, which was a huge improvement, plus she mostly stayed with me – she made up her own course, but I was happy that she was moving forward well and working with me – now she won’t compete again until she’s closer to being ready (she was actually better outside than inside, it seemed to me). I think I had a touch of heat exhaustion yesterday and left after Standard, since I was feeling yucky. Lisa came and ran Hobbes, her “girasset” (Basset hound who looks like he’s part giraffe), and she also ran Austin once – there is allegedly video of Austin’s competition debut, I can’t wait to see it.

Nina’s first AKC titles arrived in the mail yesterday (even though she earned them in April, and I obsessively checked and rechecked her qualifying ribbons, and reloaded the AKC’s points/title progression page so many times it told me to stop…even though I KNEW she’d earned them, actually HAVING them in my hands is important somehow). She is now known as Nina NAJ NF (pronounced “nee-nah nadge neuf”)…nah, I keed.  Still, these feel like A Big Deal, like her Canadian championship did. SHE doesn’t care, she just wants to wrestle with Tish and Rakki, and play agility, but I sure care!

This weekend at Western Lakes Training Club AKC at the Amherst Rec Center, Nina finished her first two AKC titles, with her Novice Jumpers With Weaves (NAJ) yesterday and Novice FAST (NF) today! She did wonderfully (although we have some work to do in Standard…), I am just thrilled, what a girl!

Three Nina videos courtesy of Jen here from last weekend’s CPE agility at Boom Towne outside Rochester. Jen is one of those people who is just so plain-old down-to-the-bone nice. Thanks again Jen!

Anyway…there is embarrassment contained herein:

The first video is our Saturday Standard run (we are in Level 4 Standard, Level 5 everything else), in which I break my own newly-established rule (and for which I am still kicking myself). Right or wrong, I have decided that I will not even ask for a stay at the start if I do not think I can get one (I will do a “drop and run” where I carry her in and put her down and we start), and if I ask for one, I have to take her off if she doesn’t stay. Well…she obviously doesn’t stay, I obviously asked her to (although I got a very nice sit!), and I obviously let her run anyway. I am teaching her NOT to stay by being 100% unclear about what “stay” means.  Bad Amanda, not fair to Nina, not fair to me either since I’m making it that much harder to actually get the behavior at a trial. Also, it clearly shows that we get all out of whack when we have a crazy start like that, it got her all caffeinated and she goes careening off shrieking like a banshee and misses the next obstacle, flies off the teeter, and we obviously did not qualify. Next trial I will drop and run (since it is AKC, and therefore expensive), but next CPE we’re back to taking her off if she doesn’t stay, even if we don’t do a single run all weekend.

The second video was Sunday’s Jackpot. The tapes marked an area you had to stay out of while the dog did the obstacle within the tape. This was a “nontraditional gamble”, and judge Pat called this a “Magic Easter Basket” Jackpot, the taped off obstacles acted as doublers for the obstacle your dog performed after the Magic one. We qualified in this run although I didn’t handle it the way I might have liked.

The third run was our Sunday Full House run (you need three “singles” (one-bar jumps), two “circles” (tunnels and tire) and one “Joker” (contacts, weaves and double jump in this case)). We scored 42 points in this run, it was a pretty nice run, we were working well together.

We also had a great Snooker run, where we were in pretty close contention for the “51 trophy” (judge Pat gives trophies to teams who get a score of 51 in Snooker, which is the highest score you can get). We had a bar down or we very well could have had it. We did qualify anyway, but with a lower score. We love Snooker, it’s a great strategy game and really tests your handling and planning skills, as well as your ability to think on your feet.

Tish will make her CPE debut at All Dawgs in May. Level 1 CPE is an awesome place to get a new dog some low-stress away-from-home experience – Level 1 has no weaves and no teeter, the courses are simple and straightforward, and the rules are very forgiving. Plus, CPE folks are super-nice!