This past weekend at Boom Towne CPE I went in with two goals (on my birthday weekend!): 1) a Standard Q for Nina (it had been over a year since the last one, admittedly I pulled her a few times for start line stay issues and the like, but still…a YEAR! She is most of the way through her C-ATCH requirements in the games, but still in level 4 Standard!) and 2) for me to run Tish properly, more like Nina and less like a babydog, so Tish could run FAST, stay in the ring and have fun (since she got rewarded for leaving the ring at the NADAC trial, she has wanted to leave at the end to see if there are cookies or playmates available). Well, in the first two runs of the weekend, my awesome dogs fulfilled BOTH my goals, so the rest of the weekend (and it was awesome) was gravy. Jeannine said she thought I was running Nina twice until she saw the Tish-tail! AND TISH FINISHED ALL OF LEVEL 1!!! She finished THREE titles (easy to do in level 1 CPE, but very motivating nonetheless!). She also came right back into the ring when I called her (she did leave, but came right back, that is a HUGE improvement even over the National Specialty). I am also mixing up how I start her – she sometimes starts faster if I carry her in and get a bit of opposition reflex happening by revving her up but not letting her go right away, but she also worked her start line stay very well. I was so proud of my girls. Jen K kindly did some Flip filming again.
Saturday:
Tish Standard (you can see me do my silly tiny-steps mince here and there, instead of running her like she’s Nina, as Jeannine keeps reminding me to do, but I opted to let her run around and explore a bit, and she did come back and work):
Tish Snooker (very nice run, a Q, and she has a send to a tunnel AND called off the off-course tunnel wonderfully!):
Nina Wildcard (this is a classic Nina-Amanda disaster, from knocking the first bar after creeping on her start, to the off course at the second obstacle, and you can hear her shrieking at me the whole time – when we run well, it’s smooth and usually pretty quiet, but when we go off the rails…this is what it looks and sounds like – nice pull to the weaves at the end though!):
So…I am having the best time catching up with old Vallhund friends and spending time with new ones!
Nina’s Jumpers With Weaves today was a thing of beauty, she knocked a bar early or it would have been a perfect Q – fast, accurate, quiet, perfect weave entry, just awesome. Tish had a great time zooming around, but held her stay, came back and worked, and generally was a happy, speedy baby dog!
Tish’s Standard was another happy zoomfest (my only goal with her was to get her running fast and having fun, and we got that at least!). Nina’s…was a disaster. I knew I was in trouble at the start when she wouldn’t sit and I stupidly didn’t pull her…it got worse from there, wild, crazy maniac Nina was in full-on rabies mode! I pulled her after she flew off the teeter, and I had a hard time getting her to hold still long enough for me to grab her, she was spinning and barking and generally being a maniac. The judge was very nice and laughed and said she was telling me “screw you, mom!”.
We arrived last night after 11 hours of driving (well, I drove, the dogs just slept the whole way and never ONCE offered to do their share of the driving!). Today was herding about 2 hours away from the host hotel. If I’d been smart, I’d have stayed closer to the herding site…oh well! Severe weather today, lots of rain, some thunderstorms, tornado watch…but the show went on!
Tish’s herding instinct test (her first official test, and only her second time seeing sheep at all!):
She passed, she kept the sheep very close to us (performing a lovely figure 8, and nearly making the sheep knock me over – as the judge said more than once, herding IS a contact sport!). She did a lovely job of switching off her herding power at the end when I asked her to (you can see her ears go into “friendly Tish” position and her tail wag). A good “that’ll do” is a very important thing to have!
Nina’s first official AKC instinct test:
She thought about snacking on some sheep tails near the end, but didn’t do any damage and backed off when I told her to.
Nina is hormonally challenged, so Tish came out to play alone. Two NQ’s today.
Jackpot (the stinker ran out of the ring – she ran out and got to play with her brother at NADAC, so she thinks there is fun to be had outside the ring…need to nip this in the bud right quick!). An NQ, but nice start line stay and she is really building some speed now. I didn’t handle very well, wasn’t clear so she ran off. STOPPED CONTACT ON THE DOGWALK (you can’t really see it on the video because of the pillars) – I learned that lesson the hard way with Nina!
Standard (video error missed her BEAUTIFUL start line stay!). Again I wasn’t clear with my handling (I need to remember to adjust for the babydog!), so we had some off courses and some wandering, but she came back to work with me every time, and DID NOT run out of the ring.
GREAT day at Ebb Tide CPE today – Tish earned her first-ever agility title, her Level 1 Strategy Games (CL1-S), and Riley earned his first Q! The weather was lovely, if a bit hot for a while. Pat Saito’s courses were challenging but very nice to run. Nina had a couple of Q’s, but Standard was not to be this weekend, she was just so squirrelly out there!
Tish LOVED her herding instinct test! She wasn’t taking any crap from the sheep (other than in the direct poop-eating sense, of course) and wasn’t afraid to back a sheep off who was getting a bit stroppy at her. I don’t really know what I’m looking for, but the knowledgeable people said “GOOD DOG!” a lot and Kathy told me she should have no problem herding. Now to find the time to go regularly…
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!):
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!
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!
Overall costs of breeding a litter responsibly? More than you want to really think too closely about.
Getting an email or a call from a puppy owner telling you how awesome their puppy is? PRICELESS!!!!
Ron and Demi made their AKC agility debut Memorial Day weekend, and while Demi made up her own course and felt that her friend the dogwalk had betrayed her by turning into her enemy the teeter, she got better with every run and it sounds like they had a great time and she is showing real promise (and speed!).
Lisa and Austin did CPE agility this weekend and Austin is running fast, getting some Q’s and having fun (Lisa says she needs a rocket pack for herself to keep up with him).
The best feeling in the world amid all the self-doubt, angst, worry, and ups and downs about bringing puppies into the world is when you know they’re right where they should be: with people who love them.
