Oh Yeah, You Blend

Here is a short video of 10 month old Alice running through a wide open set of channel weaves (they’re stick in the ground poles set as channels). I misplaced one reward throw partway through this session and so she was popping out where the misplaced reward was (prior to that she’d been blasting through all the way). Just goes to show you how critical reward placement can be! VERY pleased with her. She is MAD when we stop working, she will work for as long as I want her to. Quitting while she’s still wanting more is easy, since she always wants more! I have to be strict with myself about stopping sooner rather than later and avoiding “just one more” syndrome.

She’s working two sets of 2 x 2 poles set apart from each other, and wide open channels. This way she is getting the idea of weave poles with no real stress on her body. I am making sure to move around myself so my position and movement (or lack thereof) are not a factor. I am really aiming for solid independent weave performance.

I actually videoed after we’d already been working for a bit, so this is towards the end of the (very short) session. It’s hard to throw accurately while videoing so I will use a tripod next time.

She’s in season but other than making her more cuddly than usual (she is the least cuddly of my Vallhunds usually), it hasn’t really affected her.

Mary Mullen. Tough courses. But so much fun. Zhora had a perfect weekend, even though Mary was maybe a little kinder than she needed to be on the table in Standard today.

SO proud of my girl. She earned Nina-level points this weekend.

We’re off until September. 3 QQ’s to go for MACH4!

Saturday Jumpers (QQ #76, third place, 21 points, 5.245 YPS, career high YPS to date!):

Saturday FAST (NQ):

Saturday Standard (QQ #76, third place, 29 points, 3.853 YPS):

Sunday Jumpers (QQ #77, 19 points, 4.691 YPS):

Sunday Standard (QQ #77, first place, 27 points, 3.653 YPS, very low Q rate on this course):

Nina’s scratched from this weekend and next thanks to a newly-diagnosed heart murmur. Until we know what it is (appointment with cardiologist is August 16th, also my wedding anniversary). Regardless of what it is, she will return to agility, since for her it’s a quality of life issue for sure, she loves agility more than anything. I just want to know what we’re dealing with.

I can feel myself using some of the concepts Melanie Miller taught me! And they’re helping!

So Zhora came out to play with Judge Sherry Jefferson on her own. One bar yesterday cost us a perfect weekend. Today she double Q’d even while practically swiveling her head on her neck like Linda Blair in The Exorcist to watch Sherry (she LOVES Sherry). Our Standard run today was just a thing of beauty, fast (she came second), accurate, connected.

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q, third place, 14 points kinda poky, 4.34 YPS):

Zhora Saturday Standard (NQ, nice run):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (QQ 75, third place, 17 points that’s more like it! 4.56 YPS, watch for head swiveling to see Meatball Sherry):

Zhora Sunday Standard (QQ 75, second place, 33 points, 4.18 YPS, really enjoyed this run):

YEAH THEY DID! And comfortably too!

(Nina was diagnosed with a new heart murmur on Monday, we’re going to a cardiologist on August 16th, I am keeping my fingers, toes and eyes crossed that she will be able to attend the Invitational this year. She has no symptoms, she is 100% her normal bouncy self)

I was lucky enough to attend the Melanie Miller seminar at Stone Hill Training Center in Central Square NY this past week. Zhora and I attended the Masters day on Monday, and on Wednesday Alice and I attended Puppy in the morning and Green Dog/Young Dog in the afternoon.

It was a wonderful two days! I usually feel like if I get one or two things out of a seminar (things I will actually use), then I got my money’s worth. Well, I MORE than got my money’s worth!

The concept of the “mouse line” (which I think comes from Jenny Damm, IIRC), where the handler should be running where a mouse would be running.

The idea of teaching obstacle independence well enough that a step towards the correct obstacle should be enough for the dog to commit to it, allowing the handler to move to where they need to be next.

The idea of me needing to SHUT THE HELL UP and just tell the dog where to go, perhaps reinforce that they are correct with a verbal (like “weave” or “jump”), but not muddy the water with using the wrong verbals or too many verbals.

Zhora did great on a horribly hot and humid day, she came out of her crate raring to go every time, and I only had to really rev her up halfway through her last turn of the day, and she rallied wonderfully. Love her work ethic so much. On one of my turns Melanie said “you’ve got some moves, girl!”, which I took as a compliment!

Alice was a revelation. I haven’t done much of anything with her for a couple of weeks, so I wasn’t expecting much. She did well enough running a course in the afternoon that one of the people who were there all day asked me if she was really the same puppy as in the puppy session in the morning. She worked her butt off! If I am clear with my cues, she knows and does her job, and does it with speed! I really credit the OneMind Dogs puppy stuff I did with her with this for sure. She had a couple of zooms when her brain was getting a bit fried, but she came right back and worked. And I believe in USING the zoomies (you will see in the videos that I just use her momentum to start running where I want her to go), I think this helps with enthusiasm and it also helps with developing the “team” aspect of the sport. She has a really impressive work ethic.

I didn’t get any videos from Zhora’s day, but here are three from Alice’s. Thanks so much to Sue for videoing as always!