SK MB NUN AAC Regional Qualifier

On Sunday after running a fast, fun and clean Jumpers round, Reese and I qualified to represent our Region at the 2016 AAC National Championship in Montreal, PQ.  Yes indeed it was a squeaker as we earned 353 pts while needing 350 to qualify. Although I won't be making the trek to Montreal , I am very proud to have Qualified along side those who will be representing Team Saskatchewan.


Here is Reese's final Jumper round; video,  map and scribe sheet.  As someone pointed out....she talked me all the way through it. :)

Reese ATChC

ATChC Del Brave Flying Colours, CD, JH, WCI , DD , RE , CRXCL On Nov. 1/2015 at the Moose Jaw Dog Club Halloween Howl, Reese earned her 3rd and 4th Master Snooker legs to complete the requirement for Agility Trial Champion of Canada ATChC. The final leg came on judge Bridgette Hunters course. It was a great weekend 2 other dogs and handlers earned their ATChC the day before. They were Dr. Ann and her Cairn Terrier Tigger and Darla Montgomery and her Retriever mix Bailey. The Moose Jaw dog club presents the handlers that earn an ATChC title at their trial with an embroidered patch to commemorate the occasion. Love the idea.

On Sunday morning we started off needing 2 Master Snooker rounds to complete the ATChC requirements. My plan was to attempt all 4 reds then go into the closing, if I did this I would only need to complete the 5 obstacle which was 6 weave ploles and I would have 41 points, one more than the 40 needed to qualify. Reese and I stuck to our plan despite being the 2nd last dog to run and watching plenty of successful runs that provided lots of pressure to change the plan. Number 6 was a serpentine that provided lots of opportunity for wide turns and the ever tempting teeter

Jump Grids with the Nugg

In May, I started an on line jump grid class with Nugget. We are now just winding down after 8 lessons spaced throughout the summer. Nugget has really come a long way.

Nugget's 1s Agility Trial

On July 24, 2015 Nugget was entered in her 1st AAC Agility Trial. Nugget is not quite ready for a full agility course, but I wanted to enter her for a couple of reasons. 1) to get her 2 needed measurements , so I know what height she has to jump. 2) this particular trial has a totally fenced ring 3) to have her first experience be a filled with fun. AAC now allows toys in the ring if a dog is entered FEO (For Exhibition Only) . The trial was hosted by Prince Albert Kennel and Obedience club. We got to the trial site on Friday night early enough to get Nuggets 1st measurement. She was measured as greater (>) than 16” but less (<) than 21”. This means in AAC she would jump 22” Regular or 16” Special. I chose to enter her @ 16” Special FEO in both Gamblers runs. That way I could take her bumper into the ring and find short 4 to 7 obstacle sequences that she could easily do. First of all I was very happy that she measured under 21”, but even happier with how she faired in the ring and outside the ring. She had a few moments of judge visiting and a couple of times I could she her nose go to the ground, but over all I was happy with her debut.

Brandon Sun - Reese Master Jumpers

This picture of Reese was on the front page of the Brandon Sun March 24, 2014.  It was taken in a Master Jumper round.

Master Jumper Dog of Canada

On February 16, Reese ran clean in all 3 Master Jumper rounds to earn her MJDC title.  All 3 courses were designed and judged by Dave Langen and are just the kind Reese likes fast and fun. 

In this run I was pretty sure I had a refusal in the back corner.  When talking to Dave about refusals, he explained that he couldn\t call a refusal if she never looked at the jump.  She never did, it was difficult to get her to stop looking at me, which is a product of no motion. Something to work on for sure.

This is the 2nd round and was the round her title was earned on.  She ran it in 27.11 sec which was faster than any other dog in any class or height ran it.

Round 3 , Reese broke her start line and I felt like I was playing catch up for the whole run.

2 X 2 Weave training with Nugget

Nug getting ready to try the freshly taped poles.

 

This weekend I started weave training with Nugget. After several sessions we have gone from 2 poles angled on the reward line at 9 and 3 (of a clock face) to 2 sets of poles angled at 1 and 7 and about 7 feet apart. 

Things seem to be clipping along at a pretty good rate. One factor is that Nugget really seems to like the pole game as much as she likes to retrieve. My struggle has been the timing of my throw and the accuracy, but she is forgiving on all accounts and just keeps playing.

Reese's 1st Jumper Q

We are just back from the Stand and Fly Agility Camp held in Prince Albert. What a wonderful camp we had.  We learned so much, but have so much to learn, I will be back next year for sure.

After camp there was a 1 day AAC trial and I entered Reese in 2 Jumper runs and 2 Steeplechase runs. The Steeplechase runs were fast and fun, but a little over our heads. I caused a few off courses with my handling.  But the good news was that Reese completed 3 sets of 12 weaves and held all her A-Frame contacts in the Steeplechase runs and did manage a clean run in her last Jumper round of the day.  Her time was 23.65 seconds, I can definately see where we can tighten up some turns.  Clean or not, it was really a lot of fun. Let's Play again soon.

Owning It!

After agility class was complete, Deb and I set up the dog walk at full height, along with 2 jumps and a tunnel. The exercise was taken from Bud Houston’s Blog and is intended to work on the dogs exit or dismount from the contact of the dogwalk. The blog suggests that the dog be released to all 4 positions without handling , I took this to mean handle it like it were a distance challenge.


The biggest challenge I could see is that Reese has not done a full height dog walk at the training center. We rarely set the dog walk at full height in the building; the flooring plus the lack of room rarely provide a safe approach. Deb and I were very conscious of the slip hazard and handled the dog walk approach by pushing the dog over a jump set parallel to the dog walk up contact. We let the dog square up their approach before we continued on our path along the walk. Both Reese and Rush have good 2 on 2 off contacts, so handling the dismount was fun and fairly easy.

After having success with this sequence we decided to work on having the dogs discriminate between the tunnel and the dog walk approach. We added a set of 6 weaves directly in line with the dog walk, but on the other side of the jump.

In order to set Reese up to succeed, I started close and approached the 2 obstacles with her on my right. I made a deliberate step sideways towards the tunnel with exaggerated movement. I then backed up about 3 feet on every attempt, until I was sending her from about 15 feet away. Then I switched her to my left side and did the same with the dog walk. I was so close to the dog walk up contact that she would have to duck behind me to take the wrong (tunnel) obstacle. I repeated this a couple of times. Then sent her over the jump directly ahead of the dog walk, had her do the weave poles and wrap back over the jump heading to the dog walk / jump combo. I asked her to do the “Walk” but I think I was late and she had already committed to the tunnel. When she came out I picked her up on my left side with out stopping to tug or reward her I spun her back to the sequence. She took the jump with good speed, completed the weaves quickly, as she turned back toward me I directed her over the jump and clearly said “Walk” . In a split second you could see the wheels turn and she glanced at the tunnel, but then took the walk. I was thrilled; we celebrated and tugged, and ended our session here.

As Bud Houston says in his blog, having success once does not mean we own the behavior. I have to say that I was thrilled with Reese’s honest attempts to process the information I was giving her. As always, much more to come….

Work and Play / Just once more!

Today while Deb and I were training, we got out the stop watch and for every second of work, we had a second of play.
The 7 obstacle sequences we were running were taking between 20 and 27 seconds, from the beginning of the lead out to the last obstacle. Some runs went smoothly, and others not so much, but after each sequence I tugged with Reese for the amount of time we spent on the sequence.

This idea came to me after reading part of Marsha Houston’s Blog “The Two Minute Dog Trainer”. In the blog, Marsha talked about working drills, and that often we get so caught up in getting it right that we don’t reward our dogs for their efforts. I like to think that I am not guilty of doing everything "Just one more time" and forgetting to reward, praise and end when Reese still wants to play. So doing this was a bit of an eye opener for me.

Playing for the same amount of time as we worked was very exhausting, but exhilarating for both Reese and I.
Some observations:
1. Reese was totally focused on what we were doing..Before the sequence, during the sequence and after the sequence.
2. Physically, there was no way that I could tug for a full 27 seconds, though I am sure Reese could. So in the play time, I started running with Reese, so she had to stay with me rather then tug against me. She really seemed to like this and surprising to me she did not cross in front of me, behind me, jump on me or miscue to the tug (read bite me).
3. Having to play for the same amount of time that we worked, really had me breaking things down in to smaller, manageable parts. I worked on 3 obstacles and when I got the hard part., I stopped and played.

My criteria in training is for Reese to do things with speed and motivation. So it makes sense to keep things short and fun rather then try to train when she is tired or disinterested. So really Less is More!.

Agility Grids - Blank course maps

Have you ever wanted or needed a grid to map a course in competition or at a seminar? The Agility Nerd has a web site where you can create blank course maps of any size, download them as PDFs, print them and share them with your friends.
Here is the web site. http://agilitycourses.com/
It sounds like the page may have more capablilities in the future. The grids would also be useful for Rally O Courses.

Agility Record Book

When I first started entering Agility trials, I was pretty good about keeping track of trials, Q's and runs. Now after competing in 3 different agility venues, and although I only have 1 dog, I am not so organized, and my record keeping has fallen by the wayside.

Recently I found a free down load called Agility Record Book created by David Connet. All that he asks is that you make a donation to an animal Rescue organization or animal shelter of your choice. The program supports a number of different venues, provides a training log option and has very valuable comment boxes for things like course conditions, clubs and judges. Another good thing is that it keeps track of multiple dogs and has a place to record their registration numbers. I will no longer be scrambling to the file cabinet to find registration numbers and hopefully the rest of Ardi's agility runs will be recorded.

Rainy Day Trial

The Rain couldn't dampen the spirit of agility at the Moose Jaw Band City AAC Trial on June 14, 2008. The morning started off with sun shining and a few clouds in the sky, but by mid-afternoon the skies opened up. The Starter dogs finished up the class as the rain started. Everyone headed for shelter it rained hard for a good 5 minutes, I peeked out of my shade tent to see the course builders and judges setting the course for the next class in the rain. Despite the rain people emerged from their tents to walk the course, work and run. Everyone seemed to be having fun.

An Agility trial with a little rain is more fun then a work day with good weather.



BCKOC - Rain Day