Maxie's 4th Birthday

Continuing from yesterday's post on the 1st Anniversary of this Blog and Maxie's 4th Birthday, I woke up yesterday eager to make a pile of heart healthy Oatmeal Cookies in papillon shapes!  After trying my hand at shaping and baking a whole dog, I realized the baking process spreads the cookies out considerably, so I settled for 1 cookie shaped somewhat like a papillon head, sitting atop a pile of regular cookies.

Willow (L), Maxie (R)

I dressed Max and Willow up for a little photo shoot.  They were not terribly thrilled and the smell of the cookies was driving them crazy, but they were patient with me and I got a couple of decent shots.  Then I stuck 4 candles in the cookie pile.

Maxie (L), Willow (R)

John, myself, our house guest Wy Ming, and all 4 dogs gathered around the kitchen table, we sang Happy Birthday, and of course I blew out the candles for Max, wishing for many, many more.

John and Maxie, Wy Ming and Willow



Lucky (left), Fooh Fooh (right)

Then commenced an eating frenzy with 4 dogs at my feet, waiting for their morsels.  I am SURE they knew it was a party the way they pranced around. 

Particularly adorable was when Max and Willow did the tango. 

The whole party took all of 15 minutes.

Maxie and Willow TANGO!

For everyone else the party was short and sweet, for me it lingered on as I reviewed and processed a lot of really cute photos which are now posted to my Family Web Albums, here.

It's been fun over the years fashioning Maxie's little cakes from whatever was around the house at the time. I've never done a birthday cake for any of my other dogs. Don't know why. Maybe it's because we designated Valentine's Day as Fooh's birthday and we are already including him in that celebration. Or maybe Maxie's cute little face just lends itself to being sculpted. How would I make a Lucky cake? A Willow cake?  They'd rather have a frozen chicken neck anyway!

Sorting birthday photos today, I took a little trip down memory lane regarding Maxie's earlier cakes.


His 1st was a store bought carrot cake in a little tin.  I think it cost $1.00  I decorated it with plastic balloons with a wallet photo of him on top.  John, Audrey and I went with Maxie, Willow and Fooh to Highland Road Observatory, the dogs ate the cake, then we all went hiking in the woods, then fig picking. 

Maxie's 2nd birthday -- no cake, no party.  My brother Fred had died and my niece got married at my house during that period, and I simply lost track of the date.  Shame on me!

Maxie's 3rd birthday cake I used an upside down shortcake, with torn ham for the ears, carrots sticks for the ear feathers, whipped cream for his blaze, and raisins for eyes and nose.  Just whatever I could find around the house.  Again, a little party at my house with John and Audrey, nothing much, some photos to mark the event and let Maxie gobble up the whole cake, carrots and all (excepting the raisins)!

I love it that Maxie and the blog have the same birthday. I don't remember planning it that way, but how fitting.  And you'd be surprised how often he sits at the keyboard with me as I write about our adventures.   As I mumble to myself, he probably thinks I'm talking to him.

Last night John also brought me a little bouquet of flowers and a FoohMax Agility Blog Happy 1st Birthday card.  That was sweet!  It has sat by my computer all day and helped make me feel very happy despite the week of rain we're having and my dental appointment tomorrow.

Upwards and onward!

Linda and Ben

Yesterday, Linda G. and Ben came over for lunch.  Linda is a club-mate who does our newsletter, and Ben is her 3 year old rescue Golden, a 90 pounder she found abandoned in the woods at about 4 weeks of age.  A huge dog with gobbs of energy and apparently some phobias and socialization issues.  Beautiful coat except he chews his feet so they are matted up.  Linda is working hard trying to fix these issues.

I kept my dogs away while we visited on the front porch then crated Ben out there while we went to the Mexican grocery store/restaurant down the road. I gave him a huge frozen turkey neck to keep him occupied, and when we got back he hadn't touched it.  When we opened the crate, though, he grabbed his bone, ran out in the yard and guarding it ferociously, gobbled it down.  We couldn't figure why he didn't eat it in the crate.  Then we went for a long walk in the neighborhood.  Within a few minutes Lucky and Ben were calmly walking shoulder to shoulder.  Ben heels a lot better than Lucky, who still pulls on the leash.  Bad mommy!  I haven't done enough leash training. 

I need to walk my dogs more anyway, because within 10 minutes my hips were burning!  If I hop up at 6:30 this summer while it's still cool out, get dressed, and don't turn on my computer until I get back from walking, I can do it.  Alas, that was my intention this morning but the coffee pot was calling, and I usually sip my first cup while reviewing my emails.  Without even thinking, I sat at my computer, and here I still am.  Shit!  Another bad habit to wrestle down.

As to turkey necks, I tried to buy more at Winn Dixie the other day and was shocked they've gone up to $2.19/lb.  They used to be $.99 or $1.29.  Guess the butchers have caught on that they make great dog treats.  So now I'm on the lookout for cheap turkey necks for my freezer.  One raw frozen turkey neck a week (chicken necks for little dogs) is supposed to clean their teeth, provide collagen for joint health, and safely satisfy the urge to chew (vertebra bones don't splinter).  Not to mention, it's a meal.

I've added Chicken and Turkey Necks to my Dog Treats and Recipes page, which keeps on growing.

Now, back from walking Max and Willow, visiting a neighbor along the way and running some errands, I'm now authorizing myself to play with Trial Genie some more.

Upwards and onward!

Walk New Dogs Together (Fooh/Max Video)

Here's a precious little clip I found a few days ago, "Maxie and Fooh Fooh's First Play Session".  A little history is in order for this one.

When we brought Max home at 4.5 lbs, Fooh Fooh HATED him.  Growled.  Snapped.  Lunged. What you might expect of a 40 lb., semi-wild Dingo, used to being the only dog in our household.  We thought "OMG how will this ever work?"  We kept them in separate parts of the house, in different yards.  At night, Max slept in our bed with his leash on my wrist so he wouldn't jump off, Fooh slept in his accustomed place on the floor at the foot of the bed, now leashed to the dresser so he couldn't jump up.  Watching TV at night, Fooh was leashed to John's arm, Max to mine, or Max was in a crate with Fooh circling around, growling.  After a week of this with no improvement, we had resigned ourselves to living this way permanently. Seems ridiculous now, but there it is.

Then I got the bright idea from Cesar Milan, The Dog Whisperer, to walk the dogs together each night.  He says they form a pack by walking together.  At first, John was up ahead with Fooh and me trailing 6' behind.  Then Max and I circled wide around and took the lead.  Gradually, on each walk, we shortened the space between them and within a few days, after 10 minutes, they could walk side by side, me with an ever watchful eye and ready to jerk Maxie out of Fooh's snapping jaw any second.

Within a week of doing these 20 minute walks through the neighborhood streets, they walked like chums from the start of the walk and I finally felt confident enough to put them loose together in the living room.  This little clip (Maxie about 7 months, 5 lbs.) captures the result:

Now, 3 years later, all my dogs roam loose together in any room I'm in, unless there is anything resembling food around.  Fooh is very jealous of food.  I still separate them when I leave the house, and of course, I still never leave Maxie or Willow outside alone, with or without the big dogs.  They look too much like prey to the hawks and owls that frequent our air space, a fox or two have been sited in the woods before, and the big dogs can play rough.

I now believe totally in walking new dogs together to get them to accept each other quickly.  When I start up a new class, first thing I do is have all teams walk with me around the perimeter of the field.  By the time we've gone around just one time, all the dogs seem to be friendly, focused and settled in, not to mention warmed up and ready to learn.

Upwards and onward!

Weave Relays

Weave Relays are a great way to build a dog's muscle memory for running the weaves at top speed, and I try and put both of my dogs thru this exercise at least once a week.  It's a lot of fun and gets them all revved up.

So, here's 2 videos, one of Maxie doing Weave Relays With 2 Trainers, then another of Lucky doing Weave Relays With 1 Trainer.  Maxie's 2 step is perfect for his small size.  Lucky, a larger dog, has also chosen to be a 2-stepper, which is fine by me. In the interests of time and file size, I cut out about half of the repetitions from these videos, but they do not tire from 10 to 20 reps.  They are actually disappointed and fuss at me when I say "Game Over".  My dogs stay interested because there is food involved.  I don't give a treat every single pass, but most of the time I do.

Trainers at both ends should stand back several feet from the opening, and change their position along a left/right line, so their "send" is given from different spots and the dog has to enter from a variety of angles.  If the dog messes up, don't give a treat, just send them back through for another chance to earn a cookie.  After they catch on, you don't even need to send them.  They just go.  And go.  And go.

2 TRAINERS

ONE TRAINER:

 

Not shown in the video, this exercise should be handled from both sides of the weaves, and as the dog's love of weaving increases, introduce a jump before and after, etc.

Speed It Up
This same relay game can be played with 1 or 2 trainers over the dog walk, the A-frame, a tunnel, a jump-tunnel-jump configuration in a straight or curved line.  Even puppies catch on quickly to this game.  I call it "Speed It Up".  One day, I'll create videos of these:
Dog Walk Relays
A-Frame Relays
Tunnel Relays

Upwards and onward!

Jump Chutes (Continued)

Lucky takes the 5th jump in the chute.

I first discovered and blogged about Jump Chutes last year, tried to measure my dogs to see what "body type" they are, and of course, mine don't remotely fit the 4 types described in The Clothier Natural Jumping Method, so all the charts Susan Clothier gives about calculating your dog's stride and how far apart to set the jumps to train proper jumping style were pretty much down the toilet. I played with it awhile then got discouraged.

Lately I've set up a few jump chutes for my students, including Lucky, and today I am revisiting the book, setting up my video camera and trying to determine how Lucky really jumps. She jumps so high, I would like to teach her to jump lower, which should improve her course time on competitive runs.

Stride is briefly defined as the distance between one takeoff point and the next takeoff point, and is ideally, according to Clothier, Body Length x 3.

Bounce is briefly defined as taking no strides between jumps, dog just lands between jumps and immediately bounces over the next jump, supposed to be Body Length x 2.

I took Lucky's measurements again: 22" long, 20" high, 11" ground to elbow.
If I take the closest ratios Susan gives for those dimensions, Lucky is:
a rectangular dog, elbow at 11" from ground, which is greater than 1/2 her height at withers.
Lucky's Stride is supposed to be, more or less, 22"x3, or 66", or 5.5 feet.
Lucky's Bounce is supposed to be, more or less, 22" x 2, or 44", or 3.6 feet.
(with different body styles, you might have to add + 1/3 to body length to get the right footage).

With this intel, I should set 5 jumps in a straight line, 2 strides apart, or 11' for Lucky.
Lucky bounces over 5 20" high jumps set at 8' apart, and has to work to slow down and collect between jumps. So did all my students' dogs. Same at 9' apart. At 11' apart, Lucky easily bounces over each jump but still holds power in reserve. Trying to determine when she would begin taking a stride between jumps, I moved them to 12' apart. She still clears them in a single bounce, but she jumps with much less clearance than the foot or so she usually clears her jumps, which I caught on video today. The first time, she knocked 2 bars, the rest of the runs she nailed them all perfectly, which indicates she learns as she goes, and has at least a 12' extended bounce stride, which is 6.5 x her body length. WOW! This video was her 3rd pass, with a little tugging reward at the end. In it, she shows just the right amount of clearance for efficiency and speed without knocking bars, and jumps very rhythmically. She covered 60 foot of ground in about 4 seconds/about 5 YPS.  In her 6 competition Jumpers runs to date, she is averaging about 3.4 YPS.

Aside: How stupid of me to be training in my wooden clogs. I can barely walk!  Could easily twist an ankle! Yet I was too lazy to go put on my tennies for just 10 minutes of training. Shame on me.




After a few weeks of this, I am to add "oxers" (double bar jumps), which is supposed to cause her to put a stride in between, improving her "impulsion".  I still don't know her capacity and probably, neither does she.  (NOTE: Susan recommends training jump chutes no more than 3 days a week, 3 reps, 2 times, with a 10 minute break in between, so this will take awhile to find out.

Upwards and onward,

Lucky's Mobile Photos

Just got my disk in from professional photographer Michael Loftis, with 2 photos purchased of Lucky in Mobile.  Here's the first one, which I love for the way it captures her beautiful coat and build, enthusiasm and focus:


Photo by Michael Loftis

  and here's the same one, which I printed out and decorated with her 4 1st place Q's earned that weekend, jumping at 26":

Here's the other one, with her jetting thru the tire like a border collie, with dead center aim and a look that's all business:

Photo by Michael Loftis

Even though she's still a novice dog, with a barely past novice handler, I think she has enormous potential in this Agility gig!  I am really looking forward to running with my All American Girl.  For those who insist that pure bred dogs are far superior to mutts, that mutts should never have been included in obedience and agility trials, I think the challenge is now on for them to prove their claims.

Upwards and onward!

Amite Agility Trial Thurs-Sun

Maxie: 6 runs, 3 Q's (two XS and one XJ), 2 1st places, 1 2nd place, 1st QQ, 87 MACH points
Lucky Lucy: 6 runs, 2 Q's (one each NA and NAJ), 2 2nd places, 2 Novice Titles: NA, NAJ

The RV Parking area, right up next to the arena.
My pop-up camper on the right.

Just got back from 4 days in Amite, about an hour from home. Spring breezes, clear skies, but still got into the upper 80's and I broke a sweat a few times.

I brought the pop-up camper. John followed me there on Thursday morning, we arrived around 11 and had 3 hours to set up then help the ring crew set up for the match at 4. He stayed thru Lucky's novice runs on Friday before heading home. Then I was on my own, including packing up the camper to leave on Sunday afternoon. I was the very last one to leave, except for Michele S. who mercifully stayed behind to help me. It was hot, windy, I had trouble getting the awning zipped up and was running on fumes by that point, just short of tears. When I got home I was totally exhausted. Michele S made a good point -- that the pop-up is good for "testing out whether I want to do agility", but if I decide I really do, I should get something more comfortable and easier to fool with. Also, she said motor homes don't really give much trouble if you use them regularly. The problem comes in with them sitting up.

PERFORMANCE NOTES:

Lucky with her Novice Title Buttons
and 2nd place Ribbons



LUCKY: We got a shaky start from home, leaving a few hours late because Lucky was throwing up and had diahrrea. I believe she ate some poison grass off the club's agility field on Wednesday night while fetching her tug toy from the grass. The field had been sprayed the day before. She was the only one of our 4 dogs who got sick, so it wasn't a virus. At any rate, she had an empty stomach on Thursday, half rations on Friday and more diahrreah, and she had NO BOUNCE IN HER STEP whatever. I lowered her jump height to 20" from the 26" she jumped in Mobile. She managed to get her 3rd leg and TITLE in Novice Standard on Saturday, though, so moved up to Open Standard on Sunday where she scratched horribly with a "Where The Hell Are You Going" kind of run. By Sunday afternoon, though, she was clearly feeling better, and managed to get her 3rd leg and TITLE in Novice Jumpers, too.  I took her photo when we got home, but never could get her ears up. She seems not very fond of her wearing her ribbons on her collar.

WILLOW:  Maxie did much better in the crate with Willow along, no howling or yapping, earning Willow the official title of "Crate Mate Extaordinaire". While she is virtually untrainable in doing anything but whatever she wants to do (which is eat, speak, and be close to me), she now has an important job at trials and does it very well.

MAXIE: As to performance, Maxie nailed the weaves 4 times, ran fairly fast and fairly smooth, didn't sniff a single time or run off to visit anyone, mostly paid attention to me, made very good time, QQ'd for the first time, and got double MACH points for 2 1st place runs. His success was helped by the fact that Gee!, a long haired dachshund with more experience and very fast, was not behaving well this weekend. Found out later his owner/handler, Sharon, had hurt her foot on Friday and Gee! must have picked up on that. Also, two other Papillons, Jet and Lilly, who usually smoke Maxie on time if they Q, weren't running this weekend. All that spelled good luck and placement for us.

PLACEMENT: Just goes to show there are all sorts of angles to placing, and it's not dependant solely on your dog's performance. Only Q's and Time are a pure measure of performance.

VIDEOS: I was not able to video the 8" Excellent dogs, as usual, but I couldn't video the Novice dogs either, including Lucky and me, Kimberly with Beau, nor Jane with Bean. John caught us on Friday, Kimberly came back all day Saturday to help with the videos, Nedra, Loralie and a new friend, Lisa Jones got us Sunday morning, and Tracey hung around til the bitter end on Sunday to, in her own words, "support our club's novice teams", which I greatly appreciated and she videoed us all with my camera. By the time the novice dogs run, see, most of the Excellent teams have cleared out. I find it odd that our instructors don't hang around to see how their own students are doing! If it was their child or family member, I bet they wouldn't even think of leaving.  Be that as it may, unless I get a willing video crew together, it's going to be impossible to film the 8" and 20" Excellent dogs shortly, when I have a dog running in each height category. I enjoy filming and reviewing everyone else's videos, but if I can't get my own dogs filmed, I won't be filming everyone else!

RV CULTURE: The RV'ers outdid themselves every night. After all the teams went home and the crew had laid out new courses for the next morning, out came dish after dish of food, the RV'ers and some crew gathered around a rectangle of cafeteria tables in the atrium, and the laughter could be heard for 2-3 hours after that, from all the way out in the parking area. I was invited over and over to attend, by Joe, Michele S, and others, and I made a brief appearance on Friday night for a few bites, but I was so darned exhausted on Saturday night I couldn't even lift a spoon to my face, much less walk back to the arena. I was asleep by 9 p.m. and didn't regain consciousness until 5:30 a.m. Apparently there is a strong RV culture I didn't even know about -- people who camp out routinely at the shows have created a strong agility family. Sometimes the hosting trial crew provides a few dishes, games, etc. I don't think our club does that, but the RV'ers all invited me to take the initiative in Port Allen. I think I'll bring them a pot of my chili, but just on my own behalf.

STAMINA: I am utterly astonished at the stamina these agility regulars have. I mean, up at the crack of dawn to set up courses, reset courses all day, run several dogs, solve problems, after the last run and everybody else leaves, show up to lay out courses for the next day, then party for hours afterwards, day after day. And all with the greatest good cheer. Then poor Michele S, the Trial Secretary, after all the other RV'ers have left, stays behind for an extra half-hour to help me finish packing up my camper and hitch it to my car. That girl has incredible strength and speed, always good natured and sweet. I couldn't get over how fast she works. Even at her age, I don't remember being that fast. But she made me realize how slow John and I move these days, especially me.

Trial Site Summary: See here.

LESSONS LEARNED:

At one point, while walking a course, some of us complained to the judge about an obstacle being directly in the path between two other obstacles. It seemed it should be moved to the side a few feet. She explained that Agility was a test of handler's awareness as well as the dog's ability to follow, and she refused to move it! This compared to last week, when the judge moved a see-saw out of the way so handlers would not trip over it as they rounded the corner.

On one run, after the last jump, Maxie and some other dogs ran out the gate and could have been disqualified.  It is important to continue to direct your dog away from the gate opening after they complete the last jump, and if they do appear to be running out, call them back sharply.

GOALS MET:

• Lucky's Novice Titles, but not quite at Maxie's record of 6 Q's in 6 runs. Lucky made 3 Q's in 6 runs for Novice Jumpers, 3 Q's in 5 runs for Novice Standard. This in 2 trials, Mobile and Amite. I also got her measured for the 2nd time, so she should get her permanent jump height card from AKC within a few weeks.
• Maxie is on track for 2011 with an equivalent of 1 Q in each category at each trial (of course I would prefer we did better, but this is my minimum goal). We've done 3 trials: New Iberia, Mobile, Amite, and he has 3 MAX Q's, and 3 MAXJ Q's (10 needed for each Masters title). As a bonus, he now has 1 QQ, and 87 MACH points, which count towards his MACH titles. I don't have any goals set for qualifying for Nationals 2012, which requires 6 QQ by later this year.

NEW GOALS:

• Lucky: Two more trials, 12 more runs, 6 Q's at least, 2 Open titles. Improved speed. Placement.
• Maxie: Try to exceed the current average of 1 Q per trial per class. Try for QQ's and MACH points. Improved speed.
• John and I want to attend a Nationals Championship, not to compete but just to see how it is. I've heard the dogs at those levels run so fast and so accurately, it puts our local standards to shame. I want to see if that's true.
• Continue to improve my stamina.
• Ditch the camper. Get an RV. While the camper is cozy and comfy as can be and I love being in it, it takes too long for one person to set up and take down. It's best if set up in one location for a week, with no rush to vacate or fear being left alone in a strange place

 Upwards and onward!

Mobile Agility Trial - Maxie and Lucky

Maxie 6 runs, 2 XJ Q's, one 4th place
Lucky  6 runs, 4Q's 2 NJ, 2 NS, 4 1st places
Videos posted here.


This was Lucky's first AKC trial, and Maxie's 2nd Excellent B trial. Each dog did 2 runs each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, meaning I did 4 runs per day for the first time, 12 in the whole weekend, plus a match run with Maxie on Thursday. Dogs ran small to tall all weekend, Maxie ran first thing in Excellent, and Lucky was the very last dog to run each day in Novice. So 3 long days for us.

Poor Lucky, such a sweetheart, endured without complaint 4 days of either being crated, on leash, controlled in the ring,  confined to hotel room at night, with only about 15 minutes of playing fetch with me in the grassy areas if no other dogs were around.  As soon as we got home she cavorted her muscular self around the back yard for 2 hours, wildly running, leaping, chasing imaginary squirrels, shaking her toys.  I have to figure out a better outlet for her to enjoy some personal freedom at trials.

I had Lucky (a 20.25" height dog weighing 40 lbs.) jumping at 26", which she cleared with a several inches to spare, but I caught a lot of flack from people concerned for her shoulders and ruining her career with long-term injury. This concerns me too, of course, except that she's been jumping 2 foot fences since she was 10 weeks old and jumps 5' fences now, several times a week. The arguments that impressed me the most, though, were Susan K, with her boxers, who said that just because Lucky "can" jump high, doesn't mean that's the best competitive style for her. This was further confirmed when Lucky NQ'd on an otherwise qualifying jumpers run, due to the extra time it takes to jump higher. She missed qualifying by 3 seconds. She could have made the time but for a run by at the first tunnel, and a stop before taking one of the final jumps, but there was no time cushion for such mistakes.  These considerations decided me to jump her 20" in Amite in 2 weeks and see how that goes. Tracey calls 20" an "unfortunate class" due to so many entries at 20" and only 4 chances to place. Lucky was the only dog entered at 26", so naturally if she Q'd, she won 1st place!!! And everyone knows how much I love those placement ribbons!  Susan K, on the other hand, says "placement" means nothing toward titling.  All that matters to the seasoned competitor is the Q's - accuracy + time.

Maxie's performance was less than stellar! 2 Q's out of 6 runs. The NQ's were mostly small errors, only one screwup per run. He nailed 5 of 6 of his weaves, but ran behind me to the A-frame I was blocking on one run, on another I called tunnel and he was going straight for it, almost in it, when I mysteriously blurted "OUT", and he obliged by swerving around the entrance! Why I did that I have no idea!  On another he ran past a jump then turned back and took it backwards.  His videos are posted here.  At least he didn't sniff the ground, visit the bar setters, or pee on the tunnel this trial -- a huge improvement.  Lucky, in fact, was amazinging focused on me most of the time, which was clear in the videos.  She had one "stare-out-the-window" moment while in the weaves, but finally completed them.

Trial Site Summary:
 (I've decided not to clutter up this blog with this detailed information.   I'm starting to keep a separate page called Trial Site Summaries (see link on upper right hand column) on all the sites I've been to, including photos and videos.)


Suffice it to say, I stayed alone at the Red Roof Inn, and find staying alone much more restful than having a roommate.  I need down time to rest, reflect, and process.


Michael and Maxie

Michael Loftis' photography booth was right next to me and and did a brisk business all weekend.  I myself could hardly wait to see the photos of Max and Lucky, and will certainly purchase a few. Besides which, they were wonderful neighbors. It was my first trial with Maxie and Lucky together and I thought they would keep each other sufficient company in side by side crates, but when I took Lucky away to compete, Maxie went into fits of howling.  Of course I was away and didn't hear it so Michael and his wife, who own a papillon, ended up babysitting Maxie quite a bit. In fact, Maxie and Michael took quite a shine to each other and I often found him holding Maxie on his breaks, Maxie slobbering him with kisses, etc.  They make a striking pair.  Took this snapshot with my 2G iPhone.  No flash.  Not bad!

Judges:
Friday: Michele Fletcher, nice courses, not too difficult. She was very pleasant, very fair.
Saturday and Sunday: Blair Kelly, impecably dressed in white starched pants, white shirt and tie, blue jacket. I liked his loud voice and whistle so we didn't miss our cues or briefings (some judges barely whisper), always positioned himself in the middle of the ring so he was often in video camera range. Nice curvy courses, not too difficult yet sufficiently interesting.

Lessons Learned:

1. My running and stretching exercises have definitely improved my ability to run faster and stagger around less.
2. Maxie needs Willow as a crate mate. It appears Maxie won't tolerate being left alone. No problem, as Willow loves coming along, isn't much trouble, and does fine if left alone in the crate while Maxie runs.
3. Lucky needs practice with jump chutes to lower her trajectory and lengthen her stride.

4. Solid down contacts are an absolute MUST, and must be trained for from the very beginning. No dog, even Maxie size, should ever be trained to do a running contact. I saw too many dogs, including Lucky, NQ due to a contact fault. Michael Loftis photoed many spectacular see-saw fly-offs at this trial. Here is only one example.
5. I tried doing Sat and Sun videos in SP instead of HQ format. Didn't seem to make a bit of difference in upload speed or quality. It's all still crappy. I'm asking Santa for a better video camera.
6. Maxie will not sit or down on the rubber topped table. Thank goodness they changed the rule to a 4-on about the same time those rubber tops came along. Anyone who thinks dogs can't feel the surfaces under their feet, think again!
7. The popular notion that "it's ALWAYS the handler's fault", is wrong. Sometimes the dog gets it wrong, as witnessed this weekend by some perfect handler executions that the dog misinterpreted or wasn't paying attention.

STUDYING THE VIDEOS:
After uploading and watching so many agility videos, I have begun seeing a pattern that I had not noticed before -- elusive movements, a certain cadence, the invisible cord holding a team together or, if broken, causing it to fall apart. I began to realize why I have been bothering to do all the fricking work involved to take, upload and label all these videos. It isn't because the people I video will ever appreciate it. The truth is, it isn't primarily for them.  The truth is, money simply can't buy enough lessons and seminars to teach me what watching these videos over and over has given me. It's like art or music appreciation lessons. The untrained eye or ear simply can't see the subtlties, the nuances. It takes thousands of repititions to begin to understand, on an intuitive level, to internalize, what makes a team work well.  I see an accelerated improvement in my own performance because of internalizing this information.

I sometimes get Chinese Takeout when too busy to cook, and I always grab the fortune cookies and save for opportune moments like coming home from trials and trying to assess what happened.

TODAY'S FORTUNE COOKIE:
"Failure is the path of least persistence."
JOHN'S FORTUNE COOKIE:
"Failure is a dress rehearsal for success."

So appropo, and so odd how we both got messages about failure, in light of all the NQ's Maxie and I have gotten so far in 2011 (9 out of 12) and witnessed this weekend. One thing, these agility folk don't let their failures stop them, so I feel I'm in excellent company.

Upwards and onward!

Lucky's Monday Night Class Surprise!

The new Monday night Competitive Handling agility class started last night.  As usual I brought Maxie for his 7 p.m. "small dog" class, and Lucky tagged along.  If I get there half an hour early I can usually take Lucky for a practice run on the Excellent course, and staying late after class, I can usually work her on some equipment off the main course.  As I've mentioned elsewhere, she's only had 4 formal lessons, way back in Beginners. Whether she runs or not, it's educational to watch the more seasoned "big dog" teams run, because big dogs pose a different set of handling problems than small dogs like Maxie.

Surprise! Last night, Nedra invited Lucky to join the 8 p.m. class as a substitute if any of the other 5 enrolled students don't show up.  Since only 3 showed up, Lucky got a spot and ran the course about as well as the more advanced dogs.  I even attempted layering the A-frame and weaves, and she did it.  I was thrilled.  We must work on her wide turns, though.  She's not much at "collecting" on course, though she can turn on a dime at full speed at home.

Since we're in our first AKC trial this weekend, in Mobile, then Amite two weeks later, then Port Allen the weekend after that, we need all the practice we can get.  I figure, if she's practicing on Excellent courses, she should be able to nail the Novice courses, which as I recall are pretty straightforward figure 8's.  Can't wait to see if she matches Maxie's novice record of 6 for 6 for NA and NAJ.  I believe she can exceed it (Maxie got one 90), because I'm so much more experienced now and comfortable in the ring.  Actually, she could conceivably earn her OA and OAJ titles within a months' time if she just Q's 6 out of 9 times in each venue. On the other hand, as Kay advises, "never assume!"

So, without assuming, I can still dream, and my heart races when I think of it.

Now, on to the Agility field this morning to tackle the burrs (they are back with a vengeance this Spring) and help Nedra set up a course for the Wednesday night class.  Busy, busy, busy.  This agility stuff is filling my days with activity.  Good!  Less time to eat, or think about the Tsunami that just hit Japan, killing thousands.  John and I make our monthly donation to Doctors Without Borders and know they are over there representing us. There is not much more we can do except hold them in our hearts, pray, and be grateful we live inland.

Upwards and onward,