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14 December 2007 ~ Strip Pairs!
At the USDAA trial in Kerrville this past weekend, we played a game called 'Christmas Strip Pairs' on Saturday evening. The entry fee was a toy for Toys for Tots. My friend Donna & I teamed up to play. When we saw the clothes (4XL shirt, party bead necklace, & elf hat) we both said 'OMG we could both fit in that!!' So we decided we'd try just that!
She ran first, came up behind me and put the shirt over my head while she still had it on...
It was quite comical!!! You can hear Susan Mitchell in the video - she was standing near our camera woman, I suppose. She was shocked just like everyone else. Of course we were ALL shocked when Susan & Gerry Brown did a big KISS after exchanging clothes in their run!!
Anyway, here's the video of the run...I slowed down the handoff so you could get the full effect :)
We won by over 10sec over the 2nd place team. Someone made the comment after we ran 'Good Lord, you two, your whole run was faster than most people's exchange!!' Tom Bridge (www.fastclicksphoto.com) took some great pictures of the event, and Donna, Siryn, Josie, & I had a little photo shoot at the end, with our outfits and our winnings...I'll pass along those pictures when I get them! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkdZIqqmOiQ
13 December 2007 ~ Kerrville Pics!
This past weekend, my friend Donna & I took a trip to Kerrville, TX (small town outside of San Antonio). Besides eating playing with bouncing Jell-O, we enjoyed hanging out with our fuzzy ones in the hotel room at the YO Ranch 'Resort & Hotel'. We got upgraded to a king suite since we requested a fridge for our raw-fed dogs' food and they were outta 2-bed rooms with a fridge. With the 3-4 dogs a night wedged in between us, I'd say we were just fine with the 1 bed!
Here they all are on the 1st night...
Donna has the 2 Poms (Puppy and Mindy) & the red merlie BC, Siryn.
The 2nd night, Ivie got in on the Pom action...
Then she & Puppy got REALLY snuggly -- it was ADORABLE!!
Is that the cutest thing ever or what??
To all of those people that say Ivie is 'aggressive'...I say phooey on that!!
Jos just wants to get away from all the action and catch some z's!!
She's the largest 'pillow princess' around :)
30 November 2007 ~ Girlie Videos!
Several new trial-compilation videos on my youtube page...
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=EmilySnider
It's so hard to get enough people to video all of my runs in a weekend. Sorry about the crumming lighting in 2 of them, and sorry I didn't get all of their runs like I have been...I just need to hire a full time videographer, I suppose! :)
Ivie over Thanksgiving weekend
Josie over Thanksgiving weekend
Ivie, November 16-18th
Josie, November 16-18th
'Extras'
My friend's dog Siryn over Turkey Day Weekend
Ivie in a Steeplechase last Spring
& in case you've never seen it...
All my girls weaving
23 November 2007 ~ Cute Josie story
Last weekend (the 16th-18th) we were at a small USDAA show in a small Texas town. There is a climate-controlled cement-floor crating area, and the surface in the actual arena is a sawdust type material.
Well, I was sitting on my crate mat putting on my shoes before the first run one morning and I had Josie loose as she was about to run. I was 'revving her up' but asking her questions about agility...such as...
"Wanna go...Tunnel?! Wanna go...WalkIt?!" and she'd spin & bark and look around. If a toy was nearby she'd grab it and shake it and go 'uuuuurrrrrr' as she death shook it. This is a 'thing' we do :)
When I said "Wanna go...Table?!" she spun around, spotted a chair at the crating area about 15 feet diagonally from us and ran to it, hopped in, assumed a fast DOWN, and laid her head on the arm rest like "does this count as a table?" It was SO Cute!! I just had to crack up!
Her face was so cute and innocent and she tried so hard to do what I asked!! Just Precious!!
19 November 2007 ~ Josie AAD & Ivie did good too!!
This weekend was, by far, one of the best I’ve ever had. We had awesome runs all around (well, save a few total ‘brain hemorrhage’ moments by the Ivernator) and I was just beaming with pride all weekend long. My girlies did me so proud!! & best of all…they had a great time doing it! They wore ear-to-ear smiles all weekend long!
Ivernator, Josie-Monkey, & I travelled to a little town called Carthage , TX for a 3-day USDAA show. The judge was Eric Bruce (the kilt-wearer) and the surface is basically mulch. Large wood chips mixed in with sawdust. It’s completely bizarre and typically takes some getting used to. It’s REAL thick in places and nonexistent, exposing the hard ground below, in others. Totally weird – this is the only venue I’ve ever seen with such a surface!
Both girls went 7 for 11 this weekend, and they each earned 2 new titles! Read on to learn more J
Friday started off with a bang, in my book. Masters Gamblers was the first class of the weekend and it was also Josie’s first EVER Masters run! She totally SMOKED the opening (even though I fell and rolled at the end of the dogwalk…thanks, woodchips, for making my fall softer!) and earned the most opening points of ANY dog in the class. !! She even beat Ivie by 5pts (1-2-3-5 system)!! It was a REAL hard gamble and only 2 dogs actually got it. Ivie would have, but was taking off for the last jump when the buzzer sounded. Since Josie earned the most points of all the dogs, she got a 3rd place!
Next was Master Snooker and we all know this is my favourite of them all J It was a tricky little snooker course and luckily Ivie was before Josie, unlike Gamblers where Josie was the first of all the open dogs! Josie got all 4 sevens (jump-weave combo) and if it wasn’t for one tiny little bobble in the opening which cost us about 4 seconds, she would have closed even though all the most seasoned competitors were touting ‘it is not possible to close with 4 sevens’ before she went in. they changed their tune when she came out since she was almost to the jump in the jump-weave combo when the horn sounded. ½ a second more and she woulda made it! As it was, she earned a 3rd & Super-Q in her first time in Masters Snooker!! Ivie had the same amount of points as Josie did but a slower time, so Ivie wound up with a 5th & Q.
Steeplechase Round 1 was 3rd and boy was that fun!! It was a pretty technical course with some awful off-course potentials. The off-courses took most of the dogs out of the running for Q’s. Josie would have been in 2nd place but she took one bar. So, since there were so actual few scores and so many dogs took bars while those that didn’t were blazing fast, only 4 dogs moved onto round 2. Ivie ended up in 2nd place in the first round, and Josie took 4th! So they both Q’d!! ½ the dogs in the finals were to be mine! :)
Jumpers was the last class on Friday. The only difference between Advanced and Masters was the placement of the triple. It was before a tunnel for Masters and on a straightaway for Advanced. That was the ONLY difference. Eric’s courses were all pretty brutal for the Advanced dogs! Ivie ran first in Masters and, despite my Jumpers-phobie, she took a 1st & Q in the ever-so-competitive 22” class!! I was so proud I was just beaming. That was her JCH title, at long last!! Josie smoked the course but lost her footing in a real deep patch coming out of a tunnel and just smashed right into a jump. Poor baby. She kept going like nothing happened but that kept us from Q’ing. She still took 1st place since all the other advanced dogs had at least 5 faults!
Saturday started with Masters Gamblers again. This was a pretty tricky little gamble with jump-weave-triple-jump and a hard redirect to a nasty WP entrance. I’m still in disbelief, but…Josie took 2nd & Q!! And not only that, but, 2 points behind her was Ivie with 4th & Q!! A proud, proud handler was I!!
Standard was next. It was a rough course. The only difference between Masters & Advanced was he took the wings off of jump #2 – as if that changed it at all!! Only 2 Masters dogs Q’d, and Ivie was one of them with a 2nd & Q!! Josie did the entire course just wonderfully but popped pole 10 in the weaves. They were very unsturdy and the poor dear tried her darndest to stay in. When I restarted her I made sure she took them at a more ‘normal’ speed. She still wound up in 2nd place. No Advanced dogs Q’d. What a bummer!
Grand Prix was a total disappointment. Ivie took it upon herself to go off course at obstacle #5 and when she then did not hold her AF contact I walked her off. No thanks on that! Josie was BEAUTIFUL and FLAWLESS and would have won a bye if it hadn’t been for a stupid off-course call. She laid down at the end of the AF in her lovely 4OTF position. As she was taking off when I released her, which was a flip-back to a tunnel, the loose footing let loose of her foot and her toe scratched the AF. So I got a whistle and an E. What a scam!! But her time was the fastest and she made no other mistakes the entire course. I was bummed, but it was nice to hear “Don’t worry about it, she is such a nice dog, you will have no problems getting your Q’s for nationals”. I KNOW that, but still…principle of the thing!! A bye is a bye!! Whatever :)
Steeplechase Round 2 was next and BOY was that ever FUN! I only had ONE dog in between my two girls. I forgot the course when I ran Josie and sent her around a jump and had to call her back to take it, which cost us time. Josie still came in 3rd, and Ivie won 1st place!!! I got SO many compliments from so many people. Everyone that hadn’t yet seen Josie was just amazed. When I told them her age (19mo) no one believed me! She is an amazing little thing, she is.
Pairs Relay went well for both girls – very well! They both got to be accommodating dogs in their respective levels. So Josie was on the 1st & 2nd place teams (both Q’d) in Advanced and Ivie was on the 1st & 2nd place teams (both Q’d) in Masters! What a way to end a wonderful day! That was Ivie’s RCH-Bronze title! Just 5 Jumpers and 4 Standards for ADCH-Bronze! I’m assuming she’ll be getting that title on a Jumpers run as well. Just a hunch…:)
Since Josie missed Q’ing in Standard and Jumpers earlier in the weekend, Sunday was crunch time. She needed only those two Advanced legs to get her AAD and move onto Masters everything.
Standard was first on Sunday. What a class to start the day with! I tried not to psyche myself out and to just run my dog how I would if it was just a practice. Balls to the wall, not holding anything back. I did that, and it was a totally beautiful, 100% awesome run. 1st & Q, baby!! That was her AAS title. Ivie didn’t fair so well on the Masters course (which was nearly exactly the same as Advanced, again…) The Masters class got totally skunked and not a SINGLE dog Q’d. Only 2 dogs didn’t E, one in 22” and one in 26”. That was rotten!!
Masters Snooker was the next class. It was an ALL-jumps Snooker course. 3 reds, easy to get to the 7’s, so basically just a foot-race and a ‘who keeps the bars up’ battle. Josie was, once again, the first 22” dog to go. I decided to ‘go for it’ even though there was only 45sec in the opening and most people said ‘there is NOT time to close’ when we walked it. Even with some wider-than-I-hoped-for turns in the opening, she still closed completely and with a time of 37 seconds, no less! Josie WON MASTERS SNOOKER for another Super Q!! Ivie also Q’d, though I didn’t want her to take a SQ from the baby dog! J I’m SO proud of my monkey…2 for 2 in Masters Snooker with 2 SuperQ’s! She’s just remarkable, my little tyke.
Jumpers was the last class of the weekend, as it is most weekends. It was really on the line as Josie’s AAD depended on this run! My arch-nemesis…jumpers! It was a really technical, challenging course. I was totally nervous when I walked it, too. The worst part was that it ran REALLY differently than it walked! The whole arena was completely silent as we ran, as everyone knew we had a title on the line. Josie ran it flawlessly and I improvised with my handling to accommodate her ridiculous speed! She walked [ran] away with a 1st & Q and her AAD title!!! I was so high that Ivie’s run didn’t go as planned at all. 2 Jumpers Q’s for 1 dog in 1 weekend is just too much to ask, though, so I’ll take what I got! I’m SO PLEASED!!!
My little baby spent 2 shows+1day (her 18mo birthday) to get her AD, then only 2 shows to get her AAD. I just could NOT be more proud if I tried! There’s just no stopping this little girl and I am so excited to see where she ends up when the 5-day New Years show comes around! We have a show this weekend down in the Austin , TX area and we will be staying with my friend down there. Then we have 1 show in December which is a 3-day that includes a DAM Dec 7-9th. Then it’s off until the New Year weekend, and the show is 12/28-1/1 which includes a LOT of titling, and 1 of each of the tournaments. I am so excited to see where this ride takes us. I am having an unbelievable amount of fun with my baby. She couldn’t be more perfect if she tried!!! & of course I love Ivie, too :)
11 November 2007 ~ USDAA Weekend Results!!
Josie did it!! She went 4 for 5 today (I did a stupid, STUPID thing in jumpers)!! So she's now in Masters Snooker & Masters Gamblers. What a super puppy!! She needs only 1 Jumpers and 1 Standard next weekend to get her AAD title and move into Masters everything. We'll be hoping!!
I'll just let the runs speak for themselves...
Saturday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkJyrEU76p0
Sunday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUk7-jA7cAA
(The last clip of Suzie was pretty gut-wrenching at the time...but all is well!!)
10 November 2007 ~ Day one -- Video Proof!
To just skip to the video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkJyrEU76p0
Well since it's not even 3pm and I'm already home from the local USDAA trial where we ran 1 of every titling class, I figure I might as well give a little run-down. This is Josie's first week competing in all Advanced classes as she earned her AD at a show 2 weeks ago.
This is also the first day we've done anything active since my surgery on Tuesday, and she hasn't done anything very active since she tore her pads all to shreds last Saturday. I'm SO lucky to have a dog that is so even-tempered and mild-mannered when it comes to the NEED for exercise/play. I'm not saying I plan to make a habit of not working her, but it's REALLY nice to know she doesn't lose her mind if she's cooped up for a whole week before a trial. Ivie tends to be CRAZY and I have to get a LOT of energy out of her before we run in the morning if she hasn't run in a week. Josie also had to deal with my less-than-speedy self today, so my timing was off but for the most part she handled it very well!
The day started with Advanced Gamblers and she was simply stellar. Our timing was impecable and she ended up exiting the weaves RIGHT before the buzzer, which is EXACTLY where I wanted to be to start the gamble. It was a rather simple gamble, so not getting it would have been a MUCH bigger shock than getting it was. She ended up in 1st place & a Q with 82 points (gamble was worth 45!!).
2nd run was Advanced Snooker. The 7 was a tunnel inside a tunnel combination. Paul (the boyfriend) made me promise to 'take it easy, be conservative, and just get your Q!' as I was heading out the door this morning. He tried to tell me not to go but once he realized that was NOT an option...((if I can walk, I can run - right?))...he made me swear to 'take it easy' instead. The 7's were the 'easiest' thing to do, the thing that required the least amount of running for me. I was worried about getting her into the right tunnel opening for #4 so I opted to do 4 sevens in the opening so that all we had to do was get through #3 in the closing to Q. Turns out my bad timing was just as bad as I predicted and I pushed her right into the wrong end of 4, but we were the only ones in the class to Q, so we pulled out a 1st & Q with a mere 37pts!
Just one more Gamble & Snooker each to get out of Advanced in those classes. One of my goals in the LE chat list spreadsheet of goals is to get to the highest level of competition in at least 1 venue with Josie before the end of the year. That's looking like it might actually happen. How FUN! :)
3rd run was Advanced Standard and she nailed a pretty difficult weave entry, hit her contacts with her sore pads (though the dogwalk was CLOSE!), and did a bang-up job all-around. She swung around 1 jump and we had to go back and get it but considering it was a LONG run beside a lame handler, well, I can't blame the baby-dog :) We ended up in 2nd place by 0.40 seconds in that run. But 2nd & Q is still a Q! Without that swing around the jump we woulda been great.
4th run was Advanced Jumpers. This was one of those surreal runs. It was so smooth and perfect, and it was 5.81yps!! She took one stupid little bar but had the fastest time by over a second. I called her too hard while she was taking a jump and she swung in-air. I REALLY need to work on my timing. !! 2nd & NQ.
Last run of the day was Advanced Pairs. This one didn't get video'd because my videographer was busy with her own dogs but our pairs partner NQ'd us with a lot of faults in the 1st half so I decided to really push it in the 2nd half, our half. I was pushing her so hard she was squeaking, something she only does when she's really pushing but can't physically go any faster. It's so adorable. I pulled her out of the weaves trying to push. I wanted to see what her threshold was. Found it :) We still, as a pair, managed a 1st place so we still got a toy outta the deal!!
All in all it was a GORGEOUS day. Beautiful weather, great runs, and even Suzie Q had a grand time! It doesn't get any better than this :) Can't wait to do it all again tomorroW! Thanks to Heather for video'ing all Josie's runs for me!! YAY!!
8 November 2007 ~ Paw Update
Thanks for everyone's suggestions and well-wishes for my monkey & me. Josie is not limping at all today, and while I can still tell where the big blisters came off, the skin underneath is no longer 'new'-looking, raw, or fleshy. The new pads just look like the old pads, only slightly 'cleaner' ;) She is not limping around the house like she has been the rest of the week, and she acts slightly less pathetic when I mess with her paws. Since this weekend is outdoors on grass, a surface she is very familiar with, I think she'll be totally fine after another couple of days of healing.
Josie used to be totally used to that rubber flooring, playing agility and fetch on it all the time when I worked there. But it's been over a year since I worked there, and she hasn't been back since, so her pads were just not used to the wet/rubber combination. It would have been all right without the CONSTANT fetch-playing, methinks. Ah well. Live & learn. She has never worn all the skin off her paws before, she's always just been a real tough little cookie, so I didn't even think about it when we were there. She's fine on sidewalks, asphalt, dirt, gravel, wood chips, grass...you name it and her feet are used to it...except hard rubber flooring, evidently ;)
I'm also feeling better. Still not at work today so the girls and I are being lazy again. Good for the soul, good for the soul... :)
7 November 2007 ~ Poor Puppy Pads!
Josie, my totally tough, rugged, never-gets-hurt baby dog has finally found herself something to limp over. A friend of ours had a doggie birthday party at the doggie daycare where I used to work, where Josie basically lived until she was 6 months old. She hadn't been there in over a year and her feet were no longer used to the surface, which is hard rubber, and very slippery when wet.
At the party, there were kids and kong toys, and those added together with 2 border collies (Rocket & Josie) was a non-stop fetching combination to say the least. Luckily I stayed 'only' 1.5 hours, but that was 1.5 hours of non-stop running around. I saw a couple of tiny worn spots on her back paws as soon as it was over. What I didn't see were that her front paw pads (the largest ones, especially) were just total blisters but still completely attached.
Well, right after the party, I packed up all 4 of my girls, met my Paul at my house and we packed up the dogmobile and headed out to East Texas to go camping for the evening at Paul's Dad's 330+ acres. On Sunday morning we woke up and played a lot of frisbee on the dewy grass. Afterward, all of Josie's front paw pads were completely gone :( I felt like SUCH a bad mommy!! Being a true BC, of course she didn't even START limping until AFTER the frisbee was put away. Of course.
So I decided to leave her behind in the BC-pup-tent while the rest of us took a hike through the wilderness. Ivie had made a pretty large hole in the mesh the night before, freaking over a small fox nearby or something. So, Josie decided to break the rest of the way through the tent when we went on a hike. Dangit!! So, about 20 minutes into our hike over the river & through the woods...here's Josie!! Limping & Wild-eyed and all. GOSH was she ever glad to see us. I love this dog but she sure is silly sometimes :) I let her continue on with us but when there were steep in- or declines, I carried her. All 33+ pounds of her. I love her and all, but golly!! She's a mess, I swear :)
So, she and I are both being pitiful this week :) I had surgery on Tuesday and I'm home recovering, and Josie's being pitiful every time I doctor her feet.
I'm writing to share this story and ask for good, healing thoughts for us both. There's a local USDAA Starters/Advanced trial about 3 minutes from my house this weekend and we're entered in everything, 5 runs a day. I really want to be able to take advantage of such a small, close trial...so keep your paws crossed for us, please!! Pretty please with sugar on top?? :)
Thanks a million!!
28 October 2007 ~ My Josefin ~ AD, NA, & CGC
I am so proud of my baby dog for getting her AD title on Saturday! Advanced Everything, here we come!!
Josie also got 1st & Q's in both Advanced Gamblers & Advanced Snooker this weekend!
For video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec0gVrZ8TBw
It was so fun to sit and review the videos when I got home from the trial this afternoon. The comments I could hear people making, not knowing someone was nearby recording, really made me smile.
"Oh, you have GOT to watch this dog."
"Josie is AWESOME."
"Gee, do you think this dog likes agility?"
"She has so much fun out there."
"Can you believe how young she is??"
"Wow, that dog is FAST."
"Look at those weaves on that Starters dog."
It really warms my heart to know that Josie loves playing so much that even the average spectator can see it in her actions & expressions. She is truly my dream come true for a dog, and she makes every day better than the last.
It quite amazes me what she has accomplished so far in 4 days of USDAA competition ... she has her AD, and is 1/3rd of the way to her Advanced Gambler and Snooker titles. She is my little wonder dog, and I am so thrilled with her. & of course I would cherish every minute with my little munchkin whether she played another minute of agility in her life or not. She is my special, special girl.
I adore my Josefin.27 October 2007 ~ Josie AD !!
Josie got her AD (Agility Dog) title today!! :) This means she is forever out of the first level (of 3), Starters, in USDAA. She is now in Advanced everything! She had a beautiful Standard run to finish out her title! She also got a 1st & Q in her first Advanced run ever, Gamblers!! Gamblers is SO our game :) She also got a bonus Pairs Q so hopefully that helped our Starters teammate. Now it's onto Advanced everything the week after Nationals when we show again!
Ivie did very well in Masters Standard today. She Q'd despite me! What a good dog!! That was her Standard Champion title!! :) She and her Pairs partner won Masters Pairs!! :) It was a very confusing Masters Snooker course and we got through the hard opening (doing four 7's) and then I sent her off course on the way to the #2 tunnel...we only had to get 2 & 3 to Q...I'm still kicking myself!!
Now for the real surprise...I brought Suzie Q back for her first run since June 2006 (I haven't trained her since then either), and she did Advanced Snooker today. She Q'd and that was her Advanced Snooker title so she is now in Masters Snooker! What a good dog!! :) She runs in Advanced Jumpers tomorrow. She does not have a 'ton' of energy, so 1 or two runs a day is her max usually.
I'm very proud of all my girlies! Out of 9 runs, we got 6 Q's between all 3 girls today :) We're going back tomorrow for Standard, Jumpers, and Snooker. A very short weekend of only titling just to warm everyone up for Nationals. We should be done & home REALLY early tomorrow with only 3 runs and very few dogs since everyone (except me) is packing up and heading to Nationals :)
Hopefully more good news tomorrow!!
23 October 2007 ~ USDAA Weekend!
I was Hospitality Chair for this weekend’s trial so I was carting the judges to & fro, everywhere. One of the judges sat in the back seat with the border collies every day while the other rode up front with me. After the weekend was over and I was taking her to the airport for the final time, she paid them such a nice compliment. She said that spending all that time with my girls gave her a new outlook on the border collie breed. She said all the others she’d been around for any length of time were so high-strung and/or hyper that they’d be a complete pain to live with. She said she enjoyed my girls immensely, and especially appreciated the face washes Ivie gave her. She said she thought Josie must be the sweetest BC to ever live as she minded her manners so well in the car and always just laid down and went to sleep, or looked lovingly at someone, hoping to earn a pet. It’s good when you help people prove their own theories wrong :)
Both girls did me SO proud this weekend, both on the course and off.
Here's the link to her weekend, live and in action. Thanks to Heather for the wonderful footage!!! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPL8vwMuink
She made some AWESOME independent weave entries!! I love the ones at full speed -- she just judges them so perfectly. I like the face plant off the table on Sunday's Standard run, too. She came out of the ring with a big mouth full of dirt! Didn't slow her down any!! :)
9 October 2007 ~ World Class Entry!
Class last night was simply awesome!! I only took Josie to class, not knowing if there would be an opening for the Ivernator or not. Set up on the field was the Medium Dog Invididual Standard course from the 2007 FCI World Championships in Hamar, Norway. It was a pretty wicked course (http://www.akc.org/pdfs/events/agility/world_team/2007/sunday_medium_individual.pdf) with some pretty tricky little parts to it. Notice the chute to the weaves; that’s pretty non-standard!!
The first time through the course, at the chute-weave portion I brought Josie out into the open space past the entrance, gave her a ‘right’ and then layered the chute to get the jump, then up the teeter for a front cross, etc. Well, the 2nd time we ran the course I just wanted to see what kind of a weave pole entry my baby dog could manage. So after the chute I did not call her to me or give her any directionals, I merely said ‘weave’. Would you believe she made the most wicked entry I have ever seen!!??!! She took a straight line out of the chute right into the spacing between the first and second poles, whipped her body all the way around nearly 180degrees, and weaved perfectly!! My jaw dropped to the floor! My instructor started shouting “OMG, did you SEE that Emily?? Did you SEE THAT??” I had a smile to beat all else the whole rest of the night!! It was magical; that’s what it was!! & for a dog with whom I have yet to even concentrate on weave pole entries with. !! So far she’s gotten every one I’ve thrown at her, so until she starts to miss in shows, I will keep my time focused on other important aspects like keeping contacts consistent and improving efficiency on course when she’s high as a kite!
The first time through she took a nasty angle to the dogwalk (due to the wet grass) and up onto the wet dogwalk, and she never got her back feet on. She basically pommel-horsed her way up with her front legs all the way to the top of the first ramp before finally falling off. I stood there in disbelief. She came trotting towards me like ‘why did we stop? Are we gonna try again?’ <bounce bounce bounce> I swear, nothing stops this dog! She has these nasty looking raspberry scrapes and spots all over her belly today but it doesn’t seem to phase her in the slightest. She licked on them a tad last night as she was dozing off to sleep but nothing since. She definitely loves her agility…I suppose she’s under the motto “No pain, no gain!”. Don’t know where she got that one from…I prefer the motto “No pain, please & thank you!!”
If I remember correctly, we ran the entire course clean the 2nd time through. It was so slippery I was sliding all over the place though! Darn humidity/cold front/dew!! I’m super impressed with my baby dog and she certainly keeps me smiling!
If you got to Sylvia Trkman’s website (www.sylvia.trkman.net) and go to the news page you can find the link to watch her running this course we ran last night. I’m not sure if the direct link will work, but here is the link to the video as well: http://www.silvia.trkman.net/agiind07.htm.
Kathy & Handsome are in our class this month and Hands is doing GREAT!! He’s going to be one awesome agility dog and I hope they get to compete soon! He is a beautiful jumper and wants so badly to get it right that he always does when he’s pointed in the right direction! What a good boy he is!! J
7 October 2007 ~ Our AKC Weekend!
My girls did me proud this weekend, for sure! As I said earlier, Josie & Ivie both Q'd in Standard & Jumpers With Weaves! They got 1st/2nd in both classes. Which was nice since they gave out $5 coupons for first places :) Ivie & Josie both ran JWW yesterday in 19.xx seconds. The 3rd place dog ran it in 39.53 - more than both my girls combined -- wow!! I caused a refusal in Std with Ivie yesterday so she didn't have a clean run but still Q'd.
Today, Ivie ran JWW in 16.09 sec (Standard Course Time was 37) but took 1 bar on a big long stretch. Dangit! Josie also took a bar getting in too big a hurry to get to the weaves. Ah! Ah well, such is life :) So, they both still need a JWW leg to move up. It IS possible for it to be "too easy"!! Josie ran in Open Standard for the first time today since she got her NA yesterday and she got 1st & Q !! YAY for a puppers!! Ivie got a BAD call in Standard on her AF, I KNOW she was in, the judge was in a bad spot to judge since she was faster than he'd planned for, so she missed her NA.
6 October 2007 ~ Josie's first Agility Title!
Well, at her 2nd ever AKC trial, Josie earned her NA in a beautiful [1st & Q] Standard run, taking nearly exactly 1/2 of course time to complete the course, with held contacts, no less :)
Earlier in the day both girls did my proud by taking 1st & 2nd (both with Q's) in JWW. Course time was 55 or so and Ivie ran it in 19.28 while Josie ran it in 19.34. It was Josie's first JWW Q and Ivie's 2nd. Over 6yps for them both. YAY girlies :)
I'm headed out the door to see about getting Ivie's NAJ and perfecting Josie's first Open Standard run :)
YAY Puppers!!!
2 October 2007 ~ Josie's 1st USDAA Video!
This is the video I compiled of her runs this past Sunday, 30 September 2007. She turned 18 months old on Sunday so this was the first day she was eligible to compete!
She sewed some of her wild puppy oats out there, but all the mistakes are *my* doing. Poor kid needs a handler that knows what she's doing! Actually, what happened was she was HIGH as a kite, which I've never really seen before, not to this degree anyway, and she was speedier then I anticipated her being. She has also taken to *squeaking*/grunting through the weaves. I was laughing at her in Gamblers, which is why we messed up the second pass :) I had never heard her do that before!!
Notice the table count is RATHER lengthy...the judge forgot to start counting!!
http://s205.photobucket.com/albums/bb217/EmilySnider_2007/?action=view¤t=Josie_TAG_USDAA_07_1.flv
1 October 2007 ~ Josie's USDAA Debut!
MY BABY-DOG DID SO AWESOME!!!
She went 4 for 4, and totally SMOKED the courses!! (She could only compete on Sunday since she turned 18mo on Sunday)
1 st run was Snooker and she got 3 rd only because I did a more conservative plan (5,7,7) to make sure we Q’d, and so she lost out on 1 st place by 1 point. She finished the course in 29 seconds, though, out of the 52 allowed seconds; she was truckin’ it!! We obviously had the time to go for the extra point but there was no sense in risking not Q’ing in STARTERS just to win. No point, with no SuperQ’s at stake! J
2 nd run was Gamblers and she did awesome there too! She was way speedier than I am used to her being so we had a little bobble getting onto the teeter as I was out of position. The weaves were the 7pt obstacle, so we made our way to them, and she was squeaking the whole way through! She was so high!! OMG it was hilarious!! I was laughing at her, so she missed the poles her second time through :-P She got the gamble (it was so easy!!), and got 1 st & Q :)
3 rd run was Standard and she came in 20 seconds under course time (even with me holding contacts) for another 1 st & Q. She nailed a really independent WP entry and squeaked all the way through them again! :) The table was obstacle #6. When she got on the table she did her automatic down and I waited for the judge to start counting. I was getting worried when I hadn’t heard anything after a couple seconds. I started thinking maybe I was off course or something. So I looked at the judge and she was like “Oh, Sorry!! 5-4-3-2-1” She had just plum forgotten to start counting! After the class was over, she told me
that was the 2 nd time in 15years she’s done that. She said she was thinking to herself ‘that is the coolest dog I have seen in a long time’ and just got lost in la-la land out there. Ha!! Nice compliment :)
4 th run was Jumpers and it was definitely the least pretty of all the runs but we still pulled out a 1 st & Q. She kept trying to make it more difficult. Only 14 obstacles, and a LOT of open space out there had her way confused! It was still a 24-sec run, so that was enough to take first place by about a mile.
I’m so proud of my little red girlie girl!!!
She got measured by a regular judge as well as a CMJ this weekend. She measured at 19.75”. My ‘pocket rocket’ ended up growing late in the game and came out WAY taller than I ever thought she would!! I have taught her to jump into my arms at the end of a run, and it’s great fun :) She’s still
small enough to do that with, at least!
I am just on cloud 9 after this weekend. I am SO proud of my baby I’m just busting at the seams. I think we did so much better our USDAA debut than AKC is because *I* was more comfortable, and I knew the ropes, and wasn’t nervous at all. I definitely feel more ‘at home’ at USDAA than AKC. We have our second AKC this coming weekend, and hopefully I’ll be better now that the 1 st time jitters are over with. I know Josie can do it, it’s just me I worry about!
Now all Josie needs for her AD (agility dog) title is 2 Standard legs and a Pairs leg. She has the opportunity to get all 3 of those Q’s at her next USDAA, which is October 20 th -21 st . Here’s hopin’!!
1 October 2007 ~ Happy Anniversary, Ivie!
I just thought I would send an update, on the anniversary of Ivie’s coming to Texas . What a wonderful year it has been!! She fits seamlessly into my life, and it’s just like she’s always been here. I can’t imagine not having her happy, ‘woo woooooo’ing, crazy self around :) She has charmed her way into the hearts of everyone in my family, and all of my friends. She makes each day better then it would have been without her.
I adore my Ivernator, and I look forward to many more years together!!!
This weekend…
Ivie did great [awesome] , on Saturday (5 for 6, all with placements! – 4 th GP, 2 nd STP, 1 st Gam, 2 nd Pairs, 1 st Std), but I was a little pre-occupied with Josie on Sunday and I made some mistakes with Ivie. Like making her do a silly thing in Standard to get E’d, on an otherwise AWESOME run. We got the gamble both days (a 1 st & a 4 th ) and Snooker NEITHER day, so maybe the Snooker column in my title record-keeping spreadsheet will stop growing so much faster than everything else ;) My friend Donna ran Ivie in Jumpers on Sunday and got a refusal on an otherwise awesome run (her time would have gotten her 2 nd place behind Donna’s dog, whom I ran!). We got
3 rd in Steeplechase round 2, as well :) Had I not sent her around an obstacle (I get lost doing front crosses sometimes!!) she would have at least gotten 2 nd , if not 1 st . She was ON, it was just me that slowed her up a bit :)
Ivie’s really doing well, all around. I think the 4 months off for her toe did us both a world of good. Gave us time to bond as dog/human rather than dog/handler. She is Smokin’ Fast now, and when she Q’s, she places. & we are getting much more consistent in the Q’ing :) We’ll be going to the 2008 Nationals for sure! She already has her 2 needed Steeplechase Q’s (after 2 weekends of 2008 qualifiers :) ), and 1 GP Q. We’re doing team twice this winter, so I’m hopeful we’ll be
qualified by the time 2008 even starts.
After the trial yesterday afternoon, it was such a beautiful day that we let the girls go swimming in the river near the trial site for about an hour. They had a blast. There was a nice little current and my 2 BC’s and my friend’s BC just had a grand time cooling their muscles off in the cool river water.
23 September 2007 ~ Ivie's Awesome weekend, in video!
Here are the videos from the 4-day USDAA show in College Station, TX, at the end of August. At the end of the last clip are the 2 runs that I got someone to video for me at the Regional in Fort Worth, Texas. The same show she and I were interviewed for that clip for. :)
I hope you enjoy...every video is about 4 and a half minutes long! :) There were a LOT of runs!! :)
I listed what is on each video clip. I think the only runs I'm missing are a gamble, and the team relay. Since our teammate E'd, it wasn't anything spectacular, and Ivie only got to run for 9 or so obstacles, and I didn't have room on any of these clips for it, so I left it off. I'm sure there are enough below ;)
http://s205.photobucket.com/albums/bb217/EmilySnider_2007/?action=view¤t=Ivie_Aug07_1.flv
The first class is Team Gamblers (toilet paper as a gamble line -- they ran out of tape!!)...we won this class!!
Then Team Jumpers. I hate Jumpers. :)
Team Standard.
Team Snooker. All 7's :)
Masters Snooker. 5,6,7,7. SuperQ :)
Masters Standard. I know we placed, and also Q'd. :)
http://s205.photobucket.com/albums/bb217/EmilySnider_2007/?action=view¤t=Ivie_Aug07_2.flv
Jumpers. I still hate Jumpers.
Steeplechase Round 1. We came in 10th because of the bar but we had the 3rd fastest time. We Q'd.
Masters Snooker. Dropped the 1st red. Doh!! But we still did 7,6,6, and closed, so we Q'd.
Grand Prix. She had a killer time! When she goes off screen she goes and wraps the off course weaves. Sheesh :)
Masters Gamblers. We Q'd and placed, I just forget which place.
Masters Snooker. 4,6,7,7, and ALMOST finished the close. 2/3rds of the way done with 7 when it buzzed.
http://s205.photobucket.com/albums/bb217/EmilySnider_2007/?action=view¤t=Ivie_Aug07_3.flv
Masters Jumpers. Blah.
Masters Snooker. 7,7,6,6, close. SuperQ.
Steeplechase Round2. 4th place!! :)
Masters Standard. 2nd & Q!!
South Central Regional...Masters Standard. She took the 1st bar but was SMOKIN' and all the BIG name dogs threw times RIGHT near hers. I think the dog that won it was about a 1/2 second faster. I was very proud of her!!
South Central Regional...Grand Prix. Nice aside from the weave pole miss :)
5 September 2007
We competed in College Station, TX this past weekend at a 4-day USDAA show. Ivie totally rocked the house...
...& what a totally awesome weekend it was!!
Ivie went…
2 for 2 in Standard
4 for 4 in Snooker (to get our Snooker Champion Silver title!! - requires 25 Q's)
1 for 4 in Jumpers (our arch-nemesis)
2 for 3 in Gamblers
0 for 1 in Relay (but my partner and I switched up dogs just for fun, and her dog E’d with me...Ivie did great!!)
Ivie WON Team Gamblers (first run of the weekend -- woohoo!)
My DAM Team placed 5 th (we were 1 st the whole time, but the sheltie on my team E’d the relay, so we dropped to 5 th )
We got a Steeplechase Q, then came in 4 th in Round 2 and won $20 (our entry fee) !!! :)
We ran a total of 21 times this weekend, and 17 of those were AWESOME "Q-worthy" runs. The 5 team runs just count for one Q, though. I just wanted to note that 17 perfect , or near-perfect runs, in one weekend...is a THRILL !!
So we got 11 Q’s this weekend – I’d say it was a success! For her first show back after injured leave for nearly 4 months, I’d say SHE’S BACK in full force!!
I cannot describe how good it is to be back in full swing with my “Ivernator”!! She was really living up to her nickname this weekend, that’s for sure! Her crate was covered in ribbons, and everyone had to stop and make comments, it was quite amusing.
After being away from showing since May, she certainly made it worth the wait. It was SO good to get out and see all of my ‘long lost’ agility friends from all across Texas again. Everyone was glad to see Ivie was fully healed, and strategizing with my buddies has been something I’ve missed all summer long.
Some people have asked how Ivie did at the AKC show a couple weekends ago. She got 1 STD and 1 JWW leg. The other runs were silly mistakes ½ my fault and ½ hers, methinks :) She told me that that was just a warm up for this weekend, though. She wassaving the good stuff for where it counts! Now
she’s 1Q from her StandardCH title, 1Q from her GamblersCH-Bronze, and 2Q’s from her JumpersCH. ADCH-Bronze by next May; that’s the goal! :)
On both Friday and Saturday, the only runs we did not Q in were Jumpers. I do NOT know why I have this mental block about Jumpers!! In USDAA, it’s ONLY jumps and tunnels!! We have Snooker Champion Silver (25 Snooker Masters Q’s), and oftentimes Snooker is JUST jumps and tunnels, in fact it was twice this weekend…so WHY can’t I do just plain old Jumpers?? It’s so frustrating! After Saturday’s unfortunate Jumpers run (it’s always just ONE little thing, like a refusal I cause or a misplaced cross causing a knocked bar, or ME running into stantions…), I decided I would absolutely not run her in Jumpers anymore this
weekend. So I enlisted my friend EA that runs Riggs (Juice’s littermate), who turns a lot like Ivie, to run her. She Q’d with her on Sunday (our 1 Jumpers Q from the weekend!!) and NQ’d with a refusal (she handles differently than me and Iver got confused) on Monday.
We really, REALLY felt “ON” this weekend (Jumpers aside). Her pre-cues were tighter, her lines straighter, her attention to me unwavering. There weren’t any ‘Ivie moments’ out on course, where she was just on her own agenda. She has always had a bit of that, but I didn’t sense any of it this weekend. We did Awesome in all of our team runs, plus all our individual runs. I just couldn’t believe after the lack of training over that last several months that she was as on as she was. I suppose sometimes they just need some time off, away from it all, to realize what they were
missing! Ivie is definitely glad to be back, and I’m glad to have her back at my side. I love my Ivernator, she makes me proud!!
I have video of every single run from this past weekend, but you’ll have to excuse my tardiness in getting the videos out. I am Chief Ring Steward for the USDAA South Central Regional this coming weekend and I’m up to my eyeballs in worker schedules and e-mails and blah blah blah!! So, it’ll be next week before videos from last weekend’s AKC and this weekend’s USDAA come out. It’ll be worth the wait, though, I promise J
4 September 2007 ~ AKC Agility Pictures!
There are pictures of my girls from Josie's debut AKC weekend here:
http://www.2mcdesign.com/galleries/agilityftakc0807sz/index.html, and click on ‘Snider’
I love how there are ‘identical’ shots of each girl, same place on the course but different dog. Shows their unique style of doing things J I also really like the 2 dogwalk pictures, where each dog is suspended in air on 3 legs, just getting to the top of the dogwalk. I’m getting a CD with all the pictures of both dogs on it. Josie’s first action shots…how could I NOT buy them?! :)
Josie’s “REAL debut” (USDAA) will be the day she turns 18 months old (youngest age you can be to compete) at a TAG show down near Austin , Texas , on the 30th of September, a Sunday. Her first FULL (2-day) show will be local here in the DFW area on the 21st/22nd of October. I can’t WAIT!! :)
My favourite photographer (www.fastclicksphoto.com) will be at that local October show, too, so I’ll get some good shots from that trial for sure!! :)
(all the below photos are within the link above, I just sorted them below) :)
Josie:
Tire, Pre-cued turn!, Lining Up, Weave!, Still Weaving, Only 6?, Can I go now?, Now?!
Nice Josie Contacts!
Dogwalk,
'Mat!',
Dogwalk,
Teeter!,
Another DW
Ivie:
Tunnel!,
Teeter STAY!,
Weave!,
Weave...,
Done Already??,
Apex,
Box SITSITSIT,
Almost a 2O2O (contact? What contact?), Table, Over the Top, Good Start Line Stay!
Side by Side:
Josie's Tunnel & Ivie's Tunnel
(my fave!!) Ivie with her right paw & Josie with her left paw
Josie's Teeter & Ivie's Teeter
Josie's AF contact & Ivie's AF contact
Josie @ the top & Ivie @ the top
Ivie's Broad Jump & Josie's Broad Jump
Josie starts the time & Ivie starts the time
Ivie's Box-SitSitSitSit! & Josie's Box-Sit!
Josie's 1st ever competition jump! & Ivie's first ever AKC competition jump!
Ivie Walks It & Josie walks it!
Josie's Double & Ivie's Double
25 August 2007 ~ Josie's first Trial!
Waiting for Josie's turn at her very first agility trial! Rocket was immensly jealous!!
Ah yes, the photographer was holding an empty water bottle to get their attention . . anythings a potential toy with these 2!
17 August 2007 ~ My Perfect Puppy
(Written to fulfill a thread request on the LE chat list)
My Josefin. Wow, where to even start with her 'profile'? She is amazing. Perfect with a capital P. She is now nearly 17 months old, so I suppose I'll start with a little synopsis of her first year.
She was p
erfect on the ride home from the breeder's. A dream. Slept on her back the whole way besides when I woke her up at potty stops. We got home and she showed me her natural retrieve that first night. 8 weeks old and she fetched little cat toys all night long! Boy, when you order a retrieving dog, you get it! She was potty trained, and perfect about it besides one little UTI but after a round of Clavamox she went right on to being perfect again. In her whole first year she had no more accidents inside than I can count on one hand. It's like she's always known right from wrong and has NO desire to indulge in the latter.
She had this funny habit of taking a kibble or three out of her food dish, dancing around with it, flailing wildly, then eventually spitting out the kibbles on the floor and eating them. Plus the carpet fuzz ;) I taught her, with the help of my terriers, that it's definitely more filling if you eat it all in one sitting. Now she dutifully does just that.
For the first month I kept her and my terriers almost 100% seperated. They had a few minutes a day in the same room, but even during those times, I always kept Josie's attention on ME and if she focused on my JRT, I'd call her and expect an immediate head-turn, which I always got. If I didn't, it was crate time!
At 3 months of age she was granted full off-leash privileges on walks because her recall was 100%. We used to walk all the time with Kathy and her kids, when I lived closer to them.
Josie has always been a water collie. She has never bothered with her water bowl 
(somehow she knew that wasn't a good thing to do - I have no idea how!!), but LOVES the bath, the baby pool, the lake, the ocean, puddles, rivers...anything!!
I started Josie's foundation agility work real early. Mostly attention, manners like sitting at my side to be petted (which has since been blown by agility friends, but that's fine), patience, self-control, moving downs and sits, and her contact 'mat' behaviour. Once she had the moving down really good, I added the mat, and have been doing that since about 4 months of age or so. This was also the time we perfected her 'down at a distance' and within a week of training this she'd do it anywhere within earshot.
I worked at a Doggie Daycare until Josie was about 6 months old so she came to work with me every day. I NEVER let her in the playroom unless I was in there, and even then I made sure her attention was on ME, until I released her to play with the other dogs. Then when I left the room, so did she. She slept in her pop up tent crate thing, just like a little angel, every day. When it was check out time, and the dogs started going home with their owners, I'd let her out on a dog bed behind the counter with me and expected her to stay on the bed while dogs walked by through the lobby unless I released her to be petted by an owner or go sniff a friendly dog. She was supremely impressive with this, at 4 & 5 months of age.
Ever since she was old enough and we began actual agility training, she has been just a complete joy to train (well, she was a joy before too, obviously!!). She learns everything SO quickly, is SO toy motivated, and SO biddable that I just had to stop myself and ask her 'is this even possible??' sometimes. I just couldn't believe how easy she made everything look & feel!
Her daily routine isn't a routine at all these days. I've been unemployed for 5 months so it's just sort of 'do whatever mom wants me to do' every day!! We train a lot, simply because we've had the time, and it's been an important last few months with her growth plates closing and my deciding to finish out all the obstacle performances at that time.
This dog never gets into trouble. She never chews anything that isn't hers. She never steals clothes from the laundry pile, food from the counter, nothing. Nor has she ever offered to.
She loves to 'make out' with her balls. She'll take it in her right paw, roll it up her left forearm, and put her mouth on it, take her mouth off, and balance it there on her leg, then it'll pop off and she'll catch it, or chase it, ...and then do it again. She'll do this for hours to entertain herself -- it's QUITE cute!! I've only caught it on camera on a few occasions...here's one of them...
She loves to give sweet little kisses to the people she loves. She wags her tail, and her whole body wiggles! She has a smile that goes on for days. She has the best attitude, is always 100% willing to give you 100%, and nothing less -- ever. No matter what you ask of her, she puts her whole self into it, head on, no questions asked. She is resilient. She is brave but not stubbornly so. She has slept on the bed since she was about 4 months old; she sleeps until I get up, and is then ready for whatever the day may bring, whatever time we decide to get outta bed! She loves all other creatures, but when meeting a 'rude' dog she tells them they're rude...in the nicest possible way! She has 'favourite people' but loves everyone. She is my constant companion, and partner for life. I can't WAIT to see what our agility career together brings! Every day with my sweet angel is full of happiness and hope for the future.
So, that's a basic run-down of 'my monkey', my soulmate, best friend, and first Border Collie ever. I adore her. Love her more than words could say. She is my perfect, perfect angel, and I can't say enough good about her. If ever there was a dog perfect for me...Josie is it. I wish everyone could meet her!!
11 August 2007 ~ Snake Bite Nightmare
Yesterday was like any other. At first.
I spent the day trying to tie up some loose ends on the computer front so that I’m not that far behind when I start working in 2 weeks (yes, I got a job!!). I was talking to my friend Edie in the afternoon and we decided to go to the park we frequent that evening.
The walk was going along as they usually do. We’d walked most of the land, and had come to the watering hole where we normally sit around for an hour or so, throwing the balls for the herding dogs while the terriers ‘patrol’ the perimeter, and do their terrier-like things.
Madison found what I can only assume is another snake. She has caught and killed rat snakes out there before, and usually finds at least one on every walk, runs it into the water, and it swims off. She then spends the rest of the time looking for it. Well, this time she had one all cornered in a bush type thing and just would NOT stop barking. It was all the way across the creek from me, a good 20 feet or so. I was throwing, pretty accurately might I add, some large rocks at the bush. I was hoping to scare either the snake or Maddie, or both! Unfortunately I didn’t scare either of them.
Maddie eventually gave up the battle and walked away, sort of shaking her head, etc. She kept ‘hunting’ on that side of the creek for another 10 minutes or so, then about 5 minutes after she had swum back across the creek, I look behind me and she’s standing there looking at me and her left eye is REALLY swollen. I start to worry about her then. I had my camera with me and took a picture of her, so I would have it to compare to what she looked like once we walked the 10 or so minutes back to the car. I walked her back, on leash, and took more photos once we got to the car. It had gotten markedly worse. Edie continued to play Chuck-It with the herding dogs so that I could keep an eye on Maddie in her crate in the car. I was trying to decide what in the world to do with her. I couldn’t find any puncture wounds on her anywhere, like a snake bite, but she swelling just KEPT increasing.
This is where the wonderfulness that is Paul (the boyfriend) stepped in and took over, and saved the night for the first time. I texted him that Maddie wasn’t doing well so he called and we talked and I told him I had to run to get her some Benadryl (I was hoping it was just a bad reaction to some poison Ivy or something). After we hung up, he texted me and said he’d bring his credit card and meet me at the ER vet, and to text him where to meet. I told him I couldn’t ask him to pay for my dog’s ER visit. He texted back “You’re not asking, and I’m not offering…I’m TELLING you that’s what we’re doing” Wow. Wonderfulness. I just can’t get over how much he is there for me when I need him. He loves the girls as his own, and he's totally wonderful with them.
So I got Maddie to the ER vet and Paul got there shortly afterwards. Maddie was perky and wagging her tail when she caught sight of him, though in the car she’d been laying out on her side, quivering and moaning the whole way there. Her head was so swollen by this point, she looked like she had Elephantitis or something, and the water had started to sink into her neck and she appeared to have a waddle. I kept taking pictures of her progress. I showed the vet the progression of pictures to help her see how the reaction happened.
We concluded it was probably a ‘scratch’ or a ‘dry bite’ from a Water Moccasin. She had a little bloody spot on the top of her nose, like a scratch or something. So she got a low dose of the venom, thankfully, considering she weighs all of a dozen pounds! She has, of course, had a rattlesnake vaccine, and while that is supposed to help in all instances of snake bites, it’s not an end-all cure, they still have to get treated, and bites can still be fatal, it’s just supposed to help it not overtake them as quickly.
So we left the vet with a bunch of medicine, and she got a shot while she was there. She was alert and responsive, though, so we opted not to leave her overnight. I felt better keeping MY eyes on her anyway. On the way to the vet clinic I’d been running out of gas (light was on) but I wasn’t about to stop. So I stopped on the way home, and Maddie had been whining the whole time. I felt just awful for her. I knew she had to potty since she’d had her temperature taken. So, I got to the gas station, started pumping gas, then took Maddie about 30 feet away to a little patch of grass. I took my eyes off my car for a very brief period, trying to make sure Maddie wasn’t bleeding out or anything in her stool, since she was so pitiful acting.
I got back to my car and my purse was gone. Someone had stolen it out of my front seat! I am typically much more conscious of my purse in my car at gas stations, having heard horror stories, but I was more worried about my precious Madison last night, so I wasn’t thinking about my purse.
The worst part was that my car has keyless ignition so I had no way to start my car. Paul came to my rescue again, driving down to the gas station in Garland, from his house in Frisco (he’d gone back up to take care of his brother’s two dogs before coming back to my house to help me with Maddie for the night), to get my house key from me (luckily it was in my car) and go search my house for the spare key while I waited for the police to show up. I saw the people that did it. I know what time, exactly, it happened, and what pump they used their credit card at. Yet no one seems able to help me. It’s complete…UGH.
While I was waiting for Paul to get there with the key, I gave Maddie cold water with a medicine dropper. She wouldn't/couldn't drink on her own and I wanted to keep her cool and hydrated.
He searched and searched but couldn’t find my key. Midnight rolled around, the cop was there and Paul was at my house searching for my spare, and they shut the lights off at the gas station. SCARY. The cop stayed and made his report until Paul got there. I had called my Suzuki roadside assistance to come and tow it. I couldn’t very well leave it there for the night since those losers had my key and knew where my car was. I agreed to have them tow it to the dealership, which was my only option. Paul showed up and since I hadn’t yet eaten dinner, and it was now midnight, he had the foresight to bring me a couple of the mini-cheeses I have in my fridge at all times. Awe…make me melt!
Paul then took me home and I set to looking for the key. I looked high and low, through everything he had and hadn’t looked through, and found it in an old purse in some random kitchen cabinet shortly before the tow truck was to show up and tow my car. So we raced back to the gas station and picked up my car. Okay, things are looking up a little here. At least I have my car!
The thing is, with my purse they got all my USDAA height cards, my digital camera (with all the swollen Maddie pictures on it), my wallet, some jewelry, perfume, and all my ‘essentials’. Ugh, how annoying!! Oh, and my key which costs about $200 to replace. UGH. It’s also the only purse worth anything that I’ve ever had. It was a gift, and was made by BCBG which is a company that is evidently very proud of their product. Back to the cheap purses for me!
Madison wouldn’t eat when we got home, so I let the other dogs in the room (we put her crate in the bedroom to be able to keep an eye and an ear on her) and let Josie have a lick of her food. That got Maddie to eating! Then I stationed Ivie right outside the crate door, door open, and Maddie ate all her food. Good pup! I just gave her canned Innova so it’d go down easier. We stayed up real late and listened to Maddie whine all through the night.
We woke up this morning to a Maddie that is much less swollen. She is still being really wimpy but at least she looks less deformed, which is good.
I made a reward poster and posted it around the area where the purse was taken. I doubt I’ll get a call, but I can hope. I’ve done all I can do. Now I just have to wait…
28 July 2007 ~ Josie's Contacts!
The end is my favourite part; she sure does love that water!!
I wanted to do a 'progress check' on her contacts, and I dare say I am rather pleased with our 'final product'. My babygirl does me proud!!
These are the contacts we're taking to her debut...August 24-26th!! It'll be everyone's (including my) first AKC show ever. She'll be nearly 17 months old by then. I feel confident that, as a team, we are ready!
27 July 2007 ~ Tired Girlies!
Yesterday was a GORGEOUS day around here and I decided to make the best of it and get some good training in with 
my girls. I took them all out to the DAWG property, which I affectionately refer to as 'my backyard' as I'm out there about that often. I wanted to really test Ivie's toe for soundness and I worked her a lot on contacts, and weaves, and crazy frisbee throws. She was a super good sport, and enjoyed every second of it. I love how she's at a point in her career where taking several months off hasn't seemed to affect her performance. We'll see when trial-time comes, but I have faith in my crazy girl, I do!! This is what I got after one of her sessions...big-tongued-Ivie!
I also worked my Josie a lot yesterday. Proofing hard weave entries, taking video (which will be edited and shared hopefully later today) of her contacts as a sort of 'end product', working tight turns in series of jumps, pre-cues, etc. Basically a lot of different little things. She did most exceptionally well, as I've come to expect. Still, every now and then amongst all the other great things she does s
he does something totally fantastic and blows me away. Some of her weave entries yesterday totally blew me away! I didn't video much weave stuff, I find it's hard to get good angles and keep my fat arse outta the screen, so... ;) After working Josie, I get a very Happy Josie!! :)
I think, though, that my poor monkey got some chiggers while we were out there yesterday. She seems a little uncomfortable in the leg-region, a little ultra-itchy. Maybe some Benadryl (AFTER today's training/exercise of course) will help her feel better, less itchy. Poor Monk!
While I was training the BCs, the terriers were busy running amok out in the field chasing rabbits and what-not. They broke through the horse-fence and were out galavanting around in the pasture. Luckily the horses are used to such terrier-tomfoolery and were not phased by these two ridiculous little white creatures frolicking about. I saw Suz over there and called her back to me, and brought her back up over the fence. Dorky dog. Maddie came back shortly after I took away her hunting buddy, and Maddie was covered in blood. NICE. They had been after 
rabbits all day. I can only surmise Madison actually caught one. ICK.
When Madison was a tiny pup she broke off her back right outermost toenail while staying at my parents' house. They think it happened on a blanket that had a very loose weave to it. She snagged her witty bitty toenail and it never grew back 'right'. A couple years ago she tore it off down to the quick, as in the bloody nub was just dangling there, while lure coursing. Of course I saw it, scooped her up and started to Dr. it and she took off after the lure again! Everyone was wincing watching her, knowing it just had to hurt...HAD to!! I don't think she even noticed it until we were at home later that night. Dork ;)
She broke it off again, though not AS bad this time, while chasing the rabbit yesterday. & she only stopped 'cause I made her.
27 May 2007 ~ Fun with Heather & Rocket!
The girls and I headed to the DAWG property this afternoon to meet up with Heather & the Rocketman. It was a lot of fun! Rocket worked on his clicker board & his contacts, and weaves, of course. I got to work the wild man too!! I worked on a serpentine with him and while he knocked bars at 16" he did great when we raised them a little higher for a couple reps, to see what he was doing with his feet. He just doesn't have to think about it at 16" so he doesn't...:-P Josie does the same thing -- she thinks about it more and keeps the bars up better when the bars are at their regular jump height, not lower!
I also worked my Josie-Monk (& Heather did too -- I was glad to see she will HAPPILY work for someone else when asked to!) on a lot of weaves, some serpentines, and contacts. Her contacts are really coming together very nicely. She did them real well in the fun match (Video link in last update) and even in the 'stress' of that environment, nothing 'fell apart' so I was doubly pleased!
25 May 2007 ~ Josie's 1st Fun Match!! & Josie is the Daily Puppy!
I took my Josie-Monk
to the Rendon Indoor Arena in Burleson, Texas this evening for her very first
ever fun match!! She ran 4 times and she did rather well for
a wee little thing of 13 months!! What a superstar she will be!
She did great distance work, AWESOME contacts, and she took directional cues like a pro. I couldn't have asked for more out of my little kiddo! She's just too cute for words out there on the course too. Gosh she wants SO badly to please!
The funniest part was when I saw her drooling on course! I've never seen this dog drool before! She came flying out of the first tunnel with spit flyin' everywhere! I swear she's trying to be like the Juice-litter...they're a bunch of spitty dogs if I've ever seen any! She had a blast and I did too!
I can't wait to start showing my little munchkin. She is going to kick some serious canine booty when she gets the chance!
A friend took some video for me but I don't have the cable to download onto my computer yet so I'll have to wait to get that. I'm very excited about how she performed, though. VERY excited! She didn't lose her confidence, didn't lose her mind, her focus was spot-on, and she performed at LEAST as well there as she ever has in training. It was like just another day at the office for her...with the usual Josie-flare-&-enthusiasm of course! Her energy is just contagious and she makes my heart melt with her excitement over the entire course. I couldn't adore this girl more.
Video compilation of a couple rounds of the fun match is up!!
Don't forget to check out my joint project with my friend Jamie...www.agilitymutts.com!!
23 May 2007
~ She's got Legs!
Just an update on
size...
Josie is officially out of the "Pocket Rocket BC" club that she
started :-P
I had her measured for the first time 'for real' at the trial this weekend
by a CMJ (Certified Measuring Judge) and he measured her 'right at 20"'
!!! He is known for measuring about 1/4" 'high' so I'm assuming she's
closer to 19.75". WHERE did these legs come from, anyway?! :) What a
girlie!
I kept saying 'well, if she's over 18", she might as well be 20"!'
I guess she overheard and decided to accomodate my wishes :)
So now it'll be even easier for my "little" girlie to compete in
her 22" division...not such a 'tiny' thing anymore!!
She's now 19.75" and 31lbs.
What a perfect size!!!
Being nearly 20" will also help her keep the jumps up if we decide, as a team, to 'go for it' and do any AKC World Team tryouts or anything. Of course this will all depend on how she matures in the end and how we do in any AKC competitions we decide to go to, but if what she does now is any indication, well, I think we might have a shot. She's my tiny superstar :)
You can now 'contact Josie' at the bottom of the page. She's good about returning mail...I promise :)
22 May 2007
~ Windy Day at the DAWG field!
Look what the wind did to my floppy-eared Princess' ears today! What a hoot!
I also took a lot of new videos of my baby girlie!
In the weave videos, the crazy-looking things in the middle of the weaves are table legs. Hear me out :)
If you notice in
the videos, there are bizarre looking things in the weave poles. These are
table legs. Hear me out...;)
I want to encourage single-striding through the poles. I know this can be
achieved by weave-a-matics but I'm currently unemployed and don't know anyone
with WAMs so I was stuck figuring something else out. My trainer came up with
this idea and it really seems to be working. She uses stride regulators out
on her field to accomplish this but these table legs that I found in the shed
seemed to do the trick just fine, thankyouverymuch :)
Josie's footwork on regular, 100% straight, no help, weaves is improving DRAMATICALLY
so I will keep working with these 'stride regulators' in practice and note
the difference I see in her footwork in class.
Also, I will fade the annoying 'gogogogogogooggoogo' but I also want her to
stay focused and in the poles no matter WHAT I say, so that's why I'm talking
:) Off camera I also got right up IN her face and clapped and hollered and
she stayed focused and driven and boy did she kick in the afterburners!!
The 2nd video...I stop the 'gogogogogogoogogogo' for this video. At first it slows her up but she picks her speed back up after a few reps. If you notice, I get about 20 feet of lateral distance from her. Pretty awesome for a baby, BABY weavin' dog. The entry from that jump (26") is pretty heinous, too!! It's an angle we saw on a world team tryout course so I thought we'd give it a shot. We're just starting to work entrances independently of the weave pole performance. This girl blows my mind with what she picks up in latent learning. I mean honestly...
21 May 2007 ~ Fun Times with my Girls
I found these pictures taken back of May of my beautiful girls, today. They were taken back in March but I never got around to publishing them. Bad mom! Anyway, this is by far my most favourite picture of them all. Her eyes...I mean...how could you not fall in love...?
& the rest...
20 May 2007 ~ Pretty Flowers...
& even prettier girls!
18 May 2007 ~ New Videos!
& USDAA Action shots of Ivie, courtesy of FastClicksPhoto!
17 May 2007
~ New Pictures!
I was working some
'independent performance' on obstacles today. Or...perhaps the better term
is 'obstacle focus'. At any rate:) I was sitting still, saying the name of
an obstacle, and Ivie was going out and finding the obstacle, and performing
it. She came like this & I LOVE it. I decided Josie deserved a shot. So
I sat on the ground and did tires/jumps with her using 
only
verbal. She is such a hard working, dedicated little monkey! She got it right
away. I decided it was the perfect opportunity to take some shots of her 'in
her element'.
I LOVE seeing this dog work...too bad I didn't have my camera set right to
capture these.
I did try, unsuccessfully to get some pictures of Ivie, but she is just too good at this game. I didn't have any time to get my camera up before she was over the jump! So I tried to do some recalls with her, too, and got a couple okay shots. Maybe brown photographs better than black...:-P
Weave pics from
today too...the first still pictures of Josie's weaving career!
Since the Jos is getting so awesome at independent weaves, I decided to try
my hand at getting some shots of her in the poles since I can leave her in
and get some good lateral distance...don't laugh...I tried!! :) I love how
she closes the eye getting ready to hit the pole each time...too cute!! &
she's single-striding like a pro. !!
(for clarification, these poles are closed as much as they would close, they're
stuck open a little in places...I think they're old & rusty)
16 May 2007 ~ Barbie Collie Alert!
Heather
V. was so kind as to groom my misfit-of-a-BC yesterday! Poor Ivers had burrs
in her hair, her belly hair was all tangled, and she was just a flat out 
mess!!
Going to the park EVERY DAY will really take a toll on the oldBC coat, it
seems. All the trialing hadn't helped, I think she was also covered in red
clay somewhere amongst the filth. It was time to do something about it!
SO, Heather took my working collie and turned her into a Barbie Collie for
me! She is SO clean and pretty, and symmetric!! It's hilarious how poofy she
was when I picked her up, too, from being blown-dry. She's been swimming nearly
everyday and just air-drying and she's very curly when she air dries. Evidently
she's a POOFball when she gets blow-dried.
I was cracking up, everyone in class last night made comments on what a clean
little barbie collie she was. She smacked it down on the World Team Tryout
course that was set up, though, so she can work AND be beautiful, it's been
proven!
While
Ivie was being groomed yesterday, I took Josie to the park to play some fetch.
While we were playing these little kids all started showing up in baseball
gear. Pretty soon there was a full-on tiny-by-child baseball/little league
practice going on!! So we decided to take shelter in the cool shade of a tree
and let Josie cool off a bit. Then all the moms thought that looked like a
great idea so they boxed us in and set up camp! Josie took it all in stride,
she was awesome!!
There were tiny children running around, a kid with a football (whom she admired
intensely from afar!), people wanting to pet her and play with her...she was
a hit! She did so well, too, with them all!! After about 30 minutes something
spooked her and she startle barked a few times. Weird. Must still be a bit
of that fear period she's trying to shake.
Everyone was like "WOW, she has the softest fur EVER" and "WOW,
her teeth are SO WHITE, there is no buildup on them anywhere, no yellow at
all, how did you DO that??" and then we got into the wonders of feeding
a raw diet and of course they all thought I was completely bonkers. That's
all right, even some DOG people think I'm nuts...and these were kid-people,
so of course they'll think I'm nuts!! :)
All in all it was a great day yesterday!! I'm proud of my Jos for being such
a good experience for so many children that were terrified of dogs. She will
make a great therapy dog one day!
13 May 2007 ~ Mother's Day Weekend
Having
a lazy weekend of it, really. The girls and I met up with Heather and
her boys last night out at Breckenrige. Edie was there with BJ &
Dessa, too, along with a dogpark friend of hers. All the kids had a
great time! Afterwards Heather and I went out to dinner. The snot
hadn't told me Thursday was her birthday!! Ah well, what can you do?!
Tom of Fast Clicks Photo asked me recently for a logo and a link for the 'composite' photos that I make. Hopefully I can get some business from that. He said he gets tired of making them, so he might send people to me. That'd be sweet!
So...anyone want one??? :)
Well, on a VERY exciting note...I just checked the National Top Ten Standings for Masters Snooker for this year....and check this out!!
I didn't think we had a shot at ANY Top Ten for this year...but I guess I was wrong! Now I'll REALLY be going for the placements...this happened totally 'by chance'...WOW...what a good pup!!!
7 May 2007 ~ Birthday Weekend
Before
the weekend's agility festivities started, the girls (plus Lucy) & I met
up with Heather and Rocket for a nice after
noon
of swimming and romping! Ivie loves to let loose with her BC buddies!
Ivie
had a GREAT time over her birthday weekend! We came away with 5Q's, one of
them a SuperQ! 2 Gambles, Pairs, Jumpers, and Snooker.
In the 2 standard runs we did not Q in, it was me making a tiny mistake to
keep it from happening. Abandoning her at the WP entrance (which, she could
have gotten, but thought I didn't want her to, as if it was gamblers or something)
on Saturday, and then mis-walking the course and therefore not being properly
positioned for the NEXT TO LAST jump...the double. I bet she wouldn't have
knocked it if it was a single. Dangit!!! Snooker on Sunday was completely
bizarre for us, she came off the A-frame before getting to the top. Must have
been a real bad angle she went up. Ah well! I was actually VERY pleased with
our Standard runs because there were a LOT of E's, both days, and we were
NOT one of them (in fact the first place dog on Sunday had 5 faults, and we
were 5th with 5 faults Saturday)!! We didn't E all weekend...that might be
a first!! :') So, we're working together better and better...it's nice to
be more consistent than not :)
All in all we had a lot of REALLY great runs and I was so proud of her! I
even heard a 'well, if anyone can do all 7's on a course like this, it's Ivie'
when walking on Sunday. Yay!! Nice to hear compliments like that!! :)
The weather was muggy and mucky and muddy and gross but we survived. Please
excuse the blindingly white legs in the following video clips. It was the
debut of my legs for the summer. ;)
All
the weekend's runs
or, if you are having problems with that, a 2-minute shorter version here:
Agility
Vision Version
Thanks for Heather V. for helping out at the trial, she did a lot of work!!
I got most of Heather & her 'tzu's runs on video from the weekend but
I'll let her edit and send out how she sees fit :) With two dogs, it makes
for a lot of video! :) Rocket was doing great on his mom-focus and his practice
jumping ringside this weekend. He sure is a pretty boy!
Also, thanks to Kathy for coming to cheer us on on Saturday!! She got to see
our Pairs and our SuperQ Snooker runs. Normally I really mess up when Kathy's
there but we pulled it together pretty well in Snooker :) A couple wide turns
cost us 1st place by a second. Ah well :) Kathy's kids did great at the trial
-- Handsome really chilled out and just watched -- a big difference from when
he first saw agility at this facility last October. He is such a good boy!!
& of course Gorgeous was perfect...she's the black/white version of Josie!
:)
I also got to see Elise with Dicey (Smooch x Rimmer '06) there this weekend.
Dicey's all grown up now!! Elise had a great weekend with her older BC Fame,
going 100% on Sunday.
I hope you enjoy the video...we sure did have a grand time!! :)
4 May 2007 ~ Happy Birthday, Ivie!
Dear
Ives,
Happy 6th Birthday to my black & white wonder pup.
I can't put into words how happy & lucky I am to have you in my life.
In the time I've had you, you have taught me so many things, and you amaze
me every day. I love your snuggles, your kisses, and your enthusiasm for life.
You are a true gift and I couldn't love you more. This is only the beginning
of our journey together, and I look forward to many more years of 'me&Ivie'
time! Thanks for all the smiles, the continuous laughs, and most of all, your
devotion. Even though we haven't known each other a year yet, I can't imagine
life without you. I hope to never let you down and to be the best I can for
you.
All my love,
Emily
23 April 2007 ~ Photo Shoot!
I got the link to the pictures from her 1-year-old phoot shoot today.
I've
had this photographer
do her 3mo, 6mo, and 12mo photo sessions. I love the action shots :)
Taken 1 April 2007.
http://www.fastclicksphoto.com/josie/
22 April 2007 ~ Weaving Machine!
My tiny phenom is just unbelievable! After less than a month of weave training, Miss Josefin is doing 100% straight poles!! WOOHOO!!
20 April 2007 ~ Weeeaaavvee!!
I took
Josie and Ivers out to the training field this afternoon before the nature
walk/hike/swim and Josie did 100% closed weave entrances off of jumps and
crazy angles and...WWEEE!!!!! I'm so excited about my girlie!!! She loves
to weave, too! YAY!! Ivie was good about staying back and uncrated (so much
quieter when she's not in a crate!!) while I worked Josie's weaves but Josie
was way too excited to do the same for Ivers so she ended up in a crate while
I worked her sister. It's SO fun to have TWO fast and furious BCs to train...I
can only imagine the fun some of you have with dozens of them!! :')
Wweeeeeeaaavvveee!!!!
19 April 2007 ~ FAST Class
My
instructor set up the FAST class course and taught it to us in class this
week. Rather boring and unchallenging compared to 'real' Gamblers but oh well
:) I took Josie to class on Monday night and her class is full of VERY novice
dogs. Some perpetually novice dogs that have been training there since I started
a couple years ago and are still in the novice class. My instructor, I'm sure,
has put me in this class to test my patience while I wait for an opening in
the class we're actually on the waiting list for with dogs more competition-ready.
If you know the game of FAST then you know the rules. There are a certain
number of obstacles on the course, all worth a certain number of points. My
class was given 35sec course time (even though in the real thing they vary
the time by height, we didn't get into all that). I devised a plan for Jos
that included getting the send bonus (which was SO easy compared to USDAA
starters gambles) and taking every one of the obstacles exactly once for points,
which is all you can do. Once you take an obstacle it's dead.
We smoked that course and came in with a time of 23sec! We had a ridiculous
number of points, something in the 70's which I understand is nearing the
max of 80! She even did a real nice nose plant when I tried to turn her tight
coming 90mph out of the tire. It was hilarious and she got the best grass
stains! Little falls don't slow this girl down one iota! I walked the course
thinking it would take me nearly 30 seconds to run it. Apparently my little
pup has more speed than I give her credit for!
We ran it again, had to do a completely different path, but we still took
every obstacle once and got as many points as the course would allow. We did
it in 25sec this time! I have a feeling that this game won't cause us too
much grief, if it's even ever offered in this area!
I LOVE my red girlie girl!!
13 April 2007 ~ In Response...
To a question about 'what do have you taught your dogs to 'reconnect' with you after a tunnel?'
I have
not made a conscious effort to reconnect with my dogs after coming out of
a tunnel or chute. I suppose I haven't noticed a 'disconnect' of any sort
so I haven't trained through that.
I taught the tunnel and chute the same as I did jumps, etc. I use a tuggie
reward at first, to reward coming back to me, reinforce checking in. Then
I switch to using a ball for a while which allows them to keep driving forward
after a quick check or 'connection' with me, knowing the ball came from ME.
Then I switch it up, I'll use a tuggie one pass, then a ball a few times,
then tuggie, etc. This way they never 'know' what they are going to do after
a tunnel, or how they are going to be rewarded, so they ALWAYS check in. If
I have my arm out and am saying 'go on', they continue on their path away
from me. If I am crossing or stopped and calling them to me, they come towards
me.
Does that make sense?
I'm better at showing than explaining but this is something I do not have
video of :)
Also, I will add that I rarely find I have any 'disconnect' with Josie at
all. Sure we make mistakes and I miscue her and she will even 'tunnel suck'
sometimes, but there is never a time when I think 'why was she ignoring me?'.
When she was a pup I was VERY strict about her not ever just 'playing' near
the equipment. Until she understood that the agility field was for WORKING,
she was never allowed to just 'wander' through the obstacles without me. After
having terriers and perpetual disconnection, I was determined not to have
it with Josie :) After a few months of training and once she offered 'work'
behaviour well before 'play' behaviour upon seeing agility equipment, THEN
I let her wander through the course while I set up or threw the ball or whatever.
I think that was an important step for me!
Hope some of this helps!!
30 March 2007 ~ Happy Birthday, Josie-Monk!!
26 March 2007 ~ ADCH Ivie!!!
The
girls & I travelled to a 3-day show this weekend and boy was it worth
it!!
I will spare the boring details of our SuperQ's and other titles (Tournament
Master with a killer Grand Prix run! -- our 11th title together) and the wonders
of the rest of the 3-day trial and skip right to the good part !!!
As I walked the course I tried to tune out everyone else and just concentrate
on us and what we needed to do to get through the course. I always strategize
with other peo
ple
and this time no one approached me and I didn't approach them...I just needed
to do what felt 'right'. I tell you, I was in 'the zone' when I walked that
course. There were several places where it made MUCH more sense to do a front
cross than a rear cross, but for Ivie I know rears work, and I'm no good at
fronts so I tend to cause knocked bars. There was no room for knocked bars
today!! I played it safe and went with all rear crosses.
As I was watching the class run (we were the FIRST 22" dog but I watched
the performance dogs and the minis run) I realized I had not been reading
the numbers correctly and I left out a whole jump that COMPLETELY changed
the ending! AH!! I had to totally rethink the last 5 obstacles. AH!!
Tom Kula had designed the course and Cherie Whittenberg was judging. She knew
I was going for ADCH so she made sure to put a nice, pretty bar as my last
jump bar for me to take with me on my victory lap, if that happened!!
TMI, but I wore undies that say 'relax' on them so I'd have that to think
about and relax myself on the start line...silly, I know...but IT WORKED!!!
I also took a very audible DEEP breath, and got into position.
I did a 2-jump lead-out-pivot and we were off to the races.
I think I said a total of maybe half a dozen words the WHOLE run. I did not
push for speed (speed will never be an issue!), I let her take her turns wide
and I just let her stride it out and find the approaches on her own. I did
not give directionals, I did not ever say 'jump', and the only words I think
I uttered were a couple "Ivers", and a "here" or two.
She cleared the last bar and I nearly went through the roof!! I grabbed her
and told her how GOOD GOOD GOOD she was, grabbed my bar and took a lap. (I
heard several people say to me after the the run 'that was the quietest run
EVER, you could have heard a pin drop!!')
Ivie's so precious...haha...she knew something was different and wasn't offering
to take obstacles during our victory lap, it was hilarious. As Cherie brought
me my big ADCH ribbon and I was hugging her in the middle of the ring, I looked
down and Ivie had brought her leash out to the middle of the ring like 'tug
with me PLEASE' !!! It was SO cute!!! :') I tugged with her all the way out
of the ring, where I finally was able to let go of a few tears of joy and
come to grips wth the fact that we HAD, in fact, just done it!!! I tugged
with her until I just couldn't tug anymore and we just sat at our little crating
area and enjoyed the moment we had just shared.
WOW...and I mean WOW. I am SO proud of my Ivernator I can hardly stand it.
It's still so surreal.
This brings our count up to 13 titles that we have earned together in the
five months that she has been with me. WOW, Ivie!!!
I cannot BELIEVE how far we have come in such a short time!!
I remember the first few trials we had where everyone's advice was for me
to enter her in the Performance class at the first level (P1) and work on
our relationship. Luckily I'm a bit obsessive about training and as soon as
we 'clicked' at home and became totally and completely bonded to each other,
the agility aspect of our relationship fell right into place.
I am so lucky to have Ivie in my life and although she was not a part of my
'master plan', I am So happy she decided to join me and teach me SO much about
myself as an agility handler!
I am so glad for the friends that I had there to share it with me today and
I will be so happy to share the celebration with everyone next weekend as
well, here on my home turf!
I have video footage of our run and the photographer took pictures of me with
the judges. I will post the course map and the video as soon as I have some
energy back...I need to head to the shower and then crawl into bed...what
a long weekend. But SO worth it!!
20
March 2007 ~ After
class tonight I swung by the DAWG property. Because I'm only a little OCD...
Josie-monk did the weaves tonight (6 of them) channelized 3" at the opening
and CLOSED at the end!!! She was wiggling!!!!!! What a good puppers!!!!!!!!!!
The first pass when the end was closed she hit a pole and popped out and was
kinda like 'hm, rude pole!!' and the second time through she just gave it
a little extra shoulder and stayed in and finished!! What a change from three
weeks ago when she was laying down at the end of the totally open channel!
WOW!!
19 March 2007 ~ A 3-girl weekend
The
girls and I sure did have a fun-filled weekend! So much so that I think I
need a few days off work this week to recover! We are off to a show Thursday
afternoon, however, so I don't have much time to catch up :-P
I picked Miss Raine up at the airport at about 11:00 Friday night. I took
Josie with me and they met rather uneventfully. Ivie got her feelings hurt
when I scolded her for scolding Raine and those bad feelings carried over
into all of our runs this weekend and our performance didn't come anywhere
close to what we accomplished last weekend though we DID have some successes
despite all that!
Saturday started with a Masters Gamble run which was such a piece of cake
for Ivie. We SMOKED the opening (got the most points of all the dogs!!) but
I went to the gamble too early and was halfway through when MY buzzer sounded.
Therefore I had negated my gamble (by doing sequential gamble obstacles before
the buzzer). Oh well. Ivie did it ...she is my gamble girl! No Q but not a
bad run.
Masters Standard was the run that Kathy was there to watch, so of course we
didn't Q -- she's bad luck ;) Hehe. I wasn't feelin' the love on the contacts
during our run and decided to do something about it. As Ivie was on the downside
of the contact, in the yellow, I grabbed her butt and made sure she understood
that THAT was where I wanted her to stay! She looked back like "OMG,
mom, this is a show, why are you touching me?!?!" This of course earned
us a whistle and an E and I thanked the judge and walked off (after apologizing
to the judge for touching Ivie, and pleading a moment of total blondeness
:')
Masters Pairs was great and we earned ourselves another Q! Evidently the dogwalk
touch in Standard did the trick because she had the most BEAUTIFUL 2O2O position
ON HER OWN in Pairs! I paused long enough to tell her how good she was! The
trend continued and she stopped on EVERY SINGLE dogwalk and teeter the rest
of the weekend!! A-frame she still early releases a bit but since we're retraining
a new height anyway I'm not fretting over that.
Masters Snooker went well with 3 7's and a 6 in the opening but since I babysat
it all so much we didn't finish the close. Still a great, solid Q, earning
us her Snooker Champion Bronze title! (3 SuperQ's and 12 Regular Q's required
for the title) This is the 10th title we have earned in the 5 months I have
had her!! We really are coming together as a team and I can't wait to see
what the [hopefully near] future holds for us! :)
Masters Jumpers we of course didn't Q in. Why? Because that's all we need
for ADCH, that's why! 2 stinkin' gambles! Now tell me why I can get a Q on
a Snooker course with TEN REDS yet I have gone TEN Jumpers courses without
a single Q?! Tell me!! Ah well. It was a BEAUTIFUL run on her part...I simply
caused a refusal. I was actually nervous, which made me cautious, which caused
the refusal. Doh! I NEVER get nervous...it's this impending ADCH and all my
friends watching...maybe I'll do better this weekend at a non-local show...one
can hope! :)
Sunday started with Gamblers where we SMOKED the opening, totally wiping out
the competition there! We got the most points of any dog in the opening! Too
bad an early 'left' while she was in the air cause a knocked bar in the gamble.
She totally did the gamble perfectly, too, and would have been just as perfect
without my stupid left!! :-P Ah well. One day I will learn to shut up :)
Masters Standard was going GREAT until I pulled her out of the weave poles.
I just totally dropped my arm and looked towards the next obstacle, totally
pulling her into me. Aside from that it was AWESOME!!
Masters Pairs we got another Q with the fastest time of any team by 5 seconds!!
WOW, Smokin'!! Very fun! We now have a chance to earn our Relay Champion title
this coming weekend since we earned both the relays this weekend!
Masters Snooker went great, again, until I sent her over the wrong jump in
a 2-jump combo. Ah well...we'll get 'em next time!
All in all a pretty dern good weekend considering she was all out of sorts
over Raine being here! Hopefully she'll get over herself in time for this
weekend. I think having Siryn here helps. Siryn 'bows down' to Ivie and maybe
Raine will take notice and do the same :)
I got a new camcorder and had someone tape most of my runs. I'll put together
a little compilation once I figure it all out. My laptop's been giving me
fits so hopefully I can get it all worked out. Most of my photo stuff is on
my laptop these days but I might have to remedy that :-P
Anyway, that's the long of it -- good trial, lots of friends and fun and laughter
and ooooooh what a bunch of GOOD girls I have!!! I lover them all!! :)
14 March 2007 ~ Baby Brag
First,
a bit of comic relief from Ivie's class tonight:
My instructor set up one of the Crufts courses for us to run. The first time
through Ivie did a beautiful job and didn't miss a step. The only 'mistake'
was that she didn't hold her teeter as long as I'd wanted her to. The second
time we ran it she decided contacts were semi-optional. She'd do a split-second
2On2Off but then continue on her own. In her defense, since she'd done it
perfectly the first time, I think it was because the contacts had gotten VERY
wet. Anyway...so after the dogwalk there was this harsh turn to the right
to a tunnel. Since Ivie was releasing herself off the contacts, she flew off,
right into the correct end of the tunnel but I just stood there and looked
sad. The whole class burst out in laughter as Ivie completed the tunnel, came
back to the dogwalk, turned herself around and gave a perfect 2O2O, looking
back over her shoulder as if to say 'sorry, Mom...HERE's my contact' I do
so love this girlie! She does everything with flair!
Onto my baby brag...
In the barn at my training facility my instructor had a modified version of
another Crufts course set up. The barn isn't regulation-ring sized so everything
is a bit tighter and some things were omitted. Ivie's class last night was
inside because of the rain and we had run this AWFUL course and it had taken
me and Ivie MANY times to get it right through this section with the hardest
pull through I've EVER seen!
I have been running Josie at 22" in practice since learning her growth
plates are closed but since this course was VERY challenging (something bizarre
at nearly every turn!) I put all the bars to 20" (to keep it successful)
and decided to run my Josie-monk before Ivie's class started. There were only
2 spots where she went wide around a jump and both times were places where
she had to jump IN to me, which is something I've never really worked with
her. (she got it right on the second try, both jumps) A hole in our training
-- I love finding those -- it gives us something to work on!! She ran the
course BEAUTIFULLY, kept all the bars up, and did the pull-through the FIRST
try with NO problems!! My jaw nearly hit the floor! I was so impressed with
my baby girl!
I told the instructor we had run that course and she asked how we did in 'that
spot' and she was pretty impressed when I told her we'd done it right on try
#1 but then she said 'Ah, well, Josie has really great turns, that doesn't
surprise me much'. !!!
WOW, baby!!! Doing Crufts' courses at 11 months old -- not too shabby, not
too shabby!!!
Whatever drive this girlie is, it is absolutely perfect. She is totally ON
when her leash is off and agility is forthcoming. She is also cool as a cucumber
on the sidelines. Best of both worlds, she is. ADORE this dog. Adore her.
I'm going to go snuggle with my perfect dog as she is also a huge cuddle bug
at bedtime!
13 March 2007 ~ The sun is shining, the birds are singing...it's
official...winter is gone!
I decided to take a day off from work today and take advantage of the beautiful
weather before we get dumped on by rain tonight (it's movin' in!)
The girls had a great time and I even found out that border collies DO cry
uncle!! :o)
I took them to the training field and got some great new videos of Josie's
contacts...which now include the teeter! My baby did a full
height teeter for the first time today! I am so proud!!!
I still have more videos to edit but I am not sure how far I'll make it in
that endeavor tonight so I thought I'd share what I have done!
(All photos can be seen here &
all videos can be seen here)
11 March 2007 ~ Pawprints 20th Anniversary
Firstly,
I nearly didn't go to the show this weekend because I swore off showing under
the judge. I'm glad I made an exception at the last minute!
SO GLAD I did!
It was Darlene Woz's last judging assignment before retirement after something
like 20 years.
Well, we started off the first run of the weekend with a beautiful Q :)
(in our pairs run she did an AWESOME 2on2off teeter...it was so beautiful
that I got NUMEROUS compliments on it afterwards....I was beaming!)
Then Standard we had one stupid bar which I don't even know how it dropped
because we were 2 obstacles away before it dropped! oh welll...no Q.
Then we got FIRST PLACE AND Q in STEEPLECHASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a first for us and I am SOOOOOOO excited about it! Especially because
the next closest dog was like 4 seconds behind us -- WWWWWOOOOHHHHHHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SO PROUD, I was. I love my Ivie!!!
This judge is infamous for her bizarre Snooker courses. This one was NO exception.
Yet, we got a Q!!
Then was Jumpers (remember we only need 2 for ADCH!!). We had a GORGEOUS run
but I forced (obviously not on purpose!) a refusal on jump #3. Oh well. It
still felt AWESOME, on a whole.
Sunday morning we Q'd & took 4th in Gamblers with a weave gamble.
Then we took 4th & Q in Snooker (running 1st in the class!). This was
the 'final Woz Snooker' THERE WERE TEN REDS.
We came in second place place in the Steeplechase finals!!! :) Second only
to Jenna !! :')
We NQ'd in Jumpers again today. 1 bar on the double today because I started
to race her...*sigh* -- why do I do this? This is not the first time! I seriously
need to take a shot of something strong before I go into the ring for Jumpers.
The rest of the run was so zen it felt wonderful...if only I had kept that
up ;)
So, we survived the final 2 Snookers! We're now 1 Q from our SCH-Bronze and
1 Q from our TM :o)
So, the Snooker...The TEN red Snooker!!
There were 5 reds along the front and 5 along the back. To get points in the
opening...you had to do "red, colour, red" If you knocked the red
after the coloured obstacle you didn't get those points.
Say the reds along the front are numbered 1-5...I started leading out over
red#3. Instead of following me over to the teeter (#7), Ivie decided to do
the #5 tunnel instead. I decided in order to keep my mind straight I should
go ahead and use the reds I planned to use if she had done the 7. So I went
back and did numbers 1 & 2 (1 for the 'afternumber' obstacle, and then
2 for the red to start the next number). Then I put her on the teeter and
Darlene blew the whistle. I was like 'wtf??' She was confused, and thought
I'd started on #2. We stood there and talked about it for half a minute or
so, after which she was like 'sorry, I got confused, you just get a clean
slate re-run.' So I got to try my plan over again, without the extracurricular
tunnel! After we'd decided this I looked around for Ivie...She was in a PERFECT
2O2O on the teeter -- a whole minute later!! :-P I hadn't even had the chance
to tell her 'stay' this time!! I was SO PROUD!!! I ended up, after that tunnel
thing, babysitting things a little too much so we only got through 5 in the
close, but I was in 1st until the last three dogs ran...and they got to run
more conservatively and still beat me, dangit!! :-P
All in all this weekend was a TOTAL success. Every run felt SO GOOD. I love
this dog :)
Recap:
Q, Masters Pairs
1st & Q Steeplechase round1
Q, Masters Snooker
4th & Q Masters Gamblers
4th & Q Masters Snooker
2nd place, Steeplechase finals
9
March 2007 ~ In
true Emily fashion, I started my weekend off with a bang.
I drove nonstop the 3.5 hours to my hotel in Shreveport Friday evening. I
knew the girls needed to tinkle, but as I pulled up to the hotel, all I could
think about was getting checked in and settled for the night. As I hopped
out of the car I told them "I'll be back in just a few minutes and then
I promise you can tinkle!"
I had parked right in front of the big glass wall so I left them in the car,
grabbed my check card and my license and headed inside. I got all checked
in, ran back out to my car, visions of a nice hot shower dancing through my
head, and (boom) locked door.
"&(#$*)%(205&U!)$1830@(#)$*!#)$(~_##_!@!!!!!!!" said I.
WTF, exactly, does one do when in a strange city in the middle of the night
and no way to get into your vehicle where everything of value is? (Including
your beloved dogs) ??
*sigh*
I resorted to more swearing, then some cursing, and an obligatory potty mouth
word or two [hundred].
After trying every door (as if THAT is going to help!), banging my hands on
the windows, and apologizing profusely to my full-bladdered pups, I went inside.
The chickie working the front desk could not understand that I wanted to call
Suzuki the car COMPANY not Suzuki the car DEALERSHIP.
*big sigh*
Eventually I had the thought to go out to my car, where I thought I remembered
seeing a roadside assistance number at some point.
Sure enough, there was a number on the drive side window. SWEET.
I used Mrs. HotelLady's cell phone (which was the same as mine, but with the
black cover!) and called the number (since handing a perfect stranger your
cell phone through the 'night hole' was MUCH safer than letting her into the
hotel office to use the hotel phone). I got a very nice lady named Marianne
on the line and she was rather sympathetic about the dogs being in the car.
She told me an hour or so.
*huge, huge sigh*
About 5 minutes later she calls Mrs. Hotel's cell phone back and I talk to
her...the guy will be there in about 20 minutes. SWEET.
5 minutes later he shows up. It only takes him about 5 minutes of shimmying
around to unlock the door. Thank heavens.
Paying for Roadside assistance is DEFINITELY worth it!!!
I unloaded my junk, took the girls to this empty field where we played last
year when we came to this show, parked my car with the headlights on the grass
so we could see, and proceeded to play a bit of fetch until they looked too
pooped to function. THEN I got to come back to the room and shower and I let
Josie play water-collie in the tub when I was through.
Ah...the beginnings of what promises to be, I'm sure, an eventful weekend.
Seriously, though...am I done with the bad luck yet?!
4 March 2007 ~ The Hotdog Retrieve
I have
a hotdog story to share.
After much prodding, I have finally put the video together and shortened it
enough to where everyone can probably see it.
Last week after Josie's private agility lesson, the instructor and I were
talking about dogs retrieving hotdogs and what a feat that would be.
Sounded like a challenge to me! :')
So, before dinner (and using her kibble as treats) one night last week, I
sat down with my puppy, 1 hot dog, 1/2 cup of EVO, 1 clicker, and my camera
to see capture whatever it was that was about to happen.
I was not expecting to get as far as we did in the first session; she really
surprised me. I started out teaching her to take the hot dog in her mouth
and release it readily. It got to where anytime the hotdog touched her mouth
she spit it out like it was poison :-P She had me literally rolling on the
floor, laughing at this dog who was acting as though the hotdog was burning
here tongue when it got in her mouth!
Then I moved on to teaching her to take it and hold it in her mouth. That
went well, nothing tricky there (well, besides the whole not eating the yummy
hotdog in your mouth part!)
Next step was for her to pick it up off the floor on her own as before I was
handing it to her and I wanted her to retrieve, and you don't retrieve from
a hand, generally speaking :)
Around the time I was running out of her dinner kibble, I decided to go for
broke and see if she'd bring it back to me. Sure she did!
Finally, since it had gone so well I decided to give it one shot of her going
to and bringing back the hotdog. Certainly!
There was one final retrieve which was really very good, and much further,
but the camera was at its max and shut off before filming it. Boo on that!
But here is what WAS captured in the first 10 minute HotDog-Retrieve training
session :)
1 March 2007 ~ Focus Game for Attention
I know
that any obedience people that see me work my dog think I'm a complete moron
but I don't care, I'm not out there trying to get my dog to be obedient and
calm and 'collected'...I want a dog that wants to run and play and have fun
and be WITH me!!
So, this is what I've done...
which has resulted in my leaving training class COVERED in red clay when we
work in a barn!! :-P
When I am just standing around in class listening to the instructor or watching
other dogs, etc, I don't want my dog to disengage with me, I want her to constantly
yearn for my attention. So I started by having a really high power reward
in my hand just out of her reach. When I would look away from her, the moment
she put her paws on me or tried to engage me (without an annoyance like a
bark or something you REALLY wouldn't want to encourage!), she would get rewarded;
I would praise her and make a HUGE party out of it. I bet everyone was thinking
to themselves "what an idiot, she just rewarded that dog for jumping
on her, boy will she regret that!" Now, when I'm the only novice dog
in the class to NEVER lose focus, I'm thinking "don't you wish you'd
rewarded for trying to engage your attention instead of reprimanding?!?!"
If I'm not paying attention to Josie, she's trying to get my attention. She'll
stare, she'll put her paws on me, she'll do a jig...anything to possibly get
my attention. It's wonderful and I NEVER lose her focus. I can have her on
a down-stay on the table while I walk a course and never does she take her
eyes off of me or move a muscle until told. For a puppy of ten months old,
that's pretty good focus. I attribute a good deal of this to this 'attention
game' I played with her early on. You don't have to be at class to start it,
you can do it anywhere. In fact, it's best you start it somewhere NOT distracting
so that really the ONLY thing around is you. Even if she's not chosing you
over anything 'good', she IS chosing you over running away and sniffing, right?
Just start small and add distractions once she really 'gets' the game.
Starting out with a terrier, I've played all the 'make yourself interesting'
games there are out there...all the 'build the focus' exercises...but this
method has been the best so far. I used it on my pup, and it was just this
random thought I had to do it, then one day I heard of a top agility trainer
telling people the same thing. I thought 'huh, I guess my idea wasn't so silly
after all!' Of course, if you're going to do competition obedience this is
a bad idea, but I never plan to do that boring stuff, just agility and other
high-fun sports, so this game is perfect for us :)
&, yes, she still has a nice 'sit for petting', which she needed to get
her CGC. :) She really generalizes extraordinarily well and still sits nicely
for petting, for me and my friends, as long as 'the game' isn't nearby...know
what I mean? Like on walks, etc, she doesn't jump up on me...just when she
knows I'm wanting 'to play' with her. Instead of barking and lunging at the
dogs in the ring when watching agility as a spectator, she'll watch for a
bit, and once she gets to where she can't contain herself she'll whine a tiny
bit, then turn to me and start tugging on her leash or something like that
to release the excited energy. Then after a minute of that she'll go back
to watching quietly until she just can't contain herself again and we'll start
the cycle over. SUCH a good girlie!! When Ivie goes into 'that mode', I can't
GET her to engage with me...but when Josie goes into that mode, she SEEKS
me out...that is definitely the way to go, let me tell you. :-P
27
Februrary 2007 ~ Might
I first add that Josie's growth plates are officially closed, per x-rays taken
on Saturday...YAY!
Now the full-size training can commence!
I
had so much fun last night. SO much fun!!
Four hours of agility isn't something I could take every single night, but
once in a while...SO fun!! :o)
We started the night with Josie's private lesson.
We worked on her A-frame contact behaviour (4 on the floor) because I want
to make her drive forward with her head forward 100% of the time, without
twisting around to look at me like she has been doing. She's still yet to
'miss' a contact, but when I'm behind her I want her to keep driving forward,
not get to the bottom and turn her happy ass around...what if the next obstacle
is straight ahead? Goober dog :)
Next we moved on to the teeter. WOW, what a good girlie!
She was a bit hesitant when we raised the teeter to full height, so we put
a table under the end, just to make sure she kept driving ALL the way to the
end to lay down.
There are plenty of months to get it raised all the way, I'd hate to get her
scared off now.
We did a few jumps so that she could evaluate whether or not my jumping her
at 12" caused a bad jumping style or anything. Not so, as she was picking
her feet up very nicely and seemed conscious of the fact that she has rear
feet :') Such good news!! She jumped 20" all night and only knocked the
TRIPLE (which she had never seen before!!) once and a jump in a 180 once as
well. Gosh this puppy just blows my mind.
Then Josie had class and it was course night and she did the course like a
pro but the big teeter scared her. Other than that she was BEAUTIFUL on course
and did an AWESOME 'go on' WAY far in front of me!! She looked like a seasoned
pro out there.
Ivie also had class and MAN are her contacts SMOKIN'!! We've really been working
on her driving to the end and STOPping...seeing as how this dog never STOPs
at anything, it has been a struggle. We appear, however, to have crossed a
little barrier and I have much more trust in her contacts. She has been STICKing
them in trials too. What a load off my mind. This dogs gets the CRAZIEST weave
pole entries, I swear. She was no less than 20 feet ahead of me in a 'GO ON'
and she nailed this AWFUL angle of an entry. I think she was the only dog
to get it the first pass, and certainly the only one that far in front of
the handler!! :-P Gotta LOVE distance work!!
After going ballistic watching Ivie have class, it was Josie's turn for another
private. This one was even better!!
She strided all the way to the bottom of the dogwalk contact for her gorgeous
4OTF position; & she did even better on the teeter...still awesome on
the jumps...then we introduced weaves. For the FIRST TIME...Open channel sending
her through to a toy (ball), backchained from the middle to the end. By the
time we were through I was sending her out over a jump, wrapping back and
sending her into the poles and we'd closed them so that she actually had to
wiggle a little to get through. I was so amazed!!! Finding entries and charging
to the end of the poles with a little rear-end wiggle all on the first night
of training weaves...WOW!
I'm so pleased with my girlie. SO pleased. I think I'm at a good point in
my handling career for her, as any earlier and I wouldn't have been prepared
for what she needs, training-wise, as she is just magnificent and deserves
an experienced handler. I would have made some stupid mistakes like I have
in the past. I refuse to do that with her...I will not stand in the way of
her accomplishments. I just can't wait to see what these next couple of months
bring for our training.
She is absolutely my doggie soulmate and I'm so excited to see her grow...
That's all for today. SO exciting, I tell you, SO exciting!!! :)
18 February 2007 ~ I
know we're not even done with the weekend yet, but I'm SO proud of Ivie I'm
nearly busting at the seams. :) So, I have to brag on her a little tonight.
We went 3/5 today, one of the missed Q's being a gamble that ONE dog out of
all the Masters/PIII level got (and there were FIVE of the 2006 top ten 22"
dogs here, & none of them got it!) so technically we were 3/4 :)
We got a Q in Pairs, which earned us her RM title. We also got our 5th Standard
leg which earned us her SAM! TWO titles in one day!! &, as icing on the
cake, we came in 1st & SuperQ with a class that included 5 of the top10
Snooker dogs from 2006! WOW, Ivie!! :o)
I got so many compliments on her today it was almost embarassing ;) I was
told on more than one occasion "Ivie's really coming into her own, isn't
she?!" She really IS doing AWESOME this weekend, and hopefully we'll
get a chance to redeem ourselves in Gamblers tomorrow ;) I'm running my friend's
dog too and she's also doing really well. Maybe I should play hookie from
work more often!
I would normally wait until the end of the weekend to brag but today was SUCH
a huge day I just had to share. Ivie's really ON this weekend...I hope Mark/Suki
&/or Noelene/Ashley get a chance to come out this weekend :)
Ivie is SUCH a cool dog. I love her more & more everyday :')
12 February 2007 ~ We had an awesome couple of days down in Austin, TX this weekend. Firstly, my good friend that I was staying with for the trial threw me a little surprise party when I got there -- she felt bad that I didn't get any cake on my birthday :) What a super friend!!
So
that was fun!!
On Saturday we had some AMAZING runs. We got compliments up and down on how
great we looked together. They FELT awesome too. & coming in 4th in Steeplechase
in a class of nearly 50 dogs isn't too shabby either :') She even got this
SUPER hard Gamble entrance to a tunnel that even the World Team dog Sterling
didn't get!! WOW, Ivie!!! I was pretty pleased! We NAILED our half of the
Relay (we need one more relay leg) but our partner took a bizarre off course
so we E'd. Big bummer! We'll get it this weekend.!! :')
Our BIGGEST accomplishment this weekend? Not a SINGLE knocked bar! WOOWOO!!!
Not that we necessarily had a 'bar-knocking issue' but generally there are
a few a trial...not anymore! That's the SECOND no-bar weekend in a row!! :)
I brought home with me the red merle in the pictures above. Her name's Siryn
(pronounced like Siren) and I'll be showing her next weekend in Houston (where
I'll get to see all you Houston-LE-ers!!) while her mom is on a cruise. I'll
take her back at the end of the month...if she's lucky ;)
Josie and Siryn LOVE each other while Ivie's trying to decide just exactly
WHY we went back to having more than 2 dogs ;)
I got to see Dicey again while I was at the show on Sunday -- yay!! I think
she remembers me as she got very excited everytime I walked past her! :-P
Elise's other BC (not a LE) got his AAD title and also got a SuperQ on Sunday,
they were 100% for Q's! Yay for them, that's very exciting! We'll see you
in all the Masters classes from now on! :)
Okay, that's my update. My boss is being a stickler to this no-e-mail rule
this week so I was a bit stifled earlier today. I hope you all have a great
week!
Countdown to ADCH: 4 Q's :o)
8
February 2007 ~ How/Why
I taught Josie her directionals:
I started out thinking "I won't do left/right, how would I EVER remember??"
so I just taught a 'back' at first. Then Ivie came with these amazing left/right
directionals and I knew I had to convert Josie to them, so I did...and hers
are nearly as beautiful as Ivie's now! :)
When she was a pup-pup I taught her "spin" (to the left) and "twirl"
(to the right). She would be standing in front of me and would turn either
clockwise (right) or counterclockwise (left). I started by luring her either
direction with food, and c/t for correct movement. She had this down the first
week of trying, she seemed to enjoy it.
After she was doing it on hand signal, I added the words spin and twirl along
with my hand signal. Next step was fading the hand signal, so I did. I could
either say the word, or flick my finger in either direction and she'd spin
or twirl.
Since she already knew these commands when I started to do directionals, I
would say "spinLEFT" or "twirlRIGHT" , emphasis on the
direction. I added back in the hand signal to increase success. Then I faded
the spin/twirl words and then faded the hand signal. Now this just taught
her which way to turn, but nothing more, and not moving.
She already knew "back" (which is easy to teach on the flat, no
jumps, etc) so if she was on my left I would say "backLEFT" and
pick her up with my right hand, and when she was on my right I'd say "backRIGHT"
and pick her up with my left hand. The beginnings of nice rear crosses :)
I started to do this over one jump, say "backLEFT" or "backRIGHT"
and direct her with my arm as well, as I will always leave in the body language
when running an agility course. (Though I will say I have tested this and
she will do it correctly even if I stand there with my hands behind my back
and call the directionals! ) She got this immediately (she is SO good with
generalization! !!) and within a week I was sending her 10-20 feet away to
a jump and telling her "left" or "right" midair and she
was making the right choice.
I'm not sure if this method would work with everyone as it's just sort of
a trial by fire thing I did with my girl but she learned the words left/right
brilliantly in only a couple weeks. She can now use them as any part of a
course, which I LOVE.
I think it helped when she was a pup that I used different words. When they're
pups, no matter how hard you try not to, you end up repeating a command every
now & then, or adding the verbal just before they're ready. But this way,
she was 100% knowledgable on the action I was asking her to perform when I
started to add the left/right, & I was merely renaming it, not naming
it AND teaching a new behaviour. Does that make sense?
I'm teaching WP entries now and am saying 'push' for the entry. I'm using
one set of 2x2's and do not want to even introduce the word "weave"
until she's weaving an entire set of 12 poles! I do NOT want her thinking
that you weave 2 and that's it, nor do I want to have to say "weave weave
weave weave" every other pole! So, it's the same basic theory...I know
there are plenty of them out there ;)
4
February 2007 ~ Ivie
& I got our last required SuperQ on Saturday in Carthage!!
That gave us her Snooker Master AND Snooker Champion
titles...yay! !!
We had several other runs that felt VERY good and we generally made it through
the hard part and then I'd turn my shoulders too soon to force a refusal or,
my favourite, call 'left' right BEFORE she takes off for a jump, forgetting
how responsive she is, and watch her turn 90 degrees exactly where I told
her to...which was completely wrong on my part!...those sorts of things ;)
After I turned Ivie just before a jump she was just about to take, the judge
says "HAHA, nice left!"...... .........
............ .nice dog, shame about the handler! :')
31 January 2007 ~
I've got a couple of gamblin' dogs!!
Last night was gamble night at agility class and my instructor had about 7
different gambles with gamble lines and numbered gambles set up on the field,
they were all nested and there were different lines for different levels and
it was really fun!
Ivie is a total gamble dog and nailed them all (and STUCK her contacts from
upwards of 20 feet away!!) so at the end of her class the instructor made
up this REALLY hard gamble and we were the first team to try it and we got
it! I nearly had to pick her jaw up off the ground as she said "Oh, WOW,
I didn't think ANYONE was going to get that!!" which of course made me
nearly pop he buttons off my jacket. Then no one else got it so I felt really
good about our performance!
I had put Josie in a class before Ivie's and it was a bit of a less advanced
class and Josie is a distance machine, so during her class we had just made
the distances longer and the challenges harder but still nothing had really
been much of a challenge for her. So after seeing the 'hard' gambles in Ivie's
class, I decided to try them out with Josie. There was one that was a jump,
right out to another jump about 25 feet from the handler, then starting in
on a serpentine at a lateral distance of about 15 feet from the handler. Josie
did it like a champ! My oh MY was I proud!!
These 2 LE's of mine never cease to amaze me (and everyone else!!) and I'm
having a ball with them!!! Yahoo for gamble dogs!!!
29
January 2007 ~ Just
a little brag about my baby girl -- Miss Josie passed her Canine Good
Citizen test today at the ripe old age of nine months!
I'm super proud of the little monkey!
She even tried to halfway 'stretch' on the evaluator (this is her version
of jumping on people...it' s not a jump, but she gets on her hind legs and
rests her front legs on you and s.t.r.e.t.c.h.e.s.... ) but I kept from her
from it with a tiny little sound and that was that!! She did a beautiful stay,
a beautiful sit (that was hard, haha). I had clickered the brush last night,
remembering that was part of the test, and realizing my smoothie had seen
a brush very rarely in her little life, and she got comfortable with it with
the clicks so that was no problem. Josie thought it was a big game and stood
there looking at me with eager eyes while the lady banged some metal things
around -- not so much as a flinch from this girl -- woohoo!! Of course she
didn't mind walking through a crowd or heeling or staying with the evaluator...
she's used to all these things from being around agility trials since she
was three months old. I don't think she even SEES crowds of dogs anymore :-P
She sat like a little lady while we 'met a friendly stranger' and just did
everything I asked her to do...weeeee! !! :o)
What I'm the most proud of is this was at night at a completely new place
where she had never been before and there was AGILITY going on in the background!
She kept her cool and I know she so wanted to go play agility after our test
but since it wasn't our school we had to go!
I am so happy with this little girl of mine, she's just a dream come true!!! :')
28
January 2007 ~ I've
got a couple of gamblin' dogs!!
Last night was gamble night at agility class and my instructor had about 7
different gambles with gamble lines and numbered gambles set up on the field,
they were all nested and there were different lines for different levels and
it was really fun!
Ivie is a total gamble dog and nailed them all (and STUCK her contacts from
upwards of 20 feet away!!) so at the end of her class the instructor made
up this REALLY hard gamble and we were the first team to try it and we got
it! I nearly had to pick her jaw up off the ground as she said "Oh, WOW,
I didn't think ANYONE was going to get that!!" which of course made me
nearly pop he buttons off my jacket. Then no one else got it so I felt really
good about our performance!
I had put Josie in a class before Ivie's and it was a bit of a less advanced
class and Josie is a distance machine, so during her class we had just made
the distances longer and the challenges harder but still nothing had really
been much of a challenge for her. So after seeing the 'hard' gambles in Ivie's
class, I decided to try them out with Josie. There was one that was a jump,
right out to another jump about 25 feet from the handler, then starting in
on a serpentine at a lateral distance of about 15 feet from the handler. Josie
did it like a champ! My oh MY was I proud!!
These 2 LE's of mine never cease to amaze me (and everyone else!!) and I'm
having a ball with them!!! Yahoo for gamble dogs!!!
21
January 2007 ~ A
testament to good dogs:
I went out to celebrate my birthday a couple days late (once the weather permitted!)
on Thursday evening. I got home very late in the evening/early morning and
had stepped in mud all the way up my heel as I was getting my mail on the
way in. Not wanting to track it around the house, I kicked off my shoes in
the corner in the entryway right on top of a pile of dog toys. I've been letting
them play with toys inside all they want lately since they've had such limited
activity lately due to the rain/ice/sleet/ snow so I've let them keep some
toys out to play with. Well, this evening I got home from my agility trial
and had forgotten all about the shoes until I walked in the living room and
the shoes were the only thing that remained of the pile. The dogs had purposely
avoided the shoes and taken all of their toys out from under/around the shoes
to play with the last few days. What GOOD girls!!! Not so much as a nose print
on the shoes. Wow :')
Ivie & I had a great time this weekend at the local USDAA show. We got
4 Q's, one of which we needed in our countdown to ADCH, so just 5 Q's to go!
:) We would have gotten our final SuperQ but if we did we would have knocked
out an agility friend of mine who has been needing ONLY a SuperQ to get her
ADCH for like 8 months. So, I did all 7's then planned to leave the ring after
finishing 6 in the close but after 5 (all we really needed to Q anyway), Ivie
went off course so that was actually better....so no one had to know I planned
to blow it! :-P I would hope my friends would do the same :')
Oh, and after the trial (which Kathy came to watch!) Kathy's LEs and mine
all ran off ALL of their steam at a park nearby. They had a blast! Their least
favourite part was getting their mud-clodded- feet washed when they got home
;)
17
January 2007 ~ A
Josie size update...
...we measured her in class last night and she's 18 3/4" tall now! WOW,
what a big girl!! :o)
So, 28lbs and 18.75" at 9.5 months...
16
January 2007 ~ Josie got invited to a "big dog" class to
"try it out" last night. I don't think we'll take the spot but it
was so cool to see Josie in class anyway. She's such a little trooper, always
doing everything full steam ahead and I don't know how many times I got the
"Oh WOW, she has a lot of focus...she' s HOW OLD???"
Class went both really well last night (for Josie) and really pitiful (for
Ivie)! I kept telling Ivie it was my birthday and she needed to cut me some
slack but she was HIGH as a kite from not having any activity for a week!
BOY was THAT a DISASTER!!! We have a trial this weekend too and the weather
doesn't look good between now and then...but I HAVE to get the edge off before
this weekend!!!
Josie, however, was out to impress last night and it was so nice to see some
of our hard work come together :) It was VERY annoying, however, to be in
class with dogs that had no desire to be there. OMG I forgot how awful it
is. Awful, awful. & all these dogs that wouldn't go in the tunnel...ugh.
Josie would do each exercise once, get it right the first time, and then we'd
work on other stuff like wraps and distance work while the other dogs worked
through their issues.
I was VERY pleased with Josie's "weave" work. She had NEVER seen
weaves before last night. After sending her through the WIDE channel ONCE
on my right and ONCE on my left to a target at the end we added distance and
she found the entry into the wide channel all on her own! What a good girlie
:) So, stuff like that is fun but I will probably not do any more weave work
with her (channel is not the method I plan to use) until I get her x-rayed
and confirm her growth plates closed. Then we will start weave camp :')
So, I think we'll do occasional drop-ins to that class, and hopefully Kathy
will get a spot in it so I can be in Handsome's class when someone's absent!!
:) Ivie has class at 8pm and that class is at 7pm and there's a class Josie
fits better into at 9pm so with 2 classes to chose to do drop-ins to plus
keeping up the private lessons and the training at the other facility several
times a week, I think we'll be good to go :)
So, that's how I spent my birthday evening. I got invited out but just couldn't
miss agility. I am totally addicted. Totally & utterly. I'll go out tomorrow
night when the roads clear, no biggie. It's just another year!
13
January 2007 ~ I'm in the mood to do an update. It's been a while
and it's freezing cold here and as much as I know I should be productive and
get some work stuff done, I know there's slim to no chance of that actually
happening :) So, an update instead. Much more interesting.
BC's & Rain:
It's been raining and nasty and cold here for at least 24 hours. Josie is
in LOVE with the cold weather, the rain, the "swimming hole" that
my backyard has become...she loves it all. She's an all-weather dog, best
I can tell. Ivie, well, Ivie is a different story. Show her a lake and she
jumps right in. Rain? Nothankyouverymuch, says she. Water from below = awesome.
Water from above = gross. Go figure :)
The New Home:
Josie and Ivie are REALLY enjoying their new digs. We got all moved into the
new house last weekend and it's spectacular. Of course there were glitches
with the move-in, and it wasn't cleaned as I requested so we spent this past
week remedying that but it is SO nice to have my own space again. The carpet
cleaners came on Thursday afternoon so the girls came to work with me and
I put everything that wasn't put away and was still in boxes, in the closets
to clear the floors for the cleaners. Stuff in closets = more floor space
for BC wrestling. Josie and Ivie are definitely taking advantage of this :)
They love having their own room too. Since it's just me and them, I have a
room, we have a guest room, and an office and a dog room. Of course nothing
is set up yet but they've already de-fluffed several toys in 'their' room
to christen it. What angels they are :) I always thought my 'dog room' would
be tiled or something but they get carpet instead since it's just a regular
bedroom. Maybe in my next house I'll have a real doggie dog room...for now
it's just a bedroom that they get to inhabit when I have dinner parties or
when I'm gone at work. It's nice to have trustworthy dogs!!
Teeter Woes, or rather, Goes:
At the beginning of December, we were a the agility field practicing one night
after my students left and Josie totally scared herself. (Mind you she's in
a fear period so I thought the worst!!) We were doing some simple jump sequences
and I was trying to run her past the teeter but instead she went right up,
thinking it was the dogwalk, and went flying off! Ah!! I ignored it, and she
recovered within seconds, but she hasn't offered to go near a teeter since!
That is, until I taught my beginner students the teeter on Thursday night.
When I let her out, I brought her over and was C/T for interracting with the
teeter. (I was sitting at the down end of the board, holding it down, about
3 inches off the ground) It took about 2 times of me clicking for sniffing
it and she immediately put two paws on, very enthusiastically. A time or two
of that and she hopped on, all 4 and laid down. (She's been taught to lay
down on the yellow of the teeter) :) Good girl!! I had the up end propped
up on a chair to keep it from going all the way down and as I stood next to
the teeter (ball [read: reward] in hand) talking to the other instructor,
Josie hopped on the up side (it was propped up still), ran to the end, lied
down and looked over her shoulder at me, before I could even say "ah,
wtf is she doing?!" So, she is officially over her fall!! I was afraid
that she'd be afraid forever, since she was in a fear period and all but she's
exiting it now and the C/T really got her enthused for it!
Clicker Training:
On that note, she's progressed VERY nicely into accepting/enjoying a toy reward
after a click now. It used to be only treats would work if I had clicked,
but now the toy can also be used, and she's pretty uninterested in treats
when it comes to agility. She'll eat it but she's not happy about it. So for
stationary behaviours we work them EXTENSIVELY outside the ring, so much so
that they're pretty well proofed by the time we get to the field and start
working, I can either go to her with a tuggie reward and reward "in the
position" or I can use her release and throw the ball. She still waits
fo the "okay" and I think training the "okay" as a "really
cool thing" also helps in speed. My Suzie has GREAT stationary behaviours
but her "start up" after a stay is really slow. With Josie, saying
"okay" is like hitting the nitro button -- and that was the goal
:) I want her to LAUNCH off the table, not sniff it and then hop off like
my terriers do :)
I was WAY excited about that. WaY. Josie will also be joining a "mainstream"
class at her agility school starting Tuesday night.
I think that'll do for now. I'm going to rejoin the world of the freezing
outside my little Starbucks bubble. Man, I can't wait until I get internet
back at the house on Tuesday! What a nice birthday present that will be! Between
merlie River puppy pictures and internet connection -- I won't need to ask
for anything on my birthday :)
4 January 2007 ~ I had to take Josie to the vet this afternoon for a spot on her leg that has been worrying me for a couple of weeks, pretty much ever since we left town for the holidays.
It looked a bit like a hot spot except that it was never red and inflamed or pussy, nor anything like an open wound. It was like in one spot her hair just fell off a bit and it was dry skin underneath, about 1 inch in diameter. Everyone said "ah, lookie there, she chews on her foot". But, no, I've never seen her so much as mess with that foot, much less lick it enough for hair to fall out. *sigh*
So, I got tired of educated guesses and went to the vet today to have it scraped. He scraped the hell out of it and found only 1 demodex. Just 1. He was a bit flabbergasted by this discovery. He said he can't even be certain that's what the problem is since normally a dog with a demodex problem would have all sorts of little creatures at varying stages of development, etc. But she only had the one. Just one.
At any rate, he gave me some antibiotics in case it's a staff infection and also some Mitaban to dillute and pour over the affected foot once a week for several weeks. I'm pretty sure it'll get cleared up in no time and I can stop worrying about my baby girl. It never seemed to bother her when I touched it or anything so who knows what the problem is.
Ivie & Josie were a real hoot tonight up here at work. Josie spent the last few hours of the afternoon in my car after her visit to the vet. It was a really mild weather day here until it started torrential downpouring this evening so she was fine sleeping in her crate in the car. I picked up Ivie around 6 and took her to the Dog Wash because she was filthy from the weekend, and then headed back up here to work. I only planned to stay a few hours but found out there were lots of things I needed to get wrapped up, so here I am.
We should be moving on Saturday and I can't friggin' wait. Sleeping in my own bed again will feel like absolute heaven...it' s been so long! Unpacking all the boxes will feel just like Christmas all over again, discovering things I never knew I had! :)
2
January 2007 ~ We went to a 4-day USDAA trial down in the Houston
area over the New Years weekend (29th-1st). Ivie and I had a BLAST!!!
Friday started off really well, first run of the weekend we got a Q in Masters
Gamblers! That was our 1st Gamblers Q together and her 4th Masters Gamblers
Q altogether so that meant we only needed one more for our GM (Gambler Master)
title. We had 2 more shots over the weekend. Saturday I pulled her off the
A-frame and caused a refusal to the flip back tunnel in the gamble so we didn't
get it. Saturday we had some really awesome runs (a couple team runs which
weren't for Q's but points towards our possible team Q later on in the weekend)
with few Q's due to handler error. This poor dog really could use a handler
with a brain sometimes. :') We did get a Masters Snooker Q but no superQ (top
15% of the dogs in the class, need 3 for Championship title!!) So that meant
that we still need 2 superQ's but as soon as we get those we'll have our SCH,
not just our SM. She's a good Snooker dog, just needs a handler ready to risk
needing a respirator for those superQ's ;)
Sunday was, in a word, AWESOME. We got a Masters Jumpers Q (our first one
of those together!), did well in our team runs, and got a SUPER Q in Masters
Snooker!!! We took 3rd place to 2 dog/handler teams that have been together
for 6 years!!!
Monday was AWESOME also, as we ended the team stuff and got a DAM TEAM Q!!
So we're qualified for the 2007 Nationals in Team and it's only the first
day of 2007 ... yay :o) !!! Just need to get those Grand Prix and Steeplechase
Q's now...As long as I can stop SENDING her off course, we'll be good ;)
We also got our Gamblers Master title today!!! on and "impossible"
gamble!!! This was a HARD as snot gamble. I've taken a picture and here's
the course map...(note all the CRAZY rules!!!)
I walked the opening for a few minutes and thought "hah! no sense in
wasting my time here, I'll just go to the other ring and walk Grand Prix where
I MIGHT have a chance to Q!!" On the practice jump I set her up far away
and sent her out and "right" and she was getting it and it must
have worked because we walked off the course to a roaring crowd after finding
out we'd made it in time!!! WOOHOO!!! We got 2nd & Q in Masters Gamblers
to a dog that was in the Top TEN in Gamblers last year & several years
prior. NOT BAD, I'd say!!! :)
(P.S. the jumps to either side of "A" were actually set up completely
parallel and in a straight line with "A" so it was way worse on
the ground than it was on paper, so instead of getting the combo we got a
bunch of jumps trying to get to the 5. Had we gotten there we would have won
as we were only a few points behind first...) << We did jump weave weave
see-saw tunnelx2 and some random jumps, then closed >>
So, in the end we got:
2 Gamble Q's, GM title
1 Snooker Q, 1 SuperQ
2 Jumpers Q's
1 DAM Q
Not bad :)
Everything we didn't Q in was either "one tiny mistake" or me sending
Ivie off course, thinking it was on course!! :-P Wtg, Emily :)
