Agility, yee haw!

Did someone say agility?

Yep, Gracie and I got to go to practice today. And I have a trial this weekend. Finally Mum got her priorities straight!

Mum and Gracie started practice with another team for the first hour - which is great, because it gives Mum more time to breath between runs, when the teams alternate. And this was going to be a tell-tale time to see how Gracie would do with distractions.

I could see that Mum was a little nervous to test out the Grace-ster on their first run in a while with distractions. But she told herself to remain calm, cool and collected - keep it upbeat at all times. And she did it.

She also decided to run with the treat bag the first time to give Gracie just a bit of extra incentive for success. She ran off before the first jump, but after two calls came right back to Mum. Not too bad.

Then Gracie ran the jumpers course, and was bullet fast. Mum had to run her butt off. Gracie missed an obstacle or two because Mum was late, but stayed focused and alert. Mum was pretty darn proud.

Then they went into the other ring for a nice standard sets of obstacles. Gracie did amazingly well, on this run, and all the rest of her runs today. She was focused, attentive, ran off once to visit, but came right back the first time Mum called her. She was so fast, Mum had absolutely no way to keep up with her, and she made her weave entrance one out of two times perfectly even going at those speeds. Gracie was so fast on a set of straight jumps that she started spinning looking to Mum for direction instead of just running off - now Mum couldn't have asked for more from her today. What an amazing improvement.

There is a lot I could say here, but after two years of training, Gracie is finally showing some maturity, amazing drive, great focus and real happiness for agility. But she and Mum are not going to rest on their laurels. They are going to continue with the plan to keep working in training, with some intermittent times of practice with distractions. And not trial until Mum feels really comfy that Gracie can handle a trial.

And they need to work on stuff because of Gracie's new fifth gear, contacts in particular, and distance work. Gracie and Mum tried out some stride regulators today on the frame, but Mum needs to decide what to do with Gracie's contacts. All the time before this she had pretty good running contacts, but in a trial we can all see that she's going to be loads faster. So decisions need to be made.

Finally after their hours was up, I got in a couple of runs. Mum didn't want me doing too much before the trial this weekend, but did want me to get in some exercise. So I did the full jumpers course (Gracie's was shorter). Mum made a couple of handling mistakes - but, I too, was blazing fast today. Wow, was that ever fun and really great for Mum to see. She looked at our trainer and said 'guess, he really is well.' Yep, I am!

I did some of a standard course after the jumpers and did really well on that too - speed was good, contacts good, Mum's timing was rank. Mum has some reminders that she's jotted down to remember before our runs this weekend:

• Drive, drive, drive to the next obstacle.
• Keep the arm flowing. (No jerking it in and out; she gets a little hyper like that).
• Cue the next obstacle earlier; as early as possible.
  
• Don't talk so much, keep it calm and confident and use the low voice :)
  
• Watch her line on the front crosses (Drive them to the second obstacle to make it a clearer read for me).

So guess we'll see how we do this weekend. AKC with two runs a day. We should be running at about 9:00 AM and be done by Noon.

Be sure and check my previous posts on the IFCS World Agility Championships - the results are coming in, and Guy Blancke has some vids up on his site. The links are all there.

Agility, Wubbas, bird herding, it just doesn't get any better!

We had a great time today. Started out early this morning just after 7:00 AM as we left for Trainer J's house for our 8:00 AM class. After what seemed like forever in the 90's turned into 60 degrees this morning! WaaaaHoooo! My favorite type of weather for agility. And to make it even better, it was drizzly, yummm.

Gracie went first in training this morning and she had the 'cool bug' just like me. She did an Exec level jumpers course, with no running off, and, accept for Mum's fault on a few things, was incredibly focused throughout the course. She ran it again, and was flying through the straight away of jumps, so much that Mum just couldn't get in that cross she wanted to. But was really happy to see Gracie with so much speed and enthusiasm.

Then Gracie was off to practice the standard course. She had five jumps in a straight line to a tunnel, so Mum led out. She went flying through those jumps and into the tunnel with amazing effort. She did the rest of the course like a pro, never running off. She slowed down a little by the end of her 30 minutes, but I know it was because Mum slowed down. She was exhausted running wild Gracie that much, especially that early in the AM.

Then it was my turn. And I was raring to go! After a little poop job and lightening my load, I went to work. Mum did the jumpers course with me first and since I was speedy she timed a couple of front crosses wrong. But Trainer J helped out on the second run, by cuing Mum a bit, helped tighten me up a lot.

Then I was off to the standard ring. Mum led out again on those five jumps and I bolted off the start (after Mum's cue of course, 'cause I'm a good boy). She wanted to practice some rear crosses but got her timing wrong, AGAIN! Mum!!!! But the second time was nice and smooth with a rear cross on a jump out to the weaves. Very nice! The rest of the course was great and we had a blast.

After that I worked a couple of times on a gamble, into the macaroni tunnel, then a turn out to three jumps behind the tunnel. Mum messed up and turned me out too early on the first one, but the others were great! A little more weave speed practice and Mum was a goner! After 8 full speedy runs in an hour, plus some sequences, she could hardly breath.

Then it was off for a few errands. Mum picked us up a couple of new toys, that we hopefully won't try and eat, some treats for Wiggy, some pet screen from Lowes. Then it was off to the alterations lady to get Gracie's soft crate mended from the rip she put in it recently. Nice folks there to mend her crate for us.

Home for a little nap, then up again and we were ready for some fun with our new toys. Mum got me a small Wubba and Gracie an AirDog. Gracie wanted my Wubby, so Mum got out Gracie's and we had a blast. I got bored with the Wubba pretty fast 'cause it was prime bird herding weather. So I had a go of it.

The days not over and we're still having a blast! Hope you had a good day, too!

Here is a vid of me herding those nasty birds. Hope you enjoy!

Gracie went to agility practice without me!

Since I've had a couple of weeks off from training and agility to rest up from the car accident bruises, Mum took Gracie to an open practice at Pawsitive Partners Dog Agility Training Center. And I didn't get to go! What!!!!

Mum wanted to get Gracie in a building and work on her focus, contacts and weaves, since our next USDAA trial is this weekend in an air conditioned building, and the following weekend Gracie is signed up for two runs on Saturday at the CPE trial, also in a building.

So they took off and left me. But Mum told me that Gracie did real well! Mum tried her out on a full course first, working on her focus before the run. She was doing real great with a one jump warm up, but then ran off. Mum got her back pretty fast, but had to run out of the ring to get her. Grrrrr.....

Then they ran a full course, about open level in difficulty. Gracie ran around the first jump, but took the second. So Mum brought her back to start at the beginning. Then Gracie did real well! She took all the right obstacles, was pretty fast, (although not zoomie speed), and did real well with a couple of hesitations on the table and in a tunnel. But Mum was proud.

Mum ran her in the same course a couple of more times and Gracie got more and more speed and more and more focus as time went on. And she did great weaves, even independently with not any help from Mum, that was great!!!!

So we are off to a USDAA trial this weekend. Mum and I are pretty excited to run in this new facility. Not only does it have air conditioning, but the flooring is new soccer flooring with black rubber pellets in it for extra cushioning. I'm signed up for all the runs accept Grand Prix. And Gracie is signed up for Standard on Saturday and Standard and Jumpers on Sunday.

Woo Hoo, we get to go do agility this weekend!

Dog agility! Yeah!

Many of you know that I just love dog agility! Not only is it a great sport, but I get to spend loads of time with my Mum and Gracie, running around and having fun. And we get to meet new people and other pups.

One of my favorite things about the sport is the jumping. I could jump, forever!!!! One of my vets once said that I was built like a deer and especially built for jumping. And with jumping you can go pretty darn fast sometimes, I like to go fast.

I like competing too. Not against anyone in particular, but just against our selves and our previous times - improving and getting better. And it really gives me a rush when Mum and I know that we got a Q for a new title, or a best time for one of our classes.

For those of you who are new to the sport of agility: Dog agility is a sport in which a handler directs a dog through an obstacle course in a race for both time and accuracy. Dogs must run off-leash with no food or toys as incentives. The obstacles can include various types of jumps, dog walks, a frames, tires, tunnels, chutes, teeters, pause tables, and weaves.

And the best part is there are venues of competition for both mixed breeds and purebreds, so anyone can compete.

If you are interested in learning more about agility, visit my Squidoo lens on Dog Agility! It's packed full of information, links, videos and pics for novices and experts alike.

And if you'd like, grab our chicklet and post on your blog, so all your friends can learn about agility too!

And remember, have fun out there!!!!

Training fun!

Our usual trainer is out of town for a couple of weeks. So Mum lined us up to go to Columbus, Indiana to train with a friend of ours. She lives way out in the country on a terrific piece of land and has a nice barn for practicing agility. So off we went this morning.

It took us about a little over an hour to get there. And had planned to spend about an hour and a half, sometime for Gracie and sometime for me. I got to go first, of course!

We worked on some discriminations, since I've been having troubles with those. That's when the tunnel is right next to the Aframe or dog walk. Mum has found the secret to get me 'in' to the tunnel, or 'out' to the frame or dogwalk, even at a distance. So we are real happy with that!

We worked on some pinwheels, 'cause they can be so demotivating for us pups and we picked up some tips to keep them speedy. Instead of Mum sending me out to the middle jump, we're gonna work on Mum running out to the middle jump and then taking off as fast as she can to the third jump. Worked great as we practiced it.

Then it was Gracie's turn for a little while. As many of you know, Gracie has real focus issues in the ring. She just wants to go around sniffing and playing with bar setters. So we worked on leaving the treats at the ring entrance, going and doing a few jumps, and then running back to get her treats. Seemed to work pretty well. She kept motivated and was having fun. We're gonna keep working on that with her. She is such a great girl on the obstacles - just a shame no one gets to see her run. But she is maturing some too, so that helps a lot.

We also worked on lining both of us up better at the start so it's real clear what the first obstacle is. Mum gets kind of lax on that sometimes in practice, duh, Mum!!!

And we worked with Gracie on driving to the end of the teeter. She's still hesitating on the tipping point. Our friend also gave us some tips on using trash cans and barrels to keep focus with Gracie. That's something we can do in the house where it's cooler; using chairs and such!

We had a great time, the barn was very nice, and we didn't get that dirty. But oh....Gracie did a bad, bad thing! While she was waiting her turn, she was screaming up a storm most of the time. She can be so impatient. We opened the door where she was in her crate and, yep, you guess it, she tore right through her crate. Luckily we have a great friend that's going to fix it for us. But Gracie? You have to control yourself!!! Mum always lets you have your turn!

We go back next Tuesday for some more practice and want to work on weave speed, general speed, gambles and Gracie's focus again. Can't wait. Oh and Mum wants me to tell you her muscles are aching bad! I give her quite a workout.