Running dogwalk

Interesting factoids :-)

It has been so awesome to actually be home and have time to train my dogs this past week and a half!! We have really gotten some great work in and I have learned a few things too!

Interesting factoid number 1: even with a very limited test group, I learned that a 2on/2off dog walk simply cannot compete with a running. I know this probably does not come as a shock to very many people but it is always really interesting to conduct a timed experiment :-)

Maze has a pretty fast Dog walk and even with a fast lead in and an almost instant release he was consistently a full half second slower than Merger who has a minimally trained running dog walk that is still not as fast as I expect it to be as a finished product.

Merger consistently came in at between 1.49 and 1.52 seconds and Mazes fastest was 1.93 and there were generally closer to 2.0 to 2.1. SoBe who is but a tiny waif of a dog generally runs around 1.37

Of course there is still a bit of controversy regarding whether a dog with a running contact performance can turn tight enough at the bottom of the contact to make it worth it, I think yes but we will see.

Don't get me wrong I am still of the belief that a running dog walk performance is NOT for everyone but there are some definite reasons to consider it if you are looking for the fastest overall performance.

It also must be mentioned that there is a heck of a lot of training involved in a running contact criteria, more in my opinion, than a 2on/2off.

That brings me to my other factoid :-) Do you know that the word criteria is not even truly defined in the dictionary? Since I spend so much of my life teaching and since I use that word so very often with what I consider to be varying degrees of understanding by my students, etc... that I decided I was going to post the actual dictionary definition and have a bit of a chat about it on the Blog.

I went to dictionary.com and was surprised to find that it was quite difficult to actually find the definition of criteria. This particular word is a derivative of criterion and what I did find as a definition feels a bit vague to me. It is as follows, "Criteria, to form correct judgement regarding the intended goal." This is quite ambiguous if you ask me, very open ended to say the least.

Why was I even on this particular, quest? Well, I was hoping to sort of do the old in your face regarding how incredibly gray we seem to be in our criteria establishment and maintainence.

Kind of hard to do utilizing that definition!

However, it does not change the fact that in the world of agility maintaining our established criteria is absolutely crucial to any amount of consistent success.

I truly believe that people do understand this but it does not change the fact that even at the most base level, the place where we start to teach the dog what the criteria of all of the basic behaviors, obstacles, etc.. are we fall short.

There is way too much humanization of our canine counterparts and we allow rationalization and reasoning to determine whether a behavior is actually trained, how many parts we lump together, and, ultimately why the dog may or may not have been successful in their attempts at offering the intended behaviors.

We also have an incredible and very honest desire to help our dogs and make them successful, therefore we "help" them with the hard stuff.

The very best help you can offer a dog is to clearly define the desired behaviors, break them into pieces that the dog can truly learn and understand, increase your criteria as new pieces are learned, proof these pieces and ultimately the final behaviors and maintain the criteria that you have set forth.

This is so very hard!!!! However, the payoff is huge!

Rome was not built in a day and a dog cannot be trained in a month, but, Rome is beautiful and so is that Q ribbon. Happy training!!

Danger, Danger Will Robinson!

Well, we are officially at the 2 week mark, OK 2 weeks post op tonight at around 10:00 p.m.! Danger has officially had enough, or is it me who has had enough??

I thought this was going to be Hell but I was wrong, it is WORSE!!!! I will freely admit that it is probably harder on me than on Danger but it is excruciating none the less.

He is so bored and I am so guilt ridden that the stress level is in the red zone. It has been so awesome to have a whole week off, actually when all is said and done I will have been home for a whopping 10 days straight and what a joy, except for the incessant barking of Danger and intense desire that I have to just let him out to run free and be the wonderful puppy that he is!

I have resisted the urge, I will do this whole rehab thing perfectly and to the letter as prescribed by the surgeon and PT vet but it may turn me into a very old lady very prematurely!!!!

As I write this he is going back and forth between manically squeeking his toys and barking at me, trying desperately to make me understand that 23.75 hours a day in an X-pen is no life for a puppy. If only I could make him understand that I am in full and total agreement and that if he is just patient he will heal and soon be able to enjoy life again!

We will get through this, we will get through this, we will get through this....

In the meantime, I have been quite diligent in training my dogs, SoBe especially of course :-) Nationals are right around the corner and I fully intend to be on top of my game for the big event. The dogs are looking and feeling great! I am working Maze and Wally very minimally as they are at the age and point in their career that they truly know what to do we just need to refine the teamwork every now and again.

We have been doing a lot of swimming, I find that swimming is amazing for low impact strengthening and has done wonders for keeping my dogs fit! They are not all interested in going in the pool but the "agility" dogs all seem to love it.

SoBe, Wally and Maze will pretty much chew their way through the door to get to the pool if they think anyone has entered the area, I also think swimming has helped to keep Rumor young!

Danger will be seeing a lot of pool action when we are rehabbing that is for sure!

SoBe and I keep plugging away at the contacts and although I have been frightfully awful at sharing any videos of the process, OK I have been pitiful at actually videoing period!

I am going to debut her new and improved contacts in October at the ACAT USDAA trial in Fountain. I am very excited to see how it has all come together. I will go so far as to say that her overall performance in the ring has really come together, we are a team! SoBe might be small but she is mighty! She is crazy fast and her efficiency will more than compensate for her small size competing against so many much bigger 22" jumping dogs.

I have been working quite a bit on collection cues and she is really excelling in this department. SoBe and I have been doing more sequence work and "my" confidence level with the little dervish is growing by leaps and bounds! SoBe has never, ever been lacking in confidence and her take no prisoners attitude can be a little scary when we are both running full out!

I have been pushing her weave poles and expanding her world regarding crazy entries, etc... I also have to mention that at the last trial the Sobester did 2 teeters and they were both perfect 2on/2off performances! Moral of the story, training does pay off! Have a good one everybody!

An awesome day!

Just got home from the first day of the FRAT USDAA trial in Brighton, Colorado and what an awesome day it was!!

Wally, SoBe and Maze we on their game for sure! Unfortunately, I am nursing this stupid Plantar Fasciitis in my heel and running is a bit dufficult. SoBe and Wally seem to handle it just fine but Maze is still pretty confused by my erratic movement!

Maze still managed to Q in Standard, Pairs, Steeplechase and Snooker, but jumpers just is not meant to be these days as he seems to need a person who actually runs in a straight line to be able to stay on task.

wally had a most brilliant day winning Steeplechase round 1, masters Gamblers, masters jumpers, 2nd place and a Super Q in Snooker and a pairs Q!! He is such a good boy!

SoBe is really coming into her own and I could not be more pleased, ecstatic may be more like it! We bravely planned 2 dog walks in masters gamblers, well I actually walked one but decided after the first to go ahead and do the second, she nailed them both! She also had an awesome A-frame with me driving full force, OK as full force as I can manage and she ran through it as well!

No gamble unfortunately as it had a layer of the dog walk and that is just not in our bag of tricks.

SoBe also got a Snooker Q, still no super Q he daddy took it away from her! She also got a pairs Q and took second to Wally in Jumpers. I really feel that next year is going to be an awesome year!

It was really nice to be a t a smaller local trial outdoors on grass with great people, great judges and great courses! I did spend a good majority of the day stressing about Danger who was home "resting". My mom came up to the house and let him out in the afternoon, she said he was a very good boy :-)

He really thinks that he is ready to get back to training but since we are only 2 days post op I am thinking we should wait a while!

This is going to be a long road back but we will get through it and he will be an awesome agility dog when all is said and done.

I am completely optimistic, hey, if this rehab time goes as fast as the rest of time seems to go, it will be a piece of cake!

Well, I am exhausted, going to take a hot shower, ice my foot and lay with Danger for a bit.

Happy Labor Day everyone!

So much to do...

As I wait, and wait, and wait for the surgeon to call me and update me on Dangers surgery I am trying to keep busy making lists of all of the things I have to do, it is quite amazing how many things there always are to do when I get home from a trip, or, how many things there are to do when I am simply trying to keep my house in order when I have not been away:-)

In the next 2 days I have to pick up poop, yes it is a highlight of many of my days. Vacuum my house, I am an obsessive, compulsive vacuumer. Hairballs really stress me out! Attempt to dust all things in my office and put them back after the contractor finally finished the windows, trim and painting. This prospect, although daunting, really does excite me as with the new sunny look of my room I am going to change things up a bit, look into actually framing some of my great agility photos and portraits and keep a "cleaner" look with less clutter on the walls, etc... it is a beautiful sunny room with big windows and a new yellow paint job, it is a very happy office.

It is also my goal to get my office organized!!! That means file the stacks of paperwork on my desk and actually know where things are and at what point in each project I actually am! Hmmmm... this could take more than 2 days!

I have laundry piled up, and, according to my fantastic husband Danger left me a mess upstairs to remember him by in his absence! I have not actually gone upstairs yet, I have only been home one day I have not yet had time! :-) It is my understanding that Danger tried reading a book with his teeth and has left the after affects all over the loft, I will check that out later.

Now to the most important work that has to be done over the next couple of days, DOG TRAINING!! I have missed my puppies so much while I was away. Thankfully I at least had Maze with me but Wally, SoBe, and, Merger were seriously missed and I am sure missed their mommy! Don't get me wrong I miss all of my awesome pups but Geoff is an awesome stand-in for walks and such but he does not train!

SoBe and Wally got a few minutes tonight after dinner but that is truly all I had energy for after a very stressful day and a glorious but hard week of work and OK play in Seattle :-)

SoBe's dog walks were absolutely, positively AMAZING tonight after a full week off, I am so excited!!

Tomorrow it is truly back to work day for the dogs and their mommy! I am very excited to report that the coaching program is starting to get off the ground and I am in the process of getting exercise sets out to a few of the first clients, I am truly psyched about this program. Check out the website for more info.

OK, I think I am out of ramblings, because I am starting to get seriously stressed about not having any info about Danger, more later...

Bits and Pieces...

Had a great weekend! I am still in Seattle and spent the weekend with Maze at an AKC agility trial. It was a very interesting and therewere a couple of firsts for Maze and I, 3 standard Q's, 3 Jumpers with Weaves NQ's!! Maze has never been to a 3 day AKC trial and not double Q'd at least once! The other first, a triple Q in standard and no Q in Jumpers. Those are 2 firsts I could have lived without, but, like all things in agilty and life they most likely happen for a reason.
The main reason these awesome firsts happened, I believe, is because I am suffering from a serious case of Plantar Fascitis in my heel and the pain is excruciating! Adrenaline does a fabulous job of masking the pain while running but I do feel a bit like a weeble out on course and I am quite sure Maze thought he was running with an alien!
Today I took copious amounts of ibuprofen and decided that I was going to run no matter what as poor Maze really did deserve an actual handler, I sucked it up and ran 2 beautiful courses as did Maze, unfortunately, he had a bar that he tried desperately to get over!!! Oh well, life will go on and I guess I will certainly from here on out not take Maze the Q machine for granted!
What else is new, Hmmmm.... I think the combination of work, 3 days of AKC with only one dog and Dangers impending surgery have made wht is essentially a shortish trip seem like a lifetime! I am having a great time out here with my firneds as well as the awesome peeps that I am teaching but I am really missing my puppies on this trip. Geoff is being so great and tells me everytime I call that Danger is doing great, when I am sure he is literally bouncing off the walls! 2 more days until I get to see him at least for a few hours before I drop him off at the vet for surgery, that is officially going to suck! The suckiness will end however when he is fixed, rehabed and back intraining to be the agility superstar I know he is going to be!
I did have a great adventure yesterday though! After the trial I went with a friend to get a new tattoo and on the way to the tattoo parlor she commented that she was low on gas but that we would be fine as she can go up to 30 miles with the gas light on, and, besides she NEVER runs out of gas! Can you guess what happened next? The best part was actually running out of gas on a 2 lane bridge over Lake Wahington, there were a lot of angry drivers on this particular bridge! The super cool part was when the emergency response truck showed up and pushed us at about 45 MPH over the bridge to a pull off so we could wait for gas. So many firsts in one weekend!!
I have also spent a lot of time this weekend thinking about what's next on the agility agenda, the wheels are definitely turning and I will share the journey in my next post! Happy Sunday!

Lemons into Lemonade, Hmmmm....

My last post was all about the euphoria of success and what incredible highs we get from the little things in life which very often include our dogs. Life with dogs sometimes hands us lemons as well and this too we must deal with.
What kind of lemons this time you ask? Well, what started out as an innocent walk down our road last friday, ended in a quite lame dog, 2 seperate Orthopedic vet visits, 2 sets of X-rays, Deb getting to spend a less than quality night with Mr. Hormone, a long morning taking MY dog to the vet as I had to leave town, a misdiagnosis, a true diagnosis, a lot of crate rest and, drumroll please... an appt. for Caudal Cruciate ligament surgery next Wednesday!
I am just heartbroken that my boy has to go through this and I am devastated that his agilty training that was really coming along has now come to a screeching halt, I am so sad that he cannot run and wrestle with his buddies and it kills me to rest and rehab dogs as I am very much a guilt ridden individual when it comes to confining my dogs, a weakness I know!
Danger and I are very lucky however to have had the good fortune to have friends who point us in the right direction, an amzing agility/facebook community who have given me so many ideas and options, and, the privelege to meet Dr. Stubbs who fit Danger in immediately when he was overbooked, essentially as a very kind gesture to a very "good" client :-)
Dr. Stubbs began his examination of Danger and pretty much immediately noticed that the laxity in the knee was not consistent with an ACL tear but the much more rare Caudal Cruciate that keep the tibia from sliding backwards. He took a new set of X-rays and the proof was immediate, the "good" knee was seated beautifully and perfectly and the "bad" knee was a good 3/4 of an inch back on the fibia.
It is just a little bit ironic and humorous, if I can indeed find any humor in this, that we can provide so much excitement for the surgeon by way of offering a "different" and "unique" injury.
Dr. Stubbs was very excited that he gets to perform a surgery other than an ACL repair which it sounds like he can pretty much do in his sleep these days. He did, however, assure me that not only has he done this particular surgery before but it has been successfully performed on working dogs.
I was only able to talk with Dr. Stubbs on the phone but from that phone conversation I can honestly say that I trust him completely and know that the Danger Mouse will be in very good hands! His obvious knowledge was amazing and he really cares about the dogs. I am confident of the future prognosis as Danger is such a young dog and built so beautifully, we will just be getting a bit of a late start :-)
So, where exactly is the lemonade? My boy is alive, he can be fixed, we have a great surgeon, and we have a great support system to get us through this. To be continued...