What's Happening?

As the holidays draw near I am finally able to kind of relax a bit, or, at least spend a bit more time at home! It has been a crazy busy, awesome year that has gone by waaaay too fast! I feel as though it was just Christmas last week and here it is next month!
Although it is at this time of the year that I usually reflect on what the past year was all about, I am finding that this year I am thinking as much about what next year will bring :-) There were definitely some highlights in 2011, like for instance and amazing USDAA Nationals! Besides that I had the opportunity to participate in 3 different seminars led by presenters from all over the World! Each one had it's ah ha moments and each was a tremendous amount of fun as well as a great learning experience, but, they were also affirmations of my own training practices and principles.
I can say in all honesty that I can away with something that will enhance my training from each presenter, from subtle handling differences that are designed to really accentuate speed, to some fantastic training techniques for baby dogs as well and the mature competition dogs. The common theme between all 3 seminars, however, was the importance of extension and proper timing. We seem to spend a lot more time concentrating on how we can collect our dogs and shorten or add strides here in America. The Europeans are far more interested in keeping the dogs running, getting the handlers running, and, most importantly training the dogs better and timing cues much better! The overall point being, make sure that your dog knows where to go at all times and they will go there faster. Makes sense to me :-)
I am certainly not planning to change a whole lot in regards to my handling, but, it was great to get so many ideas on how to make it better, so my dogs can run even faster!
I am so excited to really get going with Danger, Mooch and, Vintage. It is going to be a really fun winter of training!
SoBe is ready to take top billing next year and although she will be the "focus" as it were, Wally and Maze are planning to keep her company on the path to greatness :-)
Maze is going to take a trip to England with me next May and SoBe and Maze are already planning their trip to Sweden for the EO.
The last 12 years of my agility life have been wrapped up in either trying out for, competing in, or, coaching World teams and I think I am going to take a break for a year. I have really been on the fence about whether or not to take Maze to tryouts one more time and I think I have decided to opt out. He has proven himself over and over and I think I am going to leave it at that. We'll see, I realize I have the option of changing my mind, but, I feel pretty strongly that I am ready for a year of competing with my dogs just for the fun of it, instead of just for the fun of it and to try to make the World team. It will be different for sure :-)
What else is new next year... I have decided to fully embrace the whole cyber generation and am adding an online classroom to my website. I have already been doing some video coaching and various other sort of long distance teaching and decided it is time to go back to a bit of group class teaching the only way I can and still maintain my travel schedule.
I am super excited about this as the classes I plan to begin with seem to be desperately needed. I will absolutely keep everyone posted as things develop, but, I am hoping to have the first session up and running just after the first of the year!
Happy Holidays everyone, until next time...

Back to reality :-)

It is early morning in Vancouver BC, I am about to start day 3 of seminar here with a wonderful group of people that I have had the pleasure of working with many times over the past several years. It is really a pleasure to be able to come back to places that you have taught before and get to progress with the group. It is awesome to see everyone grow and improve and it is very fulfilling to know that I had a hand it that progress, at least a little bit anyway.
It is also really cool to get to know the individuals and develop so many wonderful friendships along the way.
I am very fortunate to have several of these groups that I get to work with anywhere from 2 to 4 times a year.
I head home tomorrow morning and am there long enough to say Hi! To Geoff, pack my bag, pack the car, grab a couple dogs and head off to Minnesota to work with another of my regular groups for 2 days! I am looking forward to this trip for that reason and because it I also get to be the student on this trip! I am spending 4 days training with Silas Boogk.
I had the opportunity to work with Silas last year and it was an amazing experience for sure! I am expecting no less this year. Once again SoBe will be the dog to play with Silas and myself.
In between the 2 different seminar sessions I will be doing 1 day of a USDAA trial and Wally, Danger and SoBe get to play in that.
Between this trip and the trip out to Minnesota I will be back on the road for a total of 2 weeks loving every minute of it. I am so incredibly lucky to have a husband who supports my career choice as well as my hobby choice, I am equally lucky to be able to do what I love, meet so many awesome people, and, go so many incredible places!
So, after Nationals I guess I am back to reality, but, what an incredible reality It is!

Pinch Me!!!!

Wow, is pretty much all I can say... we work and work to get ourselves and our dogs ready for the National events every year with hopes of a great showing, knowing that there are hundreds of others with the same hopes and dreams, will it be my weekend, will my dog and I be on the same page? Well this year for Maze, Wally, SoBe, and myself the answer was a resounding YES!!
Don't get me wrong, I realize that I have had many moments in the sun and have been fortunate enough to be in all of the various finals at the National events of several venues on numerous occasions, but, there was just something about this year that really made it special.
I don't think I can fully explain how incredible it was to be in all 3 final events with Wally. Wally is one of those super special dogs that we are lucky to have come in to our lives and enhance it in so many ways without it ever really being apparent, Wally ran in Championship tournament events for that last time this year and I guess he wanted to go out with a BANG!! I have to say that our Steeplechase finals run will go down in the history books of my mind as one of the best runs he and I have ever had together! Wally ran quite early in the 22" class and it was impossible to tell whether his time would stand up or not in the field of incredible dogs he was running with, including his own daughter!
As the class went on it became more and more obvious that his time was going to be pretty tough to beat! As the last dog crossed the finish line it dawned on me that we had actually won, it was absolutely a euphoric feeling that I will doubtfully ever experience again, one I will savor for the rest of my life, way to go Wally!
To follow that run with SoBe and experience what my baby girl is now capable of was it's own incredible experience! SoBe went into the finals just .01 second behind the leader and ran her little heart out in the finals! If only I would have timed that silly back cross better, who knows where she would have ended up. I just know that with a refusal we still landed in the 9th position, WOW!!
Well, we were not done yet, time to run Maze in the 26" class, again a spectacular field of dogs! Maze had the run of his life and landed a spot on the podium as well taking 3rd place!! What a night :-)
Even getting to Sat. night was incredible, All 3 pups made Steeplechase Finals, Wally was securely in the GP Finals, SoBe had made it through quarterfinals in GP, and, almost, almost made it into the GP Finals!
The dog agility masters tournament is another huge part of the National Championships and we were having quite a time there as well!
Maze and his fabulous teammates, Sonya Anderson and Jaxon, and, Desiree Snellman and Stinger held it together the 5 runs to ultimately win the 2011 Dog Agility Masters National Champion title! Icing on the cake was winning the 3 dog relay as well.
Maze is in good company as his Aunt Secret was part of the winning team in 2003, and his cousin Able was on the winning team in 2006, they have kept it in the family.
Wally and Jacqui Hoye and Sizzle, along with Daisy Peel and Jester also took the podium in the third place spot for their incredible showing in the tournament.
I am sure this all sounds like a giant brag blog, but, today it is! I am very proud of my dogs and I am very proud of myself. I have been blogging a bit about the importance of the mental game in agility and how I have been really trying to make it an even more important part of my agility game, it truly paid off this year! I felt more relaxed and more confident walking to the line each and every time that I can ever remember feeling I knew I could get around every one of those courses and went to the line with a PLAN!
I ran my plan and more often than not it resulted in the outcome that I was thrilled with! Not every run was a success, SoBe's IHC jumpers run could attest to that, it was downright comical truth be told, however, I put those moments behind me and simply moved on to the next run, next dog.
The mental game allowed me to go to Nationals and be the best partner and teammate I could be for my dog, it allowed me to recognize and cherish the good things that happened and forget about the not so good.
Nationals this year was everything I hoped it would be and more, when all was said and done the only thing that I did not take away was a spot on the World team, Maze landed in the 4th place spot by 5 points, instead of being disappointed I am incredibly proud of the fact that my boy Maze did so incredibly awesome this year that he was 4th overall in a field of over 50 dogs trying out for the team, what an accomplishment!
We gave it everything we had and after a very intense week Maze was top scoring 26" dog overall in team and had run clean runs in all but 2 classes, WOW!!
After all of that there was one run left, Wally, GP Finals!! The course was lovely and we were ready! Wally turned in a great run but, alas, missed his dog walk contact... oh, well we were THERE, it does not get much better than that!
In closing, My dogs were ready for Nationals this year, "I" was ready for Nationals this year and a great time was had by all!!!

Handling your baby dog

Often when I teach Novice/Intermediate level seminars and there are sequences of obstacles involved, handlers will first comment about the fact that they are running a "baby" dog and that said "baby" dog is not necessarily ready for whatever the sequence is. At this point handlers will generally over handle the situation trying to avoid allowing the dog to make a mistake, etc...
This is all very innocent of course, all done in the name of helping the dog be successful, however, even though the handler is completely managing the exercise mistakes are made. Most of these mistakes are due to confusion on the dogs part because the handler is acting in an unfamiliar way, giving unfamiliar cues, probably Being a bit erratic in their physical cues.
Think about all of those nights at class, the seminars, etc... You are teaching your dog to recognize and respond to the cues that you will be utilizing throughout the dogs career, these are the cues you should be using now as well.
Before you begin to sequence, you teach the cues, hand signals, motion cues, etc... You do this on 1 or 2 jumps.
When you start to add obstacles to your sequences you absolutely should not change your cues or anything else that you have taught your pup to respond to. There is no reason to modify or change what you have been teaching simply because your dog is inexperienced. Changing your cues or handling strategy will do nothing except ultimately require you to retrain the things you originally trained when the dog is no longer considered a baby.
When you begin to sequence with a young dog the only differences in how you should handle this dog vs. An older more experienced dog is to keep the sequences shorter with even more than the usual effusive praise and reinforcements for a job well done, and, don't be in a hurry, speed comes with understanding, clear concise cues without rushing will get the job done without compromising the end result.
Your cues should be a bit more dramatic to ensure understanding. It is at this point in my dogs career that they learn the meaning of the individual cues, the more consistent I am in how I present these cues and the more clearly I present them, the better the dog will be
able to react quickly upon the initiation of these same cues later as the dog matures.
Your handling decisions should be the same with your novice dog as they are with your agility champion, just more dramatic!
In summary, train your pup, trust your training, maintain clear consistent criteria and most of all, HAVE FUN!

Contacts :-)

I have been thinking a lot about contact obstacles again recently, OK, it is true I am pretty much always thinking about contact obstacles! Recently, however, they have been a huge topic of discussion at seminars that I have been teaching. They have kind of moved into the spotlight because I have been using them a bit more in seminars.
In general I am not a huge fan of contact obstacles in handling seminars as they are either a problem because they are "speed bumps" and make certain handling situations easier. I also think they can cause a completely different problem, they hinder peoples ability to truly plan their handling strategy because a lot of students worry around contacts, not trusting the dog to perform them properly so they babysit the contacts completely throwing off their handling.
I have been bringing the contacts out more frequently in my Intermediate level seminars because I think that people need more input and education involving the contact obstacles and because this is the level that seems to be in transition.
There are several different issues surrounding the performance of contact obstacles these days, should I do running, should I do 2on/2off? Should I do 4 on the teeter or 2on/2off? Can I do a different behavior on the different obstacles? These are just questions regarding what criteria should be utilized, the questions only multiply once a criteria is selected.
As far as what is the "right" thing to do, that is completely up to you and your dog! I do let the dog help with the decision. I do this by paying very careful attention to what there movement, structure, and, natural propensities are regarding their natural behavior across the obstacles. Not every dog is built for a 2on/2off and not every dog is going to be able to have a running contact.
I also weigh how much time I have to devote to the training as well as well as how observant I may have to be to maintain consistency in my criteria.
For now I would like to talk about the 2on/2off criteria. The biggest issue that I see regarding a failure to achieve the fast, consistent, 2on/2off criteria people are looking for is first and foremost rushing the training. It is a huge mistake that we make by combining the bottom behavior with the full performance of the contact obstacles before we have fully trained and proofed the bottom behavior by itself.
Most creeping that we see on contact obstacles is a product of misunderstanding, the dog is not at all sure where they are supposed to be going or what they are supposed to be doing and it creates creeping.
We generally start early releasing the dog from the contact to circumvent the creeping, however, in actuality this just makes it worse but graying the behavior.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to fully train the 2on/2off behavior with all types of proofing, etc... before applying it to the full performance of the obstacle.
Within this process you should be building value for the bottom of the obstacle creating drive and desire to the 2on/2off position. If you have taught the behavior fully and correctly when you give the cue for the bottom behavior your dog should drive with passion, speed, and, confidence to the bottom completely unaided by you, the dog should have a completely independent performance of each of the obstacles. Definitely something to shoot for! Now, list your contact criteria, the steps you are going to employ to train it and have fun!

Crocodile calls, Mouse lines, and, killer Bananas

First, let it be known that Jenny Damm puts on a GREAT seminar! Her teaching style is amazing, her knowledge is incredible, and, her ability to communicate how to do things is just fantastic! SoBe and I are just back from an incredible 3 days of seminar with her in Hamden, CT at the awesome Paws N' Effect training center.
It was an incredible opportunity and we made the most of it! SoBe was brilliant if I do say so myself, and, although I was continuously pushed outside of my comfort zone, (which is exactly what I was hoping for), I held up quite nicely and learned oh so much! :-)
Jenny helped us with a crocodile call, the ability to put serious emphasis on a verbal cue to REALLY get the dogs attention, imagine a crocodile on the other side of of the jump you are sending your dog over and if you do not call the dog with serious passion the crocodile will get your dog!
We were perfecting the mouse line which is the line line you should be creating for your dog on turns, going between obstacles, etc.. picture your dog as the size of a mouse when setting lines.
Killer bananas are pretty much the opposite of a mouse line as they bow out in the shape of a banana. I think you get the gist of the 3 days!
I had some serious agility handling epiphanies at this seminar which I will go into more detail about as I incorporate some of these techniques, etc... into my handling.
My mission in going to this seminar was as I said to be pushed outside of my comfort zone, but, also just to be PUSHED! I am also really trying to be not only the very best trainer and handler that I can be but also the very best teacher. In order to be these things you have to not only have an open mind but be willing to continue to learn, to try new things, and, be open to different ideas.
I feel as though with a bit of time and practice I can incorporate several of the lessons I learned at Jennys seminar and improve on what I am already doing, very exciting indeed!
After the seminar Sonya and I went directly from the airport to a USDAA trial in Denver where we had a pretty good weekend considering how brain dead we were upon arrival!
I am very happy to report that after a scare with Danger he is doing awesome and will be returning to the agility scene soon! He competed in his first trial a couple of weeks ago and on MOnday after the trial I decided to take him in to see Kera (PT vet), just to see how he was doing. Kera noticed a bit of laxity in the knee and a fairly substantial muscle mass discrepancy as well. Needless to say I was freaking out that my boy was once again possibly done with agility forever!
Deb A. was very kind and took Danger to see Dr. Stubbs, out Ortho surgeon while I was in CT. and he said everything looked great and was impressed with the overall recovery, although he did feel that strengthening exercises for that leg are in order. Back he went to see Kera and she concurred that he seemed already to be doing better and so we are on an exercise regimen along with his agility training.
On that note, his dog walk looks amazing!!!! I have to sift through some videos that I shot over the past couple of days but he really seems to understand the job and id decidedly moving forward on his dog running dog walk performance!
Well, I am off to walk dogs... more later!

What's next?

I find it incredibly important to have goals in life/agility and I am at that point once again where I am looking at long term goals, and, I ask myself what's next?
My long term goals are what establish my short term goals so I typically start with the big picture then back chain :-)
This of course is in reference to my older competition dogs because with the youngsters I, of course, have huge plans for each and every one of them, however, with babies it is definitely a one day at a time situation with goals being a bit more conservative, focusing on things like a sit stay that lasts for more than 1 second!
I am very fortunate to have some great babies coming up right now and they are definitely at that point where I have to start defining more clearly what those short term goals are. The list of goals is different for each of them as their age, maturation, and, core knowledge at this point is very different from one to the next.
With the trained dogs, it is still a matter of assigning specific yet often different goals for each dog, however, they are definitely more lofty and fall under the category of long term or ultimate goals.
I am most certainly planning on another trip to the European Open next year, I just have to decide who to take. Maze is certainly the number 1 candidate at this point, but, he is going to be 7 next month so almost 8 by the time the trip rolls around. His level of experience and expertise in these types of shows would be a huge asset but his age may hinder his speed a bit!
These factors play a role in whether I choose to go to AKC World team tryouts with him next May as well. I know that I will weigh the options very carefully and try to make decisions based on what is best for us as a team with an emphasis on what is best for Maze! :-)
The runner up in the who do I take to the EO competition of course goes to SoBe who has most certainly come in to her own, but, she is barely 19" tall and would likely be jumping 26". I know people jump smaller dogs than SoBe at 26" all of the time, I am just not sure "I" want to do that.
I am concentrating on SoBe this year and she will be accompanying me to several really awesome seminars to help make that decision.
I have for the past couple of years really been trying to do "me" things relative to my agility escapades and this fall I am going to be attending 2 international handling seminars, and, hosting a 3rd! I am so excited to have the opportunity to work with these amazing people and SoBe will be the one joining me at each of these events!
As I write this I am realizing that the goals that I am setting at this point are really more about me and what avenues of the sport I want to explore rather than goals that are dog specific , maybe that is why the title of the post immediately came to me as what's next? Let's be honest, it really is about what's next for me, what do I want to do, where do I want to put my energies? Lucky for me my dogs will gladly accommodate me and join in on whatever endeavor I choose to pursue agility related or not.
Probably the only "given" is that it will be agility related because I love agility! I love training my dogs, and, I love competing!
I also really truly love teaching and helping people to be the very best they can be in this game, it gives me an incredible amount of pleasure to watch a handler master something they never thought they could do, or, watch a dog come out of it's shell and really understand the information their handler just gave them.
Because of this, my goals are also centered around my teaching and how can I keep evolving and make things more user friendly as well as more understandable and cohesive for the weekend warrior as well as the most competitive of all handlers, Hmmm... so much to think about!
What's next? I am really not sure, other than to say that I will keep reaching for the brass ring, striving for excellence, and, enjoying every moment in the journey upwards to that ring and forward to my interpretation of excellence!
I definitely have instructional projects in the works specifically for the handler part of the team that I am very excited about.
I have Danger entered in a couple of trials coming up to see once again where we are at as a team so that I can determine what's next with him, in and out of the ring :-)
I am having a blast with Wally, SoBe and Maze just having the opportunity to compete and know that any of the 3 can rise to whatever challenge I put forth.
Mooch is proving to be an absolutely amazing young man, and, my girl Vinny continues to make me smile, make me laugh, and, give me gray hairs! Oh, how I love them all!
Able just celebrated his 12th birthday yesterday reminding me just how fast it goes and how important it is to enjoy the whole adventure good parts, not so good parts, great parts and all!
I may not be completely sure of what's next but I am sure that I am excited to figure it out and even more excited to embark on the journey! On your mark, get set, GOAL!!!

The European Open!!!

What a rush it was to play at the European Open in Bad Hall, Austria this past weekend! Maze was brilliant of course and ran 3 clean runs out of 4!! I was incredibly proud of both of us :-)
There is nothing more exciting than being one of approx. 340 26" dogs from all over the World! The courses were fabulous and challenging, the judging very consistent and fair, and, the competition fierce!
The great dog and handler teams just kept coming and coming. it was my mission to head over to Europe and have a great time, watch all of the fantastic handlers and dogs, run the very best that I could, and, just soak it all in. Great news, I did all of those things and then some :-)
We arrived in Munich on Wed. morning and met up with Ann Zarr and Skylar, Ann and I shared a car, were on the same team and hung out together.
Ann arrived at the airport before I did, once I got there we picked up the car and headed to Austria. The garmin was set for the shortest route which had us winding through some of the most beautiful countryside to our destination in Bad Hall.
We stopped along the way and had lunch and our first beer of the trip, arriving at our Hotel at about 3:30 p.m.
We went for a lovely walk in the park that was part of the Hotel complex and met up with a woman on the walking path. Ludi (our new friend), told us she was from Vienna, which turned out to be only about a 2 hour drive from where we were staying.
Plans were now set, Thursday morning we loaded up and off to Vienna Ann and I went! It was a great day, although it rained on us a bit we wandered through a lovely street market, found a Starbucks so that I could add a Vienna mug to my collection, and, went on a bus tour around parts of the city seeing some of the most incredible architecture!
Friday was vet check and practice day, the team all practiced really well and were definitely ready for the big event!
We got a bit of rain again on Friday but overall the weather was cool and lovely!
Saturday came and now it was time to shine! I definitely learned that one of the things on the top of my list of things to do is to get in better shape! Those Europeans are incredible how they RUN around those courses trying desperately to stay in front of screaming fast dogs! There is also always a lot of yelling and screaming of cues that just seem to rev the dogs up more :-)
I am all for running faster, but, am planning on sticking with my quieter style of handling.
I have been to Europe to compete many times but it is still always exciting, interesting, and, new.
It was definitely the year of the blind cross, but, many of them were in my opinion unnecessary, fun to watch though!
Maze ran a beautiful clean Individual Standard run, but, we had an unfortunate off course in jumpers keeping us out of the Finals. The Finals were a blast to watch ands although they were not finished until almost 11:30, they made the event spectacular!
Sunday was team day and I am proud to say that Maze and I put in 2 clean runs for the team, my teammates also ran incredibly well and because we had only 3 dogs on the team instead of the allowed 4, we were unable to drop a score this was ultimately our undoing as the team had 1 E, which kept us out of the relay. Regardless, I am very proud of what we all did and we definitely finished with our heads held high!
The relay was a riot!!! The Europeans do not do a team relay and their interpretation was incredibly entertaining! They had a 4 dog format, with a dog starting in each corner of the ring. The first dog would run 15 obstacles, then the next dog would start and so on. It was a crazy course!
Monday it was time to head home, bittersweet for sure! I had so much fun meeting new people, hanging with friends, and, running Maze that I was not ready for it to be over, but, I was TIRED!
The whole experience was fantastic and I am already planning for next year in Sweden!

Everything happens for a reason...

...And, when I unknowingly let Wally and Vivid out together to go for a hike that fateful day, 9 weeks later on July 19, 2007 the reason was clear, these 5 beautiful babies needed to happen because I was supposed to have my beautiful girl SoBe who popped out as an after thought, after her 4 wonderful brothers were born :-)
Of course I am a very proud grandma of all of the wonderful babies that were born on this day 4 years ago, they include Brix, Propel, Nixon, and, Crush 4 beautiful boys who have grown up to do wonderful things for their mommies.
I am, of course, a bit biased about the last born and of course the cutest, my little SoBe DoBe Doodle Bug! She is the apple of my eye, one of my best friends, the one who makes me laugh, and, gives me gray hair! I cannot at this point imagine my life without her so thank you Wally for knowing what needed to be done and getting it done :-) LOL!!
Since these babies 2 more awesome litters of little SoBes have come into the World each loved and cherished by "their people" as much as I love SoBe.
These pups take athleticism and work ethic to a whole new level and are as smart as can be. Of course they are not perfect, there is no such thing. But, they are perfect for their people and the jobs they have been destined to do, whether it is agility, obedience, or, hiking buddies.
Happy Birthday my dear SoBe, Brix, Propel, Nixon, and, Crush!

Another camp come and gone...

I am having one of those days where all I want to do is lay on the couch and vegitate, it would be the weekend right after camp :-) Camp was AMAZING!!! I am so incredibly thankful for all of the help I received before, during, and, after camp that made such a wonderful camp possible!
The campers were fabulous, the instruction, even if I am biased, was superb and a great time was had by all :-)
I am already very excited about next year and as soon as the details are ironed out there will be an announcement of when camp will be, who will be instructing, and, of course, the theme!
Once I can actually keep my eyes open and formulate a coherent thought, I will be getting ready for my next adventure, the European Open!
Maze and I are heading to Austria on Tuesday to compete in the European Open the weekend of the 29-31 of July.
The European Open is said to be the largest Championship event in Europe and I am super excited to go for the first time. Maze and I are definitely ready for the event, or, at least we will be by the time we head over :-)
I am especially excited to watch all of the wonderful European dog and handler teams that will be there, I will be doing a lot of filming!
I am also really excited about "continuing education" that I have planned for myself this year.
SoBe and I are once again going to be working with Silas Boogk at Ann Braues center in Eau Claire, we will be traveling out east to work with Jenny Damm the end of August, and, I am hosting a seminar with Crufts winner Dawn Weaver in November. It is going to be a great year!
The dogs and I have been doing a fair bit of trialing recently, which has pretty much come to a screeching halt for the time being but it was a great run and I came away with lots of IFCS points for Maze, semi finals byes for Nationals in both GP and Steeplechase for Maze and Wally and a Steeplechase semi finals bye for Steeplechase for SoBe!
Hmmmm.... what else has been going on? Well, as of 3 days ago when I last trained him, Danger was doing 12 weave poles in a row!!! Now, if we could just get these contacts in order we would be all set :-)
Mooch is growing up and at the same time being allowed to be a puppy, that is dog trainer speak for I have not had much time to work with him :-) He was a super boy at camp though and we did get a lot of socialization as well as training Moochie to be a good quiet boy while watching agility, very valuable!
Well, I think I may hoist myself up and go work a few dogs, just for fun!

Back to the Dark ages... sort of :-)

Today I deactivated my Facebook account, yes that's right, I am taking a break, maybe permanently from Facebook. Why you ask, because it is time to get back to communicating with people on a face to face basis, or, at least by phone call or even email.
I find that although it has been quite nice to reconnect with people that I have not seen or talked to in a long while, and, it is a great way to get information it is also an addictive, time consuming way for me to procrastinate the day away :-)
I am constantly amazed by how quickly technology is taking over the World and how things have changed during my lifetime, I have managed to avoid a lot of it by refusing to actually learn how to use a computer properly, and, I even still keep a paper calendar!
I will admit, I am a cell phone addict and am not sure what I would do without it. I also appreciate the awesome power of email and the ability to communicate with people around the World almost immediately.
The availability of on line education, YouTube, and, the various other mediums that allow us to peek at what is going on worldwide are awesome, but, it seems to me we each have to draw the line somewhere. I am drawing my personal line by getting off of Facebook and not joining Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, or, any of the here is what I am doing at this moment technological advancements.
I know a few people that have managed to avoid the addiction and have been able to survive just fine :-) They also do not have to suffer the withdrawals I am sure to face given the fact that I find myself on Facebook numerous times a day, just browsing!
I plan to utilize the time I would have spent browsing Facebook to reconnect the old fashioned way with various friends, spend more time on my various agility related projects, training my dogs, and, taking some time to smell the flowers.
I, completely understand the addiction and hopefully can hold onto my resolve and not fall off the wagon. I also applaud those that can use Facebook in moderation. I will definitely miss seeing the awesome accomplishments, funny stories, beautiful photos, and, happy moments that so many of my "friends" share, but, I will cherish all of these things even more when I see them in person! Adios Facebook, I am sure that I will miss you!

It's been a crazy wonderful month!

I realize it has been almost a month since I have posted anything to my blog, my how time flies!! It has been a great month! Geoff and I hit the road the beginning of June heading to Minnesota for the MAC 4 star event, we had a great time and it was the beginning of a trip packed with trials, seminars, vacation, and, some well deserved Stacy and Geoff time :-)
Although Geoff had to cu the trip short and miss the last trial we had planned on attending, it was really great to get to spend some "real" time with him.
The trip started with the MAC trial where all of the dogs were incredible! You are quite possibly going to get tired of reading that phrase because it pretty much describes each weekend:-)
I had the opportunity to work with my peeps in Minnesota after the trial and it was the usual awesome time!
I worked for 2.5 days then it was off to Calgary for the AAC Regional Championships, what a great event!
First, it was held in the most incredibly beautiful setting on a perfectly groomed rugby field overlooking all of Calgary and the Rocky mountains in the back ground.
Geoff and I showed a total of 5 dogs at the event and all dogs not only qualified for the AAC Nationals but all ended the weekend in the top 10 placements in their divisions.
Maze was the superstar winning all 3 rounds of Steeplechase, and, winning overall 26" dog becoming the 2011 Regional Champion!
Wally was a superstar in his own right also winning all 3 rounds of Steeplechase, to become the 22" Steeplechase Champ! Wally finished the weekend in 5th place overall.
SoBe always an adventure ended up 10th overall but did have a few really impressive moments, including but not limited to winning one of the gamblers classes after completing all available gambles! In Canada the gamblers courses include mini gambles as well as the main gamble, in this particular class SoBe completed a total of 5 gambles :-)
Rumor and Geoff brought home the bronze medal from the 16" specials class and Xtra 6th overall in 10" Veterans. She had so much fun!
After the trial ended Geoff and I headed to Banff where we hiked and played with dogs :-) A lovely night of camping and a campfire really made the trip fantastic as well as quite relaxing! The Banff area is so incredibly beautiful!! I was quite amazed at how dog friendly all of the parks are as well. We swam dogs, hiked with the dogs and just basically hung out with the dogs for a couple of days, it was heaven!
Then is was off to Salt Lake City where I once again got to spend a day working with my awesome students!! Geoff headed home after he dropped me off in Salt Lake and the dogs and I once again had the pleasure of staying with our dear friends Colleen and Kevin for a few days as I was yet again trialing :-)
Guess what? The dogs were BRILLIANT!! I have had a most incredible year of trialing thus far and I attribute a lot of it to really exploring the mental part of this game and essentially relaxing and enjoying the ride!
Somehow, I managed to forget to mention that Danger made his debut in Jumpers, gamblers and Snooker at the MAC trial :-) We have a VERY long way to go but he did manage a jumpers Q!
This past weekend he got a gamblers Q, although I was quite surprised as I was under the impression you had to actually get some points in the opening portion of the class as well as get the gamble :-) I thought it might be fun to post the video, if I had one :-), and play a game called find the points! Did I mention we have a ways to go...
Anyway, back to Salt Lake, suffice to say that over the past several weekends my dogs and I have done our fair share of winning, but, most of all we have had some amazingly spectacular runs, whether they were winning runs, placing runs, or, in some cases, NQ'ing runs :-)
The long and the short of it, I love my dogs, I love my family, I am seriously grateful for my friends, my students, and, all of the wonderful people that I am lucky enough to get meet along the way. I am a very lucky person indeed and I am already looking forward to a great weekend at the Rocky Mountain Regional this coming weekend! I am sure over the course of the weekend I will learn lots, have some majorly memorable moments, and, possibly some disappointments as well, but, when all is said and done I will still have my dogs, my family, my friends and lots to look forward to!

You Gotta learn to walk before you can run.

Today the pups and I were at an AKC trial at this wonderful indoor soccer center in the Denver area, the dogs did really well :-) Wally had a beautiful standard run with an unfortunate bar... SoBe decided to see if I was willing to maintain my criteria at an AKC trial where we pay premium dollar for 2 whole runs. She learned that I will still maintain criteria even with those very tempting reasons to potentially falter on that a bit. Her standard run was by far the fastest of them all, of course she only did a tire and 1 jump before being carried off the course for breaking her start line! I do love my ever pushy Doodle Bug!
Maze had a beautiful standard run and Q'd with a 1st place :-) We got to play role reversal in JWW, where SoBe took the message to heart, had a very nice stay and a smokin' clean JWW run! Wally also decided that he could Q in JWW since we got that pesky double Q possibility over with in standard :-)
Maze did the always unusual for him, he dropped a bar. So, we were 50% today but alas, no double Q's.. Tomorrow we head back down for another go at it, and, if the weather decides to improve and be as beautiful as they are predicting we may play hooky and go hiking on Monday instead of to the trial, sometimes a lovely hike is a way better idea than a day indoors at a trial :-)
We have a very busy few weeks of trialing coming up, next weekend is a 4 Star USDAA trial in Minnesota, followed by the Alberta Canada Regionals, then another 4 star in Utah :-) There will be a little vacation in between as we are taking the RV and making an extended road trip out of it.
So, what's with the title of todays post? Actually I was thinking about starting a young dog again and it got me thinking about all that is involved in starting the babies trialing.
Next weekend Danger will make his debut in USDAA in jumpers and gamblers. To say I am a bit nervous is sort of an understatement, but mostly I am super excited!!
Danger is such an incredible boy I truly cannot wait to get into the ring with him. I do realize, however, there are a multitude of potential things that can happen and yet, I have know idea what actually will. I just know that he is ready to try out a real trial and I also know that there are going to be tons of things that do not go exactly as planned which is totally fine! I know what I have taught him to do, I know what my criteria is and I know that my expectations can only be for him to do the best he can in a totally new environment on totally new equipment in a very high charged environment.
I am prepared to praise the living daylights out of him, I am prepared to get a full unobstructed view of all of holes that we most certainly have at this point in our training, and, I am fully prepared to enjoy every second of our time out on course no matter what happens!
He is a baby, we are not yet a team, and, I have yet to actually run a "full" course with him even in a training situation. Danger will need experience in the ring to know what to do, "we" need experience in the ring to become a real team, and, my wonderful, beautiful, super smart baby boy needs to learn to walk before he can truly run!

That's Life...

It is a totally gloomy day here in "colorful Colorado", we have gone from serious draught to monsoon! It has been raining for the better part of 2 weeks, thank goodness I have had "breaks" traveling, here, there, and, everywhere!
I am not a fan of rain but I am seriously scared of fires as well, so, for now I will take the rains which will green everything up and keep the fires at bay at least for a few weeks.
This rain will of course end and we will very quickly ascend into the heat and inevitable draught of summer.
This weather also puts me in a bit of a thoughtful mood, as it were. I have been thinking about the twists and turns that life brings, trying to sort out why things happen the way they do and for what reason. Trust me when I say that I think everything in life happens for a reason, sometimes the reasons are hard to determine but never the less, there are reasons!
Starting with the horrible natural disasters that seem to be rampant in our country and around the World.
These latest tornadoes in Joplin, MO really should put the trivial things into perspective shouldn't they! I am overwhelmed with sadness for all of the people that have lost their homes and even worse, loved ones. I cannot even imagine having such a horrible tragedy hit close to home.
Even with this fresh in our mind, as long as it does not affect us directly we still seem to find a way to feel bad about something that is by comparison not even on the radar of the most minute importance.
I guess this is just one of the many things that make us human, not bad, just human!
Today the news of who will be representing the US in France on the AKC World team was announced, I barely slept at all last night in anticipation of the phone call I was hoping to get, trust me, I have been playing this game long enough to know that there are no guarantees, and, anything can happen, however, Maze and I did an amazing job at tryouts ending up 4th overall proving that we have the skills, patience, experience, and, ability to represent the US at the 2011 World Championships in France.
Well, although I carried the phone with me everywhere, stared at it pretty much continually, and, seriously willed it to ring, it did not.
To say I was not disappointed would be a very big lie, however, when we put it into perspective and weigh it against the grand scheme of things, it is but another blip on the radar of life.
I am going to allow myself to be disappointed, but, most importantly I am going to allow it to help me to continue to work hard at achieving the goals that I set for myself and my dogs in agility.
I am going to use it to push myself to continue to try new and different things, push myself to train and handle even more aggressively than I feel that I already do, and, most importantly, I am going to use this experience to continue to remind myself to enjoy the process!
I have worked hard to get where I am in the wonderful sport of agility and I have been very fortunate to experience a lot of firsts, meet a lot of awesome people, go to the most fabulous places. and, experience what success feels like both in competition and my love and passion for teaching!
There are many more awesome experiences to come for me in this sport I am certain of that, so, todays feeling of disappointment will pass and it will be replaced with euphoria over some wonderful thing, then there will be more disappointments, more euphoria... that's life!
So, before this mornings emotional smack down, I was actually in one of those awesome euphoric states after having the most wonderful time at the SC Regional in Fort Worth, TX. Again, the events, or lack there of :-), of this morning certainly did not take away from the awesomeness of the weekend!
The trial was fantastic! I got to once again see bunches of friends that I have not seen in a while as well as hang with some folks from right here in Colorado, a great time was had by all!
The Colorado/New Mexico/Arizona contingency did super and truly represented the area in an amazing way.
The courses were great, and, my dogs were AWESOME!!! Before I talk about me, I want to say how incredibly proud of Geoff I was! He and Rumor came with me to Fort Worth and after a crazy tax season and truly zero training he and Rumor earned byes into the semi finals of PGP and Perf. Speed Jumping! They also Q'd in both Masters classes offered and took third place in IHC Perf. Jumpers, they are a great team!
Now, about me :-) Maze was a very good boy! He came home with 53 IFCS points, placing in 5 of the 7 IFCS classes, a bye into the GP semis after a 4th place finish, a bye into Steeplechase semis, taking 2nd place overall in the 26" class, and was a member of the third place DAM team!
Wally kicked butt in several classes but my crowning achievement of the weekend with the Wally man was getting a GP semi final bye by going clean through both rounds and doing so without a voucher!
SoBe was my very best doodle bug ever! She placed in team jumpers, team gamblers, and, won masters gamblers in a very competitive 22" field. She looked fabulous and did not have a single run that I was not over the moon about!
So, overall, a FANTASTIC time was had by all :-)
In summary, on occasion life hands us what we consider to be lemons, but, most often life gives us countless things to be appreciative of, happy about, and, down right lucky for! Try not to sweat the small stuff, have a seat and enjoy the lemonade! My friends... THAT'S LIFE!

World Team Tryouts!!!

I could not be more proud of Maze, or, myself for that matter! World Team Tryouts were held in Hopkins, MN this past weekend and it was fantastic!!!
I honestly do not think that Maze could have run any better, nor, has he ever run better than he did at tryouts.
We were focused, rested, and, ready to rock and roll! The tryouts are such an incredible competition with amazing dog and handler teams from all over the US competing for a coveted spot on the team. These few spots could go to any of the awesome dog and handler teams and to have landed in 4th place overall has me seated securely on cloud 9!
The courses were so much fun! I truly wish we had opportunities to run these types of courses on a more regular basis, they really push you to better yourself as a trainer and handler.
The organization of the event was amazing and the facility wonderful!
The atmosphere at tryouts although highly charged, is also laid back from the standpoint of support among competitors. Each and every person there is genuinely excited for the other competitors, the support is fabulous and the environment competitive and FUN!
The surface was great and Maze handled it brilliantly, no slipping at all.
We came away from the weekend with 3 clean rounds, 3 placements, and, 2 rounds that although not clean were fantastic none the less. Maze never missed a weave pole, touched a bar, pushed a contact or second guessed a single direction. I cannot tell the future, and, at this point have no idea whether we will be going to France this year, but, I can say in all honesty that we are ready, willing and able to represent the US and the AKC, and, whether we are here in the US or over in France come October I could not be more pleased with our performance at the tryouts!

Aloha!

Mahalo to all of my students in Hawaii for a wonderful time! Hawaii was exactly what it sounds like, paradise!!
Although Geoff and I came home with a massive sunburn, it was well worth it considering it was a by-product of a wonderful afternoon in a private lagoon swimming under waterfalls and drinking wine!
This was on Friday after 2 fabulous days of teaching, and 4 days of playing on the big island of Hawaii. Geoff and I spent 2 days in Kona, touring the Kona Brewery, going Parasailing, and, just hanging out.
We followed these days with a kayak trip down a sugar cane factory irrigation ditch and a lovely horseback ride in the mountains.
After all of this relaxation I needed a rest :-) Saturday and Sunday I was once again wearing the instructor hat and as always thoroughly enjoyed my students!
The hospitality was amazing, the landscape and weather to die for and the fabulous guest cottage that we stayed in, was, well... fabulous :-)
Now, back to reality!
We got home yesterday morning after an overnight flight so I cannot say I was worth much yesterday other than to clean up the house and the yard a bit :-) I did manage to get a little training done with Danger and Maze before I went to bed!
Maze and I head to Minneapolis this weekend for the AKC World team tryouts we are so ready!! I am truly excited and seriously looking forward to the weekend! Not only do we get to compete with some of the best dogs around but I get to see some people that I have not seen in quite some time and visit, that is a bonus!
I worked on some International skills with the Maze meister today and he was superb! Definitely feeling good and ready to rock this weekend!
SoBe is on hiatus until tomorrow as she had a bit of surgery last week... Needless to say she is driving me insane as she watches me take dog after dog to the building and she is not one of them!! I promised her tomorrow!
Danger is doing super and I have actually bit the bullet and entered him in a couple of classes at the USDAA trial in June in Minnesota, it will be great ring experience at the very least, and, huge enjoyment for the spectators I am sure! I will keep you all posted on how it goes.
Well, I am of course trying to get back to a regular sleep cycle, however, not quite there yet, so... Good Night all!

A fun course to play with :-)

Great news! I trained Maze for the first time since I pulled him from the last run of the Mile Hi trial, he ran great!!! He seems to be feeling great and I am seeing no signs of any pain in his back or hips! YEA!!!
In a couple of weeks Maze and I head to the World Team Tryouts in Hopkins, MN so I set up a course that would once again test our "International" skills :-)
SoBe and Maze both got to play on this course and they did great! I have to say though, I am starting to get concerned that my dogs may not be able to actually take the front of a jump anymore since all we seem to practice is back side sends! LOL!!
the dogs had a week off while I was in SLC and Kamloops teaching and will get another 10 days off while Geoff and I are in Hawaii on a working vacation :-) I think it is a perfect schedule given the events coming up.
Maze will have a couple of days of training this week, a couple of days of training right before the Tryouts, and, a lot of rest in between. Maze has had a couple of months of pretty consistent trialing and now some much needed rest before we start up again.
I definitely find that my dogs do better with breaks in between trials, especially when they are high pressure trials.
I can say in all honesty that I am ready for a vacation myself! I am working while in HI, but Geoff and I have a week of vacation between my seminars, I am going to force myself to RELAX!! I will miss my dogs as quarantine issues in HI mean everyone has to stay home, but the rest will be welcome after a super busy winter, spring and soon summer.
So, back to the course... give it a try, let me know how it goes :-) I played with the pieces first before running the whole thing. I started with 8-9, followed by 7-9, then 6-9 :-) Next we played with 9-15. The obvious issues with these sections were the pull throughs to the back side sends. Think carefully about the cues that you will use to ask your dog to negotiate these sections, remember to maintain consistency regarding what each cue or combination of cues means to the dog to ensure that you are asking for the right thing!
I also segregated 1-5 and worked it as a seperate sequence as well :-) I always like to break down any course or sequence to just 1 or 2 major challenges allowing me to really concentrate on each one. This also maintains a high reinforcement ratio making the learning process go so much faster! Keeps the fun factor high as well :-)
I do not always put the pieces together it depends on how each piece works out. it is crucial that we end on a high note and that I do not overwork the dogs :-)
As an aside, Danger is looking FANTASTIC!!! He gave me the best Teeter performance ever today and is getting the whole channel weave poles concept beautifully!
Dog Walks, well... fabulous is the word..

What comes first, the attitude or the training?

I have been doing agility for over 20 years now and am very fortunate to have had so many wonderful life experiences because of it. I have competed in hundreds of trials, numerous "special" events put on by various sponsors, many National Championship events, and, competed in 3 World Championship events.
I have traveled the world competing and teaching, I have taught countless seminars, classes and workshops, was selected as the coach of the United States Agility team 2 times and known great success from this end of the spectrum as well.
I have worked very hard to be successful in the sport of agility and would like to think that I will continue to be successful, however, although I have always thought of the mental game as a very important part of that success it never held as important a role as it does at this point in my career.
I attribute this in large part to the fact that the sport is continuing to get more competitive, more demanding, and, overall requires a much larger skill set to to do well in the upper levels of competition both domestically and internationally.
You can have the best trained dog on the planet handled by the most skilled handler ever conceived and, without an equally well honed mental game it will be quite unlikely that they will reach their potential.
I have a couple of friends who were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend the Lanny Basham coaching workshop this past weekend in Texas, this along with the fact that I had the pleasure of working with a group of the Worlds greatest people this weekend who truly want to succeed in the sport of agility and have fantastic attitudes towards this goal, really got me thinking again how important the mental game is and how very important it is for people to be made aware of the resources out their available to them relative to this topic.
Lanny Bassham, and, Jane Savoie immediately come to mind as absolutely required reading and listening.
What makes this mental game so very important? An example would be one of my favorite mantras these days as I walk the course, focus on the process and the outcome will be there... We are so invested inn the Q that we have a tendency to walk the course with our focus on the outcome, the Q. It is very difficult to achieve the Q without focusing on the process necessary to achieve the brass ring.
We want to win, however, if you do not plan the appropriate strategy to put all of the pieces of the course together it is unlikely that you will win. Do your best on the pieces of the course and there is a very good chance that you will not only Q, but very possibly win!
The conscious and subconscious mind are very powerful, it is really important that you use them in a way that has the power to enhance your runs!
You are only able to consciously think of one thing at a time, make it something positive. Subconsciously, there are many things going through your mind at one time, train yourself to focus on positive thoughts, successful outcomes, and, each piece of the puzzle that makes up the whole picture.
Verbalize what your strengths are, do not dwell on the mistakes! How you think about your previous run greatly affects the outcome of the next.
Keep training, smile, remember the good stuff, and, most of all enjoy the ride!

It's all about the cake!!!

OK, I was planning to title this blog and then just leave the title hanging for those who "understand" what it means to be able to have a bit of a laugh at an inside joke, but, I just cannot do it.
So, what's with the title?? At the trial this weekend there were no less than 7 MACH cakes and a box of MACH brownies! I never saw so many cakes! I think even more impressive was the fact that all of these cakes and brownies were consumed before the trial was complete! I am pretty sure if you completed a MACH or PAX title and did not bring a cake you would quite possibly be kicked out of the trial :-) Thinking we have some sort of addiction going on here!
Anyway, it was a great trial and I had a FANTASTIC weekend!
SoBe was the superstar again finishing her AX-J title on Friday with a 1st place run, getting her first 2 MX-J legs over Sat. and Sun. and starting and finishing her AX with 3 first place standard runs! I could not be more proud of my girl :-)
SoBe is 3rd generation Hijacker/Dream Weaver breeding, my breeding! I bred her grandmother, her father and now SoBe and all 3 are agility Champions! This along with Champions of my heart!! How cheesy is that!!! LOL!
SoBe's daddy Wally did continue with his tradition of insuring a non-double Q weekend, if he Q's in either run he carefully plans at least 1 fault in the other run to guarantee no double Q, it appears to be a very well honed skill. I will be forever thrilled with his one and only appearance in the AKC Nationals in 2010 :-)
Maze maintained his brilliance going 5 out of 5! There was no 6th run as he somehow managed to pop his SI joint and needed a chiropractic adjustment at the trial that left him too sore to run his last run! I have already iced him this evening and am a bit concerned as he has always been so sound and this is quite nerve wracking!
On to another topic... the courses this weekend were really interesting, quite challenging, and, presented some different challenges in a few cases a bit different than what is generally presented on an Excellent course.
This presented some interesting conversations that I found quite thought provoking.
First, a friend and I were talking about courses, etc.. and she asked me what was so different about USDAA courses, she does primarily AKC and several people have told her that AKC and USDAA courses are soooo different, I disagree, and told her so :-)
Both USDAA and AKC utilize the same obstacles, and, although there are some variations in what is "allowed" as far as challenges are concerned, a judge is still just taking those same obstacles and arranging them in different configurations that make up each and every course.
The challenge is in how each handler interprets the course layout and analyzes what the most efficient path from point A to point B might be for them and their dog, at which point they must figure out what cues and/or combinations of cues are necessary to get said dog from point A to point B.
After this particular discussion I found it very interesting how many people do have a habit of blaming the course for the issues that occur on the various courses.
People seem truly stymied by unusual obstacle configurations and get bogged down by the perceived level of difficulty instead of viewing it for what it is, a configuration of obstacles, that need to be handled.
Every handler has a toolbox at their disposal that includes whatever skills they have taught their dog, along with the cues necessary to get their dog to offer the various behaviors that make up these skill sets. Whether it is a giant industrial size toolbox or a home handy man toolbox, either way there is a finite number of individual tools that any person utilizes on any given course.
Regardless of how the obstacles are arranged there should never be a configuration that cannot be handled, the key is to dig deep in that toolbox and figure out which tools, combination of tools, and, where and when to use said tools is the answer to the challenges brought forth on each course.
Common sense suggests that we are at some point going to come across something that really gives us pause for thought, these scenarios should make us think about where we may be lacking in a skill set that still needs to be taught, in which case it should be taught :-)
I know for myself, one of the reasons I keep coming back to the trials is for the personal challenge of figuring out the "formula" as it were for success on each of the different courses. Each one is a puzzle and whether or not I always come up with the right answer it is always a learning experience and each course helps prepare me for the next one in some form or fashion.
I do know that you need to trust your gut, and, after evaluating your options, if one feels right, it probably is :-) You should plan your run and run your plan, pay attention to the process and the outcome will be there! I think that is a nice combination of cliche's that pretty much sum up what our mindset needs to be when deciding on the course of action we are going to employ to run the course, (pun intended:-)!
Have a good time, analyze, don't over-analyze, hug your dog, say something nice to lots of someones, and then... let them eat cake!

SoBe JWW 4/10/11

SoBe AX title run 4/10/11

ADCH SoBe!!

OK, I am excited about SoBe's ADCH!! The SoBe DoBe Doodle Bug is a very special girl and is also quite the handful! I knew the ADCH would eventually come but who knew it would be at age 3 and a half!!
I am pretty stoked about the fact that SoBe is ADCH number 10 as well! I do not believe that any one else has put ADCH's on so many dogs, it is only fitting that my little trouble maker would be number 10. :-)
I also need to fess up about something, I have gone back to a 2on/2off dog walk with SoBe, not because I am a quitter, but, because I am a realist and I realized about a month ago that trying to retrain SoBe to a running Dog Walk was just not going to work. Her history and foundation was a 2on/2off unless of course she launched!
What she did not have, was any understanding of how to "run" through the contact. Although I started her back on a flat board and transitioned to a low dog walk before the full height, etc.. And, even though she was probably at least 80% accurate in her success hitting the contact, even when she hit it, she launched.
The main problem with this is the fact that in a training environment if she missed I had no way of explaining what she did wrong and all of the negative reward markers were confusing her, frustrating both of us and ultimately making me ask myself if it was even remotely fair to ask her to do this with no true understanding of what I was asking. Obviously, the answer was NO!
I have to give the credit for going back to the 2on/2off behavior to SoBe herself, it was during one of these quite frustrating training sessions that she finally just looked at me, trotted over to the bottom of the dog walk and put herself in a 2on/2off position! That sealed the deal, no more running dog walks for the Doodle Bug.
Of course, I never mentioned this before because it had not yet been tested in the ring and I must admit I was a bit nervous about what she would do, and, ultimately what I would do if she blew it!
Great news!!! Not only did she did not blow it, but, she offered a 2on/2off dog walk on each and every dog walk at the FRAT trial and all but one at the Dog Gone Fun trial last weekend in Texas. The only "bad" walk was in a pairs run where she ran second, was over the top high, and, pretty much oblivious to all things going on! I did mark the poor performance, asked to assume heel position and continued on, never another problem! I am so proud of her, and ME!
I have not even remotely given up on the whole running dog walk concept, I am still absolutely going to continue teaching both Danger and Vintage a running dog walk, which is a whole lot easier when they are clean slates learning this behavior from the beginning!

Thank You AMY!!!

This post is not really about thank you Amy, but, without Amy there would be no post!! I managed to find a way to completely screw up my passwords, usernames, you name it and was unable to even get into my own Blog! Thank you Amy for at least getting me back into my Blog!!!
On to the other topic, I am on a serious high from 2 days of amazing runs at our local USDAA trial!!!!
There was one downside that I need to talk about first however, although Wally was only entered in literally 1 class yesterday, (Steeplechase, in which he Q'd and won round 1 :-), and 3 classes today, he came up lame again! His iliopsoas refuses to just heal and not be an issue, so although he is still running at winning times, (took second in Masters standard today and was but a mere 2/10ths behind daughter SoBe in Steeplechase finals), it appears that he is going o be back on rest for a while, and after that pretty much a tournament only dog. This makes me very sad as Wally is, well, Wally... Mama's boy extrordinaire, the Golden Child, my main man, you get the picture... I will do whatever is best for Wally!
On to better stuff, SoBe and Maze were off the charts this weekend! OK, all 3 were but as I already pointed out Mr. Wallys awesomeness was cut short by his ouchiness!
SoBe and I seriously ran together as a TEAM! We had a bit of a rocky start yesterday in our first class of the day, team jumpers, she and I maneuvered our way through what I thought to be the hardest parts of the course only to be foiled by a tunnel off course that I did not really forsee as an issue! I did determine that it was my issue as I was definitely showing too many forward cues when I should have been peeling off laterally.
Next up was team gamblers, let's just say my superior weekend with the Sobester started after that :-) SoBe and I made our way through a VERY difficult team standard class that was eating people alive, definitely made my day. This run was directly after a smoking round 1 Steeplechase Q!
Today started out fabulous as SoBe won team Snooker, placed second in Master standard, was clean in team Relay, tied for second in GP for her second qualifier needed for Nationals, and won Steeplechase round 2 even beating her daddy and coming in 2.5 seconds ahead of the next clean dog, I could not be more proud or more excited about the future for my little SoBe DoBe Doodle Bug!
Maze was equally awesome ending the 2 days with a 100% Qualifying rate, several wins and one of the 3 dogs on the winning DAM team! Thank you Jen, Kris, Morganne, and, Liz for all of the filming! When I get videos I will throw a few of them on my YouTube page.
We have a very small 26" population in Colorado and I am so happy to say that with the addition of Mary and Trek, a highly competitive 26" team I have been forced to really run Maze the way he should be run instead of just playing it safe around the course and he is responding beautifully! Thank you Mary for being such a great competitor, trainer, handler, and new found friend!
There is another day of trial tomorrow but I did not enter, so I will be enjoying a day at home hanging pictures on my newly painted walls, going for a long hike and training Danger and Vintage. The "old" dogs get the day off, it is Sunday after all, a day of rest :-)
I will get back to training talk but just needed to "share" my fun weekend, it really was great!
I did have really good intentions of coming home tonight and training the puppies, but, after 2 days of trialing that started each morning getting up at 4:00 to make the 2 hour drive to the show site, (I am more willing to drive than spend anymore nights in hotels), I was exhausted and decided that a tired trainer is not a good trainer and will pick up where we left off tomorrow!
What does tomorrow bring, simple jump sequences for Danger, dog walk practice of course, and, probably a tire or 2 thrown in for good measure.
Vintage gets to continue to learn impulse control, tons of toy work, a few trips through the jump uprights, and some "mat work" just to name a few things.
As an aside, I have to throw in a note about the power of positive thinking and how incredibly important it is to focus on your Mental Game as part of your training and trialing regimen, the Mental game is a huge part of everyone's ultimate success in any endeavor, one of the many things Lanny Bassham speaks of is to remember that you shouldn't focus on the outcome of the run, you should focus on the run itself, doing so will take care of the outcome!
Happy daylight savings, looks like Spring has Sprung!

Priorities...

I am sitting in the Best Western in Park City Kansas reflecting on an awesome 5 days of teaching a group of students who really make me smile. They make me smile for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that they are simply great students, thoughtful, interested, willing, and, just downright fun! I have been very fortunate to have worked with almost everyone who attended this weeks seminars before, and, because of this, I already have a heads up on essentially where everyone is at from a training perspective, and, I also know from where they came, I am so incredibly proud of the work they have done and the progress they have made!
I am also sitting here trying to make the right decision about whether I should stay here for the 3 day trial I am entered in this weekend or get up in the morning and head home. I am faced with this dilemma because I have unfortunately come down with a pretty nasty cold while I have been here and am not only feeling pretty awful but am essentially exhausted because of it.
For all intents and purposes this should be an easy decision, except that as much as I love my job as a teacher, I also love to train and trial my own dogs which of course always takes a backseat to the teaching part. The only thing that seems to take an even "backer" seat is me. There are only so many hours in a day, days in a week, weeks in a month, months in a year... I try to pack so much into all of these that sometimes I think I just get plain and simply run down. It is times like these that I am forced to look at my priorities and get them in order. Of course my family, my dogs, my work, my students, and, my fun are important, but, none of these things can be experienced to the fullest if I am not physically or mentally at peak performance level.
Trialing, for instance, is of course a passion of mine and my primary source of fun and relaxation as it were, however, on order to be my best at the trials, and, be the best handler I can be for my dogs I have to be able to focus, concentrate, and, think clearly, or else I am not being fair to either my dogs or myself.
For this reason as hard as it is, I am going to pack up ithe morning and head home, reminding myself that there is always another trial, but,
there is only one me! Most people are probably quite thankful for this! :-)
Being the incredible type A personality that I am also means that part of the rest, relaxation and recuperation process will include a detailed plan for training the pups on the new found free days that I have acquired, with a few naps thrown in to make sure that this crud that I seem to have leaves me sooner rather than later.
So about that little thing called training, this week while teaching I tried to get a few sessions in with the dogs but other than a couple of quite productive sessions with Danger on the low dog walk I did not really accomplish much. I was reminded again how very important planning and preparation is. I found myself attempting to cut corners in my preparation, not planning as well as I could have, and, hurrying through the training sessions which left both the dogs and me feeling like something was lacking, the important thing is that I realized this and reminded myself that I need to be able to give full attention to my dogs and the task at hand in order to get the outcome I am looking for. Another fabulous reminder of quality over quantity, if you are not at your best, you cannot give your best and you are best to take some time off from training until a clear mind is available.
So, home we go to get better and clear our heads so that we are ready to rock ASAP!
On a much more upbeat note, Dangers dog walks are looking amazing! I am to the point that I am starting to offset the toy and run more putting more pressure on Danger, soon we will be raising the walk a few inches, yea!
Thank you Wichita Agility Group for a wonderful week of seminars, good luck this weekend and I hope to see you all again soon!

My turn to say thank you :-)

Just say Thank You!

So, my good friend Jacqui told me today that I should blog about the fact that when a compliment is given a person should just say Thank You! And, do you know what? She is absolutely right!
Human nature is a very funny thing and we seem to be of the opinion species wide, that self deprecation is an honorable trait. It is our defense mechanism against disappointment and, even worse, we use it at times to simply pump up our own perception of our self worth. I find as a seminar presenter and teacher that all too often I have to literally tell a group of students that if I give a compliment, it is not only OK to just accept it and say thank you, but honestly, rather rude to turn it into an opportunity to talk about why they did not do the good job you just told them they did!
Everyone is capable of doing great things and I think there is a very clear line between accepting praise and admitting a job well done and being arrogant.
Trust me, I think there is a very large population of arrogant people in this world but I also think there is an even larger number of people who are just too self conscious to accept a compliment and move on.
If you are of the arrogant variety, please check yourself and realize that every time you turn a compliment into a negative, when you have clearly done something well, that you are potentially hurting someone around you who felt really good about what they did and are now feeling quite inadequate since Someone who clearly did better has dismissed their accomplishment as subpar.
Those of you who dismiss compliments because you feel that you are not worthy, get over it and appreciate your skills, accomplishments, etc.. And allow the person complimenting you to feel the joy of making someone feel good about something. :-)
I know for myself, if I compliment you, I mean it!
Enjoy the compliment and just say "thank you".

Vintage toy game

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The age of electronics

So, in this age of electronics I feel so completely inadequate as a complete electronics moron! Everywhere I look there are agility videos, videos on facebook, videos on blogs, videos over email, well I suck at filming anything and everything, and, when I finally do dust off the camera and actually shoot something I amm completely clueless how to up or download the videos anything.
I did at one point set upma YouTube account and have a time or two actually put some video out there but of course without all of the fancy editing, music and comments that anyone seems to be able to do!
I think I need to take a class or something so that I can catch up with the masses:-) I have already promised so many videos of all of this running contact nonsense so I guess I will have to learn sooner rather than later how to edit, add cool music, and, catchy quips. Irbid starting to feel like unless you offer up videos of what you say is happening it is not even real!
Other topics, I am in glorious Phoenix, AZ and have been here for a week already. Last week it was a 3 day. Seminar teaching advanced handling followed by a 3 day AKC trial, great week! I always love. Coming to Phoenix in Jan. For the obvious reasons of course but, also because I have been coming here for about 14 years to teach and I love my students/friends here, it is definitely always like coming home. Plus, every year I get to meet a few new people that become part of the group, what a treat!
The trial was great, SoBe, wally, and, maze all pgot to play and had great runs. Maybe someday I will post some video of our runs :-)
Tomorrow it is back to work and this weekend another trial, wish us luck I am going for scores for World Team tryouts :-)
Until next time!

Training today :-)

Great day of training today! After a couple of days of trialing, quite successful trialing I might add, I had a few things I specifically wanted to work on. Interestingly enough as I started working dogs today the training session quickly diverted from what I thought I was going to be focusing on to more of a house cleaning session.
This past weekend SoBe was introduced to A-frame approaches off of approx. 90 degree turns, something I realized I have never specifically trained. I seem to be very subconsciously driven to work straight approaches and straight exits on and off my contacts. This needs to change, SoBe was having trouble with her striding to the A-frame with these angled approaches. She missed both A-frames that had to be approached from this angle. The straight approaches resulted in her perfect running A-frame performance that I have come to expect and simply assume will occur,
So, that was mission number 1 today. With the aid of a stride regulator I was able to work through the issue pretty quickly, ultimately removing the prop and getting awesome performance.
One of the drills that I was intending to work on was a portion of the Steeplechase round 1 from this past weekend which involved running with intent from the A-frame directly to what could be considered the off end of a C-shaped tunnel. 90 degrees to the right of the A-frame was a jump, to the left was the tunnel with both entrances essentially at 45 degrees off of the A-frame and a set of weaves perpendicular to the A-frame requiring a 45 degree left side approach past the tunnel entrances. Are you still with me? :-)
Anyway, this led to me working all sorts of distance challenges to and from the weave poles, working and reworking entries, realizing that I have not spent much time there either of late.
SoBe also had trouble with the table the past couple of trials. She is not inclined to actually collect to stay on the table when approaching it at speed. She had no problem demonstrating this particular issue today when I pushed her to really drive to the table. This reminded me of a great table training drill that I have not worked at all with SoBe, shame on me! This drill involves calling the dog to the table from a feet in front of the table and expecting the dog to stop and stay on the table without falling off. We had to repeat this a few times but as with all training exercises if you reward correctly dogs pick things up awfully quickly!~ Before long I was able to run past the table at full speed, cue the table and SoBe would get on, drop and stay until verbally released. Trust me, I will be working this more in the upcoming days!
We did a few dog walks, which were lovely, and also worked on some jumping drills, what a good girl she is!
I actually did a few jumps, a dog walk and a couple of teeters with Wally and he seems to be sound! I have pulled him from this weekends trial but hopefully he will be up and running the last 2 weekends of Jan. in sunny Phoenix :-)
Next, it was Mazes turn, he was, well... amazing! I had a very important New Years resolution this year that I will absolutely stick to and that is to be a better team mate for Maze. We have not always seen exactly eye to eye, although I love him to death, we do not always "get" each other. Well, I decided that starting in 2011 I would work harder to "get" Maze and be the team mate that he deserves. lord knows he is an Amazing dog!
With that said we have started the year with a bang! Maze was all that and more New Years weekend placing and Q'ing in every team class, winning both rounds of Steeplechase, Q'ing and placing in GP and Q'ing and placing in several other Masters classes.
This past weekend he not only Q'd in GP but won the class with the fastest time overall, I am very proud of him, and me for that matter. It is going to be a great year!
He trained brilliantly today and is as fit as he has ever been, with lots of hiking under his belt.
Danger is BACK, OK sort of :-) We have started back on the low dog walk which is going fantastic, low jumps, bottom behavior on the teeter, and, I have started to shape 4 weave poles. This is a new venture for me as I have trained the last several dogs with channels, trying something new, just for fun!
The fantastic Danger Mouse is very happy to be playing again, and, I could not be happier to be playing with him!
Ahhh, Vintage, what a treat she is! She takes work-a-holic to a whole new level and I am loving it! She has toy drive oozing out of every pore, food drive to die for, speed, stamina, brains, and, a desire to learn that is equal only to SoBe :-)
We had a blast today, she is doing balance beam work on a 12 foot plank with fit discs under each end so it moves a lot! We continue to work on her body awareness exercises and she can move her rear end better than a lot of dogs move their front! :-)
I am seeing how invaluable a skill rear end awareness is in so much of what we are doing now. A great example is her heel work, she can move herself into a beautiful heel and side without moving her front at all, very cute!
We work on forward motion every time we train and she has a great flyball box turn on the flat retrieving her toy, too bad she will never do flyball.
She is driving to the Manners Minder, although I admit I may not actually use it to train her contacts, I am generally more of a toy trainer. She has gotten over her initial reluctance to get on the teeter board and is now not only jumping on the end but figuring out her 2on/2off end behavior as well.
Mostly we are just playing, however, all of the play will lead to something bigger.
She is just a complete joy to train and is going to be an agility superstar for sure :-).
It was fun to get to write about training again, it has been a very busy winter so far and it was nice to get back to what I enjoy most, next to family time of course, spending quality time with my pups! Enjoy!

Life is great!

That is what Able is saying here I am sure :-) I absolutely cannot believe that Able is almost 12 years old, yet he lives everyday as if he were a spry 2 year old! He lives for the daily walks, he revels in the daily toy tossing games he plays all by himself, and, he especially enjoys the fact that he is still the boss around here.
I know how he feels, I love to hike, I revel in the daily dog training that I get to do when I am actually at home, I completely enjoy every student I teach and every seminar I instruct, but, I am not going on 12, I just turned 43!
Where did the years go, I swear I can still remember whining about how high school was never going to end and I was never going to be old enough to drink! Well, high school has come and gone, as a matter of fact I could have gone through another entire school career starting at Kindergarten and I would still be out.
I am finding that my joints and muscles talk to me a lot more, OK, they actually yell at me pretty much all of the time now:-).
The really funny part is that I feel like a 21 year old in my head, I just wish my body would cooperate!
No matter though, as I write this I am already thinking about the dog show that I get to play in tomorrow and I am reflecting on the awesome training sessions that I had today with Maze, SoBe, Merger, Danger and Vintage! Yes, all of those dogs require my body to work better than it seems to want to right now, that is what we call mind over matter. I have a killer case of plantar fasciitis that just will not go away, yes, I have finally called and made an appt. with a podiatrist. This affliction seems to be causing all sorts of compensation pains throughout my very young, athletic body, OK everyone, stop laughing!
I refuse to give in, however, and although I seem to be feeling my age physically a bit more these days, I refuse to let a few aches and pains slow me down. I am pretty sure that it sounds like I am whining but in actuality I am simply coming to terms with the fact that agility is as hard on the human team member as their canine counterpart and it is truly time to start trying to take care of myself at least half as well as I do the dogs. I say this on the eve of Wallys chiropractor appt. where we will not only be working on Wallys sore muscles but discussing which cold laser I should buy.
I am pretending that i am buying it for the dogs but I am planning on some serious laser time for myself as well! SoBe was massaged 3 times last weekend at the agility trial, Wally had a ride to see another massage therapist here in town while I was away and today I had a massage of my very own!
Pretty soon we will all be doing dog and handler appts. for all procedures! I plan on running agility for many, many more years and I am requiring my body to hold up so that I can still get all of those front crosses on all of my fast dogs! Life IS great and the time that I spend running around like a loon playing with my dogs, roller skating with my family, riding my horse, hiking the hills around my house, and just generally acting like a kid will definitely keep me young at heart!