Day one, what FUN!!!

SoBe, Maze, Journey, and I are in Fort Worth Texas at the USDAA CCOA Tournament this week and this was day one of a 4 day event :-) What a great day it was!! The weather is beautiful, the arena is wonderful, and, the competition is stiff!! I LOVE it!! It was a challenge just getting here to be honest. We had the second snowstorm in 10 days that made the first driving day a bit of a nightmare. Our big travel day was Tuesday, this the day following SoBe's full day in the hospital in IV fluids, and, having every test known to man to try to figure out why she was not eating and so lethargic.. The tests showed nothing although she was still uninterested in food and having less than solid stools (TMI, I know :-) Tuesday morning came, and, off we went :-) The weather was horrible as were road conditions. We still managed to make it all the way to our planned first night destination of Wichita Falls, TX. We settled in and got up Wednesday morning to a beautiful sunny day! SoBe ate breakfast for the first time in 4 days and I was feeling great! Wed. we finished our drive and arrived at the site for our practice. The dogs were super excited and practiced well. We were able to take a couple of walks at the great park across from the Will Rogers Center which made Wednesday the relaxing day that I was hoping for before the competition began. Journey was enjoying her walks, although I am sure she is wondering why exactly she came along :-) Hard to explain to her that I just love to have her with me and wanted her on the trip just because! It is Thursday night and day one of the competition is in the books. IT was a pretty fantastic day! SoBe won the 22" Grand Prix. She also took 2nd place in the 22" masters Challenge jumpers class! Maze took 4th in the Masters Challenge junipers class and 9th overall in Steeplechase :-) Given the level of competition at this event, i could not be more pleased! Tomorrow is another day and I will update my blog with the results. Have a great day everyone!

Snowed in!!!

Well, I have managed to miss pretty much all of winter this year and I am certainly paying for it now! Northern Colorado has been hit with a massive snowstorm that is not over yet!! As much as I enjoy a good snow storm now and again, the timing could not be worse! I am supposed to be in Salt Lake City right now working with my outreach group! There is also a trial this weekend in Salt Lake that I am entered in, so... we will see how this plays out :-) Until then, thought it was time to catch up on a little blogging! I cannot believe that it is the middle of April already, where does the time go! It has been pretty busy so far this year and it is about to get loads busier :-) I love that about my life and career, I really enjoy being busy especially since it is doing the things that I love the most, teaching, training, and, trialing! I have some fun things in the works, in addition to my skills and drills online subscription service I am working on a foundation program that will truly encompass what is needed to progress from puppy to agility superstar :-) I am very excited about this project! So, what else is going on? I have a very busy year moving forward and have already started to fill up the 2014 calendar. I am very excited to say that I will be heading back down under again in November for another 3 and a half weeks of seminars all over the Australian continent! I am not interested in having time speed up, but, I will say that I am seriously looking forward to seeing my friends and making a whole bunch of new ones! The dogs are doing great and I have already had 2 incredibly successful Regional competitions bringing home some hardware and much appreciated byes for the 2013 Cynosport games!! SoBe, Maze and, I will be heading to Dallas next week to compete in the CCOA tournament, this is the doorway to the 2014 IFCS World Championships and I am really looking forward to the competition. I truly feel that both the dogs and myself are ready and a good time should be had by all! I am also planning on attending the WAO US Open in November hoping to also play on the 2014 WAO World team. Big goals for this year! In an effort to meet those goals I am going to really knuckle down and work hard, which means learning to be a more effective time manager. I know this is an area of difficulty for many people, and, I, for one would like to change that about myself. This change is going to begin with "scheduled" training time for myself and my dogs, scheduled exercise, more defined work periods to get caught up on scheduling, articles, online projects, etc.. This also means limiting wasteful computer time, the dreaded Facebook vortex! Trust me, a lot of good can come from Facebook, but, it is also a monumental time waster if not kept in check. For this reason I am going to restrict myself to my page and the comments sent directly to me via my wall, or, comments on postings that I make on my wall :-) I love that now Facebook messaging can be done completely over the phone so that I can still stay in touch with the folks that I communicate with primarily through Facebook messages without getting sucked into the whole news feed. I am not the best when it comes to will power so it is often best to initiate these changes pretty much cold turkey :-) I am also very lucky to be having the most amazing time training my lovely little (OK, not so little:-) Journey girl! I am so incredibly in love with this puppy, she is just a complete pleasure to train, live with, and, just hang out with!!! Her training is coming along really nicely and she is a virtual sponge when it comes to anything I attempt to teach her. We are working on dog walk and A-frames at present as well as weave poles :-) It will be a surprise to everyone, including myself, what the contacts turn out to be :-) Danger is staying sound and as a matter of fact won his first ever PGP in Albuquerque a couple weeks ago. He also got a PSJ Q so he can now play in the Utah Regional in June! So, back to the idea of a foundation program that is not only suited for starting a puppy, but, also for filling gaps in older dogs who may have missed a few steps along the way, wouldn't it be grand! Everyone has such a different and unique perspective on what foundation really is and how it relates to this crazy sport of agility! I, of course have my own ideas in that department and am so excited to get it down in writing and on DVD, online, everywhere!! In the hopes of helping people Worldwide achieve the goals that they set for themselves. Although foundation training has become a bit of a buzz phrase in the past few years, I think we are still lacking in resources that really cover this topic in a comprehensive manner. Although there are a few really good programs available people like choices, there is no one way to teach or learn anything and hopefully I can contribute in a positive way to what is already available. There is definitely more to come!! Until then...