So much to do, so much fun!

So, I am only sort of pulling my hair out as I get ready for camp, whilst dealing with 6 almost 7 week old puppies, Geoffs new puppy, the horses, barn cats, house cats and of course todays new addition 4 guinea fowl :-) Why guinea fowl you ask? Well, the drawback to summertime in Colorado below 7000 feet is rattlesnakes! After having Geoff kill the one that was draped over my front porch stoop last night at about 8:30 I decided more natural ammo was necessary!

I have been told that guineas are awesome snake eradicators and they supposedly get on well with the barn cats so we will see :-)

To make my very hectic life sound a bit less hectic, let's see... litter of puppies a blast and almost ready to go to their new forever homes, Geoffs new puppy, adorable and at the office with Geoff most of the time, horses, awesome mind clearing machines! I actually rode for a couple of hours yesterday and it was glorious!

Barn cats, helping me relax a bit about the rodent/snake population, house cats, always make me laugh and, well... I already explained the guineas :-)

Meanwhile I have been working diligently with SoBe and Danger on their plank work, SoBe improving her teeter skills and Merger sequencing with more speed and confidence. Wally and Maze have had a bit of time off, a much needed break.

I have bitten the bullet and pulled Miss SoBe from all classes that require contacts at the upcoming trials we are entered in. SoBe is not yet 3 years old and with a big dose of time and dedication she is going to have the most wonderful dog walk performance to go along with a great A-frame and now improved teeter, time well spent and money saved in my opinion :-)

I am so excited for camp again this year! I have to thank all of the people who are always tirelessly working to make camp a success and this year has been no exception! Thank you Julie for the amazing work you do organizing everyone, including me, how hard is that!

Shar, as always you go above and beyond and I am soooo grateful!

Charlie, I am thanking you before camp even starts because you will be awesome as always!!

Deb A. for the errands and the ear and everything else!

Tina, I am already salivating over the yummies you are making for the welcome reception/meet and greet!

THANK YOU all from the bottom of my heart!!!

And, THANK YOU campers, workers and instructors! Let the games begin!

Once camp is over it will be time to roll out the new coaching program I have been developing, you can get an idea of what it is all about on my new and much improved website, thank you Denise Wehrle designs!

Well, I am off to work on more camp stuff, until next week...

Latent learning, I guess :-)

So, I have certainly raised my fair share of puppies and have trained many agility dogs and it never ceases to amaze me just how much they learn in between training sessions!

I am very often lamenting the fact that I just do not get enough time to train my own dogs and am very aware that when I do get to actually train that it is super important to be prepared, as it were, with a game plan.

Regardless of how much time I may or may not have to train I have always been a believer in the value of quality over quantity and the incredible value of latent learning in dog training.

However, as much as I believe in latent learning I am still quite astounded at times of how powerful it is!

This comes to me as I bring up my youngest pup Danger. I have had the most incredibly busy first half of 2010 and feel like my training opportunities are pretty darn sparse yet he continues to learn and improve between training sessions at a rate that is almost unfathomable! A couple of examples being his 2on/2off teeter bottom behavior and his outside turn cue "back".

These are behaviors that I have introduced in pieces in most of the training sessions that we have had, however, I was not exactly seeing the overall understanding of these behaviors that I thought I should be seeing in the last couple of sessions. I was "expecting" a better verbal recognition of the "back" command by now and really felt that he should be more proficient in the 2on/2off execution as well. I was left with these thoughts as I headed off to my next teaching gig in Salt Lake where after a long day of teaching and a couple days with no training I brought out my portable tiny teeter plank. Danger jumped right on the end of the board and stayed there as if he had been doing this his whole life! I was even able to tug a bit with him on the end of the board without him coming off!

Where did he learn this, were the agility training fairies visiting while I slept?? I don't think so, instead it was just all the more affirmation that breaking things down into simple pieces, rewarding appropriately, doing a couple of quality reps when time permits, and, always ending on a successful attempt is the perfect recipe for progress in a forward direction.

Don't get me wrong, dogs DO NOT train themselves, but, if you follow a clearly defined training plan and establish and maintain clear consistent criteria you can get off your own back a little bit in regards to life getting in the way of obsessive amounts of training.

So, essentially the same thing happened with his outside turn cue, "back." Danger was absolutely brilliant at this behavior if I used a hand signal or better yet a toy, however, my mission is always to get the same behavior and reaction whether it is physically or verbally motivated. Well, when I would offer the verbal only cue he would simply stare at me as if I had 2 heads and either do nothing or actually turn and face me! This was not the behavior :-)

So, I started to at least minimize the hand signal, etc... and once again off I went to my next teaching gig in Minnesota, when I returned a few days later and took my boy down to my training building he offered both a left and right outside turn on verbal cue alone the very first time I asked!! I guess those agility training fairies had returned!

This is just one example of what I love so much about dog training, the rewards for the handler are absolutely as numerous as the rewards for the dogs should be.

Danger is learning so many new things and even though it is always little bits in a very hit and miss fashion he is progressing absolutely as fast as I could ever hope and continues to amaze me with his brilliance, drive, desire and talent!!

Have fun with your doggies!

Another new leaf...

It has been ages since I have sat down and visited the old blogspot so here goes! I generally use the excuse that I am away so much that I just do not get a chance to write and truth be told that is very accurate and very much why I do not get a chance to write very much. However, although I am not at home as I write this, I know shock and awe, I packed my laptop computer that I rarely ever use hoping there would be WiFi at the Hotel so that I could actually write! Well, no WiFi but even better, a free computer in the lobby so here I am!
I made a quick pit stop at home after the Rocky Mountain Regional in Salt Lake City this past weekend, just long enough to vaccuum the floors, throw in some wash, and, pack another bag. I am coming to you tonight from the awesome metropolis of Minneapolis, or am I in St. Paul?? One of those twin cities!
Anyway, it has been a crazy busy couple of months with way more going on than I am going to have time to write about tonight but there are a few key points I really feel like talking about. :-)
One, the Regional, Wally, Maze, SoBe and Merger all got to play on teams and were wonderful each in their own right! Wally ended up thrid overall 22" team dog and Maze number one 26" dog. All 4 teams qualified and a good time was had by all!
Maze is officially fully semi-qualified for all events at Nationals that you can earn semi final byes in and the Wallymeister has his Steeplechase semi final bye. I would love to say that he is fully semi-qualified as well but his handler had a major brain fart in the 2nd round of GP as it appears that Wally may be slightly off physically and she was so busy watching the dog that she neglected to pay attention to the course or where it was going and had an unfortunate off course! Wally goes to see Dr. Keesling tomorrow afternoon to determine how much of anything he does for how long, starting today. Everyone think positive thoughts and I will keep you posted.
SoBe continues to get better and better and also continues to turn her mothers hair gray while making her smile at the same time! I love that little girl :-)
SoBe did so many wonderful things this past weekend including qualifying on team without one single E, but, she gave me the most gorgeous running dog walk in Masters standard on Sunday I could have, OK should have, stopped right there and been the happiest handler on earth :-) She is so gonna have the dog walk I have been dreaming of!!
Merger managed to get himself a spot on the second place DAM team, thanks teammies!!!!
Also a shout out to my hubby who qualified his Rumor dog for the P-GP semi's, and won the PVP tournament with his teammates Gosia S. and Gromit! She was a Q'ing machine all weekend long and is closing in on that LAA Platinum very quickly!
The show was so incredibly well run and organized and the weather could not have been more perfect! Combine that with Kevin Hawkers smoked pulled pork and homemade slaw and you have a weekend many only dream of!
I am also very proud to report that many of my students and also a couple of my grand babies (canine!!!), were superstars this past weekend!
Congratulations to you all!!!
So, what is this new leaf? Well, have you ever just been so tired, stressed, overwhelmed that you allow the little things in life to become ginormous?? I have, and, all too recently I am ashamed to admit! It is amazing how these "things" can get blown out of proportion until you are so mired in the muck that you have no clear idea how to dislodge yourself.
Fortunately a night or two of good sleep and stepping away from the issues for a little while does amazing things for your overall emotional well being! As does just taking a mental inventory of what really matters in your life, what your priorities are and what kind of person do you want to be.
I am a very fortunate individual, I have a great husband, great kids, fabulous dogs, amazing friends, awesome skills, a kickass profession, and the ability to decipher what really matters in my life!
My latest turning of a new leaf is to let go of the garbage, appreciate those who are real in my life and not allow the other stuff to have any power over me or my life. I am the only one who has control over my thoughts and feelings and I choose to ignore the stuff that causes negative energy.
I want to enjoy life to the fullest and be happy in that life. I am one of the luckiest people in the World that I have the opportunity to meet and share ideas with so many awesome people and animals and that my job not only allows me to share my ideas but constantly learn from others! I am lucky that I have the choice to spend my non-working hours with people who truly enjoy my company as much as I enjoy theirs.
And on that note, I am off to bed.... tomorrow I teach! :-)

Long time no posting :-)

What a month it has been! Here we are at May 25 and I cannot recall slowing down, since sometime in April :-).

Let's see, what have I been up to? Well, end of April saw Geoff and I heading off to Hawaii for a working vacation for me and a true after tax season vacation for Geoff! We started off on Oahu on Waikiki Beach for one day and it was glorious. We walked and shopped and swam in the ocean and hung out at the beach, what a ball!

Then it was off to the big Island and to a great town called Hilo where Geoff and I hiked through rainforests and saw beautiful waterfalls, explored caves, and met out hosts Toni and Perry who were kind enough to share their glorious home with us allowing us to wake up every morning looking at the ocean!

It was then time to get to work and the seminar was held close enough to our hosts home that Geoff and I walked back and forth most days. The seminar participants were wonderful and a good time was had by all, well by me anyway! :-)

Once we returned from Hawaii I had a couple of days to get the house in order, play with my dogs and train Maze a bit before heading off to the AKC World team tryouts. I have never attended the tryouts before and I really was not sure what to expect. The trial was awesome! The courses were very technical and challenging and so much fun to run!

Maze was phenomenal and went 4 clean out of 5 with the icing on the cake being his 2nd place finish overall on Sat.

I have to admit I would really like to see some of the fabulous challenges that we were asked to meet at tryouts also included to a certain extent in courses throughout the year at regular events. It was really fun to be pushed and to have to really think about strategy. It was also a blast to get to use some of the advanced skills that a lot of us play with in training but never really get to use on a regular trial weekend.

The area of the country I live in is also very light in 26" jumping dogs so it was nice to have so many 26" dogs to compete with, all of which could have won the event. What a rush!

Maze and I were not selected for the team but we sure had a great weekend trying out!

I returned home from tryouts and had approx. 12 hours at home before heading off to the airport once again to fly to England and switch into my coaching hat as the IFCS World Agility Championships are starting in a few days.

We got together as a team to practice on Wed. On Thursday I went sightseeing to Cheddar Gorge for the morning before we had to meet to check in, measure, have our vet checks and final practice before the event begins on Friday.

The trip to Cheddar was great! As a born and bred Wisconsinite seeing the birthplace of Cheddar cheese was quite exciting for me :-)

Team practice went really well, we had a great time at the banquet on Thursday night and then it was off to bed early to get ready for the big gig.

The competition started on a sour note as Dudley Fontaine collided with her dog between obstacles 3 and 4 only to severely dislocate her elbow causing excruciating pain and the end of her World Championships. This was absolutely heartbreaking but Dudley came and watched and cheered on her team the next 2 days!

The USA did very well and I am very proud of the team! It was a great competition to watch and I have to say those Russians sure know how to train and handle a dog! I am pretty sure that I have the Russian National Anthem memorized from hearing it so many times!

It is a very unique experience coaching and I was very lucky to have the opportunity.

Once the competition was over it was off to London for another day of sightseeing and the stage production of Dirty Dancing! We of course went to Harrods and then took a double decker bus tour of London. I highly recommend both activities. Harrods has a food floor, yes a whole floor, that makes Whole Foods look like a Circle K!!! For someone who likes to eat like I do it was almost life altering! :-)

There was of course the threat of the ever present ash cloud keeping us in England for longer than originally planned, but mother nature played along and we got out as scheduled.

Once I was home it was another couple days of rest and reconnecting with my dogs who I missed terribly! I got some really good training in and some much needed rest.

This past weekend I taught another fantabulous group of handlers and their dogs in Boise. We had the opportunity to see just how tough agility folks are as Sat. saw record low temps., and pouring rain! Great people, great dogs, great seminar, miserable weather!!!!

Meanwhile, Sunday while I was teaching, I was getting updates as Geoff, Deb and Caitlin were busy at my place delivering a litter of puppies! Never a dull moment...

I am home again and have had a couple of really great days at home a place very special to me. I have been training dogs, cleaning house, hanging out with Geoff and Nick, and recharging my batteries. I have truly missed my dogs and my family this month and it is so nice to get back to training! This weekend it is off to Minneapolis to show, I am so ready to get back in the ring!! We will see how the Sobster behaves, she has been brilliant in training this week and I am feeling very positive. Merger is going to attempt another team Q along with a full slate of classes and of course Maze and Wally are ready to rock!!!

So, that is what has been going on with me, just another month in the life...

You can't win 'em all, BUT....

...When you do, it is awesome!! :-) These past several weeks have been incredibly busy and I have had the opportunity to do lots of really fun things, not the least of which is a trip to Hawaii!!! I will get to that, but first the trials.

The middle of April I went out to Dixon California to the 4 day Haute/TRACSUSDAA trial. The dogs were brilliant, well, Wally and I struggled a bit which bothered me more than just a little. It was pointed out to me by a very wise Jen Pinder that I have World team tryouts coming up soon and perhaps my attentions are there with Maze rather than with Wally at present :-)

It is quite amazing isn't it, how the littlest change in routine can cause such upheaval. I am very proud to say that the next weekend in Utah we were back on track and I was also able to concentrate on Maze as well as the 2 youngsters.

Which brings me to the topic of todays post, the baby dogs are growing up! Merger and SoBe were awesome!! In CA Merger ended up on a DAM team and was wonderful, he handled all of these Masters level courses like a real pro. I will say he is still very thoughtful about the whole process but seems to be getting more and more confident all of the time.

Merger Finished all of his Novice titles and added a few extra legs for good measure. I was very proud of him!

The next weekend in Salt Lake he even qualified for Steeplechase and was one weave pole entry from Q'ing in GP!!! Who woulda thunk it!

Merger also earned his first Advanced jumpers leg and his first Advanced snooker leg!

His running contacts are coming along quite nicely, with a very nice dog walk performance brewing. Merge is running all the way through his dog walks, his teeter performance is looking great and there is definitely hope for his A-frame. The greatest thing about his dog walk performance is that he seems to be more consistent with his performance as he gets more confident, which means that the performance should only improve over time rather than the unfortunate alternative that so often happens as a dog gains speed and confidence.

Next subject, SoBe!!!! She was so amazing! Don't get me wrong there are still plenty of runs that end in her being carried off course but it appears to be working and she is making incredible progress!

As a matter of fact in California she was carried off 3 of 4 days of Masters standard due to her failure to comply with dog walk or teeter criteria, however, on day 4 had her mother been even remotely prepared for the stunning performance she offered I may have handled the jump, chute, jump combination at the end of the run in such a manner that would not have had her spin right past the last jump to NQ on what was otherwise a perfect run!

The beautiful thing was that we were THAT close. Patience and persistence definitely pay off.

SoBe did get one of 5 coveted Snooker super Q's available on one of the days, this was made all the more special because she earned this super Q by getting through a very technical course that very few managed to get through.

She also qualified in Steeplechase and ultimately ended up 3rd in the very tough California 22" class just behind her daddy Wally who took second.

The next weekend it was off to Salt Lake City where she earned a masters standard Q, and, drumroll please.... she WON Steeplechase!! She earned another Snooker Q but not a super Q as I took it away from her with Maze.

I admit it, I am competitive to a fault and cannot even hold back when it means beating my own dog! :-)

There is still a long way to go but if I stay the course and maintain my resolve, maintain my criteria, and, keep my eye on the prize the end result is going to be an amazing dog who will achieve any goal I set for the two of us.

We'll see, but right now my goal is IFCS World team 2012!

Mister Maze was absolutely brilliant at both trials and I can say in all honesty that we are ready for tryouts this weekend! I am so incredibly lucky to have this opportunity and I am going to enjoy every moment of it! The FCI World team tryouts are a new venture for me and I am really excited about the weekend. It will be the first time that Maze and I have gone to a show with just the two of us and I am looking forward to that part as well.

My expectations of the weekend are very simple, for Maze and I to do the very best that we can and have a blast, I feel very confident that we can meet and possibly even exceed these goals, I will keep you posted.

So, this past weekend I had the opportunity to work with an amazing group of people in a place comparable to paradise, otherwise known as Hawaii! Geoff an I spent a great day in O'ahu on Waikiki Beach then we headed off to the big Island to a great little town called Hilo which is vastly different than O'ahu. I loved Hilo with the beautiful rain forests, rocky cliffs and waterfalls. Definitely my kind of place!

The people of Hawaii are so incredibly nice, their hospitality and eagerness to learn and enjoy the process was infectious. Our hosts Toni and Perry live in the most beautiful home where you wake up every morning looking out at the ocean, all I can say is WOW!!! I am already looking forward to going back and I just got over my jet lag from this trip. Mahalo, my wonderful new friends in Hawaii for making this a most memorable experience!

So, being one of the luckiest people on earth, the good times continue as I get ready to head off to tryouts and then immediately to the UK to coach the IFCS World team. Very busy indeed, but what a great life I have :-)

So, although you cannot win 'em all, you can certainly win a lot, especially when winning in life is about so much more than just competitions! ALOHA!!

Ramblings...

HI All!

It is a beautiful, sunny, almost 60 degree day here in LaPorte, Colorado. I should be outside playing but I have been pretty much housebound this entire week with a horrible flu/cold. I left the house to take Able to Therapy and to take Able to his Ortho appt. and run a few other errands all which left me pretty much drained and exhausted, however, I had a lot of time to think and read and just lay around wishing I was doing something else.

All of this thinking and reading left me with much to think about though, especially in the realm of dog training and just dogs in general. There are so many different schools of thought regarding the right way to raise a puppy, the wrong way to raise a puppy, the right way to train a dog, the wrong way to train a dog, the right way to handle a dog, the wrong way to handle a dog, it is almost too much to comprehend!

I find that with the deluge of opinions on the subject that even I, a person with a lifetime of dog training experience and over 20 years of agility training and handling experience, still question what I am doing and whether I am doing it right.

I can only imagine what this incessant need to impart opinion by so many folks does to the confidence level of a less experienced individual.

What is the "right" way to do it? That is anybody's guess! I try to let common sense guide me, I have been very successful thus far doing it "my way" no need to second guess, it is important to keep an open mind and keep learning, but, it is equally important to trust your instincts and listen to your dog! We are never done learning and we never know it all, as long as you believe that, success will come your way in whatever form is intended.

I find it very valuable to consciously take a step back on a regular basis and look at where I am in my life, this life that I have chosen for myself, fully immersed in a dog sport that can easily take over your whole life if you let it :-)

I take that step back to reconnect with what is really important in my life agility being one of those things, but, there is also family, friends, and, overall physical and mental health and well being.

Being so closely involved with high level competition it is so easy to forget about the other things that make us, us. It is easy to make a Q a rocket science experiment and to get really upset over the NQ that in the grand scheme of things means nothing to anyone but us.

Agility is a game and by my definition game means fun, so, I take a step back to be sure that I am keeping it fun! I love agility, I love to train agility, I love to compete in agility, and, I love to win in agility, but I love my family more and my dogs are part of my family and therefore I am very willing to just let my dogs have time of their own as well.

Everyday does not have to involve training, sometimes a really nice long walk is all the training they get, sometimes just hanging out together is all the training they get, I find these "training" experiences to be as valuable as any time spent on the equipment.

Being in the right place mentally is a huge part of success and I for one realize that if I am in that "right" place things go awesome, if not, not so well. Either way I make it my mission to enjoy the time spent with my dogs and appreciate everything about them.

I am looking forward to many more years of competitive agility with my wonderful furry family members, but, I am also looking forward to many more years of hikes, and quiet moments with those same furry friends.

I am a very lucky person, indeed! Have a wonderful day everyone and don't forget to take time to smell whatever smells dogs bring into our lives :-)

Learning running dogwalk - video