The Nationals "Experience"

I hauled myself off of the couch after a very tiring 3 days at the AKC Nationals so that I could write about the experience. :-)
I am truly exhausted today and after getting up at 4:00 a.m. pacific time to catch a 6:00 a.m. flight home, the majority of the day has been spent on the couch! OK,I did go for a walk with the dogs at least!
What a weekend it was!!! I had a blast! I had an awesome travel mate in my friend Amber and her fantabulous BC Joker, who just happens to be Mr. Moochies half brother! Mooch says when he grows up he really wants to run like Joker!
I had the opportunity to reconnect with friends that I have not seen in a very long time, watch some AMAZING dog and handler teams do there thing, and, have the most memorable AKC Nationals I have ever had.
I went to Nationals this year with only Maze, one dog was a bit weird for me as the norm is at least 3 dogs and more often 4!
I definitely had a lot of down time which afforded me the opportunity to watch many runs, hang out, and, connect with Maze as the only dog.
The weekend started out Thursday night when Amber picked me up at the airport, we headed back to the Hotel and spent a good hour reminding each other that first and foremost we were there to have fun and just enjoy the experience.
Friday morning arrived and Amber and I started our "ritual", get ready, feed the dogs, give them a quick pee at the Hotel, off to Starbucks, then the dog park for a run, finally, off to the show!
The facility overall was great! Amber and I opted for the free crating, which in my opinion, was the best crating! We got the dogs set up and headed in. I tell you there is nothing prettier than a bunch of agility rings all set up on a fresh turned surface. The colors were gorgeous and just seeing the courses beckoning really got the adrenaline flowing!
The only exception to the niceness of the facility was the dungeon... ring 4 was very quickly dubbed the dungeon by the competitors as it was off in a dark room separate from the rest of the arena, it was a smaller ring, and, the room was really dusty after the dogs started running.
We did all survive and I had one of my better runs in the dungeon.
The first round was a great warm up course that was flowy and fun! It was the start of what was to become a "perfect" weekend for Maze and I.
Maze ran a clean round and placed 4th overall in the 26" class.
We had quite a wait before it was T2B time so Amber and I headed to downtown Reno to check out the sights. We ended up in a Casino and played Blackjack for an hour and a half while a very patient dealer helped us figure it out! I came out $20 up and knew it was going to be a great weekend!
We headed back to the arena to walk T2B, what a fun class!!! It turned out to be Mazes highest placing class as he finished 2nd!! I was thrilled and a bit surprised as Maze is generally known for his tight turns, but, he seemed to be on fire on the straightaways as well on this course, what fun!
Ending day 1 on such a high note was pretty fabulous and just helped keep the confidence for the upcoming days.
That evening we played it low key and just headed back to the Hotel to have dinner and chillax in front of the boob tube!
Saturday here we come... started the day with our rituals and headed to the show. JWW was the first round of the day and again it was a really nice course. :-) The 26" dogs were very lucky as we were the first rotation every day, no waiting around, one walk through, done early in the day to shop, watch, play!
JWW went incredibly well and we were off to a great start! 3 clean overall, but, first round towards the Finals under my belt, whew!!! Maze was really handling the surface well and was truly driving like a well oiled machine.
Round 2 was the standard round that the 26" class would run in the dungeon... it was pretty tight and some adjustments had to be made to make the course fit in the smaller area but it ran well and Maze not only ran clean but placed 6th in that round. Round 2 out of the way and we were still clean!!!! I am stoked!!
Sat. evening Amber and I headed to a buffet at one of the downtown casinos, ate ourself sick and waddled back to the hotel to let the calories work their magic!
BTW, at this point my roomie is over the moon as well since she was at the moment top seed in the 20" class after 2 rounds.
Sunday morning came really early as we were starting an hour earlier at 7:00 a.m.! No worries, we still followed the morning ritual to a "T".
26" dogs would be running the hybrid round first and I, for one, was super happy about that, we would know our fate regarding the challengers round or the Finals by about 9:00 a.m.!
I was pretty nervous going into this round 6th overall, knowing they were going to take 5 to the finals. The good news was it was a very nice course that I thought suited Maze very well! We stepped to the line and nailed it!!!!
I was now 5 clean at the Nationals, how cool is that?
Shortly after the end of the class I learned I had moved up to 5th overall and was in the FINALS!! I was so incredibly excited, happy, honored, you name it. What an incredible field of dogs we were playing in.
I was able to seriously relax and settle in to root for my friends still running hybrid! Amber rocked the hybrid class and would be joining me in the finals, she would go to the finals as the number 1 20" dog, how incredibly exciting!
The Challengers round was incredible to watch and had talent oozing out of every square inch of the place! It was a pretty gnarly course that did do its share of eating up the competitors. everyone understood exactly what the challengers round was all about ran it balls out for sure.
OK, drumroll please.... time to walk and run Finals!
The Finals course was an expertly designed course in my opinion as it had just the right number of overt challenges as well as a couple of subtle handler challenges that were the demise of many who underestimated the angles, lines, etc..
I definitely had to keep my head as even under the influence of adrenaline it was important to handle certain places with a bit more patience and attention to detail than is sometimes necessary. :-)
Well, Maze was awesome yet again and we finished up 6 clean and 3rd overall!!!!
To not leave you hanging Amber and Joker did an amazing job as well in the 20" class but had an unfortunate missed weave pole.
Sunday night I had dinner with friends and hit the hay pretty early in anticipation of the 4:00 a.m. wake up call, and, now here I am at home relaxing, reflecting, and, savoring the moment!
At the AKC Nationals Maze lived up to his name and was truly AMAZING!

Life.... Busy, just the way Iike it! :-)

It has been forever since I have had a chance to write in my Blog... I have been and continue to be crazy busy! And, yes, that is the way I like it! I have been traveling tons which always makes me smile! I would actually have to look at my calendar to be able to say exactly where I have been over the past several months!
Since Geoff and I bought a house in Phoenix this winter I did have opportunity to stay down there for a couple of months, which was heaven!!
Getting to hang with my Arizona peeps full time was incredible, I am already looking forward to next winter :-)
Victoria was amazing as always, Minnesota and Utah are just like home, Hawaii was, well.... Hawaii! L:one the state, LOVE the people!
And now, I am in Kansas, which is also like old home week! I am such a lucky person!
Geoff is still up to his eyeballs in taxes, so, although I miss him lots, home or away we are definitely like 2 ships passing in the night!
The dogs are amazing and I cannot believe that Moochie is already 1 year old!! Training is going well and he continues to amaze me with his brilliance!
Danger is growing up and I am certain by the time Mooch has his ADCH Danger will be ready to do a full weekend at a trial! :-) Have I mentioned how much I love Danger? Not sure if he is really that over the top, or, just really spoiled, HMMMM.....
Maze and I are getting ready to head off to AKC Nationals and then off to Belgium for the WAO! What unexciting spring and summer! I am so excited to go to Worlds with Maze, he so deserves his moment in the sun, what am awesome boy he is!
Wally is loving performance and is burning up the P classes at 16"!! I thought he was fast at 22", he leaves me in the dust at 16"
Sobe, is gearing up to take the helm as top dog in the agility ring :-) After Worlds this May, focus is on the Sobester! She continues to blow me away with her talent and it is very exciting to think of "grooming" her for the top spot in competition that is for sure :-)
Well, I need to go to sleep as it is foundation day in Wichita tomorrow!
Happy training everyone!

Does soap get dirty?

That is just one of the many questions that seems to have no answer, plus, I thought it was a great title for a blog post! I was trying to come up with something seriously profound to back it up but I got nothing!
The nothing part most probably has to do with the fact that I have been sick for a week and although am feeling a bit more on the human side today, cannot seem to simply shake this thing!
I really, really, really hate being sick! I cannot imagine that too many people truly enjoy it, but, I think I am even more irritated by illness than most. You see, I simply do not have time to be sick. Plus, when I am sick I find that all ability to think, reason, and generally function seems to all but disappear, being a control freak makes it very hard to tolerate pretty much losing all control for that duration of time that these bugs have over taken me!

I am literally craving the ability to train my dogs, this could be partially to do with the illness thing thing and partially about everything else that has been going on. Little things like driving across country to teach, driving a little further to trial and then teach some more, and, finally driving another 1500 miles to sunny Arizona where I trailed again (not very effectively I might add), while trying to move into my winter digs that I had never actually seen prior to this trip! It seems a few thousand miles, sleep deprivation, and, stress may contribute to the body finally saying ENOUGH!
Not that I listen of course because I have a wonderfully busy year ahead of me that I am feeling very excited about and lucky to have!! I am sure that it sounds like I am whining, and, although it may appear to be the case, i am most certainly not! I am an incredibly lucky person to have the job that I have, to be able to meet and work with so many fantastic people in so many awesome places!! I am happy to keep jam packing my schedule and will continue to do so long into the future! I will be taking my vitamins though!
So, other things... the dogs, well, SoBe continues to deal with this silly hamstring issue and it is making us both a bit crazy! Yet again I ask myself how a dog can withstand 4 days with Silas Boogk showing absolutely no signs of fatigue, yet goes for a walk in the country and comes up with a chronic lameness issue!!! AAARGHHH!!!!!
Maze is doing awesome and although he has a few shows this month, we are essentially taking a winter break and Feb. 1 will officially mark the beginning of his World team training schedule to get ready for the WAO World Championships in May, have I mentioned how honored and excited I am to be part of such a fabulous team!?
I also have to mention the fact that all 2 of the dogs I have made World teams with have been related and from Jackie Parking of Besslin Kennels in Ontario, Canada thanks you Jackie for my awesome, wonderful, spectacular dogs!
Wally continues to amaze me :-) He is loving 16" in USDAA tournaments, but, at the same time is kicking butt in 22" Championship titling classes! Wally is truly amazing!
Danger is doing well, he is continuing to mature (slowly:-), he is sound of body, and, in a couple of years will be quite the competitive agility dog! LOL!!
I have the weekend off this week, which is good because trying to trial or work while sick is never a fun option! It is giving me a bit of time to get my poop in a group regarding some up coming projects.
I am launching my own on line classroom (C Spot Teach). The hopes is that we are up and running by the beginning of February. My fabulous webmaster has her part of the equation all done, now it is up to Stacy to deal with hers!
My initial offerings will be a 2on/2off contacts class, a running A-frame class, and, soon after these are launched, a foundation Cones as Courses class (catchy name, huh? :-), I am pretty excited about these as it seems to me with all of the running contact discussion these days, it is time to help deal with the confusion regarding 2on/2off contacts as well.
You can have a fast, reliable 2on/2off contact performance! I have been revamping my original training plan and have made some improvements that will make the whole process more fun, and, ultimately, more reliable! Stay tuned! :-)
I love a 2on/2off dog walk but am equally in love with a running A-frame, i have been teaching running A-frames for years and feel very confident that almost any dog can have a running A-frame, I am going to help you see how!
Cones as courses teaches accuracy, speed, flexion, and, timing utilizing only traffic cones as obstacles, fun!
Well, time to hit the couch for a nap! Don't forget to ponder whether soap gets dirty and while pondering think of some of your own unanswerable questions.

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!