Sunday, December 25, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Old is the New!
Going back through old blog post, the I started reading some of my unpublished drafts that I had. This one really made me laugh. I hadnt even thought of this until now, but I am in the exact situation with Twister, almost a year and a half later!
Here is a video of Twister at our last trial.
"We reached our goal and a half. Mani was so good but also so awful. The first day I honestly dont know what was up with him. He was really slow and unfocused. Our first run in Friday was Novice Jumpers he was OK during the run, he was slow and not really folowing my body ques well so I was mostly giving him verbal. Well we got through the run and at the end it was just three jumps down a line. Becasue I wanted him to pick up speed and enjoy it I tried to push him for speed, he knocked a bar on the second to last jump then got really scared and came in to me and went around the last jump. I had him fix it and praised him like we just ran out MACH run.
After he was out of the ring I do not think it phased him too much. Our second run, Novice Standard, was the really awful one I was telling you about. He was SOOO slow, practically walking. He was doing good though, until we got up to a broad jump and instead of jumping he decided to walk across it like nothing. Everyone laughed, I was so close to just leaving the ring right then. When we first started working in broad jumps it took so long for him to understand to jump and not walk on it or use it as a spring board. If he is reverting back to that I cant trust him, and I dont have access to one so I dont know how to train it but work on him understanding his jumping better.
Saturday was our best day. He Q'd and placed 2nd in Novice Jumpers and got his Novice Jumpers Title, NAJ.
In standard he Q'd and placed 3rd, and got his Novice Standard Title, NA. I was really happy.
On Sunday we moved up to Open. I was really nervous because he would have to do 12 weave poles and he has never done 12 poles in a trial before, and only once or twice in practice/training. In Jumpers he was a bit slow and the course was not a small dog course, NONE of the 8" dogs Q'd in Jumpers. I do not know about the 4" or 12" groups, but I did not feel so bad about our NQ. He messed up in the weaves so we had to redo them which caused us to be over time.
I was trying to be really carefree about how we did in Open Standard on Sunday. I just wanted to leave the course happy. He was a bit slow but it was Ok. He got one refusal, that I dont agree with. He was going down the dogwalk I did a front cross in front of him and had him do a jump that was papallel with the dogwalk. He just barely went wide of the jump but did not pass it, I called him and pulled him to me andhe went over the jump. The judge called a refusal, but other than that it was a great run. He did his weaves! We Q'd and placed 2nd. We would have gotten first if he had not gotten that refusal.
At the trial a friend of ours that we used to have class with got his last Q in Open jumpers and moved up to Excellent Level. He said that they were in Open for 3 and 1/2 years! Every one in Open says that being in Open is like being in pergatory and when you finally leave you move up to Hell. I am not looking forward to that. I already had a glimpse of that in our Jumpers run. So hopefully it wont take us that long. We need 3 Q's in Open JWW and 2 in Open Standard. Lets see how long it takes."
I think this post is so funny. It did not take us long at all. The next trial we went to he got his Open Standard title and the next one after that his Open Jumpers.
With Twister it is the opposite situation, he completely breezed through Novice and Open Jumpers. But Open Standard is a differnent story. He is still a baby dog, with so litttle training I cant believe he has been so sucessful thus far.
My goal over our "winter break" is to solidify his teeter performance, work on harder weave entries (just for fun, he has fantastic weaves) and work on a training a running dog walk (something that I have never worked on with him, just accepted whatever he gave me at trials - but he never missed a contact).
Here is a video of Twister at our last trial.
"We reached our goal and a half. Mani was so good but also so awful. The first day I honestly dont know what was up with him. He was really slow and unfocused. Our first run in Friday was Novice Jumpers he was OK during the run, he was slow and not really folowing my body ques well so I was mostly giving him verbal. Well we got through the run and at the end it was just three jumps down a line. Becasue I wanted him to pick up speed and enjoy it I tried to push him for speed, he knocked a bar on the second to last jump then got really scared and came in to me and went around the last jump. I had him fix it and praised him like we just ran out MACH run.
After he was out of the ring I do not think it phased him too much. Our second run, Novice Standard, was the really awful one I was telling you about. He was SOOO slow, practically walking. He was doing good though, until we got up to a broad jump and instead of jumping he decided to walk across it like nothing. Everyone laughed, I was so close to just leaving the ring right then. When we first started working in broad jumps it took so long for him to understand to jump and not walk on it or use it as a spring board. If he is reverting back to that I cant trust him, and I dont have access to one so I dont know how to train it but work on him understanding his jumping better.
Saturday was our best day. He Q'd and placed 2nd in Novice Jumpers and got his Novice Jumpers Title, NAJ.
In standard he Q'd and placed 3rd, and got his Novice Standard Title, NA. I was really happy.
On Sunday we moved up to Open. I was really nervous because he would have to do 12 weave poles and he has never done 12 poles in a trial before, and only once or twice in practice/training. In Jumpers he was a bit slow and the course was not a small dog course, NONE of the 8" dogs Q'd in Jumpers. I do not know about the 4" or 12" groups, but I did not feel so bad about our NQ. He messed up in the weaves so we had to redo them which caused us to be over time.
I was trying to be really carefree about how we did in Open Standard on Sunday. I just wanted to leave the course happy. He was a bit slow but it was Ok. He got one refusal, that I dont agree with. He was going down the dogwalk I did a front cross in front of him and had him do a jump that was papallel with the dogwalk. He just barely went wide of the jump but did not pass it, I called him and pulled him to me andhe went over the jump. The judge called a refusal, but other than that it was a great run. He did his weaves! We Q'd and placed 2nd. We would have gotten first if he had not gotten that refusal.
At the trial a friend of ours that we used to have class with got his last Q in Open jumpers and moved up to Excellent Level. He said that they were in Open for 3 and 1/2 years! Every one in Open says that being in Open is like being in pergatory and when you finally leave you move up to Hell. I am not looking forward to that. I already had a glimpse of that in our Jumpers run. So hopefully it wont take us that long. We need 3 Q's in Open JWW and 2 in Open Standard. Lets see how long it takes."
I think this post is so funny. It did not take us long at all. The next trial we went to he got his Open Standard title and the next one after that his Open Jumpers.
With Twister it is the opposite situation, he completely breezed through Novice and Open Jumpers. But Open Standard is a differnent story. He is still a baby dog, with so litttle training I cant believe he has been so sucessful thus far.
My goal over our "winter break" is to solidify his teeter performance, work on harder weave entries (just for fun, he has fantastic weaves) and work on a training a running dog walk (something that I have never worked on with him, just accepted whatever he gave me at trials - but he never missed a contact).
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Awesome strikes again!
Captain Awesome was well . . . Awesome! at out last agility trial.
Finishing his MXJ title and almost getting MX title. The only NQ of the weekend was the last Standard Q we needed to finish MX.
But other than that, it was a perfect weekend. 5/6 Qs!
Woot Woot!!
Finishing his MXJ title and almost getting MX title. The only NQ of the weekend was the last Standard Q we needed to finish MX.
But other than that, it was a perfect weekend. 5/6 Qs!
Woot Woot!!
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