Why Hello, 2014

Work was pretty crazy for the last few months, but I'm happy to report that we hired someone, so now I won't be having to do the work of two people.  Yay!  I wish I could say that will mean lots of time for blogging, but really I'm just hoping it leaves time for spending time with the dogs.

The weather has been pretty yucky for agility lately.  We had to take down all the equipment for snow.  Then, I shoveled a pretty sizable (30' x 60') area in the yard.  But then it rained and froze, so it's an ice sheet now.  I got quotes to put rubber flooring in the garage, and I think I will do that.  It's only 24' x 24', but I could do some jump drills, work weave entries on a set of 6, and have the teeter in there.  It's not cheap (a little over $500), but I think worth it.

We're taking a little break from trialing since Nika's A-frame isn't as confirmed as I'd like and she won't be able to practice on it regularly until we get the contacts back outside.  She was great at class this week, though.

Here's a look at 2013 goals that I set last January, and setting some for the coming year:

 Here's a look at what I'd like to do in 2013:

• CPE Level 4 Title (Yes!)
• CATCH (Nope, still working on it)
• Get past anxiety about laying down on a table in trials (No, not at all.  Frustrating)
• Go to at least one seminar (We did with Grace, but not with anyone else this year.  We did train with Laura)
• Improve wrap skills, making tighter turns (yes, but still room to improve)
• Enhance drive, and work towards using a toy as a reward (yep, he works well for a toy at home.  not at class)
• Teach new tricks (yes, and he really likes them)
• Stay healthy and have fun (yes, he's been healthy and we always have fun!)

Here's what I hope to accomplish with Nika this year:

• Solid obstacle performance on all obstacles, including running contacts (mmm...not really.  I decided to do a stopped dogwalk, and it's mostly pretty good.  Running A-frame is still a work in progress.  sometimes it's great, other times not so much.  Everything else is pretty good)
• Handling understanding such that she can do Masters level courses in training (yep!)
• Do agility in at least 5 places, whether for classes, seminars, run thrus, or anything else (DogStar, Gemini, Bo-Gee, Lo's, American K9, Collinswood, and that place in RI.  Maybe more, but at least 5, yep!)
• If she's ready, go to her first trial (Yes!  She did well.  Not always consistent, and one bad trial, but overall I've been pleased.  I'm sticking with CPE for now, though.  Maybe USDAA this spring.)
• Take her to trials with Jonah so she continues to not be flustered by the environment (yes, she's been a star)
• Continue socialization.  She's got a great foundation, but I want to keep exposing her to dogs, people, etc.  (yep, she's great)
• Trick training, as with Jonah (yes, she thinks it's great)
• And again, stay healthy and have fun! (yep, yep!)

It's fun to look back a year.  Then, it's fun to think forward, too.  Here are some goals for 2014:

JONAH:

• CATCH
• Go to a UKI trial and train in the ring, trying to get him to enjoy his time in the ring
• Continue to give him time to go to class, which he loves, even if Nika becomes the more successful competitor
• Find ways to be emotionally engaged in his training, even if he's not as fast.  He still deserves my 100%.

NIKA:

• Confirmed obstacle performance on all obstacles
• CPE Level 3 title
• USDAA Starters title
• Always keep motivation and training above wanting a Q
• Have an awesome run in a trial: clean and FAST to the point that there are no glaring hiccups
• Go to a seminar

Somehow these goals seem underwhelming or uncreative.  I'm hesitant to put titles as goals, but that is what comes to mind.  The big focus in my mind is getting Jonah his CATCH, but knowing that he might have limited competition runs ahead of him, going for it on every single run.  Just 12 legs left.  I want to make them count.

Then, Nika will come along.  She's really talented and for a while I felt lots of pressure to get her going quickly.  Work got in the way, so now I'm just wanting to do things right.  She should have lots of years ahead of her, so I want to make sure those years are great, and I'll put in the patience now.

Airport Musings

Hello from the airport!  Due to an unfortunate mistake on my part (i.e. making my reservation for the wrong day.  doh. The change fees for United were higher to get on a 4 hour trip with a stop than to book a new, direct 1.5 hour flight on Jet Blue), I am at the airport with several hours to spare.  It might be the first time I've felt like I had time to blog in a long time.  So, here I am, and I'll give an update on the dogs.

Jonah is, as always, great.  I took him to my weekly lesson last Thursday and he was his usual self:  steady and reliable.  Then I took the day off and took both dogs to a lesson on Friday.  He was the most excited and social I have ever seen him at an agility activity.  I have no idea what it was.  I brought both dogs, and Nika got her turn first, so by the time Jonah came out he was really ready to go.  Of course, that's true at trials, but then he's stressed.  He was not stressed at this lesson.  He saw a crowd of people and pulled me towards them, wagging and wiggling and weaving through their legs and jumping up to see them.  Who is this?  Not Jonah.  Then, he did the same with other dogs.  He was jumping around and trying to run and play like he does with Nika, but he's never done that in an agility setting before with any other dog, ever.  So cool.  Then, when we got to the agility part, he was so wild and fast and silly that I couldn't get him clearly through one section for several tries.  But I was laughing a lot at him, which didn't help.  What had gotten into him?  What a goof.  It was great.  If only I could recreate it.

Nika has been a bit up and down lately.  She has moments of brilliance, and then sometimes the wheels really fall off.  At the same lesson when Jonah was being so silly, she was...a puppy.  We went first, and so I pulled her out of the car and asked her to start the course right away.  She was so stimulated by all the dogs and people around, and being in an environment she's only been to once or twice, she didn't focus well.  She started fine, but then wouldn't lie down on the table (and usually she's good at that, compared to her brother.  I've vowed to not have two dogs who can't complete the table).  Then she took a silly zoomies lap, pulled bars, forgot how to weave, etc.  We got through the course, but it was a real mess.  Then our dogwalk and teeter criteria started to fail.

I was underwhelmed, so I took her to run throughs that afternoon.  Convinced that I should get things right this time, I came out with a very workman like approach, and she did fine.  She bailed off the teeter a few times, which is unusual for her.  I wanted to do hard things, so we did and she was fine, but lacked enthusiasm.

When I got home I reassessed and decided I needed to step back.  So in the last few sessions before I left for a business trip this week, we focused on short, fast and fun.  I want to keep all the speed and eagerness I've built in, and it's better to go slow and maintain that than to lose it while doing harder things.  I want to have excellent obstacle performance on all obstacles and need to maintain it at all times.  Then, I want her always happy and drivey.  As long as I can keep those things I can increase difficulty, but only if I can keep those things.  That's the plan at this point, and hopefully I can keep it.

UKI is coming to our area, and I'm thinking about trying it.  Their table criteria is a down, but it doesn't look like all standard courses have a table, so Jonah might have a chance.  Nika will measure into the 20" category, so I have to think about whether I want to start jumping her at that height or enter their Select program so she would jump 16".  There's a trial in November and I might just sign up.  Nika also just had her 18 month birthday, so she's eligible for USDAA, where I'll also have to think about jump height.  I haven't entered anything yet, but it's on the horizon.  Meanwhile Jonah is now less than 20 Qs away from his CATCH so we'll be doing CPE whenever it's convenient.  2014 could be the year!

Herding vs. Agility

Today was the Northeast English Shepherd Gathering.  Thanks Marianne, Nika's breeder, for organizing a great event!

The weather didn't cooperate especially well, but everything else did.  There were lots (35ish?) of English Shepherds there, and Nika made so. many. friends.  She's still bad about jumping on people.  I keep thinking she'll grow out of it, but it hasn't happened yet.  The excitement makes it worse.  She played with lots of dogs and had a grand time.  Jonah came out and was a very good boy, too.  He would bark at Nika but was excellent with all the other dogs and people.  Last year he found the whole thing a bit stressful, but today he didn't show any signs of that.

One of the highlights of the event was that we got to try herding.  Cool.  I didn't really know what to expect.  Nika was the first dog to go.  Marianne picked us because she said she knew my dogs would be in control.  Ha.  I was worried that, having never been exposed to livestock, control wouldn't be the first adjective you'd use to describe Nika.  That might still be true, but she turned out to be a really good girl.  

We entered the pen and she was distracted.  She saw the sheep but they weren't moving, and she thought the smells around the ground were about as interesting as the sheep.  When the trainer got them to walk, she was interested, but kept checking with me like, "Mom, that's kind of cool, but I'm paying attention to you like a good girl."  I'd walk towards the sheep and she basically heeled with me, checking back and forth between the sheep and me like, "I don't really know what I'm doing, but those things are neat."  At one point a sheep turned around and stamped its foot at Nika.  Nika ran around behind me.  In general, I wouldn't say she was especially scared, but she wasn't sure.  By the end, she was getting more bold, maybe even too bold.  She'd lunge towards the sheep and they'd run, rather than keeping a steady pace.

The trainer thought she had instinct and was well behaved (she'd lie down on command for me, etc.) but a little distracted.  She thought Nika's young age might contribute, and that she could be good at herding, but that it would take regular practice (which, in the suburbs, isn't easy).  So, I left thinking that it was neat but that Nika wasn't really cut out to be the world's greatest herding dog, especially given the fact that I love agility and want to spend time on that.

So, we went back to agility :).  We had brought some equipment and set it up for a demo.  It was interesting.  There were tons of dogs around, and Nika was pretty distracted.  Much more so than at a typical trial.  We started, she knocked a bar, had some off courses, couldn't see the weaves, which were right next to a white fence, and then got herself caught in the chute, which was really bogged down with rain.  Our second attempt went much smoother, but then a puppy came romping into the area to join in, and focus went right out the window.  I think it was still a decent taste of agility for the people watching, and it's not like we're world team members anyway.  Not our best work by far, but fun nonetheless.  Then a bunch of people played around on the equipment with their dogs, which they really seemed to enjoy.  Yay for exposing new people to agility!

Then it was Jonah's turn to try herding.  When we took him down to the area, he was barking when he first saw the sheep.  The trainer had mentioned the importance of dogs staying quiet, so I was thinking she wouldn't have much tolerance for Jonah's antics.  I told her that if it just wasn't going to work, that was fine and she should just say so.  After all, (at least to my knowledge) he wasn't bred in herding lines like she was.  To my surprise, she asked if it was his first time seeing sheep and, when I said yes, she shrugged and said it was a pretty typical reaction.  The first couple times he got near them, he barked and lunged, but then he settled right down.  And he was awesome!  Confident, calm, focused, and he just seemed to get it really well.  We moved the sheep around, changed direction, went the other way, and he was a total star.  Not distracted at all like Nika had been.  After a couple minutes the instructor said he was doing great so it was time for the next step.  She took the long line from me and had me go in front of the sheep.  Well, Jonah continued to show interest and instinct, but he was really worried about the instructor and kept looking over his shoulder at her, and then back to the sheep, then over at me.  He did fine, but after a few minutes when he walked by the gate he just stopped there, saying, "I'm done."

I have a few overall thoughts to compare agility and herding.  It may not be a fair representation of herding, but this is based just on my little taste:

• Handling agility is WAY more fun because you get to run.
• The instructor made a good point:  herding should be about practical work with livestock, not just entertaining dogs.  If I got into herding, it would really just be for the sake of the dogs.  I don't have any need in my current lifestyle to be moving sheep around.
• In agility/obedience, checking in with the handler is really important.  In herding, handler focus is really a minimum.  Nika needed more obstacle/sheep focus but kept looking for me for encouragement and direction.
• Agility can be more positive.  When Jonah barked at the sheep, I was told to "reprimand" him.  What?  I don't even know what that means, and I'm glad.  (I just called him back to me.  He came.  I asked him to sit.  He did.)
• Food-motivation doesn't really translate to herding.  Both my dogs like to work for food.  They'll work for toys, too.  Neither had a place here.  
• I think of Nika as my confident dog, but after today I think some of that depends on my ability to play with her happily through verbal praise, toys, food, etc. When those go away in an uncertain situation, she really wants to please and the lack of those is almost like negative reinforcement for her.
• It's cool how much natural instinct both dogs have.  Neat to watch.  And Jonah really seemed to get satisfaction out of it.  Maybe Nika would, too, if she gained more confidence that she was doing it right.  Obviously my own lack of knowledge contributes to my inability to guide them, but they did darn well despite my blunders!

Catch Up

I realize that I haven't posted in...months!  Yikes :(.

Work is very busy, and any free dog-related time ends up going to playing with the dogs and working them, rather than writing about them.  In general, that's a good thing.

Anyway, lots has happened since the last post.

Nika went to her first trial!  And then her second.  And third, and fourth.  She's awesome.

I won't go through every run we've had, but basically she has a phenomenal focus, and has put together some beautiful runs.  This past weekend, the judge came up to me after a run and said, "You're amazing.  Where do you trial?"  I thought this was a funny question, because I've shown under her at least 5-6 times, but apparently Jonah is not very memorable.  I thanked her nonetheless.

We've had mistakes:  some dropped bars, a missed A-frame, some off courses or missed obstacles.  But, she's picked up a whole bunch of Qs and has already moved up to Level 4 in Fullhouse.  She's never made me regret starting her in level 3.  Everyone thinks she's awesome...I can't tell you how many comments I've gotten.  One woman referred to my dogs as "The fluffy one and the fast one."

Meanwhile, Jonah's doing great, too.  He's had a few perfect days lately and has just been generally very reliable.  Some super fast runs, too.  I'm proud of the big guy.  He always really wants his turn, even if he sometimes still gets nervous in the ring.  Oh, and he hit his 100th CPE Q last weekend!  Now he only has 18 left before he earns his CATCH.

For class, Nika has graduated into Competition Agility, the highest level.  Jonah and Nika switch off week to week, and both are kicking butt.  It's so fun to have the two of them.  They definitely have different strengths.  I'm lucky to have such awesome dogs.

Hello!

It's been a long time!  That's because we've been so busy.  Both dogs are doing great and we're gearing up for an exciting late summer and fall.

Last weekend we went to a training session where we did a few sequences from Masters Challenge courses.  Both dogs got through them nicely.  For Jonah, he's such a steady guy and I can always do things multiple ways, with him covering for my mistakes.  What a guy.  With Nika, sometimes we screw up--she's not as experienced and we're still working out our partnership.  When we get things right, though, it's awesome.  She's really fast.  What fun!  Plus, she's only 15 months and the fact that she can fly through International level courses is pretty awesome.

So...one week from today Nika will make her trial debut!

We're going to a CPE trial and she's entered in Fullhouse, Standard and Jackpot.  If the Standard course doesn't look friendly, I may scratch her.  I figured I'd enter, though, since it was between the two classes I really wanted to do (since I can make my own, Nika-friendly course).

I've entered her in Level 3 because she doesn't have trouble with weaves or the teeter.  Her A-frame is her weakest obstacle right now.  She's great with the box in place, but when I take it off she starts having her second hit be high.  We'll get there.

I decided to start her at 16".  I'm hoping she'll measure into 16" regular, but if not I'll just show her in Enthusiast.  For now, there's enough for her to focus on that I don't want jump height to be an issue.  I know different people have different ideas about this, but it's what I feel most comfortable with.  She doesn't need extra pounding while she's young and learning.  She may jump 20/22" later on--she's certainly capable.

Anyway, I'm really excited.  I think she'll do great, but I'm also not in any rush to get Qs and titles.  That will come if we get used to going to a trial environment and working together and having fun.

Meanwhile, Jonah's entered in Jackpot and Standard, and hopefully he'll do well, too.  He still needs *9* standard Qs to finish his CATCH.  We may start picking them up faster now that the puppy's trialing, though.  We've only done a couple this year, so no surprise we're slow getting Qs!  

Glen Highland Farm

Jonah, Nika, Dave and I just got back from a wonderful trip to Glen Highland Farm (GHF) in upstate NY.

GHF is a gorgeous, 175 acre farm in the quaint country town of Morris, NY.  It is home to a fantastic border collie recue operation that places over 200 BCs each year.  We got a tour of the facility and met some of the dogs.  They're beautiful, lovely dogs and GHF gives them plenty of space to run and care to blossom until they find their forever homes.

 

 Vacationing at the farm helps offset the (obviously huge) costs of the rescue program, and it's a great place to relax with your dog.  The leash-free property includes 5 miles of trails through beautiful rolling country fields, lush mossy forests, along a meandering river, and through a shady hemlock grove.  There's a pond for swimming (great for dogs, but Dave and I passed despite bringing our wetsuits) and plenty of space for ball/frisbee chasing.

There were several lodging options: tents (which we chose), cabins and luxury RVs.  Our tent was huge, including a full size futon, a bookshelf and a small table.  There was plenty of space for all our gear, 2 crates, and 2 bikes.  There were bathrooms and a nice shower about 100 yards down the trail.

Another highlight was the dining pavilion, with gas grills, a wood-burning grill, and then a microwave, toaster and all the dishes and supplies you could possibly need.  There was a pantry with refrigerators.  We went pretty basic with our cooking, but we didn't have to!  Other people made flambeed steaks, sizzling bacon, mouth watering salmon and fresh grilled corn.  Yum!

I pulled into the farm with very high expectations, and for the most part it lived up to them.  They'd gotten a lot of rain, so a bunch of the trails were closed when we arrived, although for the most part they reopened before we left.  The trails themselves are fantastic, although you get through them pretty fast if you're running like we were.  Anyway, they were nice enough that we weren't at all complaining to retrace our tracks.

Dave and I each went out road biking and it was awesome.  There are some sizable hills, and the scenery is beautiful if you like farm country even 1/4 as much as I do.  There was hardly any traffic on the country roads.

I had been very excited to go on an agility vacation.  Their website says, "Our agility equipment is available for use anytime during your stay. With 2 complete courses of obstacles, you can practice any aspect of the sport you like and use each day to build greater skills or just have fun challenging both you and your dog." Well, they did have a huge field big enough for two courses (albeit not entirely flat), but all that was there was an A-frame (a nice max 200), an AKC tire (also max 200), 2 aluminum jumps, a tunnel, a 16" table, 6 weave poles that appeared to be 22", and a teacup dogwalk.  I'd planned on setting up some international courses and working through sections each day, but needless to say we had to change our plans.  I did get some great sessions in with each dog, but it was nothing I wouldn't have been able to do at home.

Overall, the dogs had a fabulous time.  They met new dogs and people, ran a LOT, swam, chased swallows in the field, chased deer, chased each other, caught a woodchuck, got snapped at by a snapping turtle, and slept well at night.

For us, when we think camping we think wilderness backpacking miles away from other people.  This wasn't that.  If you're used to campgrounds, though, this would have been awesome:  the bathrooms were great, the dining pavilion unmatched, and 175 acres of off-leash adventures to share with only about 20 people.  All the dogs and people were great, too.  It was spread out enough that it wasn't loud, but if you were moving around the property you'd bump into people regularly.  We kept reminding ourselves that the more people there were, the more support for the rescue program, which we definitely want to support!

So, it was a great trip.  I would definitely recommend it!

Nika's Videos

Here are some videos of Nika's progress.  Her dogwalk is coming along as well, but I don't have footage of that.

What a Weekend

I know I haven't posted in a long time, but I wanted to post this video I made.  Nika had her first birthday yesterday.  She's doing great (see video).  As far as agility, she's not picking up the running dogwalk as fast as Jonah did, but otherwise there's not much I can complain about.  I ordered a set of channel weave poles, so hopefully they will arrive soon and we will start training those.  We're taking Silvia Trkman's Foundations class, too.  We just got our first assignment, but I'm excited about the course.

Jonah's doing well, too.  We went to a trial last weekend and he had the fastest Standard run in the whole trial!  What a good boy.

Here's that video:

Today we took Nika to watch the Boston Marathon.  She was great.  We were at the halfway point, and then the bombings were another 13 miles down the course.  Nonetheless, it was scary.  We had lots of friends watching in the city, and it was a few hours before we'd heard from people that everyone was alright.

Here's to being thankful for all we have and enjoying every moment we have with our friends, families and dogs!

Winter Fun

I woke up early this morning and actually have time to write a quick post!

We've got snow now, which I love but which makes traditional agility a little harder.  We're still spending lots of time outside, but I'm doing most of our training indoors.

I have two main projects at the moment:  pedestal work and cik & cap turns.

For pedestal work, I have a box about 6" x 9" and about 4" off the ground.  Both dogs are doing well.  They can pivot around the box with their front two feet on the box and their back two feet on the ground.  Then they can do the opposite:  back feet on the box and front on the floor.  They also can rotate with all four feet on the box, and then they do a variety of tricks while on the box.  The training process went well.  Nika had a little more trouble 'getting' the 2o2o position since I haven't done too much of that with her, but she has more speed in pivoting around.  I do think it's helping her body awareness.  Next I'm curious to see if I could do one paw on the box or two left paws/two right paws.

Our other project has been cik and cap turns, Silvia Trkman style.  I watched the video and now we're in the training process.  In the first shaping session, they both quickly understood to go around the far side of the cone, but they didn't want to make a complete circle:  they always wanted to have the cone between me and them.  So, it took a few sessions before they would happily do 'multi wraps' where they just keep turning in the circle.  Jonah's harder direction was clockwise (not surprising--this is his harder lead).  Nika's harder direction was counter clockwise.  She doesn't seem to be a particularly one-sided dog now that she's figured it out, though.  Now we've graduated to working on wrapping trees out in the yard.  They generalized to the trees very quickly and can get some distance.  I work on rear crossing, front crossing, lead outs and sends.  All that is going well.  Jonah still needs work to keep his wraps tight.  When he gets excited, he just runs wider.  Nika shows a lot of promise.  We'll keep working this and hopefully I'll get some video soon.

Welcome to 2013

I've been continuing to have lots and lots of fun with the dogs, and less and less interest in blogging about it.  Sorry.

I couldn't miss a beginning-of-the-year post, though.  I do really love keeping up with goals, so it's good to look at what we'd planned and what happened, as well as think about what's to come.

This is what I said last January:

"In 2012, I would like to:

• Have our first pairs run without any calamities.
• Earn our USDAA Starters Title.
• Earn our CPE Level 3 Title.  
• Go to CPE Nationals!
• Earn our CPE Level 4 Title.
• Earn our USDAA Advanced Title.
• Earn our first USDAA tournament Q(s).
• Go to a workshop.
• Have fun.
• Stay healthy.
• Continue to work on socialization with other people, dogs and cars.

That's not a long list but it's some big goals.  I'd like to think it's reasonable, but life can always be unpredictable.  Wish us luck, and we hope you have a wonderful year, too!"

Well, it surely was unpredictable.  Here's our report card:

A+:  First pairs run without calamities.  We're 2/2 in pairs runs, and neither has had any trouble at all.  

A:  Yep, we got our AAD!  It's the prettiest ribbon we've earned together.

A:  Yes, we got our CPE level 3 title.  No problem!

B:  We did go to CPE Nationals.  But it ended up being too electric an environment for Jonah, and his performance suffered.  Our confidence and interest in trialing plummeted.

F:  We did not get our CPE Level 4 Title.  That's just because we didn't enter trials, though--not because we were NQing.  

F:  Nope, we didn't get our AD.  We have all our games legs, but Jonah's trial anxiety means he's not wanting to lie down on the table.  If it weren't for the table, we'd have our AD as it's the only fault we've ever received in Advanced Standard.

F:  We didn't get a tournament Q either, but again largely because we didn't enter many (I think it was only 1 NQ).

A:  Yes, we went to a workshop with Grace and then one with Lo.  Both were excellent, and I can't wait to do more!

A:  Yep, we had lots of fun this year, it just wasn't all about agility.  I feel closer than ever to Jonah, and that's what it's all about.

A-:  We haven't had any major issues around our health.  Just a few tweaks and colds here and there.

B+:  We've done a bunch of socialization.  There's always room for more and he's still not perfect.  He's getting much better about having strange people at our house, but he's still prone to be startled by strangers in public.  I think it would take a whole lot of work to get him 100% comfortable with meeting new dogs and people, and I don't know if we'd ever get there.  He was as happy as I'd ever seen him the last time we took him to the Middlesex Fells, though.  I think he is getting better.

So, it was a good year for me and Jonah although agility trials were not the same priority they'd been in 2011.  Here's a look at what I'd like to do in 2013:

• CPE Level 4 Title
• CATCH
• Get past anxiety about laying down on a table in trials
• Go to at least one seminar
• Improve wrap skills, making tighter turns
• Enhance drive, and work towards using a toy as a reward
• Teach new tricks
• Stay healthy and have fun

I've decided to focus primarily on CPE this year because I don't think I'll do CPE with Nika.  Once they're both trialing, I'll stick with USDAA.  I think having Jonah get his CATCH this year is doable, but we'll have to see.

Last year I recounted some of the events of the year, and I'll do the same this year.  Some were really big happenings!

• We got a puppy!!!  I hadn't accounted for this when I set last year's goals, but it's had a huge impact on what I've done with the dogs.  More on goals for her shortly.
• Jonah learned a running dogwalk contact
• We made a full height dogwalk
• We got real agility jumps
• We bought a house!  That meant a number of weekends went to things like putting in the fence and moving furniture, rather than doing agility.  It's worth it though, and we all love the new place.
• I graduated
• I got a job  
• I trained for a marathon, even though a stomach flu kept me from finishing the actual race
• We swam, ran, hiked, camped, traveled and had lots of fun

Here's what I hope to accomplish with Nika this year:

• Solid obstacle performance on all obstacles, including running contacts
• Handling understanding such that she can do Masters level courses in training
• Do agility in at least 5 places, whether for classes, seminars, run thrus, or anything else
• If she's ready, go to her first trial
• Take her to trials with Jonah so she continues to not be flustered by the environment
• Continue socialization.  She's got a great foundation, but I want to keep exposing her to dogs, people, etc.
• Trick training, as with Jonah
• And again, stay healthy and have fun!

So, this year will definitely be different from last year, but I'm really looking forward to it.  I always wish I had more time with the dogs and for blogging, but I'll make do.  I'm just so lucky to have such a wonderful human and canine family.  Thank you everyone!

Reflection

This Wednesday was the first Dog Agility Blog Action Day that I did not participate in.  This blog has really fallen off since I started work this fall.  I still really value recording progress, but I find that I only have a few 'free' hours each day, and I want to spend as much time as possible with the dogs.

Last night I took Jonah to class, and had such an amazing time.  He's fantastically fun to run...at practice.  This year things have really changed about my vision of trialing.  Nationals shook me into questioning whether he really likes it or not.  After being on a fast and furious trail schedule up to that point, I've only done I think five runs at trials since the beginning of June.  Granted, he did run quite well in a few of those runs.  But then we bought the house, and I needed to spend weekends doing projects, not going to trials.  I've peaked at the 2013 schedule and I do think I'll get back into it.  I definitely want Nika to trial when she's ready.

As for Nika, I'm pleased with how she's doing.  Check out this video.

Far from perfect, and my need to support her for the backside meant my front cross handling was pretty clumsy, but in general I'm happy.  She finishes her Attention class this week and I think Dave's going to do a CGC class with her next.  Before we know it, spring will be here and she will start agility training more consistently.  I can't wait to do running contact training with her!

On Sunday, Jonah and I head to our very first seminar!  It's on gamblers, with Lo Baker.  I'm happy I finally get to work with her, and I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll have a lot of fun.  Going to a seminar was one of my 2012 goals.  We've failed to meet most of those goals, but this one we should be able to check off!

Pre-Thanksgiving

Work has been taking up a whole lot of my time lately.  We also have been crazy getting the house together, as we had Dave's family here for a pre-Thanksgiving meal this weekend.  It all went well and the house is getting to be in good shape.  I have had time to spend with the dogs, but blog time has been on the back burner.  Oh well.  Here's a sense of what's been going on:

1)  Nika and Dave are about half way through their Attention class.  They work on footwork for Obedience, heeling, and that sort of thing.  I don't have any plans for her to be in obedience, but it's good for her to be in class.  The neatest thing of this session is...

...her litter mate is in the class!  I might have to come one week to see her.  Dave says they are clearly sisters--the other is slightly bigger and has more white, but I guess they look a lot alike.  So cool!

2)  I had to miss agility class this week.  The week before was a lot of fun and Jonah was running really well.  He's such a star.  This week is Thanksgiving so there won't be class...so much lack of agility!

3)  However, we have been doing some fun things at home.  I don't have any contacts up, but here are some of the exercises I've put together:

I did this with Jonah this morning, and it was fun.  Lots of ways to do it.  I think it worked best when I pushed to backside from my right and then took off, picking him up on my right again.  I guess that's a Ketschker, but I don't usually do them quite like that--this time I kept my hips always facing pretty much in the same direction so he crossed in front of me and then spun around behind me.  Fun.

We also played with 180s and threadles with this setup.  Good practice, with 3 basic jumps.

With Nika, I kept the same setup but did the more logical order, just like a little circle.  She was excellent and I could get some decent distance, staying in the middle.  I was also able to get in front crosses between 2 and 3 or on the landing side of 3.

I wanted to do this setup with Nika for rear crosses, and she was quite brilliant with that, too.  I'd start at 1 with her on my right, then have her run out in front of me at 2 (still in the circle direction, so the back side of 2 on the map), and then I'd pick her up on my left for 3.  First I just did the rear cross at 2, but quickly we could do all 3 obstacles and she was fantastic.  She's so much fun.  So fast, so drivey.

We've done some other setups, too, but I'm going to try to tire the dogs out some more before I head to work.  Here's for lots more fun in the coming days!

Trial, Hurricane, Surgery...

Sorry again.  It looks like this blog is going to take (well, already has taken) a major downturn now that I'm working full time.  I just want to spend all my time actually with the dogs rather than writing about them.  That said, here's a quick update on some things:

Jonah has been running well at class. We've had a recurring problem with weave independence at DogStar.  I've been pushing him with some difficult asks, like having him weave directly away from me while I stand still.  He gets to pole 10 consistently, but can't quite do that last bit.  It's good to have something to work on.  Other than that, he's been really good.

Nika graduated from Advanced Beginner class last week and she's doing well.  There's a CGC test at the end of November that we're thinking about putting her in.  Right now I think the biggest challenge would be meeting people and standing for brushing.  She gets a bit overexcited and likes to jump/wiggle.  We'll see.  She's doing great.

We went to a trial at Muddy Paws this weekend.  I'd signed up for Standard and Colors.  His standard run was good.  He was excited to be there, actively wanted to go in the ring and he ran fast.  He stayed focused the whole run, too.  There was a really fast jump line into the weaves and he missed the entry, but other than that it was a really great run.  I was pleased.  Then we waited and waited and waited, and eventually we just left at 1:00, as there were still 75 dogs to go before us and we had to get home to pick up a rug before the place closed.  That was disappointing, but you can't control those things.  CPE trials just run really, really slow.

Hurricane Sandy came through yesterday.  I took down all the agility equipment before the storm and moved it over to the new house.  It's not set up, but it's all there.  Exciting!  As for the storm, it brought down a lot of branches and one big tree on the fence.  We lost power a few times, but never for very long.  So, we lucked out on that one.

Nika got spayed and had her hernia fixed last week.  The surgery went well and she's recovering nicely.  She didn't even need the silly Elizabethan collar!  The biggest problem now is that we still have to keep her quiet for a few more days, with leash walking only.  She has a ton of energy, so that's difficult.

So, things are good but busy busy busy.  Hopefully I'll get to post again soon.

What's Been Happenin'

Nika continues to be brilliant.  She's the star of her class for sure.  Now she does all the regulars very well (obedience things, heeling, etc) and we're teaching some other tricks.  She targets at 25' distance, she backs up, we've done some hind leg awareness exercises, and we're learning "jump" and "off" to have a command for when she jumps on people--that's our weakest thing right now.  She's so friendly, but people don't always like being jumped on.

As for agility, she's doing awesome with her pre-agility exercises.  She's great with running heeling and does very well with transitioning from handler to obstacle focus.  She has excellent table performance, jumps her jump at many angles including backside, lets me put front crosses in, does obstacles from distance, etc.  Rear crosses are difficult.  I started teaching her rear crosses, and it's going a little slowly, but it's good to have work to do.  She's a great girl.

Jonah is awesome, too.  At class this week we did one course where I worked at really extended distance, not moving hardly at all.  He weaved directly away from me, did a nice "right-tunnel" off the A-frame, and did lovely jump work with me barely moving.  Everyone was super impressed (I heard "did he just...wow" at one point), and I very pleased.  At one point Grace teased everyone that she would have me go first and then make everyone handle the way I did.

Fun times.

Today I'm going to move some agility equipment to the new house.  We're working on the fence, and hopefully it will be done in the next week or so.  That will be very exciting!

Dave's Guest Post

Nika and I went to her new class for the first time tonight. Well, it was Nika's second time, since she went with Katie last week, and it was the third week of the class altogether. Anyway, we got there a little early, but "Some Nights" by fun. was on the radio, and I like that song a lot, so we listened to that. I often wonder what the dogs think of the music in the car. When it's just me and a dog, I tend to turn the music up fairly loud. Does that sound louder to dogs than to humans? Is it uncomfortable? They don't complain. I do at least keep the volume down low enough so that it doesn't hurt my ears, which I don't necessarily do if it's just me. Since dogs hear better, does that mean that they just hear sounds that we don't hear? For some reason I always assume that to hear things we don't means that everything else must be amplified. Also, I wish that "fun." didn't have that period in their name. It's very hipster and it makes it hard to write sentences about them.

Class began with me talking to the instructor and the bait bag mysteriously falling to the floor. I realized this, but too late: Nika had already finished the two string cheeses and most of other treats. I don't think she stole the bag off of me, but she certainly didn't hesitate to take advantage of the situation! Fortunately, we had some extra treats in the car, and they were a kind that I could break up into thirds, so we made it the whole way.

We practiced heeling, sit-stays, down-stays, sits and downs with hand signals, and recalls during class. Nika did really well at all of them. She's funny though, in that she'll bark at me if I'm not giving her something to do. She can quietly do an extended stay, but if she gets ignored for any amount of time, she gets demanding. That means that we really did spend the entire hour working. The other two handlers and their dogs maybe spent 35 minutes? When the teacher talked they would listen, and their dogs would just sit there next to them. Not Nika! She wanted to work the whole time. Fortunately extended stays give me the chance to at least look in the teacher's direction while I'm walking away from and back to the dog and feeding her.

It was fun. We'll go back next time. I think we should teach her off/jump on command, and then try using off when she jumps on people. Hint, hint, Katie :-)

Go to the Head of the Class

Dave's out of town so I got to take Nika to her class tonight.  Wow.  She's so smart.  I'm really impressed.  Of course I've worked with her a lot at home, but we always do short sessions, and I often work her with a lot of distractions where she's not 100% focused.  With that in mind, I didn't have super high expectations.  This is a new class, a higher level, with new dogs...all reasons to be distracted.  Well, she was awesome.

We started warming up with some heeling.  Sure, every now and then she'd look around or get excited and leap out of position, but in general she was right with me.  It's funny not having Grace as our teacher, because the new teacher didn't know us and when class started she asked if I knew what heel position was.  I'm certainly no obedience expert, but I know what heeling is :).

After 5 minutes or so the teacher had caught on.  We all worked on heeling and while the others were lucky to get a few steps in, Nika was working on turns, sits, downs and any rally signs I could remember.  She was great.

When we practiced sits and downs, I realized that she's gotten a little rusty with hand signals only.  She's great with verbal only, and great with both verbal and hand, but we need to work more with hand only.  Good to know.  After a few repetitions at class, she was quite sharp again.

For recalls, we were the only dog who got to do recalls out of a stay rather than standing with the instructor holding the dog.  Again, she was picture perfect.

We worked on stand and stand for exam.  She's gotten good with the verbal only or with the hand signal only for stand, but she's not always great at staying right in heel position for it.  For the exam, she wiggles if she's not lured.  We'll keep working on that.

When we practiced stays, I was actually able to get her to break her stay when I jumped up and down.  Another thing to work on.  Otherwise, though, she was excellent.  I could run away from her, go anywhere away from her, get far away, go around and behind her, bend over...jumping was the only thing I could think of that made her get up.  Even then, it was the third jump before she got excited enough to break the stay.

At the end of class we practiced some targeting and spins.  I haven't done much targeting with her lately so I'll have to go back to that.  She was good so long as I held the target but wasn't as great when it was on the ground.

We ended class a few minutes early and I had her play on the teeter (which was really low) and a skate board.  She was good with both.

Overall, she was just such a joy to work with.  So bright, so focused, so happy.  We took a number of tug breaks during class, too, and she was eager to tug.  I'm so excited to see how she does with agility.  I think she'll be a superstar!

Also, yesterday we went to an English Shepherd gathering.  It was lots of fun.  Pictures and a longer post to follow!

I'm a Terrible Blogger.

Sorry.  Work has changed my life a lot.  I really like my job, but I find that I want to spend every minute that I'm not working or commuting playing with the dogs rather than writing about them.

Here are some things that have happened since I last posted:

Jonah and I have worked seemingly endlessly on his table.  He's fantastic at home, but at our trial this weekend he still failed to lie down.  We got a jumpers Q with a pretty quiet but otherwise unproblematic run.  Standard was also a little on the slow side, and then had the table fail.  He had a beautiful running A-frame, but that was about the only part of the run that was anything special.

Jonah's classes have been going pretty well.  I feel like I'm not 100% there mentally because I have to rush so much to get there after work.  I need to focus on letting go of the day and giving him everything I have.

Nika graduated from Beginner Obedience last night.  She and Dave have done a really good job.  I'm not sure they've decided what class to do next.

Here is a bit of a photo dump:

Me and Nika after my triathlon this summer.

She used to be so small!

Nika and my dad make funny faces.

Silly puppy face.

Nika and the family in Plymouth after Dave's, my dad's and my uncle's tri (I had dog duty).

Our soon to be house (next Friday!)

Blog Action Day: Collaboration, Mistakes & The Blues

It's blog action day again!  (http://bit.ly/O1ZCe0)  Today's question is "What makes a good instructor?"

I’m very lucky to have worked with two excellent instructors lately.  They’re quite different, and I appreciate different things about them.

There are lots of good instructor traits that are pretty straight forward:  someone who has lots of experience to share, someone who makes you better, someone who is invested in you and your dog, etc.  Those are good, and there are more of them, but I thought I’d focus on three other things that I’ve appreciated recently.

1.     An instructor who will collaborate with you.

     Grace has a ton to teach me.  She has this fantastic attitude, though, that makes me really believe that she appreciates my point of view, too--both as a handler in general and as the person who knows my dog best.  When I work with her, it’s like we’re working together. We’re both a little bit dorky, analyzing each little piece of a run in search of that impossible 'perfection.'  When a line wasn't as tight as we'd like, she’ll say, “What if you try this?”  And sometimes it will be a clear improvement.  But then other times she’ll say, “Yeah, I liked your way better.”  I feel like we’re a team trying to solve puzzles together, even if I’m the one paying her and doing the vast majority of the learning. Grace makes me feel like a good handler.  It’s a nice confidence boost.

2.     An instructor who lets you screw up.

     I’ve had a few lessons with Laura this summer. I don’t really think of her as my instructor, but I’ve learned so much in several sessions that I have a heck of a lot to owe her.  I love her handling style, and I think it’s awesome that she’s on the world team.  Anyway, what I like most about Laura is that she has the attitude of “I’m going to do what I think will work best for my dog, no matter what other people do.”  She teaches with that attitude, too.  A few weeks ago there was a tricky section and I walked it differently from everyone else.  When I told her my plan, she said something like, “Cool.  I’d like to see how that works.”  Well, it didn’t work.  Her way worked.  But she let me do it my way first, and I appreciated that.  I learned more by screwing up on my own terms than I would have if she’d just had me do it her way from the beginning.   

3.     An instructor who shares the down times with you.

     Lately things haven’t been going well for us at trials.  It’s really quite embarrassing.  In practice we’re flying through international courses with  tight lines and fantastic running contacts. But then, we’re 1/10 in our last 10 runs at trials.  That’s awful!  Jonah is just so stressed that he can’t get it together.  Neither Grace nor Laura has a quick fix for us (if someone does, let me know!), but they were both there this weekend to watch my runs, tell me I was doing a great job staying positive, and then just agree with me that this sucks!  I’d rather be able to fix it, but sometimes it’s nice to have your instructors be just as lost for words as you are.

Edit:  I want to be clear that, by commiserating with me, my instructors aren't blaming Jonah or suggesting that there's nothing I can do.  They're just standing with me, acknowledging that it's frustrating, and helping me be patient :).

Dave's Guest Post

Today I took Nika to her third week of beginner obedience. It was also her first day at home while Katie was at work. I'm sure she was bored, but it's tough to tell how much that's affecting her right now. She's been removing yogurt cans from the recycling and searching the room for the best chews, with an occasional bark thrown in. Of course, none of this is unusual, but I think Katie and I both feel bad when we don't get to do something with her where we can say, "OK, she's definitely going to be tired tonight."

Anyway, her second week of class, last week, was really awesome. She paid great attention for the whole hour and aced everything she was supposed to do. I often only half listen to what Grace is saying because it seems more important to keep the puppy working the whole time, and because Katie has probably already taught her what she needs to know. (Thanks Katie!)

This week wasn't quite as good. There were more big dogs doing obedience in the ring next to us. Nika never totally lost it, but she did spend a lot of time looking at them. It would usually be a short glance and then back to me, but still. All the tricks went pretty well except for down. She couldn't do the raised arm down at all, and she was even slow with the lure. Oh, and it was also taking two "comes" after a stay to get her.

But distraction isn't really that bad, especially considering how much her focus is increasing as she's getting older. The more frustrating thing is when she does things she knows she's not supposed to. Lately, this has been pushing open the gate at the top of our stairs and running downstairs. I can hear the getaway, and when I go out, she's always close enough to look at me and decide it will be way better to ignore me and make a break for it. I know I'm not supposed to chase her in this situation, but it's also not good to have her wandering the house. Not really sure what the best thing to do is.

To end on a positive note, she's really cute. One of our favorite pastimes is to go out back and sit down together and just watch Jonah run around. She's really good at focusing on him, but I guess she still likes to have a friend to watch with.

ARFF Trial

Overall, the trial experience was quite good.  It was a long day, but what trial isn't.  I met some nice new people, got to talk with other friends, watched some good agility, and even got a job offer!  Somehow it was my own agility that didn't quite live up to the rest of the day.

Round 1:  Advanced Standard
    Jonah was amped to start this run.  There was a strange, table-like platform outside the ring which we'd practiced on before going in.  He was dropping immediately and looking really happy about it.  I was hopeful.  When we went in, he was bark-bark-barking.  He started fast!  His weaves were not quite full speed, but not too bad.  Then he took a little bit of a detour and barked at the judge (which he's never done before), but came back and did some jumps at decent pace.  Then he started racing up the dogwalk but once again got concerned about the judge and just trotted down the down ramp.  He flew into the chute, up and down the A-frame and hopped right up onto the table.  Then he sat there.  And sat there.  And sat there.  And looked at the people outside the fence.  And ignored me.  And looked sad.  I tried moving so I was between the people and him, but no go.  So, we went on.  The rest of the course was lovely and fast.  That makes 2 perfectly clean standard runs in a row except for not being able to lie down on the table.  Thanks, Jonah.  We did a lot of table work and fast down game this week, but I guess it wasn't enough.  We'll keep working and hoping.  We still need two more standards.

Round 2:  Grand Prix
     This course started with a demotivating line including a tight wrap at 2.  Jonah was pretty peppy starting out, but that wrap killed the motor.  There were points where he got better, but in general he was just unenthused.  His dogwalk was a slow trot.  It seemed like it took him forever to tip the teeter.  He did have a lovely A-frame, but the jump after that required another wrap which unfortunately got him slow enough that he then stopped and looked at the timers instead of doing the weave poles, and incurred a refusal.  Poor guy.  He was just nervous again.  I wish he wouldn't be.  I can't tell what in particular he's scared of.  Laura suggested putting myself between him and the outside of the ring, which could have helped here, but then the judge might be scary sometimes.  I don't know.  Something to play around with.  Anyway, aside from the refusal he was clear but 8 seconds over time.  The refusal alone probably took 8 seconds, so it's good to know that a Q is certainly in the realm of possibility.  Still, I don't know how to get a magic de-stress button.  Our last trial was much better.  Oh well.  We'll just keep trying, I guess.