This was the first year that preferred dogs were eligible to compete at agility nationals, I wasn't sure what to make of this.....but what the heck, why not!! I think they were expecting a much larger turn out and the number of dogs representing each height was decided on *before* entry numbers were in, a whopping 78% of preferred dogs at the national made it to finals.
The big news though, a pug ended up 2nd place in the preferred 8" division. Way to go, Kris Huet and Bogie. I'm not familiar with them, so I don't know where they're from or how long they've been competing. I got the livestream, so I saw two of their runs, he's a nice running pug! Kris looked to be calm and smooth in finals too. A great representation of what pugs can do!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Spring Hike
Wow, the first day of Spring and it was actually a perfect spring day here. Warm (not hot), sunny and it's been so nice lately that the trails are unusually dry! Everyone was happy to finally get out on a real hike, the water dogs even go their first chance to take a dip......and Indy has turned into a water dog too. Last summer she wasn't so sure about this wet stuff, but now she's the first one in.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
If I could change just one thing
I love my dogs, I love their enthusiasm.....but could they just keep it down a little? they're not bad at home, but on the way to the park Kittie & Rudy are just deafening. really guys, can you cool it just a little? Maybe just once in a while, we don't have to announce our arrival to the whole park......
Sunday, March 14, 2010
agility Limbo
We're in agility limbo mode around here. I have one dog who's inching closer to the end of her agility career, another who seems to be really coming together and showing maturity and yet another who is at that age where you think they're for the real thing, their very first trial, but at the same time, there's still so much to learn.
Kittie loves agility, nothing in life comes close to her love of doing agility, a distant second is walking almost anywhere with me. She's a weee bit of train wreck lately....she's always been a bit of a mess. I didn't know any better, so a lot of skills are pretty poorly trained, but she's really falling apart lately, she's arguing (barking) a lot lately on course. It's not from a lack of direction from me, it's things like running past the last weave poles and telling me off. Crashing even more jumps, bailing pretty much all the contacts. She's not slowing down one bit, I can say that! she's not ready for retirement just yet, but we're at the point where I can see it somewhere in the distance. she's only 8, I know that's not young, but to seems too young for this.
Abby just keeps getting better and better in training. We've been working a lot with a toy for her, she tends to get way over the top to the point that she can't think and starts to stress at trials, but she doesn't seem to notice much if she's tugging on her special toy. I'm hoping this will help her cope with the whole trial commotion. She really does have a lot of potential and does love to play.
And then there's little Indy, she's at the point now where she loves the game, has a nice understanding of handling and obstacle skills (much better than the pugs), but she's still such a baby dog. I want to do things right with her, keep things fun. Her time is coming!!
Kittie loves agility, nothing in life comes close to her love of doing agility, a distant second is walking almost anywhere with me. She's a weee bit of train wreck lately....she's always been a bit of a mess. I didn't know any better, so a lot of skills are pretty poorly trained, but she's really falling apart lately, she's arguing (barking) a lot lately on course. It's not from a lack of direction from me, it's things like running past the last weave poles and telling me off. Crashing even more jumps, bailing pretty much all the contacts. She's not slowing down one bit, I can say that! she's not ready for retirement just yet, but we're at the point where I can see it somewhere in the distance. she's only 8, I know that's not young, but to seems too young for this.
Abby just keeps getting better and better in training. We've been working a lot with a toy for her, she tends to get way over the top to the point that she can't think and starts to stress at trials, but she doesn't seem to notice much if she's tugging on her special toy. I'm hoping this will help her cope with the whole trial commotion. She really does have a lot of potential and does love to play.
And then there's little Indy, she's at the point now where she loves the game, has a nice understanding of handling and obstacle skills (much better than the pugs), but she's still such a baby dog. I want to do things right with her, keep things fun. Her time is coming!!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Things are starting to get really fun!!
After several months of training in small buildings on slippery floors with no traction, classes started back up yesterday at the barn. All my dogs love it there. Indy was so excited to be back.
She was having a great time, and to think I thought I needed to work on speed with her......she's really quick when she can stay on her feet!! Couldn't even keep up with her on the dogwalk to get a front cross in at the end, I can live with a problem like that. Luckily I can leave her on the dog walk, and go wherever I need to. She really hasn't had all that much training, she's such a good, FUN girl!
Abby did great too, even finished all the weave poles, a big accomplishment for her, she lacks the patience to stay in them to the end!
Poor Kittie, didn't get a turn last night. Since this is short session and we still have some weekend seminars, I didn't want to have too many runs and risk over working them and Kittie got skipped. she will be running a lot this weekend though. Sorry Kittie, I'll make it up to you.
She was having a great time, and to think I thought I needed to work on speed with her......she's really quick when she can stay on her feet!! Couldn't even keep up with her on the dogwalk to get a front cross in at the end, I can live with a problem like that. Luckily I can leave her on the dog walk, and go wherever I need to. She really hasn't had all that much training, she's such a good, FUN girl!
Abby did great too, even finished all the weave poles, a big accomplishment for her, she lacks the patience to stay in them to the end!
Poor Kittie, didn't get a turn last night. Since this is short session and we still have some weekend seminars, I didn't want to have too many runs and risk over working them and Kittie got skipped. she will be running a lot this weekend though. Sorry Kittie, I'll make it up to you.
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