mysterious Indy

So, Indy has been a bit of a mystery. For pretty much her whole agility career she's bounced between beautiful, fast, independent weaves and no weaves at all. It just sort of cycles, lasting for weeks at a time. The last two trials were we at, no weaves. she gets the entry and at least the first six and then comes out somewhere, typically it happens when she's on my left and she always comes out on the far side of the weaves (away from me).

Massage therapist has scared me death, says she's a mess. Thinks it's related to a minor soft tissue issue. She's very tight in her right hip, which is causing almost her whole body to be a tight mess and she's thinks Indy's mental over the whole thing and worries about it possibly hurting, even when it's not.

Chiropractor found an issue with her lumbar adjusted it easily, doesn't thinks it's going to be an issue. He also thinks that's why she slips so badly when running on matting. I like his diagnosis better!

Bottom line something has been going on, Indy's a good girl, she knows how to weaves, I think she likes to weave, so there has to be a reason for this to keep popping up every so often.

2012 Agility nationals

Indy earned QQ # 6 a while back.....which means she's qualified for nationals and we're going!!

I went back and forth about it....should we, shouldn't we, are we really ready, will she do well, it's really far, it's really expensive blah blah blah, but I finally just stopped and decided, we are going.

It's almost always far away, what difference does it make once you get on a plane!
We are ready, she has just as good a chance as any other dog there to do well
I can't think of a better excuse to take a vacation
We still have lots of time to improve

Been busy

We've been busy lately. Not with anything out of the ordinary, just enjoying some cooler summer weather.

We took all of august off from agility trials, although I did a bit more training than I normally do.

I went to a Lanny Bassham mental management seminar. I've never been one to get nervous, I don't know if it's because of my years competing in gymnastics or performing in ballet. but when I'm at a trial it's all about me and my dog. I just try to do my job to help give them the best experience as possible. Making it fun and making sure they always know where they're going as quickly as possible......but I don't know that I'm the best at setting appropriate goals and really making a plan and working towards them. I also tend to be very hard on myself, and brush off compliments. I'm really working on improving this.

We had our first trial since our break last weekend, and I'm pretty happy with how we did. I took some chances with things, some worked, some didn't, but I think it's important to do things that are outside of your comfort zone. You get stuck in rut and really limit your dog if you let yourself be afraid to try new things, and now is a great time for me to try new things. Indy is still a baby, not even three, but really loving everything about agility.

I set a goal to improve our average yps in both std. and JWW and we made great progress. all of our Jumpers runs were over 5. yps, with one run being 5.6

We're going to try to go on a longer all-day hike this weekend and then we have 3 day trial next weekend.

Hoping for Fall to come soon. I love Fall!

conditioning VODs

I took advantage of a couple of the video on demand dvds that clean run has, strengthening your performance dog and stretching your performance dog. Both are pretty good, not so long that my short attention span starts to wander. There wasn't a ton in the strengthening one that was news for me. We already do most of the things listed, and I have to admit the section on "dancing" your dog kind of freaked me out. the dogs just looked like they were hanging on for dear life.....I'm not a professional, so I assume they were fine, although funny to watch.

The stretching dvd was great though. I've never done much of anything like this, so it was all new. watching it, I assumed no way would my dogs be too cooperative, but to my surprise so far they seem to really enjoy it. I've only done it with Indy and Abby, but Kittie's next. Both times I've done it, Indy's spent the next 30 minutes sprinting around the house/yard. stetching = a very frisky Indy.

Will have to see if it goes over as well at trials, there's a shortened version to use before & after runs included.

This, that & a QQ

Went to the golden retriever club trial this past weekend. It's held at my favorite trial venue, the Pittsburgh indoor sports arena. Field turf, LOTS of room around the rings and for crating, air conditioning, a creek to play in near by and it's only about 20 minutes from home. Sadly this was the last trial of the year being held there.

Indy picked up another QQ on Friday, we messed up our standard runs on both sat. & sun. On Sat. I front crossed at the end of the dog walk, (late I'm sure) and she didn't pick up on it and ended up behind me, and we danced around for what felt like 5 seconds with her behind me, not knowing where the heck she was supposed to go. Then she came off the table. On Sunday, I was too focused on her finishing the weaves (she did) that I had no idea where I was and pulled her off the correct jump. She did get 2 Ex B JWW legs though, finishing her MXJ title!!

Indy hurting her back has got me really thinking about conditioning, and proper warm up/cool down I always do a fair bit for conditioning, but I'll admit I'm not great about warming up. We just go from crate, walk around a bit, maybe do a few tricks, tug a little and off we go.....afterwards is just about eating a jackpot of chicken and then (whenever possible) getting away from the trial a bit to go chase her ball for few minutes, a short walk and then she sometimes hangs out with me for a little to watch agility or just goes back to her crate to rest a bit. Now I'm wondering if there are some specific things we should be doing, and there are a ton of things on the market to buy......this is big business.

I imagine the whole products for performance dogs is a relatively small market, but seriously there is a product for every possible problem you or your dog may have. Products to calm them, to perk them up, reduce stress, fix all manner of structural/muscular injury. You can set up a whole gym worth of equipment for your dogs. I'm not saying any of this is a bad thing, we've used a lot of these products, but some of it does bother me a bit. There's a vibe of "my dog doesn't like agility, so I need to fix it with special powders, drinks and pills" when rather it's probably a training issue or an actual physical problem. People get desperate though and our society loves a quick fix.

I'm off to shop for canine conditioning and stretching dvds. Now that I'm closer to 40 than 30, I find I need to stretch (when did this happen?)....so I guess it would be good for the pups too.

BFFs

Indy's best friend Callie stayed with us for a few days. This is pretty much how it went the whole time. They slowed down every once in a while....probably talked about hair care products.






Whenever there is a camera, Abby usually isn't far behind.


Look at ME I'm the cutest!

Terrible

What a weekend....We drove out to Cleveland for a trial saturday morning, well more like the middle of night. I got up around 3:00am so we could get there a little after 7am. I was just exhausted, don't even know how I got through courses. My thinking was I normally get up around 5, how much different can a few be? A lot apparently.

First run, the weaves were right after a straight line of a tunnel, dogwalk and a jump, so Indy was just flying, and collecting for the weaves with that much speed continues to be a problem. We need to work on this, but can't do it at home, or at most training buildings for that matter. We just can't get that kind of speed. Then she popped out of the weaves around the 10th pole in JWW, which really bothered me. This has been an issue that pops up from time to time, we had a really good run for a few months of no weave pole pop outs and lately it's been happening regularly.

There was a chiropractor at the trial who a lot of people regularly use, so I figured what can it hurt. Don't ask me what he said exactly, but all I heard was she was a mess. He was saying that another dog must have slammed into her from the side, and I couldn't think of anything and then remembered a few weeks back her and abby crashed into each other going for a ball. Indy yelped and took a few steps to the side, it scared me to death at the time, but within a few seconds she was bouncing around like normal. Abby's a tiny pug, but she's built like a tiny football player, she didn't even move an inch and Indy just bounced off of her.

Day two, had a good run going, but the judge caught her eye (bigger guy, with facial hair) she wasn't too sure of him and stopped dead right in front of the table, getting a refusal. the weaves were the 3rd from the last obstacle and she did great, I think that was the fastest weaves she's ever done! I ended up having her massaged later that day too, and Maria confirmed she was still a mess.

I finished up the weekend by front crossing completely out of position (who moved those weaves? ) sending her to an off course jump instead of to the weaves.


I'm spending the week, applying ice and heat to poor little Indy (who you would never know was sore) and she'll be getting another adjustment at the trial this weekend, and maybe another massage.

Now it's Abby's turn

Oh great.now abby's sick. Poor girl has been having diarrhea all week. Did the whole with hold food, then bland diet thing, pumpkin, but nothing seems to be helping. she's acting pretty much like her usual self, but it's hard to tell with her. she tends to have only two speeds, crazy or slug. Off to the vet this afternoon.

Outside agility

Indy ran at an agility trial this weekend, that was outside in a park. Now I know this isn't a big deal to most, but we've gotten really spoiled around here, almost all our trials over the summer are held in air conditioning, indoors, on field turf. pretty much perfect conditions. Indy ran in one class outside when she was a baby at her second trial ever, but that hardly counts.

The weather wasn't too bad considering, it is July. It was pretty hot though. The grass was really high. Overall I'd say Indy thought outside agility was pretty much the same as inside agility, FUN! We did have some issues with slipping, especially in the weaves, so no Qs all weekend. I think part of it was also she just wanted to run, run, run and the last weave wasn't part of her plan.....I don't even know if she even sees it sometimes when she really gets moving. I opted to let her keep running and not re-do the weaves, really hoping i'm not kicking myself for that.

I didn't check her times on Sat. but on sunday she posted her fastest standard & jumpers runs to date, so I can't complain. She had a lot of fun swimming in the creek, fetching her ball after all her runs. we have one more trial that's held outside at the end of the month, hoping she can figure out her footing the second time around.

In other news, there was a water main break near our house on the 4th, so we had no water, what fun......thankfully it's back on today, I was pretty worried it was going to take forever to fix. No shower in July is not a good thing!

Good but not great

Indy knows she's amazing....and adorable!


I've been thinking a lot lately. Indy's a very good agility dog, I think I'm a good handler.......but I really feel we have the potential to be great. i'm just not content with good. Right now, we have good speed, but could be faster. So so turns, definitely could be tighter. nice weaves, but they could be better etc etc...

I feel like we've just been coasting along, just getting through courses, rather than really handling them. Our training has been sporadic, and often it's either rushed and too short or too much at one time, like an agility cram session. Part of the problem is where we're training these days is so ridiculously far. It's a wonderful facility, but it takes over an hour each way, and it's tough to get in the car drive over an hour (with traffic the whole way) to train for really just a few minutes and then get back in the car and drive another hour home, and end up exhausted the next day because we get home so late. So, we've just been coasting along without a lot of practice. Really it's pretty amazing we're doing this well. Indy's not an experienced agility dog, she's only 2 and very green in many ways and while similar to the pugs, she's very different. I looked back at Kittie's records from her first year in Ex B and it's amazing how much farther Indy is already in terms of speed and consistency, but I know we can do better.

I need to spend time really perfecting specific obstacle skills; improving her confidence on the teeter, rewarding the fastest weaves, spend more time teaching her it's okay to drive ahead and really work on my handling; making sure she always knows where she's going as soon as possible. Making sure to take enough time to play with her on course and keep it a big game.

Poor Indy

Indy's just not herself at all. She has no appetite, has vomited a couple of times and has lots of eye discharge. We went to the vet this morning and she gave us eye ointment for an eye infection and said to just give her pepcid for a few days and to come back if she's not doing any better by Wednesday. she doesn't have a fever, so that's good. It's just so sad to see her not bouncing around.

I feel terrible, we were at a trial this weekend and she was a tiny bit slower in all her runs, wasn't really driving in the weaves like she usually does, I think she just wasn't feeling well. She qualified in 3 out of 4 runs anyway, she really tried hard even though she didn't feel well. I never would have let her run if I knew anything was going on. Poor little girl, hoping she's back to herself quick.

look all the dogs in one photo

All the girls


Abby was trying to get fancy, and offer some tricks for the apple in my hand


All dogs looking bored and tortured

Happy birthday Rudy

I can't believe Rudy's 12 years old. No one ever guesses her to be 12, or even the oldest of our crew. she is and always has been a character!

YABTC trial, harness success & harness failure

I got the harnesses I ordered, and Rudy & willy's are going back. I got them the premier, five way adjustable (or something like that) harness from sitstay. It may adjust in 5 ways, but not enough to properly fit these guys, especially Rudy. She really does have a build that is uniquely her own, skinny, with a small neck, but an enormous rib cage......the bigger the lungs to bark and scream with!! All those adjustable buckles also make the harness pretty heavy. Just not for them.

Indy's harness (K9 gear power harness) on the hand I *love*, it's just so perfect. Fits her great, is really easy to get on and off and she's seriously even more adorable than usual in it. I need to get some pictures, really, really cute! she's always been weird about letting me put harnesses on her, she hates to be picked up, and hates being grabbed at, and I had serious concerns that she would run away and be a brat in the ring at the trial this weekend, but she seemed to actually like getting this one put back on after her runs.

Now on to the trial. Indy did great, Q in 3 out of 4 runs. Got another QQ, earned her MX title and she now officially has all her points for her MACh, with a few to spare.....we're still a l-o-n-g ways to go on QQ, but that's okay, I'll take a fast dog who's having fun, without being super consistent (she's only 2) over slow and consistent any day. Her one NQ was so close too.

New harnesses

I just put an order in for a new agility harness for Indy. https://k9gear.us/power-harnesses/ A power harness in Kiwi green, with a custom label with her name....Bill suggested getting a label that says "Fierce" and I just might in the future! She is a pretty fierce girl! She hates being grabbed at, especially after she runs, so getting most harnesses on was too much, but this looks pretty easy, or I'll have to get her one of those leashes that clips to the harness, but can be used as a slip lead just to get her out of the ring, you can never have too many leads!

Ordered willy and Rudy some regular harnesses from sitstay, and Kittie and Abby have fleece walkeez harnesses that I love.

I never really went for the whole harness thing, probably in part because it's so rammed down your throat that pugs "have to be" walked on harnesses, that their tracheas will collapse, or a collar will come right off over their chubby necks and they'll run off and die. I never had those issues, if my dogs were suddenly loose, they'd keep walking with me anyway, and they all have necks......but I really do think harnesses are more comfortable for them and safer for their necks and backs overall, plus I let them be as obnoxious and bad as they want to be getting the to the ring at trials, and I'd rather Indy didn't put pressure on her throat like that.

GTOTC trial

Indy ran at the GTOTC trial all three days this past memorial day weekend. On one hand I'm kind of disappointed we didn't get any QQs, but on the other hand I'm thrilled with how she's running. Perfect weaves and contacts all weekend long. She just got more and more into running as the weekend progressed. The only mistakes were; a table fault, a weird miscommunication at a tunnel and bad handling choice (I knew better too).

We ended up qualifying in one class each day. Jww the first two days and standard on the 3rd. Earning two 1st places and one 2nd place. These were larger classes with some nice dogs running too, so really proud of my little girl!

top priority now...stop running like a spaz! Really, I can run, but something happens when trying to sprint, properly cue my dog, keep track of where my dog is and where I need to be going.

Happy Birthday Willy

Willy turned 10 last Saturday! How did that happen? We now have two pugs in the double digit club, and another will be joining by the end of the year.

I'm just not good with this whole aging thing....it's so hard to admit that some of my pugs are slowing down. I really struggle with what's best for them. We're so active and our pugs have always been a part of that, and it's hard to watch them slow down on walks, but even harder to leave them home. Right now, I try to do a mix of hikes, most days are shorter, but we stop once in a while so the "mature" members of the pack can rest a bit, and the youngsters can play and chase toys for a while. A couple of times a week I do a long hike with just Kittie, (who's keeping up pretty good, but even she's slowing down a little) Abby & Indy. Rudy and willy usually come along for a shorter walk with one of my slower clients those days.

A visitor

This isn't a video of our actual visitor, he wasn't even eating strawberries. I knew something was up, all the dogs were going nuts....not just the ones who randomly go nuts at nothing. Our neighbors dogs were barking, but they're always barking....so I just went out to get them to come in, and at first still saw nothing, then I turned around and there it was! Bigger than all of my dogs, of course that doesn't say much when the biggest dog is a whopping 13 pounds, but still this guy was big.

I guess they're harmless, and really like strawberries, and he must not have been afraid of the dogs, or else I would have thought we had a dead possum.

Good bye!

Possibly the most exciting, best news EVER. Our neighbors from hell have moved. We've had various nice neighbors come and go over the years, but these people have been here for at least the past 3-4 years.

Why were they so bad? First off they started with one dog aggressive pit bull who got out of the house on a regular basis. Did they take any measures to prevent more problems?? Oh no, they decided the breed the dog, and then kept 2 puppies. The puppies were about a year old, and I was just waiting to see a pack of angry pits running loose down the street.

To top it off there were three kids.....the loudest, rudest kids I've ever seen......it was their job to walk the pack of pits!! what a combination! I will say the youngest kid didn't seem too bad, and we always felt bad for him, he looked so sad all the time and had a hard time even getting in his front door around the dogs.

Our house and yard are like fort knox thanks to these neighbors. We hadn't taken our dogs on a walk around the neighborhood in years....just too risky. Really this is just the best news ever!!!

When she's good she's great......

But when she's bad....look out!

We went to the WCOTC trial this past weekend, held at the brand new B&D creekside activity center. The facility is great, perfect turf, nice equipment, crating was a little tight (mainly because people have to set up as though they're moving in for the weekend), lots of room to walk dogs outside too. We're lucky to be able to start training there too!

Saturday was just a train wreck of a day. Trial started at 8:30 with fast first, and very small entries, so we show up around 10:00 and fast is still going on, we didn't get in the ring until close to 2:00 I think and then jumpers wasn't until around 4:30 if I'm remembering correctly. Just crazy. I love agility, and really enjoy trialing, but I have limits.

first was standard, Indy was so wound at this point, she was barking her head off outside the ring and was really excited to go! weaves were the 3rd obstacle and She got almost to the end before she came out, darted right across my feet to take an off course tunnel. I could have easily stepped on her! She finished the rest of the course nicely. By the time jumpers finally came around, I think both of us were pretty much done for the day. She has never been so bad in the ring! I don't even know how many off courses she had, and she came bouncing out of the ring, obviously very proud of herself! I think that was the first time she's ever ran at a trial and got no treats at the end of her run.

Sunday was a new day, and she ran pretty much flawlessly. I wanted to make sure I didn't get there too early again, and made prefect timing, the walk though was just starting as we walked in. She ended up getting her 7th MX leg and her 3rd MXJ leg and DQ #2. Earning 1st place in both runs.

Agility induced fog

I don't know what was wrong with me last night. Just running along, fine enough and all of a sudden it was like I had no idea what i was doing, don't think I could have told you my left from my right. About the only thing I could manage was to run in a straight line. I felt really hot, (it was hot, but not HOT), like heat just radiating off my head, and this slight panic feeling.. I think mostly for my poor little dog. I felt better pretty quickly, I've had this happen in the spring when it first gets hot when I'm working in the past....just weird! I didn't eat much that day....just wasn't hungry. Low blood sugar, perhaps?

One good thing though, when Indy was younger she had this habit of shutting down/finding something better to do/sniffing/saying "hi" to everyone if I made the slightest mistake, no matter how I handled it, it was like, if I stopped for a second, she tuned out. She stayed right with me through all my bone-headed mistakes last night. Just looking at me like "what am I going to do with you?!" I'm sorry Indy, I won't let it happen again!

Just a couple of jerks

Had a few moments this past weekend, where bill and I took turns being big jerks.

First Bill pretty much told someone to STOP running their dog, retire him, PLEASE and while i agree, just a little sugar would have been nice to smooth things along. I also think it's one of those things that people need to figure out for themselves, why it's so hard for some people to see i don't know. When your dog is dragging his back feet, crossing them over each other from time to time....it's time to retire. At least from reg. AKC classes, I'm sure a tunnelers run in CPE or nadac would be fine. I don't care if they're having fun or not at a point it's just not safe. Our dogs will have fun doing almost anything we do with them.

Then on sunday it was my turn. I'm one of those really annoying people who are never 100% satisfied with how I do, I'm happy with most of my runs, but there's always something that gets me, that I want to be better, but it's just my personality and I've been this way with everything I've ever done. I've learned to just shut up say "thank you" when someone compliments a run....most of the time. Indy's jww time was good, but it was on the lower end of her avg yps, due to some wide turns, and I was deep in thought about how to improve her times consistently when someone complimented her time, to which I gave a very "meh...it was alright" comment, must learn to just up and say thank you, and keep my obsessing to myself.

Indy N Olmsted April 30-May 1st

The curse is officially broken! Indy had two Qs this weekend, with bill at the trial! Yay!

Still so many things to improve on, but coming along really nicely. Have I mentioned how much i love this dog?! She's just so much fun, and such a good traveler too, no problems at the hotel. She's just 100% about having fun all the time.

The pugs got to hang out with their aunt Danielle this weekend, which i know they love, but still it was tough leaving them behind, especially Kittie, who was following me everywhere sat. morning, she knows when it's a trial weekend and she would love to still be out there. Luckily we don't need to travel too often, there are so many local trials coming up.

0 for 4

We haven't had a weekend like this in a while! and as much fun as it would be to just blame it on the Bill curse, I think it's more the baby dog curse. A few weave poles issues; more speed than she knows to handle in one case, and a random pop out in another. A poor choice on my part, a very late blind cross...I really thought I had time, but not with Indy. She missed a jump in another run, not sure what happened, it seemed like her line was just slightly off and ran right past it without even seeing it. Oh well, you will have these weekends.

The most important thing with trialing young dogs to me is seeing them remaining focused and having fun, with lots of speed and enthusiasm, and we had that, so I'm still happy with the weekend even if we didn't get the results we would have liked!

The curse of Bill

There's been this ongoing joke that I do terrible at agility trials whenever my husband comes along. It started when Kittie was getting close to her MACh, to the point that he was pretty much banned from all trial sites, which was fine by him, he'd rather be on his bike anyway.

He's coming with me the next two weekends....can we beat the curse? I've got a pretty good feeling the curse is lifted, but we'll have to wait and see!

First QQ

Indy and I went to the mountaineer kennel club's trial this past weekend, and went clean in 3 out of 4 runs. Only NQ we had was she missed the weaves in jumpers on the first day, she was just going too fast to slow down and collect to get them...something we need to work on! I'm so happy she got her first QQ. I consider this trial the kick off to our spring/summer season because things really pick up now through the end of June locally. What a nice way to start the season!!

The pugs got to chill out at home with Bill. The weather was beautiful, so they got lots of lounging time in the back yard.

Giving cable the boot!

No trials this past weekend, so my big news is we finally gave cable the boot.....well mostly. We're keeping cable internet, and that would end up costing two dollars more if we didn't keep basic cable, but still we're saving about 90. a month. It was just silly to pay that much to watch so little, plus we can still watch the things we like through hulu and netflix.

Other than that we took Kittie, Abby & Indy on a 6.4 mile hike this weekend. It was just perfect weather, cool and sunny. Indy still didn't seem tired afterward and wanted to play when we got home. On sunday I decided last minute to stop in at my friend's training facility for little dog open practice. This week's focus was on weaves. It was a lot of fun, lots of short little courses with a nice variety of weave challenges. Indy has very nice weaving skills and likes them, but it's one of those things that I do need to continually reinforce with her, otherwise the desire to just run as fast she can and pop out of the weaves wins out. She did good, stayed in every time, only missed one entry at the very end of the 1 1/2 hour practice. What a good girl!

It's so easy with a little dog

This is a pet peeve of mine, that somehow agility is "easy" with a small dog. This is the same attitude as it's easy with a border collie, everyone has it easier than these people. These comments usually come from someone with a slow big dog. Agility is different with a small dog, on a course the options can be different. Small dogs will put in many more strides, so it's possible to change their line in less yardage than a big dog, but it's a lot easier to pull them off the correct obstacle too.

This started after hearing how many points Indy got on a single run.....as if all small dogs bring in those points. I know lots of nice running small dogs that need points to finish MAChs.

It takes the right dog and handler combination and the right kind of training to bring out the best in any dog of any height, to act as though it's just handed to you because your dog happens to be small is insulting to everyone who puts in the work with the tiniest of dogs!

New title

Indy earned her AXJ title this weekend, so she's now on her way! She also got her 3rd MX leg, and another 62 points. Was really hoping to get her first double Q, but it wasn't in the cards. I pulled her off a jump in jumpers and she slipped in the weaves in the standard, but nice runs!

We have two weeks off, and then we start a pretty regular trial schedule for the next couple of months. I feel like she's really ready at this point. We're having a lot of fun!

A glimpse of things to come?!

When things all come together it's really a great feeling. Indy and I had one of those weekends, where you just can't go wrong, we went 4 for 4! Easily winning the classes too.

Indy earned her first two ExA jumpers legs and her first two ExB standard legs, getting 118 points!

Indy had so much fun, and I'm really happy with myself too, I made it a goal before Indy started trialing that I wouldn't run her "safe", that I would push and would take some chances. To think I had considered not going after her crash into the weaves and subsequent weirdness on Wed. night.

crash

Poor Indy, she crashed into the weave poles! It was her first run on wed. night practice, she was weaving along when all of sudden she crashed her chest straight into the poles. I don't even really know what happened. She could have slipped or her striding may have been off, the day before she practiced the weaves at home on my 21" spaced poles, we haven't used them since Sept. because I really felt like switching back and forth between 21" & 24" wasn't good for her and I think I may have been right. She seemed funny and off the rest of the night, she's a sensitive little girl, I don't think she really hurt herself though since she was back to playing the next day. She wouldn't go near the weaves afterward at class, so I'm hoping she doesn't have any issues at the trial this weekend.

Abby relaxing

Abby Loves her airline bag. I recently got it out and it's been her special place to chill out and look adorable.

Tamarack Lake trial

We headed back to edinboro for another agility trial. it was just starting to snow a little at my house at 6:30am when were heading out, there wasn't snow in the forecast, so off we went....and the snow just kept coming. We did alright, my car really is great in the snow, past one accident, but we just kept slowly making our way on what should have been a one hour and forty five minute drive. We got there safely, but it took two and half hours and I missed the walk though. The course wasn't very hard, and it was pretty easy to follow just from watching it a few times, I had just enough time to grab Indy, take her on a quick walk and get in the ring. It wasn't the prettiest run, but not bad considering.

Indy ran really nicely all weekend, every run she scored 95......one fault away from qualifying, and you guessed it, that one fault would be the weaves! She does them perfectly one the second try. I do have some solid ideas about what's going on, and of course, it's mostly me. I need to decelerate just a bit before she gets to the weaves.....slowing down has never been my strong point. If a course requires you to run as fast as you can, I can do that, but slow down?! I actually think I slow down, but I was told it sure didn't look like it. Me and my dogs are alike in that way...running is more fun that slowing down.

Other than the weaves (and her weaves on the second try are beautiful) I couldn't be more pleased. There is one good thing to routinely NQing....you get very brave to try all sorts of things, like adding lots of distance from contacts! so, I'm now quite confident in Indy's abilities with all sorts of things that I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise. I've never been so happy after NQing either...she's just so much fun and doing so well.

loss

Bill's dad died this past sunday. Death is so hard to deal with, even when the person is older, has health issues and you were prepared that it could happen in the near future. It's an intense experience, that brings back past experiences when loved ones passed.

Bill seems to be hanging in there, handling things quite well. He had a conversation with his dad over Thanksgiving and apparently his dad told him he was "fine with dying, had no fear of it and had done everything he wanted to do" Everyone should feel so at peace late in life!

We truly have some of the best friends, our dogs were well cared for in a moments notice and we came home to great food prepared for us.

The whole thing really threw Indy for a loop, she's never spent a night away from me...heck she's barely spent more than a few hours at a time away from me, and she's been somewhat weird (hanging out with Rudy??, giving me pissed off dirty looks from a distance and pitching a fit and dashing out into the yard and refusing to come back in every time I try to leave the house.) Makes me wonder how dogs cope with being dropped off a kennel?! She'll rebound I'm sure. The pugs didn't care one bit, they love their aunt Danielle.

new years trial 2011 Indy & Kittie

Finally got the video from New Years weekend uploaded.

X country Skiing

This past weekend Bill & I tried XC skiing for the first time. We've been talking about it for a while, but we weren't sure if we'd actually enjoy it.... too slow, too hard to stop with no edge, fear of getting hurt. We had a lot of fun, it's absurdly easy to get started, practically zero learning curve! Okay, I'm still figuring out just how to stop, but fun none the less! I think once we go a few more times it would be a lot of fun to bring along a dog or two, I think Kittie & Indy would LOVE it.

So much fun to try something new, I thought for sure we'd wake up sore, but not at all, go figure!

Better

Totally better than any trial, especially better than a trial in Edinboro

Edinboro trials?

Seriously, why do I enter trials held in Edinboro in the Winter? Oh, wait, because it's just about the only place trials are held within two hours of here over the winter. Edinboro has got to be the worst place ever, there's a lake effect snow warning for a solid 4 months of the year I think. Normally I just take off this time of the year, but I wanted to do a few trials over the winter with Indy.

So we got up bright and early and started our drive into the winter wonderland. We had a little dusting over night, but nothing to worry about. The drive was going fine until we got just out of the city and the roads were a bit snow covered, most cars were going pretty slow, but there's always a few that just don't seem to get it, it was getting worse and worse and I just had a bad feeling, and was really worried about driving back home at the end of the day, so we decided to just a call it a day and head home. Just not worth it, I'd rather play in the snow with the dogs here and be safe.

Not two minutes later I see a car sliding out of control on the other side of the highway, it flips right over the guard rail and is flipping across the grass between lanes....heading right for us. The guard rail on our side of the highway stopped it before coming into on coming traffic. That will get the heart racing!!

Glad to be home.

Focused Indy

I love this picture of Indy. It was taken of her by a friend at agility practice a few weeks ago.

Happy New Year

While I'm not big on typical new years celebrations. I do really love New years, it's a great time to reflect and think about new goals and how to go about reaching those goals.

Here are my goals for the New year, some are dog/agility related and others aren't

in no particular order:
-Get in a better habit of taking care of myself. I'm outside all the time, and being in harsh weather that much can really start to beat you up. I can be a such a tomboy at times, I need to get in touch with my girly side. I do have one, in fact I was a total priss when I was younger!

-Learn to run faster with my dogs. I'm a decent sprinter, but put a dog with me, and all my speed disappears, I need to learn how to cue a dog in agility and really RUN at the same time.

-Continue working on my mental game. I sometimes can be over excited at trials, and others I feel completely under aroused. I'm getting better.

- Qualify for 2012 nationals with Indy, continue to work towards trusting my dog(s) and really running like it's a big game of chase, let Kittie continue occasionally running in agility trials, let Abby just be Abby....maybe she'll do agility or maybe she won't and be okay with whatever happens.


We spent New years weekend at a trial Zanesville OH. It was really fun, the trial was run well and it's such a nice venue. Kittie who was supposed to be retired ran amazingly well. She loves agility. She's a tad high maintenance, so it really helped to have Bill's help. I can't bring myself to retire her, so I think for now she will continue to run, but only at trials on good surfaces/equipment and when I will have Bill around to help. Indy did really well too. She would have been clean in 3 out of 4 runs if weren't for the weaves. she needs exactly 2 tries to complete them. I have some ideas of what may be going on, and we're going to try to work on it, I think it's also just part of being a baby dog too. She's doing great though, and she's a blast to run!