Mt Nittany Feb 2012

Just too busy lately to write much, but I'm so proud of my little Indy. She qualified for 2013 nationals in just a few trial weekends!

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!!!