Another Novice Class

Clover and I started another novice class session. There are 4 people in the class this time. We ran 2 classes and worked on some distance drills. Clover's paw seems to be OK. We also did some weave pole work in between runs.

Injured dew pad

It was really nice out for course of the week and there were a lot of people there. Usually the most productive parts of course of the week for me are working in the practice ring on drills. We focused on weaves and contacts. We also worked on Serpentines and threadles. I may have worked a little to long on contacts because Clover scraped her dew pad on her front paw when stopping on a contact. We ended our practice as soon as I noticed it and was near the end so we still got a lot of practice in. It was not a major injury at all, just a scrape, but I didn't want it to get any worse.

Flyball wiz...

On Monday night I accompanied my wife and Clover to flyball class to see how they are doing. As expected, they are doing very well. They have had only 5 classes and can do a flyball run with safe turns with good speed. I was banished from part of the class because Clover was focusing on me and kept coming over for directions or attention. I was just to distracting, so I went and helped out with another agility class. Once clover got focused, I was able to come back and watch. She only has one flyball class left, but the instructor said she is ready to try out for a team. We will see if my wife wants to pursue that or not.

Last night we took Clover and Kira, in for their check-up, vaccinations etc. Kira is a 10 year old Terv. She hospital therapy dog and has a slight case of Canine Laryngeal Paralysis. They both check out fine though. I discussed the pro and cons of pet insurance for Clover with the vet. Since Clover is very active and may be susceptible to sports injuries such as ACL tears etc. I think I will pursue it.

Clover also got into a little trouble this weekend. When she was in the back yard, she confiscated some patio furniture cushions and ripped them to shreds. It looked like it had snowed in the back yard! I guess she is trying to tell me she wants more exercise!

Contacts...Weaves...Contacts...

This week guess what we worked on? O.K. the title gave it away. We had 2 good practice sessions at home plus we went to Course Of the Week and our last Novice agility class for this session. I am signing up to take novice agility again next session. Plus I have signed up for a couple of agility seminars at Teamworks.

This week during COW, the Youngsville Agility Club met. The Youngsville agility club is a newly found AKC club that was formed so we could have AKC Trials in Youngsville. During the meeting we worked on planning for the first trial in November. We held a match this winter to get a feel for it. Clover and I have never competed in an AKC trial and the trial in November will probably be our first. This meeting was about an hour long, so we didn't have quite as much time on COW.

I am continually intrigued by the changes in clovers performance that are directly related to changes I have made in training. It is very rewarding. I can clearly see the changes but it also highlights my training faults. Contacts is a prime example. As I have been working more with Clover I discover what she is cuing off me, how she is reading my body language etc. OK, it points out how much training I need! ...afterall Clover is my first agility dog!

I have been trying to train Clover to use a stand stay on each end contact. When she is excited, she ignores them. But I have also discovered that she also ignores them when I am excited! If I stand, she stands, as soon as I move, she moves. And if I run past a contact and we haven't practiced contacts immediately before, she will run past the contact with me. Obviously, during a trial I am going to run past the obstacle much faster, prompting her to miss the contact. Overcoming these bad habits are what we have been working on.

I have also discovered that my vocal commands have been inconsistent. The vocalizations that I have been using are... when she is in the middle of the obstacle I say stand, and then at the contact, I say stay. I release on OK. This kind of developed through circumstance. I wanted to use stand as the contact command, but I was always early in giving the command and I discovered she would not stop unless I said stay. Thus

Threadle

Clover hasn't gotten a whole lot of training this week because of rain. She did go to flyball class with my wife on Monday, but Course Of the Week was rained out on Wednesday.

In yesterday's class we covered threadles. Threadles are when you bring the dog back between obstacles after completing one to take the next. When you look at a threadle, they sort of looks like a serpentine, but it is handled differently. You will see threadles in AKC and USDAA meets but rarely in NADAC.



Clover handled them very well. We also discussed contacts and how I should work on them with Clover.

Last night I also worked on jumps for home. I currently have 4 jumps that I made, but I didn't like the cups that held the bar on, so I replaced them.

I still haven't received an official copy of Clovers results from last weeks trial.

NADAC Trial results - 2 Qualifiying...

The NADAC trial this weekend sponsored by C2P2 went well. It was absolutely gorgeous weather even though the ground was soaked after 3 straight days of rain. I got a nasty sunburn. I helped out on some of the elite trials. This was the first time that I served as gate stuart.

The trial was a small trial. We were done with all the classes by 3:30. Clover and I ran a total of 6 runs...

The first run of the day was weavers run. This was the first time Clover ever did a weavers run or even ran 12 weave poles in competition.... and you could tell. She was unable to complete the first set of 12 after trying several times and we left the field. She was just so excited about getting to the next obstacle. This is the first run we were ever eliminated, but I knew it was a gamble entering in this class.

The second weavers class, (Yes, I entered 2 weavers classes. I should have known better!) went a little better. We practiced on the set of 6 practice poles and during the run Clover made it through the first 6 poles and another one of the 12. I decided I might as well finish the course and ended up getting a 3rd, even though we didn't qualify.

The tunnelers classes were next. Clover did very well. She had 2 qualifying runs and placed first in both classes. In one class she had the second fastest time, even beating everyone except one elite dog!

The touch and go classes didn't go so well. On the first run she took a wrong tunnel and in the second run she missed the contact going down the dog walk. She placed 2nd in both runs but didn't qualify.

Overall it was a very good trial. I learned a lot- especially that I am going to have to work a lot more on weave poles before we try weavers again and that we need more contact work. ...OK, I knew that one!!

I will post the results as soon as they E-mail them to me...

Final practice before weekend trail...

Well, as I predicted yesterday, the forecast for last night was Thunderstorms, so Michele cancelled class. Luckily, as it turned out, it didn't rain and was beautiful. I went to Teamworks anyway and ran Clover for about an hour and half and had a great time.

We first ran the jumpers course that was still set up from COW on Wednesday night. Clover still had the elite course memorized so we ran it backwards and than ran the novice forward and backwards. Once she was running it flawlessly (including weaves!), we went to the practice ring.

We had a blast in the practice ring! We practiced the tunnels, trying to get her to turn after a tunnel instead of getting sucked into the next one she sees. I think this practice helped a lot. We will see tomorrow when we run the tunnelers classes. I think I actually made Clover tired doing tunnels, but she loved it.

We also worked a little on Contacts. We both really enjoyed the evening and I think we should be ready for this weekend. Wish us luck!

Preparing for NADAC Trial this weekend...

This week I have been trying to prepare for the the NADAC trial this weekend. This trial is at PBH and sponsored by C2P2. We are only going to run one day, on Saturday. I ran clover at PBH at a show ago before, otherwise it will be the first time she has competed away from Teamworks. It is a games trial meaning they will not have the regular or jumpers classes. We are entered in 6 runs on Saturday, 2 novice Weavers, 2 novice Touch-n-Go and 2 Tunnelers classes. The Weavers classes are going to be the most difficult. Tunnelers is the only one that clover has ran in competition before.

As I mentioned a week or two ago, we have been focusing on 3 major areas to prepare for this trial, weave entry and 10th pole popout, contacts and turns on tunnels. I

I feel we are ready for the trial. Our week point is definitely the weave poles. Clover has never done 12 weave poles in competition before (Novice runs only have 6 weave poles) and last night she was having problems with popping out at the last weave pole when we did a full set of 12. We will see, if she has difficulty with them in the first weavers run, I may pull her from the second.

At home, I have been working this week mostly on Jumping grids, since I only have four jumps. At COW this week they had a jumpers course set up. I have started running Clover on the elite course at COW and she is doing very well. In fact most of the time after running the course 2 times, she has it memorized. In the practice ring they had a tunnelers course set up and we ran that several times. She is doing well with tunnelers, and if she doesn't get a tunnelers Q this weekend, I know it will be all my fault because she is ready.

Clover is doing very well with contacts now too. The real question is going to be if the excitement of the trial changes how she attacks them. This is going to be the first time we do a touch and go run, it will be a real test. In a touch and go run there are only contacts and tunnels.

On Monday, my wife took Clover to Flyball class, and it sounds as though they are doing very well. I may go next week to check up and see what they are upto...

Oh, and wouldn't you know it. The forecast is for storms tonight, so we may not have class again!

More light... More time to practice

This weekend was daylight savings time. That means that I will have more time to work with Clover after work!

I probably worked with Clover for about a half hour working on turns etc.
She did very well.

And yet more rain...

Yes it happened once again, class was cancelled last night due to rain and I was unable to work clover...