Clover hurt!

Last night I went to the course of the week. It was a beautiful night-- not so hot. Clover was doing very well. When we were running out last set of weave poles, I threw her the ball and as she was running for it, she ran into a cinder block in the tall grass. I think she bruised her rear right leg. I iced for about an hour last night bit she wasn't putting weight on it when we went to bed. This morning she seemed better and was putting weight on it so we are going to wait it out to see how she is tonight and decide if we take her to vet tomorrow...

Continued training...

Last Thursday's class went very well. We worked on giving pre directions to the dog. I also spent time working on Weave poles.

We had some good practice sessions this weekend. I had my 2 nephews visiting and I had them pick the order of the jumps in a jumpers grid. Clover did very well. On Saturday we went to our first Flyball competition. We were just spectators, but my wife is trying to determine if she will compete with Clover.

Last night we were scheduled to have classes, but when I went there, they said it was cancelled because of the weather forecast.

Practicing NADAC Jumpers---K9cast

This weekend at home Clover and I focused on NADAC Jumpers course. In Nadac, there is a greater distance between obstacles and clover is tightening up her turns, so will often miss a jump in NADAC because she turns before the jump. I have added out to her commands to push her further out to catch the jump. I worked this week end reinforcing "out" with her.

I found a new Podcast a couple of weeks ago and sent in a picture of Clover. They have it posted on their web site. www.k9cast.com

At last a class...

Last night I took my niece to agility class and introduce her to the wonderful world of agility. We worked serpentine on a nice 20 obstacle AKC style jumpers course. They also had a weaver style course set up that Clover had a hard time with. I worked with michelle a some on trying to get Clover to do the entries. We are going to make up a class next Tuesday night. We have a lot to work on...

Specific Results on NADAC Trial

I'm finally getting around to posting the information on this weeks trial. They didn't print the course maps, and I forgot to take my log book to the trial, so the information is a little sparse.

This was the first time that we ran at Bon-Clyde. They have a nice facility with a nice room to crate the dogs. It does get kind of noisy though. The ring is an indoor ring with a nice sand type surface. They don't have a lot of room for spectators though.

My entry was only accepted for one day. It worked out good though because my niece came for the week and I was able to spend time with her. I didn't enter the weavers run because clover has a lot of work to do before we do that. Good thing too, because she really screwed up the weaves in the standard run.

Our first run was a Standard Novice A run. It was 143 yd run which we ran in 33.28 seconds. The course time was 52.12. We placed 2nd in the class even though she missed a jump and then back jumped it. We did get a gamblers Q though.

Our second run was also a Standard Novice A run. It was a 136 yd run which we ran in 54.38 seconds, the course time was 49.7 seconds... so yes we were over time by 4.68 seconds and got a 5 point deduction. Believe me, we had to work for this one! She missed one jump and I had to bring her back around to take the jump. I then had to start her about 4 times at the weave poles, that ate up the most time. But we did half Q! She Did get her gamblers Q.

Our last run was a jumpers run. She ran the 28.41 second, 111.67 yd course in 23.75 seconds. She jumped a wrong jump however, so we didn't get a Q. She did place 4th in the class.

This week I have been working with Clover doing jumpers grids. I have determined that I have been setting the grids very tight, more AKC style. This week I have been widening the grids to get her more used to NADAC style. I think it will really help. It also seems that AKC style is used mostly at Teamworks course of the week.

Last night we went to course of the week and they had an AKC style jumpers course set up. Clover ran it very well except for the 12 weave poles that were set up. Clover isn't improving at all on the weave poles, so I am going to have to do something. We worked a lot with 3 weave poles to improve her entree.

Tonight we have Novice class. It has been awhile since we have had class cancelled the last few weeks due to rain... it better not rain tonight!

I have been reviewing the trial schedule for the next couple of months. There are a lot of trials in the immediate area. I have to decide what ones we are going to enter. Here is a list of possible trials held before the end of the year...

September 3--5 USDAA Trial (Pbh chapel hill)
September 10-11th USDAA Agility Test (Teamworks)
September 17-18 NADAC/ASCA Agility (Teamworks)
September 24-25 NADAC/ASCA Agility (mocksville)
October 1-2 AKC Trial (Durham Kennel Club)
November 11-13th AKC Agility Trial (Teamworks)
November 19-20th NADAC/ASCA Agility Trial (Teamworks)
November 19th 60 Weave Pole Challenge (Teamworks)
Nov 26-27th NADAC Toys for Tots Trial (Teamworks)
Dec 10-11th NADAC/ASCA Agility Trial (Teamworks)

Hey, if you want to support my agility habit and donate money for entry fees, Clover and I would be very appreciative! It can be an expensive habit. I will let you know how class goes...

Sanford Bon-Clyde Trial summary

Clover and I competed at the Bon-Clyde NADAC trial this weekend. We ran in 3 runs--2 standard and a jumpers run. We didn't apply in time to get in sunday. We got 5 points and a Q in one standard run, we Qualified in both gamblers classes and didn't qualify in the jumpers class. I will have more specific results tomorrow.