A cool COW -- Bad A-frame mounts

Last night was my night to help host Course of the Week. It was a very cool evening and it didn't take long for frost to form on the contacts. Only 2 other people came out and they left fairly early, so we closed up about an hour earl.

Sheila swapped weeks with Scott, so she helped me set the course up. It was an AKC elite regular course. I ran Clover on the course about 3 times and noticed that she seemed to be favoring her front left foot again. I have come to the conclusion that it is because she jumps on the A-frame at a very straight angle and at such a fast speed that she is either jamming her toes, or getting shin splints. I never have problems with her limping at home, where I do not have an A-frame. It is not a limp that slows her down when she is running, but she just seems to favor that foot when walking etc.

I may have to talk with Michelle and Paulena about how to train her up contacts on the A-frame to be less jarring.

Implementing lesson tips

After my lesson on Saturday, I worked on training Clover the touch first weave pole method that Paulena suggested. I found out that I have to start training it right away during the session because if I run her and get the ball out, Clover loses all interest in food. It is also difficult to do by yourself because you need to have clover on her leash to guide her to the correct side of the weavepole so she touches the correct side of her nose.

I worked with Clover a little at home on Sunday and then on Monday I took the day off. It was a beautiful day. It got up to about 75 degrees out. I rented the grass ring at teamworks for about a half hour. We worked on jumper grids, and weavepole entries. It was so warm out Clover worked up a good pant.

Lesson With Paulena Renee Hope

On Saturday, the Youngsville Agility Club hosted private lessons with Paulena Renee Hope. I arrived a little early to watch Clover's brother's and sister's lessons. Marcia was first with Logan. Lori then divided her lesson between Guiness and Suzi. I then had Clovers lesson. Paulena seemed impressed that they all came from the same litter.

I started our lesson by showing a video tape I made of Clover doing weave's in competition vs. practice. She watched it twice and said we can fix that!

The first part of the lesson we just ran a straight 4 jump shoot so she could evaluate Clover's jumping style. She said Clover was well balanaced between the front and back. We then went to a four jump jumping grid and worked on 180 turns and threadles. She pointed out that I needed to move more fluently with the dog to better convey my directions. She also added that I need to look where I want Clover to go. Everytime Clover took an off course, I was looking exactly where she went. I need to use my perifrial vision more.

We then started on the weaves--the main portion I wanted to cover. Paulena says that Clover's problem is she's aiming for the space between the first and second weave poles when starting weaves. Therefore, if she approaches the weaves straight on, she only sees a weave pole, not a space, so she ignores it. Paulena said the way to retrain Clover is to teach her to weave the Poles, not go into the spaces. If she always lines up on the first pole, she will never miss an entry. I can accomplish this by teaching her to touch the first weave pole with the side of her nose. We used treats and rewarded Clover when she touched the pole between her eye and her nose on the entry side of the weaves.

It was a very informational lesson. It is always good to get a second opionion when it comes to training. Paulena was at Teamworks all weekend giving private lessons and enjoyed it so much that she is going to come back one day a month for the next 3 months. I am going to split a lesson with Denise, to cut down on cost. That will give us 1/2 hour to work on weaves and contacts each month. I am also going to schedual private lessons with Michele in between the ones with Paulena so we can work on retraining.

Sad news...

Razzle(Bonheur Dazzler CD RN AXP AJP), Clovers father, died on November 23rd. Razzle was Clover's father. He lived to be 13 years old.

Also, On December 14 Turk (Cedarcrest Russian Roulette) died of brain tumor at the young age of 3 years and 10 months. Turk was Clover's littermate and is the first one go from her litter.

Clover Video!

Teamworks NADAC Benefit trial results - Sunday

Clover's performance on Sunday was almost
identical to Saturday. The weather was a little warmer, it was about 25 when we got to teamworks but warmed up to about 60 degrees. Perfect weather for dogs. There were fewer entries today though, about 250 compared to 380 yesterday. We finished about 2 hours earlier today too.

We ran in reverse order today so the first run was a weavers run. I knew this was going to be a Little more difficult because Clover had to go through 3 tunnels before the first set of 12 weave poles. I had to restart her multiple times and clover would not complete them. The judge then said one more time, and clover went through them and completed the rest of the course flawlessly. At the end of the run I said to the judge, "could you say 'one more time' on every run?" I had Natalie video tape this run for me so hopefully I can get it posted so you can see what I am up against.


The second run of the day was the touch and go run. Clover rushed the contacts more than I liked but we completed and Q'ed.



The next run was a tunnelers run. I clearly gave a late directional and clover went into tunnel number 2 after tunnel 7. It was interesting because I had Clover sitting on the line before the run because they had to fix an equipment problem and could feel the energy build up in her as we stood there. I have often felt that Clover didn't build up "tervy tension" at the start line because she does her startline stays perfectly, but I was wrong. I could just feel the tension build as we stood there. It made her run very fast, but she was very hard to control.



The chances class was the next class, once again I don't have the map but lets just say that the weave poles were part of the discrimination challenge... need I say more?

The next class was the jumpers class. Clover had a clean run but she wasn't as confident as I was hoping for and could have cut more time off. I was really debating how to run the start of this one. She does rear crosses so well, I was originally thinking about starting to the left of first the jump and doing a rear cross before jump 2 to pull her to three. Then I thought about starting between jump 1 and 3 and just doing a turn. but since she could actually see the tunnel opening from the start line, I did a lead out pivot after jump 2 to block her entrance to the tunnel. It was this ambivalence that showed through to clover, because it was between jump 4 and 5 that she was unsure, because I was behind her and a little late. ...it was just a litle slow and no one else would have noticed, but it certainly could have shaved some time off. We still Q'ed and placed 2nd in the class.



The final run of the day was the regular run. Clover was just nuts! ..just way hyped up. I got her to do nice contacts on the A-frame and over to the teeter, but clover entered the wrong end of the tunnel on after the teeter... at that point I didn't really care so we missed a jump and she blew her contact on the dogwalk and I made her retake that. At the weave poles I had to restart her many times, then the judge once again, said one more time and she did them cleanly.



Over all I was disappointed with the way things turned out, not because of only getting 4 Q's on 12 runs, but because I didn't see any progress since the last trial and she has shown so much progress in practice.

Teamworks NADAC Benefit trial results - Saturday

This past weekend Teamworks dog training held their Benefit trial. All proceeds from the trial went to animal rescue groups. I served as chief course bu idler and ran clover in 12 runs through the weekend.

Clover and I were the first to run on Saturday. It was an elite jumpers run and as I was warming Clover up before the run, I noticed she was favoring her front right foot. I walked her around some and she seemed to get better so I decided to run her, but I was worried about her during the run and gave her a bad direction and she turned to short for jump 15 and I had to bring her back. It ended up we were about a 10th of a second over time because of that.



The second run of the day was a regular run. I thought I had a chance to get clover on weave poles in this one because they were the second obstacle and lined up straight. I did a lead out to the weaves and allowed about 2 feet between the weaves and myself and she came running full speed between me and right past the weaves. Also on this run, she was very obviously very hyped up because she blew the contact on the dogwalk and I brought her back and made her repeat the obstacle.



The third run of the day was a tunnelers run. Clover ran it clean and Q'ed.



The next class was a chances class, I don't have the map for chances but it was a great run. I was a little worried about the distance challenge because it was 4 jumps at 20 feet distance, but clover performed very well.

The most anticipated class of the day for me was weavers. Since clover has been completing weaves flawlessly in practice. The run did not go so flawlessly, just like in the regular class, it was an obstacle and weaves lined up perfectly, once again clover blew right on by them and I had to restart her about 3 times before she finished them. She completed the 6 weave poles flawlessly though. She was 3 seconds overtime, but we placed 3rd in the class. We are running novice weavers and have never gotten a Q. We just need to get our weaver's title to complete the novice versatility title.



The last run of the day was an open touch-n-go run. I was late in giving her a directional or she ignored it, I can't remember but she went from tunnel number 3 to tunnel number 15. She also rushed her contacts.



Overall, I was a little disappointed with how she performed. We Q'ed in tunnelers and chances, but Clover once again got very excited and rushed contacts and would not do weaves without restarting.

Getting ready for Another NADAC trial

I know I haven't logged in and touched base for awhile but we haven't had class for awhile because of the holiday break. Last weekend we were registered for the Danville Kennel Club trial on Sunday, but we couldn't go because I had to take my wife to the airport. Our next trial is a NADAC trail at Teamworks this weekend.

I have been running Clover quite a bit at home. I am very limited on how much I can run her because it gets dark early, and I have to rush home after work. We have been working mostly on weave entry's.

I have some vacation days that I have to burn before the end of the year, so I took yesterday off. Clover and I rented the ring at teamworks and worked on contacts. We haven't worked on contacts for awhile, mostly because I have been obsessed with getting the weave poles down. However, I noticed at the last NADAC trial that if Clover ran a clean run on a regular course, with the speed she was going we would have been overtime! ...and Clover runs fast! The whole problem is that she creeps at the bottom of contacts and down the A-frame. I worked on trying to proof her 2 on and 2 off and speeding up the contacts. We also worked on weave pole entries, on both the regular and the AKC set of poles at Teamworks, but now that I have weave poles at home, I thought it was more important to work on contacts at Teamworks.

I also went back last night for course of the week. It was the first week of the month so we set up a jumpers course. Only 1 person came to course of the week, so I had a lot of time to practice with clover. We worked on fast entries, after 4 straight jumps, into the weave poles at different angles. It was a cold day, but Clover and I got a lot of practice.

I think we are ready for the NADAC trial. I am Chief Course Builder again. The weather is suppose to be bone chilling cold.