Category Archives: Uncategorized
Been a while!
This was my first trial weekend since the first weekend in December! I went to a USDAA trial on Saturday and an AKC trial on Sunday. At the USDAA trial, Tooney got her first Performance National Standard leg for the year. She went off course in Masters Standard and didn’t Q in gamblers either. She had a missed dogwalk contact in Masters relay and her partner had a refusal but it should have been fast enough to Q. I didn’t actually wait to see the results.
Enzo almost ran clean in Grand Prix but knocked a bar on a difficult turn. He stuck his dogwalk contact though! In Starters Standard Enzo knocked the first bar because I set him up too close. There wasn’t much room but I should have put him all the way back against the fencing. Enzo Q’d and got first in starters gamblers! He stuck both his dogwalk contacts. He still doesn’t stick his aframe in competition but he’s getting the contact consistently. In starters jumpers, he ended up knocking 2 bars. It was a fun speedy course so I decided to push for speed instead of playing it safe. We had fun!
At sunday’s AKC trial, the standard course was a killer. Enzo’s only mistake was that he flipped towards the tunnel at the bottom of the aframe. He didn’t actually go in but he touched it. He hasn’t tried to do that in a while! In JWW, he did well but I slipped on the sand that they used to fill in gopher holes when I was rear crossing and he knocked the bar. Tooney got a Q and 4th place in JWW and had a horrible run in standard. We just weren’t in sync at all.
Oh and I got another private with Elicia on Sunday and worked on handling. Elicia got her MACH with Nika on sunday so that was very awesome to be there for! Not bad for a one eyed dog! She suggested visualization and shadow handling for me to help with switching between dogs. I tried it some in our lesson but it will take some practice to get more comfortable with it. She also helped me with handling more agressively and I think I know how to start looking at courses a little differently. I need to run hard in the places where I can but still decelerate in the right places. I also need to practice getting the timing right on those tough front crosses. I’m very glad that I got to work with her a bunch while she was out here!
Some links to enzo pics from the USDAA trial:
Freestyle Jam Camp
Last weekend Jeff went to Freestyle Jam Camp with some of the top human disc freestylers. He really enjoyed it and got some new ideas that he is going to include in his routine. For Saturday, they told the dog people to bring their dogs and they critiqued the routines. It was a three day camp but I only went on the day that Enzo got to go. I figured the rest would be too boring for me. Jeff got a lot of positive feedback for his routine and some good suggestions too. All of the instructers really liked the variation in Jeff’s routine. They were really impressed with all of the dogs and how athletic they are!
Oh and Jeff and Enzo’s new routine is looking really awesome!
Training with Elicia Calhoun
I went an Elicia Calhoun Seminar a couple weeks ago and had a private lesson with her today. Enzo ran great at the seminar. He’s starting to collect and turn much better now. Seems like jumping 20″/22″ is helping with that and he’s starting to “get it”. Still get an extra stride here and there but really doing a lot better. She noticed that Enzo needs some traiing on a send and go which tight wrap where I send him and then take off in the other direction. He kept adding a extra stride when I tried to do it. I also like what she said she does with her arm. Arm up means pay attention to the obstacle and arm down means pay attention to the handler so dropping her arm is a pre cue for a turn. I’ve been needing something other than his name which I’d like to use less and save for the really tight turns or discriminations.
Of course Enzo was doing his normal stuff with the leadouts. He would resist getting into position and once I got him down then he’d immediately get up and start creeping up on the start line. When we were doing the sequences with the contacts he would eat the cookie and then take off without a release. One time he took off so quick he knocked the cookie out of my hand as he tried to take it. Elicia said that I need to challenge him more on his stays and contacts. She also said that cookies should be tossed to them instead of coming from the hand and if the cookie lands too far away they should learn not to get out of position to get it.
At our private lesson, Elicia gave me a bunch of specific exercises to challenge his stay. She also said that I need to teach him a better send on his contacts. She recommended using a small raised plank that is as long as his body. She said to shape a down on it then work up to sends to the board. After he’s good with that I should work on backchaining his contacts again and do 5 sends for every run with and run ahead. We definitely have a lot of homework to do!
Nancy Gyes Seminar
Enzo and I went to a two day seminar with Nancy this past weekend. We definitely got a lot of good practice with a lot of tough sequences, threadles, serpentines, 270’s, push throughs and the funky triangle thing where you have to push to the backside of the jump and then wrap around. Got some good practice with front crosses and tight rear crosses. Enzo was jumping 22″ all weekend. He started out a little tentative but by the end of the first day he was a lot more confident. He was also turning pretty nice most of the time so either my timing and signals are getting better or he’s learning when he needs to chip in with an extra stride to turn before jumping or both.
Nancy also gave me some tips on Enzo’s leadout. she said to play with him then have him lay down, do this a few times then lead out. If he gets up go back and play with him and then have him down and lead out again. This way he doesn’t get to go until I tell him but he doesn’t get to stress out about it either.
USDAA trial recap
Stayed home sick from work today. I almost coughed up a lung this morning. I realized after the first day that it probably wasn’t the greatest idea to be running this weekend but I had teammates that were counting on me. It kind of sucks running agility when I can’t even talk properly.
This was a tournament only trial so we had DAM team/PVP, Grand Prix/PNS, and Steeplechase/PSJ. Enzo ran in Championship and Tooney in performance. This was Enzo’s first time competing at 22″ in a year. Overall he did well at the height, a few bars here and there and he was being kind of careful most of the time and not driving as hard as normal. Hopefully he’s get faster after a few trials at 22″. Enzo’s teamates were two border collies, Spark and Trace so our team name was Ready S.E.T. Go! Tooney’s teammate was a sheltie named sport so our team was Sport Fishing for Toona.
Saturday, Enzo had a nice run in Grand Prix with one knocked bar. That would have been qualifying under last year’s rules but not now unfortunately. Tooney had a good run but backjumped a jump that she was supposed to wrap.
Next was Team Snookers. Tooney had a zero point snookers round! I lead out and she knocked the first red jump and then I couldn’t stop her from taking the next jump. Enzo did much better, it was a pretty tough snookers course so I planned for two 5’s and a 7 and we ended up getting through number 5 in the closing which was decent for that course and way better than Tooney did!
In Team Jumpers both Tooney and Enzo E’d. In Enzo’s run, I got out of position and went past the jump I was planning to rear cross. I tried to cross on the flat but he got confused and back jumped. Both of his teammates did well on the course so we were just above the cutoff after that round. Tooney did something bad in her run, she ran behind me and took an off course jump when I front crossed. She’s been doing that lately so I need to proof against it. Tooney’s teammate also E’d so we were in last place after that!
Both dogs ran clean in Steeplechase\PSJ round 1 so they both got their first qualifiers towards next year’s nationals. In round 2 on Sunday Tooney got 4th place and Enzo knocked two bars.
In team gamblers, Enzo just missed getting through the timers before the buzzer went off. His nose was just right there. He pulled off of a tunnel that I sent him to so we got a little messed up. Maybe if my voice was working he would have gone when I said go or maybe not. Tooney had a really good gamblers run and ended up with 2nd place.
Team Standard went well too. Enzo was clean and Tooney had one knocked bar. Enzo’s teammates both did really well and Tooney’s teammate did well too but it was enough to get her team above the line. Enzo’s team was 10th going into the relay and I think the cut was around 15.
In relay, Enzo’s team did well. Enzo had a bar and a refusal at the teeter (the first of the weekend so not bad after last weekend), One teammate had one refusal and I think the other one was clean. Ready S.E.T. Go! ended up in 6th place so Enzo is qualified for DAM Team! Tooney and her Teammate both E’d so no Q for her. Suprisingly that’s actually the first time Tooney hasn’t qualified on a team that she ran on. We had fun though and were able to laugh about it. This was actually the most fun I’ve had running at a team event. Since Enzo’s teammates were his classmates we were really able to strategize and analyze the courses together like we do in class. They were also really nice and came and found me after I E’d team jumpers to be supportive and tell me not to feel bad about it.
So to summarize, a Steeplechase Q and DAM team Q for Enzo at his re-debut at 22″ plus a PSJ Q for Tooney, not too bad!
3 day AKC trial
Well the weekend started out really good but then didn’t end so well. In JWW on Friday, both dogs ran clean. Enzo ended up with 2nd place. In standard Tooney leapt over the dogwalk contact but Enzo was clean. He wasted quite a few seconds on the table so his time wasn’t great but it was a double Q!
On saturday I had only entered Enzo. He was clean in JWW even though he got a little spooked by the kid doing leash running right before he ran. He was ok after the kid turned around but Enzo definitely didn’t like the way the kid was staring at him. He ended up with 3rd place on this run. In Standard, he would have Q’d except that he decided to bail on the teeter. The trial was in a covered horse arena so I think the loud echoing must of scared him the day before. I went home and had him do a lot of teeters at home with high value treats hoping that would help for the next day.
Sunday I ran both dogs again. In JWW, the hard part was the beginning and I got my dogs through that fine but then they both had weird mistakes later on. Tooney turned the wrong way on a jump and then back jumped it. Enzo took an off course jump straight ahead when he was supposed to come into me for the third jump of the pinwheel. I’m sure I was late on my rotation for the front cross. In Standard Tooney did really well except that I pulled her off of the tunnel. She was headed towards the correct end already when I called her. Enzo’s run was a little bit of a mess. I tried to front cross the aframe and he missed the contact. Then he ran past the teeter. I called him back and he did it the second time although very cautiously. I said good boy after he did the teeter and he stopped dead in his tracks on the way to the table and I almost ran into him. I had to lean over and stop myself on the table. The judge asked me if I was ok. it was prety funny.
Anyways, now I’m wondering if I should avoid trials under covered arenas for a while. The last time we trialed under the other arena in the area he was fine with the teeter but he has had issues there in the past. Hopefully if I work with him a lot this week he’ll be ok with the teeter for this weekend’s USDAA trial.
The Elusive Double Q
I went to another AKC trial this weekend with Enzo only. We started the weekend with a kind of weird JWW course with a lot of funky lead changes. I wasn’t a very fun course but we got through the parts that I thought were the hard parts but I got out of position at the very end. We were supposed to drive down a fairly straight line of jumps but I ended up behind and lateral and he pulled into an off course tunnel. Standard went much better and he ended up getting first place. His teeter performance was a little borderline but he didn’t get called for it. He did his dogwalk really well and is driving better to the bottom. He still isn’t stopping on the aframe in trials but he is adding an extra stride at least.
He had two nice runs on Sunday but no Q’s. In Jww, he ended up knocking one bar but it was totally my fault for yelling his name when he was taking the triple. The triple jump was facing the wrong ended of the tunnel and I could see that he was locked on to it. I didn’t cue him properly before he took off and panicked. In standard he knocked a bar when I was doing a front cross. I may have said something to him as he was jumping here too and the cross might have been a bit late. He ended up getting called on the teeter too. He kind of bounced off the side and somehow ended up running behind me. I lost him for a second and even though he was running towards the correct tunnel I called him back and resent him because i don’t want him to think it’s ok to run behind me. His dogwalk was really nice again and his aframe was a little better than the day before. The stinker did get up on the table once but he sat back down after a couple commands. In the past he would have been done with the table if that happened.
I’ll have to see if still have any of the course maps because there were some interesting courses. Unfortunately, our chances of making AKC nationals are offically gone but at least now I can concentrate on improving my handling and tightening up his turns without the pressure!
Furrari Aussies - Agility and Disc Dogs 
