A Step in the Right Direction

It seemed fitting for some reason that this past weekend’s trial was held on a test track.  Kind of helped get me into the right mentality looking at all those banked turns and upside down cars.  When I first got out of my car, I thought… on your mark, get set….GO! Let the 2012 tournament season begin!

Yes, for whatever reason, our qualifications for next year are starting in August this year. OKfine. Gives me plenty of extra stress free time to get those scary Grand Prixs.  Since its August and since outside and me and The Dog are not usually friends in August I decided to just enter the first day with the tournament classes.  Good move I think, and we were even rewarded with some unusually decent weather.

Good move, because although I felt a bit sad to not be coming back for day two, I ended up having two pathetically exhausted dogs on my hands Sunday.  Based on their extended tours of duty on the couch yesterday, I can’t help but feel that two days of up early, long car ride and tons of runs would have been too much and counterproductive to the whole ‘funpositiveagilityexperience’ which was the ONLY goal after the dreaded Regional. 

That being said, I think The Dog and I both had fun and maybe we won’t all quit agility to go join the circus after all. 

*** 

We began the week with some really amazing practices. Tuesday I decided we would go to class and run our sequences and that was it- no toy, no babysitting, just go.  Result? She was perfect on her dogwalks. PERFECT. It even rained and she was still running.  Perfect on everything, actually.  I didn’t worry about her doing her thing for one second.  Wednesday wasn’t *as* good- I think class gets her far more excited and I can get more out of her then solo practice time.  But she still hit/ran all the dogwalks.  Friday I took her out and set a course, warmed up and walked in as though it was a trial. Perfect!  No looking for the toy after the dogwalk, good reps, happy dog, it was a blast.

So I was really confident that THIS time, THIS trial, we would surely get SOME level of transference of behaviors.  Not just on the dogwalk, but also hopefully on our other scary spots (weaves, starts, controlled sequences).

You know what? I think we did.

 ***

We started in Jumpers.  Normally, I can’t get a good “GO DOG” worthy run if we start with Jumpers. She’s not as into the class (where are the CONTACTS???) and it’s harder for me to focus too until I get the 5 Hour Energy coursing through my veins.   I was extra concerned this time because she was first dog in the ring, which she has never been.  I like letting her get revved up watching other dogs; I’m pretty sure that is her Zen moment. Without that, it was just me worrying about forgetting the course and her with zero excitement level/agility focus.  So we went, and it was surprisingly nice for all it could have been.  Then I heard the timer didn’t start.  Another first- she’s never had to rerun.  And we had to go again immediately.  I literally walked away from the line asking for advice as to whether this rerun would crush her soul. Which sort of put me out of position and forced me into my original plan B for handling. Which was actually kind of awesome. How often do you get the chance to try a course again with the alternate plan? And how often does that plan totally work and end up being the winning run? For us? It’s a first.

Next was Snookers- it was a crazy plan, one that could go either way as far as shut down/over excite. Happily- over excite.  Unfortunately I dropped the ball and fell into ‘watch the pretty doggy’ mode for a second when I forgot my plan. NOT the course to forget your plan on.

Next we did Gamblers, Grand Prix, Steeple and Standard all boom-boom-boom (…boom).   I decided, for the first time EVER, to throw the Gamble to work the dogwalk (gasp, shock!). I needed a good set up, which meant negating the Gamble, and I knew that if she happened to do the dogwalk even remotely close to how she should I would need to finish up and reward pretty dang quickly. No time to bother with the gamble there. (Plus, really, we’d had a bit easier version of this gamble a few months ago and we failed that one.)  Tragically, she apparently lost a leg off the dogwalk going up and spent some time scrambling which killed the speed, but considering that? Her recovery and end performance were really good. So we ran out and got the ball.  Happy dog.  Then in Grand Prix she had probably the closest thing to home performance yet. It was a little high, but worthy of much woo-hooing anyways.  In reality she probably missed it, but my woo-hoo was very convincing so the judge gave it to her. What is given may then be taken- followed up by a glorious refusal (totally my fault… stupid tiny invisible wingless jump! I knew I would miss it!). 

Steeple was lovely and clean with a nice time, so at least we are down one qualifier for next year.  Standard was also clean, even with me getting LOST (WAY too similar to GP!).  Not an amazing time- she was weaving sooooooo slowly.  Kind of all day. But definitely noticeable there.  This dogwalk was ‘in’ by a lot, but more of a collected stride. I *think* that was the combination of running into nothing and me cueing a front cross.  I’ll take it though because she COULD have leaped (which, into nothingness is pretty common still) but was very certain that she had to finished the plank.  Foundation peeking out? Maybe!   

Here’s a montage (sorry, no kicky 80’s song to accompany) of her dogwalks: 

I’m going to take this as a sign that we are on the right track for now and keep on keepin’ on.

***

So yeah.  Overall, very good courses for her- certainly they were interesting for me. Footing was really hard on the dogs though. Especially for a full day of running. 8 runs (pairs was in there, but it was a disaster), two bars (both absolutely me), NO missed contacts, NO off courses, NO sad dog. Except for the weaves.  I’m choosing to blame the footing- it was very pokey and slopey and she is a sensitive soul about footing in the weaves.   And since she didn’t seem sad anywhere else I think it’s a fair guess. 

***

Oh, and after some careful R&D recently, I’ve designed a new motto.  It seems to have helped.  It certainly encompasses a lot of thoughts and realizations I’ve had lately.

“Worry about the course- not the dog.”  

Really, it’s quite deep.  

Water, Water Everywhere…

And then there came the mud.

So begins our tale of the USDAA show in St. Cloud this past weekend.

To start with, the site is a bit of a challenge on a good day. Previously a land fill, the soil is very soft, loose and absorbent.  Except for the areas where large boulders peek through.  There are many pokey plants and marshy shrubs, but not a lot of actual grass.  Then there are the random holes- some quite spectacular and one large enough to fit an Australian Sheperd.

Also to be dealt with is The Neighbor. He owns a business butted up to the site and is notorious for calling the cops if you spend more than two minutes anywhere on his property.

So, add the weather, the site, The Neighbor and about 100 mini vans lacking 4-wheel drive and what do you get? 

Yes, every one of those vehicles are now stuck and will need towing.

Garbage Can Islands in Lake CACM

Yeah, it was a bit of a challenge.

***

Friday began with a lot of promise. The sun was out and shining, everyone was in good spirits.  Then came the courses. And the wind. And the rain. It all went categorically downhill from there.

We started with a Team competition, White Dog had her regular squad and Black Dog and The Dog teamed with BFAM to form Northern Ninjas (which was fitting as we needed all our best Ninja powers to get through the day and come out with a Team Q).  The courses were all very non-flowing and technical (this trend would continue all weekend), which would be ok, if you didn’t have the strange terrain and wind working against you too.

The Dog ran oddly in the first class-Gamblers- (refusing weaves, had her funny annoyed look) so I got her a quick massage (and learned how to do it myself!)- sure enough, the old shoulder was tweaked again.  Better in the second class –Jumpers- and pretty much normal for the rest of the day, though she never did get a hang of the weaves this weekend (maybe just being cautious of the slick ground?).  My Proud Leader moment of the day was in Snookers where the course forced you to do lots of pull throughs between jumps and she nailed them all. I think I have a handle on how to get her through these situations without losing her over a jump. Huzzah!  Anyways, all our girls qualified and we all went home to sleep for about 5 hours. 

Upon arrival Saturday, I came to find that it rained all night, flooding the Masters ring (and parking area).  The club decided to improvise an impromptu ring in the unused field.  Good call. Though the field was even more uneven and bare in some areas, the ground was higher and firmer.  I decided not to run Jumpers in it though (Nap time in the car!), not wanting to risk injury, in hopes that the rain would stop before the next class.

Once Upon a Time, this was the Masters Ring. 

Impromptu Ring!

Quite annoyed at hanging out in the car instead of playing.

While it didn’t stop, it tapered, and I was pretty satisfied with how dogs were handling the surface, so we went ahead with Steeplechase and Grand Prix. One bar in Steeple, but good enough to qualify and The Dog looked fine and dandy with the rain. (I had forgotten that although she doesn’t like heat, and she doesn’t like wind, she is a rainy day dog for sure. Filthy Mudder.) Grand Prix was a TOUGH course, with more eliminations than I’ve seen in a long time. The Dog however LOVED the course and ran amazingly- second best time- and so very close to first place that I almost wonder if she could actually get a bye at some point before the Regional.

Lake Dogwalk, creeping ever closer to the Impromptu Ring.

We ran two more classes (Standard and Gamblers: whoops and a Q) before I figured enough was enough. In addition to the weather and the drama inside the ring, there had been drama developing outside as well all day. The Neighbor I mentioned before? Well, after watching those 100 mini vans get stuck all around his property eventually start tearing up the land ON his property getting towed out he decided to call the cops. High Drama!  There were inquisitions, investigations, it was all quite CSI. 

Pretty sure this is when the tow truck was stuck.

Thanks to a dream (of going home and washing off the mud) and the gumption of several people (willing to get even muddier), we managed to push my little car out without needing a tow (one of the few who did at that point!) and away we sped to get clean, never to return again.

Mud. Everywhere. The car got the first bath.

I WAS fully expected to stay home from the trial the last day. Really. You couldn’t have paid me enough to consider going back on Saturday afternoon.  It was predicting snow and frigid temps. Yet I set my alarm, and after it went off at 5am I found myself getting up and getting ready to go.  Apparently I am crazier than I ever thought (no, wait, DIEHARD!). 8 layers up top of my finest winter gear and field sprints with The Dog went a long way towards keeping warm all day (though the car to sit in really played the bigger part).  The cold and wind were nearly unbearable (and yes, it did snow)… but then suddenly, it wasn’t so bad. We actually had a bit of fun. It really was pretty vintage- like back in the early days of trialing. Super small entry, no electronics (manual everything!), everyone pitching in to do everything and cheering each other on. The day went fast, the dogs did well and no one got stuck trying to leave.

***

The Dog finished her Silver Gamblers title and is just 10 legs from her LAA Bronze (and about 20 from her Silver ADCH). Black dog finished her LAA Bronze on Saturday, so big cheers to her. Cheers also to the two new ADCHs, Siren and Revi- both got their last Super Qs this weekend to finish their titles.  So there- a few rays of sunshine via titles this weekend, even if real sunshine was not in the cards.

***

Oh, and if you are noticing an absence of Pup related material, it’s because she hid in her crate from the cold most of the weekend, cursing us behind her chattering teeth for our insanity. She vows revenge. 

A few minutes in the rain, under her umbrella.