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By W S Myles
We got things going today with a good run in Excellent Jumping. It felt like a good run, and it was well within time and scored us second place.
Next up was the AM agility (also Excellent) which was a good run also, but Gemma did something completely unexpected. The course was an unusual one, in that it was perfectly possible to run the entire length without crossing sides… but obstacle #5 was the A-frame, with a tunnel under it that barely showed when approaching the A-frame.
I was maybe slightly late (0.5-1 sec at most) late in directing Gemma to run up the A-frame, but she nevertheless decided to walk by it and go in the tunnel instead! That copped us a refusal, and there was one more refusal on the course that I can’t work out – perhaps it was the second attempt at the A-frame? Whatever – you need a clear run to qualify, and ours wasn’t. It was still good enough for a non-qualifying 3rd place, because the rest of the run was like clockwork.
We didn’t participate in the Games (Gamblers) in the afternoon, so we had only one run; our second Excellent Agility run. This time, there were no mistakes. Indeed, it was one of Gemma’s best runs ever, and we collected quite a few pats on the back for it  It wasn’t the fastest run, so we came second again.
As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t give a hoot what position we get – it’s the performance that matters, and especially a clear run under time (in other words, a qualification).
Two out of three runs ain’t bad!
It was a long, long day and I could barely carry our ‘stuff’ back to the clubhouse in one trip for presentations. We scored a dog bed and a picture frame with a mini plaque on it, and even a box of Lindt balls
Gemma scored three runs with the Aerobie during the day, and two Pigs ears to munch on when she arrived home (exhausted) – not to mention the chicken after each run (less on the first Agility run!), chicken with her dinner, and a good ol’ bonding session.
Title track:
- UD title in the bag (times two in fact)
- OC (Obedience Champion) title is two passes away (3 of 5 collected already)
- ADX – 2nd of 5 passes collected today – 3 to go
- JDX – 4th of 5 passes collected today – 1 to go!
Pretty soon, I expect to be entering Open Jumping instead of Excellent Jumping (Open is the same level as Excellent) because we’ve just about reached our “Peter Principle”* limit and aren’t quite up to Masters.
We have entered about six or seven Open classes (between Agility and Jumping) but never actually qualified; it was more about gaining trial experience and practice in the weavers and contacts. Ironically, we’ve only once blown an Open class on the distance challenge (the hardest part) as we’ve always failed to qualify on the simplest things: bars down, blown starts, missing a weave exit…
So poor exhausted Gemma has spent the night in her little tent, only emerging to exert her right of first refusal on any offerings such as my yoghurt container
*Peter Principle: any competent official will be promoted, until s/he reaches a level at which they are incompetent to perform the new job at hand.
By Angiedorn
It’s been quite a while since we’ve been able to post news of Pepper – just over 8 weeks in fact when I changed jobs and went back to full time  It is also a sad month as it was 12 months ago I lost my beautiful German Shepherd, Tessa. I am positive her spirit is hanging around and whispering to Pepper in the night though as he has many of her mannerisms, including digging up beds and pillows!
We’ve still been getting two walks in most days (even if it is 0 degrees outside) and going to training Thursday night and to watch mum teach on Sunday morning. There’s always someone to play with before and after class and for mum its nice to go home with tired dogs, even if it only lasts 30 minutes.
Last Sunday both were running around off leash after classes with just Silver training from 10-11, and hey, I figure they need some distractions given everyone else has gone home. So Rosie and Pepp get their training and lots of games in between, all off lead. Pepper, at just 10 months, never goes and bothers the dogs that are training. He in fact trotted not 3 metres past the class to the other side of the grounds to go have a drink then came straight back. Even if Rosie is chasing him at a zillion miles per hour he stays in our ‘zone’. Just ‘Mr Politeness’.
We are having lots of fun teaching him to jump through a hoop and also play ‘leap frog’ over Rosie. While he is great at jumping over Rosie and then lying next to her on the ‘frog’ command, I have been unable to get Rosie to jump over him, so the ‘leap’ part of the trick is suffering – might have to try using a tennis ball to get the ‘uber dog’ syndrome to kick in….
This Sunday its off to the RSPCA million paws walk to add our eight paws and eight legs to the effort! Should have some pics to post afterwards.
Ang, Rosie and Pepper
By W S Myles
25 19/19 14/14/15 26 20 10/25 = 187, two points more than we need
(note that’s four perfect scores there: 15, 20, 10 and 25)
(-5 -1/-1 -1/-1/0 -4 0 0 0)
It was good enough to win the ring, so we ended up making a profit of $1 on the weekend, if anyone is counting.
She was herself today, and this is what she trains like – enthusiastically!
More details after sundown
By W S Myles
Gem is a willing worker, but she doesn’t like to be pinned down or bored for a long time.
Up to two hours, she’ll still work.
Today, after arriving for check-in at 09:15, the poor girl had to wait until nearly 14:00 before she had her turn at the RNCAS Royal obedience trial.
She did several exercises very well; she only lost six points overall on the completed exercises.
It all started to go off the rails in the first Directed Jump. She ran out to the box, stuck her nose down (as she’d been doing all day!) and followed a scent all the way through it, and beyond The second one was near perfect.
Scent discrimination: near perfect on wood and leather, but she picked up the wrong one of two adjacent metals. It could have been a shift in the stiff breeze, or it could have been an incompletely aired article (I think #3 was the one last used on that set.)
She did beautiful work in the Signals exercise, right until the very end. For reasons only known to Gemma, she propped half way down in the distance control.
She finished off with a beautiful directed retrieve.
Scores (subject to revision when I bring the paper in from the car):
28 0/19 14/0/14 0 19 10/25
(-2 -20/-1 -1/-15/-1 -30 -1 0/0 deducted)
Sigh. We were among the last teams to get a go today, which means that all being equal, we should be among the first to be in the ring tomorrow – in a perfect world. Which this one most certainly is not!
I don’t know what was on the grounds at ACTCA, but I had to dig my heels in several times to get Gemma to walk with me; she was determined to have a really good sniff every few metres. In the ring she only gave in to temptation a couple of times, but the first was a killer: the first directed jump turned into a farce.
By W S Myles
We train at CDC, in the UD ring – but with Gemma missing the trials last year due to her second litter, it has been somewhere between a year and 18 months since we’ve actually competed in our home ring.
Today we broke that drought, and it wasn’t the only drought broken.
It rained.
I nearly didn’t get out of bed.
When I did drag my sleepy carcass out of bed, I decided to go along for a while to see if they canceled and rescheduled the trial. They did neither, but I signed in with a note saying that we’d pull out if it rained at the time we were due in.
Technically, it was raining – but it had eased off when our time came around, so we went for it. We’ve only done two other UD trials in rain: one very wet one in that very ring, and a good (but unsuccessful) run at BDOC.
At the best of times, UD requires a concerted effort from both dog and handler; add rain and the task becomes all that much harder. Scents wash away, or are overwhelmed by rain-activated latent scents in the ground. Wet coats and water in the eyes make everyone miserable. Gemma can gain a kilo or two in rainwater alone!
The weather held out for us, and with Gemma’s considerable additional experience since the rained-out CDC trial many moons ago, she actually did remarkably well. The grounds were soaked, and I’m sure 17334 scents were activated by the rain. I think only one or two dogs actually managed to find their seek-back article, and only one found it quickly.
12 months+ ago, in the same situation, she found the seekback article fairly quickly, but made an absolute meal of the scent discrimination exercise: within 10 seconds of being placed out in the pile, the scented articles were absolutely soaked by the rain; she didn’t have a hope.
Today in the seekback Gemma took forever, but she did get it. That was the longest seek-back she’s ever done, and she was clearly confused by the situation. Normally, she’ll lock on to the sweat-soaked leather as soon as she gets downwind of it. She must’ve run over or past it a dozen times today!
Unfortunately, in doing so, she made hard work of the day; she lost 11 points out of our 15 point limit (for an OC pass) on the seek-back alone, though I couldn’t really fault anything else she did. Even her heelwork was almost spot-on.
Her send-out and jumps were good, allowing for her arc into the box, with almost straight sits and finishes.
I’m not entirely sure why her Wood was marked at 10 (perhaps she hesitated on picking it up, and it was counted as a drop?) but she found all three articles quickly.
Her signals exercise was worth celebrating in itself: she never lagged more than a body-length, and stayed with me on the turns; the terminal “positions” part was spot-on.
Her retrieve exercise, too was nailed. Her sit-in-front might have been 4 degrees out
Scores:
19 19/17 10/13/14 27 19 + 10/25 = 173
(that’s -11, -1/-3, -5/-2/-1, -3, -1 and 0/0 points lost respectively.)
All in all, it was an absolutely clean round – there were absolutely no misunderstandings nor judgment calls. One of her better performances, despite the low score.
So yes, she had a tin of sardines and two good runs with the frisbee at the club, and her traditional Chicken dinner on arriving home.
In Agility, you can get multiples of titles; after you get your ADO (Agility Dog, Open) title, you can keep going and get ADO2, ADO3 etc. By this reckoning, Gemma is already UD2 and working on UD3
Attagirl. Let’s try for at least one more OC pass next weekend (the state trials) hey Gem?
Didn’t see Ang, Rosie or Pepper there today – they must be concentrating on the State Titles
Yes Indeedy – even on a comparatively bad day, we can still sneak a pass in UD.
The only pass, and first place, and we made a notional profit on the day too: the prize was twice what I paid to enter the trial
By W S Myles
Gemma did a good run-through UD this morning, which if scored would have been an easy 190 – except that it was peppered with rewards and ‘good girls’ so that hardly counts
She got all the scent discrims again – all six – and was confident and snappy about it.
We were concentrating on our nemesis: heel-work. She’s pretty reliable at the complicated behaviours now, but the heel-work has suffered from inattention as we concentrated on the ‘zero’ problems.
Then it was Finn’s turn. We’ve been training off and on for over a year, but never really put the proverbial nose to the grindstone. That changed today. We did a practice Novice trial together.
Heel Free (with figure-8): he did all the positions, but lagged quite a bit at times.
Stand Free for Exam: a little confused, but he stayed put and did it.
Recall: at short distances, he is good – but at longer distances, he will only come to his name.
Retrieve on Flat: (it would help if we’d [a] brought a dumbbell; and [b] trained it)
but it’s an optional exercise, and he nailed the alternate:
Change of Position: perfect, several times.
1-Min sit-stay: broke at 35 seconds, then was rock-solid at 65 seconds for try #2
3-min down-stay: rock-solid at 3min 10 secs.
Considering he’s never done these exercises away from home, nor all in a row (instead of in isolation) I think that’s a pretty good performance considering he’s never been to a single class in his life!
(I could also mention that this is only the second time we’ve even attempted the stays!)
His confidence was on a roller-coaster ride during the practice; when he got it wrong, he would shut down and make lots of mistakes, but when happy and confident, he was correct and successful.
I am sure that a few Obedience trials will do wonders for his self-confidence. We’ll have to check the calendar for the first opportunities after the State titles in May.
His performance today was markedly better than some recent trial performances I’ve seen in Novice – he even handled the figure-8 heeling.
By W S Myles
A worrying start to the day today.
We turned up to check in to the double obedience trial at Tuggeranong today, to find we weren’t in the catalogue! Luckily, the Trial Manager remembered seeing our entry (we posted it very early) and the grounds are a hop, step and jump away from home.
…so we left our gear and headed home after the Introduction of Judges, and dug up the chequebook (for the butt number) and a transaction record for the cheque account. It hadn’t been cashed, so I made out a new one.
We ended up being last in the ring both trials – another worrying sign. Gemma works very well with a wait of under an hour, but after an hour of tethered boredom she can become quite lethargic and torpid – especially with the sun on her back like today.
Nevertheless, she stayed with me and managed to drop only 15 points in the individual exercises… and rounded it out with perfect group exercises and an Obedience Champion qualifying score of 185.000 Just scraped it
First place, too.
Her finishes and Scent Discrimination today were quite good, but she missed a position in the Signals exercise, and lost touch with me a few times in the heelwork, dropping 2-3 body-lengths behind. “Aren’t we finished yet? Come on, bring out the frisbee!”
By the afternoon, we had found a shady spot to have a rest, and almost half the competitors had gone home (3 of 7) so we were in sooner than expected.
True to expectations, though, she wasn’t too keen on being asked to perform at this level again so soon, and was rather more aloof than the morning. By the last exercise (the Gloves) she’d already lost 18 points, so it hardly mattered that I stuffed up the rotation for the about-turn and thus ‘cued’ her for glove #2 instead of #3.
For Glove #1 and #2, I turn clockwise (to my right)… but as an additional ‘helper’ cue (and to make a more accurate turn) I turn anti-clockwise (to my left) in a shorter arc for #3. That is, I do almost every time… not today!
So off she went to #2 (wrong) despite the verbal and hand signals to #3.
Not to worry. One OC pass a day makes it a good day!
Yes, she would have passed easily if I had turned the way I was supposed to, despite the gloves not being particularly visible – we train the directed retrieve as a blind retrieve more than half of the time. That is, the glove cannot be seen until she’s right on top of it because it’s flat on the ground or hidden in the grass.
This places more emphasis on our turn and her taking direction from me, rather than getting ‘sensor lock’ on whatever whitish-looking object she first sees in the general direction she’s facing.
Good enough for second place in the afternoon.
Yes, she got a nice serve of chicken after each performance, and even a run with the Aerobie – and then another big run at the Tuggeranong town park and a big meal of roast chicken and kibble on getting home.
So that’s two of the five passes for her Obedience Champion title. What a trooper!
By W S Myles
Whoops!
We played our second ever game of Snooker today, and there really were too many ways to run the course. Our catalogue showed us as second last of our height group, but as I stood outside the ring deciding which way to run it, they called us in first instead!
It seems there were two catalogues. The catalogue on Yahoo, and the real one
I picked one option on the way to the start line, and we made a good and fast start to that, picking up the required 10 points in no time – then the loose nut behind the wheel dropped off again, and I forgot which jumps we’d already used…
…but that was OK, we went into the closing sequence and tore up the run home, almost 30 seconds under course time – and without even trying we actually qualified!
Then in the afternoon, we had our go at Agility. The Excellent course was (IMHO) actually harder than the Masters course – since it had a contact obstacle at #5 instead of a long sequence of jumps. The table (#5) reduced the handling options to virtually nil, on an otherwise very easy course with a looooong SCT of over 60 seconds (we did it in about 40). The Masters course was about a metre shorter, virtually identical, and 42 seconds. I estimated we could do it in about 38-40 seconds, which turned out to be a little pessimistic considering the table adds a 5-second “hold.”
I believe you should have to “earn” your title with challenging courses, especially when you’re as green as Gemma and I are. We still have a lot to learn, and much more to perfect before we’re ready for Masters-level competition… so I wasn’t at all bothered by Gem missing the down contact on the dog-walk when I didn’t “micromanage” it, though I was slightly miffed (but not much) when she popped out of the weavers at #10.
Our target for the next training session (8 weeks) is to get back to independent weaving and four-on contacts. Gem can weave independently, but not reliably… and will almost always make the contacts if I decelerate and remind her (which I didn’t do this afternoon).
After that much waiting, and so long tethered to a tree during the weekend, I wanted Gem to have some fun – which is why we do Agility after all. The titles are entirely secondary… which is why I’m avoiding the Games for now. Later, when we’re frustrated by the dizzy-making twisty, loopy, fast Masters courses, we’ll have a “fun” option open to us in the Novice- and Excellent- level games.
So while I’m sure we could have come away with at least one Open Agility (or Open Jumping) pass as well, I’m happy with a haul of three out of four entries as Qualifiers – one each in Agility, Jumping and Snooker.
It’s more than I expected when I mailed the entries, expecting to have Gemma still among the walking wounded (so why enter extra classes when you are 50/50 on turning up?)
To celebrate, we went home via Point Hut for a swim, followed by a walk around Gordon Pond and some fun with the Aerobie. Not a bad weekend, really. I’m exhausted and just slept through at least 1/3 of the Malaysian GP
Tomorrow, Ang, Pepper and Rosie are meeting up with us for a swim. Should be a fun afternoon
By W S Myles
In a 12-hour marathon Agility & Jumping trial today at our home club, Gemma had her first proper runs in months – possibly since November 2009. Conditions were just about ideal: cool, with cloud cover. Very pleasant in the shade, with a breeze.
In the morning we went out all-guns-blazing at our second (first? third?) attempt at an “Excellent Agility” course in an actual trial. She absolutely blitzed the course, and despite a total lack of practice in the last four months, she was right on the ball!
It was a long course, but a fast one: SCT: 66s, Quali time: 42.07 sec – so she was 23 seconds under the limit
Another long wait ensued before her second run of the day: Excellent Jumping. It was another long course, and she tried her best to knock down two of the bars, but somehow they stayed up after a solid <thwack> with her rear toes.
SCT this time was a mere 40 seconds (which had me worried) but somehow we managed to get under that time by six seconds (33.26).
There is another Agility run tomorrow (ADX) and our second go at Snooker. I’m not fussed about the “games” element of Agility – I’m “saving” those classes for when we reach our Peter Principle Limit soon (perhaps only a few months).
That is, when we are promoted beyond our competence (especially mine) to Masters. The Novice levels of the games should keep us entertained while we try to reach a level of speed and competence that will make an attempt at Masters worth the effort.
Title track:
- UD AD JD – current levels
- One OC pass (of five) and one additional UD pass
- ADX one of five – our first today! maybe another tomorrow?
- JDX three of five
- SD (Snooker) nil from one attempt (tried too hard to get max score.)
Considering that she’s only run two courses in the last four months, and only in training (having missed all but three classes between injury and being in season) I think that’s a magnificent comeback Hell, I even celebrated this week in training that we actually made two consecutive classes!
Presentations lasted as long as some of the classes took to run! One class had quali’s down to #11, and another to #16! Q cards may be hard to find tomorrow if the trend continues – I can see “promissory notes” being issued in lieu
I’m absolutely exhausted, and so is Gemma, so we’re in for a very early night.
By W S Myles
Way back when Shadow was knee-high to a grasshopper, she decided she did NOT want to be left outside.
She clawed and bit at the screen door but never quite got through it. Bugs and vermin did, though.
Then Shadow got big enough and brave enough to force the hole bigger and get her head stuck in it. There things rested for a while.
Then along came Heather, who in growing up with “The Ritalin Kid” (her big half-sister), learned all the naughty things to do when Daddy wasn’t looking. Like her favourite pastime of antitaxidermy – the un-stuffing of objects. Toys, furniture…
To give her liberty (and stop her toileting inside) I had to leave the sliding door slightly open – letting all kinds of freeloaders in as well.
Heather was quick to learn the “out” direction of the doggy door in the laundry, but through some irrational fear or aversion, would not go “in” from the yard to the laundry and house beyond; voluntarily at least.
Until recently – this week in fact! Yay Heather!
Which is a good thing for more than one reason.
You see, Heather has been stretching the screen-door hole and actually managed to get her head through, and later break in while Finn and Gemma were separated to keep them from doing the deed while she was in season.
First Heather, then Shadow broke through. Then just as Gemma was sure it was getting ‘too late’ to get pregnant, she decided that direct action was required. That hole may not be big enough now, but it looks weak…
Within a day, even Finn had broken through the now 40cm-wide hole, and things were getting serious.
When I was shopping for the original doggy-door, I remembered seeing one that fits to a security screen door – so I went looking for one. Through some incredible coincidence and total failure of my recent run of bad luck, I actually found one!
Bizarrely enough, the first pooch to try the new door was Heather! The hardest thing will be to keep the four-legged residents from treating the new door as the do the old one – as being a minor speed-bump.
Gemma is careful with it, and Finn is OK too – but I already have visions of picking up pieces of door, screen, and Shadow from the back yard – so I’ve deliberately blocked the area outside the sliding door to slow them down.
Oh, and I bought some fittings for the garden hose (not that it has been used much in the last three years, apart from working out where the ACT Government’s Willow Trees’ roots have blocked my drains…) to solve another problem: my “kink proof, puncture proof, 20 year garden hose” clearly wasn’t designed with Heather in mind
It is wonderful, though, to have a bug-free house for the first night in years!
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