6 weave poles!

Wow, Shelby is up to doing 6 weave poles now. This is the number required in the Novice classes of competition. So I am really excited! Weave poles are the last piece of the puzzle. As soon as Shebly is doing those well, we can enter competitions.

Shelby loves a lead out

Boy does she ever! She loves to get ready......and then .....GO! She is so fast off the start when I do a lead out. And she is so good at going where I ask her to. At last night's class we had an interesting set up with a pretty acute angle between the first and second jumps. I was a little worried, but Shelby handled it like a champ. Then there was another jump and the dog walk. No problem! Then another jump, the tunnel, the A frame, weaves and the table. After the exit from the tunnel, we "layered a jump" on the way to the A frame. That means that you are not next to the dog, there is a jump in between you that you have to ignore on the way to the next obstacle. Shelby did the sequence well the first time, but Denielle wanted me to try it again with a little bit of a difference in the timing of my cues. Shelby started running in and out of the tunnel, turning around inside, totally goofing off. The tunnel is one of her favorites. Finally I was able to get her back on track and we finished without any problems.

A true terrier

Tiny terrier saves five New Zealand kids - Pet Health - MSNBC.com

Lure coursing video clips

Here are a couple clips from the lure coursing. The first one is Shelby. It's only the second half-I think she was so fast the woman recording missed the first part!

The second one is another dog-you can see more of the course.

Spring Fling Terrier Fun Day

Last Sunday I took Spot and Shelby to a terrier fun day at Canine Mastery in Seekonk. It was hosted by 3 Jack Russell Terrier breeders. They had fun activities including Go to Ground, which is like Earthdog, a faux Barn Hunt, and lure coursing with and without obstacles.

Shelby did lure coursing and loved it right away. Lure coursing is when they have a white cloth tied onto a string. The string is on a loop and run by a motor and the dogs chase it. Sometimes they add agility obstacles like tunnels and jumps. She was the first dog to run the course and do the tunnel and the tire. She ended up getting a 4th place ribbon! Spot tried it too, but couldn't quite understand what to do. Spot loved the Go to Ground. They had a few different courses laid out. They had one really long one that was probably about 50 feet or so. Spot powered right through it. I was really pleased. I knew he could do the 30 ft Junior tunnel, but it was good to see he had no problems with a much longer tunnel.

Here's a picture of the set up for the Go to Ground. The tunnel on the right is the long one.

Here is Spot in the tunnel working the rats. These tunnels have plexiglass in the end, so you can see the dog working, which is cool.

Look Ma, no hands!

At last Tuesday's class we did something a little different. We did a sequence of all front crosses, but we ran it without any hand signals. We used only "foot signals" and body language. I wasn't sure how it would work, but I was surprised to see all the dogs did just fine. At first Shelby was making some wide turns, so I did a few repetitions and she came in tighter. I guess I always thought I was pre-cueing with my hand signals, and maybe I was, but only a little bit.
Next week, we do rear crosses with no hand signals. Not sure how that will go!

AKC Agility Nationals

AKC held its national agility championship last week. Carolyn Barney, one of my instructors, was a competitor. You can only attend the championships if you have accumulated enough points throughout the previous year by competing and having qualifying scores. CBS' Eye on America series did a nice little piece last Friday.

Unfortunately I can't embed it, but here is the link. It might take a while to load.

Intermediate again

Ok, I know I said the last session was going to be the last intermediate, but I talked to Denielle and decided that it would be good to stay in intermediate to build up Shelby's confidence some more. Plus she agreed to give me some more advanced things to work on, and I figured since I would be the only one in class working on the more advanced techniques, I would get more attention than in the advanced class.

On Tues we did a run through at the end of class. We're working on serpentines and threadles. Serpentines are when you send the dog over a jump away from you, then pull them back over another jump towards you, then send away again. A threadle is when you send the dog away, then pull them back towards you in the space between the jumps, the send away over the next jump, etc. This first graphic is a serpentine. The red line is the dog and the blue line is the handler.

This second graphic is the threadle. A false turn means that you turn your shoulders to draw the dog to you.

Shelby was a little distracted, looking around the floor for food. But other than that, she's doing great. She is really getting good at being able to send her to an obstacle away from me, and she loves the see saw too. It took a while for her to get back on the see saw after she had that bad experience.

crufts blooper

This is so funny-not so much what happens on course, but what happens after they finish.

does the universe hate me?

Someone out there must hate me.
Today at Willards Woods I was walking and a dog came over and was hanging out with us. There was no owner in sight. I took a look at the tags and realized it wasn't a local dog, so I figured it must be lost. I put a leash on it and was able to find the owner, who was very appreciative. He was almost in tears. I was happy to help him-I hope someone would do the same for me.

Not 15 minutes later, Spot and Shelby took off, headed for the road. They actually ran out into the road. Spot was good, and came to me so I could get the leash on, but Shelby was a little bitch and would not come near me. I had to chase her through 2 yards. I was so angry with them both. They know better. So then we went home right away.

Why today of all days?


Ugh.