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Chances course 12/31/2010

This is the Elite Chances course from New Year''s eve 2010 in Smithfield, RI.

We went off course after the # 6 jump. Stewie turned in to me and took the # 4 jump again, going in the wrong direction.It was too bad, I really think he would have gone on and done the hoops if we hadn't blown it there. Only a couple of dogs got it.

Get on the Ball practice

This is our 3rd night of doing the beginner section of Get on the Ball 2
Stewie is catching on very quickly. He will do anything that earns him treats. He will get on the ball, lay down, sit up, stand up, bend from side to side, and wave. We did 10 minutes tonight. It is a great time to year to do this program, especially with the cold and wind today.

Practices this week

Stewie has had great practices the last three nights. Monday and Tues, in the backyard, and tonight at the tree farm. I guess a lot of it has to do with the cooler temperatures, but I don't think he has ever been faster or more focused in the yard before. Let's hope it keeps up!
We had a good practice tonight also. He did some great weaves all three nights, if only we could get that in a trial. Someday...................
We worked contacts at a distance, discrimination between the A frame and tunnel and tunnel and dogwalk. He got all his "outs" to tunnels tonight, good boy!

Wed at club practice

We actually had a completely rain free club practice on Wednesday night, and Stewie and I ran a standard course and practiced our distance skills. We worked on sends to the dogwalk, laying a line of jumps, and had no problem with it. There was also a tunnel under the A frame that I sent him to and send him on out of the tunnel to another tunnel, also without a problem.
He did blow one dogwalk contact which is unusual at practice, usually he only does it at trials, so I had the opportunity to correct him for that.
All in all a good practice

Weave Video

Here is a video Kim took of Stewie in the weaves tonight.





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv9zjkOECpo

More good weaves

Stewie and I had a great weave pole practice today. We went out to train before dinner, and I used a tug and treat from Clean Run with some of his wet food in it. We did some big sends to tunnels before the weaves so he would be traveling at a good rate of speed, and he nailed his entries and weaved fast all 3 times!

New poles and weaving practice

I bought Stewie some new stick in the ground weave poles from Arf and Running, in NADAC purple of course! I had already bought a weave pole measuring strip from Clean Run. We finally got them set up today and had a short and great practice. We just used a tunnel and sent Stewie to the weaves from various angles. He not only nailed them each time but was weaving with great speed. Oh, I can't wait til he does this on a regular basis at trials! We will keep working on it with high value treats.

Weave, weave, weave!

Here is a nice weave sequence taken by Pete Greer at Addicted to Agility's May Wretham MA trial.

Sunday at Dummerston! A great day!

Sunday started off drizzly but nice and cool for the dogs to run. Our first run was Touch and Go. I was so worried about Stewie having an off course after the A frame to the #1 Hoop that I pulled him in too far and he missed the #10 hoop, before I could call him, he barrelled into the next tunnel. My mistake, other than that it was a fun run.

Our first regular run was awesome. Stewie did a great start line stay, and we were in sync the whole course. Boy does that feel great. This run was a Q and a 1st place! Here is the course map:
It had the same setup after the A-frame, this time I just stayed laterally away from the A frame and said "Here". The next tricky spot was 18 to 19. Stewie will usually chose the contact over the tunnel for the discrimination, so I had to really run to get there in time to get the out tunnel. When I added the Q to Stewie's NADAC point chart, I found out it was his 200 point Regular Q. Now he has his Outstanding Regular Title! 3 more Q's til his Regular Natch points are done.

In regular 2 we faced the out tunnel discrimination again at 16-17. I just couldn't make it there in time, I called out tunnel, and tried to push, but we went off course, so no Q.

Next was Chances, I started feeling really stressed when I went out to walk the course. Mary came out and walked it with me, even though Lexi had started limping so she wasn't running it. We thought it looked a lot more doable than Saturday's course. Here it is:

Mary was worried about Stewie going off course to the dummy jump after Jump 6 esp after I told her I was doing a front cross. She said to be really careful not to face the dummy jump or he would take it.
Here is my plan, I started on the left so I could back cross after # 3 to turn Stewie into the #4 tunnel and not risk a off course to the dummy tunnel under the A frame. It worked like a charm and he came out of the tunnel and went right out to # 5 and # 6, I did the front cross and called him, while facing #8 and he turned perfectly and sailed over # 7 and went on to 8 and I said tunnel and off he went! I called him in time and we finished and got the Q!!!! Hurray, this finished Stewie's Elite Chances title and also his Elite Versitility Award!!
What a great weekend we had! Our distance practice paid off big time.

Heading to our first NADAC trial this year

Stewie and I are headed to Northeast Agility Enthusiast's NADAC trial in Greenfield Ma this weekend with our best friends, Mary and Lexi! We can't wait to get out on the field and run, and try out Chances after our distance training this winter. We are also going to give it our best shot on getting a Elite Weavers Q to finish our that title.

We'll let you know how we did Sunday evening.

Requirements for NADAC Champtions 2009

The NADAC Championships are being held in Shelbyville, Tennesee this year on Sept 23-37 2009. The requirements for the Regular agility class is an Elite Regular title, at least 250 lifetime Regular agility points, of which at least 100 were earned in the current year of the Championships. Points are counted from August 1, 2008, to August 2nd 2009.

I would love to go, but alas won't have the money too, but I decided that I would like to at least know that I would have completed the requirements to go, so got I got Stewie's records out.

Elite Regular Title yes, done!
250 Lifetime Points We currently have 210 Regular points
100 in current year We currently have 80 points

We would would need a total of 4 more Regular Q's in order to qualify for the Champs!
That is much less than I thought, and a totally doable goal, in fact I would like to say we will accomplish it in the first 2 or 3 trials we go to this May.

It's Spring, time to train agility

Happy Spring! I celebrated by getting some equipment out in the backyard today. First we worked on some weave pole training. I'd gotten Susan Garrett's Excellence in Weave Pole Training
this winter and finally got started on it. I started Stewie on 4 poles and started right in on working the entries around the clock and I did quite well with throwing his bait pouch at the end of the weaves. Stewie was very enthusiastic about weaving and we did a few reps and ended on a great note. We will spend some more time on it tomorrow.
After dinner we went back out to the yard and did some work on directionals again. Today we worked on lefts again and he got 9 out of 10 correct.

DAM Team Qualifier

This photo is a bit of a blast from the past. It is from All Dog's Gym in 2007 when we placed in a DAM Team USDAA Qualifier. My teammates were Maureen and Bailey pictured above and also Jake the Border Collie who was camera shy!

We had a great day and were overjoyed ( and surprised) :) to qualify.!

Here is a shot I snapped at a recent Bo Gee CPE trial in Derry, NH. Have you ever seen so many Shiba Inu's at one time?

Bo-Gee Practice on Friday

Stewie and I had a practice at Bo-Gee on Friday the 13th. I wanted to work on his A frame contact behavior and start getting this contact behavior on the A-frame when I didn't follow him to the end. I had noticed the last time that when I didn't go all the way with him was when he started creeping down to the contact zone.
He did a great job on downing at the bottom of the A frame even when I didn't go all the way.

He also did a really excellent job on all but one of his dog walk contact, and we were working from at least 20-25 feet away laterally. He is doing really really well at sending to the dog walk and also stopping and crouching at the end and waiting for me to say OK. I am hopefully we will finally start getting this behavior at trials! Imagine not missing a otherwise perfect run by a missed dog walk contact.
Well it doesn't hurt to hope!

NACAD Regular course

Here is the NADAC Regular course I did at the horse barn earlier this month.
We then reversed it and tried it again. We did really well with the go on's and distance practice

This is what a "warm up" jump looks like in February in New England!
This is the Bo-Gee CPE trial in Derry Feb. 28 09

CPE today at Bo-Gee

Stewie entered Level 2 Jumpers. He had a great start line stay while I led out 2 jumps. He had a bit of a wide turn to #4, since he started heading to the off course tunnel #12. The rest of the run was great, and he got a Q and a 1st place with a course time of 20.64 with a SCT of 43. My friend took video of all Stewie's runs so I will post them when I get them.

Our next run was Wildcard level 2

I led out and sent him out to the A-frame and layer the "B" jump, he got his contact, but did not down on the ground, so we still have work there! The rest of the run was great, and Stewie was fast and enjoying himself. His time was 12.89 with a course time of 43. He got a blue and a Q. It was a fun run.

Our last run was Snooker, and we had a good plan to get a 7 and two 6's. It all was going according to plan until I was really late calling him while he was in the tunnel and he came out and took the next obvious obstacle, which was not the correct one. All Mom's fault. Stewie had fun though, which is what counts.

CPE Trial Tomorrow

Stewie is competing in a CPE trial tomorrow. We have not done any CPE since about 3 trials when he was in novice. I am going to it since it is in the next town, and a new location and a good opportunity to train. We entered 3 runs, Jumpers, Wildcard, and Snooker. I will report back tomorrow and try to get some pics too.

We should have a lot of fun and also get to see some of our friends run too.