All all Agility Participants!

Your Help is Requested.


Hello all,
I have a friend that is doing her PhD studying injuries in agility dogs. She needs all of our help. She has put together a survey for any of us that have participated in agility. It doesn't matter if your dog has suffered an injury or not, in order to get good data Kim needs to hear from everyone! Here is the link for her survey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Fh0ILhkcrDFizdmntlaFcQ_3d_3d

See Susan Garrett's blog for more info!
http://susangarrett.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/a-first-for-agility/

Weave Work Day 7

We didn't do any agility work on Sunday since it was raining and we had a full day of agility training on Saturday. We ran out and did a few fast weaves today between raindrops. We started with a curved tunnel at about an 8:00 position and sent him to the tunnel from about 20 feet away, so that he would approach the weaves at speed. He got the entry and went on to weave both sets of poles very well!
I varied the side he was working off of and used a jump also before the weaves. He did 90% success rate, we did 9 or 10 repetitions and he only missed one,and nailed it the next time.
Good job Stewie, Elite Weavers here we come in May at Northeast Agility's May 2-3 trial in Greenfield, MA.

Also, we had a great time and learned alot at the workshop Saturday, I will try to get that post out tomorrow.

Weave Work Day 6

We worked on weaves for a very short period today about 8 repetitions. I left the set up at 4 poles, 15 feet, and 4 poles. We are still working entries at speed coming from a jump placed at different spots around the clock. This time I also added a double jump before the poles, since Stewie doesn't see double jumps very often. He nailed 7 out of 8 entries, and he is weaving fast and exiting well.
We went to a handling workshop today, we didn't do any weave pole work, but have had enough agility for the day, so we will do some more weave work tomorrow, Sunday

Weave Work Day 5

We worked again today on 2 sets of 4 poles each. The first time I treated Stewie after the 1st set of 4 weaves. The next several times I had him do both sets before treating. We worked on both sides of the poles at 8:00-9:00. We did about 8 repetitions in all, with Stewie only missing one entry.
His weaves are speedy and he is exiting well and driving to his food pouch.

Weave Work Day 4

Today I set up another set of 4 poles about 15 feet away. I sent him through the 1st set, and stopped to reward him as Susan Garrett recommends. Then I set him through both sets and then rewarded him. Then a put a jump about 12 feet away at about 9:00 and send him through both sets. He is weaving very well.
Then I started him in the opposite direction so the new 2nd set of poles was at the beginning and he ran by that set and went to the 2nd set. I just told him to try again and he got it right the second time.
We did about 8 repetitions tonight and I was very pleased. Stewie is weaving confidently and very fast, and driving to his pouch with a high value treat inside.
It was a good day 4.

Controlled Unleashed LAT success

Stewie and I took a hike in the woods today, and saw a red squirrel running along the ground about 20 feet away. Stewie started running over, I gave my LAT command (look at that), and he stopped and came right back to me! It was unbelievable! Stewie usually goes so out of his mind when he sees a squirrel that he doesn't even hear me. It was a jackpot moment, and I was so proud of him.
He has some so far with Control Unleashed. You should check it out at the Controlled Unleashed website. It does awesome things for your dog's confidence and self control.
Here's to you Stewie!!

Weave work Day 3

Stewie and I had a really short session today, since he was more interested in sniffing around the yard, and we had already taken a pretty long hike.
We started back at 9:00, where we had left off yesterday and he got his first entry, missed the 2nd and got the third. After I let him play for a bit, we started on the other side of the arc, at about 4:00. He got the 1st one, missed the 2nd, and I thought he was going to miss the 3rd try but he really worked hard to get it. It was great, and we ended the session with a jackpot.
I thought this was great progress, since Susan Garrett, says it is good to fail sometimes so the dogs learn what we want them to do.

Stewie's Family Members

Stewie wants to introduce his other family members:

Aurora is a 8 year old Siamese cat that we got from the Humane Society when she was 18 months. She is a beautiful tortie point and is a very affectionate lap cat. She was fully grown when Stewie was introduced to the family so they have always gotten along very well. This picture will prove it.

My son's dog is named Cleveland, he is a 4 year old rescue dog. He is very laid back and mellow. He is a great dog and loves to ride in the truck.

NEAT's USDAA Trial May 16-17,2009

New England Agility Team (NEAT) trial premium for it's annual USDAA trial is available at Trial Secretary Services right now! We are having all classes including Grand Prix and Performance National Standard. The site is Wakeda Campground, which is a beautiful site with camping sites available too.
Stewie will be there competing and we hope to see you there too!

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.

Weave Work day 2

Stewie and I worked on a set of 4 weave poles again today. We did more round the clock training, up to 9:00 and Stewie nailed every one! We ended on a good note and I let him spend the rest of the time exploring the yard looking for moles, one of his favorite things next to agility.
Hopefully by the time we trial in early May, his weaves will be fast and furious. We need to get one more Elite Weavers Q to get his Weaves Title.

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.

DIrectional Training

We trained out in the yard tonight! Hurray, only a little bit of snow left. I got our one tunnel and two jumps, and we worked on go on's and turns out of the tunnels. Stewie is doing really well with lefts. That has always been his best turn. We worked on rights tonight and after he got the first couple wrong, I put out a target to help him. I also went with him more and called him from the right side while he was still in the tunnel. That helped alot.
We have gotten up to sending him to a tunnel about 50 feet away! Wow, I think that is great. Even in the backyard it is a great improvement from last fall, and he is doing it with great confidence.

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!

Stewie sees swans

We saw a beautiful pair of swans at the beach at Rye today, Stewie wasn't that impressed though.

Later we saw two girls playing on a drift wood teeter totter!!

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

Stewie back at the beach

We took advantage of the really warm weather on Saturday to go back to the beach in Rye. We only needed a light sweatshirt!
Stewie enjoyed smelling all the new smells and seeing the Bermese Mountain Dog

Our newest trick

While we were at the barn waiting our turn, I got Stewie to go up the mounting block and sit at the top. Then I taught him to get on the first step and back up the rest of the steps and sit on top. It was cute and only took a couple of minutes to do.

Distance Practice at the barn

Stewie had a great practice at the barn on Sunday. He was much more confident on his go-on's and I used about 18 ft of lateral distance when I led out and he didn't even think about coming in to me.
He kept that distance from me and did the weaves with a tunnel layered between us. I am very pleased with our progress, and really enjoyed the course. I will post the course as soon as I can.