Conservation Land Stewie and Cleveland

Stewie and the ever elusive Cleveland Brown taking a walk in the woods.

Stewie and Danny Boy

I'm highly visible!

Happy Stewie

New Years NADAC Trial coming up!

Stewie and I are going to Addicted to Agility's New Year's trial in Smithfield RI. We can't wait, haven't trialed since October! Mary and Lexi are coming too and some new NEAT club members are coming for their first trial, awesome!!

Stewie Xmas card

Santa Paws Christmas

Personalize the christmas season with Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Practice, Practice, Practice

2010-10-20

Derry Central Station hosts open house

Derry Central Station hosts open house

More frisbee

Frisbee fun

Stewie and Kiah at Addicted to Agility's trial

Meet Kiah, Mary's new puppy! She is 4 months now, and got to go to Addicted to Agility's trial in Wrentham last weekend. She was a very good girl,and Stewie was quite a gentleman with her!

Elite Tunnelers 9-25-10

Addicted to Agility, Wrentham, MA
Last run of the day Saturday, hot day, and Stewie really turned it on,and had a great run in 25 seconds flat!

Elite Jumpers 9-25-10

Addicted to Agility Elite Jumpers 9/25/10 First run of the day, and Stewie did an awesome job.Q and a 1st place.

Elite Jumpers 9-26-10

Tunnelers Elite 300 title!

Found out when NADAC updated the points on their website, that Stewie had already earned the extended title, Elite Tunnelers 300 points, that I thoght he had needed one more Q for. I requested it on the NADAC award listing, now have to wait and wait for it to come!

Stewie earns his EJC-300!

Found out that Stewie finished his Elite Jumpers 300 points on  July 10, 2010 at NAE in Dummerston,
VT, with a jumpers Q and 1st place! The points are not on the NADAC website yet, so I haven't been able to request it yet.

Dummerston Regular 1 7-11-2010

Chances 7-11-10

Run thrus tomorrow

Stewie and I will get some practice tomorrow in Dummerston, before the NEA's NADAC trial this weekend.Really hope it cools down. Can't wait!

Back to Blogging-trial coming up

I have been neglecting the blog lately. Our next trial is Northeast Agility Enthusiast's NADAC trial in Dummerston Vt. on July 10-11. It is a beautiful spot with lots of shades, and good places to walk. I am going early on Friday to take advantage of run thru's being offered by Lynn Smitley right at Hidden Valley camp ground. These should focus on distance training to help us get our last few Chances.

Club Practice!

Club practice tonight, and it won't be hot! I hope to get a good practice in with Stewie

Chances NADAC, Act-Up Agility, North Smithfield, Elite Chances, Nancy and Stewie

NADAC, Act-Up Agility, North Smithfield, Elite Jumpers, Nancy and Stewie

NADAC, Addicted to Agility, Wrentham, elite regular, Nancy and Stewie

USDAA agility this weekend!

Our club, New England Agility Team, is having their annual USDAA trial this weekend. This is Stewie's annual USDAA trial. It will be interesting to see how we do! The courses are a lot different from the open and flowing NADAC courses.

We are entered in the Steeplechase and the Grand Prix. We'll let you know how we do!

At the beach

Went to the beach yesterday, it was beautiful and warm. Stewie enjoyed checking out the water and the new smells.

He really wanted whatever was under this rock, he did some excavation too, until I made him leave it alone~

Sunday May 2nd Addicted to Agilty

Sunday started with my car not starting in the parking lot of the motel, so I got to the trial late, and only got to walk Jumpers about 3 times. It seemed like a really easy, flowing, fast course. So of course we messed it up! Somehow Stewie ran around one jump and took another one, so no Q, otherwise it was a fun run.

Regular was a nice course and we did great, except Stewie did not want to weave, on the 2nd attempt he popped out, and we just went on. Good distance practice at least.

Next was Chances, and what a heartbreaker it was. Stewie got the distance, and the directionals, and the discrimination, and then ran by the 6 weave poles near the end. Whimper, whimper.

Touch and Go was fun, except we missed a hoop, so a NQ.

Tunnelers was a fun course, and we did manage to Q in it, the only Q of the day, with a 4th place.

Saturday May 1 Addicted to Agility

Stewie and I had a great trial in RI under judge Ron Young. The first run of the day was Regular, it had a fast start and Stewie was revved, and I lost him to an off course tunnel at the 4th obstacle. Of course after that, he went on to get great weaves and had a fast finish off the dog walk.

The next run was Chances, and I lost him to the same off course tunnel, and then did the rest of Chances great. No Elite dog Q'ed in Chances, and only one Open dog Q'ed. Tough course.

Next was Touch and Go, and it looked different than any other Touch and Go course I have seen. There was a lot of handling in the beginning on the right side of the ring, and then after that, there was 2 tunnels and a hoop curving to the dog walk. It was the fastest course I have ever seen. Stewie got his dog walk contact, good boy! and boy was he flying. His time was 6.83 yards per second which I think is his fastest speed ever! This was a Q and a 1st place!

Next was Tunnelers, and we tried the 15 point bonus line. We only had one bobble, and the rest of the distance and directionals were no problem. At the end the judge said good try, which I thought meant I hadn't Q'ed, but I checked the next day, and we had Q'ed with a 3rd place, we just did not get the bonus.

The last run of the day was Jumpers, and it was a different looking course too! There were 23 obstacles, and a 4 jump serpentine that you did each day. At the far end of the ring was a series of 4 jumps which you did twice, both times I layered them with the 4 jump serpentine. There was no problem or hesitation with layering the lines of jumps. This was a really great run, no bobbles, and it was a 1st and a Q.

Rhode Island bound!

Stewie and I are headed to RI tomorrow for an Addicted to Agility trial. Chances here we come!

Act Up Trail Sunday continued

After getting our Chances Q Sunday, I was over the moon, and we continued to have a fun day.

We got one Regular Q, but it wasn't the prettiest run, we had to restart the weave poles.

Jumpers was a beautiful run but we had one slight bobble, and went on to Q with a 3rd place.

Weavers was not good, Stewie definitely did not want to play that game. I am going to scratch him from Weavers the next 2 trials at least. Such a bummer.

Tunnelers was the last class, and we had a fast and fun run with a YPS of over 6, got a Q and a 4th place, because of those fast Shelties!

Act up Trial Sunday

Chances was the 1st class of the day, and boy did it look hard! It was 3 obstacles, then a turn to the left and a send out to a tunnel, then another tunnel, then go on to 2 jumps then in to an A-frame instead of the tunnel, then out to a hoop. After the 2nd tunnel, if the dog looked in at you, there was a dummy tunnel right there to suck them in.

The first couple of dogs fell for the dummy tunnel. Stewie went right out to the tunnel, went on to the next, and flew over the next two jumps, then on to the A-frame. I saw his back feet land in the yellow and he was off to the hoop. Woo-hoo, we got a Chances Q!

5 more to go for his NATCH!

Act-Up NADAC trial update-Saturday

Saturday was a beautiful sunny April day for agility. The trial started with Touch and Go, and Stewie got a really fast run in with a Q and a 1st place. YPS 5.97

Jumpers was next, I decided to really practice our distance, and we had a great run, with a Q and a 2nd place. 5.58 YPS

Regular, there was a line of jumps parallel to the dogwalk, the course was the dogwalk to a turn to a jump, then the weaves. I sent Stewie to the dogwalk, layered the line of jumps, and also layered the weaves with no problem. Unfortunately coming back around the course, Stewie took an off course, but I was very pleased with the distance work.

The 2nd Regular run, Stewie blasted by the weaves, and we had another off-course, a disconnected run.

Next class was Chances. Stewie did the distance portion no problem, and then blew by the set of six weave poles at the end. What a disappointment! First not to get the Q, and second that our weaving in trials problem is coming back.

Last run was Tunnelers, and I worked distance some more, and I didn't get a signal in soon enough, and we had an off course.

Overall, a great day, Lynn is absolutely right, working the distance in all runs will help us with our Chances skills.

Act Up Agility Trial Elite Jumpers Video

Here is the video from Saturday's Elite Jumpers run. It was a Q and a 2nd place. Thanks to Gina for filming.

Act Up Agility

Stewie and I are headed to Act Up Agility trial this weekend. Chances here we come!

2010 Goals

This is from Dog Sport magazine today on Facebook:

5 Tips for Goal Setting - 1) Develop long term and short terms goals of what you desire to achieve. 2) Develop training plans. 3) Keep a record of your progress. 4) Figure out what motivates you to improve your dog training. 5) Remember to have FUN and keep it FUN for your dog!

Here are Stewie's and my goals for 2010: in no particular order!

Increase distance work
Work on increasing lateral distance
Improve our get outs
I need to work on my body movement and keeping my cues consistent.
Work distance in every run, and don't just run for the Q-this will be difficult for me!
Get our last 6 Chances Q's to get our NATCH!
Have a lot of fun!

Sunday workshop

We had a workshop in Grantham Sunday and worked on get outs and also coming back in to reinforce control. One of the get out exercises was working with two hoops next to each other in a big circle. You drew the line so the dog went through the inner hoop on one set, then the outer hoop in the next one and so on. I had a lot of trouble with this exercise. I was being very uncoordinated. I am going to ask my son to make me some more hoops and practice this in the backyard. Once mastered this will be very useful on NADAC courses.
In the afternoon we worked on a box of jumps. I handled it from the inside of the box and did well. Then I was challenged to run it from the outside of the box, and that was a lot more difficult. But as I was told, I have to work distance to gain distance skills. After a couple of tries I got a bit better at it. I really need to work on my body position, cues, and timing. Poor Stewie has to work with a very inconsistent handler, the poor dog.
I am still working on my lateral distance right from the start line. It is getting a bit easier all the time.
Today we went out in the backyard, and I was going to give Stewie the day off from agility, but he was asking to play so we did. We worked on the dogwalk at a distance and also going on from the dog walk to another series of obstacles with me at a lateral distance. Stewie was going very well with the dogwalk exercises.

Beautiful Saturday

We got out for two great walks with Stewie on Saturday. What a great day to be outside. The only downside was that we found 4 of the tiny ticks on him afterward. At least he is mostly white so they are easy to see. I got him checked over and groomed up before he went in the house. Sure don't want to get any ticks on Kitty.

Some fun training in the backyard

I have my hoops, some jumps, and two tunnels out in the yard, and a partially painted dogwalk. It just needs one more coat, but is was rainy today.
We have been working on our directionals, lefts and rights, and sends the last couple of days. It is great to work outside again.

Friday Run thrus

Friday Stewie and I went to a new nearby location for some outdoor run thrus. There was a jumpers course set up and also another fenced in yard with contact equipment in it, it was quite wet but we worked our contacts anyway.

We had already done our walk in the woods before we got there, and we did tons of work there. Stewie was very good and focused, and boy was he tired when we got home. A tired terrier is so good and quiet!

Collage

Hunting!

Get on the Ball, great for rainy days!

The Get on the Ball program is such a great winter activity and great for all the rainy days we have been having as well. Stewie gets excited when I get the ball out, and can't wait to start! It is good for his muscles/core strength, and really helps tire him out.

Run thrus today

The outdoor run thrus were inside because it was too cold. Crazy, it was in the 40's. Anyway we stayed and got in 4 runs, 2 on two different standard courses. It was tight inside, and the courses were USDAA like, but it was still fun. We worked on our leadouts, contacts, and weaves. We also got reacquainted with the teeter and the tire which we don't see much anymore. All in all a fun two hours.

Bo-Gee Agility Run thurs today

Stewie and I are heading to outdoor run-thrus at Boo-Gee in Raymond this afternoon. Should be fun!

Fun with directionals

Stewie and I had a good practice with our 4 hoops and a couple of jumps. We practiced our directionals and turns! It is great to be practicing outside again.
I am also practicing more lateral distance in my leadouts.

Ball work

Stewie has been keeping up with his ball work at least three times a  week. He loves the ball, he gets attention and treat, and I have definitely noticed more his hind legs are more muscular  then they were before we started in January. His doggie "abs" are stronger too. It is wonderful excercise and it does tire him out now  that we do the  Advanced plan.
Check it out here:  Clean Run

Walk at Conservation Land

It wasn't raining when I got home from work, so Stewie and I got in a good walk at the Conservation land. We saw our buddy the Blue Heron. It was pretty wet walking and the brook was running really fast.

Great Practice Today

Great practice today at the barn, and pretty warm there too! We worked on discriminations today, and Stewie did great, as long as I held up my end! Always so much harder to train yourself. I am working on leading out with more lateral distance also. It was great to get out and do a full course, and after some ball work later in the day, Stewie is ready to sleep for the rest of the night.

Top of the Morning to ya!

Interesting article on dog fitness

Thoughts on injury prevention in agility dogs
by Hannah Banks
Are more dogs getting injured now that jump heights are lowered? It seems far too often now that I hear of another dog that is injured. I don’t remember so many dogs getting injured five years ago, are there just more dogs doing agility now, or is there a reason why so many are getting injured? Some people have asked my for some thoughts on injury prevention, so here they are!




1. Your dog should be fit before it starts doing agility. Do not make an overweight dog do agility!



2. Every dog has an injury threshold. Agility is a high impact sport; do too much and something will eventually give way. Just how much ‘too much’ is will vary from dog to dog. Of course, our goal is to avoid injury. In human sports, top trainers warn people in training to beware the 'terrible toos' - doing too much, too soon, too fast. Every research paper and every expert agrees that this is the number one cause of sports injuries. The body needs time to adapt from training changes and jumps in duration or intensity. Muscles and joints need recovery time in order to handle more training demands. Intense muscle usage causes muscle microfiber trauma, and this activates the development of more muscle fibres, which is how (during the rest period after such activities) muscles become bigger and stronger in response to exercise. While muscles can respond to exercise in a time scale of days and weeks, it has been estimated that it takes six weeks for human ligaments to repair after injury. If you rush the training process, you could break down rather than build up. It is worth starting with a very small amount (on lowered equipment if possible) and following ‘the 10 per cent rule’ used by many sports coaches as a general guideline. This means that the weekly increase of training would never exceed 10% more than the week before (ie if the total amount of agility the first week is three ten minute session, the second week would be three eleven minute sessions.) However that does not take into account the intensity of your sessions, so if the equipment is being raised that should be taken into account as well (so reduce the total time spent training and only raise the equipment very slowly). In addition to following a hard day/easy day approach, many top athletes use a system where they scale back by 20 to 40 per cent on a regular basis, maybe once a month.

Action Plan: Increase the amount of agility you do with your dog very slowly. Keeping a detailed training log can help you gauge your balance of injury prevention with improving performance. Record your training and how your dog is behaving. Look for patterns. For instance, too much training could cause your dogs’ performance to suffer rather than improve. Try to find the perfect balance!



3. If something is not quite right with your dog, if it isn’t jumping smoothly, or starts having problems with something, if there are behavioural changes (doesn’t seem to want to ‘play’), or you just have a gut feeling that something isn’t right, then stop training! Most sports injuries don't just suddenly appear. They produce signals - aches, soreness, and eventually persistent pain – but your dog cannot tell you this in English! It's up to you to notice – and not dismiss - the signs. Get to the root of what's causing the changes that you notice, you could prevent a major injury by spotting problems early on. Regularly massaging your dog may also help you to notice sore, hot or tense spots that signal potential problem areas, and massage may also help alleviate minor problems before they develop into something more serious.
Action Plan At the first sign of atypical behaviour that might indicate pain stop training your dog and get it checked out by a professional. Follow the advise the professional gives you regarding treatment and a recovery period, then ease your dog carefully back into work, do not rush it back into doing the same amount of work as before, you may cause the same damage again, especially if your dog has lost fitness during its’ time out. When unused, muscles degenerate and after a period of time muscle wastage is apparent. (See points above!)



4. Core muscle strength can help keep your dogs body properly aligned. Healthy movement should be as symmetrical and as fluid as possible. If you don't have muscle balance, then you lose the symmetry, and that's when you start having problems. Just like human athletes, a well conditioned and muscled dog that is properly warmed up is far less likely to suffer from sprains, pulls, tears, back or joint problems. Strong muscles protect the joints and back from injury, as anyone with back problems who undertakes pilates classes will tell you. Bodies are susceptible to injury from carrying out the same movement repetitiously (resulting in what is commonly called repetitive strain injury (RSI) or overuse injuries). So a mixture of exercises (swimming, walking, trotting, long walks, free running over different types of terrain, ladder work, wobble boards, tricks and games, as well as agility) are less likely to cause injuries and more likely to build a happy, fit dog, than carrying out the same exercises repetitively (ie only doing agility). Twisting, braking, landing impact, and sharp turning movements are demanding on muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints and bones. A dog must be fit in order to be able to do all these things. Slow controlled core muscle exercises will help develop muscle groups that ‘fine tune’ exact movement. These muscles also help stabilise joints, and therefore protect them against excessive movement of the joints that lead to wear between the joints, or overstretching that may lead to injury of ligaments, muscle or tendon. Rest periods are just as important as exercise. It is during rest that the body rebuilds itself and becomes stronger in response to the demands of previous activities. Without adequate rest, the wear and tear of exercise would weaken rather than strengthen the body. It is also interesting to note that gentle exercise is much better for the dogs’ recovery than complete inactivity.

Action plan: Give your dog a variety of activities, with regular gentle activity days. Balance the routine of more demanding agility alternating with days of gentler walks, core-muscle strength exercises, co-ordination and balance exercises, or tricks.



5. Get into habits that prevent damage. There are a few things that are done habitually by many people that regularly cause injury (and sometimes fatal injury). Releasing a pack in an exercise area to charge off racing each other has caused many terrible accidents, as the dogs are looking at each other while they are racing, and not where they are going. It is easy to prevent a catastrophic event by getting into a habit of releasing individuals in a controlled way, either releasing them one by one over time and distance as they settle into the walk, or keeping one (or some!) on lead throughout the walk, swapping individuals from free running to lead walking if necessary. Throwing toys is another danger area. If you talk to your vet about how many injuries have been caused by sticks being thrown I doubt that you will ever throw a stick for your dog again! In fact I would not recommend throwing a toy constantly for your dog, as the concussive force and twisting caused by the dog braking and snatching at a toy that it is chasing at full speed can cause acute or chronic physical damage. If you are throwing toys and there are a number of dogs likely to chase it, the statistics of an accident happening are significantly increased!

Action plan: Manage your dogs’ daily exercise habits to prevent accidents.

6. Warm up your dog properly before training, and cool down gently after.

Clean Run videos on demand

Clean Run DVDs now available via Video on Demand


We've continued adding titles to our Video on Demand library --

http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_ID=497

We now have 25 videos available for rental. And if you decide to buy the
DVD, you can apply a portion of your rental fee to the purchase.

Agility club practice

Stewie and I had a good practice at club practice today. We got to work the contacts, including the teeter, and did several sets of weave poles. We had a great time!

Snowgility

Sunday at Addicted to Agility Trial

Stewie started off Sunday with a spectacular jumpers run with a 1st and a Q. During Regular, he broke his start line stay and took the tunnel instead of the dogwalk. I should have taken him off, but didn't. Touch and Go we did an off course.but he had good, fast contacts.
During Chances Stewie did the distance part easily, but I didn't call him in in time, and he went over the line. I entered Stewie in Weavers for the first time in a year, and he smoked it and got a Q and a 2nd place, coming in 8 seconds under time. We finished the day with a great Tunnelers run! Stewie and I both liked the new venue and my knees in particular loved the turf.

Addicted to Agility's new venue

Here is an arial view of the ring and the crating area at the Smithfield RI venue

Stewie made it to Addicted to Agility's RI trial, no thanks to the wind storm!

Stewie and I made it to Addicted to Agility's first trial in Smithfield RI at the Wide World of Indoor Sports last on Saturday because of the wind storm and power outage. We made it just in time to walk Tunnelers, and we had a pretty good run and got a Q. Thanks to Jules for taking the video!
The last run of the day was Elite Jumpers, and we had a really awesome run. It was fast and fun! Stewie got a 1st place and a Q.

Stewie's Tunnelers run 2/27/2010-Smithfield, RI-Thanks Jules!

Great walk and geocaching today!

We went to a new locale to walk today, Fremont Town Forest, the trail was great and it was a beautiful, sunny day. Afterward we found a nearby Geocache, once we got near to it, Stewie pointed it out to Dave!

NADAC Top Ten by Breed-Jack Russell Terriers

Small brag. Stewie made the Top Ten JRT's in NADAC in 2009 in Regular, Touch and Go, Tunnelers, and gasp! Chances.

Agility Workshop

Stewie and I got a good workout at the workshop today. We worked on directionals and get outs and which one to use when. As always I need to work on being more timely with my cues and being more consistent with my cues also. So much harder to train myself then to train Stewie. I also need to practice my lateral leadouts.

Agility Tomorrow!

Stewie and I will finally get an agility fix tomorrow at the barn in Grantham, can't wait.

Winter Pics

 

 

 

Walk at conservation land

It was a beautiful day to take a walk at the conservation land.

 

Some directionals tonight!

It was so nice tonight and still light outside so Stewie and I did some directional training with out one Hoop that isn't too deep in the snow. We definitely needed the practice. Can't wait to go to the barn in Grantham for training this weekend, haven't done any agility in so long

Stewie is finally better!

Stewie's toe is finally better, he finished the antibiotics and the surrounding area is no longer red. We actually went on about a mile walk today, the furthest we have been in over two weeks. It felt great! Now we are getting anxious to go to Addicted to Agility's February trial in two weeks!

February is Pet Dental Health Month!

Check out Johann's blog and take the dental challenge! Stewie and I are doing it again this year!

Free Clicker E-book at AgilityNerd

Clicker training is the best, and you can get some info about it and a free ebook download at AgilityNerd

Have fun!

Stewie reviews Pawz dog bootie

Stewie needs something to protect his foot from road salt and the elements since he ripped one of his back toenails off last week. We got some PawZ Protective dog boots from Clean Run
The Pawz ran true to size, they recommended the small for Jack Russell Terriers and it fits well, it is even a little roomy. The boot looks like a small balloon but is quite rugged. It slips on easily and it stays on really well. I am very impressed. Stewie wore it in and outdoors on Sunday, while he was loose in the yard and while taking a walk, and it never came off.

Pawz boots are disposable and reusable. They come in packs of 12, we are still using the 1st one we put on. They are waterproof and thin enough so Stewie can keep his grip and balance on the ice.

They are very cool and Stewie recommends Pawz Protective Dog boots.