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!