If I knew then what I know now-Don't blame the dog!

Today is a Dog Agility Blog Event Day.

When I started agility about eight years ago, I was a novice and so was my pup. There are several things I would do differently now looking back. But my main piece of advice is: Don't blame the dog!

As a novice starting out there are so many things to remember to do, watch the dog, give your cues, move your body, watch where you are going, and remembering where to go next!

Train your dog and train yourself! In the beginning you are training your dog to do obstacles. I have found out that training the dog is the easy part. It was training myself that is hard. The handler must be the leader, providing the dog with timely cues on what obstacle to take and where they are going next. Your dog will go exactly where your body tells it to go.

When I watch novice handlers at trials I sometimes see handlers frustrated when their dog goes off course when their body language is clearly sending them that way! Dogs pick up on your emotions, frustration, and disappointment. Please do not de-motivate your dog.

Stay upbeat. Do not scold or become upset with your dog. Your relationship with your dog is much more important than any Q. That can be hard to see when you are first competing and you really want to do well. I found out that I was a lot more competitive than I thought I would be. But think about the your partner, he needs to be having fun too. When you make a mistake use that as information for next time. Just continue on and praise your dog, he is working his hardest for you. Always keep the fun in agility! If you keep up the fun, your dog will always be willing to play with you.

I am lucky, my Jack Russell Terrier  was and is highly motivated to do agility. He was very forgiving of me and my mistakes! I didn't understand as a novice handler that mistakes were my fault. I thought I needed to keep training the dog when I needed to improve my handling.

Try new things and listen to your dog. When it became clear that my Jack Russell Terrier, Stewie really disliked 2 on 2 off contacts, we tried something new. I went to running contacts which he very clearly preferred. Now one of his favorite things is "making air" over the A-frame.

Enjoy agility with your dog, and remember to play with your dog and have fun, that is the most important thing!

Please check out many other blogs on this topic at If I knew than what I know now.

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Sunday Practice at the Barn

We had a great practice in the horse barn Sunday!  Stewie really needed to run and stretch his legs after the recent snow and cold. We have been practicing our tugging, using Susan Garrett's Brilliant Recall program for guidance. Stewie's tugging has really improved! He tugged inside the barn, and also outside with other dogs and horses present. He was really keeping his focus on me.

Click here for a recent Susan Garrett post on tugging duration.

The Coliseum in Springfield Illinois

Here are some shots of the exterior and the interior of the Coliseum where the NADAC Champs was held last week. It is a beautiful building, the the running surface was fabulous for both dogs and handlers alike, It looks like dirt but was actually a 80/20 mixture of sand and coarse sawdust.

Stewie loved it in there and responded the the energy and applause like the champion he is!

Introducing...NATCH Stewie!

Stewie is now NATCH Stewie. He finished his Championship on Saturday, September 24 with a beautiful and fast Chances Q. Sarah Fix was the judge and the club was Act Up Agility, in North Smithfield, RI.

Stewie earns his Superior Elite Regular Title!

Stewie earned his S-EAC title on New Years Day 2011 with a 1st place Q! This was at Addicted to Agility's trial at N. Smithfield RI with judge Roger Coor. It was an awesome run with great weave poles with a time of 37.72. The 2nd regular run that day was the same course turned around, and Stewie had another blazing fast with with great poles, and beat his own time by 3 seconds with a time of 34.73!

You need to have 40 Elite Regular Q's to earn the Superior title. Great job Stewie!

According to my records, Stewie has gotten 7 Regular Q's since August 1, 2010 toward Championshops 2011!

Conservation Land Stewie and Cleveland

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

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!!

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!

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.

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

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.