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.

Sunday at NAE Glastonbury, CT

Sunday's classes started with Tunnelers. It was a really nice, flowing course, but we managed to mess it up! After a tunnel, Stewie turned the wrong way, which somehow caused me to trip, and it went downhill from there, since I forgot where to go after that. Oh well, Stewie had fun anyway.

Regular 1 and 2 were next, both were great, flowing courses. Stewie got the weaves first shot again, and weaved very fast and confidently! I am so pleased with his weaves this weekend. This was an almost perfect run, but I pulled him too hard at jump #11 since I was afraid he would take the A-frame, but we recovered and the rest of the run was perfect, but no Q

Regular 2 was an awesome run, he got the weave pole entry again, and he was going fast when he entered them. He got his tunnel/dog walk discrimination with no problems. A Q and a 1st place. Yards per second were 4.79.

Chances was next, and it looked challenging. We got a good start, but Stewie did not turn out to the # 7 jump, and we didn't make it to the # 8 tunnel.

Our last run of the day was Jumpers and it was a fast course! Look at the beginning, it is lucky I can send Stewie on ahead of me, or I would never have made it. Stewie had a great run and made it look easy and ended the weekend with a Q and a 1st place, with a yard per second of 5.07.

Club Practice

We had beautiful weather and a great practice Wednesday at club practice. We set up a USDAA Masters standard course. It was a great course except for the threadle, I hate threadles. That is probably because I don't do them very well, I admit it!
Anyway, Stewie did fabulous weaves every time and got the entry every time, hurray! I handled the dogwalk from outside of the weave poles then called him over 12 and then turned and sent him to the poles. It worked great.

Club Practice

Club practice was awesome this week, beautiful weather, and lots of people and dogs. There was a nice USDAA standard course. I got some good distance practice with Stewie. He did great weave poles also! He bailed off of the teeter though, I will have to practice that more if we ever do more USDAA trials.
We had 3 good runs and Stewie was eager to run all of them. He and Tom's JRT Tara were much more calm around each other, so they are getting more used to each other.

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!

Sunday in Stowe, Hot Hot Hot!

Boy was it hot, even hotter than Saturday and less of a breeze. Stewie was hot but he was also a trooper. The first run of the day was Touch and Go. It was fun but we took an off course so we didn't get a Q.




Next was Tunnelers, and it was a great course, not a lot of traps, lots of opportunities to "go on"and we got a Q and a blue.

We even got an Elite Hoopers Q and blue! It was the first Hoopers course that really flowed and it was actually fun.

Regular, oh regular, we can't get a Q in regular. It was a great course, but we just can't get a set of weaves at all in competition. He did get his contacts, and I did a lot of sending and layering, so it was still a good run.

Dummerston NADAC Trial

Mary, Lexi, Stewie and I went to Dummerston Vermont this past weekend to a NADAC agility trial . The first course was Elite Chances, and it was a doozy! We only made it to the tunnel and Stewie did not send to the weave poles. They were pretty far out and the next jump after the poles, #9 was over 40 feet from the line! It was way too much for us, and only 1 or 2 out of all the Elite dogs Q'ed.

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

Club Practice this week

Here is the course map from this week's club practice. Sorry it is a bad scan. I worked on distance skills with Stewie on this course, trying to stay in the center of the course for the whole thing. Also we did put in a set of 12 weave poles instead of a set of 6. The spot we had trouble with in the beginning was after the A frame. I decided to send him to the two jumps after the A frame and then layer the a frame while he was weaving. This was a difficult move but I am trying to push the distance envelope during practices. It took us 3 tries but we did it and then Stewie got the weave entry and continued weaving like a champ! The rest of the course was pretty easy, after the weaves he continued on no problem to the next two jumps, the tunnel, jump and dog walk to finish. After our 3 run thru with this course, Stewie had it down pact, so we did it backward the next two times and then called it a night.

Weaves speed!

Yesterday I had Dave time Stewie while he went through the weaves 3 times.
I had time start at a jump, then a tunnel so he hit the weaves at speed. His first time was 3.37 seconds, the 2nd time was 3.57, and the last time was 3.05 seconds.

Club Practice!

NEAT had its weekly practice last night, not even a sprinkle. Stewie had several good runs. We specifically worked on distance and me letting him know earlier when a turn was coming up. Great stops on the dog walk and after the A-frame which I have not been seeing much at trials!

We had great fun and Stewie was ready to settle down when we got home.

Get outs and weaves

We had a good practice Tuesday night. We worked on get outs to jumps and tunnels, with about 20 feet of lateral distance. Stewie was doing great with that. Then we put it into a short sequence that included 12 weave poles from different directions. He was smoking! He likes to weave so much more now and is much faster and more confident! A great short practice session.

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.

Some fun agility today

Finally Stewie and I did some agility today. We did about 8 repetitions on our 2 sets of 6 weave poles, and Stewie did really well. We also practiced some stays, and some sends and go on's to the table which was about 100 plus feet away. Stewie did really well!

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.

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.

NADAC distance practice

It was a much warmer start to practice at the horse barn yesterday, actually warmer outside than in the barn. We did a great jumpers course, practicing go on's and lateral distance. There was a serpentine in it which was no problem for Stewie.
I still have to practice being quicker on my cues, esp when he is in the tunnel. He needs to know when he is halfway through whether he is going straight, go on, or turning, here or out.
The next course we did we put in a big speed circle and incorporated some hoops and 12 weave poles. It was a good test of lateral distance from the weave poles, and since he was exiting a tunnel and going to the weaves, for me to give him direction sooner. He had good collection from the tunnels to the poles, getting all his entries.

Distance Practice Go On's

Stewie and I practiced at the horse arena yesterday, it was cold but we took our turn often enough to stay warm. We worked on a Elite Chances course with the line down. We were not very successful at first. He was okay going on in a straight line away from me, but not laterally after a 90 degree turn.
I revved him up and ran with me and that helped quite a bit.

We need to practice go on's  more and get him more confident. And one thing I have to work on besides my body language and timing is to be able to sacrifice Q's in order to get better at distance work. That is going to be hard for me. I am more competitive than I had thought I would be when I started agility.