Fun match Nov. 21, 2009

Fun match yesterday, woohoo! It was tons of fun -- great to be able to do actual agility again, not just individual obstacles and short exercises (all that fits in our backyard and basement).

Each dog did one Starters Standard and one Starters Gamblers (there's no way I'd be able to memorize two different courses on the same setup which is why I ran Starters with Mika -- and also to give her a break from all the tough technical courses we've run together all year).

Mika

Starters Standard
I thought Mika was fast before...but this was really fast! I was a bit concerned that she'd have flashbacks from "THE Bad Experience" (on the teeter). That was two and a half years ago at our first ever fun match on April 1, 2007. This is Mika's first fun match at this venue since then. But no, she wasn't worried! Yay, what a brave girlie, and such a huge change from our first fun match those years ago!!

Starters Gamblers
Started off with the weaves (straight on entry), with she got, fast and accurate. I threw her food tube a LOT in this run since Gamblers isn't very flowing. We got the gamble -- chute, tire, jump, in a straight line -- perfectly. It was fun!

Wall-e

Starters Standard
He got the chute right away! He's been having some trouble with new chutes in different environments, but he did this brand-new chute that he's never been in before the first time! Rewarded a lot for that. Aaand...he got his WEAVES!!

Starters Gamblers
Started with the weaves (like Mika), which he got! Then we were going to do the mini gamble. Hahaha, Wall-e did it harder than it was supposed to be. There was a jump, then ahead, two jumps beside each other parallel to the first jump (set so that the dog had a choice of which jump to take), and then a tunnel under the A-frame. The Starters mini gamble was jump, then the jump closer to the handler. Simple. But WALL-E took the first jump, then from the two jumps beside each other he took the jump farther away from me, and then ran into the tunnel! HA! Wow. What a Gamblers dog. Even in the main gamble, I meant for him to do the chute but he ran out farther away and did a jump on the other side of the chute! I used my opposite arm to pull him in to me (which he responded to immediately) and he did the chute. He really prefers to work far away from me rather than close to me.

Sleeping photos

Mika sleeping in the sun

Wall-e sleeps in the strangest places

No Regionals/Nationals for us in 2010

Next year the AAC Nationals will be held in Alberta, at Spruce Meadows, where the very first AAC Nationals were held. Sadly we won't be able to go next year -- Alberta is a bit too far. Hopefully we'll be able to go in 2011, assuming that Nationals will be held a bit closer that year. Watching some USDAA Nationals/Cynosport runs the previous few days, on livestream and YouTube (wish we could have actually been there!), brought back great memories of our AAC Regionals and Nationals! Congrats to everyone at the USDAA Nationals, from what I saw it looked like a great event!

~Nat

It's a tough job...

Finally, after endlessly running from window to window trying to "herd" the kids playing outside (which he would literally do all day if I let him), I took Wall-e down to the basement so he could finally sleep.

I'll bet he's dreaming of chasing his "sheep."

(About all of the layout changes...I'm hoping that this will be the last one, I was having trouble deciding, as you probably noticed :)

Happy "Gotcha Day," little man

One year ago I picked up Wall-e, then a 5 1/2 month old puppy, from his breeder. A lot has happened since that evening, and this sheltie has given me so much joy and fun. I've learned so much from him, and I'm sure I'll learn much more. Wall-e is exactly what I was looking for in a second dog. He's so eager, and always so happy, and has lots of drive, but has still provided challenges (which are one of my favourite aspects of dog training). What a great little dog! I can't believe it's been a whole year -- it's passed by incredibly fast. I hope there will be many more years to come with the Wall-e!

Celebrating his 1st Gotcha Day by having fun with his favourite obstacle, the weaves.

Wall-e's Weave entries -- time to refresh

Wall-e was having a bit of trouble with weave entries today. Usually he's good at them but today he missed two or three mild entries (entered at the 2nd pole). The nails are probably frozen in the ground by now so I can't set them back up in channels or 2x2's, but I can still work the first 3 poles by marking the entry with a "Yes!" and then say "Come!" to call him out of the poles and reward. We'll work the entries around the clock this way, a few reps every day.

That could be good for Mika too, considering that her entries need as much work as Wall-e's. You can probably tell that I'm not the best at training entries :) We all have weaknesses, but they give us opportunities to turn them into strengths!

~Nat

Wall-e's 2on2off training

Wall-e has been learning 2on2off on the plank in the backyard -- woohoo, I'm staying on track with our winter goals :) I used shaping to train the position, which worked well for him. Right now he can run across the flat plank and stop in 2o2o while barely collecting himself (which is what I want, because it means that it'll help him ease into a running contact eventually). Pretty often, though, he either stops short and stops in a 4-on position, or doesn't stop at all, so he probably doesn't understand the position as well as I thought. Back to basics -- this morning, I began backchaining the 2o2o position again, jumping onto the side of the plank from the ground, which a jump standard on either side to help him. He did really good, and I was already seeing improvement by the end of the 3-minute-or-so session.

~Nat