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Sunday, November 30, 2008

3 day AKC trial

Well the weekend started out really good but then didn't end so well. In JWW on Friday, both dogs ran clean. Enzo ended up with 2nd place. In standard Tooney leapt over the dogwalk contact but Enzo was clean. He wasted quite a few seconds on the table so his time wasn't great but it was a double Q!

On saturday I had only entered Enzo. He was clean in JWW even though he got a little spooked by the kid doing leash running right before he ran. He was ok after the kid turned around but Enzo definitely didn't like the way the kid was staring at him. He ended up with 3rd place on this run. In Standard, he would have Q'd except that he decided to bail on the teeter. The trial was in a covered horse arena so I think the loud echoing must of scared him the day before. I went home and had him do a lot of teeters at home with high value treats hoping that would help for the next day.

Sunday I ran both dogs again. In JWW, the hard part was the beginning and I got my dogs through that fine but then they both had weird mistakes later on. Tooney turned the wrong way on a jump and then back jumped it. Enzo took an off course jump straight ahead when he was supposed to come into me for the third jump of the pinwheel. I'm sure I was late on my rotation for the front cross. In Standard Tooney did really well except that I pulled her off of the tunnel. She was headed towards the correct end already when I called her. Enzo's run was a little bit of a mess. I tried to front cross the aframe and he missed the contact. Then he ran past the teeter. I called him back and he did it the second time although very cautiously. I said good boy after he did the teeter and he stopped dead in his tracks on the way to the table and I almost ran into him. I had to lean over and stop myself on the table. The judge asked me if I was ok. it was prety funny.

Anyways, now I'm wondering if I should avoid trials under covered arenas for a while. The last time we trialed under the other arena in the area he was fine with the teeter but he has had issues there in the past. Hopefully if I work with him a lot this week he'll be ok with the teeter for this weekend's USDAA trial.

Monday, November 24, 2008

The Elusive Double Q

I went to another AKC trial this weekend with Enzo only. We started the weekend with a kind of weird JWW course with a lot of funky lead changes. I wasn't a very fun course but we got through the parts that I thought were the hard parts but I got out of position at the very end. We were supposed to drive down a fairly straight line of jumps but I ended up behind and lateral and he pulled into an off course tunnel. Standard went much better and he ended up getting first place. His teeter performance was a little borderline but he didn't get called for it. He did his dogwalk really well and is driving better to the bottom. He still isn't stopping on the aframe in trials but he is adding an extra stride at least.

He had two nice runs on Sunday but no Q's. In Jww, he ended up knocking one bar but it was totally my fault for yelling his name when he was taking the triple. The triple jump was facing the wrong ended of the tunnel and I could see that he was locked on to it. I didn't cue him properly before he took off and panicked. In standard he knocked a bar when I was doing a front cross. I may have said something to him as he was jumping here too and the cross might have been a bit late. He ended up getting called on the teeter too. He kind of bounced off the side and somehow ended up running behind me. I lost him for a second and even though he was running towards the correct tunnel I called him back and resent him because i don't want him to think it's ok to run behind me. His dogwalk was really nice again and his aframe was a little better than the day before. The stinker did get up on the table once but he sat back down after a couple commands. In the past he would have been done with the table if that happened.

I'll have to see if still have any of the course maps because there were some interesting courses. Unfortunately, our chances of making AKC nationals are offically gone but at least now I can concentrate on improving my handling and tightening up his turns without the pressure!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

AKC trial 11/15-16

Tooney is all healed up and got to run this weekend. She was happy about that. Saturday, Tooney got 2nd in JWW and Enzo knocked the triple. Tooney actually beat Enzo's time by 0.5 seconds this run. In Standard, Tooney went into the wrong side of the weaves but Enzo was clean. Enzo ended up with 4th place but only a few tenths out of 2nd place. The first place dog was a few seconds faster. He also had his fastest YPS in standard to date with 4.3 YPS. His table is definitely a lot better. He stil hesitates a little but not too bad. He self releases on the contacts but at least he's not leaping off. On the dogwalk, he slows down the last few steps and when he reaches the last stride before his front feet would hit the ground, he just takes off and leaves me in the dust. Not exactly the behavior, I'm aiming for. But note that again Enzo missed a double Q by one bar! ergh.

When I got home on Saturday, the skies were filled with smoke. This in one problem with living in Southern CA. Our house is about 15 miles from where the fire was and we live in a pretty urban area so no danger of fire reaching our house but I defintely wonder about the long term health effect of breathing in all that smoke. The wind changed later in the afternoon and started blowing the smoke away from our house instead of directly over it.

Sunday I went back to the trial. The trial was fairly close to the other fire so the air was a little smokey there too. Both dogs ran clean in JWW. Enzo had one wide turn but still beat Tooney's time by half a second this time. He ended up with 4th place but again only a few tenths out of second and about a second out of first. His YPS was 5.8 so defintely a good time. In standard, Tooney took and off course jump. They were supposed to come out of a tunnel and turn 180 in the chute but she shot out straight in front of me and took the triple. Enzo ended up taking the wrong ended of the tunnel after the teeter so no double Q's this weekend. I think that pretty much kills my chances of getting him Q'd for AKC nationals. He only has 5 chances to get 4 double Q's so not likely at all.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

No double Q's but contacts are back

I ran Enzo in an AKC trial this weekend. Tooney was entered but one of her anal glands ruptured again. This is the third time so our vet said that we should get them removed. Poor girlie.

Yesterday Enzo got second place in jww. I kind of took it easy and did all rear crosses. It felt a little slow after doing USDAA all last week but he still did it in 5.57 yds/sec so I guess it wasn't actually slow. In standard he had a really nice run but knocked one bar. He stopped on the dogwalk but not the aframe but he was coming down all the way instead of leaping off.

Today JWW was a little rocky the whole time but he stayed on course until the very end when he ran past the last jump. It was totally my fault as I should have rear crossed the 2nd to last jump. In standard he shot out of the tunnel and took an off course jump. He also stopped in the middle of the weaves and started sniffing around. I dont think he's ever done that before. He was fine the second time when I restarted him. Again he had nice contacts at least. He really drove down to the end of the dogwalk and stopped and the aframe he didn't stop but came all the way down.

Friday, November 7, 2008

22" for Enzo

I've made the decision to move Enzo out of Performance and jump him at 22" Championship for USDAA. We practiced at 20" in Tuesday night's class and 22" in Wednesday nights class and he did great at those heights. I don't think he knocked any bars on Tuesday and maybe 2 on Wednesday but those were kind of hard angles to begin with and I was taking off away from him. Last time that I ran him at 22" (about a year ago other than at home) he was lacking confidence and would slow down and add strides to make sure he didn't knock any bars but now it didn't seem to bother him at all. He's just under 18" so on the smaller side for the jump height but this dog can jump up to my head level when he wants so you would think 22" shouldn't be a problem!

Our next USDAA trial is December 6-7 which is a Tournament only trial so we should be able to get lots of practice in at 20/22" before that. I'd just better remember to practice triple and double jumps at home since we don't set those up in class very often. Already have a great DAM team set up for Enzo with two of his border collie classmates and Tooney has a very solid PVP partner too for that trial.

We have 4 AKC weekends before that. Hopefully the work that I've been doing on his contacts this week sunk in. I brought the target back out and that seems to have revived some of his enthusiasm for the 2on/2off position.

Monday, November 3, 2008

PVP Standard





Here's Tooney's PVP Standard run. She missed the dogwalk contact and then almost took the number 9 jump instead of the number 8 jump but since it wasn't a tunnel she called off of it and I was able to fix it. Enzo leapt his aframe contact again and because of that I couldn't push him to the 14 jump and he ran past it and then backjumped it. I also think it probably would have been faster to wrap to the right instead of the left on jump 18.

Performance Speed Jumping Semifinals








Here's Tooney and Enzo's PSJ runs. I handled them a little differently. Normally I try to handle them the same. For Enzo I handled 4-6 as a serpentine and rear crossed 6. For Tooney, I left her in the weaves a little and front crossed between 4 and 5. Both ways worked fine. I didn't think I'd be able to get far enough away from the weaves to get a timely front cross in for Enzo.

The other place I handled them differently was from the 12 tunnel to the weaves. For Enzo I pulled to the 13 jump and then rear crossed jump 15. The line from 13 to 15 on the actual course was a little straighter than on the map which was why I didn't cross behind number 14. With Tooney I front crossed on the landing side of jump 13. That almost pushed her out to the off course jump. I didn't want to handle that line with her the way that I did for Enzo because I was worried that the rear cross would pull her off the weave entrance. Enzo actually has better weave entrances than Tooney does, but is not as good with me leaving him laterally in the weaves.

The ending line I should have rear crossed number 18. I thought I could be even with them for the push but I wasn't. I was a little bit worried that putting pressure on that jump would send them into the tunnel instead.

Tooney was clean but with the wide turns her time wasn't nearly good enough to make the finals. She ended up 17th and they took 10. Enzo had another missed contact but with his wide turn before the aframe and the spin at the end, his time still would have been just out of the finals. His time would have put him in 13th if he didn't miss the contact.

Performance National Standard Semifinals





Enzo missed the aframe contact for sure and I think he may have missed the dogwalk too but didn't get called. The refusal after the chute was my fault for not supporting the jump enough. I didn't think about the fact that he would be blind coming out of the chute and I was worried about him going wide after that jump. Even with the refusal his time was only 0.02 seconds behind the last dog to make it into the finals so if we had been clean he could have gotten into the finals!

Tooney ended up going off course. After the number 6 jump she touched the aframe.

PNS Quarterfinals





Here is Enzo's Quarterfinal run for Performance National Standard. Pretty straightforward course. Hardest part was the turn from 15 to the dogwalk. On the actual course the number 19 jump was a lot more in their view so I rear crossed 15 and then front crossed after it which is not necessarily a move I'm super comfortable with but it worked out well. I just had to make sure that Enzo got his contacts so I was pretty stern with him to make sure he listened. Slowed him down a lot but at least it worked. Enzo ended up in 8th place. Tooney had a bye into the Semifinals so she didn't run this course.

PVP Jumpers Run








Here is video of Enzo's PVP Jumpers run and the course map. He was really wound up and ended up knocking 2 bars. I forgot to do a couple jumps at the warmup jump at 20 or 22". That usually keeps him from jumping too flat. I was just really proud of him for not taking the wrong end of the tunnel after the broad jump. Tooney took the wrong end of the tunnel.


Sunday, November 2, 2008

Last Day of USDAA Nationals.

We're home now from Nationals. This morning I did the European jumpers course. Enzo did really well, just had one really wide turn where he actually ran out of the ring and around a post for the ring before coming back. I didn't decelerate before the 180 turn. oops! Tooney went off course again! She definitely suffered from tunnel sucking this weekend. Don't know what's going on with her but I'm really happy with how Enzo was running with the exception of his contacts of course. It's just bad timing that he decided to start blowing them the week before nationals! He was really fast and focused all weekend and paid attention on some pretty tough courses. I just need to keep working on my timing with turning cues to get him tighter. He did great for a 2.5 year old at his first nationals!

Oh and we also did a couple of private lessons with Melissa Heeter and got some interesting tips from her and some drills to work on.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

USDAA Nationals Day 2 & 3

I didn't get a post out yesterday because after 6 runs in the heat, I was just wiped out, mentally and physically.

Yesterday, our first run was PNS semifinals. Enzo ran first again. He was pretty close on his dogwalk contact, completely leaped over his aframe contact, and then I pulled him off a jump for a refusal. Other than that though he had a pretty nice run. Even with the refusal, his time ended up being just .02 seconds behind the last dog to make it into the finals so without the refusal and the missed contact he could have made it in! Tooney's run in PNS ended pretty early as she went off course after just 5 or 6 obstacles if that. Should have been an easy wrap but she just blasted off towards the aframe.

Next was Performance Speed Jumping. Enzo had a pretty nice run, with a couple wide turns but missed his aframe contact. Tooney had a clean run but a couple really wide turns so she didn't end up with a great time. Enzo's time was faster by 2 seconds. I checked the results this morning and Tooney ended up in 17th place and Enzo if he had been clean would have been in 13th so he still wouldn't have made it into the finals.

Last run of the day was team standard. Enzo got his dogwalk contact this time but leapt over the aframe contact and then ran past the next jump and back jumped it. Tooney ended up missing her dogwalk contact but managed to stay on course this time.

Today was team gamblers. Both dogs did good this time but you can't really mess up gamblers! The "gambler" this time was just after the buzzer point were doubled and you have to cross the finish jump before the closing time was over. Enzo got one of his aframe contacts but not the other. We're really going to have to work this when we get home!

Tommorrow is our last run with European Jumpers!