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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Busy Weekend

New one for me this weekend. Saturday I went to an AKC trial in the morning and then after it was done I went to an USDAA trial to do Steeplechase with Enzo! Only big drawback was that the USDAA trial was pretty slow running so I got there at noon and had to wait until 6pm to run Steeplechase. If I had known it was going to be that slow then I would have entered at least one Masters something run with Tooney. Sunday, I just went to USDAA and only entered a few runs in the morning so I could try for a Grand Prix Q with Enzo. It was a Masters only trial and Enzo would have real issues if Tooney got to run a bunch and he only got to do one run each day.

So at the AKC trial Tooney did well and got a double Q. She wasn't really running that fast for her but she ended up with two 2nd places. She at least seems to be listening and paying attention lately. Enzo had a nice run in JWW but knocked the triple and then Standard was not so great. He leapt over the aframe contact and didn't want to sit on the table. Also had a refusal later on in the run when I pulled away from a jump too soon. The leaping on the aframe didn't bode well for Steeplechase either so I practiced a lot of nose touches with him on all kinds of stuff.

So I got to the trial and they had only run two classes out of 6 so I knew I had a while to go. I looked at the course map and the Steeplechase only had one aframe and it was a very nice course so I decided it was worth waiting around for. Enzo did really well on the course and didn't knock any bars but did leap the aframe again. He ended up just making the cutoff by 1 second with the 5 faults added to his time. Whew! Glad to at least have him qualified in two of the three events for USDAA nationals.

Sunday, was just USDAA and Jeff came along since he was getting a private lesson with Benny Wong afterwards to see if Benny had some ideas of things to do with Tooney since Jeff is out of them. Tooney ran first in P3 standard and ended up with first place.




Then Enzo ran in round 2 of steeplechase. There wasn't much room at the start line so I set him up as far back as I could but then he ended up creeping up on the first jump so he knocked that one and the next one. He's way too ballistic off the start to make it over the jump when he's too close. That's a skill that I'd like to work on with him. I also caused him to run past a jump by not supporting it enough. The first aframe he hit the yellow but definitely leapt off so I marked it by stopping him but he still leapt off the second one. Definitely not a good sign for GP.





Tooney ran clean in PNS and got 2nd. Enzo ran nice but knocked a bar on a wrap. I can tell from the video that he didn't realize that it was a wrap until he was over the bar so he tried to turn in the air. He also leapt the darn aframe contact again. The next two weeks we're doing major aframe refresher training going back to lowered aframe and backchaining and lots of rewards. Hopefully this gets him thinking about what he's doing on the aframe. We have FDDO in Phoenix this weekend so that gives him a weekend off from agility competition. Next weekend is our trip to Dixon for a 3 day USDAA trial!







The lesson with Benny went well and Jeff got a few ideas to try with her. He kind of agreed that we're kind of limited with what she can do though.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Skyhoundz Local- Huntington Beach

Went to our first frisbee competition of the season here on Saturday. I threw for Tooney and Enzo in Intermediate and Jeff competed with both of them in Open.

Jeff and Tooney had an really awesome round with only three 3 drops. She got scored a lot lower than we thought she would, only 28. That routine was about as good as she can do! Here's the video:






Enzo and Jeff weren't quite clicking in their rountine and ended up with 7 drops but the new routine seems to flow pretty nicely compared to before. Enzo was tipping a lot of them off his teeth.





Jeff threw left handed for them in Toss and Fetch since he's still having numbness problems in his right arm. He did well with Tooney with 9.5 but got zero with Enzo. There was one bad throw into the tents but the other 3 Enzo should have been able to catch but maybe he's just not quite used to the lefty throws.


Oh and I ended up with 2nd place with Enzo in Intermediate T&F! I had 10 points the first round and 11.5 the second round. I had 7 points in each round with Tooney.

Sunday I went to an AKC trial and got ripped off! lol. I thought I had a double Q with Enzo but when I went to look at the results, it turns out that he had a fault in Standard. I asked a bunch of people who watch my runs and the first couple said they though I was clean too but then I found someone who saw that the judge called Enzo's teeter. Grr. Not something that we normally have problems with. I front crossed the end of it and Enzo left before I released him but I thought he was still on when it hit the ground. Anyways, he placed 4th in jumpers with a nice run. He was about 2 seconds behind the first place dog who was the 2007 22" Grand Prix champ so not too bad.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Jeff's Tooth

Jeff got his cracked tooth repaired today. We figured out that he probably got his tooth cracked when he was practicing overs with Tooney quite a few months back. She jumped and collided with his face and the side the cracked tooth is on is the side that she hit. Now we think that was probably when she cracked her tooth that was pulled in December. So basically after that incident Jeff had decided not to do overs with her anymore.

USDAA Trial - DART, Irwindale

Went to an USDAA trial this weekend. This one is relatively close (30 minutes away) compared to most of them (90 minutes away + traffic in the afternoon). It was nice to be able to get up at a more reasonable hour. Still haven't managed to get Enzo any more Q's for nationals, unfortunately. His contacts were decent he stoped on about half of his aframes for the weekend and only leapt one. Still stopping short on all but one dogwalk. I think he does that because he thinks if he stops sooner then that means he can leave sooner. I try to make him come all the way down most of the time but sometimes I'm bad and sometimes he's bad and self releases.

Saturday, Tooney ran first in P3 Standard. She had a good run but she was pretty amped up and left the table when the judge said go. Then Enzo ran in Starters Standard. His contacts were kind of eh, fast and almost maintained criteria but not quite. His dogwalk he hestitated in the spot where's he's been stopping early and then took off and for his aframe he had nice striding down into the yellow but didn't actually stop. On the table he laid down right way but he got up halfway through the count and wanted to jump off the table. It took several seconds and some body blocking but I eventually got him back down. So we managed to Q that run and that finished his Starters Standard title so now he can move up to Advanced in Standard.

Next was PNS/GP. In Tooney's PNS run, she leapt over the dogwalk contact and then I pushed her off of a jump when I wanted to rear cross. It was a tricky spot where they were coming down with a lot of speed and there was a tunnel ahead but they had to turn 180 to the teeter. You had to pull a little to the jump and then rear cross. I think I got in her path a little. I probably should have tried a front cross there but there wasn't much of a curve so I wasn't sure about getting there in time and then I was afraid of flinging them over the next jump even if I did get there. Unfortunatly I made the same mistake in Enzo's run, even though I did better at staying out of his space I was still putting too much pressure on. At least he had already knocked a bar before that or I would have really been mad at myself for making the same mistake twice. It still kind of annoys me though.

Then we ran in relay. Tooney missed her dogwalk contact but did well otherwise. Tooney's partner decided he didn't want to go up the teeter so no Q there. Enzo's relay partner was Sam a big Golden with an awesome attitude and Enzo's puppy class classmate. Enzo knocked a bar but we still ended up with first place.

Next was Enzo's Starters Snookers run where he knocked the first bar and then took the next obstacle since I led out kind of far so we got whistled off right away. I need to have a contingency plan for that situation or my brain doesn't react fast enough.

Then Tooney ran in P3 snookers and got 53 points for 3rd place and a super Q. That was her 3rd Super Q in Performance and I think that finished her PK3.

Then we ran PSJ/Steeplechase. The opening of the course was one where you'd really like to have a 3 jump lead out but I knew that neither of my dogs would stay. It was 3 jumps very slightly offset to a 90 degree turn to the weaves and there was a straight tunnel parallel to the weaves about 10-15 ft back. With Tooney, I tried running on the right side of the jumps and rear crossed the third jump but she just went right into the tunnel. With Enzo I led out on the other side hoping to at least get far enough out to do a moving front cross before the weaves. I couldn't get there for that so I RFP'd before the last jump but I did that a little late and he knocked the bar but did get the weaves instead of the tunnel. Unfortunately, he knocked another bar so we didn't Q. This time he would have made the cutoff with only one bar. He really doesn't knock a lot of bars in practice but we seem to be getting a lot in competitions.

Sunday, Tooney actually Q'd in 3 out of 4 runs. She didn't get gamblers but she placed 2nd in Snookers, 2nd in standard and 3rd in jumpers.

Enzo got his first Advanced Gamblers Q. the gamble was Aframe turn away into the tunnel under the aframe and then 2 jumps out. Enzo did it perfectly, he stopped at the bottom of the aframe and I said left tunnel and pointed towards the tunnel and he turned his head and went right in. I don't really use directionals normally but he does know left and right turns on the ground. Don't know if the drectional helped or if he just followed my body language.

We ran Starters Standard for fun since he already got his title the day before. It was good that we didn't need this one because he leapt over the aframe contact. he did one stride over the top and leapt. I marked it and stopped him this time. His dogwalk ended up being really awesome this time, he ran all the way to the bottom.

Enzo needed the Starters Jumpers Q to get his AD and move up in everything but unfortunately he knocked two bars. Really fast time and decent turns though, second fastest time and only 0.1 seconds behind the fastest time and 6.2 yds/s.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

New MX title

Overall, not a very successful weekend, as I only got 1 Q out of 8 runs between the two dogs but at least Enzo got his 10th Excellent B Standard Q for his MX title. Tooney was having weave entry problems all weekend except for her last run where she took the wrong end of a tunnel. I'm going to have to do a little weave refresher training with her. Other than that she was running pretty good.

Enzo's standard run on Saturday had an off course. I made a poor handing choice. It was table jump teeter in a pinwheel shape with the aframe about 10-15ft from the teeter. I did a front cross between the jump and teeter and Enzo ran behind me and took the aframe. Since I can't lead out at the table I probably should have pulled to the teeter and front crossed at the end. In JWW, he got the wrong end of the tunnel. I didn't get his head in time. Sunday's standard Enzo ran clean and actually stuck his aframe contact! woohoo! Still a little sticky on the dogwalk stopping just short of the ground. Table was good both days. In JWW, he knocked the first bar and also missed the weave entrance, he bounced off the poles somehow but I was pushing him and got a little ahead of the weaves before he got there.

2 days of USDAA next weekend. Hopefully we will have a better Q rate!

Monday, March 2, 2009

USDAA and AKC weekend

Saturday I went to the USDAA trial in Fillmore. I had entered 12 runs for this day! Didn't really think about how many that was until after I entered. Of course I probably would have done it anyways. Started out the day running Tooney in P3 Gamblers. She came really close to getting it but ran by the teeter. She was right there but didn't take it. She avoided the teeter once at our last fun match so don't know if there is something going on there or it was just the distance this time.

Next Enzo ran in Starters Gamblers and Q'd in that. Worked his contacts some. He ran off the first aframe and then stopped on the ground on the second aframe, then on the dogwalk he stopped just short of the ground so I took the time to make him come all the way down and then the buzzer went off. He got the gamble so that was his 3rd starters gamblers Q and he can move up to advanced in that now.

Tooney did really well in the Performace National Standard. I had a couple close calls that we managed to save which made it pretty exciting and she ended up with 3rd place. Then Enzo ran in the Grand Prix which didn't really go that well. There was a 180 turn away from me after the dogwalk so I front crossed the end of the dogwalk and that pulled enzo in too tight and he ran past the next jump. I didn't really step in to send him so that was my fault. Then the jump after the tunnel I sent him over and ran to get a front cross in further down the line. That launched him over the jump so far that he actually went out of the ring and back just barely getting the next jump. The the closing line had another one of those run like heck straight lines which went aframe chute and then 3 jumps. Since I can't really leave him on the aframe yet that put me behind and he ended up pulling in to the offcourse teeter. He did actually stop on the aframe this time though!

Next, Enzo ran in Starters Standard and Q'd. He was a little sticky on the table and the end of the dogwalk again and didn't stop on his aframe but other than that he did good.

Then Tooney ran in P3 standard and missed the weave entry and also bypassed the teeter again towards the end of the run. She flew by it and took the next jump which was pretty far away.

Next was Performance Speed Jumping for Tooney which she just rocked! I wish I had video of that run. She got first in that and she actually beat a lot of really fast Border collies in that class. Of course the running aframe helps a lot. Too bad that wasn't in round 2 where we can get money!

Enzo also had a nice fast steeplechase run but he hit the broad jump. I think I started decelerating before he cleared it. He should be able to handle that but we need to train more on it. Unfortunatly the 5 faults put us out of Q range by about 1 second. The first place dog was 3 seconds faster than everyone else and that kind of wrecked the curve!

Next I ran Tooney in P3 snookers. I planned a pretty conservative course since I was tired and didn't want to run too much, a 7 and two 5's. She knocked the bar in the number 7 combo in the opening but so ended up with 40 points for a Q. She did the teeter twice in this run so maybe the run bys were just flukes. I don't think she's ever had teeter issues since she was ready to start competing.

I also planned a conservative course for Enzo in starters snookers a 3, 7 and 5. He really flew through the whole thing and the only mistake was missing the weave entry in the closing but that is ok in starters. It was starting to get dark at this point.

I ran Tooney is P3 jumpers right after that. She started out really well but went off course towards the end. After that I decided to skip starters jumpers with Enzo because it was going to be really late and completly dark by the time they got to that. They hadn't even started walking advanced jumpers at that point.

So Tooney is Q'd for USDAA nationals in PSJ and PNS now and just needs a team Q. Enzo still needs 2 Grand Prixs and 1 steeplechase. Enzo just needs one more Starters Standard and one Starters Jumpers before he can move to advanced.

The AKC trial on Sunday felt like a very easy day after all that! Tooney ran in JWW first and ran clean and placed 2nd. Enzo had a really fast JWW run (5.9 yds/s) that was 2 seconds faster than Tooney's time even jumping 20" vs 16". He had one wide turn and unfortunately he also knocked a bar so didn't Q. His time was good enough for 3rd. He was about 2 seconds slower than 1st place and 1 second slower than the 2nd place dog. Both are super fast BC's. I hope that one day I can get him up to that level but we'll see.

In standard Tooney missed her weave entry. I forget that she need just a tad more help than Enzo sometimes. Enzo knocked the second jump in standard. I should've led out past the second jump and then that might have helped. We'd been doing so many long lead outs that I wanted to give him a break since I didn't really need it to keep up in this case. Then when we got to the table, he laid down fairly quickly for him but when she got to the count of 3, he just jumped off the table. Then when I tried to get him to go back on, he started barking at me and wouldn't stop. I had yell at him hey! stop it! before he would settle and get back on the table. I had to resist laughing because it's really kind of funny but I don't want to encourage it for sure!