Excellent!

Triumph had a pretty good showing at the AKC trial this past weeknd in Arcadia, Florida earning his open standard tile and his open jumpers with weaves title!  He qualified in 4 of the 6 runs and came home with three blue ribbons and one yellow.


I ran him in 20" for the first time all weekend and while he over-jumped a few jumps and left early on a few as well, he did seem to settle in to the height and he seemed to be thinking a little more about his job instead of mindlessly blasting around the course. 

But, oh, do we have so much to train and so much work to do!!!  He is still diving into his contact position and is still not shifting his weight back on the teeter and he definitely could have a faster table position!  However, his start line stay was much improved and he never missed a weave entry and never came out of the poles in the 6 runs.


His first standard run was going nicely until he decided it was time to do a running aframe right into the chute...I marked it and asked him to sit and we were eliminated for training in the ring...yeah but...he knows better!


He earned his open jumpers title on Saturday and so I moved him in to excellent for Sunday - he was the last dog to run.  I now had two dogs to run in 20" excellent jumpers so I moved Burn to run first.  Burn had a great run going but ended up taking off way early on the triple, which he has never done, totally crashing into the middle of the jump and ending up in a horrible tumble and fall...it was truly horrifying.  Thankfully, he was okay. 

I almost scratched Triumph from running this course as I was concerned about how he would handle that line to the triple.  I did run him but decided not to get too far ahead of him on that line.  He took off a bit early and cleared it but then I was not where I needed to be and was very tentative so he took an off course...all in all, he did pretty good his first time in excellent.




Sunday's open standard run and title...






Saturday's open jumpers run and title...

Burn's crash...

And Triumph's first excellent jww run...

Go Away Irene!

We haven't shown since the beginning of June (with the exception of DACOF) so am really looking forward to the 3-day AKC trial this weekend in Arcadia, Florida.  This is Calusa Dog Agility Club's very first AKC trial and it is a two-ring one-judge trial.  The site is the Turner Agri-Civic Center...an indoor air-conditioned site on dirt - my favorite!

Triumph is entered all three days and currently has one open standard leg and one open JWW leg...it would be nice to earn these open titles and get him into both excellent classes...that is my hope!  In training, we have been playing around with different jump heights and I decided at the last minute to move him to 20" for this trial...we'll see how it goes.

Burn is entered on Saturday and Sunday and is working on Double Q number 14...we'll see how that goes too :)))

I'm just hoping that Hurricane Irene continues to move in an easterly direction and does not ruin the weekend!  Right now, it looks like that's the path but as we know, all that can change!

border collie conformation and structure

I recently joined a border collie structure group on Facebook...the group was set up for people with border collies to join and then post stacked pictures of their dog for structure evaluation from the other members...it turned out to be a very interesting group of people...in the short lifespan of this group, there were some pretty flaming posts and very ugly comments that went back and forth and unfortunately, there were a couple of members who used the group as a means to attack each other and so the group was shortly deleted because of the animosity that ensued...seems as though there is huge contention in the border collie world between the "conformation" people and the "working dog" people and there are some pretty strong feelings and opinions about what is correct and what is not in the breed...conformation breeders were bashing other conformation breeders and working/performance dog breeders were bashing conformation breeders and conformation breeders were bashing performance dog breeders, etc etc...it made for some very interesting and entertaining reading but it also made me somewhat uneasy to post any pictures of my own dogs...it was then that I actually realized I had not one picture of Triumph standing still, all of his pics are that of some kind of agility action shot :)

So I attempted to take some...ha!!!!  Getting Triumph to stand still and stay in a "stacked" position while I backed up and took a picture of him was no easy feat!!!!

I did manage to get a couple pictures...pictures taken on an iphone do not make for beautiful conformation shots and I also quickly realized that this would be a two-person job!


In the pic below, I hung a toy from a plant post so that he would have something to look at and I told him to stand and stay!  He does have a very nice topline but he was having a bad hair day so his topline looks like there's a hole in it - there is not!  And to me, he looks fat in this picture but he is far from fat!

In the below picture, he was watching Nancy and Rudy work and was peering around a tree - he was just free-standing and this was not a stacked picture

But hey, we don't care what anyone on some Facebook group thinks about his structure...in his humble opinion, he is absolutely gorgeous...and in my opinion, he is perfect! 

jumping experiment

The other night I played around with Triumph at 20" jump height...he ran really nice at the lower height...granted, he has made huge improvements over the last several months at 26", but he still struggles at times with the double and triple especially if I am ahead of him and he is running as fast as he can to catch up...he's never run a full course at the lower jump height, so we played around with that this morning and he ran great especially over the double and triple...his take off was very appropriate all in all with the exception of taking off once or twice a little early and I think he over-jumped a couple of jumps once or twice...I then ran him over a short sequence at 26" and he made the transition very nicely and seemed very comfortable at the higher height...

this is the second course we ran at 20"

and here's a part of the sequence at 26"

goofiness

Yes I was in my bathroom when I took this clip, but I was NOT using the toilet...I sit on the closed throne to paint my toenails...there's a window right there and I can put my foot up on the tub...it's the room with the best light in my house...but of course, Triumph follows me in there with a toy so I took advantage of this Kodak moment...he is without a doubt the goofiest, silliest, sweetest dog in the world...speaking of sweet, notice Burn standing there in the doorway :)))

just a little training

Over the Fourth of July weekend, my friend Neta and I went to work with Gabrielle Blackburn...she had set up some very difficult International Style sequences...I initially went some help with Triumph's jumping, but as it turned out, he was jumping very nicely so we worked more on handling instead...here's a movie clip I put together of the time we spent training that morning...

a number

Okay so this is totally off the subject of dog training...on December 31, 2011, I turned 50 - AAAKKKKK - I hated the thought of that number and the sound of it but now that I think about it, it really was just another day and I felt no different that day and haven't any day over the last 7 months...until today...

Today I am prepping for that test that everyone's supposed to have when they reach the ripe old age of FIFTY (50)...that "c" test...a colonoscopy...OMG I thought I'd never be old enough for that but here I am...

Everyone says that the prepping day is worse than the actual procedure itself...okay I believe it so I guess I am looking forward to tomorrow...right!!!

very HOT!

we did a little training in my backyard this morning and played on this sequence that I borrowed off of Tori's blog...tough weave entries and such...it was very hot out so we only got through 2 of the sequences...will work through the others later when it's cooler...below are two takes...

DACOF 2011 - Results and Movie!

I posted earlier about DACOF and how we did, etc.  Below are the actual results as posted on the DACOF yahoo list - and although I have only "made" 3 movies in my life, I spent most of the Fourth of July holiday weekend working on putting together a "movie" of the Fast Friends team - I only wish I could have gotten every dog on my team on my camera, but it just wasn't possible...next year we'll have to hire a personal team videographer!!! 

Anyway, here's my third attempt at making an agility movie - it's long but the music is good and so are the dogs :)))


DACOF 2011
1st.........Upper Suncoast Dog Training Club (Suncoast Runners)
2nd........Fast Friends (Fast Friends Team 2) - Triumph and Burn's team!!!!
3rd.........Good Dog Sports (Victorious Secret)
4th.........R&R Companion Dog Training (Get Over It)
5th.........Paws in Motion (Tree Top Flyers)

Happy Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July to all - here's to a 3-day holiday weekend!!  Looking forward to some nice weather, a little dog training, playing in the pool and some yard work!!!!

DACOF 2011

This past weekend Burn and Triumph participated in DACOF - Dog Agility Competition of Florida - at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee.  We were fortunate enough to have been invited by Gail Waller to be on Fast Friends 2 team.  Burn ran in excellent and Triumph in open.  We had a blast and both boys had some very nice runs!! 

There were 55 teams total competiting over the weekend and Fast Friends 2 team placed 2nd - just 20 points shy of 1st place!!!  Burn ended up 3rd overall high in trial 20" excellent dog and Triumph was 1st overall high in trial 24" open dog!!!!

Everyone on my team was so supportive with such great dogs and great attitudes and all were so much fun to hang out with - especially during the awards presentations - we all laughed so hard at times we cried - I think we were overly tired and getting a bit giddy!

Gail Waller did a great job putting everything together and her young dog Tat was high in trial novice 16" dog!!! 

We had a total of 14 individual placements on our teams!!!!  The most impressive was Fast Friends Team 1 went from 32nd to 9th place by the end of the weekend!!!!

Below is Triumph's Open Jumpers run from Sunday - this was a really fun course to run...we've worked hard on his startline and very hard on his jumping - both have much improved...he was a very good boy :)))

Below is a picture of Fast Friends 2 Team

Below is the entire Fast Friends 1 and 2 teams!

Burn and Triumph and their trophies

Burn and Triumph's weekend loot!

LOSS

I'm so shocked and so sad to hear that Ronda Carter lost her battle with cancer early this morning...I worked with her a number of times over the years...Burn did his very first agility seminar with Ronda...that was about 7 years ago...she told me he couldn't jump...I was so offended by her bluntness and her honesty...but I didn't let her off the hook - I did my homework and sought her opinion and help...and she helped me a lot...

Burn's very first DAM team at the Regional in Perry was with Ronda and Pyro and Sherrie and Kix...we had such a great time...I loved Pyro and wanted her to be Burn's husband...she'd laugh and say you can't breed two red and white dogs, you'll get bad pads...after Burn had his first seizure, she was the first person I called...she was so comforting and very supportive...she always liked Burn...and she is one of the reasons I got Triumph...

I'm sitting here recalling so many memories...the laughs we shared and the saki and sushi dinners...I talked to her right before we left for the Regional in Perry...like just three weeks ago...I didn't see her name in the running order and messaged her and told her I would miss seeing her...she replied that she had just had surgery, a tumor removed from her stomach, but that she was doing great and down to a size 6...that was just three weeks ago...

Rest in peace, Ronda, and know that you will be missed...I will miss you and your laugh...my heartfelt condolences go out to her family and close friends and her dogs...I'm just in shock...

Father's Day...

okay so Father's Day isn't my most favorite of all "Days" as my father was not the greatest person in my life, and as far as a father goes...well that's another story...but I did have a super day yesterday at Gabrielle's contact seminar with a really good guy in my life, my dog Triumph...

and I did get to spend today with my boyfriend, who is a great father and his son...

I could feel a little down right now, but will choose not to, and instead, will look forward to the upcoming week, some agility training and then next weekend's DACOF competition...no pressure, just fun, friends, dogs, agility and a weekend :)))))))

something different

This Saturday Triumph and I will be working in a contact seminar with Gabrielle Blackburn at her place in Wesley Chapel, Florida.  Saturday she will focus on dogs with 2o2o contacts and Sunday will be running contacts...while I have been doing 2o2o contacts with Triumph in trials, and am happy to say that I have maintained his criteria at trials, his foundation training was running the dog walk and the aframe. 

I am considering going back to running contacts with him in the future and would have loved to have worked him on Sunday at the seminar, but it is Father's Day and I will be spending it with Marc and his son...

So in honor of a really great dad...we are happy to do Saturday's 2o2o contact session...below is a picture of this really great dad...a picture that I cropped and edited with a new app I got on my iphone...I love my boyfriend, my dogs, and my iphone :)))))

regional video

created my first ever agility video using windows movie maker...THAT was a lot of work but I *think* it came out okay...it's kinda long so I probably could have edited a whole lot more of it, but whatever...it is what it is :)))))

next

Our next event will be DACOF on June 25 and 26, 2011, to take place at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida.  We will be running on Fast Friends Agility team.  Burn will be competing on the excellent team and Triumph in open.  Below is a description of the event. 

The last time I competed at DACOF was with Burn in 2006 and our team won!!  It was great fun!!

 

DACOF - Dog Agility Competition of Florida

One of the most appealing aspects of running agility is the fact that it's an activity between just you and your dog, creating a wonderful bond. However, there is annual event in Florida where being a participant is very exciting. It is called DACOF (Dog Agility Competition of Florida), which embraces all Florida agility clubs.

If you run and/or train agility in Florida, whether you prefer NADAC (www.nadac.com), CPE (www.k9cpe.com), AKC (www.akc.org), or any other agility organization, this competition is open to you!

The teams consist of a minimum of six dogs/handlers to compete, and the scores from the dogs are added together to get a team total. There must be two novice, two open, and two excellent dogs on each team, and a club may have multiple teams. If you have three dogs per level on a team, you can drop the lowest score and keep only the best two.

determination

I love this...

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions,
Small people always do that.
But the really great ones make you feel that you, too, can become great!
~Mark Twain

*******
I learned quite a bit about myself, my dog, and other competitors this past weekend at the Regional event...while it took a couple of days to sink in, I came away having learned a great lesson.

I've worked very hard on Triumph's jumping over the last 4 months...I could see much improvement with his take off and with his over jumping.  I truly believe he thinks the sooner he takes off, the sooner he can either catch up to me or get to the next jump, tunnel, contact, whatever...he's got a lot of drive and a lot of forward compulsion but he is starting to think more about his job and he is also starting to realize that he doesn't have to put THAT much effort into jumping to get where I want him to go next...

I got lots of compliments on his progress and on a number of his runs, but I also heard some very negative comments which I let bother me...really bother me...and then the "no comments at all" I think bothered me even more...so I spent a lot of Monday thinking about this and instead of being hurt by the negative comments, I chose to feel differently...I decided that I will spend the rest of the summer working even harder on Triumph's jumping, his contacts, my handling, everything, and I am now more determined than ever to go back next year and do even better! 

At least I know that I have a very willing partner and as always, he will give me at least 150% effort in our training this summer :)))))

A First!

Triumph competed in his very first Regional Event in Perry Georgia - we had a blast!  Our "team" was a young dog training team named appropriately - No Pressure!  And that was a good thing as team jumpers was first thing Friday morning with the 26" dogs first in and Triumph was like the 5th dog in the ring.  The course was pretty challenging and a number of dogs did not make it through clean, including Triumph!  His jumping started out big and early but then he settled in and it was actually pretty good!

Next was team snooker.  I love snooker but haven't quite gotten comfortable running Triumph in that game.  Our opening was pretty nice doing a 4, 5, 6, and 7 and then he went off course in the closing at 3 - oh well it was still points!

Team gamble was fun - Triumph's contacts were good and his jumping was pretty nice as well.  Team standard was a very challenging course that like jumpers, a number of dogs did not make it through clean - Triumph ran it clean and ended up in 10th place!

Here is our relay run which was actually quite fun - although I have to say I am glad that I got to run the half that I did as the second part was very tough!!!






Grand Prix round 1 was Saturday - I thought it was a really fun course!  I really did not plan to layer the judge and the jump at the dog walk but he was kinda in my path and I wanted to get down that line to the poles and I did!  Triumph was a good boy for getting the entry but just couldn't hold on to it...it was more or less a training run as he had the bye and would be running in the finals on Sunday!

Steeplechase round 1 was a REALLY FUN course!!!!  Not sure why he turned the wrong way at the jump after the second aframe - I saved it but it gave him a bad line to the broad jump and he stepped on it and incurred a 5 second fault which did not allow him to run in finals on Sunday - too bad because that was a very fun course as well!

But I was most proud of his Grand Prix final run on Sunday...I had been told on Saturday morning that I looked like a dweeb running my dogs on Friday...maybe it was said in fun, but it bothered me such that I was bound and determined to do a better job and we did...so to the person who called me a dweeb, thank you!

Unfortunately, by this run Triumph had started to push his start line and ended up under the tire - stinker!  Had he not got the refusal at the tire, and had all the other results stayed the same, he would have placed 4th in a very large and very competitive 26" class! 

At not even 2.5 years of age and his very first regional, I think he did a pretty good job!

oh yeah, excuse my friend's finger while she video taped :)

off we go!

Had a great lesson on Sunday with Stuart...he was very happy with Triumph's jumping progress since we last worked with him on April 1st...yeah!!!!

We had a great training session last night, tonight will be grooming time, and we'll leave early tomorrow morning for Perry Georgia for the Regional!

Goofball

We participated in a 3-day agility camp in March held in Vero Beach...here's a funny little clip of Jen Pinder demonstrating, or trying to demonstrate, the flat work for the lateral send...

In the days before this camp, I had been doing some rear-end awareness and also getting Triumph to "back up."  I think he thought that's what Jen wanted him to do...what a goofball!

This is my first attempt at "making" a movie (with Marc's help - actually he did most of it :) but it was fun and I think it came out pretty cute!

Memorial Day

Sad...my mom called me earlier today to tell me that Jerri died last night...Jerri is my step-grandmother, married to my grandfather Lou, my mom's dad, for many many years...as long as I can remember actually...she was a water color artist who lived in Islamorada, down in the Florida Keys...she and my grandfather had lived there since 1966.  They lived in a beautiful home at Mile Marker 88, on the bay side, right on the water...it was paradise...I have many wonderful memories of many visits to Islamorada to see my grandfather Lou and Jerri...I love you both...

Geraldine Green...rest in peace...

firsts

We leave next Thursday morning for the Southeast USDAA Regional in Perry Georgia.   This is such a great venue and such a fun trial!  This will also be Triumph's first regional and he has been working very hard to be ready.

We also look forward to a lesson this Sunday morning with Stuart.  I am anxious to know what he thinks of Triumph's jumping progress...as we have been working VERY hard on THAT!

excellence

I read this quote on Facebook a while ago and put it up at my desk at work and read it every day...

"Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical,
and expecting more than others think is possible."

pirates

had a very nice weekend...got some training in this morning, it was hot, very hot but all in all, it went well...nothing really to blog about, but I did get to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie...this so has nothing to do with my Triumph training journal...but really enjoyed the movie, my two favorite guys that I saw it with, and I so love Johny Depp :)

thankful!

So very thankful today that all four of my dogs are healthy, happy, and alive - anything and everything else is just icing on the cake!

over training syndrome

I recently did a conditioning seminar with my dogs with Liz McGuire...unlike many of the agility handling seminars I have attended in the past, this seminar focused on our evaluating our dogs physically and learning exercises to help condition and strengthen them! 

It was awesome and gave me some great ideas and exercises to incorporate into my training routine with my own dogs and also with my class...

So on Tuesday night instead of doing my regular agility training class, we took a field trip - literally!!!  I packed up my dogs, two cones, an exercise ball and we all went to a huge field a couple of blocks from my house.  There we set up a "course" using the 2 cones, 2 exercise balls, 6 weave poles, and a couple of huge garbage cans...the dogs had a BLAST!

I will be incorporating this kind of "course work" in my training on a regular basis and I will get video to share...

In the meantime, the message in this Youtube video speaks loud and clear!!!

Click on this link and enjoy!

http://youtu.be/kLA1TaByJbc

POWER

In an attempt to forget about this Osama bin Laden thing for now, I thought I'd get back to my training blog...

In addition to our agility training and our recent jump work, we've been doing some strengthening and conditioning stuff - ball work, balance boards, stretching, etc. 

We worked in my back yard on a short squence last night consisting of a few jumps, including the double, 6 poles, tunnel, aframe and tire.  We did not use any "helper" jumps not even for the double...his jumping was beautiful...no bars, no launching, and no taking off early! 

Triumph seemed so much more confident - I could really *feel* it and my God, does he have so much power - he doesn't even realize how much he has, yet!

He is such a sweetheart...and was such an adorable pup!

celebration??

Although I've been using this blog pretty much as my journal for Triumph and his training and showing, today I am somewhat sad, depressed, glad...a crazy mixture and thought I'd write about that and not about my dog's training...

While I certainly don't want to seem "Un-American" - I am very proud to be an American and very grateful that I am an American - I can't help but feel a little uncomfortable watching the celebrations of the killing of Osama Bin Laden....

Yes he carried out unspeakable crimes against this Country, against all of us - so many innocent men, women and children lost their lives in such horrific ways - I can't help but recall watching the disturbing videos on 9/11 of those true "Un-American" people celebrating all that death and destruction...are we not just as bad for celebrating his death???

I really don't know how I feel about it or how I should feel about it, but I do know that I am afraid, very afraid of what a retaliation will bring...

I don't pray as much as one probably should, but I pray to God now for this Country and for all of us Americans...

Happy Keester!

Although nobody knows about this blog, except for me, which I actually think is kinda cool..I thought this was a very cute picture - so Happy Keester :)

suchagoodboy

Vero Beach - USDAA trial - 4-15-11