Holy cow, only 18 days left until the World Championships in Austria! I think I should start training for it!?!
Haha, just kidding. I don't blog about it much but Icon and I have been training and cross-training very hard since June. I wobble between feeling ready for anything and feeling totally unprepared. I guess it's natural though :). Most of the training we do involves setting up courses from this years WC judges, Bernd Hueppe and Manuel Alff, and running them. Now I'm worried I spent too much time on course work and not enough time on individual skills. I guess there will always be regrets!
The host country had posted the running order for worlds and they have also posted our photos!
Boy, this is starting to seem real to me now!!!
Time Table:
Friday
Team Jumping Large
Team Jumping Medium
Team Jumping Small
Team Agility Large (this will determine the final country rankings for Large dogs)
Saturday
Individual Jumping Small
Individual Jumping Medium
Individual Jumping Large
Team Agility Medium (this will determine the final country rankings for Medium dogs)
Team Agility Small (this will determine the final country rankings for Small dogs)
Sunday: Individual finals for all heights.
Individual Agility Small
Individual Agility Medium
Individual Agility Large
Team USA got really lucky on the start list (run order)! The worst placements are Karen and Sizzle (running 13th in Individual Medium) and Denise and Zippity (running 14th in Individual Large.) Karen is a veteran so it she'll handle it with grace as she does everything, but I feel bad for Denise and Zippity since it's their first time at worlds... I am very grateful for my number midway into the pack.
Team events:
Team Jumpers
Large- 13th out of 29 countries (this means Focus will be 39th to run, Icon 40th and Juice 41st)
Medium - 16th out of 25 countries
Small- 26th out of 26 countries! (Marcy and Wave will be the last small dog to run in Team Jumpers)
Team Standard - all heights run in order of reverse placement (1st place after Team Jumpers runs last in Team Standard)
Individual events:
Individual Jumpers
Large dogs (125 dogs total)
Denise and Zippity - 14th
Geri and Focus - 48
Channan and Icon - 52
Marcus and Juice - 78
(and deserving honorable mention are Silvina and Maja for Argentina running 90th)
Medium dogs (77 dogs total)
Karen and Sizzle - 13th
Paulette and Rush - 37
Ashely and Luka - 63
Small dogs (79 dogs total)
Dee Anna and Dara - 16th
Marcy and Wave - 51
Katie and Twix -68
Melanie and Kelsi- 73
Individual Standard - all heights run in order of reverse placement (1st place after Individual Jumpers runs last in Individual Standard)
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
I have Doggie Tourette's syndrome
Tourette's syndrome: an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by the presence of multiple physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic; these tics characteristically wax and wane.
Doggie Tourette's syndrome, aka hiccups (aka hiccough): the spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm that repeats several times per minute.
In general I think I am a pretty positive trainer. My corrections for my dogs are mostly verbal markers. I admit I have used other, more physical, methods in my past but for me and my dogs the verbal markers seem to be most effective.
My negative verbal marker for Icon was initially a gasp. Like, " Icon! I can't believe you did that!" (it has since evolved to more of a "HEY!" comment.) It worked brilliantly for the most part in general usage (when he was in full drive mode, the breath intake of course didn't phase him, which probably led to the "HEY!").
But this has come back to haunt me. I don't get hiccups very often, maybe once ever 3 months or so. But now whenever I DO get hiccups it totally shuts Icon down and freaks him out.
I am quite sure that he associates this "spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm" or "sharp intake of breath" with my original negative marker. The poor thing probably imagines me screaming, at regular intervals, for no apparent reason, "YOU MOTHER F#*(er stupid piece of SH!T A$$h0ie DOG!"
Poor guy.
So. I guess the moral of this story is be careful what you choose for a verbal marker. It may come back to haunt you.
Doggie Tourette's syndrome, aka hiccups (aka hiccough): the spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm that repeats several times per minute.
In general I think I am a pretty positive trainer. My corrections for my dogs are mostly verbal markers. I admit I have used other, more physical, methods in my past but for me and my dogs the verbal markers seem to be most effective.
My negative verbal marker for Icon was initially a gasp. Like, "
But this has come back to haunt me. I don't get hiccups very often, maybe once ever 3 months or so. But now whenever I DO get hiccups it totally shuts Icon down and freaks him out.
I am quite sure that he associates this "spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm" or "sharp intake of breath" with my original negative marker. The poor thing probably imagines me screaming, at regular intervals, for no apparent reason, "YOU MOTHER F#*(er stupid piece of SH!T A$$h0ie DOG!"
Poor guy.
So. I guess the moral of this story is be careful what you choose for a verbal marker. It may come back to haunt you.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
I thought by the time Rampage was nearly 10 months the earmergencies would be over! But we had another one today when we were swimming at Redwood Shores. Rampage swam and swam and swam and swam and swam (and swam) and suddenly he dove for the ball, but when he came up his right ear was down! I knew that it would just pop up in a minute. But he kept swimming and the right ear remained down... Once he came out of the water and shook himself out the ear came back up. But it gave me a bit of a scare!
See? Look at my ears! It's all good.
And even better, my friend Kahve came to play with me!
(he was a bit annoying at times)
He even annoyed Foster
But APOLLO seemed to think it was charming how little Kahve tried to copy him... (boxers...sheesh)
But I guess he had some cute moments too
Although if you ask me, he played the 'cuteness' card a bit too strong
See? Look at my ears! It's all good.
And even better, my friend Kahve came to play with me!
(he was a bit annoying at times)
He even annoyed Foster
But APOLLO seemed to think it was charming how little Kahve tried to copy him... (boxers...sheesh)
But I guess he had some cute moments too
Although if you ask me, he played the 'cuteness' card a bit too strong
More contacts
I haven't done any running contact work with either Apollo or Rampage since our "Field Trip" back on the 6th of August. It's funny how I can obsess over something for a long time and then suddenly just drop it like it's hot. There was a week after our last trial where I didn't do ANYTHING in my back yard because of the Evil Sheltie. But thankfully he is long gone and my backyard is now my own again. Instead of running contacts I've been doing more work with Rampage on his 2o/2o on the travel plank. I was finally happy enough with is nose touch on the ground that I have combined the two. I'm really happy with how he's doing on that, but I need more work on sending him ahead, as his butt tends to come off the board when I do that. But that's ok, I find it really fun to do the travel plank with my dogs! I'm not sure why, but I do :)
On Thursday morning I was stopped by animal control at the park where I've been going to run the dogs. I was given a warning that I was violating leash laws :(. So I can't go back there. My other 'usual' park is still covered in burrs and foxtails and the ground is so hard it tears up Icon's pads like tissue paper, so I won't be able to go back there until it starts raining again in November or so. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do until then, but on Friday I decided to take Apollo and Rampage to Swiss park to practice their running dogwalks! Foster and Icon stayed home, but got to go swimming for 20 minutes when we returned (I was really late for work on Friday...)
I was really happy with how Rampage did. His 2nd repetition was a bit leapy, but otherwise he did a really nice job of running through.
Oh, and check out my snazzy new shoes. At practice Karen and Jen were talking about wearing red shoes at worlds to complete their 'red, white and blue' outfit, so I decided to buy a pair of red Asics. ;)
But Apollo... OY! He just seemed confused :(. His first rep was nice and then he started leaping and then stopping and then... well I think the moral of this story is that I can't just not practice with him for 2 weeks and expect him to remember to RUN after spending 6 or so years of his life teaching him to STOP. Poor Polly. Time to start obsessing over it again with him! USDAA SW Regionals is coming up and I would really like to get a GP bye with him! But we don't have a voucher for a free pass to Rd 2 so that's a lot of contacts we need to be able to get... We'll see how it goes.
On Thursday morning I was stopped by animal control at the park where I've been going to run the dogs. I was given a warning that I was violating leash laws :(. So I can't go back there. My other 'usual' park is still covered in burrs and foxtails and the ground is so hard it tears up Icon's pads like tissue paper, so I won't be able to go back there until it starts raining again in November or so. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do until then, but on Friday I decided to take Apollo and Rampage to Swiss park to practice their running dogwalks! Foster and Icon stayed home, but got to go swimming for 20 minutes when we returned (I was really late for work on Friday...)
I was really happy with how Rampage did. His 2nd repetition was a bit leapy, but otherwise he did a really nice job of running through.
Oh, and check out my snazzy new shoes. At practice Karen and Jen were talking about wearing red shoes at worlds to complete their 'red, white and blue' outfit, so I decided to buy a pair of red Asics. ;)
082109 - Rammy running dw from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
But Apollo... OY! He just seemed confused :(. His first rep was nice and then he started leaping and then stopping and then... well I think the moral of this story is that I can't just not practice with him for 2 weeks and expect him to remember to RUN after spending 6 or so years of his life teaching him to STOP. Poor Polly. Time to start obsessing over it again with him! USDAA SW Regionals is coming up and I would really like to get a GP bye with him! But we don't have a voucher for a free pass to Rd 2 so that's a lot of contacts we need to be able to get... We'll see how it goes.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
AKC/USA WT Practice #2
We had our 2nd and final AKC/USA WT Practice last weekend before leaving for Austria. The whole team looks awesome! I think Team USA will do some great things this year.
The goal of the weekend was to run courses right the first time. Everyone on the team was significantly improved from the first practice in Wisconsin and team practice flowed very smoothly. Well, except for the small dog team who had to have their own special walkthroughs and coaching sessions with the team captain. Those small dog people are SO high maintenance! :)
Overall I was very happy with Icon's turns, weave entries (we had some issues with those at the first practice) and he didn't drop any bars the entire weekend. I don't think there is any specific thing I came away from the practice thinking I need to work on (with one exception, which I will mention later). Although there are some handling maneuvers that I've decided to avoid at worlds at any cost, namely serping a jump off of a contact. We are way better off with a double front instead of a serp. And rear crossing in general, but anyone who knows me would assume that anyway.
On Friday we met at Power Paws to practice. Icon did awesome on Friday and got through the course without faults each time, however it wasn't always pretty! But I guess you don't get style points at worlds so it's all good. I tried re-running a course with a rear cross and he went o/c, which just confirms my knowledge that I need to avoid rear crosses at all costs (especially when it's a sharp turn and there is an obstacle directly ahead and his toy is on the ground :).
On Saturday we moved to an indoor soccer arena about 30 minutes from Power Paws. It was a nice place and the surface was great, but it was SO HOT inside. It would have been much cooler to stay at PP with a bit of a breeze. It was pretty fun to actually have an audience of random people watching the practice, though.
Icon did really well again, but we didn't get through everything the first time. The first course I lost him at the last obstacle. But that run was pretty bad from the start where it was call-off after call-off after call-off. After the run Kathie said, "I guess Icon only allows you TWO call-offs per run". She was right because the last one sure didn't work!
I didn't get it on video, but the last course of the day on Saturday I decided to run it one more time. He did great on it until I got to the bounce jumps. I said, "easy" to collect him up and he refused the first one. Nancy and I tried a couple times to get him to do them, but he wouldn't. He was showing me his teeth when I asked him to take the jump, which is Icon's way of saying, 'I don't want to!'. I decided to give it a break and not force the issue. It was the end of two very long days and bounce jumps are physically hard on the dogs. Icon also tends to get 'weird' like this in general when he doesn't get his beauty sleep. I'm not very worried about it, but next time I do course work with him, I'll throw in some bounce jumps to give him a positive experience with it. But they didn't have any bounce jumps at worlds last year and now I'm hoping they don't again this year!! :)
All weekend people on the team were making fun of me because I wear really short shorts. It kind of confused me because I don't! They're just normal shorts from nike or adidas that other people wear. It's not MY fault that I have long legs! So to give them some perspective I wore my shortest shorts on Sunday, which are actually a skort. I expected extra special comments but didn't get any. I guess I showed them! But they got back at me... The shorts chosen for the team uniform come almost to my knees! They're essentially capris on the other women on the team. Odd choice...
The goal of the weekend was to run courses right the first time. Everyone on the team was significantly improved from the first practice in Wisconsin and team practice flowed very smoothly. Well, except for the small dog team who had to have their own special walkthroughs and coaching sessions with the team captain. Those small dog people are SO high maintenance! :)
Overall I was very happy with Icon's turns, weave entries (we had some issues with those at the first practice) and he didn't drop any bars the entire weekend. I don't think there is any specific thing I came away from the practice thinking I need to work on (with one exception, which I will mention later). Although there are some handling maneuvers that I've decided to avoid at worlds at any cost, namely serping a jump off of a contact. We are way better off with a double front instead of a serp. And rear crossing in general, but anyone who knows me would assume that anyway.
On Friday we met at Power Paws to practice. Icon did awesome on Friday and got through the course without faults each time, however it wasn't always pretty! But I guess you don't get style points at worlds so it's all good. I tried re-running a course with a rear cross and he went o/c, which just confirms my knowledge that I need to avoid rear crosses at all costs (especially when it's a sharp turn and there is an obstacle directly ahead and his toy is on the ground :).
AKC/USA WT Practice 2 - Friday from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
On Saturday we moved to an indoor soccer arena about 30 minutes from Power Paws. It was a nice place and the surface was great, but it was SO HOT inside. It would have been much cooler to stay at PP with a bit of a breeze. It was pretty fun to actually have an audience of random people watching the practice, though.
Icon did really well again, but we didn't get through everything the first time. The first course I lost him at the last obstacle. But that run was pretty bad from the start where it was call-off after call-off after call-off. After the run Kathie said, "I guess Icon only allows you TWO call-offs per run". She was right because the last one sure didn't work!
I didn't get it on video, but the last course of the day on Saturday I decided to run it one more time. He did great on it until I got to the bounce jumps. I said, "easy" to collect him up and he refused the first one. Nancy and I tried a couple times to get him to do them, but he wouldn't. He was showing me his teeth when I asked him to take the jump, which is Icon's way of saying, 'I don't want to!'. I decided to give it a break and not force the issue. It was the end of two very long days and bounce jumps are physically hard on the dogs. Icon also tends to get 'weird' like this in general when he doesn't get his beauty sleep. I'm not very worried about it, but next time I do course work with him, I'll throw in some bounce jumps to give him a positive experience with it. But they didn't have any bounce jumps at worlds last year and now I'm hoping they don't again this year!! :)
AKC/USA WT Practice 2 - Saturday from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
All weekend people on the team were making fun of me because I wear really short shorts. It kind of confused me because I don't! They're just normal shorts from nike or adidas that other people wear. It's not MY fault that I have long legs! So to give them some perspective I wore my shortest shorts on Sunday, which are actually a skort. I expected extra special comments but didn't get any. I guess I showed them! But they got back at me... The shorts chosen for the team uniform come almost to my knees! They're essentially capris on the other women on the team. Odd choice...
Sunday, August 16, 2009
OMG, I want!!
I want this puppy! He is the most adorable thing in the world!!!
He's even been professionally photographed!
Oh...Wait... That's my own Rampage when he was 8 weeks old!
WHY, oh WHY did I not appreciate his ridiculous cuteness when I had it????
Now I'm stuck with this hideous beast :)
(yeah, I know it's a repeat but I've been busy! I'll get more pics soon...)
He's even been professionally photographed!
Oh...Wait... That's my own Rampage when he was 8 weeks old!
WHY, oh WHY did I not appreciate his ridiculous cuteness when I had it????
Now I'm stuck with this hideous beast :)
(yeah, I know it's a repeat but I've been busy! I'll get more pics soon...)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Happy birthday Foster!
Foster turns 8 years old today!
In actual fact, he probably turned 8 closer to the beginning of July. But for some reason his birthday got messed up on veterinary records so when I ILP'd him AKC added Aug 12th for his birthday. So I figured I might as well just make him a month younger and have his birthday August 12th :).
He was a pretty cute puppy
And did a wonderful job raising 3 other puppies
And he really is quite handsome
And he has one of the most beautiful trots I've ever seen (sorry, couldn't find a photo :( )
BUT, he's not the most graceful dog in the world...
But he's really fast when there are no agility obstacles in the way!
You're getting a steak for dinner tonight, Foster! And of course that means so am I :)
In actual fact, he probably turned 8 closer to the beginning of July. But for some reason his birthday got messed up on veterinary records so when I ILP'd him AKC added Aug 12th for his birthday. So I figured I might as well just make him a month younger and have his birthday August 12th :).
He was a pretty cute puppy
And did a wonderful job raising 3 other puppies
And he really is quite handsome
And he has one of the most beautiful trots I've ever seen (sorry, couldn't find a photo :( )
BUT, he's not the most graceful dog in the world...
But he's really fast when there are no agility obstacles in the way!
You're getting a steak for dinner tonight, Foster! And of course that means so am I :)
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