We went to 2 days of an AKC trial last weekend. It was Icon's first trial back after his break and he was happy to be back! I decided to jump him at 20" at this trial (for the first time since he was 18 months I think) and he did great going 4/4. I thought he looked good jumping 20", although he was over jumping a bit. During our 'agility break' I also switched Icon to a running a-frame and they went well. But we'll see how it hold up over time and more importantly over the USDAA a-frame height change. Our running a-frame has bled over into a running dogwalk, I need to make sure that doesn't last...
SacramentoDTC AKC - Icon Friday Standard from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
Apollo had a great weekend going 3/4. It was just a stupid move on my part kept him from a perfect weekend. He just needs one more QQ for Mach 3. I was hoping he'd get it last weekend so that after invitationals I could move him to preferred, but it looks like he'll have to at least do the New Years trial at 24" too.
I only got one of Apollo's runs on video.
SacramentoDTC AKC - Apollo Saturday JWW from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
Rampage and I had lots of fun, but we didn't get any Q's. We were pretty close at times though! It was just babydog stuff. We got all of our contacts and had no bars down. But I definitely need to do something about our teeter... He has a beautiful 2o/2o with a nose touch in practice, but he has no clue that I expect this same performance at a trial. Luckily the new years trial will have a fun match at the end of one day so I will have a chance to let him know. And he has been avoiding the chute for a while now. He'll go in if I make him, but given a choice he will run around it. It's something I haven't practiced much with him because the chute is never out in class and I don't have a chute at home. But it would be nice to not have to escort him directly to the chute entrance on every course.
SacramentoDTC AKC - Rampage Saturday Standard from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
Other videos I have taped can be seen here.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Catching up
We went to a USDAA trial a couple weekends ago and I'm just getting a chance to write about it now. I've been focusing more on work than blogging lately, which is good :). In December I'm heading to Warsaw on a business trip which should be... interesting. On December 5th I'll arrive home from AKC invitationals around midnight and then head to Poland the next morning. I guess I'm just glad that I don't have to miss AKC Invitationals for the business trip. But this is the 3rd year in a row that I'll miss the December Bay Team UDSAA trial. I really wanted to go this year because they have rubber contacts!
The USDAA trail we just came back from was a weird experience for me. It was weird because I wasn't running Icon (he has been on a break since USDAA nationals... returning this weekend at an AKC trial!) and Rampage got lots of Q's, but I wasn't happy with many of his runs. How weird is that?
My video camera is broken so I don't have any videos from the weekend, but a friend was there on Saturday and was able to video some of our runs.
Apollo qualified in everything I entered him in, although he hit the broadjump in Rd 1 SC and dropped a bar in Rd 2 SC. I only got his Saturday Jumpers run on tape.
Apollo Jumpers NAF USDAA 11-13-10 from debbie chun on Vimeo.
Rampage qualified in pretty much all of his non-tournament events (aside from one Snooker and one Jumpers where I pulled him for breaking his startline stay). They weren't pretty Q's though. So he got 2 Standard Qs for his AD title and is now in Masters Jumpers, Gamblers and Pairs (!). I certainly don't feel like we're ready for masters in any of those categories and I apologize now for all of our future pairs partners :).
Rampage Sat Standard
Rampage Standard NAF USDAA 11-13-10 from debbie chun on Vimeo.
Rampage Sat Gamblers
Rampage Gamblers NAF USDAA 11-13-10 from debbie chun on Vimeo.
When I watch his videos I really don't like how Rampage jumps 26". I don't notice it when I'm running him, I just notice that he feels slow. But watching the video he struggles at 26". Once he gets into masters I think I'll switch him to performance 22" for a while to see if he just needs to mature a bit still.
Rampage Sat Jumpers
Rampage Jumpers NAF USDAA 11-13-10 from debbie chun on Vimeo.
The USDAA trail we just came back from was a weird experience for me. It was weird because I wasn't running Icon (he has been on a break since USDAA nationals... returning this weekend at an AKC trial!) and Rampage got lots of Q's, but I wasn't happy with many of his runs. How weird is that?
My video camera is broken so I don't have any videos from the weekend, but a friend was there on Saturday and was able to video some of our runs.
Apollo qualified in everything I entered him in, although he hit the broadjump in Rd 1 SC and dropped a bar in Rd 2 SC. I only got his Saturday Jumpers run on tape.
Apollo Jumpers NAF USDAA 11-13-10 from debbie chun on Vimeo.
Rampage qualified in pretty much all of his non-tournament events (aside from one Snooker and one Jumpers where I pulled him for breaking his startline stay). They weren't pretty Q's though. So he got 2 Standard Qs for his AD title and is now in Masters Jumpers, Gamblers and Pairs (!). I certainly don't feel like we're ready for masters in any of those categories and I apologize now for all of our future pairs partners :).
Rampage Sat Standard
Rampage Standard NAF USDAA 11-13-10 from debbie chun on Vimeo.
Rampage Sat Gamblers
Rampage Gamblers NAF USDAA 11-13-10 from debbie chun on Vimeo.
When I watch his videos I really don't like how Rampage jumps 26". I don't notice it when I'm running him, I just notice that he feels slow. But watching the video he struggles at 26". Once he gets into masters I think I'll switch him to performance 22" for a while to see if he just needs to mature a bit still.
Rampage Sat Jumpers
Rampage Jumpers NAF USDAA 11-13-10 from debbie chun on Vimeo.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Don't diss Apollo
It has come to my attention that someone wrote on her blog about last weekend:
"We had a nice [Jumpers] run, but Apollo the boxer, of all dogs, beat us by .13. (Sorry, Apollo, I know you're a good dog and you're handled by a National Champion and World Team border collie handler, but [insert 2nd place Jumpers dog name here] usually's time is notably faster than yours. Maybe that was just your course! I'll let you have it this time.)"
Well let me say that YES, I'm offended. I'm not quite so obsessive about keeping track of results as some people but I know that Apollo has beaten this dog on more than one occasion, to the point that us beating this dog is not a shock to me. Sure they beat us sometimes, but we beat them too.
It was not just "our course", we won jumpers both days and beat [insert 2nd place Jumpers dog name here] in grand prix as well last weekend. And considering Apollo was only entered in 4 classes, that's a pretty damn good record.
This is also not the first time this person has 'dissed' Apollo on her blog, although the first time someone pointed it out to me and I just laughed and ignored it. I believe the person said something like (this is definitely paraphrased), "If Apollo can make it to [the 2008] pGP finals and get 3rd place, imagine how much better [insert 2nd place Jumpers dog name here] could do!" Well Apollo didn't just finish 3rd place in 2008 pGP finals, he finished in 4th place in 2009 pGP finals. That's more than this dogs owner can ever claim.
Say what you will about me. I don't care if you call me a bitch and never talk to me again. But don't diss my dogs. And no one. NO ONE. DISSES. APOLLO.
"We had a nice [Jumpers] run, but Apollo the boxer, of all dogs, beat us by .13. (Sorry, Apollo, I know you're a good dog and you're handled by a National Champion and World Team border collie handler, but [insert 2nd place Jumpers dog name here] usually
Well let me say that YES, I'm offended. I'm not quite so obsessive about keeping track of results as some people but I know that Apollo has beaten this dog on more than one occasion, to the point that us beating this dog is not a shock to me. Sure they beat us sometimes, but we beat them too.
It was not just "our course", we won jumpers both days and beat [insert 2nd place Jumpers dog name here]
This is also not the first time this person has 'dissed' Apollo on her blog, although the first time someone pointed it out to me and I just laughed and ignored it. I believe the person said something like (this is definitely paraphrased), "If Apollo can make it to [the 2008] pGP finals and get 3rd place, imagine how much better
Say what you will about me. I don't care if you call me a bitch and never talk to me again. But don't diss my dogs. And no one. NO ONE. DISSES. APOLLO.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Pollyballs!
Yay! It came!
Open it!
Fine, I'll open it for you!
Pollyballs!
I love my Pollyball!
We love our Pollyballs!
Who's Pollyball is that?
My Pollyball!
Open it!
Fine, I'll open it for you!
Pollyballs!
I love my Pollyball!
We love our Pollyballs!
Who's Pollyball is that?
My Pollyball!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Videos!
Ok, I didn't get either of Icon's Steeplechase runs from USDAA nationals on video, but here are his GP Semi's and GP Finals
USDAA Nationals - Icon GP Semi's from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
USDAA Nationals - Icon GP Finals from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
And last weekend Apollo and Rampage went to an AKC trial (poor Icon is on a break until Thanksgiving, he's not happy about it) and Apollo went 4/4 with a 1st, two 2nds and a 3rd.
Del Valle AKC - Apollo Saturday Std from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
Rampage got his first Exc A JWW Q (and his 2nd, but that was was a mistake - not that I'm complaining!) and Open Std title (for realz this time. No more nasty letters in the mail from AKC telling me we only have 2 Open Std legs)
Del Valle AKC - Rampage Saturday JWW from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
Del Valle AKC - Rampage Sunday Standard from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
It was REALLY windy and wet on Sunday. Watch Apollo's 1st place jww run on an uber twisty course... If you can see anything!
Del Valle AKC - Apollo Sun JWW from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
USDAA Nationals - Icon GP Semi's from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
USDAA Nationals - Icon GP Finals from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
And last weekend Apollo and Rampage went to an AKC trial (poor Icon is on a break until Thanksgiving, he's not happy about it) and Apollo went 4/4 with a 1st, two 2nds and a 3rd.
Del Valle AKC - Apollo Saturday Std from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
Rampage got his first Exc A JWW Q (and his 2nd, but that was was a mistake - not that I'm complaining!) and Open Std title (for realz this time. No more nasty letters in the mail from AKC telling me we only have 2 Open Std legs)
Del Valle AKC - Rampage Saturday JWW from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
Del Valle AKC - Rampage Sunday Standard from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
It was REALLY windy and wet on Sunday. Watch Apollo's 1st place jww run on an uber twisty course... If you can see anything!
Del Valle AKC - Apollo Sun JWW from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Groundhog Year
I have lots I would like to say about Worlds and USDAA nationals and hopefully I will find some time to get around to it. I will definitely post whatever videos I have but that still might take some time.
First I want to take a moment to reflect back on a rather eerie observation on the outcome for Icon and I at all of our 'large events' in 2009 and 2010 (EO not included since I didn't go 2009).
I've always known Icon was consistent, but that's pretty weird that we finished EXACTLY THE SAME at every large event this year as he did in 2009! It would have been nice to improve somewhere, but staying the same is definitely better than getting worse! :) Hopefully we'll make the AKC/WT again next year and get to go to France so I can try to improve on that performance.
First I want to take a moment to reflect back on a rather eerie observation on the outcome for Icon and I at all of our 'large events' in 2009 and 2010 (EO not included since I didn't go 2009).
2009 | 2010 | |
AKC Nationals | 2nd place 26” | 2nd place 26” |
AKC WT Tryouts | 1st place Large cumulative Saturday 1st place Large by points overall | 1st place Large cumulative Saturday 1st place Large by points overall |
Worlds | 1 clean run out of 4 :( | 1 clean run out of 4 :( |
USDAA Nationals | Steeplechase – 3rd place Grand Prix – 4th place | Steeplechase – 3rd place Grand Prix – 4th place |
I've always known Icon was consistent, but that's pretty weird that we finished EXACTLY THE SAME at every large event this year as he did in 2009! It would have been nice to improve somewhere, but staying the same is definitely better than getting worse! :) Hopefully we'll make the AKC/WT again next year and get to go to France so I can try to improve on that performance.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Oh dear
The fundraiser for the AKC WT and Kathie has been going very well! No WT member was required to participate in it, but pretty much everyone did!
One downfall of doing a great job with the fundraising is that the ticketing process is not very streamlined. I generated tickets (from a pretty handy site www.raffleprinter.com) and sent them out to everyone and they had to print and assemble them into ticket books of 10 tickets/book.
(stay with me, this story is going somewhere)
They look really pretty in color but I'm sure most (or all!) printed them b/w. I know I did!
After assembling them into ticket books and someone donates we have to write the person's name on each ticket. For the first book of tickets I made the person write her own name on her tickets but she didn't seem to be so thrilled about it so I decided that going forward I would just write the names in for people. Most people donated in multiples of 10 so I would write the name on the cover page and store it away to write the names on each ticket while watching tv in the evenings.
(there's a point to this, honest)
This is fine, but OMG this is inefficient since we've had lots of donations. For example, Ashley Deacon donated his Steeplechase Winnings from two USDAA events, a total of $136. That's a lot of name writing!
So, now to my point.
I'm about 1/3rd of the way through writing down names, removing staples and placing the ticket stubs in a ziplock bag for safe keeping. I chose a ziplock bag because I don't want anything to happen to them on the trip to Germany (like, say, my shampoo leaks all over my clothing). Pretty smart of me, eh?
I leave the bag of ticket stubs on the coffee table because I do a little bit most nights. The bag has been there for a few weeks at least.
But today is either my lucky day or my unlucky day. I left for work and got about 5 minutes away before I realized I forgot my laptop at home. So I had to turn around and come back home. As soon as I entered the house I knew someone had been up to no good. I wanted into the living room to find....
Oh dear!
Someone was trying to destroy the bag of ticket stubs! Luckily no ticket stubs were destroyed, but there are a few tooth depressions in some of them...
I know the guilty party is not Foster and I'm PRETTY sure it's not Rampage. I had to look at the forensic evidence to decide if it was Apollo or Icon.
I think the evidence clearly shows it was a team effort. Icon worked on the upper left corner and Apollo on the lower right. Their motive is still unknown. The best theory I have to keep Icon appearing like the perfect dog I think he is, is that he wanted to give each of these tickets his own personal blessing. Or maybe he saw Apollo trying to destroy the bag of ticket stubs and in his attempt to save them he also damaged it himself.
All I know for sure is that I'm glad I came home when I did! If the ticket stubs were destroyed it wouldn't be the end of the world because we have a ticket tracking spreadsheet where we record everyone's name beside the ticket number. But boy that would not have been fun to re-create and re-name so many tickets!!!
One downfall of doing a great job with the fundraising is that the ticketing process is not very streamlined. I generated tickets (from a pretty handy site www.raffleprinter.com) and sent them out to everyone and they had to print and assemble them into ticket books of 10 tickets/book.
(stay with me, this story is going somewhere)
They look really pretty in color but I'm sure most (or all!) printed them b/w. I know I did!
After assembling them into ticket books and someone donates we have to write the person's name on each ticket. For the first book of tickets I made the person write her own name on her tickets but she didn't seem to be so thrilled about it so I decided that going forward I would just write the names in for people. Most people donated in multiples of 10 so I would write the name on the cover page and store it away to write the names on each ticket while watching tv in the evenings.
(there's a point to this, honest)
This is fine, but OMG this is inefficient since we've had lots of donations. For example, Ashley Deacon donated his Steeplechase Winnings from two USDAA events, a total of $136. That's a lot of name writing!
So, now to my point.
I'm about 1/3rd of the way through writing down names, removing staples and placing the ticket stubs in a ziplock bag for safe keeping. I chose a ziplock bag because I don't want anything to happen to them on the trip to Germany (like, say, my shampoo leaks all over my clothing). Pretty smart of me, eh?
I leave the bag of ticket stubs on the coffee table because I do a little bit most nights. The bag has been there for a few weeks at least.
But today is either my lucky day or my unlucky day. I left for work and got about 5 minutes away before I realized I forgot my laptop at home. So I had to turn around and come back home. As soon as I entered the house I knew someone had been up to no good. I wanted into the living room to find....
Oh dear!
Someone was trying to destroy the bag of ticket stubs! Luckily no ticket stubs were destroyed, but there are a few tooth depressions in some of them...
I know the guilty party is not Foster and I'm PRETTY sure it's not Rampage. I had to look at the forensic evidence to decide if it was Apollo or Icon.
All I know for sure is that I'm glad I came home when I did! If the ticket stubs were destroyed it wouldn't be the end of the world because we have a ticket tracking spreadsheet where we record everyone's name beside the ticket number. But boy that would not have been fun to re-create and re-name so many tickets!!!
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