I'm uninspired with the videos I have of our runs this time around. It's not Jonny's fault, he stayed at the trial way longer than he wanted to so I could have some precious video but sometimes it works out that you don't get the best runs on tape. Strummer's are particularly annoying to watch because I decided to run him past the weave poles rather than struggle with him redoing them over and over until he got his entry. He's had some kind of ridiculous meltdown with the weave poles and the trial is not the place to address it. Unfortunately I didn't walk the course with the idea that I would be so far behind at the poles and this led to awkward confusion after the weaves in both runs. I should have put him in a sit/stay at the end of the weaves, led out a bit and then carried on with the course, darn that hindsight.
Strummer-DOCNA-Feb 2010 from colliebrains on Vimeo.
During the Strategic Time Gamble I did the teeter twice and forgot, did it again and when the judge called out 'zero' for points I thought it was because she was faulting his teeter so I had him keep doing it over and over. Once the horn blew for the closing she finally counted the points since the obstacles 'reset' for the closing and you can get points again. Only reason I realized this was because someone eventually told me. I also handled Strummer through a beautiful Masters Gamble performance for Traditional Gamblers (has a distance challenge like USDAA). Unfortunately he's not yet in Masters and the Advanced gamble was different. I thought he'd got called on his A-frame but once again somebody set me straight. I had missed the briefing because I was cooling Lola down and I heard someone say the gamble was the same so I never bothered to check the cone numbers. Unfortunately it was the gamble line that was the same, not the gamble. I have a brain, really I do, but sometimes the games throw me for a loop.
Strummer was also on a Trigility team (relay of sorts) with a Chihauhau and a Cocker Spaniel. I entered mostly to see how Strum would do in that sort of situation. We went first for the Jumpers portion and the Chihauhau went second which I thought would be the best case scenario for him since the dog is so small but it's a fast little thing and the motion did get him a bit excited. I had him leashed though so he didn't cause any trouble and he didn't get to the point of a barking fit but he was lunging for a few seconds. I was able to put a stop to it but I had been hoping for better. He's running pairs in April with a wonderful steady, quiet Aussie named Meiko who trains at my field so we can practice a bit beforehand. I don't care all that much about pairs but it's a good self-control exercise. Meiko's owner does my hair and she does an awesome job, if anyone local needs a good hair stylist her name is Peggy and she works at Zumo in North Boulder. She will even give you lessons in blow drying.
Lola was giving me a lot of barking and attitude out there. I didn't notice it during her runs but yikes that video is loud. I tried to drown her out with some nice goth music. Huge 'too cool for school' points go to anyone who can name the band. I don't think you can Google your way out of this one but maybe. I know one person who can name them but I think I scared her away a long time ago with all the dog stuff. She has I think a month's worth of cool photos of the Golden Gate Bridge as well as a nice photo of the Bahai Temple so you should go check out her blog.
LOLA-DOCNA-FEB. 2010 from colliebrains on Vimeo.
I had some bonus runs for the weekend with my friend's Cattle Dog Ritz. She had to work and couldn't run him so he got to hang with me for the day. He's not the fastest at trials because he worries but he's a fun guy with a great personality. He started out the morning worried, looking all over for mom, tail between his legs but I played some games with him, found some people at the trial that he knew so he could say hi, and didn't make a big fuss over his stressing and by the afternoon he was walking around all happy and waggy, tail in the air. It's great when they realize that yes, they really can cope on their own. I have some video on the Vimeo site, if anyone's interested they can click on the 'colliebrains Vimeo' link above and it's there.
No trials for me until April so I have plenty of time to work on those weaves. Now if only the weather would hold out.
Well I don't know, I kinda like the attitude Lola was showing. Walter barks his fool head off at the startline but then goes all tame as soon as we start. I wouldn't mind if he'd throw a bit of sass at me on course every now and then, but perhaps I'd better be careful what I wish for.
ReplyDeleteFantastic about Strummer's smokin' Jumpers runs! Congrats on making it out of the baby dog level. Jumpers seems to be a tough event for a lot of the speedy fast dogs.
I watched Ritz's runs, what a nice steady little dog. For fun sometimes I run friends' dogs in practice. It's fun being taken out of the comfort zone and learning how a new dog ticks.
Nice running contacts!
ReplyDeleteI thought you were going to say that the Advanced gamblers was harder than the masters (not merely different). I've seen that more times than one might expect. In any event, I have a terrible time if I'm in two levels and the course is similar but not the same between the levels--which one am I running, did I miss a change (like your gamble) and so on. It is so nice to have the dogs in the same level.
ReplyDeleteRitz is an awesome boy, my friend is lucky I didn't steal him.
ReplyDeleteYeah, at least his contacts mostly held up. A-frame is pretty solid, he even got it working at a distance in the gamble, but he still misses the dogwalk sometimes. Getting better though.
The masters gamble had more to it so in that sense was harder but I suppose the advanced gamble could be harder depending on your dog's skills/weaknesses. The master's gamble involved a 180 degree turn off the A-frame to a tunnel that was underneath but not with the entrance next to the A-frame. The advanced gamble was simply a run over the A-frame straight out over some jumps to the finish. I think the latter offers more ochance of a blown A-frame while the former requires more handling.