Finally some agility training

Training outside has been an impossibility due to snow and crazy single digit arctic cold that finally broke last week.  Since we were all going stir crazy I decided to drive the 45 minutes to Golden yesterday for morning course run-throughs at an indoor arena that we sometimes trial at.  I seldom train indoors and it's nice for a change.  Lola has a USDAA trial coming up so I wanted to work on her table issues and Strummer's crazy issues.  Joy says he needs more practice in trial type environments and she's right.

Lola has had ongoing problems with the table and last January I started a retraining program with her.  Her next USDAA trial was in April and since that trial she's had 100% table success until October where she started having issues again.  I was unsure if she'd do the table at all at the run-thru or if we were back to square one but I brought sardines and she did all her tables with no problem.  The first run-thru I rewarded her on the table and had her redo it several times.  Second run-thru she tore away from me towards the table as soon as we got near it on course.  I was thrilled to see her sucking to the table but she's not allowed to make up her own course so I didn't reward that and called her off it.  I got her back on course and she did the table again with no problem but this time I didn't reward right away.  I had her do it another time or two with some jumps in between, finished the course and gave her a huge jackpot of sardines outside the ring.  Hopefully this will be a sufficient tune-up for the trial in a few weeks and of course I'll try to get in some practice sessions in the yard.  One of these days I'll write up a post about her table retrain.  I was hoping to see more long term success before posting about it but I have the time now so maybe I'll do it anyway.

Strum did great overall.  2/2 on the A-frame, 4/5 on the dogwalk, though his teeters have gone right out the window.  He was not nearly as amped up as at a regular trial but he was more amped up than at regular practice but not so much that he completely lost his head.  It was the perfect atmosphere for him to learn to keep his head and focus while being excited.  I have to get off my butt and get him to more of these things.  We also need to work on his teeters some more and rear crosses at a chute.

I'm guessing the practice field will be melted by tomorrow so hopefully I can get some more training in.  It's probably o.k. today but I've got a cold or something and my head and ears are blocked up and I'm tired and wah wah wah.  I think I'll take it easy today just because I can.

Go ahead and laugh Home Depot man

I know, you all thought I was going to wuss out and buy a ready made agility table. This would have been the wiser choice from both a time and money perspective. The possibility of losing one's fingers to the power saw certainly makes the DIY approach a false economy. But I kept looking at the photo of the table I was going to buy and thinking 'this is stupid, I can make that, it looks so easy, it'll be over $200 probably by the time I pay tax and delivery, I can so make this myself'. And I did! I'm not handy at all and I had no idea what I was doing but I did it and emerged with all my digits and limbs intact though my already rather small DIY ego took a beating from a sarcastic salemsman at Home Depot who had the nerve to laugh at me right to my face. I knew it would take longer than I guessed it would take but it ended up taking even longer than that, mostly because I had to practice with the saw and figure out what I was doing and how many trips to Home Depot did I make? But I really wanted to do it, more for my own sense of satisfaction than to save money which is a good thing because if you add up the cost of tools, materials and most significantly my time this is one helluva an expensive table. Cost of finally Doing It Myself-Priceless. I guess.

Here are some things I learned for future reference or for anyone else silly enough to undertake these shenanigans:

1. Protective eyewear and ear plugs people!

2. Clamps are your friend, but not too tight. Best to put a piece of scrap wood between the clamp and your 'work'. That's what the handy people call the thing you're cutting-'work'. See, I've got the jargon down already.

3. An mp3 player comes in handy for drowning out the screaming noisy rich brats in the swimming pool next door. Otherwise they will distract you and give you a headache and maybe you'll measure something wrong.

4. Keep a cell phone and a cooler handy just in case you have to call 911 and transport a severed digit.

5. Both hands on the saw at the same time. The Home Depot guy can sneer at you all he wants.

6. Getting laughed at by a Home Depot salesman is super fun.

7. It doesn't have to be perfect, we're talking toys for dogs here.

8. How is your math? See if you can figure out ways to minimize the amount of PVC pipe you waste using algebra and the quadratic formula. Calculus may be overdoing it, there's no need to show off. Bonus points if you can do all the calculations by hand because you're such a genuis and left all your calculators at work.

9. Your Border Collie may be smart but he makes a terrible assistant. Lock him in the house where he will stare out the window at you for hours in a most unsettling manner. Even more fun if you have 3 staring at once. You can pretend you're putting on a seminar.

10. PVC shavings make one helluva mess. Not sure how I'm going to get them out of my ski bindings. I had no idea there would be such a mess and by the time I did it was too late.

11. It will take 20 times longer than you think it will.

Now if only I can muster up some more DIY princess energy to paint over the horrible minty green walls in my living room that have been barfing me out for the past 10 years.