Signed up for Classes

This past weekend the girls and I were in a local trial, each of the girls were entered in 2 regular, a jumpers and a tunnlers.  Regular started off our Saturday morning; Hallie was first up, she had a decent run considering she hasn't been on contacts since February...but of course the second obstacle was a dog walk/tunnel discrimination and she got sucked in by the tunnel.  Not shocking.  The rest of her run was good, she did her weaves first try.  Next up was Pyper.....who also got sucked into the tunnel....LOL.  Also not shocking! She did the rest of her run ok, didn't jump any of the contacts which was amazing and she did her weaves second try.  Then came Mia....who also got sucked into the tunnel....LOL.  She did the dog walk but she wouldn't do the A-Frame, can't blame her really, she has the least amount of train out of all the girls.  So we did a few obstacles can had some fun.  Later in the day we ran Tunnlers, much more successful!  All 3 girls Q'd and Hallie beat Pyper by .25 of a second!  Was a great way to end the day.
Sunday morning we started with Regular again, this time Pyper was first up.  Thankfully no tunnel discrimination's today....but....Pyper jumped her contact on the A-Frame....so I made her do it again which cause the elimination.  The good news is she did her weaves first try.  Next up was Mia, she did both the dog walk and the Aframe...horray!  But then she had a little accident in the ring....boooooo!  oops.  Oh well the 2 contacts was enough of a victory for me.  Last up was Hallie, I had her all set up at the start line and she turned and approached the other dog waiting in line, so of course we got an E when I went and put her back to the start, oh well she had a good run besides that....not really her fault; the other dog was right behind.  oh well.  We ended the day with Jumpers, Pyper was first up.  Saturday night we had a thunderstorm so Pyper had an upset tummy....so we were about to line up for our run and she had a little accident...poor girl.  So of course we got an E and couldn't even run our run.  Mia's jumper run was rather challenging for me as Mia was REALLY interested in all of the dragonflies.  Was I had to call her back several times.  She finished the run with no faults but we didn't make time.  Hallie's run was also good but she had a couple of bobbles that we had to fix so she also ran over time.
So we only came home with the tunnlers ribbons, however, these Q's runs mean that Pyper is now in Elite tunnlers and both Mia and Hallie are in open tunnlers!

Since moving back to Canada we have wanted to get the girls back into agility classes, well mostly Mia and Hallie since they have had the least amount of training.  We had gone and visited with Shirley from D&S Dogs of Course http://www.dsdogs.com/last month, checked out their site and chatted about their program.  They offer all levels of classes and teach multiple methods including Awesome Paws.  Their site is on the other side of the city which is a down fall and it is only outside in the summer time and in a riding areana in the winter time.  They compete primarily AAC (which is the Canada USDAA).  They cost $17 a class with a 10 or 20% discount for the second dog.  This fee in cludes the use of equipment whenever it is not in use.  This weekend I chatted with Lois from Sondog http://www.sondog.com/ (who hosted the NADAC trial)  Their site is rather close to the house which is rather convienient and they have an indoor and outdoor facility. They use the outdoor as much as possible and use the indoor one when it rains or in the winter (it is heated)  They offer all levels of classes and will help you with all handling methods but I think they teach primarily the distance handling as they are a NADAC facility.  The classes cost $12.00 each and you get a 10% discount for the second dog.  This fee includes the use of equipment on friday nights.

So I had a bit of a struggle with what to do about classes.  If I go with Sondog I can afford to take both Mia and Hallie, if I go with D&S I will only be able to afford to take Mia.  However, I am not sure what training at the NADAC facility will be like.  So I sat back and reivaluated what my expectations around agility were, what did I want to get out of it.  Did I want to compete @ regionals and nationals and maybe even worlds?  If this was the case then AAC would be the way to go, the regionals were right here in Saskatoon this year so that makes that affordable, and Nationals were in Calgary last year.  NADAC is all of North America and Championships are in Illinois this year.  Did I want to title my dogs?  NADAC has mulitple levels of titling from novice titles all the way up to Purple Versatility Achievement Cup or MOD SQUAD.  AAC also has multiple levels of titling.  What did I really want to get out of doing agility.....after much thought I figured out that all I really wanted to get out of agility was to play with my dogs.  That's it!  Everything else is just a bonus.  So I have decided to take classes at Sondog since it is more affordable and I can train 2 of the girls instead of just one.  Utimately I can trail in either NADAC or AAC or both if I want (or afford)  NADAC has 14 trials a year 10 of which would be easy and convineint for me, 2 here in Saskatoon and 8 in Lloydminster. I am not sure how many trials AAC has a year but I suspect they have several as Saskatoon has 2 AAC clubs/hosts.  So my options will not be limited!  I have sent Lois and email asking her to sign both Hallie and Mia up for classes, we should be starting in September.  Woohoo! 

Pyper's New Trick

Today I took about 15 minutes to practice some stuff with each of the girls; I am trying to teach each of them to weave between my legs while I am walking....so far...not so good! LOL Anyway we also practiced some of the tricks that they already know; sit, around, down, roll over you know the easy fun stuff they love. Anyway while I was practicing with Pyper I discovered something new, she can do her sit pretty and wave together kind of like a beg....her is a video

Running Contacts

Well I know it has been a VERY long time since I have posted....sorry about that.  Things have been rather upside down but I hope to get things going again. Crystal and I are settling into the new house here in Saskatoon, same goes for all the animals.  The girls seem to love having a house with stairs...seems to be their very own private raceway.  Mia likes to try and beat Hallie to the bottom so she can wait at the bottom in attack mode.  Poor Hallie :)  The back yard is not finished yet but hopefully it will be done very soon.  We have roughly 50 yards of topsoil to be leveled....which will be done as soon as it quits raining.  Then we can order the sod and think about getting a fence up.

I have also started to look into places to train.  I contacted Shirley (who btw is originally from Fort Worth) from  http://www.dsdogs.com/ to see if I could come check things out, hope to check it out next week.  So exciting.  Also turns out if you are an active student there you can use the field when ever it is not in use....for FREE.  I do love FREE!

Well something I do is keep a list of things I would like to train, these could be things that I have never attempted before or things I like to touch on from time to time.  Kind of a reminder list.  Some of the things on my list are:

• Rear Crosses & Crosses @ Tunnels
• Contact Tunnel Discrmination - layering contact between me and dog and visa versa
• Crate Games
• Jumping skills (ofcourse)
• Running Contacts

So I just recieved the July Clean Run online which has an article by Daisy Peel -  "Tips for Training Running Contacts Part 2"  So of couse I also had to go back to my June Clean Run to find Part 1 LOL.  I told you I have been a little upside down.  :)  Anyway, this article really brought something to light for me, something so VERY VERY simple, running contacts are simply about how your dog runs.  Not really about the contact zone at all....just about how your dog runs.  This is an exerpt from the article:  "Simply put, you want your dog to be running with his back and front feet split apart rather than running like a bunny rabbit, with front feet and back feet together and each set used as a pair.  If the back and front feet are split apart, and hitting the ground separate from one another, your dog will be unable to jump later on when the board is raised"  Makes perfect sense to me!  If your dog runs properly it will hit the contact zone....instead of bunny hoping over it.

So now I at least have some ideas on how to train running contacts.  I look forward to posting about our progress.