Simple Agility

Lo and behold, the sun finally came out today some time around 2:00PM!

The very few times we have done any backyard agility this month we have worked on very simple things - speed circle type stuff just to have fun. We videoed my practice this afternoon - just down and back several times. I am jumping only 8" now.

Everything is so green and lush here - the only good part about all of the rain!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Not a Wordless Wednesday

Yesterday we went to our last class of this session. We ran a short course and then did sections of the course again and I jumped 8". I didn't have any trouble jumping but there were no spread jumps for me to try. There were some interesting handling challenges - especially for big dogs who ran fast. I did a couple fast weaves and one real slow set of weaves and some fast dogwalks. Sorry for not describing the handling and the options etc. I know I am letting you guys down if you were hoping for a lesson. Maybe next session there will be more concrete stuff to talk about. It starts May 17th and the new turf will be in the training building.

It just rains and rains here so we haven't been any where and haven't done any practicing outside. Last Thursday we had a one-day break in the weather - the sun was out, the sky was blue, the flowers were blooming, and mom and I went to the park. We also took some pictures from our garden. The first three photos are from here and the rest are from the park.

Our Easter was very nice! It was cloudy and cool but it didn't rain non-stop so Wilson and I did get to play our version of fetch a few times. It was fun but exhausting! That Wilson loves his tennis ball and I love to bark at him!

Hope it is dry and sunny where you are!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Happy Easter!

I'll be spending the day with grandma and grandpa, my aunt and uncle and cousins, and Wilson!!!

Hope we get some breaks in the RAIN so that Wilson and I can play.

Have a very Happy Easter everybody!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

Our YouTube friends Pam and Bandit are the inspiration for this week's trick - learning wide circles for canine freestyle! Mom has wanted to try to teach me this for a long time and finally found out how to go about it from Pam's video. Pam used chairs to guide Bandit around but chairs didn't work well for me. I know a trick where I go under a chair so that's what I wanted to do with the chairs in this trick. So mom got out cones and buckets and that helped. You start out with the cones in a close circle around your mom and then make the circle wider as you figure it out. I started to go around a lot faster as the circle got wider. The next step will be fading the cones/buckets and adding a cue. Mom was saying a lot of "go" and pushing me out with her body. Ideally she should be able to stand in one spot and rotate around. I think my cue is going to be "orbit."

I have tons of fun with this trick and I hope you do too if you try it!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Wordless Wednesday

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Tuesday's class

Jenn's mom Susan taught our class today! We hadn't been in a class of hers since two summers ago. It was great to see her! We had a course to run so we did sections of it first that involved 270s and weave entries. I did ok but was not fast at all (slower than last week). I jumped the triple but thought about it a lot first.

Susan suggested to mom that maybe I should jump 8" - (like several of my good blogging friends did). So on the course run-through I did jump 8". It did not speed me up all that much, but they thought I handled the jumps better. Susan says it will take awhile for me to trust that the jumps are easier to clear. She also said that once a dog (like me) knocks a few bars, it hurts and makes us afraid to jump. We're going to keep trying me at 8" in class and see how I do.

The course started with the chute and I had no trouble with that! Yay for me! Not too long ago I would've totally refused to do it. And I had a few very fast dogwalks!

Susan had a lot of good advice for each dog/handler team. She is great at figuring out how to help over-the-top dogs as well as more careful ones like me. We appreciated her advice so much and she made us feel lots better!

For the past few days mom and I have been working on the foundation stuff for treibball. I can go around the ball to my mat from each side and I am learning to nose touch the ball with enough weight to push it a tiny bit. I have to work more on lining myself up on the opposite side of the ball from mom so that once I do push it, it goes in mom's direction. It is fun so far and I am really enjoying it!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Awesome weather!

We have had great weather the past few days (all ending tomorrow with rain and cold)! Mom didn't have to work and we spent lots of time outside. We went twice to the ravine in my favorite park because the wildflowers are starting to bloom down there. Mom is a nut for wildflowers especially in the Spring.

I had to pose again and again. Here I am sitting in lesser celandine. It is so pretty and is just every where!


Miley always poses on tree logs so mom made me do it too! :)

Virginia bluebells are just now starting to bloom - I am sure we will go back in a few days to see them when they really come out!

Lots of dogs walk in the ravine - an entire pack descended on me. Mom didn't save me - she just took pictures. Thanks mom!

More of me and the yellow flowers.

Besides the park, we have been hanging out on our patio a lot. The bullfrog we had in our pond last fall made it through the winter. But we didn't see him yesterday or today and wonder if he hopped away in search of another bullfrog.

We have done a little fun and fast agility - basically speed circles. Just having a good time!

I am working on my retrieve and my tricks while holding stuff in my mouth. Also I am still working on my signals exercise. Mom has been reading about treibball (ball herding) and found a Yahoo Group about it and there are 6 lessons on how to get started. Lots of stuff I already know so mom is going to get me a ball and see how it goes. I would prefer that we get some sheep but mom says No!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Tuesday's class

Mom says thanks to all of you for leaving such supportive comments about my horrible trial day on Saturday. We appreciate all of the advice and support and love so much.

Today at class Jenn was sick and we had a classmate as the substitute instructor. He did a great job! Only three other dogs/people were there (no barking dogs either). So it was nice and quiet and we got to run more sequences than usual and move at a faster pace. Maybe all of this contributed to making me feel like a completely different dog than I did on Saturday!

I got to warm up on tricks, jumps and a tunnel. More warm-up time than usual. I was flying into and out of the tunnel. Our sequences had a lot of really tough 270s. We got some of them but not all of them. Mom had to really push me around to the back of the second jump in order to keep me from coming through the gap. But during the class I did some really fast weaving, a super fast dogwalk (mom moved laterally away from me and layered the chute while I was on the DW) and it made me go so fast! I had very little trouble jumping (but there were no spreads today) but I did skip the aframe once (I just wanted to stay right next to mom). One of mom's favorite moments was when she messed up and had her shoulders pointing toward the tunnel (instead of a jump) and I flew past her and into the tunnel!

Any way mom signed us up for the next class session since I enjoyed today so much. Jenn is adding another building for classes which will have matting and the current agility building is going to be redone with turf! So now I will finally have a chance to practice on the same kind of surface that I see at most of my trials. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for me to get comfortable with it.

For now we are not doing any more trials though. We're going to try to enjoy classes and maybe get to some run-throughs and keep trying to get better on the things we can improve - drive, speed, focus. Jenn still claims that I have ETS (early take-off syndrome) and that it won't get better and that there really isn't anything we can do about it. It's hard to not worry about this and to stay positive and keep going with the training BUT I feel good right now and that makes mom happy. We'll just have to see....

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Today's Trial

We went to a trial today - the first one since January. I really struggled with the jumps in the STD run and even knocked a bar. Put the video on full screen so you can see - otherwise it is too small.

The JWW course was really good for us - long straight aways. But after I had so much trouble jumping in the STD run, I really didn't feel confident enough to jump in the jumpers. (also make this video full screen or you can't see me walking by jumps).

I had a really good time when mom warmed me up for the runs. We went outside and I did some very attentive circle work and heeling and I was enthusiastic about doing tricks and startline running and stuff. I am not sure what happens to me on the actual course.

Even though we are signed up for two days of a trial on Easter weekend, today might have been my last trial day.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Tuesday's class

I am sorry but I didn't learn anything today! We focused on weave entries as a drill and then various entries in sequences. There were no spreads for me to get weird about. I did the chute. That's about it.

I decided since I am gypping you all on a lesson that I would just share some random pictures. (the endless green grass is out at my grandparents')

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Special Saturday edition of tRicky T-Day!

It's a stretch but can you kind of see how Saturday is a T day?

I am still learning how to hold an object ( a dumbbell ) and do various tricks while not dropping it. The blooper video that could've accompanied this trick video would've been the way longer movie! But for now here is my progress:

(I want you to know that I offered the BANG! all on my own!)

Am I getting closer to being able to hold the blanket and roll over with it? When mom gets brave enough to try again, we'll see! :)

Gotta zoom!

Ricky