A Slow Week

After all of last weekend's excitement with the trial and my birthday, this week seemed kind of slow. The weather has been a little better - cold but no ice or snow. So I can run in my backyard and chase squirrels and birds and bark at my neighbors, etc. Nice for that to get back to normal after so much ice. We also have been able to do some backyard agility every day - nothing fancy - just some jumps and weaves.

We went to Wednesday morning practice and I did fine - nothing too difficult was set up and I am running with more confidence since my trial experience. Mom ran Makin - he is my trainer Deb's border collie. Mom had never tried agility with any dog except me! I didn't get to see her with Makin because I had to wait in the car. But she told me it was fun but very different. He is a much bigger dog than me - he jumps 24". And since he's a lot bigger, he moves around the course totally differently. Plus he is faster than me. (But he's not crazy-border-collie fast). I think mom wants to try it again - it's ok with me since she'll learn how to be a better handler and then I will benefit from that!

Thursday night we had our last advanced intermediate agility class. For the most part, it went great! We got to brag about our trial results right at the beginning of the class - the instructor always asks people who trialed over the weekend and what happened. Then we got to run some pretty challenging sequences. I was fast on my a-frame and dog walk - I think I surprised one of the instructors with my speed (now we're talking about fast for me, not necessarily fast for some other dogs)! Mom did a lot of lead outs with me - I am awesome at staying put, but then I start out real slow. So she is going to try to come up with ways to rev me up and just run with me (that's why she didn't try a lead out at the trial). Right now we don't have any clue as to how to get me all fired up at the start line. And we did some more complicated jumps with harder weave entries and I think I got them all. I like the more challenging stuff and I am really loving running long sequences and then getting a big payoff at the end (like lots and lots of chicken!).

Mom's not sure if we can take a class next session or not. She has too many conflicts with work in the evenings that classes are offered. There is a slight chance we'll do a Wednesday night class. Have to wait and see. We are going to take a Monday morning class at the club where we go for practice - we don't know much about the class or the instructor, but we're hoping to learn some new stuff and get some more good advice.

I almost forgot to tell you but mom has put me on a DIET! She actually started it on my birthday - of all days! A couple people - one of our agility instructors (who has Shelties herself) and a Sheltie breeder friend of our's - mentioned that I look FAT! I blame it on the time of the year - I mean nobody can get a lot of exercise in the dead of winter! - but mom had to admit that maybe I was getting a little chubby. 16.4 lbs. last time we checked. So she cut back on my food and is watching how many treats I get. This is all bad news for me - I was already hungry all the time! I keep telling her it's just all my fur that makes me look fat, but she doesn't believe me!

Gotta zoom!


Ricky

Tomorrow is the day!

Well tomorrow is the day of my first agility trial! Looks like I will be good to go - we went to practice on Wednesday morning and class last night and no sign of limping or anything. Last night was class 6 - we did sequences with some more difficult jump angles and weave entries. Mom and I handled it all pretty well. The only thing we are having some consistent difficulty with now is the a-frame. I have to be running fast in order to get up it - but if mom runs fast past the a-frame to get my momentum going, I often pass right by it and run after her (although she is saying, "Frame" to me. And if she slows down and makes sure I get on it, then I don't have enough speed to get up and over and end up really fighting my way to the top. So we'll see what happens.

The other thing about tomorrow is the measuring! For some reason, I had never really been measured. Don't know why this isn't part of agility classes - but it isn't (at least wasn't for us). We had been asking our instructor to measure me for awhile now and there was never the time. If you saw me and compared me to the height of dogs who jump 16", you would assume like we did that I would jump 12". So I have always jumped 12". Last night I got measured - it was a rush job, but I measured 14 and 1/4"!!! This is very bad news because that means I would have to jump 16" tomorrow (anything over 14" puts you in 16") and I never have! I have also never dropped a bar in 12" and can probably do 16" but it would've been nice to know. So we're not sure what to do if I measure the same tomorrow - jump 16", jump preferred at 12", don't run? Chalk this up to another learning experience for mom - she's bummed but at least she'll know better the next time around.

Today we are going to do a little backyard practice and maybe go for a long walk at the park. Then tomorrow we get up early and see what happens!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Sunday

Finally some of our snow and ice is melting today! Temperature around 40 - ice dripping off of everything. We had a good walk around the neighborhood this morning and then talked to one of our neighbors at the fence for a long time - so long that I did a lot of barking and when that didn't get me the attention I deserved, I started pruning the forsythia bush and the lilac bush! Unfortunately I don't think the "warm" weather is going to last very long. Wish the snow would all melt, though.

I won a shirt from RockStar Pooch in Johann's Giveaway and here is a not very good photo of me in it - cute, huh?

Thursday night was our fourth agility class - it was kind of unremarkable. We did longer sequences than in previous classes. More rear crosses and some front crosses. More obstacle discrimination. Mom asked the instructor to walk around a lot on purpose when I was running so that I could get used to the idea of someone walking around out there with me (ie. trial judge!). I wasn't as distracted this time. We have to miss the class next week - mom has to work - but luckily we can go to Wed. morning practice this week. So we're going to ask someone to pretend to be the judge then too. My trial is only 13 days away now! And in 14 days it'll be my birthday and I will be 2!

Just for fun here is a goofy photo of me playing with dad:

Hope everyone had a good weekend and if you had snow, we hope some of it melted for you too!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

We've been tagged too!

We were tagged by our friend Lian over at the Knight's Shelties to play the "fifth photo" game:


Open a document or file folder. Click on the fifth folder and then the fifth photo. Post the photo and describe it. Then tag 5 other bloggers.

So here's our fifth photo taken last summer - we're practicing weaves and dad had just gotten a new camera so he was trying out action shots. The photo just makes mom wish for nice weather even more than she already was! We would tag five more people but lots of our friends have already been tagged. But if you're reading this, and you want to play, please do!

Yesterday the temperature went above freezing for the first time in weeks and today was actually 48! A lot of snow melted but not all. And tomorrow's high is supposed to be 25. Short-lived break in the winter weather!

On Wednesday we went to agility practice and had a great time! There was an actual course to run - with numbered obstacles and everything. It gave mom practice with walking a course and remembering it. We ran it twice - the first time was good except that I stopped weaving to smell a small piece of dog fur near the third pole. The second time was awesome - mom was really happy because I ran like I loved doing agility!

Last night was our third advanced agility class - it went pretty well too - but I did some sniffing and some really slow dog walking (I was watching the instructor move out of the corner of my eye while still trying to complete the obstacle - you try it!!) Everyone thought it was hilarious that I was so worried about what the instructor was doing while mom was saying to me, "Um, hello Ricky, mom's over here!" Besides that I hit the broad jump on the way down and thumped my leg pretty hard but shook it off. I also got something in my eye and was teary-eyed for awhile. But I did some good rear crosses, fast-for-me weaves, and chutes with very minimal hesitation.

Today I ran errands with mom which included a trip to my favorite park - we take recycling there to drop it off. We walked around in the snow for about 30 minutes - me on my longline! It was exhilarating to be out there again! We met a shnoodle puppy - cute but too boisterous for me - and two goldendoodles. Is every dog an "oodle" nowadays? Will there someday be a Sheltiedoodle?

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

PS. I tried really hard to make paragraphs in the above post but for some unexplained reason, blogger refuses to do it!

Cabin Fever (and agility and tricks too)!

Sorry it's been so long since I posted anything! The weather has been so COLD and mom and dad have been working a lot, so I've been doing almost nothing! Mom and I are real diehard walkers, but Thursday morning I cried "Uncle!" because the ground was all snowy and the temperature was 8. I'm tough but my paws just couldn't handle it. So yesterday morning and now today we haven't even tried to walk - yesterday was -12 and today is -5! The good news is that today's high should be 20+ and mom says we'll walk in the afternoon!

Enough about the weather! Thursday night was our second class in advanced agility. We missed practice on Wednesday morning since mom had to work, so I was raring to go on Thursday night! We did a lot of sequences again and worked a lot on rear crosses again. It was really good for mom - she learned more about how to keep her shoulders straight approaching the jump and to use her dog-side arm to push me over the jump while she then rotates her shoulder in the new direction and moves laterally in the new direction. Homework is to practice rear cross on the flat so we've been doing it several times a day.

We'd like you to know that we finally mailed in our entry for our first trial - we decided to run on just one day - February 14 - JWW in the morning and the Standard course in the afternoon. There is another trial two weeks later and we might run both days then. We'll see how it goes!

To keep busy in the house, we are still working on tricks - here is our latest:



Hope you all have a great weekend! I hear that I am off to visit grandpa and grandma! Yay - finally some action around here!

Gotta zoom!


Ricky

Advanced Intermediate Agility, Class 1

Last night we went to our first advanced intermediate agility class! It was great to be back in class again. On Wednesday we had gone to practice in the morning armed with new treats (these beef burger bites that we had gotten as part of Johann's giveaway gift). They are full of bad stuff - according to mom - but I love them! I was very motivated to do fast agility on Wednesday morning and that kind of carried over to last night.

This class is divided into two sections - about 6 dogs in each group. So we get to work on longer sequences. Some of the dogs in the class are very experienced and already trialing at excellent level. That was good for mom because she could watch how they handled an exercise and that helped her figure out how to do it.

The first thing we worked on was rear crosses. We have done some of that on our own, but very little in a class. We also had to do tunnel/dog walk discrimination. Mom found out that she is successful if she can block the tunnel opening with her body and send me up the dog walk. Then she did a rear cross while I was on the walk to get where she needed to be. We also want to work on sending me into a tunnel when it is the first obstacle in a sequence. I tend to not be revved up at that point and often balk at getting in the tunnel. But last night I was pretty fast through the chute - the first time through is always a little hesitant and then next time is much better. (but in a trial you only get one chance!) The weaves had entry and exit wires on which confused me the first time too, but then I remembered them and was ok.

Our second section focused a lot on lead out pushes. I have a really good start line stay at the moment, but I don't have a lot of drive when mom does a lead out. Actually though I was better last night because I kept remembering that awesome tasting treat mom had in her pocket! We did more weaves and also the teeter in this section.

Overall it was a lot of fun and more challenging than the last class. We were disappointed that we didn't get put in a group with our cattle dog friend Katie but the instructors probably did that on purpose knowing that Katie's mom and my mom would talk the entire time if they were together!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky