Agility practice and more on the Flip!

First of all, I'd like to say that I had the class of my life on Wednesday night! I was feeling very confident and did everything much faster than my usual poke-along speed! People were asking mom what she was doing differently - she made up her mind to run faster and to be more confident herself and to not wait around for me. I guess it worked! Sorry there is no video to prove it all - typical! I even played with mom at the class and that is a big milestone for us!

The other day we practiced doing some 270 jumps (from our class the week before). We put our old camcorder on the tripod and warmed up with some tricks and then tried some sequences.

Then yesterday we set up the Flip camera on the tripod (in the same location as the other camera) and practiced some serpentines and pinwheels. Sorry the one jump in the serpentine is not in the camera view! Also the pinwheel is deeper than it looks on the video and mom didn't step into the pocket - she made me go and find the jump on my own.

We are liking the Flip more and more. It is really easy to operate and to carry around. It makes pretty decent quality videos. The only thing mom didn't like was the software. It is very basic but super simple to use. But she figured out how to get a Flip video into Windows Movie Maker. WMM won't accept a video clip from Flip but if you make a Flip movie, you can then import it into WMM and make a better movie from there. Diana asked if we thought the Flip would do well at a distance - we have seen video of agility trials and herding that turned out good. We are taking it to our next trial in June and we'll see.

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

Class 4, more practice, and cold weather!

BRRR....it's COLD! We are having January weather in November! When mom and I walked this morning, the temperature was 24 but with the wind chill it was 9!! I love it! I say, "Bring it on!" But mom is freezing all the time. So we don't go outside very often. I don't get it - why is it that we are outside all day in the summer when it's 80-90 degrees and I am so hot I can't stand it, but now that the weather is so nice, we spend all our time inside?

Wednesday morning practice went well again this week. We set up the chute in the small ring like last time and practiced it starting with the material folded up a little and progressing to full-length in no time. Mom was happy to see that I was still willing to do the chute and last week wasn't a fluke! We also did well in the big ring on the course.

Last night was our agility class 4. The most exciting news to report is that I DID THE CHUTE in class too - different building, different chute, but I still did it! Hurray! As a matter of fact, mom had trouble keeping me out of it. We were supposed to do a sequence where mom blocks the path to the chute so that I would take a nearby jump and I went straight into the chute! Not what we ultimately want, of course, but mom was very happy to see my enthusiasm. We also worked on some difficult weave entries - a jump at an angle into the weaves, a lead-out push to the weaves, and a jump straight on into the weaves where I had to collect and mom had to make sure to stay out of my way. In the contact section, I did my fastest dogwalk yet - I was actually moving so fast that I had trouble stopping my momentum to do my 2o2o and ended up running right off the end of the walk! I was not used to moving so fast! Our instructor said that I look like a different dog!

This afternoon mom set up a little agility course in the house. We had a tunnel in the kitchen, 6 plungers we got at the Dollar store for weaves, a jump, and a short board for a mini dogwalk. It was really fun! Mom would have me walk-it and then send me into the tunnel while she stayed in the living room, then over the jump and through the weaves while she stayed on the other side of the couch. It ended up being a good distance challenge (I'll be ready for novice FAST in no time!!!). We wanted to take video but we couldn't get the tripod far enough away to get a good view. So we took photos instead to show you our set-up.

Hope you all have a great weekend! Mom says if the temperature is above freezing tomorrow she'll take me to the park! I'm keeping my paws crossed!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Beginning intermediate agility class 4

What's this photo have to do with agility class? Nothing! Mom just thinks it's cute!

Last night was week 4 of my beginning intermediate agility class. We left the house super early in order to avoid a repeat of last week's late arrival. We got to the class building 30 minutes before. That was ok, actually, because mom and I went for a little walk, did some stretches and a few tricks. Then we got to do the aframe on our own a few times before class started. I did it but not very fast.

When class started, we reviewed what mom needs to do for a front cross, a pull, and a lead-out push. Mom knows what these moves are but thinks they are easier to do in context rather than practicing with one jump sort of in the abstract. But she really understands the purpose of each one now. We also talked about extension and collection.

Our first station last night was weave poles. The instructor really wants me to be able to weave with one wire on for the entry and one for the exit. I was still shying away from the wires, so she took a really long time to help me to be more comfortable. She pushed the wire all the way to the ground and then it didn't bother me at all. Then she gradually raised the height, and I tolerated it being there. She also says that when mom moves more confidently, I behave more confidently too. She thinks the noise in the building and the distractions make me slower and less confident and more wary about what I am doing. So private lessons wouldn't help me to overcome that. This means that we are going to need to repeat this same level class again next month. Ok, as long as it makes me more secure.

Then we went on to teeter and jumps and tunnel. I did three pretty good teeters - with 2o2o at the end. And my jumps and tunnel were fine. But by the fourth time on the teeter, I had had enough and jumped off.

After that it was contacts and dogwalk/tunnel discrimination. Well, I had never seen a tunnel under a dogwalk before. What the heck was it doing there? I didn't like it. I went slowly into the tunnel and even refused to go in - my first tunnel refusal. Mom was so proud (NOT!). So my instructor worked on getting me over that too - she moved the tunnel away a little and had mom work on getting me to do the dogwalk. We also did dogwalk, tunnel, aframe, double jump. I knocked the bar on the double when I went over it at an angle. That's something we can practice at home.

Finally we did jumps - a little quiz on the LOP, pull and FC. Then we practiced doing fast downs on the table. I am good at that! And I stay put while mom walks away from me - so theoretically, she may be able to do a big lead out from the table once we start trialing.

All in all not a bad class. Tomorrow we are going to watch an agility trial and hopefully see some of our instructors (past and present) in action. Should be good for mom to watch and learn and good for me to soak up the sights and sounds.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky