Second show, second rally novice leg

As I said, I entered Cash in novice rally at the Seward County Kennel Club show this weekend. First show, first leg on Saturday with a score of 83 (it was a cheap leg, but a leg nonetheless). I thought for sure he had NQ'd as he was sniffing something terrible (tracking, anyone?) I know sniffing can be a sign of stress, but frankly, I think he is just nosy and interested in EVERYTHING. Apparently it's not against the AKC rules to slap the floor to get a dog's attention (I had already done everything else I could think of). It didn't scare him and when he looked at me, I said, "Hi, how bout we quit making the nice judge wait?" in a cheery voice. He completed the rest of the course well enough to qualify. Whew!

Today we had one more dog in competition than on Saturday and I decided to pick up my pace to see if the faster motion would eliminate the sniffing. It really helped and going to the second to last sign, we had a score of 98 going, but then disaster struck. At the moving down sign, he sat down to scratch. I just said "Aggghhh" and was joined by the audience and the judge! He finished the final sign perfectly, of course. One lousy little bobble and poof there goes first place. He ended up in second place with a score of 88 and his second leg in two shows so I guess I can't complain too much.

The only minor down side was I picked Cash up in the ring after the ribbons were awarded because we were between a Dalmatian and a smooth Collie who were both eyeing him like he was a fluffy squeak toy, and his personality is to eye them right back. Discretion is the better part of valor and since I didn't want him to leave the ring with holes in him, I grabbed him. Two of my instructors told me later that was a no-no in AKC. I told them I understand, but no way was I letting him get hurt because of what I consider a stupid rule, and if they took back the score and the leg so be it. I talked to the judge afterward and she didn't mention it, so I must have skated that one. I'll just have to be more careful in the future and stay off to the side with him when we go back in for ribbons.

My friend, Loretta, the Boxer owner called me last night and asked if I would mind if she showed Echo today. Mind? Heck, no! I couldn't understand why she asked me to show her yesterday. Loretta has finished two conformation champions in the past, but apparently came down with a nasty case of ring nerves. Anyway, she is entering Echo in several shows I can't go to due to prior commitments, and she needs to get back in the ring.

One leg down, two to go

Yay! Cash got his first rally leg today in novice. In AKC, to earn a Rally Novice title, a dog must acquire three "legs" under three different judges (maybe two judges, I'll have to check that.) To earn a leg the dog must get a qualifying score or "Q" with a score of 70 or above (100 is perfect). He didn't get a placement in the class, fourth place had a score of 95, but a leg is a leg.

In the Boxer ring, Echo won her class (and beat out the professional handler who used to handle her), but lost WB to her litter sister. Loretta was happy with how she showed so we go back again tomorrow.

4:30 this morning came awfully early (as it will tomorrow) and I'm going to hit the rack early tonight.

No turning back now.....

Cash is all bathed, dried, trimmed, nails dremeled and sacked out under my computer desk storing up energy for his rally trial debut tomorrow. We did have a VERY SHORT (it lasted 4 jumps with no start line stay) foray into novice jumpers at a NADAC agility trial in January. I'm thinking I at least have a shot at success since he's on leash in rally. I'm also showing a friend's Boxer bitch in the breed ring. First time back into conformation in ummmm, yeah, 30 years.

We're asking for fingers and paws crossed for attention, focus and a little luck. We'll let you know how it goes.

Maybe he has a future as a course designer...

Yesterday Cash and I went to Bonafide Academy for their Saturday afternoon drop-in agility class. Granted it was a totally new environment for him, but holy moley what a case of zoomies! Good things: he held a SLS (Yay!), correctly weaved 6 poles 3 out of 6 times, dropped to a down immediately on a table. Not so good: "WOW, Mom! LOOK at all this space! See ya!"

He is such a total tunnel sucker. Have a tunnel ANYWHERE on course and he will find it. I had been entertaining foolish thoughts of entering him in a NADAC trial June 2/3. There is also a rally trial elsewhere the same weekend. I'm thinking we'll stick to rally for now and continue the agility TRAINING. Sigh...

Last agility class for this session

Tonight was our last class of the session and time to either test out or plan on repeating this Obstacles class in the next session. Yeah, except for my friend, Darla, and her awesome little Pom, we'll all be seeing each other again next session.... :-(

That's okay, I would much rather have solid contacts and weaves than do a half-assed job and have to fix foundation problems down the road. We have 6 weeks until the next session starts in early June so hopefully with some dedicated work every night for just a few minutes we'll have the weaves working and that damned "touch" solid.

On the bright side, Cash is working distance and obstacle discrimination beautifully. And when you're my age (over 50) and about 20 pounds overweight, you NEED all the distance you can get.

Tomorrow night I am attending a conformation handling class with my friend, Loretta and her Boxer bitch. Loretta gets terrible ring nerves and wants me to show her bitch for her at the Seward, NE show the end of April. Cash is entered in rally novice and as luck would have it the class times didn't conflict so I will re-enter the conformation ring about 30 years after I left it. THIS should be interesting. I have found myself really looking forward to the show and getting back in the ring. Entertainment value could be high!

Another beautiful Sunday

It was another gorgeous Sunday today and I set up a tire jump, tunnel, and a bar jump in the back yard. Our backyard is about 80 feet wide and I set the tire and bar jumps side by side at about 30 feet with about 15 feet between them and then the tunnel another 25-30 feet away formed into a curve. My goal was to see if I could work distance with Cash. The neighbors Golden, Goldendoodle and Shih Tzu were in their backyard so we had some distractions as well. The neighbors have an invisible fence and both of the large dogs wear the collars. The Shih Tzu does not. We do have split rail fence between the yards and along the back lot lines.

It took longer to set up and tear down when we were done, but I'm a big fan of ending on a high note after very short practices. Cash was AWESOME (aren't they all in their own yard?). He held his start line stay consistently (YAY!), had obstacle discrimination and was consistently taking whichever jump I directed to the tire and back to whichever jump and back to me. I ended with him being about 5 feet behind me and gave him his release word as soon as he focused on the jump. I stopped at the jump and said, "Go tunnel," and he was off in a flash, through the tunnel about 30 feet away and charged back over the jump. What a good boy!

Now if we can just get that touch thing to be as consistent......

Great dog, shame about the handler

Poor Cash has an idiot for a handler. He was AWESOME last night and only messed up when he followed my body language. It is so true in agility that the dogs only do what the handler cues them to. Sigh...

When the only "issue" we are having is the touch at the bottom of the A frame, that's not bad and is fixable. He did a teeter with about an 18" drop (not bad when he is only 11.5" at the shoulder). He wasn't real fast, but drove to the end and held the 4 on the board.

We are starting to work distance and he will be fine once I get my mind around the cues and what NOT to do.

Next week is our last agility class until June and we'll have lots to work on during our hiatus.

In for a penny, in for a pound

Friday night's rally class was excellent! I think the combination of training for rally and agility simultaneously (classes are on different nights but during the same time frame) has really helped in both areas. Cash's SLS and focus are better in agility I think because of rally and his focus in rally is better because of agility. Maybe the fact that we are at class on both Wednesdays (agility) and Fridays (rally) helps too since he doesn't have time to forget.

As the title infers, I entered him in Novice A rally at the Seward County KC show in Seward, NE on April 28 and 29. The entry was mailed this past week, so no turning back now!

Flyball is going to go by the wayside at this point. He's fast, focused and has a great flip turn but doesn't CARE about tennis balls. We both have enough to do with agility and rally so at this point we're bowing out of flyball. Maybe down the road we'll try it again.

Progress.... YES!

We actually saw some real progress tonight at agility class. First area was two sets of 2x2 weaves about 15 ft. apart. Cash consistently found the entry with me on either side and had great speed. Next was the dogwalk or in our case, the stairs. In previous classes this session, two of the 3 instructors had put Cash on the DW but now the ante has been upped. He will hold a 2o2o and will do a head bob with an occasional actual touch, but the instructors now expect a solid touch, so back to the stairs. He's solid on the 2o2o but looks at me more than he should. Something to work on.

Next section was the teeter, something he was somewhat fearful of a couple of weeks ago, but better last week. Tonight he was charging down the teeter with it set at about a 6 inch drop onto a table and solidly holding all four feet on the end. YAY!

We then did a sequence of a jump, tunnel, back to the first jump the other way, table, tire, jump. To be able to play he had to hold a start line stay, and DID! However, Christy said I owed her a DQ blizzard if he tunnel sucked after the last jump. (What size and flavor would you like?)

Last sequence was four jumps set up about 15 ft. apart, side by side, in a square.

Kind of like:

__3___ __2___



__4___ __1___



Dog facing North starting at bottom right jump. Jump, jump, turn to left, dog heading South, jump, jump. The idea is for the handler to try not to move out of the middle. It's tougher than it looks but Cash did great and I needed to super glue my shoes to the floor.

Next sequence:

__2___ __3___



_____ __1/4___



Handler does a pivot into the dog directing him to jump 2, 3, 4. Once again Cash must have listened to the instructions because he did it perfect, no matter what I did. I am beginning to think I should have paid more attention in those dance classes my parents sent me to when I was a kid because graceful I am not.

I felt very encouraged after class and am actually feeling like we're making progress.

Hangin' out in the backyard

The weather was so beautiful this evening that I set up a jump and two sets of two pole weaves in the backyard. Cash was so cranked up to work he was barking at me, which he seldom does. We did some one jump directionals and worked on getting speed and focus through the weaves. We're training weaves using the 2 X 2 method as in Susan Garrett's book, Shaping Success and Cash is looking for and finding the opening pretty consistently. We also worked heavily on a START LINE STAY (had to put that in CAPS in case one of my instructors trips over this blog). Considering the rabbit scent must be strong in our yard, Cash was very focused and HELD HIS STAY CONSISTENTLY!!! Now if he'll just do that at class.... All in all a good time and the pooped poodle is sacked out at my feet.