May 2011Monthly Archives

From Novice to Excellent in Three Trials

Jet did awesome in agility again today! He qualified in both of his open runs. This morning he qualified in Open Jumpers with Weaves which gave him his 2nd Q in that level. One more and he’ll get to move to Excellent A JWW. Maybe we can pick that up tomorrow, I can sure hope so! Here’s his run:

He also qualified in his Open Standard Run. This… my dear friends, puts him into Excellent A in three trials! How can I be more proud of my boy? I’m amazed. I know he’s not the fastest dog in the world, but I didn’t train him for speed. I train for consistency and accuracy, and by gum, I think we’ve got it!

I got over being spooked at his being spooked about the sounds, too. And we are working through it. I bought some Great Bait at the show ring and Jet and I went and sat in the grass through one of the excellent runs and every time people clapped he got a super good treat. Every time the GO sound went off he got a super good treat. I also recorded the darn sound so I can go home and play it too so he’ll get used to it.

I’ve been running Tatum too this weekend and she Qd on Friday but she didn’t today. I think she’s getting really burned out. She’s a good girl though and is still trying! I’m not sure I’ll travel with her to 3 day shows, this is mostly a test to see how she does. Now she’s sleeping on the chair in the hotel room, she’s very tired! Maybe a multivitamin would perk her up… or me, I’m due for mine!

Sweet Jet

Cynthia

May 21, 2011

Agility, Jet, Tatum

4 comments

Agility, Jet, Tatum

Agility and Noise

Well today was our first day of AKC agility in Logan, Utah. It was pretty fun.. though I had a moment of total freak out breakdown unfortunately. I’ll tell you more about that in a minute.

Jet’s first run was Open Standard. He did awesome. I didn’t plan on him moving to the side after the chute so we had a refusal on the tire. But he did great and didn’t have any more issues. Here’s his run, it’s his second Open Standard leg:

Next was Jumpers with Weaves. Well, before our run, something spooked Jet. And since he’s deaf in his left ear, sometimes sounds do that. I think it may have been some clapping or something. Ever since we trained in a building in Farmington that is metal, and when empty it really echos a lot, and I clapped in there once and spooked him, now he occasionally doesn’t like a clap. Usually it’s just a sudden sharp clap that he doesn’t like. His tail tucks and he acts like he wants to run.

So today something happened, then the GO noise that the timer machine makes before everyone’s run was spooking him. UGH! It was awful. It totally freaked me out that it was freaking him out. And I near had a meltdown thinking I’ve gotten yet another dog who is not going to be able to do agility. As well as a dog that is nervous around noises and has issues. UGH!!! So I was all spooked myself. Though when we went into the ring, as you can see, Jet looks entirely fine like nothing at all was wrong. LOL. It was me who was so nervous and stressed that I handled him poorly. So we had 3 refusals and didn’t Q. But I’m glad we have the video so I can see how nicely he ran.

So anyway, tonight I’m resting and taking it easy and recovering from my nerves. The fact that I haven’t had much downtime in the last three weeks is also wearing on my nerves. Maybe I can hide in a Marcus nurse uniform and no one will know who I am, or that I can be a total dork sometimes!

Tomorrow will be better. If Jet gets spooked, then we deal with it. I won’t fret about it. I won’t worry. I’ll just deal with it and help him to make it better. It will be okay. I know it will. It has to be.

Jet’s New Bowl

Jet's New Bowl

Okay isn’t Jet’s new dinner bowl the coolest thing ever? LOL. I love it! It came yesterday in the mail. I ordered it from Etsy, a store called InAGlaze on Etsy. She did an awesome job. The bowl itself wasn’t even really too expensive. The shipping was a bit much, but of course I wanted to make sure it got to me without breaking! I’d order one for each dog but I can’t afford it right now. Dang. I really love fun, fancy bowls. Now I can throw him a birthday party, send out some birthday invitations, and make him a cake in his cute bowl!

Jet's Bowl

Unfortunately Jet is developing the fast eating habit. Ugh. I really wish he would slow down. The rest of my dogs, all big dogs, eat slow and fine. Especially Tatum who just takes her time eating and is the second last to finish. Muffit is always the last to finish. He just isn’t really jazzed about eating no matter what. I wish I wasn’t jazzed about eating! LOL

So anyway I’ve been feeding Jet some green beans in his food. He pushes them around to get to the kibble and it slows him down. Or else I put chunks of frozen veggies in there, cauliflower or broccoli mainly. He eats his kibble first, then crunches on the veggies. I hope it helps slow him down a bit. I’ve tried putting my hands in his food, throwing more food in there, and other things. But still he seems to want to wolf his food down now. He is at a good weight, but still he thinks someone is going to steal his food. No one does, so I’m not really sure where he got the idea from!

Food, Jet

Flyball and Lake Mead

Last weekend Chase, Jet and myself went to Las Vegas for a flyball tournament. It was pretty fun, though busy and loud. And windy. And Saturday was too hot and Sunday was too cold.

Our teams did pretty well. Both teams placed in their divisions on Sunday. Only one team placed in their division on Saturday. But really I go because the dogs have fun, and to get points for titles. Not really for placements. Though I do like it when we do our best.

On Friday before the tournament, and Monday before we went home, I took the boys out to Lake Mead. Jet has never swam before, but he did this time! I was thrilled. Ignore my dumb yays on the video because I was just happy to see Jet swim.

Jet was cold after swimming, poor boy. I needed some hand dryers to warm him up. Maybe I should put a hair dryer in the van that can be powered by the van itself. Do they make such things? Hrm..

Anyway, Jet’s box turn was pretty good, I think. We barely had enough people to race dogs, box load, and shag balls, so I didn’t get any video. Bummer. I wish I did because I want to make sure Jet’s box turn is holding up good. From what I saw I think it was, but it’s hard to tell from way back in the lanes when Jet is up at the box.

Jet ran a singles of 4.6, which is good. I know he could run faster but I don’t train for speed. I train for accuracy and consistency in agility and that’s my primary goal. So I’m happy with how he is doing. Jet was start dog on his team, Chase was third dog. Chase is usually start dog so it was fun to have to pass him this time for a change. Even passing Chase had consistent 4.7 times. That’s what he usually gets starting too so that tells me that my passes were good and tight. I only early passed him I think 3 times the whole weekend so I was happy with my passing for the weekend too.

Next weekend is agility… I need to sleep for three days first, but I have to work instead!

Cynthia

May 17, 2011

Chase, Flyball, Jet

3 comments

Chase, Flyball, Jet, Swimming

Remembering Angel

Well, it’s been one year since Angel died and left us. Yes, it still makes me cry. I miss her very much. I think she had a good life with us, even though she came to us with a broken leg, fresh out of the shelter, too skinny and feeling bad. Over the years we got her healthy, maybe a bit chubby, and gave her lots of love. I remember chasing her around the house when she had a sock.… Continue reading »

Not A Serious Bone

Jet with a Sock

After doing agility with Jet all last weekend, I was just thinking what a goofball he is. I don’t know if the girl Farmdogs are more serious or not, since I don’t have one (yet), but Jet doesn’t have a serious bone in his entire body.

Before we go on the line for our agility run he’s rolling around on his back being a silly dork. He’s sniffing every blade of grass. He wants to say hi to all the other dogs and people. Then he rolls on his back again.

He wants to eat treats and he wants to goof off and chase butterflies if there are any. LOL. Fortunately once we are on the line for our run, he seems to kick it into gear just fine and he does a good job. However, if a butterfly would happen to fly by, then I might lose him again. He is just such a sweetheart that I can’t get mad at him, though, I just laugh at all his silly antics!

So even though he’s a goof, he still does really well in agility and obedience! The obedience is more of a serious sport, so I think I have to work on that a bit more, but it’ll come! And this weekend we have a flyball tournament, and he’s doing well with that, too!

Jet – NA NAJ

Well Jet has two new agility titles! His first AKC agility titles. In fact, he’s probably the first Danish-Swedish Farmdog with an AKC title of any kind. He got his NA title yesterday, and his NAJ today. Woot!

I didn’t get video yesterday but I did get some today. I’m thrilled with how he is running. I couldn’t be more pleased. So far he has a 100% Q rate in Standard. Four runs, four Qs. At this rate he could be into excellent in our next trial in two weeks. Wow. I’ve NEVER had a dog this consistent. Finally, my third agility dog, possibly I got the training right!

In his Open Standard run I ran out past the weaves too far and so didn’t give him a good entry. But that’s okay, one refusal is acceptable and we Q’d anyway.

In Novice Jumpers he did beautifully. He’s really starting to read my rear crosses well. I’m not quite sure when to cue them, LOL, but I’m learning:

And in FAST he did great. It was an easy send, so we picked that leg up too. I’m not too concerned about FAST and haven’t entered him in FAST in future trials. I just haven’t had the time or motivation to train distance. Once I do, he’ll learn it quickly:

I couldn’t be happier with him. Did I say that already? LOL. I’m on cloud nine and I just adore this dog. He’s perfect for me in every way.

Now I just need some long hdmi cables so that I can watch the video from my new HD camera on my TV and see it full screen! Hmm maybe I’ll go do that now!

Jet’s First Obedience Trial

Oooo man, Obedience makes me so nervous! LOL. I got to the trial really early today, and sat for too long. But it was better than sitting at home fretting about being late and missing my time in the ring.

Jet went into the ring in the afternoon and he did pretty well. I thought his heeling would be better. His heeling in training is really solid. But this building is hard. There are lots of smells, and there’s conformation going on too, and agility outside. And Jet does have trouble resisting sniffs sometimes and it showed in this run.

He did not Qualify. He would have, but in the long 3 minute down stay he couldn’t resist the girl border collie next to him, and crawled over to see her. The goof. So the judge nodded at me to go and get him and so I did, and then we had to stand until the rest of the down stay was done.

Other than that he would have qualified. And this did give me a really good idea of what we need to work. We need to work speed at the start of the heeling. More push-backs I think. And I think we need to work finding heel position. Like I need to run away and play with him a bit then have him fall into heel at my Trot cue and have him stay with me.

But I was happy with him anyway. And the video always looks better than the actual feel of the run. He’s a good boy. We have a month before he has another obedience trial, so we can do some work!

And tonight I’ll be able to sit on the couch and rest. Obedience stresses me out more than any other dog sport. So I’m tired. But I ate well today, which was good so hopefully won’t need any sensa to help my weight loss along!