Agility - Tip Tail

Category Archives: Agility

Weaves, Articles, Money, Oh My

May 27, 2008 – 11:25 am

Well, it’s a three paycheck month for me, which is super nice. Plus I get some oncall pay this coming check, too. So… I’m going to be buying some extra agility and obedience equipment.

I am going to invest in a nice competition set of weaves. Metal base and all. And I think I’m also going to get some 2×2s for training. Mostly Tatum. And they are good to have and will last just about forever.

Also… I’m going to buy some articles for obedience. Scent articles, because me and the dogs need a good set! Plus, I’d love to start doing scent work with Levi with a good set. So much to do, so little time.

And if I have any money left over, I’m going to get some swimwear for my cruise in the fall.. however, I need to drop a few pounds first!

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Tagged Agility | Comments (0)

No Weaving for Levi

May 25, 2008 – 9:17 pm

Ugh… doing AKC this weekend, AKC agility with my goofy collie boy Levi. And I entered Chase today and tomorrow. Chase did really well. His FAST run was beautiful, except that he fell off the dog walk. I think he was going to fast. But also, many of the dogs fell off, so something was going on with that darn dog walk. Chase is in excellent FAST and he tunnel sucks… the send was the dog walk, then he had to turn away from me to hit the tunnel. Well, he is a tunnel suck so it was perfect for him! But alas.. since he fell off, he didn’t get the send. But I did send him to that tunnel and he hit it perfect and I didn’t step over the line, either. LOL goof ball.

Levi isn’t weaving again. I actually wish I could pull him out of the June AKC agility trial. But it’s too late. He’s such a good boy, he knows how to weave, but we’ve always had weave problems and so they come back now and again. I need to work them, we haven’t all winter. And I need a good set of weaves. I have a recommendation from a guy who makes them in Idaho, so I’m hoping to get some from him pretty soon.

Other than that Levi is running great. Though today he had a bug, or something, and he stopped to itch on course and had a couple of refusals too, the dork. Oh well, it was a non-run. I even had on my designer jewelry, the necklace I got of Tatum… dangit I need to post a picture of that! It’s very gorgeous.. I hoped it would give me some good luck but… perhaps now. No Qs for us yet this weekend. One more day tomorrow!

After we went to dinner with some new friends from Colorado. They were all very nice! I gave then this blog address so maybe they will come visit and drop a hello in the comments!

I’m super tired now… going to bed!

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Also posted in Daily Posts | Tagged Agility, Chase, Levi | Comments (0)

Doing some Agility

May 23, 2008 – 4:45 pm

Well, this memorial day weekend I’m going to be doing an AKC agility trial with Levi. And I have Chase entered too, just for Sunday and Monday. Should be fun. Probably will be raining. I hope we don’t get too wet or too cold.

So just a short post ’cause I’m headed out to set up!

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Tagged Agility | Comments (0)

Performance I Snooker Title

May 12, 2008 – 4:59 pm

Well the USDAA trial in Colorado was fun. I had a great time. Chase and Tatum, as you can see, got to ride in the back of the Fun Bus. The crates are attached and there are four of them. And more crates stack on the top. It can carry about 8 people, but not quite that many when there are as many dogs. But it’s a nice setup, for sure!

Chase did great at the trial, too. He got his PK1 title, which is his Snooker Title in the Performance Class. I have him in Performance because I don’t really want him to jump 26″, which is what he’d jump in the regular. He’s 21.5″ at the shoulder, and the cut off is 21″. He’s just a half inch too tall. He jumps 20″ in AKC, and 26″ is, I think, a big difference. Maybe someday I’ll train him up to that height but… not sure if I want to take the time.

So anyway… Chase did great. He got a Pairs Leg on Saturday, thanks to a great partner named Ollie. And he also got his Snooker leg on Sunday. He would have had some more but… of course, me the Mum screwed up. The Standard leg on Sunday, I stopped at the end of the course and he knocked the last bar, looking back at me. Doh! Other than that it was a good run.

Chase now has the 3 PI snooker legs (and title), one Standard leg, and one pairs leg. I’m excited for June when we, hopefully, will get some more legs!

Both the Steeplechase and Grand Prix (both the Performance versions, I forget what they are called) were a lot of fun too and Chase did really well. We had a couple of off courses, though, so we didn’t qualify. But I am still learning to run him. I’ll probably always be learning to run him.

I had some great coaching and confidence building from the people I was there with, and I appreciate it greatly! I don’t think they even know how much it helped. I do lack confidence and I think I have an attitude where I’ll never really succeed… and I need to get rid of that and get a more successful frame of mind. Chase is a great, fast dog and he has a lot of potential!

He did tunnel suck a couple times, but that is a training issue and we will be working on that. I have a tunnel and weaves and some jumps, so I’ll be breaking those out in the yard and practicing, too.

I have some more pictures, just of us, not really of the trial, but I’ll get them up in a while. Now.. I’m tired, and it’s time to veg and watch TV.

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Tagged Agility, Chase, Tatum | Comments (0)

Goin’ to Colorado for USDAA

May 8, 2008 – 12:25 pm

Well, bright and early tomorrow morning, Friday May 9th, I’m going to be on the way to Colorado, Brighton to be exact, for a USDAA trial. I’m being picked up at about 5:15 am. Ugh. I do not like early! The driver wants to be there before business closes on Friday so I’ll be going with. It’ll be super nice to drive with these guys, though, and not have to drive myself. There will be three humans and an odd assortment of dogs in the van.

We are not allowed to roll.. last time I was in a van going to Colorado for a dog show was with Lucy, back about 6 years ago. It was a snow storm and we rolled. The driver (not me) was going too fast in the snow. Not even sure why I was in that vehicle in snow. But this driver is safer and there is no snow, so we should be fine! Though I admit I’m a touch nervous.

I’m bringing Chase and Tatum. Chase is running, Tatum will go for socialization. Levi will be jealous, I’m sure, but he’ll be happy to see me when I get home.

I won’t have much time to blog again until Monday. I am giving training at work today, and helping with training, so am not on the laptop much. And at lunch my friend spilled her drink… oops! We needed floor mops to clean up, but someone came and cleaned up for us.

So off I go! Wish me and Chase luck!

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Tagged Agility | Comments (20)

Sunday Agility with Levi

May 4, 2008 – 5:55 pm

Well we had fun at agility again today. This is a picture of a Boston Terrier that I caught in the Tire. I actually brought my camera with and sat and took quite a few pictures. It was fun. You can see the rest of them on my flickr set if you are interested. As I write this they are still uploading, so it might be a while until they are all there.

Agility Photos on Flickr

I’m dead tired. Again. As usual. Levi did great again, too. But, he didn’t weave for me again. I even tried to slow him down and set him up for the weaves… but nope, he didn’t. I didn’t get these runs on video today, though. But he didn’t get the entry either run, and then once he was in, he did some but popped out half way through. *sigh* Someday we will get his MXP and MJP… hopefully. One Q a weekend is gonna make it take a while, though!

But we have fun anyway. I love this collie boy, and we have done a lot together and will keep doing so until Levi doesn’t want to any more. Hopefully it will be a while before that happens!

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Tagged Agility, Levi | Comments (17)

Levi’s Agility Runs Today

May 3, 2008 – 7:17 pm

Here is Levi’s first agility run from today. It’s his Excellent B Preferred Jumpers with Weaves run. My collie boy has such a good time doing agility… even thought he’s eight, he’s still having a good time. This is his clean run and I’m so very proud he got the weaves!

As you can see he did great, got his weave entry after the tunnel and finished them all. I was proud of him and we celebrated afterwards. On Friday he didn’t quite weave the first day… ran by them, but on the second run he gave them a try. I brought him back, was excited with him, and he finished them all. I think that helped his confidence for his first run today.

He now has 3 runs towards his MJP. He needs 7 more. He has 5 runs towards his MXP, and needs 5 more. Man these Masters titles are taking us a long time. But that’s okay, Levi is doing great and we are having a good time.

This run he also did great, but he didn’t Qualify. And if you watch his weaves.. you’ll see him bump the second poll. My obedience and agility instructor was telling me (she was watching, yay) that maybe Levi is entering the weaves too fast and he’s not able to control his movement around the second poll. (The reason he pulled out half way through is because he spotted the tunnel, and broke for it. LOL. I saw when his eyes spotted it and he focused on, silly boy. He prefers to weave when there is no obstacle after.. he likes to weave into nothing.)

I have never worked speed into the entry with him. Teaching him to collect. He is very long bodied, and will span up to four polls at a time when he weaves. And if he doesn’t collect and set himself up at the right speed, he might be going in too fast!

My collie boy going too fast? Wow! We’ve had weave problems as long as we’ve done agility. Because of me, of course. And in the last couple years I have really worked at de-stressing them. Well now, maybe it’s something else! Maybe it’s not stress! Maybe it’s something we can really work on!

So tomorrow I’m going to play with this, give him an ‘easy’ as he approaches them, see if that might help. Hrm… and we’ll see about doing some training for that entry. too.

Levi did great today and I was very proud of him. I love doing agility with my collie boy. He is such a great boy, and I adore him, and I do hope we have some good years left!

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Also posted in Levi | Tagged Agility, Levi | Comments (22)

A Day at Agility Makes Tired Dogs

May 3, 2008 – 6:31 pm

Well, I took three dogs to agility today. Levi, who ran two runs and did great! I’ll get a video of him posted after I rip it off my DVD camcorder and upload it to YouTube. I was very proud of him. He did great both runs today and weaved on his Jumpers course, the first run. Got the entry, all the polls, and Qd! I was thrilled. He’s such a good boy. He did his think, on his standard run, where he got the entry but then skipped the next poll. I’ll show you in the videos in my next post. I didn’t see any other collies run, Levi was the only agility collie again!

Muffit did really well, too! He is such a good boy. I think I’m getting a handle on what I need to do with him. We’ve only had him for three months, so even though he’s five years old (about) he’s had rotten training… well, no training, and so I’ll need to fix him. He does need to be exposed to the environments, but I do want to keep him under threshold. Where my tent is at the trial, we are far enough away so he can be quiet in his covered crate. And when I take him out, I can walk far from the other dogs, and wait until he gives me some attention. Then lots of treats and praise. And no rewarding hyper or frantic behavior. I think we will be getting a good handle on this soon. Someday I’ll take him with to some cheap hotels when we go travel. Now Muffit is happily sleeping next to me on the couch, he is very tired!

And then, of course, there was Tatum. She is my baby doll princess girl. She is also dead tired. She did great again today, even more confident. We did some mat work by the agility ring. We went inside to where they were doing conformation and obedience. She was a little shy and nervous towards the end of the day when she was getting tired, but in the morning she leapt out of the car and was excited for the day.

It was a good trial, the courses were hard, but okay. The weather was actually fairly warm… not too windy. Got a bit cold once in a while, but was okay. Hopefully it won’t rain or snow tomorrow, dangit. It usually is nasty weather at this trial, so since it’s not raining or snowing or blowing freezing cold wind is just a good thing!

One more day tomorrow. I’ll see about Levi’s weaves again, maybe he’ll get one more!

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Tagged Agility, Levi, Muffit, Tatum | Comments (4)

Better on Sunday

April 28, 2008 – 1:31 pm

Well Sunday was a much better day. It brings new meaning to making life comfortable for one’s self. However, I didn’t really need to. The weather, which I have no control over, was better so I wasn’t freezing and wind blown. I’d gotten a good night sleep, and drugged up on Ibuprophin and so my back felt better, too.

Chase would have Q’d in Jumpers but I lost my way after about 8 jumps, and he took an off course. The run felt really good, though, which is very nice. I had a friend run him in Standard, which was fun to watch. And then he did Q in Snooker! Yay. Our only Q this weekend. But you know, Saturday doesn’t even count as an agility day, it was so darn miserable. Some people told me they thought I wasn’t going to come back Sunday! But I got right back up on that horse and was better.

I brought my collie boy Levi with, too. And he cheers me up as well. He got to run in the fields with Tatum, Chase, and our friends dogs. I hope to get some more pictures up. This is Wyatt, he’s a corgi that I took a picture of! Was fun to sit by the ring and snap some pics on Sunday. I ran out of memory for my camera on Sunday, dangit! I even had both cards with me. But I hadn’t deleted the pics on one… next time I’ll remember to do so.

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Tagged Agility, Chase | Comments (5)

The Worst Agility Day Ever

April 27, 2008 – 6:37 am

Oh my gosh, yesterday at the USDAA trial, was the worst agility day ever. It was windy.. and I hate wind. It was one of those cold biting winds that feels like winter, which sucked. And dust was kicked up all over and so my gas permeable contacts hurt and my eyes got nice and red.

My back was also killing me. At one point in the Pairs run right before the A-Frame, I felt the left side of my lower back go all weak and my pace slowed and I kinda caved in… and Chase, of course, left me in the dust and I was much too far behind him to direct him, so he took the wrong end of the tunnel, and the rest of the course was just a mess after that.

I guess I really do have to do something about this back pain. If it’s affecting my agility, then it’s time to fix it! Ugh! I hate pain! Today I’m going to have a jar of Ibuprophin with me, so hopefully it won’t hurt so bad. I took some last night and I think it helped me to sleep, though today I can still feel my back hurting.

And to top it all off, on the first run of the day, Chase kept going into a tunnel and not listening to me. I know it’s a training issue and we have to work it. But I used my angry voice on him. I wasn’t even mad at him, just frustrated. And the judge had to have a talk with me after to tell me how mean I sounded! Geez.. me? It’s actually kinda funny, if you think about it. I’m the most mild mannered person. LOL. But it really put a bad taste on my entre day. So that with the cold, the wind, and my back pain, it was just a rotten day.

Oh, and… it took 11 hours to run this freakin’ USDAA trial. 11 hours for 83 dogs? I thought that was awful. So at 6pm last night I’m sitting there, my back hurting, cold as snot, wind and dirt in my eyes, trying to cover myself with a towel to stay warm, and just being pissed as hell that it was so late at night.

Of course we had no Qualifying runs.

So let’s hope today is better. Oh yesterday I also took Muffit, and it is finally sinking in to my brain, with the help of my friend Astrid’s clicker knowledge, that Muffit is being too overwhelmed at dog events and I need to help him learn to calm down. So he was another thorn in my side. I love that boy, I want him to succeed, so we are going to work on his issues.

Tatum came with yesterday, she managed to lift my spirits like she always does. I’m going to bring Levi today too, even though I’m not running him, as I missed my boy and he also lifts my spirits. I’m only running Chase, to see if I can do better just concentrating on him, the border collie. Not running the collies. Well, so far, I’m doing worse, not better!

I’m off for today, making my coffee, gonna shower, taking some Ibuprophin and hopefelly setting myself up for a better day!

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Comments (11)