Levi is such a good boy! We worked his halts yesterday a bit, and again this morning, before going in the ring and he did a little bit better. Except for on the figure 8 he didn’t sit at either halt. But that’s okay, he doesn’t really know it, and my obedience instructor says he probably is thinking he’s in the show ring again and standing pretty in that ring!
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He got a 182.5 on this run, a better score than yesterday, and I was happier with his heeling too. Novice is so much heeling… it’s almost a heeling test with a couple of extras (stand for exam and recall) thrown in. It’s going to be really fun to do open with him once we get out of novice and he gets his CD! My collie boy with a CD, I’ll be so proud!
Maybe when I retire we’ll have to do the show circuit… Levi might be too old then… dangit, but I’ll probably have Tatum and Chase and maybe a new dog too. I’ll have to find some Los Angeles jobs to pay the bills then!
Levi is such a good boy! He didn’t weave again today doing agility… which means I’m going to pull him and work weaves for a while. I won’t trial him again in agility probably until September, or maybe even later than that. We’ll have to see.
But in Obedience he did good! He got 2nd place. This is his Novice B Obedience run.
He got a 175. My friend said that the judge was really hard, and Levi did good anyway. That’s okay.. 200 is a perfect score, 170 is needed to qualify. Levi didn’t sit on all his halts, which knocked a bunch of points off. We have to work on that!
It’s his first leg towards his CD in AKC. My sweet collie boy is doing well in obedience!
Now maybe if we had a bus for sale and headed up to the trials we could get better gas mileage!
I found this picture on my laptop when I was going through old pictures… isn’t he handsome! This is Levi when he was doing the dog show thing. He finished (which means he got his championship) at 18 months old. He’s a very handsome boy. Not too straight in the front, I don’t think… at least for a collie. Collies tend to be quite straight, like Tatum.
Levi has good proportions and he’s a good size. His ears are rotten, but this picture was after they were taped for days and weeks on end, so they stand up fairly well here. Finishing a dog at 18 months old is actually quite quick, and so I am proud of my boy!
Levi was born November of 1999… so this picture is probably from sometime in 2000. Maybe 2001, but we were in and out of the show ring pretty quick. Tell you the truth, I didn’t really enjoy showing, though I say I’d do it again if I got another well bred working smooth collie. Which.. I really am considering getting again, maybe in five or so years. I really am a bit tired of the rescues with all their issues. And I know so much more now than when Levi was a baby. So maybe next dog I’ll get it right!
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!
This is Levi, he doesn’t usually play fetch, but he will for his Mum since he’s a big old goofy Mama’s boy! He’s a smooth collie, not sure if collies usually play fetch, but mine don’t!
Colorado was a lot of fun. I love going to new cities and learning about them, the layout, where I’m staying, etc. I like getting out of Utah, even though Utah really is a beautiful state.
We stayed with a friend, and she had squirrels in her back yard. Levi and Chase, both, really wanted to get those darn squirrels. This picture of Levi is of him looking up into the tree to find that squirrel.
Levi did good at agility.. but after the first run he stopped weaving for me. I was bummed because he had some good runs. On the second run he slammed into the weaves pretty hard, maybe he hurt himself, or else he freaked himself out. Either way… each of the remaining runs were not good… at least the weaves. The rest of the runs were good!
It takes me a couple of days to recover from an agility trial. I have decided, no matter how much I don’t feel like it, I am going to start taking the boys jogging again.
Levi did great on Sunday, he should have Q’d both runs and I got mad at the judge for one call.. but he got a Jumpers with Weaves leg and that was good. Man these 10 legs for the MXP and MJP are a long time in coming. And still no double Qs yet.
Today I’m at work and the day is just dragging by. Tomorrow is a short day and I hope to do some blogging catch up then. I actually took yesterday off the computer too and did some dog things, and I need to wash clothes too. Again. Ugh.
This picture is just to remind me of how wonderful, and warm, dog camp was. They had everything there, maybe not kitchen faucets or the kitchen sink, but the food is so good and the weather was so nice. I’m tired of the cold an I’m really ready for spring!
Chase is so much fun to run. When we work together, and he pays attention. Today was great. We did AKC agility.
Our first run was Open Jumpers with Weaves. He did so well, he paid attention to me and turned and came when I wanted him too, and it was not an easy course. This judge is hard, but her courses are a fun challenge. Chase only had one refusal on the weaves which wasn’t bad. That’s his second Open JWW leg. One more for his title.
Standard wasn’t so good. I don’t even remember now what we did, but we missed some things. He’s in Excellent A Standard now. I was happy with the run though he did a good job.
Then Chase ran in Open FAST. Oh. My. Gosh. It was an awesome run. The send was HARD! It was tunnel, weave, tunnel, and quite a distance, too. And as soon as he entered the tunnel I was yelling ‘WEAVE!’ and so he nailed the weave entry, finished them all (which is hard for him when a tunnel is after the weaves) and then hit that second tunnel. Wow! He was one of only two dogs that Q’d in that whole class! I was thrilled. So was the other woman who Q’d! We celebrated. LOL. Chase even picked up 79 points (out of 80)!
So I’m proud of Chase this weekend. He did great. That’s his open FAST title so I moved him to Excellent FAST tomorrow. He’s great at fast, his distance handling is nice, and we can just point collect.
Levi’s runs weren’t so good. Well, they were good, but just one mistake each run again. ugh. Actually, I think maybe more than one today. But it was a great day all around! We had fun!
Tatum came with too, and she was very nervous. It was a place she had never been before. But that’s okay, she needs to come to different places to get used to them.
So now I’m tired and I need to go to sleep! It was a long day.
Well we did some ASCA agility yesterday. I just entered the one day. I’m glad I did. Chase was so tired last night when we got home that he was showing his teeth to everyone, even Lucy and Levi and he doesn’t do that often at all.
Both Levi and Chase did great. Levi got a couple Qs, Chase didn’t get any but I did want to practice with him. And it’s so much fun to run him now. We have come a long way, and we still have a way to go but I’m learning. I’m especially learning lateral distance. Sometimes I think I can be further away from him than I can be. He missed a tunnel entry because of that yesterday. I thought he’d hit the tunnel he’s such a tunnel suck. But nope.. he check in with me instead, which was good!
Levi did awesome, too. I wasn’t in the best frame of mind because of Lucy’s most likely Cancer, but I was happy with the boys. I brought Tatum too, and she’s doing so well there. She goes up to everyone now looking for Livers, which she gets thanks to her Mum. Afterwards we were in the parking lot and I dropped her flexi… suffice it to say, we have to practice her dragging the flexi. Because the Mum can be a dork sometimes and drop them. She was pretty frightened of it dragging behind her.
Today is a rest day, which I need. Muffit is sitting beside me sleeping. He is such a snuggler. He is still snuffling, we might take him back to the vet tomorrow or Tuesday for a checkup.
I went to practice obedience today at the closer by training facility. My obedience instructor is sick again! I feel bad for her, she gets sick way too much. I have been wanting to get sick lately… to have a few days off to sit in bed at home. But alas, to no avail, as I keep waking up feeling pretty good.
Anyway I went with a plan and having a plan is such a good thing. I really need to work on novice obedience exercises. Including heel and the recall. I mean really, the only things in novice are, really, heeling, stand for exam, and recall. Three separate heeling patterns. And its hard, too! Heeling is not an easy thing to teach a dog. There are a lot of parts. Levi and Chase are both coming along pretty well. I have to transition off the treat on the stick, and we worked on that.
Chase is learning to watch the stick with no treat, and he did pretty good. Levi also did good looking at the stick with no treat. And Tatum, well, she is learning about stick rules, which is a good thing!
We also worked recalls and Chase did good. I put a small box in front of me so they have a nice straight tight place to get the front. And both the boys did quite well. Saturday I was wondering if Chase would ever get into the obedience ring! But I think he will, it just takes a lot of time and patience.
Maybe by the time I’m in senior living is when Chase will be ready…. LOL I hope not that long! I’m hoping by the end of summer, but it will depend on his progress, of course. I won’t put him in before he’s ready. Actually, I will probably be overcautious and not put him in until quite late!
Tip Tail is about four smooth collies, two border collies, dog training, agility, flyball, and collie rescue. We all live in Salt Lake City, Utah. The human behind it all is me, Cynthia!
The Dog Pack
Lucy - Elsinore Lucilla Aurelius RA ASCA-CD CGC -> more... Levi - CH Pembroke Faded Glory VC CD HT AXP AJP RE CGC -> more... Angel - Angel Pumpkin Spice Lady CGC DPP -> more... Chase - Spirit Chasers Spice CGC OA NAJ OF PK1 -> more... Tatum - Tatum Tot Spice (titles coming!) -> more... Muffit - Spicey Love Muffit (titles coming!) -> more...
Cynthia Blue
