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Entry for June 10, 2008
Moved my blog. I'm trying out live journal. I think I'll be able to add more tools to my blog there. Here is a link to the new location.
http://semperfido.livejournal.com/
Video
No time to write but had a great weekend last weekend. I got my new Mighty Mites tent up - thanks Rena!!!!! I was styling.
Anyway, I'm posting a link to me and Whisper running in JWW on Sunday. We didn't Q and made some mistakes - me and her. But she's looking good.
Video
Enjoy!!!
Agility is so much fun and what I learned last weekend
From April 4 - 6
What a weekend!!!! I had a three day trial with Rigal and Whisp. It was my first outdoors trial with Rigal and with Whisper since we've been working on de-stressing. Overall it went pretty well.
Friday was a monsoon. I scratched Whisper from Standard. It was cold and wet and the mud 4" deep. I ran Rigal who did pretty well considering. He took an off course which I didn't bother to correct because I wanted to keep him safe. What I learned... running in the rain ain't so bad. With Whisper, I'm not sure if she's up to the kind of conditions we faced Friday though.
It cleared a bit for Jumpers. Whisper stressed in the poles a bit and I took her out of the ring, but I wasn't worried.
The forecast for Saturday was rain in the morning then cloudy and showers in the afternoon. I pulled Whisper from Standard because the course was mucky but then they mulched it but after we walked and I had already scratched her. I ran it with Rigal and it was a fun course and wish I could have run it with Whisper. What I learned... don't scratch until gate time.
Saturday afternoon, the clouds lifted and it was a gorgeous warm spring afternoon. The jumpers course was fun, Whisper was happy but refused her poles so we didn't Q but she was pretty fast and barking on course. Rigal was a spazz. I went to rent a ring to practice weaves with both dogs after the trial. I came home and my face was sunburned BAD. What I learned...don't forget the sunglasses and sun screen and car shades even if the weather doesn't call for a nice day.
The courses were gorgeous all weekend. This morning in Standard Rigal was a spazz again. Instead of calling his name and trying to get him back to me, I stood still and waited for him to notice I wasn't running with him. He came back to me and we got to do another small sequence before he went nuts and I tried standing still again. It also worked this afternoon when he went out of his way not to take the obvious tunnel entrance (why, oh why can't he get the discrimination when I need him to and then do something crazy when it's an easy entrance???). He only ran off course twice rather than multiple times. What I learned... the consequence for Rigal is to NOT have me run with him if he does the wrong thing and it wasn't my fault.
Whisper gets freaked at the wind. It was cloudy, cold and windy and I thought she would have a problem running - - NOT. She was zoomie and fast and actually had a lot of run outs - about 6 of them because she was so fast - she looked like a border collie. We did fix the problems and she wasn't de-motivated. However, contacts are a BIG problem. Now she thinks target in practice means to stop and stick her landing, but in a trial target means go faster. I'm in for big trouble, I can see it now. And she got "Sheltie Table-itis" which is in her genes and contageous (thanks, Echo). She was barking and screaming at me because she didn't want to go down on the table (and that's her foundation and her table is usually awesome but she didn't want to stop running). We lost at least 5 - 10 seconds. She did a great weave entry and popped the last couple of poles because she was blazing and too excited. She was still 7 seconds under time. She would have had at least 45 seconds on a 67 SCT course if she had been clean. What I learned... My dog is fast. She can run and not be hindered by the wind. My dog's contacts suck. But fast and fun mistakes are good mistakes and I love running her. She did great in jumpers. She didn't Q so we didn't get her AXJ but we ran a pretty course and we faced a really hard weave entry. The slow dogs got it but the fast dogs didn't. Most people NQed because of the weaves.
I came home on Saturday just exhillerated at the fun I had and didn't care that we didn't get one stinking Q all weekend. That's something. I have been thinking about Whisper's contacts. I really think if I stop moving or take her off course for missing contacts will break the drive I've been building. I think after the June shows are over (I've already paid entry fees), I'm going to pull her from standard and spend the time to teach her running contacts. I could teach her a different word but I just think the same issue will crop up, so I'd rather have a proper running contact than worry about her jumping contacts. I can't get her to miss them in practice.
I LOVE AGILITY!
My Scary Day
This is from three weeks ago... Just getting to post it now. I ended up being sick for two weeks. It was 6 days before I could get out of bed.
Yesterday I had agility class. Whisper of course was wonderful! I didn't eat so on the way to class, I stopped at Panara Bread. I'd been eying these souflees they have and got one. It was delicious.
Right when I was packing to go home, I started feeling funny. About 10 minutes later, I was in pain and nauseous. I called Mr. Y who had a job interview that afternoon. I got some gatorade and took pepto and got on the highway - it's about an hour and a half home. About 20 minutes into my ride, I really started to feel sick but there were so many trucks and the highway was dividing so even though I had been in the right lane, I wasn't anymore and I threw up all over myself while I was trying to get to the side of the road.
Immediately a highway service truck stopped and asked if I was okay, I get out of my car covered in puke, and he wanted to call an ambulance but I couldn't because Whisper was in the car. I stayed on the side of the road puking my guts out. He left but about 30 minutes later another guy showed up. He gave me some heavy duty wipes (my baby wipes and paper towel didn't clean me up), to wipe myself up with and hung out with me for a while, wanting to call an ambulance but also understood because Whisper was in the car. He told me about a grocery store parking lot at the next exit and it might be safer for me there, so when I was able to drive, I drove to the parking lot. That's when the stomach pain started. I couldn't move and I was just humped over my steering wheel not knowing what to do. At 5 - three hours after this had started, I decided I felt 'a little' better and tried to drive home. Not 5 minutes after I got on the highway, I started throwing up again. This time a state trooper stopped and he told me I shouldn't be driving and to get off at the next exit. Of course I had no idea where I was and it was rush hour and people were getting mad at my slow driving and I almost got in two accidents. It was really scary and then I saw a hospital sign. Thinking it was close by, I decided I needed to go to the hospital. The signs kept me driving for a half hour or more and really turned me around but I finally found it. Whisper was totally freaked out and I couldn't get her to pee so I put her in her crate and went covered in puke to the ER. I spent from 5 - 1 AM in the ER. I was in serious pain and they gave me an IV and anti-nausia meds and pain medicine. Matt had to call my students to cancel my evening classes and then drove out to NJ and stayed in the ER with me until they released me. He was able to walk Whisper for me. I felt so bad she was in the car, it was freezing. I gave her a blanket but that's all she had.
I'm home now feeling better but that's relative to how bad I felt yesterday. I have to get my perscription and call the doctor and insurance company. I can't really do anything.
Anyway, the diagnosis is food poisoning. But it was so scary getting sick like that on the road and what really scared me is what would happen to my dog. It took me a few hours to come up with the plan. I spend so much time on the road by myself and this definitely made me take notice. What would have happened if I had to take an ambulance, what would have happened to Whisper? That's what's really scary.
Be safe everyone.
Whisper OAJ 3/2/08
I'm just popping in to write about Whisper's weekend in Aston, PA 2/29 - 3/2. It was a huge agility trial and I'm so proud of how she did.
I wasn't really looking for Q's. I really wanted to practice our start line routine, especially to include barking at the start line, which I got on every run! She was happy and excited and I had no hesitation about running her at all. The first few runs, she refused her weave poles, but I realized it was my fault. Her cue to weave is "Weave"; Rigal's cue is "Go Weave". For the first three runs, I told Whisper to "Go Weave" and she didn't the first time I sent her. I can't believe I did that to her. But our second run Saturday, I fixed it. She didn't weave fast but she did and and was fine. By Sunday, she was so fast in her poles that she popped out at the last pole. I didn't bother to fix it because she did so well and I didn't want to shut her down. Besides that, I was happy with her performance except her contacts. She didn't do them and I didn't make her do them so now I've got a big training problem and I'm not sure what to do. This will be our next challenge.
The big news is that Whisper got her OAJ title that weekend. She needs three qualifying scores to get her title. She got all three in one weekend which is hard to do. And Sunday, she got her title with a first place ribbon! When the results were posted, I looked for us in the Q's and didn't find our name and I started to get upset, so I looked up and there was her name at the top. Her run was gorgeous. I'm very proud. So now, she's going to be in Excellent A in Jumpers with Weaves. We got one Q in standard (first place too). I'm very happy with the results. We trial again this weekend at the same location.
We'll be trialing a lot this spring so be sure to check back for more results.
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