It
was a huge project, one which I ended up only putting about 80% of the
effort I should have in to. But let’s face it, agility is not my life; I
am not retired, I work full-time, commute, go to school part time,
commute, a one day a week part time job, commute, other doggie
activities (tracking, obedience, hiking), have a husband-family-friends,
commute, hobbies to keep me sane, and a teeny-tiny back yard that fits
either 6 weave poles or a teeter. Plus, I try to blog about all my
shenanigans. Hardly the ability to put 100% effort into anything. I’m
happy with the 80% effort – it is still more than most others would be
able to do.
Now
I’ll explain the basics of our retraining the 2-on-2-off (2o2o)
contacts. There were two separate “lessons”. First, build the dogs value
for being “on” things and specifically the end of the contacts. Second,
build value for a nose touch. When you put them together you should get
a stellar nose touch off the end of the contacts. The reason you teach
them separately is that if the dog is over-excited, then the nose touch
weakens, but the value for the end of the plank should remain.
So how did it all play out…
Let’s
start by saying that the people at Guides Canins know how to run an
agility trail. I ran in 6 back-to-back events that started at 10am and
we were in the car by 2:15pm…that is unheard of. Now, there weren’t that
many people there, but there were still 20-25 dogs in each event –
pretty impressive. We will defiantly be going back there! There is
nothing I hate more than lots of down time during/between events – there
are some venues that could take a lesson in time management and
organization from these people!
Indie
ran in 3 steeplechase – a first for both of us. Now, my memory isn’t
the best, and competing in two different organisations (AAC and CKC)
with two different sets of rules, two dogs in two different levels and
[technically] 9 different “games” classes is a lot of rules to remember.
So to keep everything straight the goal is just to run perfect and if
we don’t, we just check for a Q on the score sheets later.
Indie’s first and third runs were spectacular. He nailed his contacts three times with a solid end position on the a-frame.
His
second run did not go quite as well. His contacts were still great, but
along the back of the field was the 12 weave poles. Some nice
competitors were packing up quite close to the ring side, making lots of
noise. Just as Indie was part way through the poles they shook out a
blank. Indie stopped dead, but didn’t bark, but didn’t manage to forget
that we were in the middle of a run. When Indie loses his focus it is
hard to get him back to his A game quickly – he’s still a green dog. I
started the poles over again but then he ran past the next jump in the
sequence. After that the run was great. No Q because we were over time.
Just
as a side note – it appears as though we were the only team doing a
stopped contact in steeplechase. I am not sure how many dogs were doing a
true, trained running contacts though…seems like a lot of “cross your
fingers and pray the dog hits some yellow” training. Many dogs were
hitting high on the contact as opposed to low where you’d expect with
trained running contacts.
Travis
ran in three master standards and earned 1 Q. There would have been a
second, but he ran past the last jump earning us an E. Well, I earned us
and E because I stopped handling him on the 180. My bad. His times were
also EXCELLENT! His fastest in master standard ever…a good 5-10 seconds
under SCT. Usually we’re around 1-2 seconds under time. I attribute it
to Val’s flowing course design…still challenging (more decoy, obstacles
discrimination type challenges) than twisty turn-y course which really
slow Travis down.
His
contacts in the first two events were solid, but he did half slip off
the dog walk, but got back on to end position. The judge didn’t fault us
for this – not sure what the rules say about that anyway. His last
event was a disaster. I think he had 3 refusals and 3 really, really,
off courses by obstacle #10. He was simply not interested in
participating and barked at me relentlessly. He never barks at me –
ever. I tried playing with him to get his mind back in the game (I grab
him in a bear hug and growl at him – he loves this) but he just wasn’t
having it. It was so weird. I pulled him out about half way through – no
sense me getting upset (he is really sensitive to my moods, which don’t
seem to faze Indie at all) and he is just practicing being wrong again
and again. The first words out of my husband were “…that was weird”.
Good, it wasn’t just me. I asked him if it seemed like I was handling
badly and he said that it really seemed to be Travis not listening to
me.
That
was the last event of the day, so we packed up and headed home. Travis
was himself by the time we got home, doing tricks and obedience games.
We figured it was the heat – or the pressure – maybe he crumbles under
pressure. Maybe it was my mood too – I was a little frazzled from things
going so fast, running two dogs in two rings and 6 events. Maybe he
knew something I didn’t.
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