Particularly mine :)
They're nut bars.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
GC Games Trial
Super fun evening :D
I went down with my instructor and since we were a tad early we took the scenic route and stopped in near the Spit to let the dogs have a run at the beach first. I'd been hoping it would settle Charlie a bit, but he was manic.
Our novice snooker run was first up, fifth dog in, and for the first time at a trial he was wired even before he went into the ring. I'm used to getting dragged in, and having him just about begging to get going, but he was dancing, and whinging, and pulling even while we were just standing off to the side and waiting for our run to come up. But, even with that, our snooker run wasn't too shabby; a fair few faults (contact miss and a run past the weaves refusal in the closing sequence) but considering I didn't know what I was doing and he was mental and the obstacles were a bit awkward to navigate around it wasn't that bad at all.
Novice gamblers was just... epic. Even though I did the little course I'd mapped out and then had about five seconds where I kind of went "Eeeer, now what?" since we still had tonnes of time before the gamble and I hadn't planned past that stage, we got third place out of all height classes for novice with a score of forty eight: twenty points are from the successful gamble, and he needed twenty on the course to qualify so he had eight points extra put away. Considering how crappy his weave entry was in snooker, he nailed both that I put in our gamblers run and that alone would have made my night. The Q is a lovely bonus, though. Stuffed his dogwalk contact, but I hadn't even counted the potential points from that while I was walking I was that certain he'd do exactly what he did, so no surprises there.
So super proud of my spaz monkey, and cautiously optimistic for that GD title after our next novice gambers run at Durack on March 12th. I also actually enjoyed the running starts tonight; it's suprisingly a lot less stressful on us both than me begging him to wait wait wait and then realising he's already off and gone and taken extra jumps. So I think the running is staying :)
I went down with my instructor and since we were a tad early we took the scenic route and stopped in near the Spit to let the dogs have a run at the beach first. I'd been hoping it would settle Charlie a bit, but he was manic.
Our novice snooker run was first up, fifth dog in, and for the first time at a trial he was wired even before he went into the ring. I'm used to getting dragged in, and having him just about begging to get going, but he was dancing, and whinging, and pulling even while we were just standing off to the side and waiting for our run to come up. But, even with that, our snooker run wasn't too shabby; a fair few faults (contact miss and a run past the weaves refusal in the closing sequence) but considering I didn't know what I was doing and he was mental and the obstacles were a bit awkward to navigate around it wasn't that bad at all.
Novice gamblers was just... epic. Even though I did the little course I'd mapped out and then had about five seconds where I kind of went "Eeeer, now what?" since we still had tonnes of time before the gamble and I hadn't planned past that stage, we got third place out of all height classes for novice with a score of forty eight: twenty points are from the successful gamble, and he needed twenty on the course to qualify so he had eight points extra put away. Considering how crappy his weave entry was in snooker, he nailed both that I put in our gamblers run and that alone would have made my night. The Q is a lovely bonus, though. Stuffed his dogwalk contact, but I hadn't even counted the potential points from that while I was walking I was that certain he'd do exactly what he did, so no surprises there.
So super proud of my spaz monkey, and cautiously optimistic for that GD title after our next novice gambers run at Durack on March 12th. I also actually enjoyed the running starts tonight; it's suprisingly a lot less stressful on us both than me begging him to wait wait wait and then realising he's already off and gone and taken extra jumps. So I think the running is staying :)
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Another Month Goes By
Fletcher's five months old tomorrow! :O
It's shocking, really, how fast the time's flying.
It's shocking, really, how fast the time's flying.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Excitement and Concern
Excitement!
Because I have a games trial this Friday night- first snooker run, potentially another qualie towards Charlie's GD title- and in March I have two trials over two weekends. First will be pretty involved: six runs across JDX, JDO, AD, ADO, GD and SPD. First strategic pairs run! With a friend of mine's youngest, tunnel suck, attention-span-of-a-gnat vizsla, it should be a rather interesting experience. And the second trial in March will be just JDX, JDO, AD and ADO.
Potentially, if Charlie doesn't go all mental on me, he could have his GD title after that first March trial. Potentially being the key word right there.
Concern!
Because Fletcher reverse sneezes and it freaks me out. He does it fairly often, too, so I'm even more worried he may have something wrong with his throat or palete. Maybe it's somehow connected to what's wrong with his eye? I don't know, but in a few weeks I want to book him in to get desexed, and since it's not bothering him at the moment, I'll just ask about it when he goes in for that.
Because I have a games trial this Friday night- first snooker run, potentially another qualie towards Charlie's GD title- and in March I have two trials over two weekends. First will be pretty involved: six runs across JDX, JDO, AD, ADO, GD and SPD. First strategic pairs run! With a friend of mine's youngest, tunnel suck, attention-span-of-a-gnat vizsla, it should be a rather interesting experience. And the second trial in March will be just JDX, JDO, AD and ADO.
Potentially, if Charlie doesn't go all mental on me, he could have his GD title after that first March trial. Potentially being the key word right there.
Concern!
Because Fletcher reverse sneezes and it freaks me out. He does it fairly often, too, so I'm even more worried he may have something wrong with his throat or palete. Maybe it's somehow connected to what's wrong with his eye? I don't know, but in a few weeks I want to book him in to get desexed, and since it's not bothering him at the moment, I'll just ask about it when he goes in for that.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
A New Plan Of Attack
Since I have a moose for a dog, who does rock solid waits every time other than when I actually need them most.
I think I've gotten... two, three maybe, waits at trials. At training he's awesome with them, I can lead out to forever, but what's the point of training that way when there's no chance in fresh hell that I'm going to get even a second's pause at a trial before he's off and making his own course because I'm left behind?
There isn't one. Exactly.
So I figured, since I can't redo waits at trials, and once he's over the line we have to just go, that I'd start training that way. I tried some push outs and slingshotting at training last week and nearly died I was having to run so fast and think on my feet. No chance to casually place myself and just flick a hand here and there when you're running side by side with your dog.
I actually think it'll be good, though; it'll help with Charlie's focus and my handling and our combined control. It might be a bit of chaos for a while, until I work out his limits and where's the best place to position him so he goes over the first jump while still giving me a head start, but eventually we'll hopefully start being able to get a few more qualies under our belts because he won't be leaving me in the dust and reinventing the course, getting us DQ'ed before we even really begin.
So we're working on running contacts, no lead outs, no waits... No rest for us on course any more :)
I think I've gotten... two, three maybe, waits at trials. At training he's awesome with them, I can lead out to forever, but what's the point of training that way when there's no chance in fresh hell that I'm going to get even a second's pause at a trial before he's off and making his own course because I'm left behind?
There isn't one. Exactly.
So I figured, since I can't redo waits at trials, and once he's over the line we have to just go, that I'd start training that way. I tried some push outs and slingshotting at training last week and nearly died I was having to run so fast and think on my feet. No chance to casually place myself and just flick a hand here and there when you're running side by side with your dog.
I actually think it'll be good, though; it'll help with Charlie's focus and my handling and our combined control. It might be a bit of chaos for a while, until I work out his limits and where's the best place to position him so he goes over the first jump while still giving me a head start, but eventually we'll hopefully start being able to get a few more qualies under our belts because he won't be leaving me in the dust and reinventing the course, getting us DQ'ed before we even really begin.
So we're working on running contacts, no lead outs, no waits... No rest for us on course any more :)
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