Plan

We're at Durack on Sunday- earliest trial I've ever been to, I think. Vetting's at seven thirty, and if we want to get a good park we'll need to get there an hour or so beforehand, and it's a half hour or so drive up there, so... Early start. Dad's not overly impressed, but he'll manage.

This is my second last trial as a junior handler and after triple jumpers in July I can go to comps without my supervisor being present. I've felt like a bit of a burden on occasion- especially lately, with one of her dogs out of action for the foreseeable future and the other still too young to compete (her debut's hopefully at triple jumpers). So it's been a case of her still needing to be there without a dog to trial because I'm wanting to trial. She says she doesn't mind, but I still feel guilty- without her I wouldn't have been able to even start trialling- or even continue training at all- until I was eighteen, so she's done so much for me and is an absolutely amazing person ♥

But anyway. The new plan. We've got five runs on Sunday. We'd have had six, but I'm still not attempting novice agility for a while. We've got consistency on the dog walk, and Charlie's surprised me with generalising on the seesaw (so can't wait until the height for that is lowered, though- so much safer), but the a frame is a big issue we haven't even begun to touch yet. I'd be very surprised if we got back into ANKC agility before the beginning of next year. I still want to try it all out at some ADAA comps in a couple of months, but again- none of that happens until we sort out Mister Can't Touch The Yellow on the a frame. I'm back to tossing up between running and 2o2o on there again, and I'm back to not having any idea what I want to try.

Tangent alert! Back on topic.

So we have five runs: couple of first attempts thrown in there for good measure. We've got the two runs in JDX, which I'm optimistic about if I can get Charlie to have a startline stay again. In addition we have our third shot at novice snooker, as well as the two first attempts: first shot at running a GDX course, and first shot at SPDX with Tarki and his mum.

I want to try out using stay instead of wait again and see how that goes, as well as try some acupressure massage on Charlie before his runs to try and settle him a bit more. There's this one with their necks and ears that I was trying out last night and he ended up leaning into me so much he slid onto the floor. So yes: try some stays and some poking my dog and we'll see how things turn out.

Today

Went pretty darn well..

We had an hour and a half at commando this morning, and basically just did contact equipment work. Charlie's epic, and I don't need to say more. At the moment commando is really the only class he's totally relaxed and happy in, so it's always nice to go and play on Sunday mornings.

We got home and I had about a half hour to eat breakfast, give the birds their fruit and veg, get changed and repack the car so we could go to the school for this morning's demo.

Charlie was pretty much ready for a sleep before we even started, but despite that he went better in the obedience than he did yesterday. Maybe because I had cheese this time round? Anyway, very proud of the silly monkey.

He didn't stress before agility, which I was really happy about, but he messed his weave entry up again. I don't know if the spacing is off on the club's weaves, or if it's because they're really flimsy and the poles are super short, or because the course was quite tight, or he was just being a brat, but he ran past the first shot, I brought him back and he entered on the wrong side. I brought him back and he missed the first pole. And fourth time lucky he did it right.

Noodle nut.

The fete was packed. Because they were worried about rain, it was moved up off the oval (so we didn't get many audience members, which was a bit disappointing), and it was a lot of things and people and stalls and chaos and noise and huge clangy rides all crammed into one area.

The one thing I've done super right with Charlie is socialisation. He wasn't phased by anything, met lots of different people of all sorts of different ages, and didn't bat an eyelid.

But then he go bitten on the paw by a green ant and he went all sooky. Poor bubby. He was very theatric and limped about for about twenty minutes with this awful sad look on his face before finally forgetting about it and carrying on with life.

Now we're home and he's going to spend the rest of the day sleeping because he's so exhausted.

Today

I learnt a few things.

One: I really don't yet have a grasp on a way to make obedience super exciting for Charlie.

Two: we do still have a commando lesson tomorrow morning, before the demo.

Three: Charlie can get quite enthused about his dinner bowl being turned into a frisbee.

Four: if I whack a bowl of food at the end of the dog walk, I get an awesome 2o2o.

And five: my dog is a total stress pot.

For the past few trials it's been really noticable- Charlie stresses to the point where if I didn't have him on lead, he'd have run off and never returned. It's not while we're walking around. He's fine. He goes to sleep in his crate and is totally chill.

It's only just as we're walking up to wait outside the ring before we go in to run. Once we're in the ring, he'll drag me to the startline and want to go go go. He seems fine on course. It's just the immediately before part.

He's never done it at a demo before. Until today.

And I'm now officially worried because I sort of get it in a trial environment, especially for Charlie- he's a very sensitive, very big worry wart and that plus a trial just makes his mind explode.

But this was just a demo. It's kind of similar to a trial, but scaled down to about a fifth of the intensity, and he was actually worse today than he has been at a trial before.

I got him set up and he ran fine, but even afterwards he beelined for his crate and tucked himself away.

He loves agility. And I'm not just saying that. He really does enjoy it- it's one of the only things he will get excited about without me having to spend a half hour geeing him up and trying every trick imaginable just to get him to wake up and pay attention.

But clearly something is making him have a panic attack.

Logically it'd just be me and my nerves, because he's very handler sensitive and if I'm not in the right mood he will be an absolute nightmare and I might as just not bother working him at all. But this was a demo and I'm nervous at trials- despite trying not to be- and definitely not when it comes to demos, and he was worse today.

So maybe it's something else.

I'm wondering if it might be something a bit abstract, and something that's partly my fault for creating, but it seems a bit obscure so I'm not sure.

At the moment I don't know whether to just ignore it and keep my fingers crossed it's just part of the weird frame of mind he's been in lately, or I need to do something more drastic.

I'll see how he goes at tomorrow's demo, and at next Sunday's trial and then re-evaluate.

Someone asked me the other day, "What do you like about agility?"

Innocent enough question, but the way it was said and who it was said by meant the real question was, "Why do you run around a field with a dog and get it to jump things?"

And I normally just ignore this particular person because they're so full of shit, but I actually thought about their question- or rather questions, voiced and silent- and realised that this is one of the only things I can answer without a shadow of doubt.

Why do I do agility with my dogs? Why do I enjoy agility?

Because it makes us smile.

And that's really it.

Tomorrow

We have the Cane Festival.

It's not meant to rain anymore, which is the best news I've had all week. Especially since our club shirts are white. Ahem.

We were left of the list accidentally, and then put back on- but we're listed as part of the obedience team and not on the agility list. Not fussed because, hey, I just sidle on in anyway. I'm not sure I want to do the obedience with Charlie, though, partly because he's just so flat about it all at the moment and partly because I don't actually know what we're doing for it. But the teams are even and I don't think I'm able to pull out.

Aaaaah. The dilemma.

But it's just one demo (and one on Sunday, but we'll just forget about that for the moment)- and usually after an extended break, Charlie tends to have his pep back for a short burts so maybe it'll be fine. Hopefully.

We advertise our club when we do demos like this, so I don't want to bring my sullen, twitchy, unhappy dog out and have him moping about the ring. I'll stuff treats in my pockets and just feed him constantly if I have to, to keep him up and enthused.

And then Sunday- which is tomorrow's tomorrow, so it goes with this post's title- we're at one of the local primary schools for their fair. It happens to be where one of my cousins goes (her brother also finished grade seven there last year) and where the kid of two people from training also now goes as well.

We went last year as well and it was a really good day, though we lost most of the crowd after the doggy dancing/trick bit stretch on for too long. Us agility peeps always get left to the end; probably because we're the most exciting, hehe. Try to keep the crowd for as long as possible.

Crafty.

This Should Have A Title

But I can't think of one. Ah well.

So this is just a big rant- not even a rant, really. Just me venting, in a non-emotional way.

I know squat about fashion, but from what I imagine- and learn from TV, woo- someone starts wearing something that they think is innovative and everyone else copies it for one reason or another. Regardless of whether or not it "works" for them.

I've seen a lot of that lately with agility, and it's something I don't understand.

"All the rage" lately seems to running contacts and verbal directions. And I don't just mean a little "out" and "here" when it's needed. I mean a constant stream of "left left left LEFT" "right right right RIGHT" "BACK BACK". And it seems particularly popular in the masters rings at trials.

I don't quite get it. Okay, yes, I understand having a verbal on certain "maneuvers" could be handy, but when the dog clearly doesn't have a single clue what the heck they're being told to do, it's just annoying. If you can take out every single bit of movement from yourself, stand perfectly straight on to a jump, in the middle, and send your dog to do whatever it is you want them to do on that verbal only, brilliant. Go and wow everybody with your incredible training and handling at your next trial. But if the only reason you're doing it is because it's the "in" thing for agility, and your dog doesn't get it, why are you even bothering?

This is what's annoying me so much lately- people just going with what everyone else recommends and what everyone else is doing, regardless of what works for them and their dog. I will say it right now: I will never have verbals for every way imaginable that Charlie can take a jump. I don't see the point, I know it won't work for us, I know I have way more important things to devote time to training to. Charlie's always been a more body cue focused dog- that's what works for him. He follows my shoulders, and so long as I'm a deligent handler and put myself where I should be, he'll manage it. I can get him to tuck and take a jump tightly, or extend before jumping, all by the way I'm positioned before, as and after he take the obstacle. To add a verbal onto something he is already more than capable of doing to me defeats the whole purpose of running him. I don't want to be able to stand in the middle of the course, or back at the startline, or wherever, and send him running about just by barking out instructions to him. I want him to watch me, not just focus on everything else and flick an ear back occasionally to grab an instruction.

Maybe that's blown out of proportion, but after last Saturday at Logan, that's what it looked like. So many handlers- especially in masters- didn't shut up for one single second on course, and they were so busy looking ahead and yapping that they stopped handling and their dogs were just all over the place. And this is masters. I saw some shocking handling, from people who have been around for years and years and run oodles of different dogs, and yet on Saturday it just looked like they'd never set foot on a course at all.

So whether it was a work in progress thing that they shouldn't have been roadtesting, or something that they genuinely believe works well with their dog but for some reason on Saturday it didn't, or the only reason they're using it is because it seems like every other "successful handler" is doing it- whatever. It just seemed stupid and pointless.

I've had some people ask me things along the lines of "Why don't you do this with your dog?" and they always always always look at me funny when I tell them "Because it doesn't work for us". What is so hard to understand about the fact that not every single dog will be able to be worked in the confines of whatever is the current big thing in training and handling?

I don't know what it is with the dog community lately- at least the one around here- but it's become so cliquey, and trend driven. It's awful.

Feeling Impatient

And there isn't much else to add onto that title.

I'm just... Blah. Not even really overly dog related- apart from wanting the fluffy tri number to be here right now- but I'm just... I don't even know anymore.

I had this total epiphany a couple of months ago and everything just made so much sense it was wonderful. And I was finally, totally, completely happy and content for the first time in... Well, I'd say a couple of years, but it's probably even longer than that.

Now that's kind of worn off, though, and I'm just left with this feeling that I have nothing. I bomb out with school, I can't seem to find the motivation to do anything- at the moment the only thing keeping me moving forward (albeit statically and in uncontrolled directions) is the weekends when I get to go and do something with Charlie, be it a trial or a demo or something where I can just get away from here and feel slightly normal.

But I'm even starting to hate that a bit, because it makes coming back harder.

I know what I want to do with my life- but it won't kick in for a couple of decades and what am I meant to do in between then? I want- I need someone to talk some sense into me and help me, but I don't have anyone who can do that.

And I don't know what else I can do.

Blah. I'm sick, I couldn't even go into work this afternoon because I could barely breath and my entire head feels like it's going to explode I'm so clogged up. Charlie's spent the whole day sleeping because I haven't been able to move about too much without wanting to fall over.

Everything feels worse when you're sick.

Logan 21st May

Another wet and slooshy trial, but a very fun one all the same.

We had three out of three DQs- which is a record, even for us- but we had good parts in every run and I'm super proud of Charlie.

Aaaaaand, drum roll please- I got a lead out!

Our JDO run, I told Charlie to "stay" instead of "wait", which I haven't ever done before because since nine weeks old, Charlie's never been called out of a stay. Ever. But since I've kind of told obedience to go and piss off, and this is literally the only way I can get a semi decent lead out (and I need a lead out), I think I'm going to admit defeat and use it.

:D

No other title is appropriate- because that is ultimately how my face has been all night.

So we finally got to training after a month of wet Monday nights and Charlie was like he usually is after an extended break from something- jumpin' bean.

But this time he was enthused and ready to go go go, but with a lot more self control than usual. That was the first good point.

His first shot with his new auto contacts on the full sized dog walk was so so. He nailed the entry, powered along and did slow down and try to hit the end contact, but he wasn't used to the angle and ended up with a four on the floor contact. But he was aware of what he was meant to be doing and he tried. After that he hit ninety per cent with beautiful auto 2o2o- the other ten per cent he still hit, but ended up four on the floor again because of not slowly enough for the angle. But I am so freaking impressed with him and his generalising and so proud of my moose dog.

Even more exciting than that was his see saw. Admittedly it wasn't at full height, but the angle was pretty much dead on what I have the dog walk at home set at and I think he was kind of under the impression that once the see saw tipped it was a dog walk. But oh well, regardless, he was riding it down and popping an auto 2o2o on the end of that as well. See saws have always been our major nemesis, and I actually am scared to have him do one at a comp because he literally flies off the end while it's still fully up in the air. It's scary and he could seriously hurt himself, so fingers crossed creating him into a contact suck dog might help with that a lot, too.

We didn't even look at the a frame. That's going to be left for later. I think I'm going to try and get some things together and make a bit of a replica, at least with a one sided a frame he can practice running down. I'd love to get an auto 2o2o on that as well, but he's had problems with his shoulders and he just hits the damn thing so hard... I just don't want to break my dog, and I've seen first hand some of his crazy a frame stunts and at this stage I don't believe he has the necessary self control to safely do a 2o2o on it.

Overall we had an absolutely wonderful time; Charlie was a bit of a "bait dog" with my instructor's sixteen month old rottie- she's hopefully debuting her in mid July (so long as Puck doesn't decide to be a pain in the arse and come into season), and wants to make sure as much as possible that she's bomb proof in terms of ignoring other running dogs.

He's such a good boy :)

Contacts!

Pretty boring, I know- but I'm just so excited! :D :D :D :D

From this:

/cringegrimacecry

…to this:

/party

Creepy, worrieeeeeed Charlie to ZOMG CONTACT Charlie in just under two weeks. Still lots and lots of work to do- those poles marking the ends of the dog walk are an integral part of said work- and we have yet to try this out on a full sized, proper dog walk because it's decided to rain only on a Monday night for the past four weeks which totally fricks with our agility classes. But I'm hopeful for clear skies tonight and an opportunity to take our auto 2o2o on the road.

He's solid with it on rocks and obscure contact zones at our commando classes, so fingers crossed he doesn't over think things and we have a nice, smooth transition.

But yes :) I just couldn't resist sharing, because I'm so proud of my little noodle nut dog. We've still got even more work to do on retraining the see saw- I need to convince my dad I can't possibly live without a see saw and two height changeable tables before we can progress with that- and our running a frames need to be more running and less springing over the yellow like it's covered in some contagious disease. But I'm optimistic, especially now obedience has taken a back seat until next year at the very earliest, that we could be ready to enter back into the agility ring by the end of this year. ADAA has a comp at WAAG down the Gold Coast in the middle of November, so we may be ready for a not-for-comp run in that. We'll just have to wait and see how things go.

Until then we've got good old jumpers with CCCQ to keep us going :P

Speaking of jumpers our next two trials are this coming Saturday, the 21st, at Logan and then after a hectic following weekend (28th/29th) with demos and whatnot for our training club at a school fair and our local festival carnival thingo, we're at Durack on the 5th of June for another trial.

Our Logan runs are excellent jumpers, open jumpers and novice snooker- I actually have a slightly better idea of what I'm doing when it comes to snooker now, so this one might go a bit better than our last attempt where we kind of butchered the closing sequence. And at Durack we've got two excellent jumpers runs, another novice snooker run, our first excellent gamblers run (excited for this one, looooooove gamblers- but excellent can have contact obstacles in the gamble, which worries me a little bit, eh) and our first excellent strategic pairs run. Even better is the pairs is once again with sparky Tarki the spunky vizsla :D Charlie and I caught up with our final two Qs and our SPD title at a games trial while his owner was away so happy faces all around now we can have each other as regular pairs partners again.

I should have video of our runs for both trials since my dad's coming along and as long as he remembers to actually press the button to start the camera, it should work out fine.

Love This Dog :)

I don't know what's happened to Charlie- and frankly I don't care, because whatever it is has made him just explode with awesomeness.

We were at Commando this morning and little special boy was doing auto 2o2o on the rock contact points for the walk on obstacles ♥ I think something's just started clicking with us both and it's amazing the progress we've made as a team in just the last few days.

I think it's also been helping that I'm finally really back to being bubbly and happy again after everything that happened with Fletch (and the maybe new doggy has certainly boosted my mood ten times over), and I am so, so, so glad we dropped obedience for the foreseeable future because we have more time, we're less stressed, and Charlie's happier for it at the moment.

The level we were at was just way too intense for us currently, and to be perfectly honest I have things I consider more important to focus on than the stuff we needed to work on every week for that class. And because we were having so many drive issues with a lot of the exercises, it was hard for both of us to get enthused about training- either in the class or at home.

By the end of the year I'd like to try and be easing back into classes again, but just as a fun thing and we'd more or less just be joining in now and then with the exercises and not taking it very seriously. Next year we'll get back into it as an actual class and see how that works out. I'm not planning on doing competive obedience with Mr Moose anytime soon, and he has more than enough training to get by, so it's not something I've got as high on the priority list and I think a very long break will do us wonders.

He's only three and a half- we've got plenty of time for everything. No need to rush into it all again.

Woo!

We're making progress with the contacts and I'm optimistic about ending up with something pretty darn good at the end of all of this.

At the moment we have an auto 2o2o drop right on the end of the plank, so now need to focus on refining and getting Charlie focusing forward and not back at me so he doesn't end up half off the plank.

But good so far, and I'm really, really happy with him.

He seems to have found a bit of his grove again, and this morning at demo class he was working beautifully despite the fact it was hot and the sun was up. He shut down at the end, but I got a good forty minutes out of him working constantly which I've never had before during the day in a class.

So Much Is Happening

The remainder of this month is going to be epic and I can't wait.

Charie's contacts are getting better every session and I'm optimistic for maybe entering the ADAA trial at WAAG down the Gold Coast in July (I think it's July anyway) to try them out in a comp setting, but we'll see how things roll.

This weekend I've got someone from work coming around to pick up one of the baby birds, and a lady coming around to take a look at the baby lizards, and I'll be fixing the dog walk up so we can start running it full length. Hopefully I'll also have the new bird cages to put up and sort out, but that depends on when the KONG order comes in at work. Then on Sunday I'm working four hours (DOUBLE TIME, BABY!!!!) and that's about it.

Next Thursday I've got the dogs at the chiropractor ahead of the Million Paws Walk at Miami next Sunday.

The Saturday after that (21st) we're at Logan for a comp- JDO, JDX and SD- and then the weekend after that (28th and 29th) we've got the Cane Festival Parade on the Saturday and a demo at a school fete on the Sunday for our training club. At the Cane Festival we're walking with the other handlers and their dogs, and then after that we've got the usual DWD/obedience/tricks/puppies/agility demo. At the school fete we've just got the demo. Because of Charlie's weird mood and the wet weather making Tuesday demo class impossible for the past month we're just sticking with the agility portion for both, but that's more than fine with me.

I've also got to check with my supervisor and possibly will have a couple of trials coming up in early and mid June, but that all depends on whether she's available. I'm so close to being eighteen and able to head off to trials by myself, which while not as fun necessarily- and meaning I have to convince one of my parents to take me and stick about all day- might open up a few more options.

Contact Retraining- Take Sixty

That pathetic display is Charlie's current contacts. Well, the third one in that video is. The first two are his crap contacts plus issues with nature being around the dog walk.

I just had a quick session- using his dinner; kind of sad that he gets so excited over the same kibble he's been having twice a day, every day for the past two years, but anyway- and while I started with getting a standing 2o2o, he doesn't seem to feel as comfortable or confident. He goes for an auto drop 2o2o which I'll happily accept if it means he's got some enthusiasm and wants to do it. He was so eager I turned my back for two seconds to refill up on treats and found him trotting down the dog walk and popping himself into position.

Needless to say that got a huge treat bonus.

I'm aiming for an auto contact because he doesn't really listen enough at trials, and I'm liable to forget to call it anyway, so it's just a matter of making it super strong and super rewarding to stop at the bottom of that slanty plank no matter what slanty plank it is or where it's been placed.

I'm going to paint it up on Saturday and scrounge some sand for the traction and shift it so we can start working on getting the speed up. 'Cause unless he can learn to regulate his speed and apply the brakes, we're screwed.

But it's looking better. Better than this morning definitely, anyway- but we'd have to try really, really, really hard to be worse actually.

We Need Traction On That Thing

It's taken me all day to clean out my cupboards- and it's only sort of kinda done. It's not like it was a huge job since most of the stuff was already sorted and I just took out the boxes of bits I need to sell on to anyone who's willing to buy it and put them under my bed, but with the birds out- and four of them being so young and cute and wanting to "help" it's been a lengthy task.

Lucky for me their bed time is fast approaching so I'll be able to finish up a lot quicker.

Charlie had a quick go on the dog walk this morning; mum's been painting and my room's been a mess all day so the dogs were banished to outside after two separate paint on fur incidents- and they're not happy about it. He can run it okay as is, but the up hill part especially was a bit slippy and he could definitely move quicker if he didn't have to worry about footing as much. Project for the week: getting any old paint I can lay my hands on- not hard because at the moment we have enough containers of paint on the verandah to redecorate a small country- dump some sand in it and whack it on the planks. And then Charlie should be happier about it. I've also got to shift it slightly in position since at the moment we can only run it one way and that's a bit awkward.

And agility training should be on tonight, which is exciting. First go for a few weeks because of Easter and rainy weather so it'll be good to get back on some proper equipment in space that isn't the size of a closet.

Commando!

We finally got to go to a Commando class this morning and had a blast. Charlie can more or less do all of the equipment- amazing what he remembered from the old equipment he went on over three years ago- and it's a matter of refining it.

I thought he was being very well behaved and very controlled. And he was.

Until, last thing, we ran a "course". It was this little suspended table bridge thing, front cross onto the big suspended bridge, then up and over the tyre walk on and then down up and down through the pipe tunnels. He lost the plot and went a bit bananas. Such a moose.

Our instructor was like, "Ah... I see what you mean" because I'd told her about him "knowing" what to do, but when it comes to running it in sequence he gets overexcited and stressy and loses his head. So at least now she's seen it in action and understands I'm not just being super picky with it.

I also told her we're taking a break from obedience and she agreed with my reasoning and didn't have an issue with it. We're still doing composite classes- I may start going Saturday mornings as well as Tuesday nights now it's getting cooler so we can keep working on Charlie's "shall not work in daylight" issues. And since we're only down there twice a week without obedience it shouldn't be an issue. Our instructor also said we should feel more than free to just pop in and join the obedience classes whenever we want and just have fun with it and go from there. I think after we've had a little break I'll ease back into it by doing that- just going down for a little amount of time and doing a bit of play, a bit of work, then taking him home again.

And also, last bit of news is I finally have a fake dog walk! :D Exciting indeed. Charlie's had a full on morning, what with class, then a trip to the shops and work to pick up some stuff, then wrestling with Jack, then a bath, then wrestling with Jack, then an excursion in the car to collect some termites for the baby lizards, then wrestling with Jack. Labour Day's tomorrow so no school- yay! -so I'll spread a few sessions across the day and get him used to working on it. He was a bit unsure when I put him over it before to check the traction, but with a bit of practice he'll be fine. We're going to work on some more 2o2o and hopefully get it nice and solid. The only issue I'm having is the fact that I don't currently have much way to bridge it into trials because he's just off his face and I can't go back and re-do it. Gah.

I need to get my arse into gear and attend a few ADAA ones and see how that goes.