Fleet Feet CPE Agility - March 24&25

We have not run in CPE since last August, and that trial didn't go so well for Leo. Long story short, he basically shut down on most of our runs. If he took off from the start line it was to take one obstacle and then stop and stand. In retrospect, it was fear and a lack of confidence. He was new to trialing and not as confident in what he was doing, period. Since that time he has run confidently and gladly in a variety of venues including the Rose City Classic in January. Last weekend was a new location for him to run although he had attended with Vegas on multiple occasions. This location is one of few in the area that is 100% dedicated to dogs. The owner teaches classes for a living and rents the facility for trials almost monthly all year long. So the equipment is always there, dogs are always there, and it's not used for anything else. Plus the surface is mostly sand so it's consistent, smooth, and flat. All in all, it's a pretty ideal environment for the dogs to run.

Typically we have four runs a day at the Fleet Feet trials. Standard is run both days with the games filling in the rest. I had entered Leo in all runs. At the time I had hoped to have him teeter ready; in retrospect, I could have left out Standard but gambled on the rest not requiring the teeter. 

Saturday

Saturday we started out with Full House. It's a nice way to jump in and have everyone running in fairly short order. One thing fortunate when running Leo is that I don't have to avoid tunnels. Here I needed two circles, three jumps, and one five-point obstacle (contact or weaves). I honestly don't even really remember what we did other than the start. We took the jump on the far left into the tunnel then into the second tunnel under the dog walk, came across the back and took a couple jumps... I think we took the tire then turned to take the a-frame and tunnel combo a couple of times until the buzzer. He had plenty of points and qualified!

Next up was Standard. Kind of a wonky start but just fine with a lead out (Thank goodness I trained that one solid for Leo!). So the plan was to lead out, release, and send him into the tunnel. Then up the dog walk, over the jump and into the weaves (no cross necessary as I'd be on the "right" side). Into the tunnel and I debated on a cross somewhere either before 7 or between 7/8/9. In the end I figured I would rear cross 9. I planned a front cross after 10 and a rear cross into the tunnel, #15. Of course I wasn't planning on him successfully doing the teeter, but I wanted to at least show him it was okay to get up on it so I directed him there. He did climb up there, made it 1/3 of the way and stopped. We had a "discussion" for a moment then I queued him to come down from whenst he came. :-) And on we went. NQ.

Snooker...my sometimes nemesis. I didn't make a good plan for Leo as I was too busy focusing on what Vegas would need to do and I couldn't keep two plans in my head. On that note, I saw some people with their maps in a sheet protector and then using a highlighter or dry erase to write/draw on the map to work on plans. I thought that was a good idea and something I might try. For Leo I worked on something similar to what Vegas did using the #7 combo as my first color obstacle and the #6 combo for our second and third. It worked pretty well and we made it through 6, I believe, before the timer went off and we had to run to the table. Another Q.

Last up for the day was Jumpers. Although Snooker had involved a lot of running for Leo, his energy didn't appear to be flagging. Instead he seemed fairly amped up what with getting to play so much. That alone was an awesome feeling. I planned to lead out from #1 a couple of steps and then send him into the tunnel. I then just planned on staying on the right for 3-5, making a front cross after 6, and then debated on 8/9. I walked it multiple ways with the primary objective not taking the tunnel from 7. In the end I chose to handle it like a serpentine. Out of the tunnel I believe I planned a front cross between 11 and 12 or a rear at 12 and then a straight run to the finish.

This run went really well! Leo was very good at following my queues and I didn't mess him up either. However, coming down the finish toward the end, I did urge him to "go faster" and he tried hard to put on the speed. Unfortunately I think he then misjudged his stride to #14 and took a little tumble. The judge, Dorris Wigglesworth, said he made a full rotation. I caught his not being with me at the tail end just long enough to see him look back at the jump in a sort of accusing manner like he wasn't sure what happened. Then he ran for the finish, appearing none the worse for wear. Such a very good boy! I'm sure it startled him a bit but fortunately he's small and "bounces." I did rub him down and make sure he didn't appear hurt though; all was well. And he Qd, too!

All in all, a very good day with the little man. Three out of four runs were Qs...and the one we didn't I didn't plan on anyway. Super happy with him and how happy he is on course. Confident, happy, enthusiastic, and fun. Those are the things that matter.


Sunday
Jackpot...ugg. Did I mention I don't care too much for this game? Okay, so mostly I don't care for it too much on behalf of Vegas who struggles to get points in the allotted time and time is the issue. You must be to the table before the buzzer. But, this is about Leo. So there are three jackpots. I decided the one that worked best for him would be tunnel/tunnel/jump for 15 points. We started with the jump in front of the start line, into the tunnel (right), and into the pinwheel. We did the pinwheel twice for 10 points, and from there I don't remember other than we did get our jackpot obstacles. Interestingly enough though, when I was on course I remember us doing them and not hearing the judge call the points. Then when scores were posted I saw we NQd. I added up the points and couldn't figure why we didn't qualify so questioned it. Fortunately the scribe and timer had questioned it too but just did what they were told versus being auto-scribes (which had been discussed in briefing). The judge corrected it and Leo Qd!

Next up Standard again....So my plan was to lead out from #1, send him into the tunnel, then move laterally and call him so he didn't have to take the teeter at all. Would you believe the little stink took the teeter anyway? Then when I let him come off it he wouldn't weave so I scratched the run. He had started acting freaked ... not sure why.

Wildcard....two As, one B. That was my mantra because I had run Vegas just prior and she had to run two Bs and one A. Whew! My choices for Leo were: 3A, 9B, and 11A. He likes the a-frame so I wanted to make sure he got to do it. Another Qing run!

Last but not least - Colors! Sometimes fun, sometimes not! Funny thing....we were all walking the course and everyone walked the "green" course. They kept saying it was the "no brainer" choice. I decided I liked the other one better. We were the very last dog to run and we were the only dog to run the orange course. The orange course is the one that has circles versus squares. Leo had an off course which normally is an NQ because that would mean the dog took an obstacle assigned to the other course. However, he took the back of the jump so it was actually an "other fault," I believe, and still allowed him to Q. Very good boy!

So all in all a good weekend considering I was very tired despite making every attempt to get extra sleep. Plus the weather was kind of crappy and I was just simply a little out of sorts after not having done CPE for so long and realizing I don't enjoy it as much as I once did. Most of that is any sort of requirement that I course design - it's just not my forte. Regardless, the dogs did great. Leo rocked and I'm so proud of him. 

PAC/GSDCO AKC Agility - St. Pat's Weekend

Leo has been getting to play agility fairly regularly lately. Of course I've been too busy to keep his records up-to-date and with a third weekend in a row bearing down, I just have to do it. So here goes.

Two weekends ago we were at the Clark County Fairgrounds for a co-hosted AKC agility trial. With our teeter "issues," Leo was just running JWW. He'd moved up to the Open level for that trial so 12 full weaves. In theory shouldn't be a big deal since he earned his OAJ title a while back before switching to Preferred/4".

Saturday's Course:
The first sequence was straight-forward; I planned to just handle from the right. While Leo was in the tunnel I figured on making a front cross and moving out toward the #5 jump. I then planned a FC between 6 & 7 and another after #8 into the weaves since we still don't have off side weaves. We then just needed to move out into the pinwheel, complete it and run straight out to the finish. Something funny happened though....just watch. 

SCT: 48
Yards: 121
Leo's time was 40.09 which was 3.02 YPS. Funny...did you see the "watch" part I was talking about? Here's what happened....

We were in the middle of the pinwheel, just after the third jump from the weaves, I think. All of a sudden, Leo wheels to a stop and looks at the back wall. I could NOT get his attention for the life of me. On the other side of the wall is where we were crated.... Here is my assignation of Leo's internal dialog/thought process:

Leo: "What? Wait! Sissy, is that you? Are you okay? (listening....) Oh! You're just throwing a fit. Okay, well I'm going back to play with mom now."

It was too darn funny. Yes, Vegas is known for her crate temper tantrums. And Leo loves her. So what can you do? Lori Sage, our judge and a friend felt badly about having to give him a refusal. I certainly assured her there was no reason to be. We still qualified, it was caught on video, and the degree of truth in my dialog makes for a fun story. So that's how Leo earned his first Open JWW Preferred leg. On another note - I love, love, LOVE how enthusiastic and fast he did his weaves. That's the way he weaves in practice and he just dove right into them.

Sunday's Course:
I liked that the weaves were right off the bat and didn't involve a front cross as I could simply handle from the right. From there I planned a front cross after 3, another after 6, and one after 11. Let's see how that worked out for me...

Funny thing is...I was so pleased with his weave performance (two days in a row) I almost forgot how to
handle afterward. Fortunately Leo was solid and worked with my bumbling.
SCT: 48
Yards: 121
Our time was 34.09, a YPS of 3.55. Much better without the "stop and check on sis" bit. :-)

So that was our second OJP leg. We'll have an opportunity to finish it off and move into Excellent this weekend. So happy with my little man!

Green & Blue

Details to come later...

Wordless Wednesday

Lescher Farms Dog Park

The dogs and I got out of the house yesterday to head to the dog park. We went to one in Lake Oswego (outskirts) as I wasn't in the mood for a ton of mud and this one has wood chips. Turns out that was wood chips and slop this time of year. We started out in the "regular" fenced area but when a young Aussie wouldn't stop tumbling Juicy, we decided to try the "Shy and Timid Dog" area. I felt a little bad about going there in case there were truly timid dogs there because Vegas, while gentle and mostly indifferent to dogs, is big. Turns out, too, it was more small dog park than it was shy/timid.

Juicy got chased right away and I thought it was another bad omen for the park. After all, her tail was down and her ears back. All she could/would do was run and try to get away. Finally, about 15 minutes later she started relaxing, greeting dogs, and eventually played with the Cairn Terrier that had chased her when we first came in. Of course I took a bunch of pictures.

This orange Pom (above and below) was really cool! I admired his play drive - tugging, chasing, fetching. His mom said he could do it all day. All I know is he didn't stop while we were there.

This is the Aussie pup that wouldn't leave Juicy alone. :(

I couldn't help but stop and try to capture these cute birds on the fence. Two of them hung out for quite a while and let me get about 10 feet away. I didn't push my luck.

This is a different one that had landed and just as I went to shoot it took off. I didn't expect the shot to come out as anything but a blur. Pleasantly surprised!

This little dog is a rare breed called the Miki.

Chewing on a stick...

A giant Papillon

The cute Cairn that first chased Juicy then she decided was okay to play with. The name her family kept calling sounded like "knee-high." LOL

I came home with muddy dogs (not in the plan) but fairly tired dogs (definitely in the plan). Good deal, too, cause the rain and breeze came in just after we left.

Tracking

I started tracking again recently, this time including Juicy. So far we've only had one impromptu session just searching for treats outdoors in the park and two official tracking sessions complete with three tracks. The first session my son came with me and he laid the tracks.

Juicy had three runs with five, 10, then 15 paces each. They were all straight tracks starting with a glove and treat, and a glove and treat at each of the pace points. The first time was fairly difficult. She doesn't know a lot of verbal commands so she just didn't know what I was asking. After we did complete that first line though, she nailed the next one and the third. And it was a little breezy, too, with air coming up off the river. All in all, a great first session.

Leo got longer tracks as he's more experienced. We did 15-25-40. The first track he did well although he almost completely ran the track a half dozen feet to the right on the sidewalk which I thought odd. The next one he struggled a bit more with but nailed in fairly short order anyway, and the third no problem. As always, it takes much longer to lay the tracks than to run them. All were double-laid as well.

The next time I took the dogs myself which meant I laid them and worked them, not always the best but sometimes you just have to make do. Juicy had two runs on straight tracks, same thing - 5-10-15, and the third I decided to try a 90-degree left turn. Once she stopped focusing on going to the top of the slope and into the road, she picked up the track at the turn and found the glove just fine.

Leo's first two tracks had a right-hand 90-degree turn. He struggled a bit the first time but the wind was picking up some which made it more difficult. None of them were as smooth as he usually is so I'm not sure we're ready for turns yet, at least not when there is wind.

Hopefully I'll have time to get them back out again in the next couple of days. I'm fortunate there's a park three blocks down the street that is only mildly used during the "off" seasons.

Product Review: Paw Hide Dog Toy Puzzle

A year or more ago I started seeing the Nina Ottosson toys available through many online sellers. I was fascinated and loved the idea of something else to engage the dogs indoors since so much of our year is spent in the rain. The down side was, her toys are outside my budget. So I started the search for alternatives that fit my budget. I found a couple, although many seemed much smaller, less complex, and most likely a lower quality product. However, I was willing to try two. The first is by Kyjen, called the Paw Hide.

Here's a video clip of several attempts by Leo to work the toy.

Positives

The price was definitely right at $14.99 versus $50 plus of the other brand type toy. The complexity was decent as was its suitability for multiple sizes/types of dogs. The toy also seems fairly durable and is very washable. I would probably go so far as to toss it in the dishwasher if it got that bad. I don't have a large home so having something compact is important, too. I kept the box and just store it boxed in the front closet so it's accessible when we want to use it, but out of the way when we don't. 

Negatives

The design definitely means the dog has to figure out the best way to get the yellow cups out that suit to his or her mouth or paw size. For instance, the Poms' mouths aren't big enough to pick them up and out nor can they nose them out. That left Leo with one option...spinning them and waiting until a toenail hooked into the hole in the top of the cup. However, it worked. 

Vegas really didn't have much patience and I don't have a lot of feedback from her perspective. She did mostly knock the whole thing over when she did try playing with it which is par for the course. It did live up to the roughness though. 

All said and done, I'd give this toy three paws out of four. I don't think the plastic is hefty enough to hold up to a really rough dog as the pieces aren't thick. Plus, once the dog figures it out, the dog just has to have the patience to repeat the practice over and over each time you pull the toy out. Fortunately, the PomPowered duo are food motivated enough to play again and again and again.

(On a side note, I pulled it out with the little one the other day. I had video but can't find it right now. Anyway, she figured out how to get the cups out and did so. But she happens to be a carrier Pom...meaning she was then intent on carrying the cups ten feed away and never even noticed the treat! Leo was overjoyed.)