trials

Well as I write this, Miller and Harley are entered in two fall trials and that is it. I am sad, I want to go to more but we just can't afford it. I am trying to make extra money by doing my dog training business but it just isn't helping the way I thought it would. I am wondering if the break would do me some good though mentally? I do plan on going to USDAA nationals as this would be Miller's last nationals but after that, I am not so sure. Deuce is coming along nicely but I am seriously considering holding him out of competition till he is 2 so he can mentally grow up. It sure is going to be hard with so many of my friends getting their babies up and going but I am going to try and stick to my guns and not put him in as soon as he is old enough. We started car shopping tonight to replace my van and even if I get a used vehicle that is going to cut my dog show budget in half:( I am seriously thinking about getting a car and keeping my van for the long trips. Maybe if the van didn't have the wear and tear of driving back and forth to work everyday and class, it would hold up longer but then you have to consider taxes and tags and insurance on two vehicles (well three if you count tony's truck). Anyway, I will continue to train my boys as if we have a show next weekend and be sad when everyone else is going to trials. I do miss my friends that I only see on trial weekends so it is going to be hard to not see them this fall:( We will be at Triune and Agility ability, but only for two days and then I hope to hit our local November USDAA trial. Past that, we will have to see how tony's work is going and if I am making a car payment or not. I am going to think positive, we will be coming to at least some local shows and that is going to be good enough!

where to go from here

I have been having lots of thoughts swirling in my head lately about miller and about showing. Miller is 11 now and even though he is still running like a young dog, I am trying to decide what is fair for him and what is not. I have stopped running him in competition class and just practice small sequences in the open practice, but I am not sure if that is helping him or hurting him. I have been running/walking with him a mile or two every couple of days to keep my cardio different and to get him out. He seems to absolutely love anytime he gets alone with me so he seems happy when we run/walk so I continue to do that with him and then I give him an anti-inflammatory just in case after wards. I am of two minds here and not sure what to do. On one hand, I feel like not doing full courses could be hurting us at shows, thus the knocked bars so maybe putting him back in competition class where we run three of four full courses would be better, but then I risk doing too much with him. On the other hand, I do feel like he doesn't need the repetition and length of full courses but I need it! I get rusty too! I am not sure the running/walking is all that good for him since we are on a concrete track but that really is my only option and of course when I say running, I mean he is trotting beside me jogging. I just don't know what to do! He detests water and we really don't have any place to swim our dogs anyway so that is not an option. I have seen too many agility dogs quickly age when they cut back on what they do and i have noticed he doesn't seem as happy with life right now, partially because of all of the attention Deuce gets but partially because he isn't training as much. I know we aren't suppose to put feelings on our dogs but I can tell when he is sulky for sure as he just goes and lays in the dining room floor and ignores us. It is VERY obvious. Anyway, trying to figure out what to do. No point in trialing if we aren't going to train but I am not ready to stop trialing. We are going to take the summer off due to Tony's work situation and due to us having a little too much fun with our credit card, but want to be back showing by the September show. I am going to go ahead and do the USDAA show next weekend so I have some glimmer of hope that we might find a partner and get to go to nationals. Still thinking and ruminating about ideas and possibilities. Trying to do what is best for my best canine friend, keep him happy and let him do what he loves but still stay injury free.

Go-Dogs Weekend

What a fun weekend! We always camp at the KOA as they have book Friday, get Saturday free this weekend and this KOA is super nice. I did book a cabin this time since Tony was camping with me and doesn't appreciate "roughing it". Plus, now that we have five dogs, camping in a tent when they all want to be on the cot with you is tough as we don't all fit! This year the KOA had a fenced in dog park with miniature dog agility equipment. It was so nice to not have to worry about the dogs tracking mud or grass into the room (floor was wood and sweepable), not having to worry about the dogs on the bedding (our bedding we brought) and being able to dump them in the dog park and watch them play off leash instead of crating them all day and night. Other than some of the campers letting their kids run around in the dog park (against the rules) and barefoot might I add, we had a great weekend camping. It was so relaxing, even if it was 20 minutes away from the show site. I think I might have talked tony into camping there again for the next Omaha show, even though cost wise it isn't much cheaper than a hotel. Something about having a cabin with a porch swing, in the peace and quiet of the woods just does something for you.

The show was fun, despite the Q rate. For whatever reason, Miller was refusing obstacles but randomly, not consistently any one obstacle. He ran around the second to the last jump in standard on saturday even though I connected with him as he came out of the tunnel and told him "out, jump". Oh well, wasn't a double Q anyway but still puzzled as to why he did that! He also ran around a tunnel on Sunday in standard even though I told him "turn, tunnel". It took more effort for him to run around the tunnel than it did to go in it. Then he thought barking at me was more fun than going in the tunnel. I will be honest, I was pissed about that one for a really, really long time. That would have been double Q number 6 for nationals, and even though I am not going, it would be nice to say at least that I qualified for nationals this year. I know we will get it, but usually I am already qualified at this point for nationals and I am a bit behind this year. I know we have plenty of time and I know I had to take things slowly and still am since his injury and I have to take all of those things into account. I know cutting back to two days per show is killing me but I know it is better for Miller.

Harley and Tony continue to gel as a team but he is still having inconsistency issues with Harley. He does seem to be handling this better and I do think Harley is maturing finally which helps. Tony did let me run him in standard on Sunday and boy was that fun! He seems to be alot less stressed now that we are doing running contacts with him. I got a fairly quick sit on the table, even though for me "load up" means get on the table and lay down first. Tony has let the meaning of that command deteriorate and if that is okay with him, I have to live with it. Harley is so obstacle focused and both Miller and Deuce are so handler focused so it about took me off guard when he immediately started shopping as soon as we left the start line! I did forget that pushing Harley in the weaves (me chattering go, go, go) really amps Harley up and usually causes him to pop so we popped out of the weave poles. Other than that, I enjoyed running him and forgot how much fun running a fast dog can be! I hope Deuce has some of Harley's speed in him for sure!

I am looking forward to a few weeks off before the next show. Let's just say that between all the concert tickets and the hotel rooms we have been charging, our credit card is starting to build up some debt. I originally thought about pulling all of my entries for the next three months but I think I will leave our June entries and just not enter in July or August. We should be able to pay a big chunk off by then and the doggies can always use the rest and relaxation. Maybe we will actually be able to start working on all the projects we have at home!

Bellvue weekend 2010

Another outdoor show and another cold weekend with lots of bars. I love going to Omaha, so much to do and I love outdoor trials but this field has never been good to the red aussie crew and this weekend was no exception. Some of the bars were my fault (the lead out in the standard course was my fault, but what about the double?) but some were just weird and random (harley's first bar in JWW and on the flat in JWW). The field seemed to be un-level, especially in the JWW ring but the other ring seemed fine. There was a muddy spot in the JWW ring and for that reason, I think I ran very cautious for my first run. We were lucky that the weather held out and all we had was cold because it looked like it could rain for sure all weekend. We had fun, going to Cabela's on Saturday (Tony's toy store) where we got some cool doggy first aid stuff and then taking Deuce on a play date with Ami's Tazer, who is the same size and plays the same as Deuce. We are going back again this weekend so hoping the field won't be a mud pit from all of this rain we are suppose to get this week. Highlights from the weekend were no doubt Tony getting a Q in Ex B standard with a third place (don't watch his dog walk contact so you don't see Harley miss it by a mile) and going to a running shoe store and getting fitting for real running shoes!!!! Of course seeing Deuce so happy after playing with Tazer for an hour was great too and all the great advice I got made me feel so much better about some of the behaviors he is doing right now. We are camping this coming weekend so finger's crossed for good weather!

GKCDTC weekend

As usual I am behind blogging. So much is going on in my life and even though this is Miller's blog, I have to share! I have mentioned it before but I am opening up a small business for dog training in the wamego area. I have joined the APDTA and am meeting with a small business consultant tomorrow. I have lots of questions and lots of excitement so looking forward to ironing out some details. I am still not stuck on a name and have contacted the local Wamego OZ theme person and she is helping me to think of a name and a tag line. My homework this weekend is to watch the Wizard of Oz and read the book looking for cool names. I love the name, Run Toto, Run, but this is the name of a wine at Oz winery so don't want to copy them. So far the best name we have come up with is Ozsome Dog Training and the tagline is "we will train you and Toto too" or "we will train you and your little dog too". Still thinking about this so nothing is set in stone.

I am so excited yet so scared too! My worry is that this will take over my life and my real job. I love what I do, could never not be in science or at a lab bench doing science. I also want time to work on my own dogs as I have so many aspirations for all of them still! I still want to do agility and tracking with all of them and get into herding with Deuce and Harley. I want this to be a side thing and not my life. I have a life and i like it. The book I am reading talks about how you have to set boundaries if this is a side job. For instance, if someone calls, not answering it and calling them back until you get off of work and having set hours to do paperwork on think about classes. I know me and I am very impulsive so it will be very hard for me to do this.

I will have to admit that my head is spinning with all of the possibilities i need to think about. Insurance, having others train with me, finding a location to have group classes, and what type of small business i am going to become are all things that i need to think about and process. I sometimes feel very overwhelmed and I haven't even started!!!! Then comes all the issues that come with teaching such as the people themselves. I feel like I am good with dealing with people but you get so many different kinds in classes or lessons. They mostly want a quick fix, don't want to do their homework and sometimes have dogs with issues that are truly behavioral, which I am not trained to handle, especially any type of aggression. Those will be the tough cases as I will have to turn them away as I not in any shape or form trained to handle these cases. Maybe someday, when I win the lottery, I can go back to school and take behavior courses and do internships at shelters or behavior training facilities and become more knowledgeable in these types of dogs, but I figure that won't happen for a long time if ever. I am going to try and read as many books as I can but reading books does not make you an expert in any way. Firsthand
experience with a knowledgeable expert helps and I have no clue how I would get that.





Okay, enough of my ramblings about my small business. This weekend was a good weekend for the Miller man with a double Q on Sunday and a single Q in JWW on Saturday. We would have had a perfect weekend but for whatever reason, he refused the chute in standard. It is weird chute, i will admit, but he has been in it before so this is not the first time we have done it. This is the only club that uses this type of chute in our area. It is a dog house and the barrel is in the house so the dog has to jump up in it and then go through the fabric part. Oh well, you win some, you loose some. We need one more Q for AKC nationals and then like 2oo points but I am not going this year so it doesn't matter. I guess it would be nice to list that we qualified 3 years in a row though? Anyway, Harley had a silly weekend where his contacts fell apart in standard and he knocked bars in JWW. In the video, the JWW run where he knocks the triple, we measure and he took off 8 feet before the obstacle!!!! I think Harley's theme song was I Believe I can Fly!!!!! I hope this isn't a trend for Harley, to become inconsistent again. He is doing so well in open practice and I am really pushing them and making him try hard things, just like Lori did when he was in her class. When he tries to get away with rears, I make him do all fronts or whatever to get him out of his comfort zone. One of the things that I think I finally got through to his head (which shouldn't have taken this long) was that he does not do contacts the same in class as in practice. I got him to working on a true running a-frame tonight and I hope he will continue to practice this. Harley seems so much happier when he can run the contacts but he needs to truly run, not run part of the way and then superman off. Tony was really surprised he did as well as he did tonight just using the hoop and the Frisbee to get Harley to focus ahead.

So we got to do some fun stuff this weekend, including some very good Italian homemade food on Saturday night (best lemon bars I have ever put in my mouth) and some very good KC BBQ on Sunday to celebrate miller's QQ. We even got to see a real steam engine come into Union Station while we were there. We also found a store we have been wanting to go to but it was closed. It is an architecture salvage place and we are hoping to get some cool doors for our house. I love when we get to explore but probably won't be able to do that much more as we have to take Harley and Deuce with us and leave them in the car as they won't behave in the hotel room like berry and miller will. We are going to buy a fan that uses a tool battery this weekend, which will help but not in summer time:( Oh well, we have had fun exploring this winter! Can't wait to go back to Omaha in a few weeks and go back to Upstream brewery and back to the antique shops we found there! One of them had antique door knobs and I am so excited!

Wichita Cluster weekend 2010

Back from the gym, trying to wind down and thought I would write a little bit about Miller and Harley's weekend. I am trying to make a mash up video of both dogs instead of separate videos so I can just upload one and be done. We only got 2 Qs videoed out of three between the two dogs but oh well. We left the video camera in the car for the first part of the morning as we were in a hurry since tony takes so dang long to get ready and he also wanted spangles this morning for breakfast. I normally just eat a granola bar but for some reason, forgot to pack them so had to eat out for breakfast. That much grease that early in the morning really does a number on my tummy!!!

Anyway, got to Wichita late friday night and swung by the show site to see if it was still open. I had heard that there was actually crating space this year so was hoping to get set up in a good location. I love this trial and I hate this trial. There is so much to do and watch including lure coursing, herding, agility, conformation, and obedience and so many vendors but with that comes tons of people, spectators, and not alot of space typically to set up your crates. To me, it looked like conformation entries were down this year because usually where we agility folks crate is surrounded by paid conformation crating and there was lots of space left for free. We have crated in the car in the past and i hate that because you never know what the weather is going to be like and it is usually too hot to leave them in the car.

Got to the hotel around 11ish and got checked in and drug all of our crap up the stairs. Four dogs have lots of crap to take with them in a hotel, even if it is just two nights. I had decided to bring a crate in this time since last time deuce decided to walk all over me all night and caused me to not get very much sleep. I tried leaving him out but about 3 am he decided it was time to walk on the momma and I couldn't sleep, plus his tummy was still a little unhappy from his dumpster diving antics. Saturday morning dawned way too early but at least we were set up and it was small to tall so we didn't have to be in a big hurry. I had two good runs with miller that weren't q runs. The weave poles in standard were going straight into the fence and I think I must have started slowing down and he popped out because i was slowing down. Who knows, he seems to do this alot here lately so it is something I am doing for sure. Other than that, he had an awesome run and had a great run going in jumpers too and knocked a bar. I was very happy with the way he ran even though they weren't Q runs. He was happy although he did break his stay in jumpers. I have got to get tough and make him stay as we were lucky this weekend that only one course really needed a lead out to be successful with the handling move I wanted to do. Harley was the star of the day, running fast and clean in JWW and getting a fourth place! I am so proud of tony and how he is coming along with harley. They are really gelling as a team and it shows! Harley seems so much more relaxed when he runs and alot of his issues are going away with the reduction in stress. Tony was really tickled that he did so well and that they beat out border collies for a Golden, Lab, Aussie, Aussie top four. Everyone is so supportive of him and all have been coming up to him telling him how well he is doing and he really loves it. I really miss running harley but I put way too much pressure on him and Tony doesn't and so he does better for him for sure!

We let Deuce do the herding instinct test (see deuce's blog for results) and then took the dogs out to go watch Barb's whippet do lure coursing. My dogs get so excited when other dogs lure course so I only had them out one at a time so we could really hold them. A whole bunch of agility folks came over and watched so it was fun. We went back to the hotel sunburnt and wind whipped and tired. I think we must have both laid down and died because we woke up and it was 7:30 at night! Tony really wanted to go to the dirt track as it was opening night and even though I wasn't hugely excited, I went. Just finding parking was horrible as I guess everyone in the little town of Park City comes to the races. I am not kidding, we drove around the parking lot for 30 minutes and tony had to race a guy for a spot and almost having a wreck in doing so. We had a good time watching the sprint cars and the modified cars and the kids racing but i was so tired and the nap made me feel worse not better. We didn't have our normal racing gear either so we got lots of dirt and rubber in our face and our ears got assaulted by the loud engines but it was fun. We left around 10ish and headed back to the hotel and died again!

Today was a good day too with Miller getting a double Q on some very fun courses. Harley ran past the weaves in standard, which I don't think I have seen him do since he was a puppy and then tony really pushed him in jumpers and he had multiple bars. I think Tony was bummed about his runs but happy because Miller got a fourth in standard today so we had reason to celebrate. I think that is our 5th QQ for our MACH 2 and our 4th QQ for nationals qualifying (even though we aren't going). I am hoping if we stay consistent that maybe MACH 2 will be a possibility. I know it was so awesome today to see Lynn and Scoot, who got there MACH the weekend after Miller and I did get their second MACH. Scoot is such an awesome aussie (i know, have run him:) and Lynn does such a great job handling him. They finished 26th out of 275 20 inch dogs at nationals which is a huge accomplishment for any aussie against so many border collies! Sara F also got her MACH this weekend with her little snazzie Maycee! It was so great to see so many people meet their goals with their dogs this weekend! I know how huge it is to get a MACH and I hope they all float on cloud 9 for a long time!

On another note, got lots of good books this weekend on starting my own doggy business. Dogwise was at the show so picked up three really good books. I am reading the business one right now and am learning so much! I am on the chapter about tax deductions and about what type of business you want to be and business plans and so far, I am not too scared yet! I really look forward to providing a service to the community and their pets and hope to get this up and started this summer. I have to get this going so that I can get insured so I don't get sued when I help people at their homes with their dogs. This is the main reason why I have decided to go through with this business thing and I really, really enjoy helping people and their dogs. I have been doing some one on one work at people's houses that I have met in wamego (met one lady at the track, one lady saw me working in the yard and stopped and started asking questions) but look forward to maybe having some group type classes and maybe even some puppy classes!

Well, better get off of here and go fold some laundry!

Final Blog from nationals rescued from mom's computer

On the road again and time to blog on my mom’s laptop while she drives. I am so thankful she comes as she is a tremendous help to me and Miller both mentally and physically (my favorite kennel bitch) plus as an added bonus, she comes with her laptop! Again, I am sad that she will be leaving Tuesday so that makes the final day of nationals very sad as all good things come to an end. We had the hybrid round today and once again had to be at the show site at 6:00 am. I was in the third walk/run group so didn’t have to wait as long. We had an awesome run going and miller was so amped that he missed his a-frame contact. We do a running a-frame and unfortunately this can happen if he is really excited. I was just so happy that he ran so well that I really didn’t care. He has been pulling me to the rings every run and even when we weren’t getting ready to run. I can’t ask for any more enthusiasm although I would like my start line stay back LOL! He even gave me a big bark on the start line today which he usually doesn’t do so you know he is feeling great! I am so proud of all of my agility friends as so many of them had good runs and brought home lots of ribbons. I think everyone pretty much walked away from the experience happy with their runs. I know I was super happy with my handling this year even if we didn’t have the Qs to back it up. As I said before, the worst run I had all weekend was the run that I got the Q on. My favorite run of the weekend was probably his ISC standard run that he ran so tightly and fast on. Heck, pretty much all the runs he ran top speed and tight! I have a ton of time to decide about Perry, but I am still leaning towards not going. It is a long way just for a green ribbon and I could probably save my money and invest it in equipment or Deuce or Miller more massages! I am truly so happy with my weekend and my nationals that this might be a good one to end on.