FOCUS FRIDAY - Aug 21

What would you like to focus on?

Rear Cross; Obstacle Discrimination; Serpentine; Front Cross; Susan Salo jump grids; Contacts; Box Work.

Let us know in the comments section below. Also if you plan to attend.

Coffee's Beans

photos by Jan Perinoni

Puppies

News from Julie this morning that Coffee had 3 Sable, 2 Tri. One girl of each color. All are doing well.

photo by Jennifer Burns

More On The Weekend

Donna and I would like to congratulate all of you who had fun competing with your dogs this past weekend. Your ribbons are well deserved.

While some of us were on the coast enjoying the 60 degree weather with fog and mist, Helen Marie was in Reno in 102 degree heat. Here is what she has to say about her trip.

Magnum did what he went to Reno for. Magnum completed his Versatility Title - VER with two first places earning 192 points of 200 on Saturday and 195.5 points on Sunday!

This is an interesting class as it consists of two exercises from the Novice, two from the Open and two from the Utility classes. There are 12 combinations of exercises that you MIGHT get and you don't know what you are going to do (this is kept a BIG SECRET) till you walk through the ring gate - well, it is secret for the first dog going in, which was us both day. You have to be ready for anything, heel ON LEASH to Articles and all the others, so you bring your dumbbell (the fourlegged one and the white one that looks like a bone) the three gloves and articles. It is fun to watch the dogs trying to figure out why they are doing some of the "easy" exercises, or as in Magnum's case the second day why I had insulted him by keeping him on lead after entering the ring.

More From Ferndale

Everyone had fun running the new RAD class on Saturday. They will be offering it on Saturday at County Wide’s trial, sign up that day. It’s a fast course with jumps, weaves, tunnels and either an A-frame or teeter. All levels participate together. Our course was a giant figure 8 with the A-frame in the middle.

Jennifer and Kerry Q’d on Saturday their first time in Open Jumpers (12 poles) and had a very good attempt on Sunday. I left before Kerry's Novice Standard run today.

Maggie, Riley and Bird had some nice runs on the weekend. Riley double q'd on Friday and Sunday. Birdie q'd in standard and jumpers but on different days. Birdie sure liked the RAD class!

Julie and Cue earned their Open titles and qualified first time out in Excellent A. Jet double q'd on Friday.

The courses were very nice this weekend. Challenging but with good flow. Novice is not what it used to be. I'll try to set up some of the interesting challenges for class.

I was pleased with my handling for the most part. Echo was jumping with ease now that I know how to stretch her out. Unfortunately I took a quick glance sideways to see if the bar I heard had gone down - it had not! We were approaching the weaves and Echo stopped to see what I was doing! One thing I know for certain, I will work contacts before County Wide! I have let them slide and it showed.

Hope you enjoy the photos! Jennifer took the one of Echo in the weaves.

Ferndale

Check out the smile on Jennifer! Kerry earned his Novice Jumpers Title with a 1st place and some smooth handling.

The dogs had a fun romp in the field afterwards.

Echo and I had a smooth Excellent Jumpers run but I pushed her on the weaves and she went in the wrong entry. We kept on going and as a result the ending was just as pretty as the start. Unfortunately, I forgot to give my camera to Jennifer so it's one for the memory!

Maggie and her Kerry Blues are up here too and doing well.

This is a great place to trial in the summer - cool and foggy. Tomorrow we get to try out a new AKC class based on Steeplechase. All levels run the same course.

Rollo

Christy and Charlie have a new addition to their household. His name is Rollo and he is a real cutie!

New Session

The summer is flying by.

A new session begins on Wednesday July 15.
A new Foundation Class begins on July 23.

ENJOY THE SUMMER!

Hello!

We must have left the cooler weather in Washington!

We did bring some fun exercises back and plan to set them up for class on Wednesday.

See you then.

A Very Busy Day

Lots of fun handling games were introduced to the working teams today. It was a good thing we had blue skies all day since we worked outside on the grass. Some of the dogs and handlers may even find themselves in a video that is being worked on.

Tomorrow is contacts and weaves. If it's anything like today we will be busy. We head home in the evening.

Has Anyone Been Checking The Blog?

We've been busy working the dogs, writing notes and absorbing lots of good information. The dogs are having a good time too!

A Day Off

Today we had a day off to enjoy the outdoors with the dogs. It is raining on and off. This morning we took the dogs to a park where Jennifer, Kerry, Lea and sometimes Ube went swimming. Echo and Coffee played along the waters edge wading in up to their elbows retrieving cookies. ALL of us are resting this afternoon before we begin 5 days of foundation and puppy work plus weaves and contacts. Donna and I had two great days working Masters Handling exercises with Inc and Echo. Lots of fun challenging exercises to share when we get home.

Are We There Yet?

The slide show begins with photos of Ube who got to ride in the back seat. He had a "spot" on the floor but would occasionally pop up to ask "Are we there yet?" No wonder -- we left home at 9:30 and drove until 10:30 last night! That left us only 2 hours to drive today. We checked out the town and drove to see Argus Ranch. See the photo of the large covered arena where we will be working Echo and Inc tomorrow. After settling into our motel we let the dogs play and stretch their legs in the field next to the motel.

It is beautiful and green up here and warmer than expected!

How Sweet It Is!

Helen Marie and Magnum were entered in Obedience and Veteran Sweepstakes at the recent Brittany Specialty in Vallejo. Magnum who has his UDX was off to a rough start in Utility B with a non qualifying score but managed to surprise his handler in the next two events. Here is Helen Marie's brag.

I haven't seen a qualifying Open [obedience] performance from him in years, he usually blows the sit stay and IF he makes the sit stay it is only because he has blown one of the other exercises. OK, we have no chance for the Obedience award. He does a beautiful - albeit typical Magnum - job in Open with slow, moon the judge drop, sneezes and nose touches on his fronts. We go in for sits and downs and when I came back from the sit stay he was STILL SITTING!!!! Amazing!!! Coming back from the down stay he almost moved but held it and we qualified. One of five.

Well, I know my boy, one of five puts us fifth, and with the fourth place dog getting a 196 I knew we weren't getting anything higher...BUT he did score a 190 which is one of his personal bests and of course we got the High Scoring Obedience Brittany trophy!!! YES!

We went over to the conformation ring where we did our thing in Veterans, the judge was impressed by my 12 year old physical conditioning and good teeth. Magnum got lots of applause, which he loves, as he gaited around the ring. He got his ribbons and toy and I got a check! WOW! AND we were presented with the Obedience trophy while we were in the ring for Veterans.[see photo]

It was a really great day! Magnum is sound asleep under my computer desk, but he deserves to be snoozing and snoring. ;-}

Truely An Inspiration

Check out Susan Garrett's Blog
http://susangarrett.wordpress.com/
The June 7 post and the video in the comments section of the June 6 post have some truely inspirational video. You may have seen videos of Donna Rock doing obedience work. If not, you are in for a surprise.

For those who are not familiar with crate games, here is what is going on. The object is for the dog to sit when your "hand" touches the crate door. Once the dog sits, you open the door and feed the dog a cookie - high and in the back of the crate. During the teaching process you "step" on the leash when you release the dog so he cannot wander. You then wait for him to decide to go into the crate on his own. Once he does you feed and repeat the process.

The second video shows Donna's young border collie and her older Doberman doing some obedience work. To find the agility video in the comments section of the June 6 post you can quickly scroll down until you see the video picture. Here she is using a tug toy to reward the dog instead of just spitting food as she had done with her obedience training. Pay attention to the excellent timing of her front crosses. By the way the BC is only a year and a half!

Achieving Goals

Congratulations to Maggie and MACH2 Riley for reaching their second MACH. It takes a lot of dedication, practice and perseverance mixed with a big dose of love to accomplish this title. Riley needed to earn 750 points (earned by seconds under course time) and 20 double Q's (qualifying in EXB Jumpers & Standard in the same day). That was for his first MACH. They did it a second time for their second! Way to Go!

Just beginning their career in Agility, Christy and Zorro earned their Novice B Jumpers title this past weekend. We wish them many happy training days and trials as they form a team. Enjoy the Journey!

Playing Tug

I'm still working with Coffee on playing tug with me. She has a soft hold/bite and I need to be careful that I don't jerk the toy out of her mouth. Watching dogs play tug with each other, especially an older dog and puppy is helpful.

Here are two 40 sec. videos of Echo playing with Ube. Watch the interaction. How Echo re-offers the toy after pulling it out and let's Ube win quite often.

Too bad my camera has no sound. Echo "hums" the whole time!

Stay Challenge!!

If you don't know what to work on with your dog between now and the next class, here's an idea. For the next class we are going to have a challenge. Who can do the farthest lead out stay. No, your dog will not be required to do the jumps, but will be required to stay. The challenge will start at 5 feet and will continue to 25 feet. Dog moves you're out!! That means lifts rear, creeps forward, etc. If you succeed at 5 feet the next challenge will be 10 feet, then 15 feet, 20 feet and 25 feet. If there is a tie we will have a tie breaker. This will be done in each class. Good luck practice those stays in front of a jump. a tunnel, a tire, etc. The first piece of equipment you sit your dog in front of could be any piece of equipment. See you in a couple of weeks!!!