ResqTails

So, I’ve been spinning and spinning over what to do lately about agility trials coming up this spring. The big debate is what to do with Zoe, Layla and Raven. Sorry if this gets really long and drawn out…if only you could hear the debate in my head. LOL

First of all I don’t know what direction to go with Zoe. Zoe and I have tried a variety of the different agility venues that are out there. NADAC/ASCA, USDAA, DOCNA and AKC. In recent years we’ve focused mainly on AKC agility, with a little DOCNA sprinkled in here and there. I just can’t decide whether to continue doing AKC with Zoe, in hopes of getting her MACH2. She’s already 9 1/2. In looking back at what it took for us to get her MACH, I think we’d be looking at the liklihood of it taking two years of trialing to be able to finish a MACH2. She’s got the speed points, but she needs 18 more pesky double q’s. In two years she’ll be almost 12. I don’t even like to think about her getting older! Even though I’d really like to think that she could still be running in two more years, I don’t think I’ll want to jump her at full height at that age. Thus the debate…In my fantasy world where I have unlimited funds and time, I’d say “yes, who cares if you get the MACH2, just keep running and see what happens”. In my real world where there is a very real limit on both time and money, I think it really doesn’t make sense to spend both on a title that is probably not within our reasonable grasp.

Then Layla…I had hoped that she would be ready to enter in Novice agility in March for the Sheltie Nationals, (since they are in AZ this year). However, I never expected that she was going to come up lame and we would lose more than 2 1/2 mo. of training time this fall. Now we are behind where I expected to be with her training. It’s also the worst time of year for training more than just pieces, since we’re mostly training in our barn now. So, I can’t decide whether to try to enter her anyway…or just bag my plans for Sheltie Nationals this year.

Lastly, Raven. Raven just goes crazy to do agility and obedience at home. She has an absolute hissy fit if you go out to train one of the other dogs and she has to wait inside the house. When she gets to the trials though, she’s a totally different dog. She acts like she needs a cheerleader to get around the course. All the confidence and speed that she has at home is lacking. She just doesn’t have the temperment that handles the trial environment well. That having been said, she still has been able to get to Excellent and earn one leg towards both her AX and her AXJ. I’d really like to finish those titles and then just let her do agility at home and forget about trialing with her. It just seems so odd to me to have a dog that is just coming up on 5 years old that I wouldn’t be trialing with.

Anyway, the decision is coming up the quickest for the crew here is for January. There is an AKC trial that I’d like to enter, but I don’t know who or what to enter. LOL I think it’s a waste of funds to enter Zoe, but I can’t imagine going to a trial and not running her. I’d like to enter Raven and hopefully get closer to finishing off that AX and AXJ. And…I’m toying with the idea of entering Layla in Novice FAST, just to see where she’s really at, but I also think it’s just rushing her. Any thoughts??? Besides that I’m crazy. LOL

On the way home from DOCNA Championships we decided to take the scenic route for once and just take our time. Here’s some pictures from one of the lakes that we stopped at. It was gorgeous. The pictures don’t do the scenery justice, but the dogs were more important. LOL

We’re back! DOCNA Championships were a lot of fun! Zoe did fantastic. She ended up taking 1st place in Traditional Gamblers and her trigility team took 1st place. She took 1st place in both Rd. 1 and 2 of Standard and again 1st place in the Standard Finals. She was in 1st place after Rd. 1 of Jumpers, Rd. 2 I totally had a brain glitch and forgot a loop of the course. That took her out of the finals for Jumpers. In the big class for the Nationals…North American Challenge, she took 2nd place Regionally and then the next day her score held up to maintain 2nd place Nationally! She had a fantastic weekend. Flowing courses, nice people, great judge, beautiful ribbons, and even a little warmer weather than we’ve had here at home. Who could ask for more?

Here is the video of Zoe’s NAC run and then a picture of Zoe and her ribbons and then of all the girls…

We’re off again! This time we’re headed for Prescott, AZ for DOCNA Championships. Should be lots of fun! Three days of agility We are leaving first thing in the morning. It’s about an 8 hr drive. Thank goodness Randy is going along this time so we can take turns driving.

Zoe is the only one entered this weekend, but Layla and Dare are tagging along. My mom is coming in to take care of the rest of the crew here. I’ll try to post updates if we have any internet service at the hotel. Well, that and if I’m not dead tired by the time I get back the hotel at night. LOL

I don’t know why it always takes me about a week to update this after I get back from a trial, but here it is already Thurs. and I haven’t written anything.

Zoe and I finally finished her Ex FAST title this weekend!!!! I was beginning to wonder if we’d ever finish that class. LOL Here is the video of Zoe’s FAST title run. FAST rarely runs just as I hope and this was no exception. We had a bobble at the tunnel, (she took the wrong end, so we ended up having to do it twice to get the points). Fortunately, she still had time to get the send. The “send” portion of the course was a sequence of two jumps out to the dogwalk. I’m really proud of her, she handled it like a pro!

We also got to see Dare’s half sister Tennille. She’s just 7 weeks younger than Dare. What a cutie! Here’s a picture of Dare, Captain and Tennille.

We’re back! We had a great time at the IKC Labor Day trial. I only entered Zoe and Raven for the first two days, but they both did really well. Zoe double Q’d both days, with 3 first places and one second place. Raven earned her first Ex. A Standard Q, and two Open FAST Q’s this weekend.

The only down side was the Zoe still wasn’t able to finish her Ex. FAST title. Raven did really well the first day of the trial. She was eager to run, and kept up decent speed around the course, even if it wasn’t quite like she runs at home or practice. The second day, though, she seemed to be more anxious…I think I’ll take that information and just enter her in one day of a trial next time. I want to keep her attitude happy about trialing.

Here are some videos of the girls Standard runs from Friday.

We’re getting ready to head out for an agility trial this weekend. Zoe and Raven are entered Friday and Sat. Layla and Dare are going along for the experience, and for a semi-private lesson with our Obedience trainer.

All the dogs are bathed, I just need to dremel some toenails…get packed up and leave. Should be a fun weekend! I’ll try to get some video this time.

Well, I didn’t find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow this morning, but just the site of something so beautiful was enough to start my morning off nicely! I was really pleased that the camera caught the colors so well.

The boarding kennel has been keeping me busy lately. Which is a mixed blessing I suppose. It’s of course great that the business seems to be taking off, but it’s also nice when it’s slow and I have more time to just spend with my own dogs.

Training is going well though, Twist and I have been working on his broadjump for Open Obedience and I think we’re making progress. It’s been really nice having the agility field back again. Raven’s doing nicely with her obedience training, but her agility contacts still aren’t what I would like them to be. I think I’ve tried just about every method for training contacts, (2ox2o, using stride regulators for a running contact, 4 on the floor), but none seems to work for her. I am kind of stumped right now. Zoe’s still running great, even though we haven’t been able to trial as much as I would have liked this year. It’s hard to believe that she turned 9 today! Seems impossible. I wish I could just freeze time so that she didn’t get any older. Doesn’t work that way though. Layla’s 10 months old now, and is coming right along with her training too. Penny and Lucy are doing still doing great, although Penny wishes that all the afternoon thunderstorms that we’ve been getting would end.

I guess that’s about it, for what’s been going on here…

I haven’t posted about this before now because I wanted to make sure that our registration had been accepted first. I finally got the email confirmation that I’d been waiting for…yesterday! So, the good news is we’re going to Camp W in Lake Tahoe again this year in September! Woohoo!

We got to go back in 2007 and we had a fantastic time. I took Twist and Zoe with me that year. It’s just a camp where you have the option of trying out a ton of different dog sports, like herding, obedience, agility, flyball, tracking, lure coursing and carting. Or, you can just choose to take absolutely gorgeous hikes, relax on the beach, do crafts…well you get the picture. It’s a no pressure vacation with the dogs! Did I mention that the food is great too?!

These are some pictures from camp with Zoe and Twist. Now the big decision for me is which dogs or dog to take?

This week is getting away from me quicker than I expected. LOL We had a really nice weekend! Friday started off with an obedience lesson for Twist and Raven. We have lots and lots to work on before the Utah Sheltie Specialty at the end of April. That’s good though.

Saturday and Sunday we spent at the DOCNA trial. I only had Zoe entered, but then they offered day of trial entries, so I broke down and entered Raven for the last run of the day on Sunday. Zoe had a nice weekend. She was really consistent and Q’d with first place in 8 of the 10 classes that she ran in. The other two were my fault. I got lost and sent her into an offcourse tunnel on one class, and realized it too late to get her turned around, and the other was a class called Strategic Time Gamble, and you make up your own course to accumulate points in the opening time period of 30 seconds. Then they blow a whistle and you have another 10-15 seconds to cross the finish jump. The problem is that you can’t finish too early or too late, it’s more a gamble of whether you can estimate how many obstacles your dog can complete in a certain amount of time, and I suck at that. We crossed the finish jump too soon, and lost the Q. Raven Q’d in her one jumpers run, which should have finished her Beginner’s jumper title.

Zoe did qualify in the North American Challenge Class though, and that is DOCNA’s qualifier for their Championships, so if we decide that we can get away (time and moneywise), we are qualified to go to Prescott, AZ in Oct. for the Western Championships. That would be fun!