Vacation time!

We are leaving today on a road trip to LA for 2 weeks! I am so excited. This will be Ryan's first trip to LA. We're going to drive through Portland and stop at the Oregon Zoo, then on to San Francisco and finally LA. We did a trip along the Oregon coast back in March and the dogs had a great time on the beaches. They are the nicest beaches imaginable - sandy and wide open as far as you can see.

I never wrote that Ryan had his first agility trial! He's been in class for about 6 months now and he is doing very well. He nails his contacts every time and doesn't break until he's released. I have him jumping 26" for now but I will probably drop him to 22" regulars for his next trial. In his first trial he did Jumpers and Gamblers and Q'd in Gamblers with a beautiful opening (both minis twice) and a perfect gamble. I will have to put the video up soon. His jumpers run was very nice, no knocked bars, but I pulled him off a tunnel entrance too soon. It's hard to remember that he is a baby still in agility and doesn't read me like Abby yet!

In some ways he is easier to run than Abby. He barks less, for one thing - he only barks at the beginning of class when he is excited to be out and running. I did much more foundation work with him so it's nice to be able to trust that he will stop on his contacts. He also runs at a more manageable speed than Abby, even though I think he actually is faster. I don't know how that works. Maybe he commits to obstacles earlier so he is more predictable and feels more manageable? Abby can go over a jump with a bounce, sideways, while turning in midair, from a standstill. That is both a good thing (if I screw up handling) and a bad thing (if I think she is committed to a jump and I turn, and suddenly she pulls off the jump).

I really need to upload some recent videos of Abby too - I have become a much better handler and she has really improved recently!

I love my dogs. Ryan is the cuddliest, sweetest guy. He is always happy and he is so good in every situation. He recently met a sea lion at work at after 2 barks he was fine and was just interested in the herring that Hazy (the sea lion) was getting. Abby is so much better than she used to be that sometimes it's hard to remember just how 'bad' she once was. I don't feel like I'm restricted in what I can do with her anymore - maybe I've just realized that not every dog is right for every situation. I won't, for example, take her to a crowded beach full of screaming children and crazy dogs in the middle of a weekend. She is a very special dog - definitely my heart dog.

Just a few pictures

She did it again!

Well it's been almost a year since I last posted but since we just got back from Regionals I thought I'd post our results for comparison. This year the super mutt was even more awesome than last year! Regionals were held on the island - we had 4 runs Saturday afternoon and 2 runs Sunday morning. Out of all 6 runs we only had 1 that didn't go too well.

Saturday:
Std 1: 95/100 points because of a missed weave entry.
Jumpers 1: 70/75 because of a knocked bar
Gamblers 1: 71 points - a nice 36 point opening (did both minis once) and then Abby did the jump/out to a weird curved tunnel/weave perfectly
Jumpers 2: 85/75 - a clean run and 10 seconds under time.

By the end of Saturday Abby had 321 points or so and was in 8th place overall in 22" regulars! But then...I made the mistake of checking the results and seeing that she was in 8th place and stressing myself out so...
Sunday:
Gamblers 2: 24 measly points. I got stuck trying to send her to the mini gambles and it ate up all our time. She was distracted and I wasn't being clear and then she didn't see the out jump in the main gamble. We should have just run and racked up the points - stupid me!
Standard 2: 85/100 - missed a jump and by the time I got her back to the right place I wasn't in the right place so we had 2 more refusals - the end of the run was great though.

So in the end Abby finished with 430 points - quite a few more than last year. She came in 18th (not sure how many dogs in her class yet - will have to check later). Overall running with her felt great this year and much easier than it has in the past. Go Abby!

She did it!

Abby qualified for Nationals!

I am still shocked and amazed that we did it so I'm going to write it down here so I will have something to compare to in following years.
Saturday:
Gamblers: Our group ended up re running this at the end of the day since there was controversy over the curvature of the tunnel. We chose to rerun and came out with a point LESS than we had originally. Both times Abby came out of the tunnel turned the right way to go out over the jump (the turn was what I thought would be the hardest part) and then she just stood there while I yelled "get out - over!! get out....OVER!!. So total = 34 points.

Jumpers: I don't really remember what happened in this run but we had an off course and some refusals so total = 45 points.

Standard: I stupidly was wearing a bad shirt/pants combo at this point in the day and as I sent Abby over a jump I pulled my shirt down to stop it from riding up. Stupid me! I pulled Abby off the jump and she put a toe on the walk-it...so total = 70 points.

So by the end of Saturday we had 149 points - 26 points less than half of the 350 needed to qualify.

Sunday:
Jumpers: Abby knocked a bar in this run and I was so surprised that I turned around to see what the noise was and pulled her off course. Total = 40 points. At this point we had 189 points and I had lost all hope for qualifying. We still needed 161 points and I really didn't think we could pull off a 100 point standard and a 30 point gamblers (or so) with the gamble but...

Standard: Abby did an awesome run and only had 5 faults for missing the weave entrance! Points - 95. I crossed awkwardly twice to do same-side weaves but probably didn't have to as demonstrated in ..

Gamblers: This was the run that made my weekend. There was a 16 point mini gamble that consisted of a jump, off side weaves and a walk it. Abby did this twice. No hesitation or anything. Right into the weaves, wove perfectly and went over the walk it and hit her contact. She did the other mini gamble worth 6 points (tunnel, out jump) once and a few other things resulting in a huge 47 point opening! And then..she did the gamble! It was a jump, tunnel, out teeter, out hoop and Abby did it perfectly. She even stuck her teeter contact until I released her. I was so, so happy with her. I think we ended with 366 points. 31 dogs in 22" regulars qualified out of I think 70 or so. Abby came in 28th.

My little mutt is amazing! I am so happy with her that I want to cuddle and squeeze her but since she doesn't like that smooshy stuff I have to take it out on Ryan instead.

The only bad part of the weekend was that my car overheated on the way home and I had to be towed to the nearest mechanic. The driver invited Abby and Ryan to ride in the cab with us and he fed them his roast beef sandwich while telling stories about his dogs. It was a strange end to the weekend and I still don't know what's wrong with my car. Sigh.

Off to Regionals we go!

Agility regionals are this weekend and it will be the Abby's first year competing! I'm nervous and excited all at once. I'm mostly nervous about forgetting the course but there are only 3 to remember each day so hopefully I'll get them well memorized. I've been better at remembering the course these days since Abby is much more reliable. It was when she'd go off course that I'd get lost. Still, I'm looking forward to Gamblers the most - do any obstacles at the beginning and then Abby gets to get out and work without me. She really likes out-work (probably since I'm not there to mess her up! :D).

I'm just getting the car all packed up. Ryan of course will be coming to hang out and shmooze with everyone. We're sharing a hotel room with Tyler and Tycho and maybe Fyvish and Amigo so Ryan will be over the top happy about that.

Regionals, here we come!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention - it was my birthday last week and and we got a contact trainer and it's awesome! Tyler's very talented parents made it for us.