Tugging On Your Heartstrings

The baby girl is sure tugging on my heartstrings to become my heart dog of all times. I agonized over whether to go to Illinois for the GLBTC show. Seeker had lost confidence in her jumping after her triple jump crashes. It's amazing how much I am hearing the same story from other people, so TTT, train the triple carefully!

Lack of snow and non-frozen ground allowed me almost a month to work Seeker outside on grass. We did Susan Salo jump grids and lots of fun groundwork.

I pulled her Open JWW entries (and got a full refund...always a good thing!) and decided to go to the shows and run out of the ring in a positive manner if she was hesitant and stuttering. But deep in my heart I could tell that she was almost back to normal.

Lynn and I arrived at the site on Thursday afternoon to set up. I was thrilled with the site. It was huge and with a great surface of artificial turf...almost as good as running on grass. I bought a new tug leash from a vendor and we were good to go on Friday morning. Seeker loved the fact that she could tug intermittently right up to the start line. She was extremely focused. And she ran fast! The course was nice and flowing. She completed it easily and took 2nd place missing out on first place by only one second to a BC. I never thought we would be competitive in Novice B!

Saturday brought a hope for a Novice Standard title run. I must have shown my nerves because Seeker put her head down in the poles and starting to sniff. I gave a verbal "uh, uh" and she popped out. Bad trainer/handler. I should have said "Weave" but it's hard to think on your feet. And of all darn things, she backweaved! That earned her a refusal. But she got down to business and weaved well the 2nd time through. We finished the course only 3 seconds off the leaders, but our refusal gave us a score of 95 so we ended up in 6th place. But we Qd and now I had to decide what to do for Sunday. I decided to move her up to Open. I am so glad I did! She was ready. She almost leapt off the start line, but I was able to get her back and do a lead out. I was thrilled to see that much drive in her at a trial. It proves that I was right: the more they trial and have fun, the faster and more confident they get. The trick is to keep making it fun. I was so surprised at how fast she ran! I could hardly get the commands out fast enough! I got a bit cocky and didn't support her tunnel entry enough and she ran past the plane of the tunnel and got a refusal. But she quickly got in on the second command and we went on to a jump and the table. While she was on the table, I decided that I had better give her the best chance to get through the weaves without a refusal since we had already used up our max penalties. I had walked the course planning to be on her left and complete a front cross at the teeter. But knowing that she is even better in the weaves when she is on my right (she is left pawed), I did the front cross at the table. What a great on-the-fly decision! She not only did the weaves, she did them fast and well! We got several compliments about her weaving. I have to thank Lynn for suggesting that I use tiny little steps to keep her cadence up. It worked like a charm! From there, we completed the teeter and then the dreaded triple jump. She stuttered for an instant and flew over it! Then it was one more jump, the dogwalk, and a line of 3 jumps to the finish. We flew over the last three. I had a huge rush of adrenaline that I had never felt before...what a feeling to earn our first Open leg. It got even better when I saw that we placed 3rd. It was a big class!

Needless to say, the drive home was very easy as I think the car floated along beneath me.

The new leash tug proved to be very lucky for this girlie who continually amazes me and tugs on my heartstrings with her love and devotion.

Competing in a Performance Venue for the First Time in Over 30 Years!

I did it! I competed in a performance venue for the first time in over 30 years and I am living to tell about it. Debbie Miller and I went down to Lansing on Thursday night in order to be at the shows early. The weather is usually bad this time of year. Even though we could drive back and forth, we both have dogs in Novice who show early in the morning and then not until late in the afternoon. It's a long, exhausting day.

But I learned so much! Right off the bat, I learned that agility people are pulling for each other. The VMO did her best to give Seeker a 22 inch measurement so that she could jump at 20 inches. She had me back way away, get very "uninteresting" and sit down. She did all of this so Seeker would drop her head down which then dropped her shoulders the half inch needed. Later in the day, just for kicks, I put her back on the table and measured her. She is definitely 22.5 inches tall. I love that VMO because she gave us a yellow card which means that until Seeker is 2 years old, she does not need to be measured again. She told me that once Seeker turns two, to make sure I come back to her for measurement! I find that pretty amazing.

I also learned the ins and outs of how to pick up your armband and course maps, how to time things so that you are on hand for the walk through and judge's instructions, how to judge when it is time to get your dog ready and go ringside, etc. I learned how to find the results, pick up your ribbons, attach the results to the ribbons, etc.

I developed a little pattern to help Seeker love showing. I took her out of her crate, pottied her, warmed her up with jogging followed by tricks to help her stretch out (spin, back up, paws up, follow the bait to her back legs to stretch her sides, bow, etc). Then we did our warm-up jumping. I made sure to practice whatever was the hardest move on the course (front cross, rear, call to hand and turn to the right, etc.) Then I hung up my bait bag near the exit gate and we went to the in gate. I made sure to keep her focused and happy. After the run, she got jackpotted and played with. We jogged to cool down, she got more treats and water and then back to her crate to rest.

I found that she loved the routine and really began to settle in just as she did with conformation showing routines. I also found that all these routines helped to keep me calm and focused.

JWW was always first thing in the morning. I loved that I had no problems remembering the courses! The first morning was slow and scary since Seeker was a bit distracted by the new venue. But we made it through cleanly and our only fault was a time fault. Seeker stutter stepped her way through the jumps and it was painful to watch on video. Her uncertainty was quite obvious but so was her love to please me. She was over course time so her score was 99, but she was the only one in her class to qualify so we got first place. My exit routine worked like a charm. When she saw how pleased I was with her, and how many treats she got as she left the ring, she decided that this was a fun venue!

Her standard run was great. She was very happy to only have a few jumps between obstacles. She ran happily and clean. 100 score and first place for her first Q in standard. What a way to start the first day: with a double Q!

Saturday began with JWW and I was grateful that there were 2 tunnels to help break up all the jumping. She was happy too and was a bit faster. Clean run, Q, and first place.

Saturday afternoon for Standard, I could see her excitement as we waited in the chute. Because of that, I also got excited and forgot to give her my normal cue to hit the contact on the bottom of the A-frame. She missed it and we had NQd on the second obstacle. It was funny, but that relieved all my stress to have a perfect weekend and we flew through the rest of the course happy and error free.

Sunday morning JWW should have been pressure packed knowing that it could be for our title, but the course was much harder than the last 2 days and all of my concentration centered on how to perform the 3 front crosses I needed to do. There were no tunnels so only the weaves broke up the endless jumping. Once again, Seeker ran a bit faster and was well under course time for a second place. I was thrilled knowing that we had earned our title in 3 straight shows.

Sunday afternoon I was worried about the timing. I could not get her to go to the bathroom! I stood outside with her in the rain for 20 minutes worrying about whether I would have enough time to go through my routine with her. I finally gave up and went ringside. She looked very excited and happy to run and we were doing so well! She had no problems with her down contacts because I remembered to give her the cues. She performed a very hard table wait as I walked away for a leadout to the next jump and then did a front cross to a jump at a 90 degree angle which made her successfully ignore a jump that so many other dogs took for a wrong course. We got to the teeter and had only 3 jumps to go for a clean run and she rode the teeter down and peed all over it. I felt so badly! But as I took her by the collar and walked her off the course, I think Seeker knew that she should never do that again:-) She realized that she didn't get to finish the course and she didn't get jackpotted at the end.

That night she came into heat so several people have told me that she is excused for her teeter pee:-)

The very best part of all was that I found that Seeker was incredibly focused. All of the things that I worried about did not happen. I have seen (and saw this weekend) so many Novice dogs with the zoomies or sniffing or visiting ring crew). None of that happened with Seeker. I'm not sure if that's because we practiced those distractions or what. But what I found was a teammate who was totally focused on the obstacles and me. She completely tuned out the dirt floor, the smells, the ring crew, etc. It was so rewarding!!

Goals:

1. work on getting her to potty quickly and efficiently at show sites and use a very high value treat when she does.
2. work on her jumping style by watching the Susan Salo DVDs that Debbie lent me. BORING, but helpful. From what I have viewed so far, she has a great style, but early take-off so everything else is good. With only one fault to correct, I am hopeful because I did move her up to Open JWW for the Great Lakes Belgian Tervuren trial over New Year's weekend.
3. Keep the jumps low and get her confidence and speed back. At class last night, she was still a bit hesitant so I need to go back to getting her to fly. I think I can do this! I taught her to weave using Susan Garrett's 2X2 DVDs. The results this weekend for that? 6 perfect sets of weave poles: all with correct entries and all with good speed. As I thought, she got faster and faster each time as she gained confidence.

So, all in all I am so proud of Team Seeker! I remembered the courses, kept things positive for her and we had fun! I'm grateful that she held off on her heat cycle so that we could complete the weekend and earn a title at the end of her name. I look forward to Dreamer's debut.

Lessons Learned

Seeker and I showed at agility matches this past weekend and I learned a lot about my baby girl! Here are the lessons I learned so that I can share them with you and Dreamer before you show:

1. Just like obedience, it is important to practice all the rituals you will use before and after you show. Seeker is doing a MUCH better job about pottying at show sites. We warmed up with a quick run and some stretches and tricks, but I did all of that WAY too early. So what happened is that she was not fired up enough for her first run. So for her 2nd runs both days, I did all the routines closer to her ring time and there was a big difference.
2. Because she is a Novice dog, she is still learning to take all the new sights, smells, and sounds in even while she competes. Because of that, I will need to run more parallel to her in the beginning. When we practice, I try to get upstream as much as possible, but what I found is that I need to support her more especially after the chute and the tunnel. I am fast, so if she takes off happily, I can always do a rear cross. But I need to be closer so she doesn't get distracted by ring crews, etc.
3. I need to keep my mouth shut in the weaves and let her do her job. When she exits, I'll give her a quick "YES" and move on.
4. I might need to play with her a bit in the ring for the first few shows just to keep her happy and relaxed. I won't be able to touch her, but I can sure pretend to do our touch game and fire her up if I see that glazed look come over her face.
5. I have to remember that I am showing all 3 days for 2 runs a day at MSU. This can only work to our advantage if I keep it positive for her because she will settle into the site and become more focused. I saw this in her when I showed in conformation.
6. We are showing first in JWW which will be great practice because she does love to jump even though her jumping style is crazy right now. But that will give me practice staying close to her. Any wrong course in JWW is an NQ. If she does have a wrong course, I must remember to just keep on going and not stress her. Let her jump and have fun.

Ready to Run

I find it amusing that most often when I am fearing the worst, the exact opposite takes place. Lately I have been feeling the crunch about the upcoming agility trials. I am definitely entered at the December 2-4 MSU shows. 3 shows, 2 runs a day, 6 runs total. I also entered 2 days in Cleveland where the vendors are amazing, the Terv crowd is fun, and I have such great memories of conformation, the food, and the fun in the city. Finally, I entered the Great Lakes Belgian Tervuren Club December 30-January 1 where I will get to hang out with Lynn, Eileen, and Scott and other Terv friends from the Chicago area. Fun trips, fun friends, but are we ready? As I continue to immerse myself in agility: books, Clean Run magazine, videos, training alone in my yard and with friends at their houses or the club, group lessons, and finally my private lesson, I wonder: are we ready? We began this journey over a year ago as soon as baby Seeker came home to live with us. Actually, Linda started Seeker on the path to success with her wall walking, climbing, turning on objects, and "paws up" command. Seeker and I worked on the flat and with very low jumps until May when she came into heat, was 13 months old, and her growth plates closed. Then we began training in earnest. Our first private lesson was on June 23rd. Five months of immersion; is it enough? We worked on my footwork for forward sends, lateral sends, acceleration and deceleration. It was all very confusing and awkward for me. Lynn commented that Seeker was just wonderful and would "save my butt" many times when we started showing.

Our private lessons once a month really tested our progress. In July, Seeker was spinning a lot: on the landing side of jumps and after going through the poles on my left side. We worked through those problems. In August, I was still struggling with how to make a front cross. Lynn spelled it all out for me so that I could master the finer techniques. We worked on what to do when I saw the look of overload on Seeker's face. Those first hour long lessons were hard on the baby girl and she could not concentrate that long. September brought work on rear crosses and the baby girl mastered them without spins. Our October lesson was the breakthrough for me. Lynn set up a course, had me work to memorize it, and then we ran it. I was absolutely beaming at the end when I remembered the whole course and Seeker ran clean. And then I did it: I entered the MSU shows with the draw date of October 23rd. Since it was a random draw, I didn't know if we would get in. We received conformation that we were entered and then reality set in followed by panic.

So as I drove down to Grand Blanc yesterday for our private lesson followed by our class, I had an hour plus to mull things over in my mind. I wondered if I wasn't rushing things. I had read many articles in Clean Run written by instructors who bemoan the fact that their students jump the gun and enter too soon. Was I one of those clueless people?

Arriving at Highest Hopes Dog Sports, Lynn cheerily greeted me and instructed me to walk the course. It was long and hard: 20 obstacles with tricky twists and turns. How could I possibly remember it? And then Lynn had me do the most amazing thing. After I had walked it several times, we had analyzed the best way to handle it, and taken a break to bring Seeker in, Lynn had me stand in one spot and "handle" the course complete with hand signals and verbals with my eyes closed!! It was magic! I had that course in my head and I didn't even know it! And when we ran, and Seeker ran fast and clean, I almost cried. And at the end, when Lynn said, "THAT was a hard course and the reason Seeker could handle it was because of your handling", I could hardly believe my ears.

Surely if we can run a course of that complexity, we can handle a novice course. And that is what Lynn believes also. She is excited that she will be at the MSU shows and we can analyze the course together. She believes in us as a team. That was all I needed to hear and I will keep that thought in mind.

The rest of our lesson was fun, fun, fun. We worked on a series of jumps where you keep changing the last jump to keep the dog alert and not second guessing. Some called for a front cross, some for a rear cross, some for just straight line jumping where you run all out (Seeker LOVES those). We talked about staying "upstream" from the dog as much as possible so that she will know where we are going next. This used to scare the crap out of me, but now that I have more control over my own body and Seeker, I see the value of front crosses over rear crosses. At home and at our club, I have worked very hard on distractions and calling Seeker off a distraction or a wrong course. I saw the fruits of my labor at least 5 times last night in my private and in our group lesson. In fact, the assistant instructor died laughing when she said, "I wish you could have seen Seeker's face when you called her to that jump instead of the dogwalk. She was like, 'really, Mom, are you sure that's where you want me to go? This dogwalk is right in front of me.' "

At our last private in October, Lynn said she wanted me to try Rachel Sander's Running A-frame method. She said she trusted me to follow the program and do it correctly. She feels it is the wave of the future and much easier on the joints of the dogs. She was so impressed when she saw what we had accomplished in 2 weeks. I had ordered the video, done all the groundwork, tested it, and was ready to move the box to the A-frame. Lynn was just beaming about all of this. We were absolutely thrilled to see Seeker transfer the groundwork to the A-frame. Lynn said that on one of the runs, her stride was a bit off and she could see Seeker work very hard to get all 4 paws in the box. That's my Tacara girl:-)

Insert: loud, proud sigh.

I'm still nervous but now I trust myself and my wonderful dog. We have put in the time. We belong. We are ready to run. And no matter what happens, I am proud of myself for making this leap forward.

The new shoes can't hurt either:-)

I Can See Clearly Now, the Food Is Gone

After our lesson with Karen on Sunday, we removed food from the heeling exercise. Now I can really see what Dreamer is made of. I'm not surprised to report that her willingness to work is still there. I'm cheating a little bit, though. After a few turns, halts, and maybe a change of pace, I tend to slip Dreamer a reward. My plan is to give her less and less of the food before our next lesson. As much as I trust Karen, I just don't think it's fair to suddenly halt all food. Maybe I'm just prolonging the inevitable low morale that comes with withdrawal of the food, but I don't think so. I figure we've taken it slow as molasses with baby steps this long. Why stop now with a big Hail Mary?

Dreamer and I are working on the broad jump and various pieces of Open and Utility. Thank goodness because I would die of boredom if heeling was all we had to look forward to. Last week, Karen said she wants me to start practicing dumbbell holds with Dreamer on recalls as well as the high jump! Dreamer is becoming very good with the holds but isn't at the retrieving step yet. She doesn't even pick it up off the ground yet. We haven't learned that piece of the puzzle. I like how we're learning, though, and I trust that all the steps are coming at the right time. I hope to post videos and/or photos soon of the things we're learning. I think you'll find them interesting. Until then, happy training!

Back At The Contacts!

Debbie's brother-in-law died so they left for a GSD show and then on to the funeral. I picked up their mail and newspapers yesterday and stored them safely. It was so cute when I got there: Seeker was thrilled to see where we were since she hadn't been there in almost 3 weeks due to her kennel cough quarantine. She ran around the yard and deck looking for Debbie and her dogs. She seemed quite confused that no one was home, but once we started running, she was totally focused. I only did the contacts because I didn't want to have to set up any jumps or a course. And it's the contacts she hasn't been on in 3 weeks. I was thrilled to see that she hadn't lost a step. She made 2 mistakes: the teeter was at a strange angle in the yard and I sent her to it from a 90 degree angle. She jumped on sideways and then realized she couldn't keep her balance and jumped off. So for the time being, I'll be sure to give her a good entry to the teeter and then work on strange angles after I show her. She also missed the contact on the A-frame once. This is my biggest fear at the shows. I wonder if she will get so excited that she will launch herself. It happens when she is really running fast. I certainly don't want to slow her down, I just want her to think about the bottom section. So we went back to her target work where she keeps her head down and scoots down fast with a lot of little steps. Other than that, she was fast and happy. I was pleasantly surprised to see that she did all 12 weave poles even though at home I have them set up as two separate set of 6 poles. I'm doing that because I want to practice the entries from all angles and that gives her more practice at that. Plus, in Novice, she only be running 6 poles. I want to keep her fast at 6. I found that when I was doing 12 all the time, when she saw 6, she would slow down. I also have noticed that now that I have my poles increased to 24 inches, she has found a rhythm and muscle memory has taken over. For awhile there, she got tired by the end of 12 poles when they were at 24 inches because it was a different feel for her than her 22 inch poles at home. The best part was I proofed her to see if I could "save" her at the shows. It used to be that once she would see an obstacle or jump in line ahead of her, she would just assume that was where she was going. She still does that and I like it, because she will gladly move out on her own and is both obstacle and handler focused. But now, I can call her off the wrong obstacle and she moves toward me in a split second. So last night, I had her running on my right where the next obstacle in line was the A-frame, but I called her over toward the table as I ran toward it. She did great! But I just realized that I only tested this with a "pull". She is much better at pulls than pushes. So when I go back to Debbie's on Wednesday to train, I will test it with a "push".

I'm also finding that I am able to process things much faster than I used to. I am better able to see the course and the dog at the same time. You are going to have so much fun in your new Thursday night class when you get to do all this fun stuff. I can't wait to hear all about it.

Getting Our Bruise On

The conformation bruises are healing, and Dreamer and I are busy getting our bruise on with agility and obedience. Time heals all wounds, but heeling takes many forms. Speaking of heeling, Dreamer is looking better and better in her heeling patterns. We are starting to wean off the food now, and it's really too early to say if our methods are working. Karen wants me to play this "now you see it, now you don't" game with Dreamer and the belt. The food starts out on the stick, and we complete the exercise. Dreamer gets her reward from the stick. Then I tell her to get her reward again. At first, she bought it and jumped up to find an empty stick. Then I'd put another treat on the stick and tell her to get it, and she'd get it.

Well, she's a little too smart for that game now. Or maybe I'm just doing it wrong. My training notes tend to suck, and I'll miss a step. So we've stopped the "now you see it" game until our lesson on Sunday, when I'll either get corrections to my notes or confirmation that we need to try something else because Dreamer is too smart. In any case, I've trained Dreamer every day (except Friday, when I had to get my happy hour on) since our last lesson, and she's so much fun!

We didn't have agility class this week because our teacher is out of town, but I've set up our new channel weaves. I weaved Dreamer at home for the first time tonight, and she was fast! She had slowed down in class the two previous weeks, and I had become concerned. When I talked to my friend Pat about it, she said that the dogs always slow down when you narrow the weaves, and had we just done that? Well, as a matter of fact, yes. We had just narrowed the channel. Tonight, the channel was a little wider than our latest setting at class, and sure enough, Dreamer's speed was back! I'll gradually close the channel, but I'm relieved that she's being a normal dog and isn't doing some weird slow dog thing. That would drive me nuts! I think we'll start to make a lot of progress on weaves now that I have my own set to use at home.

I have a Band-Aid on my thumb, as I got it caught in one of the pole stakes during assembly. But this is the type of bruise I can handle. Dreamer and I are having a great time -- a rewarding time -- and it's worth the wounds.