USDAA Trial

We survived!  Actually, it went quite well.  I only entered her in four events all weekend, Starters Snooker, Starters Gamblers, Starters Standard and Starters Jumpers.  I didn't enter the pairs relay because I assumed we would crash and burn and didn't want to inflict that on anyone else.  I didn't enter the Grand Prix, or whatever it's called, because I wanted to be low pressure for her and I.

Saturday, the first event was Gamblers, which seems a lot like FAST.   I sent her over the first jump, through the weaves and through the tunnel under the dog walk.  Coming out of the tunnel, Weasel zoomed off to check out the lady shouting numbers.  I called her off and attempted to send her up the dog walk, but she had tunnel stuck on the brain and went into panic mode, doing the tunnel, zooming over to the judge, back to the tunnel, again and again.  The buzzer must have sounded, but I didn't realize what it was, eventually I broke the tunnel-judge loop, got her over the dogwalk, then over the a-frame, realized why the judge wasn't doing the scary number shouting anymore, and did the gamble, but the final buzzer sounded before we completed the gamble.

As odd as it sounds, I was actually quite happy with her after this run.  She did call off.  She did try to keep doing obstacles.  She did complete the gamble.  She re-engaged with me, which was a milestone.  That dog has been carried off the course for being a complete spazz more than once. 

The second run Saturday was Standard.  She qualified, with no faults, but was slow - 40 some seconds.  I was thrilled with her.  She placed first in her height division, but it's 26"  There was one other dog. 

Sunday,  I consciously chose to let her rev a bit, rather than focusing on calm.  T he first run was Snooker.  I had no clue what it was, but somebody helped me figure it out.   Alas, it involved a judge shouting numbers.  The judge was sort of hiding on the far side of the course, so Weasel checked out the leash runner for awhile.  But, eventually, I got her back and we almost made it.  Ran out of time, though. 

Jumpers involved nobody shouting anything and Weasel did it just fine, with a few extra twirls.  No faults.  Qualified, @ 29 seconds.  Not great, but not slug-bug, either.    

I am very happy that I am beginning to be able to play with her and warm her up before runs.  I am also happy to see that she had no knocked bars the entire weekend.  It looks like I was just being over-protective about the jump heights.  I missed having Demon Puppy there, but hopefully she will be there next time. 

Good things to work on would be tighter turns, collection, and having somebody in the ring shouting things.  

Agility Trial in a Week - Eeeek

Weasel and I are going to try USDAA.  I've been wanting to, but dithering because she is 21 *and a half* inches tall.  That half inch bumps the jump bars up to several inches above her eye level.  But, USDAA has fun stuff, more classes, pairs, team, all sorts of stuff.  When Demon Puppy topped out at under 19" I realized that I really wanted to try the venue.

I have been asking if I should start inching the jumps up with Weasel to get her used to a half a foot higher, but people have told me she jumps so high it's not really an issue.  Both her and Geezer dog jump high.  Every flyball match, someone comes up to me and comments on Spoiled One's boinging antelope jump style.  My bunny-bear Geezer Dog.

Alas, though Demon Puppy was trained the same way, she's a daisy cutter.  While this is good for flyball (except I hate hearing her feet hit the jumps) it isn't so good for agility.  She's a bar-knocker.  I am working on it, with conditional rewards for when she actually clears the jump.  She's making progress, but it's not something I have ever dealt with.  I hope she gets over it.  Someone I know has a really enthusiastic border collie.  The dog is wicked fast and loves agility.  But he wipes out the bars every time.  I want Demon Puppy to do well.  If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to mention them.  Right now, I am rewarding only cleared jumps, and doing ladder drills to make her learn to pick up her back feet, and some strengthening exercises.  At the 20" I am getting about 70 -80% clear.  She doesn't seem to have difficulty physically jumping that high, and much higher when she wants, she just doesn't respect the bars.  

Weasel's  doesn't even see the bar, it's so high over her head.   However, once she saw it, she seemed to have no problem getting over it.  Her biggest problem is, and probably always will be, that she checks out under stress.  I think a lot of it is that I suck as an agility handler, (vague direction, wrong direction, poorly timed direction) but we try, she and I.  Part of me wishes I could video my training sessions to see what I screw up.  The other part is afraid to know.

They are both doing some nice weaves, finding the entry with only one oopsy with Demon Puppy.  Well, two.  One time, she was going through the weaves and nearly tipped the whole set over.  That dog has no respect for equipment.  No fear, but no respect, either. 

Poor, neglected Geezer Dog.  I did play tug with him.