Brag for my redheads.

Atlas got his OAJ title this past weekend. I only ran him 2 days and he Q`d 3 out of 4. I am seeing signs of improvement all the time, plus a sense of humor. I have so much more to learn with him and love every minute of it.

Tamora Q`d 7 out of 8. She is just about perfect. Responds all the time. This is my only campaign agility year for her, which ends the end of July. Hard to trial everything I want because of family celebrations, commitments etc. but wanted to see how it all worked with rankings etc. So I am giving it my best shot.

We will still trial, just not as often and work on other things the latter part of the this year. I can honestly say I have achieved more than I have ever dreamed with her. I also think that dobermans are one of the easiest, smartest dogs to train. Not all are alike, but finding the key that works is the best part of the journey.

Love to put this in the agility journal. Thanks Bridgette for starting it.

Congrats!!!! Way to go Atlas & Tamora!

You have every right of be proud of your accomplishments with your best buddies. Impressive!

Vader has his first USDAA trial this sunday. It is a one day intro trial. I finally figured out snookers, lol. Now I can play gamblers & snookers. With all the different clubs I am having trouble keeping everything straight! We put his AF up to preformance height yesterday and his running contact is awesome! He is making progress on the teeter (finally!) and his DW goes back to full height next week. We may have contacts after all! He is having a blast in classes again and is wild. His weaves are a quarter of an inch from being closed (12). The first & last movable poles are closed. Wish us luck - it's his first outdoor agility trial!

Awsome! I think you are on the right track. I have never done USDAA, so you will have to let me know how it goes. GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well we survived! It was outdoor and hot and windy! He was wild and distracted. He didn't sniff the ground though yea! We got through snookers and jumpers. Gamblers was first and he got the zoomies and I don't think he saw any of the equipment! He had a blast. We had a great time. Lots of fun. He didn't Q but that wasn't the goal. Fun was. And boy did he have fun. So success! The courses were a bit tricky for intro but he did well considering we just started handling class.

I wish people who can't control their dogs off leash would focus on basic off leash behavior before coming to an agility class. It pisses me off so much when it's always the one person and their dog running around out of control and going up to dogs. Niz is always lucky that the dog rushes to him, and then backs off, but another dog wasn't so lucky today. The attack changed the class dynamic even though it was really short--all the dogs went soft and shut down really easily. Niz wouldn't even do the one jump drill right in front of him for a few minutes after the incident.

Niz is still confusing the teeter and dogwalk so I have to put different verbals in front of each (at which point he is fine), but if I forget the verbal cue, he'll bail after it tips/doesn't tip. He also nearly knocked the tire jump (it was teetering on the base) after he got his rear feet caught! Silly boy learned to pick up his rear feet after that. In other news, I'm the worst handler ever. I did a blind cross, tried to pick Niz up on the hand that he wasn't on, switched hands to the correct one, and he somehow kept up and did it all correctly!

You did have success! Congratulations! Sometime I will have to write about a few Atlas fun trials. Very amusing.

More blame goes to the instructor in my opinion. Should have ground rules. I`m sorry to hear this.
No such think as a worst handler. You are learning and so is your dog. And the best part is Niz will forgive you.
There are teeter exercises to teach dogs to accept the touch down and not to bail. Can you get a private lesson or two? Really helps.

If I give a verbal cue to the teeter, he won't bail and is fine. Same with the dogwalk. He did have some issues early on, so we did some extra practice sessions to bring him up to the rest of the class, but the instructor let me know this weekend that I needed to have two different cues and I had to use use them.

What order did you teach them? My isntructor is fanatically and will ONLY teach, teeter first, then dog walk. She erally believes this helps dogs figure them both out.

I'd also ask your instructor about how to play the bang it game. There might be some youtube videos on it too.

We got the teeter to the second notch or so before we did the dogwalk. The dogs all mastered the dogwalk much faster than the teeter. We're still on the third notch of the teeter (I think out of 5?) The bang it game is exactly what we did for weeks with Niz to get him comfortable before I tried to send him across again.

That is exactly why my instructor says she waits until the teeter is 100% rock solid before moving on.

ETA - many instructors do it different, however that is her theory and she's adamant about it

With V the teeter has been a challange. For a variety of reasons. He is on the lowest hole in the teeter with phone books underneath. Before he started having his issue he was at full height with an end behavior and sequencing. So you can imagine how patient I have been since october of last year when this started. Last week a light bulb turned back on in his head He has been free running the teeter up til last week - just getting him back on it has been a challange. Anyway - last week he got on and did his end bahvior with no verbal at all. I just released him and said "go". He ran to the end and bowed (his behavior). We had a huge party - super huge and he thought he was all that and kept jumping on to do it again and again. Since he was feeling so sassy we put half of the dw up after he free ran the low walk with speed & confidence! So hopefully he will be at full height this week and then in a few more weeks we can work on putting an end behavior on that too! He is running the AF at full height with a running contact. I need to slow him down somewhere and the dw and teeter seem like they'd be easier for him to stop on. If that makes any sense. Vader's verbal for the AF is frame and the DW is walk it. Teeter was teeter but that will change. To what I don't know. He also knows table as table-down. Most of the club we train with run AKC and USDAA - since USDAA requires down on the table that's what is taught no matter what venue folks are going to run which I think is a good idea especially for the big dogs - it seems to keep them from flying off if they know they have to down on it.

We move at the dog's pace, not the class's. Our instructors are very careful not to overface the dogs but still push them. They try to keep dogs at similar levels in class together. Sometimes you have to start from the beginning again to get their confidence up.

Jenny so glad it was an success at the trial.

Everyone wish us luck! We are entering our first AKC trial this weekend. We are doing Novice JWW 20" preferred this weekend. We are also entering Fast even tho I dont know what that is. LOL Anyway hope its east to figure out. Kyrah decided last night in class she has forgotten how to weave. Then today at home it was no problem for her. So we will see. I am hoping she will atleast pay some attention to me as she has in class the last few weeks.

Good luck! Have fun. Vader will do his first akc trial at the end of the month. Just JWW preferred 20 too. We didn't enter fast as we don't have our contacts yet.

I figure if we do the correct course and he stays focused it is success. If for some reason we Q it's icing on the cake! I have to say that V is awesome and reads me too well as my handling skills are minimal, lol. I'm working on it for his sake & sanity.

Thanks! Today we loaded up and brought the equipment to the site. I asked what fast was more in detail. Hmm...I am not sure how this will go. They say you stand back behind a line and send your dog out to do a few obstacles. LOL I am guessing Kyrah will go out and turn to look at me thinking come'on mom! What are we doing? Atleast it should be interesting!

Here is an example of a FAST course. You make your own course up and need the right number of points PLUS need the send bonus. Hope that makes sense.

flirtsatfast.mp4 video by vizsladobe - Photobucket

Well thats better! I get to stay with her. They definately explained it wrong. So obstacles have value points. I have to do obstacles to accumulate points and send away for the send bonus which I am assuming is manditory. When you say send away...how far do I have to send her? Or do you mean she just has to be in front of me?

Yes you have it right All you have to do is stay outside the pink tape. If you check the regs it lists how "far" it is for each level. It's honestly NOT that far in Novice. It is 5-10 ft in Novice. You can pick any course you want but you must get the send (behind the tape) and the right amount of points. You can be anywhere you want in relation to your dog as long as you are on the outside of the tape and she is on the inside. I will see if I can find any other FAST courses on my videos. I thought I had some but couldn't find them last night.

We are back ffrom the trial!

Sat we ran FAST and I had a plan that I wanted her to run with me and stay with me more than anything. I avoided all contact equipment and the weaves. Just wanted her to run. I didnt want to stop her or turn her around if she missed anything. Well, she missed half the jumps but stayed with me and was only distracted for a second looking out the ring and it was easy for me to get her back. So that was a positive run IMO. Better than our match last yr.

Sat we then ran Novice P 20" JWW. She did awesome!! Perfect score! First place and our very first Q!!! YEAH!! There were only 2 other dogs in our height class and neither of them Q'd.

Then Sun we ran Novice P 20" JWW and she did great again. She missed a jump on the first curve we made but I got her back around and over. Then she stayed with me. She scored 95 which was good for another first place and our second Q!

I got to her and slowed her for the entry on the weaves, both runs, and she did them! I cant really recall anything from the runs. I really cant even remember seeing her jump over anything. Mainly I remember the first weave pole she took and her coming around the outside of the jump she missed. I am thinking Michele video'd it and will let me watch. I also heard there was a club memeber there taking some pics. Hopefully he has one of Kyrah.

Had a great weekend! It was so exciting once someone told us we Q'd and got first place!! hehe...I am playing a game I dont know the rules to but having a blast doing it.

Oh a couple pics of her with her ribbons.

WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Great job!!! You must be thrilled!!!!

Go kyrah! Nice job for your first big trial Lots of extra cookies for that.

You guys did GREAT!!!

Very good weekend for the team.

In novice fast I believe you only have two obstacles that make-up the send bonus which you MUST do correctly (no do-overs) in the proper sequence. If you do the send correctly you will get 20 points in addition to the points that those two obstacles are worth. The remainder of your points must be gotten from the rest of the course. Your grand total must be 50pts to Q. You must also be under the sct for the course.

You have the option of staying in the ring and getting as many pts as you can until the buzzer sounds or (what Bacchus and I do) get your required pts and get the hell out!!! I've seen many NQ because they stayed too long trying to get a couple of extra pts for that 1st place ribbon and get caught far away from the finish and lose a bunch of points trying to make it to the finish line.

It works to your advantage if you have a plan for running the course. As you move up in class it becomes a necessity. This is a game of planning. I try to get the send bonus done right away. If there is a fault then I use the rest of the course for training. I also try to have a "flow" to my plan. I try to send Bacchus in to that first obstacle as smoothly as possible and adjust my position outside the tape to maintain his flow. I miss fast class......it was my favorite.