Author: kathleen

Went to the Greater Collin County Kennel Club agility in McKinney – great trial, love GCCKC and their people.

However, Macy ran JWW just like the judge.  Slow.  (Her class was an hour behind schedule, and don’t asked about Dulce’s).

It was an interesting run, she did everything absolutely right, looked happy, didn’t stop everywhere, but I was two jumps ahead of her. And of course, if I slowed down, she did too.  So there was no letting her catch up to me.

Sort of like a certain beagle who was on TV last weekend.

The good news was that I had plenty of time to work on Dulce’s focus.  I would take her in the building, ask her to sit and reward her if I got one.  If I didn’t she went back to the car.  We even had time to try that on the practice jumps.   With the food several feet away.

By the end of the day, I was getting sits everywhere but the ring.

I did surprise both the judge and the rep.  I was a good student and did what my instructor said.  If I didn’t get my sit, I walked out of the ring.

I did excuse us.  I explained to the judge the first time, that I knew if I didn’t get the sit, she’d run out of the ring, and that this was the best option.

The rep was in the ring the second time – and I told her I was preventing the loose dog that runs out of the ring.

I heard from an old friend this week.  The best dog trainer I know.  He is retired from Vietnam, retired from South Lake PD, and retired from the DOD.

He’s been blown up twice, once in Vietnam and once in Iraq.  He and his partner were trying to clear a car.

He wants a standard poodle first, and has a groomer friend who would help.  Bloodhound, golden retriever and Labrador retriever are also on his list.

I liked bloodhound best – but he has always liked standard poodles and so does his medical team.

He needs a dog as a companion first, hopefully later as a medical alert dog.  He has been having trouble with blackouts and fortunately he knows what precedes them. 

I went to visit him today and evaluate his living situation.  He is mobile, lives in a nice, well kept house, and has a fenced in backyard.   He does suffer from some mental confusion which he blames on his medication.

We think a young dog – between one or two years of age would be best with some training.  I think a young retired show dog would be nice.  A dog that grew too short, or some other type of problem that keeps them from showing. 

Contact me in the comments if you know of a good prospect.

I went to Belton, Texas – great trial site, nice people but lousy if you are working on running out of the ring issues.

I was the most comfortable I’ve been at a trial – drove in real early, took a nap.

Macy’s class was up first – Open Fast – had a nice short fun run from her and she was Miss Lazy Butt.  I told the judge she hadn’t had her coffee first. 

Dulce was up next and dashed out of the ring.  Came right back out, but still.

And again for her next run, didn’t even stay for the afternoon run.

Very disappointed as I had spent some time and money to make sure I was at my best.

Get to class Wednesday night, stepped out of the car, the wind hit and my knee immediately started aching.  I was ready to get back in the car and boy oh boy, Dulce didn’t want to play either.  Gritted my teeth and put up with.

The good news, I went to Myers on Friday and Macy ran fast.  She could have been faster – at one point I was two jumps again.

Dulce is still in whatever mood she was in and ran out of the ring.

We try again next Friday.

Updated

I’m trying to fix Dulce’s running out of the ring, and Macy’s lack of motivation by going to small, low key trials.  In that effort, I entered Friday only – Waco Agility Group – at the Belton Expo Center.

It’s a drive from Dallas, the Expo center is located on the other side of Temple, but will worth it.  There is even a La Quita at show site, which I think even I could walk from the hotel to the show site.

The majority of crating is on concrete, and best yet for me, is that they had plenty of electrical outlets available.  I have a camping table now that I use, and was able to keep all of my devices fully charged while i wa there.

i actually like the two ring, one judge set up as you can tell the progression of classes pretty easily.  They also had a good selection of vendors, something I may do in the near future.

One of most important things for me to be able to be comfortable at a show site is internet access.  I only used my ATT devices and didn’t see if they had internet access.  Was able to do what I wanted to do all the time, with no issues.  This can be an issue at the local trials, especially Myers Park.

Haven’t found the bug when I installed on a Lenovo Desktop and a different blog.

I keep talking about “naughty beagles” on Facebook. I’m having an interesting problem with the beagle girls – I keep losing their focus.

Even today, though Macy Qed, she lost focus on me at least three different times. The good news is that I got her back and we were able to Q.

I even lose that focus in class – which is a good thing. I have also learned something I wish I’d figured out a few years ago – the Zella exercise wear I wear all have hidden pockets in the waist band and the beagles seem to forget the food is there. Weird, but it really helps in training as the only way I can get good focus is to have food in my hands. At least I’m figuring this out BEFORE the new pup.

At first we though thought it was some kind of ring stress, but now I’m convinced they are happy to be at the trials and with me, it is just that there are other things to do in the agility ring besides what mom wants. It’s a matter of convincing them that playing with me is more rewarding!

Today was a good example – Dulce was paying all kinds of attention and doing tricks outside the ring but once we got in, she was focused on anything BUT me. It’s a just a matter of working though it I think.

I do think scaling things back and showing Macy only in FAST is helping her. I’ll probably start adding JWW next. That was the class that was giving her the biggest problem.

So someone forgot one of her dogs and left her at home.

Well, actually I forgot that I was easing Macy back into agility and skipped a few emails.  Whoops.  No biggie, I think doing yoga and one dog is enough. 

Dulce took a second place in FAST.  I never felt in control but she ran in the same general direction and took all the obstacles except one that I sent her too  and I really didn't think that would happen. 

Ran out of the ring in Open Standard.  I still think she is just being naughty, and she came back when I threatened her with cookies.  Maybe her name really is Cookie — which is what her breeder called her.

She did run in the same general direction in Novice Jumpers but stopped too long for beagle snack.  At least for the first time ever, I had to wait for the scores to know if she Qed.

We have a new strategy for Sunday:  picking her up and not letting her sniff outside the ring, and bringing all the dogs that are entered.  Should be too hard, currently I have just two. 

Husband has already demanded to see the Bobby Fisher movie and since he doesn't make those demands often, yes of course we're going and we're doing the full date night.

I've already seen some previews and I know going to be disappointed in their choice for Boris Spassky.   He came to Dallas when I was still playing chess, just about the time Rich and I got married.  The board of the Dallas Chess club hosted him.  He stayed with another couple whom I dearly miss.

Man, he was the most fun and was just the nicest guy.  Plus he was gorgeous it.  He loved it here because he could walk around the malls with us and no one knew who he was.

He irritated the heck out of the husband because he was kind enough to let me play as long as possible during the simultaneous.    I think I was one of the last he beat, or pretty close but unlike Rich I play a safe game and don't take a lot of risks.  He also complimented me on that.

Sometimes I miss playing but I love my dogs more.  Even Rich doesn't play chess very often any more.

One of my best Best Friends in agility is a vet who specializes in caring for research animals.  She's a really fun person who most people don't understand.

She choose to go into this field, even though it is not popular.  One reason is to help make medical advances for both humans and animals.  The other is to make sure that the animals aren't suffering.  As a vet, she can ensure that.

She has been talking about a group of beagles to me ever since she moved to Dallas as she messes mine and the little Rascals reminded her of mine.  I didn't want to hear about it, but I did listen.

For those of you who think this is wrong, you have to know that those little dogs are as loved as your beagles (or dogs).  This is an old age study, so they needed the dogs to be in as close to a regular environment as possible.  When they do a protocol like this, they research as many things as they possible can.

The Little Rascals had their own area where they played together, the staff played with them — certainly my friend did.  And yes, when an old age study is finished, they have to put the dogs to sleep and take them apart so see what happened.

Yes, that's the hardest part.  BUT REMEMBER,  it's an OLD AGE study.  The beagles that lived to be 12, were all put to sleep.  I felt so bad I couldn't Cheryl and let her play with the little beagles as that was as hard for her as it is for us when we need to help our dogs go.

BUT here's the best part.  Some of the results of the study have given us new dog that does help them.  It's got ingredients for joint health and brain development.  I've seen the commercials but my friend told me about it long before it goes on the market.

We looked at the labels over the phone together and while the package says 7+ there is no reason to feed it younger.

In fact, I'm thinking seriously of taking the existing food to the shelter and buying the new brand tomorrow.