Those Damn Weavers and a Blind Cross

Well we had our first trial last weekend since coming back from America. I didn't have Dancer entered it was just Epic, so a nice relaxed day with two runs :-)

Masters Agility was gorgeous. Open and flowing ......... and yet with only 2 passes, handlers were caught out :-) Our downfall was ...... OMG ........ you guessed it ...... WEAVERS!!!

Epic has had a full month of not doing any agility. I thought the break would have done her weaver "issue" the world of good ....... apparently not!! LOL

So my next thought was, is she sore?? So she's been to Deb Nook this week for accupunture and chiropractic work and fingers crossed she feels much better.

Masters Jumping was a similar course to the Masters National Finals course that was set up this year. And Epic was a little star and went CLEAR!!!! :-)) AND I did a blind cross on a jump!! :-) Well thats to say I walked it as a blind cross .... and I had every intention of doing a blind cross ..... and I'm almost 100% certain I DID DO a blind cross :-) But you know how when things happen sooooooo smoothly and quickly and then you have some self doubt sneak in? Well I have had a moment since the run where I've thought, that went WAY too easily, maybe I did a front cross and didn't realise!!! LOL And I don't have any video to check ...... though I'm pretty confident I did it the way I intended :-)

Now those of you who are shaking their heads and going blind crosses are B.A.D, well they're not for everyone :-) And yes if you do Greg Derrett down to a tee, I'm pretty certain a blind cross should NEVER be tried, BUT in Linda Mecklenburgs system they are "allowed" YAY because they are sooooooo much FUN!!!

AND if you look at the Europeans, they do them EVERYWHERE!!! AND are incrediably successful at agility.

SO for those that are interested :-)

Blind crosses encourage extension :-) (my favourite thing for Miss Epic) they should also only be used when your dog doesn't have a choice in which direction it is going to take. Which means the cross needs to be completed before the dog completes the obsticle, whether it is a jump, tunnel or weave poles.

I'm the first one to admit that I felt completely disconnected with my dog the first time I tried it, but I felt it was a skill I needed to learn even if I didn't use it. But I love them now and I'm very grateful and thank you to Karen Holik for teaching me this skill!!!!

Saying Goodbye To America :-(

Camp 2 is all over :-(

My trip is almost to an end ..... just a 2hr drive to Minneapolis tomorrow and then I fly out first thing on Friday morning.

Well the last three days have been full of highs and lows.

I'll start with the low first. Jestah my old boy, became quite sick on Tuesday afternoon. He was apparently fine right up until 3.30pm, then went downhill rather suddenly :-( Vomiting up his dinner that he had had the PREVIOUS night (what the!!) and he was as flat as a tack. So as you can imagine I was FREAKING out ..... particularly being sooooooooooooooooooooo far away. I even started thinking that I would need to look at leaving camp early and try to catch an earlier flight home :-( He was started on antibiotics with the view to see how he went. That night he continued vomiting and was very restless. Mum took him to work to see Dr Louise on Wed morning and he had bloods taken. By Wed night the bloods had come back all normal and he was much brighter. No more vomiting and he was interested in food again. PHEW!!! Today he is back to normal .... though tired. I can't tell you how relieved I am!! And I can't wait to give him a GREAT BIG hug when I get home :-)

The highs have obviously come from the agility camp :-)

Camp 2 .... for me was MUCH harder and more challenging overall. I have discovered my timing for "trained cues" vs "natural cues" is pretty much CRAP!! Scream is an amazing dog to run, he really helped to perfect my timing. If I was slightly out he responded appropriately by pretty much taking the wrong jump!! LOL

We delved more into motion cues, forward motion front crosses over jumps as well as on the flat. My favourite day was today with Ann Braue. She had a course up that REALLY challenged us as handlers. There was one part where you had to send to a tunnel and RUN!! No really you had to run for fear of having a collision with your dog (there was a jump forcing convergence with your dog) So it was EXTREMELY important to get ahead to cue the slight turn OR you needed to "ABANDON SHIP!!!!" LOL I am proud to say I made it with Scream :-) Though I will not be shy in saying that I'm pretty sure my face went white when I could see him flying towards me out the corner of my eye!! It definately got my adrenaline going!!

I'm all pumped to play around with Epic when I get home and I can't wait to see how much Liryk has grown!!

I also can't wait for Ann to come to Perth in December :-)

The photo above has the three dogs that I ran over the six days. From left to right is Sydney, Sizzle and Scream. The people are Eric and Karen Holik, Me, Ann Braue and Jenn Crank.

I can't believe I've had this opportunity for a second year running. I feel soooooo lucky!!! What a buzz!!!

ABCTC Camp 1

Wow I can't believe I'm back :-) When I was on the road leading to the complex it felt like I'd never left.

This time round in Camp 1 I've run multiple dogs. The picture that I've up loaded is Sydney a border collie owned by Karen Holik and her partner Eric. I've also run Karen's sheltie Sizzle and Ann Braue's Scream.

It's been great, though challenging for my handling, running so many "different" dogs.

Sydney for example has quite a late commitment point which forces you to support the bar longer and occasionally take a deeper step into said jump ....... the down side to this is that Sydney is EXTREMELY fast!! And so makes it challenging to get to the next obsticle. LOL

Scream on the other hand is very much ..... you point and shoot :-) Don't think though that this gives me more time to get into position. He is incrediably powerful and feels like a steam train coming towards you!!!

The sequences and courses have been great for handling. We've covered things like forward motion front crosses, threadles, pushs for a tunnel discrimination (HIGHLY stressful for one who has broken her leg, especially "seeing" the dog running FULL speed at you!!) and we've done a blind cross on a jump!!! YES !!! you read right a blind cross!! Even to one that does blind crosses all the time on tunnels it felt weird and as though you're disconnecting with your dog. Karen Holik assures me I'm not :-) So we'll see if it feels more natural by the end of Camp 2.

This year there is a new instructor, Jennifer Crank. WOW for someone so young she is a WEALTH of information and has left my head spinning. I'm glad I have a day off today before Camp 2 starts tomorrow ....... though saying that I can't wait to do it all over again!! :-)

Epic JDM :-)

Well the Gosnells double header trial last weekend contained a bag full of highs and lows. The morning Masters Agility course was GREAT!! Epic was happy and bouncy (last week she was stress yawning on the start line, which freaked me out) Though it appears we've hit the moment of NOT completely finishing every weave pole, apparently Epic might be under the impression it's quicker if you don't do them all .... She popped out at number 10 and knocked the bar after a front cross onto the dogwalk. Though in my defense ....... Jules and Frank both did the same thing at exactly the same bar :-) So 1. I don't feel so bad and 2. We decided to start our own group for crap handling of front crosses LOL

The morning Masters Jumping course really won't be spoken about ..... it started with my inability to complete a pull-through and finished with me tripping over the tunnel!!! So that was the end of that!! LOL

The afternoon Masters Agility had two Aframes :-) and the course flowed NICELY!! Epic was a wee super star!! She hit the weave entry at full speed brilliantly (I was soooooooo excited!!! and clear up to this point) and in the back of my head I thought "make sure you work the rest of the weavers .....after what happened this morning" we got to the 11th pole and just as I looked away to focus on the jump ahead ...... I had a brief thought ....... did she just miss pole 12????? Surely NOT!!! So I kept running to complete the last few jumps. WHAT A GOOD GIRL!!! I turned around and looked at Sarah (the judge) ....... "did she just miss the last weave pole?" Sadly Sarah nodded..... ARGH ....... words can't express how excited I am for Epic doing such a good run and at the same time how gutted I am over one evil white pole :-) And whats worse is I couldn't find anyone to videotape me. So I only have the run in my head :-( can you all hear the violins playing in the background LOL

The last run of the day was Masters Jumping. This too was a nice flowing course. Epic started off well but a quarter of the way around the course became disconnected with me and headed for an off course tunnel ....... "EEEPIIICCCCC" I managed to save it, but in the process Epic shut down. She REALLY doesn't like to get things wrong. Now who'da thought it, but, we managed to go clear!!!

TITLE!!!!! :-)

There is only one more trial before I leave. So this week we're practising WEAVERS!!! LOL

And from the photo you can see how amped Epic is to do this!!

Oh and I can't forget someone VERY special :-)

HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY JESTAH!!!!!!

Puppy Fun!! And The Count Down...

Well it's only been 3 and 1/2 wks since Liryk came into our house and what fun we're having :-)
Jestah just rolls his eyes and hopes she grows up soon!! LOL
Epic currently has a love / hate relationship with her. She LOVES that she has someone to play with ..... but once she's finished playing that's it, she wants to be left alone....THANKYOU....in a bite your face off kind of way!!! Though to Epic's credit she's not REALLY hurt her, more told her she's had enough. And I think this is something that Liryk needs to learn. (she can be VERY full on at times)
So to make life a little easier, we've invested in a safety barrier so that the big dogs get some "peaceful" time from the everyready battery....... or more commonly known Liryk :-)
We've been VERY lucky with her. From day one she's slept in her crate with not so much as a squeak and she's been practically toilet trained since we got her. She already has GREAT toy drive and copes well when transitioning from food and back to toys.
The BEST thing I love about Liryk is that everything is so new and exciting for her, and her excitment is contagious for me.
I feel extremely fortunate to have her and her VERY interesting ears :-) Which seem intent on reaching for the stars!!!


The other thing that is rapidly approaching is my trip to America!!! Only 2wks to go OMG!!!
This will be my second year of attending Ann Braue's Summer Camp. 6 days of jam packed, mind exploding information and FUN!! This year will be slightly different from last year as I'm having the opportunity to work a dog for the full 6 days....weather and my knee permitting
First there is Scream, who has just been selected as a team member for the FCI World Agility Championships to be held later in the year.
The other dog I might get the opportunity to run is Synner, who is the youngest up and coming member of Ann's family.
I've added a clip of Synner's "fun" run at the recent Regionals. You can view it at this link.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoExc1-BoAM

Things From The Past That Affect Our Future

For those that can remember, my first dog was a border collie x kelpie by the name of Ryka. He was truely a special dog that first started my addiction with agility. If I still had him today Friday the 21st May would have been his birthday.

This year he has been in my thoughts ALOT!! ...... and I may have just found the reason.

About three weeks ago Sam Weaver posted some photos on Facebook of her new litter.... border collie x kelpies.......ooooooh they looked and reminded me sooooo much of Ryka (one in particular)

And it's funny because I didn't think of them after that........ until Saturday last week when jokingly Sam put one photo on Facebook and said it was Tom Weir's new puppy :-)

And that one puppy happened to be the one that looked like Ryka!! I couldn't stop looking at him. I never would have got him ..... the resemblence was too much...... but while talking to Jules she pointed out the girl........ Oh my there IS something about her I like :-)

And from that point on I couldn't stop thinking about her. I wrote to Sam and put her into a fit of laughter because I asked if she would stack her for me to see her structure :-) And she didn't do too bad a job if I do say so myself. LOL

The thing is Sam didn't realise it was me that was interested...... so I think she nearly fell off her chair when I said it was ME that wanted to see the puppy :-)

Yesterday Tom, Jules and I took the treck to Sam and Richards farm to check out the girl puppy.....and of course the others!!! The weird thing was, when Sam let them out of the pen and they came flying around to the front garden that little girl puppy ran past everyone else and straight to me and jumped up on my leg. She was so excited :-) It felt like she was saying "OMG you're finally here!!! I've been waiting ALL morning for you"

So how can you say no to that???

So I have a new addition to my family and her name is Liryk.

For those that are interested in the spelling of her name. I wanted a piece of Ryka in there :-) It only seemed fitting.......

A special thankyou to Sam Weaver, Jules Pearson and Helen King.

Perth Agility Nationals 2010

Coming into the week of the Nationals I had started to wonder whether 3 hopefully 4 days would be a bit too much agility in one hit.

Well I couldn't have got it more wrong ...... If anything it went by in a flash, leaving me wanting to do more!! I think I've got a little agility addiction!! LOL

The whole atmosphere of this Nationals, was just so much more relaxed. The sportsmanship and camaraderie amongst competitors really made it an event to remember.

The courses were great, but challenging and Epic really did so much better than I could have hoped.

On Friday she came 4th in Masters Agility ..... but had unfortunately been missed out when the cards were being written up, so I didn't know until after when I went up to enquire. What a shock!!!

Saturday was the greatest day for results. She came 3rd in Masters Agility, and Epic and Diva won Masters Stragetic Pairs!!! Jules and I were sooooooo excited!!!!

I had an interesting hiccup in the Masters Jumping run on the same day. I set Epic up on the start line and took up my position, only to turn around and find her eating the grass!! WHAT THE !!!! Then she proceeded to forget what she was doing there and strolled around the first bar. ARGH!!! When I took her back and reset her, all I could think of was...... she better not run clear now (after DQing herself :-) Little shit!) She did a fantastic run and knocked one bar LOL!!! When I think about it I really hope it wasn't a stress response. I want Epic to enjoy it as much as me, so it will be interesting to see if the situation rises again.

Finals were nailbiting to watch and just to have Epic in Masters Agility was great!! The course was just a little too tricky for us :-) But she left with a BIG grin on her face and what more can you ask? I'm so grateful she was even there, considering 3 months ago I wondered whether she would even be able to compete. What a wee supa star!!!!

Hanging out to get a photo of Epic and Diva with their 1st place trophy :-) And will post it as soon as I get it!!!