Catching up

So much has happened since the Team Tryouts....

I've decided to compete individually at the WAO, which is exciting but a little daunting, seeing as we don't REALLY know what to expect in regards to our host dogs. But I get to catch up with friends from America so I'm looking forward to that and also to making new friends :-) Seeing Susan Garrett run Encore and Feature will be a highlight, her dogs are just inspiring and I cant wait to watch them run :-))

We're frantically fundraising with sausage sizzles, raffles and seminars, so by the time that horrendous 24hr flight comes around we should all be exhausted and will sleep well :-))

Last weekend we had our State Agility Trial.

Saturday in agility Epic scraped through with a pass (and into the finals) after a rather interesting start.

Jumping she took an off course tunnel..... BUT we had Masters Strategic Pairs in the afternoon and the girls took out 1st place!!!



Epic and Diva!!!

                                                                                                                         

Jules and I with the superstars :-) Awffy proud!!

Unfortunately on the Saturday evening Epic pulled up lame :-( I still went down on Sunday to watch the trial in the morning and finals in the afternoon, but scratched Epic from the days events. She seems sore in her toe, so fingers crossed with a few days of rest she'll be up and able to run around again.                         

With Liryk turning 13mths I've started teaching her weavers, small sequences and the Aframe. In addition to  this I'm also doing Susan Garrett's ecourse (5 min formula to a brilliant recall) after Ann Braue couldn't         say enough awesome things about it, and I have to agree!! We're into week 4 and the games are just great!! Liryk and Epic both LOVE them :-))                                                                                                         

I must be a glutton for punishment as a couple of weeks ago I signed up for another online course. It's Silvia Trkmans running contacts, which start on the 24th April. Can't wait for that to start!!! :-)) 

Liryk has also just been registered with the Working Sheepdog Association and the Canine Association.

So I'd like to present ......

MAC'S DINIDOTHAT

Preferably said with a scottish accent if you can ..... and yes interesting name, I know :-) But it sums up our first year together perfectly. I'm pretty sure the words "Liryk, don't do that" were said at LEAST a few times a day and seeing as Jules helped picked her out I had to put a scottish twist to it :-)

This is where we're at in our training.....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajk_KFXW2Z0

The last thing that has happened since coming home is the new ANKC agility rules......

To say I'm disappointed with some of the changes is an understatement. I'm not going to blab on about it, but I'm just wondering..... how are we supposed to aspire to greatness in our sport, if the bar just keeps getting lowered??? Rolling my eyes and stomping my foot just for good measure :-))

Happy Easter Everyone!!!!

WAO - Team Tryouts

Before I left for America, I entered Epic in the three day team selection for the World Agility Open. Which is to be held in May ALL the way over in England.

There were 15 dogs over the 5 heights, trying out for 4 places on the team (the 200/300 height was combined) The 500 height had the most dogs with 8 entered. So I really went into the weekend with no expectations and even with the view of scratching her if she looked like she was struggling to do so many runs. Particularly after having a month off.

Well it's seems the time off did her the world of good. Even now I can't believe how well she really did. On Saturday night we were told the placings so far, I couldn't believe my ears ...... Epic was 1st in the 500 class.
WOW!!! my consistent one bar dog, had just managed to get three out of four clear rounds that night.

So going into Sunday I wanted to keep things in perspective. It wasn't just another 4 rounds to go ... it was approximately 80 obsticles .... ALOT!!! Anything could happen.

The first round she went clear ..... 60 obsticles to go.....
The second round she went clear ...... 40 obsticles to go .....
The third round she knocked a bar ..... (but the dog hot on our heels also got a refusal) ...... 20 obsticles to go .....

And here is how the fairytale ending goes ........

She took an off course jump and was disqualified :-)
LOL!!!

I know I shouldn't laugh, and I know I should be a little disappointed ..... but I'm not. REALLY!!! I'm soooooooo proud of Epic and her achievement of even getting that far!!

I had an amazing time. Even discovered how much Epic LOVES International courses. I'm pretty sure I haven't run that fast for awhile!!! (Other than in America) Some distances between obsticles were 10metres!! And still incrediably challenging.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! to those who have made it through. Technically it's still unofficial as to who's made the Team. But I think an announcement will be made on the 1st April :-)

GO TEAM AUSTRALIA!!!!!! :-) I just know you'll have the time of your life!!!

Home Sweet Home

Well I've arrived safely back home. The good news is!!! I get to see my dogs!!! :-)) 4 weeks is a LONG time to be away and I really missed the incessant squeaking of toys, tumbles of dog fur rolling along the floor, and the pushy puppy that just wants to play!play!play!

Speaking of THAT puppy ....... it was Liryk's FIRST birthday last Wednesday!!! OMG! where does time go?? Thankfully we arrived home the day before, so we didn't miss the milestone!!

We were greeted with barking, squealing, jumping and kisses :-) The welcoming was just what was needed after such a LONG flight!!

Jestah and Epic looked in great condition!! Liryk did too ..... she just didn't look like the little puppy I left behind. It seems she's done some "bulking" up .... not fat, just... well.... SOLID is probably a good word to discribe her :-)

Now to the bad news ......

We're not in Florida anymore :-(

I've done quite a bit of traveling in my time, but this trip far outweighs any other. The people, the dogs, events and experiences were just so much more than I could ever have imagined. And to put it quite simply, it left me wanting more .......
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL6EM2nO5Dg

It seems in my last blog entry my runs with Scream didn't come up, so I added my Standard run into the clip above. For some reason my computer wouldn't download my Jumpers run, so I'll try and repost the link of the video Gayle took :-)
www.vimeo.com/20512481

Looking back on the videos, I can't believe I was there! What a chance of a lifetime :-)

Pinch Me I Think I'm Dreaming

Two weeks ago I was getting ready to leave Perth for what I hoped would be a trip to remember.
We spent our first week in England and were fortunate enough not to see any rain .... Though it was a tad bit cold!!

Clint and I did the touristy thing and went to Harrods .... Where I was stunned to find we could buy a chihuahua for 2500 pounds!!! What the??? We also went to the Tower of London (one of my favourite places) I love all the history that England has.

Just over a week ago we arrived in Florida and are lucky enough to be staying with a very generous man by the name of Mike. We couldn't believe our eyes when he was showing us around his house, which is situated on the water and has it's own dock. The first morning I was upstairs on the balcony looking out over the water and there were dolphins swimming in the bay!!!! This area is abundant in wildlife and is the perfect place to come back to after a day of trialling or camp.

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to compete in a three day trial. I arrived Friday morning and met Gayle York and her husbands dog Tax Man for the first time. Gayle is just lovely and Tax is unbelievable!!!

Now there are a couple of things different here at trials, compared to home. The first one is they only have two rings set up and the trial goes all day. Yes it's longer ... BUT you're able to see so many other people run their dogs, which I thought was really nice.

The next thing is, at this event they have a MASSIVE undercover arena and the surface you run on is a clay/sand mix. We definitely don't have anything like this in Perth and I was excited to run on something completely different.

The other different thing is, they don't have a mass of practice equipment for people to do last minute training on. They have a single bar jump to the side of each ring and you share this with everyone else. And its not a small competition there were easily 800 runs each day.
Now I'm no opposed to the single practice jump, BUT for someone who has just met their "new" dog only an hour prior to going into the ring .... It was a little daunting walking up to the start line not REALLY knowing what kind of dog Tax Man is.

My first class was Standard, a nice flowing spread out course. The first three obstacles were tyre, d/walk and tunnel. I left Tax on the start line wondering how fast he might be .... well in the split second it took to release him off the start I discovered that he is INSAINLY fast. No really!!! His speed is JUST MENTAL!!!! He was a good boy and did his contacts, there was a pin wheel that I did a front cross in to pull to the table ..... BUT he zoomed past and took an of course jump. As I came out of the ring Gayle came up and said " Oh, I forgot to tell you ... He explodes out of his front crosses!!) LOL that was our only penalty so was extremely happy with our first attempt.

Jumping With Weaves (JWW) was a little more challenging and he missed his weave entry.
We didn't manage to get a qualify over the weekend, but we came so close several times, it just left me wanting more :-)

On Sunday, Ann Braue arrived. I haven't seen her since she came to Perth in Dec and I was excited to catch up and also be able to see her run her dogs..... except she asked if I'd like to run Scream!!!! I have run Scream at Camp the last two years... But this is a COMPETITION!!! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Of course I accepted!!!

One thing I love about Ann is her personality and just after I said yes to running Scream she said " not to put pressure on you... but for the last 6 trials Scream has had 6 double Q's" OMG talk about pressure!!!

Standard was a nice flowing course but had an enormous stretch of jumps at the end with a potential off course tunnel entry. So I released Scream off the d/walk, sent to the spread and ran!!!! YAY!!!!! We went clear :-))

JWW was a little more challenging, a tunnel discrimination and the potential for off course jumps to be taken. But we DID IT!!! Double Q!!!

What topped it off though ..... we WON both classes!!!! OMG!!!! What an amazing way to end the weekend :-)) you can't wipe the grin from my face I'm so excited!

These are my runs with Scream. Thank you so much to Gayle for videoing and sending them to me.

So Much To Do ..... So Little Time

Well in less than two weeks I'm off again overseas. This time my husband Clinton is coming and we'll be away for four weeks. And our trip will include the UK and Florida.


For me, most of my time in Florida will revolve around doggie things :-)) I'm going to a three day competition and straight after I'll be attending a 6 day agility camp. Again I have a working spot, though this year I'll be handling TaxMan, who I introduced in a earlier blog entry last year.


The other thing I'm REALLY excited about with this trip is, on our way back home we stop back into London for 3 days. AND TO MY SHOCK!!!! AND OVERWHELMING EXCITEMENT...... Crufts will be on!!! :-D We have brought tickets already (there was NO WAY I wanted to miss out) and we'll be attending on Saturday 12th March. I wanted to go on this day, as the International Agility will be held, and Daisy Peel has been selected to represent the US. This is exciting for me because she has a running dogwalk with her dog Solar and I can't wait to see what it looks like for REAL rather than on a video :-))


There has been some essential shopping prior to our trip ...... I've just got an IPad!!! Which is sooooooooooo much FUN!!! and the plus is it weighs barely nothing, so for traveling it's ideal!!! And I still get to see my dogs via Skype while away :-))


Clint has got a fancy new camera that takes photos AND video :-)) Yes you can see where this is going right?? An agility persons dream :-))


The other thing that has been ordered is ....... my......brand ..... new ....... DOGWALK!!!! Hopefully it will be ready by the time I get back home :-))


Through all the excitement though, in the back of my head I'm FREAKING out about Liryk not having any dogwalk training for up to 5 weeks. I've put so much work into it I'll be slightly disappointed if she's forgotten everything by the time I come home. Which I'm sure won't happen, but it's an inner fear all the same.


The other thing that's happened is I've put my name down for selection for the Australian WAO Team. I have no expectation's about how Epic and I will go, particularly as I'll only have been home for a week before the selection trials AND Epic will have had no training for 4 weeks, so fitness will be a BIG challenge. BUT WHAT IF???? Wow what a chance of a lifetime. So I've entered :-))


I'm still addicted to Windows Movie Maker :-))
So on the off chance Liryk's running dogwalk goes down the gurgler, I've put together a video from when we first started training the plank to her amazing training session a couple of weeks ago on a full size baby dogwalk.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=7de6ANjnBPY

Soooooo much fun!!!!

Last night I had the GREATEST time at training......

I tried Liryk on her very first full length baby dogwalk :-)
And couldn't believe what a good girl she was!!!

I was sooooooooooooooooooooo excited that I decided to try and make a little video clip with Windows Movie Maker .........

SO after spending most of the day trying to work out how NOT to make the clip blurry (computers and I REALLY are not a match made in heavon!!)

It's not superb ......
But this is how it turned out :-)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRqHoRNMMF4

Reality Check

I haven't put an update on Liryk's running dogwalk for a bit and so I thought I'd write about how things are going....


Recently I've made up a mini dogwalk, so that Liryk is no longer jumping up onto the down plank. It's currently sitting at approximately 50cm in height, and she is now sent through a tunnel prior to the walk, creating more speed......


Now it seems I OBVIOUSLY didn't really think about the WHOLE picture when it comes to a running dogwalk, in that it requires the handler ie ME to be able to keep up with their dog. I had this light bulb moment, after sending her through the tunnel and over her mini dogwalk for the first time. My first thought was ..... I think I need a 2o2o!!! Just out of curiosity I timed her down plank and scared myself a little. The one I timed was 0.5sec, so if you times that by 3 (up,across and down plank) it makes her dogwalk potentially 1.5sec ....... and at that moment it kind of sounded like this in my head "WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" :-) so since then I've been on a mission to get fit! Which is now also my New Years Resolution :-)


As much as I'm a little scared about being able to handle a running dogwalk, I'm really excited at seeing Liryk progress and it's SUCH an adrenaline rush hearing her come pounding over the planks. I can't WAIT to see what her dogwalk will look like and I have my fingers tightly crossed hoping I can get it right!!!


Touchwood ..... her jumping has reduced dramatically, though she is quite sensitive to change. Anything that looks slightly different to her "normal" picture and the jumping comes back in grand style. The latest quirky thing is that she has been attempting the down plank in one stride, she still hits the yellow but it tends to be very high up and it's not what I'm looking for.


I think my biggest fear is judges not being able to "see" her hit her contact. Now that I feel that Liryk understands her job, I've really only been rewarding her deep hits and she is beginning to do these more and more, over her high hits.


This our most recent training session. One jump, one high hit and three deep hits.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSJIx6BLboI
Happy New Year!!!!