Tip does it again: CD in three straight shows!

Tip continues to surprise me.  OK -- so I knew when he was ready to show in conformation.  And I told Suzanne and Colleen that he wanted to show in conformation.  And they didn't quite beleive me until they took him to a big weekend of specialty shows and he brought home either WD or RWD every day.  Then he only needed one more weekend to finish his title:  with three majors.  Yeah -- that Tip!

Then a couple years ago I showed him in Preferred agility jumpers, and he Qed every run adn finished his title  bam bam bam!  Like that!  Then last year I showed him in Beginner Novice Obedience (doing the bad handler thing of scarcely training her dog before she entered him), and Q got 3 Qs and a new title.  Then a couple weeks ago I showed him in agility (not preferred) and he Qed almost every run (the NQ run was handler error).  And the there is obedience.  Much to my shock, that little dog Qed every time he stepped into the Novice Obedience ring.  It wasn't always pretty, but that little valiant heart did its darnedest to be good.  And his stays were perfect.  I don't think he has ever lost anything on a stay (stand, down, or sit).  Its like he freezes into place and just turns off.

Tip finished his CD at the Hyattsville DTC trials in Beltsville Maryland on Sunday September 23, 2012.

The huge newly minted CD smile, with Tip gazing lovingly at judge Don Levinson.

On Saturday, people said he was heeling quite nicely (even the judge), but he got a fairly abysmal score (173) because his "Sitter was broken".  Yup -- I had a handsome little dog who stacked every time I stopped on heeling and who stacked in front on the recall. On Sunday, I got a decent number of sits in heeling, but I lost him partway through the heeling pattern (he caught up with me after I executed the about turn after the fast, and finished nicely in heel position.  With a sit, as I recall.  He does have a lovely wait and recall, except he ends up stacked in front of me looking slightly confused.

Working out technical difficulties in the photo shoot.

Finally, Tip is facing the correct direction and the humans are not being silly!

 Here's to a valiant little dog:  CH. Waytogo's Walk This Way BN CD NJP!

MX for Bo!

Well that went far better than I had hoped.  Bo and Tip brought home a stash of ribbons and rosettes. 

Bo and Tip with their satin haul from the Belgian agility trial (September 2012)

I am not sure:  Was the high point the fact that Bo had a perfect start line down-stay on every single run (6 all weekend???)  Was it how spectacular Bo's runs were?  Was it Bo finishing his MX with a 4th place run that earned him 29 MACH points in a class of 22 8"Exc B dogs?  (A run that had the judge stop me later to comment on it?)  Was it the fact that Tip came home with 3 first place rosettes from Novice?  Decisions decisions.... I have no idea -- it was all good.

I realized the command "wait" on the start line actually means "jump up and down and bark madly".  Funny what you unintentionally teach your dog.  In all other instances wait actually means ... quietly hold position until I tell you otherwise.  But I put Bo into a down and a stay and he ... held his down until released.  I even did lead-outs!

Then there was little Tip.  He didn't Q in T2B, simply because he cannot do 12 weave poles in trial setting yet.  But he gained confidence all weekend.  I flubbed up our final run, because otherwise he would have finished his NA title.  However, despite my handling blunder it was a great run -- lots of energy and a fair bit of speed, and quite a bit of assurance.  Once we have those weave poles down, I think he will be meeting up with Bo in Excellent quite soon.  And I fear he will be quite consistent (unlike Bo who is so very brilliant).

Bo = Ferrari (Italian, flashy, fast, breaks down, but everyone wants one the second they see it!)
Tip =  Audi (German, machine-like, well engineered, reliable, very functional)

OMG! What was I thinking?

I remember entering the trials.  All I really thought was "Let's just make sure I am not entering agility and obedience trials on the same day, right???"

Well, I succeeded.  Agility trials next weekend.  Two dogs.  Weekend after?  Obedience trials, two dogs.  Then I go on travel for a week and a half, come back, host dinner for 40-60 ravenous teenagers, then promptly go to another 2 days of obedience trials.

Its a real pity my dogs' handler is insane.

On the good side.  I went and practiced with Bo and Tip at Capital this morning.  Both dogs were insanely excited to work.  Especially Bo.  Bo was (of course) brilliant.  Had a bit of that "I am so excited about the gloves that I will not picot to heel position but hunker down insanely behind you".  So I actually gave him a pretty stiff "THIS is heel" correction.   

Tip was Tip.  He was clearly trying.  Heeling is not really sunk into his bones thorugh, and he still has a tendency to stack in front and look at my face when confused.  And sometimes thinks he ought to stack and pose while I walk away.  And his fronts are far too far away, off center, and often stadning.

But besides that he is great...  Talk to me in a couple of weeks, and we shall see what really happens.

Dual Dog Agility -- day one

Today I ran both Bo and Tip at agility.  I picked the Hyattsville trial, because it is a one-ring trial.  That way I don't have to stress about trying to be in two different rings at the same time!

To cut to the chase:  4 runs, no green ribbons.  However, the runs were very good, so it wasn't all bad. in order:

 - Bo's Exc JWW was first thing.  I thought it was going to be hopeless.  But he did great and (again!) I flubbed the handling on an easy jump.  He was heading towards it, I called "right" and he turned right and avoided the jump.  D'oh!  Nice fast run, and otherwise the directionals were absolutely necessary as I ran around that course following Bo's butt!

 - Tip's Novice JWW.  ugly. stressed. He got the first jump, then theoretically right into the weaves.  only 6 poles!  He just could not do it.   So we bailed on them and tried to do the rest of the course.  We got the next 3 jumps, then he went through the long tunnel and came out like greased lightening.  got the next couple jumps then completely could not work.  I think he was just too wigged out and that was part of the tunnel speed.  But at least he didn't run away!

- Bo's Excellent STD.  The good news is he got his weaves and contacts.  I didn't get him coming out of the tunnel so he ran past the triple.  All I could think was "really?".  Then he popped out on weave pole #10.  He was almost over the last jump when I called his butt back, and made him do all 12 poles, then finished.  And made much of him.  No Qs but I felt they were lovely runs.  He was about popping out of his skin before we went in, he was so bunched, so I knew it would be a bit mad.

- Tip's Novice STD.  Tip knocked the first bar.  I think because I lead too far out and didn't give him enough space to jump.  (He is not the natural athlete Bo is).  But he started plowing up the dog walk, and I encouraged him greatly, to great effect, he build up speed, zoomed through the U-shaped tunnel, and went screaming up the teeter.  I was frantically trying to get him to slow down -- but not quite effective enough.  He zoomed off the end before it hit the ground.  Did the table nicely and another jump.  Then I think he scampered lightly across the broad jump, instead of jumping it.  But he did everything!  even the chute, and the tire, and the weaves!  And he finished the course with 30 seconds to spare!  And he was happy.  So I was happy.

Sure, I would have liked some Qs, but all things considered, I think we had a good day and hope for some Qs tomorrow.

Superfly!

Two weekend of agility trial (5 days) and we are still looking for that pesky last MX leg.   And we still have only two QQs, but are pushing close to 500 MACH points.  

Time is not an issue here.

However, we have been running much better, which means I have also been handling better. (perhaps not hard to do, but we'll take any improvements!) Usually just one little thing NQs us, but the rest of the run is usually really nice: fast, decent handling, right course.

What was amazing is the last 2 days I got a start line stay on Bo this weekend.  YEAH!!!!  They are not the "hold the stay for the 3 jump lead out", but they are him maintaining position while I stand up and even move a foot or two away!  I like this not because I need the lead out (I have learned to handle without it), but the self-control it entails in Bo makes the rest of the course run better.

Today we NQed standard because at weave pole #10 (of 12) he saw the sucker tunnel ahead of him, skipped the last poles and made a bee line for it.  I managed to call him off before he got in, then he had to go back and redo the weaves again (ALL 12 of them).  Then I had to call him off the sucker tunnel a second time to get a hard right turn onto the teeter.  Yesterday was another really hard STD course, that we only NQed because I was on the wrong side of the A Frame so he took the wrong end of the tunnel.  Even with the extra tunnel he as faster than any other dog in that class. 

But he was brilliant both saturday and sunday in JWW:  second place each day with 14 MACH points yesterday and 19 today.  Today's course had two long lines of jumps, that I sprinted down, counting on my dog to follow and take the jumps, which he did.

My reward is to go pull more weeds out of the lawn.

Maybe 4 is the magic number

For Tycho, everything clicked when he was four years old.  He got a brain, all the years of training clicked, and all of a sudden we were Qing and earning titles hand over fist.  It was kinda weird.

Bo has always been good, but 4 was a really good year, even for him.

And now Tip. He is currently 4 years old.  Got his BN in 3 tries without training. Qed first time in the CD ring with ridiculously little training.  And I tried him in agility practice this past saturday: he did everything perfectly, ran, took direction, was speedy.  Did the weaves (a year since he'd even seen them).  all 12, just like that. bam.  Did the teeter -- OK -- fly off the end the first time, but stormed right up it again and waited for it to drop like a pro.  Then I tried him in the chute (which we'd never done before).  Any guesses?  yup -- he did it.

So I took him to the minisession with Paulena today.  Ran Bo on each course, then a little beagle ran, then Tip.  Tip did each course just about flawlessly.

weird, I tell you.  Guess I'll try him at a real trial and see how things go!

Bo & Tip's Most Excellent Weekend

Last weekend, Paul had his first full-scale regatta and John's mom was due to arrive for a long-anticipated visit.  So naturally I was up in Boonsboro Maryland at an obedience trial with Bo & Tip.  It was the Mason & Dixon Kennel Club trial, held at the Washington County Rural Heritage Museum (http://www.ruralheritagemuseum.org/).  They have an impressive collection of very nicely maintained log cabins, donated from various sources.  I know the history of them all, because I got a personal tour from a very kind guide (after the easter egg hunt had cleared out).  An energetic greybeard in his 60s, he confessed to being the youngster amongst the volunteers.  

But that is not the main point, but it is important.  It was an absolutely lovely setting for a trial.  Lovely indoor buildings (one ring per room), with sufficient crating, paved parking, running toilets, and seemingly endless lovely vistas to walk your dog.

Bo, being small, was first dog in Utility both days.  Another lovely feature: the trial started at 9AM.  So I could leave home at 7, and still have a whole hour to let the dogs settle in and get them ready to work!

Bo Q'ed in Utility saturday moring.  I was stunned.  We had had such a long streak of NQs.  I don't know where to put the reason for the Q, but it must be (in part) because I told myself VERY FIRMLY that the goal was to have dogs that WANTED TO BE IN THE RING WORKING WITH ME.  That was my goal.  Not a Q.  So Bo Qed.  Then he Qed in Open B, and we got our third UDX leg! Whoo hoo!!!!  In Utility I thought he worked fabulously, but it was a strict judge so we score din the 180s.

Then came Tip.  The dog I should not have entered in Novice because he was so not trained or ready for it.  Heel on lead was a bit ugly.  Heel off lead was even uglier.  I had to give him a second command on off lead heeling.  Entertainingly I rapped out "Tip! HEEL!!!", which was effective at getting him back with me.  Even though he has never heard that command before in his life.  His heel command is "let's go!"  And I did much of the heeling with no idea where he was, because I could not see him.  Then I decided that was a good thing, as it meant he must be trailing along after me, because if he were anywhere else in the ring I would have seen him.

The kind kind judge in Novice B (who had just an hour earlier judged Bo and commented that he was obviously a Border Collie based on how he worked) determined that Tip had put in a qualifying performance in the individual exercises.  

Then we had to survive the novice stays.  Luckily Tip was between two small and very solid dogs.  Not next to the flatcoat who vibrated and flirted (but held position) throughout the entire stays.  Novice stays are awful, you just stand there and are a silent witness to the entire ten-million-year-long torturous ordeal.  But Tip (king of doing nothing) held his stays like a champ!  And he Q'ed and earned his first CD leg!! With a big 3 points to spare!!!!  lost a dozen points on each of the heeling exercises and did everything else essentially perfectly.  well except on the recall did not sit front and did not really finish.  (details, details...).

I was so pleased with life and Gloria was here, I almost didn't go back on Sunday.  Then I thought "they are all just going to sleep in sunday morning anyhow", so took only Bo off to the trial.  Tip rested on his laurels (more about him in a moment).  Bo was again first in the Utility ring again.  He put in an OK performance, but there were a lot of off fronts and finishes.  However he Q'ed (YEAH!!!!!!), and the judge made a comment about how he made it look easy.  Didn't seem like it to me, so I thought he was joking. 

Then came Sunday's Open B.  the way the trial was organized, Bo had maybe 30 minutes downtime between Utility and his open performance.  Broad jump was first, and he seemed a bit tired.  Let's be honest -- I am used to him vibrating with energy.  I told him to jump and he walked up to the jump and I foresaw him walking through the broad jump.  But no, he jumped over it and gave me a perfect front.  He Q'ed on all the individual exercises, and was so tired did not even pounce on the dumbbell on the retrieve on flat.

Then the stays.  He was next to a big hairy dog who was having a bad day.  Then on the stays it almost didn't go down, and when it did, there was barely a foot away from Bo.  This was a dog that the previous day Bo had made sure he was facing away from during the stays.  I look in unhappy desperation at the judge, and we lave our dogs.  During the stays, I abjectly beg the nice lady with the big hairy dog to walk really carefully around Bo when she returns (there is so little space), and I don't want him to NQ in the final seconds of the stays.  Happily, as the follow owner of a hairy dog, she understands and sympathizes.  And Bo Qs and earns his FOURTH UDX leg.

But -- saving the best for last.  Ribbons for the Utility B class.  The previous day all ribbons were earned by 3 brilliant black & white border collies and a brilliant Keeshond.  On sunday, the judge pinned first through third, then called fourth place.  My lead was firmly tucked in my pocket so I could applaud everyone.  But no one moved.  and then I started to think that #305 sounded sort of familiar.  So I glanced at my arm and realized that Bo had won 4th place!!!  Go Little Dog Go!!!!

Summary: Tip Q's first time in the Novice B ring.  Bo earns two UDX legs and a Utility B placement in competition.  I Q every time I go into the ring.  Yeah, I'd say that was a good weekend!