But for one length of a papillon

No Q today, but Bo worked even better. Very sharp, attentive, and precise. A little bit of anticipation and trouble going to heel, but pretty minimal. The NQ was he went forward more than a body length on the sit signal. Everything else was nice. The go outs, he went straight out then off to the right. The first jump was high on the left. I looked over at it, then gave him the signal and command and to my everlasting delight he ran sideways across that ring to do the correct jump!!!!

Overall I was very pleased with how he was working and I think he is starting to settle in and get a bit more comfortable. as before, need to work signals and go outs!

No Q, but some lovely work

On Saturday's Oriole trial, Bo was the first dog in the ring, promptly at 8AM. Many of the Utility A entries had not arrived. Bo and I got there about 7, so we had time to warm up and get a couple good walks in.

Bo did not Q, but he worked so beautifully -- attentive, keen, precise, and flashy. And he went to heel every time without the excessive nerves that sometimes plague us. We NQed on the down signal (I think it was because I smiled as he got to half-mast, so the poor thing held that uncomfortable position for about 30 seconds!!!). The go outs were weak and he ended up forward and way to the right (by the bar jump). judge gave bar first, but on the second one, Bo ignored my signal to run all the way across the ring to take the high jump.

To work on: signals, go outs, and jumping from unlikely positions.

But overall, he worked very beautifully and I was quite happy and proud.

Brags for Bo and for Tip!

Bo's Brag: 2 UD legs in 2 weekends of showing! First leg at the New England Toy cluster, he got a default first place (only Q in Utility A!). But at the Shelty trial he placed fourth of 7 qualifiers! But as we've been gone for a week and he's been at his breeder's (camp papillon) for over a week, we're not sure how things will go at Oriole. I feel doubtful...

Tip's Brag: At the Canfield show's supported entry, Tip came home with his 2 majors! He earned Reserve Winner's Dog the first day, then swept Winner's Dog and Best of Winner's the next 2 days! He only needs 3 more points to finish.

Tip, accelerating

• First Q: 2.6 yards/second
• Second Q: 3.6 yards/second
• Third Q: 3.8 yards/second

And that third time includes him missing the tunnel entrance on the first try and missing the weave poles on the first try, so he was actually moving at more than 4 yards/second -- which is close to Bo speed!

Tips First Agility Title!

Waytogo Walk This Way NJP


Tip was ripping through the very nice Novice Jumpers course today. He was 20 seconds under SCT and was faster than all but one dog (of any height!) in the novice jumpers class. And he was going to be "nice and slow and easy" dog! D'oh!


Bo's first run (in standard) was on the catastrophic side -- he kept taking this one tunnel. But he did his down contact on the A frame and did lovely weaves and many other lovely bits. His second run in Jumpers was amazing. Its like he knew the course, because I was was behind him and he just kept screaming along and doing the correct course. He did one off course (so we did not Q) but it was a truly amazing run.

fast dogs

None of our runs in agility today were Qs, but Bo put in a simply gorgeous standard run (he missed the down contact on the A-Frame). But everything was simply perfect and fast. 20 seconds under course time. One lady who watche dhis run said that you could really see him dig in, to propel himelf forward as fast as possible, and that it was especially noticeable coming out of the tunnels.

I never even got the chance to walk Tip's jumpers course, and he was also running fast. He seems to be gaining confidence and speeding up with every run. So he ended up going in the wrong end of the tunnel (bad handler!). You'd never know he used to be overwhelmed by new places, loud sounds, and strange people and dogs! he also has a PERFECT start line stay and will just sit at the end of hte run and wait to have his lead put back on. Bo had best watch his laurels.

Bo's jumpers run was catastrophic. bad handler. And he's gotten really bad about getting captured at the end of each run. We REALLY need to work on that!

I got a dog toy for working and Bo is currently destroying it. Tip is watching, as he wants to have the dog toy to destroy!

Tip, agility dog wanna-be.

Tip is 2/3 of his way towards his first agility title. We have the green Q ribbons and blue first-place rosettes to prove it! He put in a very nice run in jumpers at the Capital DTC agility trial, 19 seconds under course time.

And he held his start line stay until I released him and sat nicely at the end while I put his collar back on. (Bo, are you taking notes???)