Agility videos

Okay, so here's the dilly-o on the videos from the trial. Since I don't do much with video (or even pictures), I don't have the version of Quicktime to cut the unnecessary parts of the videos out. I discovered that I can make cuts on the videos while they are still on my camera...after I already deleted them of course. So, here are the videos...please (try to) ignore the beginning of most of these videos since my camera person started taping early.

Regular 1 - One of our best runs...it would have been the best run of the weekend if I hadn't pulled my shoulders so much to the weave poles and pulled Kip off...


Regular 2 - You can see that Kip is distracted and anxious during the first half. This was the run right after the lady that used a stern voice with her dog. When Kip runs out of the frame, he has run over to the leash runner holding his leash...we'll be asking them to just hang his leash from now on...


Touch N Go - A little bit of a late start by the camera person, but no big deal...


Jumpers - Was going great until he went wide on a jump in the back and for whatever reason, it took some convicing on my part to get him to take it.


Tunnelers - Yep...Kip really is this slow in Tunnelers, lol. If I had the original audio left on the video, you would hear a lot of "Come Kip, let's go...hurry!...move it!", lol.


I went out to Dianne's this afternoon to continue our work on Mo's outruns. Her outruns start nice and wide and then she has a tendency to come in flat. We mainly worked on keeping her backed off at the top and coming in on the lift properly. This is going to be our focus over the next couple of weeks because I've entered the Sleddin' & Sheddin' trial in December. I'm running Mo in both Pro-Novice and Nursery.

Fall agility trial

Last weekend BARC hosted their annual fall NADAC agility trial. I entered Kip in 2rounds of Novice Regular, 2 rounds of Elite Jumpers, 1 round of Novice Touch N Go, 2 rounds of Novice Chances and 1 round of Novice Tunnelers...out of the 8 runs, we got 2 Qs...not our best weekend. We got a Q in Regular and in Tunnelers (which gave us our Outstanding Novice Tunnelers(?) title so I'll be moving us up to Open). The first run of the trial was Elite Jumpers and at first I has happy that I didn't have it on video but now I'm wishing I did. I got to the trial later than I had planned so I was a bit rushed in trying to get setup and get ready for the first run. I was late on my ques and Kip wasn't focused...we were all over that course but not in a good way. Our first run in Regular was good. I spent too much time telling Kip to "out, jump" during Chances for me to care whether or not we got the Q. And then Kip took a tunnel instead of the A-Frame during our Touch N Go run. On Sunday, the first run of the day was Regular. The first half of the run was not good...the lady that ran her Aussie right before us was using a stern tone with her dog and Kip started to get anxious at the start line. I should have asked the person running after me to go ahead so I could get Kip calmed down, but I didn't. We got half way through the course before I had to stop Kip and get him to focus on me. The second half of the course was good. After that run, I made sure I wasn't running right after that lady and her dog. We were really close at getting a Q in Chances (he took the distance much better this time) but he took a jump instead of a tunnel (many dogs did the same thing). Our last chance for another Q was in Tunnelers and we got it. I checked our time against the SCT for Open and we beat it so I'm moving us up to Open (in the past we have been barely making time since Kip isn't fond of running through a bunch of tunnels). It wasn't as bad as it could have been considering the lack of practice, but it still made for frustrating weekend. I'm going to be making more of an effort to get out to Karen's and the BARC practices to try and get back some of my timing. I do have some videos that are probably post worthy but I need to do some editing before I do that. They are not the best videos because: 1) we were indoors, 2) my camera is not the best and 3) I need to learn how to put a song to the videos so you don't hear all of the crap in the background.

No such thing as a "day off"...

Today is Veteran's Day and since I work for a bank, our office was closed. But there was no enjoying this day off...our office moved to downtown Boise about two and a half weeks ago...and that puts a kink in my ability to schedule appointments during my lunch hour. I got up at my usual time, loaded up the dogs and was out of the house by 8am this morning. I headed out to Nampa for an orthodontist appointment (retainer checkup), then I went out to Dianne's for a lesson. Mo's outruns were very tight at the trial so we worked on outruns today. The first couple of attempts I sent her from a couple of feet behind me but I couldn't get enough pressure on her to kick out when she came in too close at the top, so I had to revert back to the beginning of learning outruns...being halfway between her and the sheep. From the middle, I was able to stop her and use my body pressure to get her kicked out when she started to come in too soon. After one good correction and response from her, the last two outruns and lifts during our first session were great. We even lengthened them quite a bit, with me still in about the middle. We took a break while Dianne worked May. Then we worked on outruns to the other side, the come-by side. She was much more hesistant in going to this side. It took a couple of tries and one good "get back, get outta that!", we got a beautiful come-by outrun and a calm, soft lift on the next run and then called it good. I then headed back to Meridian for a dentist appointment, a quick break for lunch, then a quick adjustment by my chiropractor before heading to Karen's for some agility practice. BARC's fall NADAC trial is this weekend so I was glad that Karen invited me over to practice. I went to a practice on Friday night, but all that was set up was a jumpers course so I was happy to be able to practice weave poles with Kip before the trial. I'm starting to see much more drive and focus from Kip at the weave poles. Once we were done with that, I headed back out to Nampa for a quick stop at the dog park before going to look at another house with my realtor. It's a great house in a nice small, quiet neighborhood with no back neighbors (except for the cows grazing...there's a privacy fence so they wouldn't be tempting the dogs) that the previous owner was working on getting some upgrades done...the master bedroom and another bedroom didn't have any floors, lol. The living room, a bedroom and bonus room all had Pergo flooring...I guess they didn't get it in the remaining bedrooms before the bank took the house back. Oh and I guess they really needed the light switch and electric outlet covers because they took them...all of them...and the light fixture that was in one of the bedrooms, lol. After I finally got home, got the dogs and myself fed, talked to my Mom and I was finally able to take a break. I popped in a movie and chilled. The dogs have konked out and I'm ready to join them. I'm sure I'll be blogging after the NADAC trial this weekend and if you're lucky (and I remember), I'll post videos of our runs.

GSH Fall AHBA Trial

I had a great time at GSH's fall AHBA trial this weekend. We were blessed with great dogs, food and weather. Mo ran well considering she hadn't been on sheep since our first shedding/look back lesson with Dianne about two weeks ago. She was on the muscle on Saturday but was managable (as I'm used to her being pushy). During the lifts in the ranch course and the HTD course, we had one ewe (fatties, as I refered to them) in each set that decided she preferred to stay at the grain left for setout rather than come down the fields so we had to work hard to get all of the sheep lifted. I was excited to watch our Level I HTD runs on Saturday as we actually has some "other" breeds running. There was an English Shepherd (this dog also ran in the ranch course), Rottweiler and Australian Cattle Dog. The competition was stiff as everyone had really nice runs on Saturday.Mo was more settled in on Sunday and was not nearly as pushy. We didn't have any issues with lifts in any of the courses. There was a bit of a power struggle during the HTAD course, but it wasn't between Mo and me...it was between Mo and a couple of the ewes. One just wanted to go back to exhaust and the other one just wanted to stomp Mo into the ground. We worked them for probably a couple of minutes during the drive to the first obstacle. She was able to get them to get with the program without having to get "heavy handed" if you know what I mean, lol. And I was happy that she stood her ground. In the past (which isn't much since she's only turning two in a couple of weeks), she would have just let the sheep be and not want to work them.
It was a good thing that Dianne and I did the "look back" work a couple weeks ago because it came in handy this weekend, mainly during those difficult lifts on Saturday. Mo got Q's on all eight runs, resulting advanced titles in HRD-s, HTAD-s, HTD-s and HTAD-d. Now it's time to chase those elusive ten Q's of 80 or higher for her HTCH. All of our Q's this weekend were over 80 so let's hope that it continues. I'll be posting the trial results on the Gem State Herding blog within the next couple of days.
I'm planning on starting to run Mo in Nursery, as well as Pro-Novice, starting this winter. I'm also thinking about putting her on cattle this winter to see what she does.
Now it's time to get Kip ready for the local fall NADAC trial that's in a couple of weeks. I need to get out to some practices with him and make sure that we are brushed up and ready to compete. I don't have him entered in all of the runs as I didn't want to over due it on the weave poles since he is just now starting to really show some drive for them.

What a weekend...

and I don't have one picture to share, lol. While I was packing for the weekend Friday night, I put my camera battery in its charger. When I went to check on the battery, the indicator light on the charger was blinking...weird...I played with the battery but couldn't get the indicator light to just be "on". After some searching on the internet, I realized I'm going to have to buy a new battery for my camera. I didn't have time to do it before leaving for the weekend so I borrowed Jodi's old camera...and I only ended up taking pictures that I needed for a work-related stop that I made when I was leaving Hailey last night.
On Saturday, I went out to the community of Hidden Springs to work Mo at a Gem State Herding demo during the community's Old Farm Days event. We did demos at this event last year...this year, the weather was not nearly as bad....and we got a much bigger working space. Jodi, Janie, Phyllis, Ann and I worked sheep and ducks for the crowd. The ducks are always a crowd favorite. During one run, while Mo and I were putting the ducks away, about half the ducks got through the fencing that was put up by the event coordinators...a very nice gesture, but when the ducks got stuck in a corner, such as this instance, the ducks could get through the fence. So when this happened, I let the ducks go through the fence...I picked up Mo and popped her on the other side to gather them up...we gathered them up (they never got more than a few feet away from the fence) and got them put back in the fenced area. We received a nice applause...it wasn't a big deal to me, but apparently when animals get loose, gathered back up, secured in the appropriate place and is witness by people who are not around livestock, it's makes for quite a show, lol. We also had one ewe that found a "soft" spot in the fence that apparently lead to a fabulous small patch of grass...she kept leading the small flock that we had over there so we had to keep ushering them back under the fence. Janie got to show how her Smooth Collie Lucy was much better at getting the sheep out of the trailer than our Border Collies...not to say that the Border Collies didn't give it their all but apparently Lucy has "it" so when she says "Get out of the trailer" the sheep listen.
After the demo was over, I headed over to Hailey to meet up with Katy, Dianne, Susan, etc. I meet the group at a local brewery for some dinner. I got there a little late and when I ordered water, you should have heard the collective gasp, lol. I haven't had any alcohol for probaby a year, maybe longer. The migraines had just become more intense and on a more regular basis after consuming alcohol so I just stopped drinking it. Our table grew to 12...I'm sure we drove our server nuts. About half of us ordered the soup, salad and bread meal...only to find out later that they didn't have any more soup. I ended up having a shot of Patron (tequilla)...well, actually two...and it tasted fabulous. I would have had a third but was already a little worried about what my head would feel like on Sunday morning.
I didn't sleep well Saturday night but it wasn't because of the tequilla...Mo and I "shared" a twin-sized bed. Neither Mo nor I are big, but I have a hard time finding a comfortable sleeping because of my back so I toss and turn quite a bit...which usually annoys Mo but at home I have a big enough bed that she just moves out of the way until I settle down...not so on a twin, lol. Plus, I was rooming with three other people and didn't really want her to bother anyone else during the night. Yes, I should have crated her but I didn't...and I'm not sure where I would have put it anyways...the room was packed. Anyways, it was freezing (literally and figuratively) Sunday morning. It stayed cold all day but it felt nice once the sun came up over the mountains that we were surrounded by. There were lots of good runs on Sunday. On Saturday there was only one pen...by Dianne and Zorro...I sponsored them during this trial so I was sad to not have been there to see it. There was only one pen on Sunday as well...I don't remember the name of the handler and dog that got it. I was tired by the time I got home so I just fed the dogs and went to bed.
The office was closed today due to the holiday....but that didn't mean I got to laze around. I got up at my usual time and headed to a doctor's appointment. Then I went on a mission to find new shoes for work...didn't find them. The ones that I have will last until I go back to Portland and can hit my favorite store for shoes, Nordstroms. After a couple of hours, I went home, got the dogs and headed out to Dianne's for a lesson...our first shedding lesson. We used a flock mixed with Scotties and Katahdins for easy separation. The key, says Dianne, to shedding is making it fun. So, when we got our first shed and Mo was pushing the sheep away, we pretty much let Mo get pushy with the sheep...which is fun because then they go faster right? :-) Once we had her push them far enough away, I had her gather everyone back together...then I learned that we were going to be having Mo do a "look back" to gather the larger set and bring it back to the smaller set. We set up the shed again and once the sheep were separated enough, Dianne (of course) was able to get Mo to look back realitively quickly and fetch the sheep to us. After a couple of tries on my own, we took a break. Dianne worked Annie while Mo hopped into the pond to cool off. Back for round two, I was pretty much on my own. There were several times where after we got the shed and was trying to move the sheep away, we would lose them...a couple of the times I gave her the wrong flank but it was mostly because, apparently, I was in the way...Dianne kept yelling at me to move, lol. We both got a good mental workout today.
There is just a few more weeks until GSH's AHBA trial. Then BARC's yearly fall NADAC trial is a couple weekends after that. Actually, the first day of the NADAC trial falls on Mo's second birthday...what a lovely way to spend your birthday...cooped up in an x-pen while the other two members of the pack get to run around having fun on an agility field, lol.

Catching up...

There hasn't been much going on...I've been fighting a cold. I woke up on Monday (at 4am) with a bad sinus headache. Things slowed way down, dog-wise, while Finals were happening. I went out to Janie's a couple weekends ago and help setup the ranch course for the trial at the end of the month. The panels for the HTD and HTAD courses are now set as well.
Last Saturday, I went to See Spot Walk which is the biggest fundraising event for the Idaho Humane Society. BARC (Boise Agility Runners and Climbers) was doing demos again. I got there late and had to park on the other side of the park from where the demo was setup. I wasn't going to drag a crate across the park so someone had to hold Mo for me while I ran Kip. For those not in the Boise area, this was at Julia Davis Park...which is the location of Zoo Boise, so it's not your regular city park for me to be dragging a large crate and trying to walk two dogs at the same time. The first run through was a mess...Mo was barking while I tried to run Kip through the course, but Kip decided that something was wrong with Mo so he ran off the course to Mo to check things out. During our later runs, I had someone take Mo away from the course and Kip did much better. Kip even debuted his ability to complete 12 weave poles. The only bad part of the demos was during the down time, several people tried to get their untrained dogs to use the equipment. Most people understood but one guy had his bulldog halfway up the A-frame and was quite upset that I wouldn't allow him to "train" his dog.
On Sunday, Dianne had a couple of lessons scheduled so I went out to Janie's to setup the HTD course for people to practice. I didn't get to setting up the pen. It was really cold, breezy and sprinkling. Dianne and I helped Jody (not Jodi) do a run through of the ranch course with her dog Circle. I also helped with introducing Circle to ducks. I didn't take a lesson from Dianne, but Mo got to work by helping out moving the sheep around to where we needed them and whatnot.
Monday morning, I woke up at 4am with a raging sinus headache. I took a migraine pill hoping it would help...it didn't. By 6:30am, I took some ibprofen and called a co-worker to have her look for more migraine pills in my desk at work. While I waited for her to call back, the ibprofen had reduced enough of the swelling that I was able to blow my nose and get some "results". My co-worked called and told me I had no migraine pills in my desk...so I took more ibprofen. I ended up conking out around 8:30am...and didn't rise until noon. Most of the afternoon was spent blowing my nose and taking a nasal decongestant. Feeling pretty good by about 5pm, I took Mo down to Northwest Pets for a quick bath.
GSH is doing demos at Pioneer Days in Hidden Springs on Saturday. We did demos at this event last year...hopefully the weather will be better this year. It was down right freezing last year. After the demo, I'm heading out to Hailey, ID for the Trailing of the Sheep SDT. Mo and I will be having our first shedding lesson with Dianne on Monday. I'm looking forward to it. Then the next two weekends will probably be spent preparing for the trial. I'll be updating the GSH and Idaho Stockdogging blogs after this weekend with results from the Trailing of the Sheep and upcoming events.

Finally...

Finally...Mo is back on raw. This was her first weekend of nothing but raw meals (chicken, turkey and a little bit of fish). She seems much happier, as am I (smaller and less stinky poo is always good!). When I was doing one meal of kibble and one meal of raw, she would look at me when I put down the bowl with kibble with that "Really? Okay, I'm going to eat it but only because I'm hungry look", lol. I actually have room in my freezer now that I'm back to feeding two dogs raw.


Finally...Boise Agility Runners and Climbers (BARC) has finally had their first USDAA trial. I didn't run Kip as we haven't done much training in agility since our last NADAC trial in April. I did go to the trial and was the Chief Ring Steward (aka Volunteer Wrangler). I spent most of the day handling the timer (and now the most experienced timer for Gamblers and Snooker) and gate stewarding. Our judge was Carol Voelker from Minnesota and she was fabulous. She was very helpful and patient with everyone that was a novice (which was probably 95% of the group, lol). Carol would hook up her I-Pod to the speaker that our timer plugs into and play music while we were course building and doing the walk throughs. It really created a more relaxed enviornment.


And finally...it's "out" that I'm going to be phasing myself and Kip out of agility. I don't know when I'm going to run my last agility trial, but it's going to happen. I have signed us up for the November NADAC trial. Surprisingly, when people talked to me about it this weekend, they were rather supportive of my decision to compete in only stockdog events. I think they can see how much I truely love stockdog. They were asking me questions about upcoming trials so hopefully some will come out to spectate and see what I have been working so hard on with Mo. Of course, I will continue to watch and support the agility trials (and will probably get roped into volunteering, lol) because I do enjoy agility...it's just that right now, I enjoy watching more than playing.