Playing Around with Invitational Courses

The Stump Kids and I have been on a little vacation from all things agility with the weather, move, etc.

But Thursday night, we headed over to Goose Creek Dog Sports to do a little training with my friend Camille and her Miniature Poodle James Brown and Papillon Gus. I expected to have to set up some sort course (which I am not that good at doing), or just doing some jump grids and weaves. But, I was excited to see that the jumpers course that was used for the 2013 AKC Invitational Championship!

It seems like LaMesa does better with the more difficult courses because we have to really work together. Maybe it's because I am more in tune with her and how to run her on the tighter, difficult courses? Or maybe because those types of courses don't really call for a lot of all-out speed, which can start to get to LaMesa's head. Whatever it is, it works. I worked her over this course multiple times, starting off by working different sections here and there, mostly with rear crosses.

When I worked Dally on the course, I had a lot of blinds, with one rear thrown in, and those worked great with her because she was on fire. I don't typically school a course over and over with Dally any more, but if it's something that I know we'd benefit from by working different parts and seeing what I can do to make our course more efficient, I will.

Anyway, I finally decided it'd be fun to video me running LaMesa on this course. By this time, we had really worked on a lot of things, so she was tired, which might explain the knocked bar. I do wonder about running the opening with a Ketschker on the wrap, like I heard some people ran at the Invitational, but for LaMesa's size, I think the wrap was more efficient. I ran it with a wrap with Dally, too.

So what do you think:



I love how she likes to run these types of courses.

I'd love to try to get her qualified for the 2014 AKC Invitational--if we can get more consistent at the trials (nail all 12 weaves the first time, keep the bars up, and listen to me), we might have a chance. I won't be able to trial a whole bunch the first part of this year, which means the last half of Invitational qualifying, but we'll give it a good college try.

Happy Stump Kids, glad to be back to agility!! (That's Dally wearing
her Back on Track blanket, I'll post on that in the next few days.)

Our Dogs = Our Babies?

Earlier this week an article on NBCNews.com caught my eye because it stated something I know I'm guilty of: "Turns out our dogs kind of are our 'babies': study"

Sound familiar?

The article goes on to show a lot of parallel between human children and fur children and how their parents/owners treat them: special research into nutrition, ensuring their health with many doctors' appointments, spending money on bedding and toys (more than you probably should, for both species), feeling like you're their protector, etc.

The article states "It's no wonder: Our dogs react to us in a manner that eerily mimics how human children respond to their parents..."

I'm one to believe, yes, this is true. Matt and I don't have human children at this moment, just fur kids, but they act so much like human children at times it can be scary. Both of them love to cuddle with us--Dally likes to spoon when me in bed, her head resting on my pillow, at night. LaMesa reacts to our moods and commands like a child.

And, yes, there are times I'll have conversations with both of them--who doesn't? Maybe it's because I don't have much face-to-face interaction with other adults right now. But, with Dally, it's always been that way--for many years it was just me, Dally, and Mara, whether in Texas, Oklahoma, or Kentucky. We had many long road trips together, and you can only talk on the phone for so long.

Anyway, I digress....back to the study:

A researcher did tests to see if dogs tend to thrive due to what they call a "secure base effect" that's found in tight families, like children do.

Here's how the test went: Dogs were allowed to earn food rewards when they manipulated interactive toys. There were three different situations: an "absent owner," a "silent owner," and an "encouraging owner." And, like almost anyone in agility can tell you before reading the results of this study, the researcher found that the dogs seemed much less interested in working for the treats with the absence of their owner.

The interesting thing I read was that there wasn't much influence in the dog's motivation to work between the two tests of the dogs working for a silent owner and an encouraging owner. I would have thought there'd be more excited and more wanting to work for an encouraging owner rather than a silent one, after all that's how we're taught to train for agility, right?

In short, the report said: "The pooches appeared to be most comfortable and most willing to take a chance simply due to being near their owners--offering 'the first evidence for the similarity between the 'secure base effect' found in dog-owner and child-caregiver relationships.' "  

So what do you think of the study? Does your dog mimic that of a human child? 

Weaves in the Snow on the Farm

A couple of weeks ago the Stump Kids made the trek to Grammie and Grandpie's house for the Christmas holiday. But just because we're here for holiday celebrations doesn't mean time off from weave pole training, right?

I'm lucky in that my dad keeps the equipment trailer for the Hoosier Kennel Club's agility equipment on our farm, which means when I'm home I can pull out things like jumps and weave poles (contact equipment--there's no way, but jumps and weaves, yes) and work the dogs on the farm. So, that's what we did--dad helped me pull out the weave poles and we set them up in the middle of the barn yard, with the horses out in their fields, snow on the ground, and my sister's dogs barking next door. For LaMesa the barn yard usually means running around, having fun, barking at the horses and chasing the barn cats, so I figured this would be a great way to train for distractions, plus to train on different weave poles.

LaMesa did struggle a little with a few things--I think the poles aren't spaced exactly at 24" like the weaves she's used to, because you could see her rhythm get knocked out of whack when she'd get going. But, I was proud of her for really concentrating and trying to do all 12.

At one point dad pulled out part of a set to add three more poles because he felt that it would help her with finishing her weaves to do more than 12, which I agree is a good theory. However where the base was set was on uneven ground, so when she would hit the base, it would rock to one side and she had a hard time staying in. I'd watch her try and try--you could see her body bending to try to make that one pole, but when it moves on her at the last second, she missed the last pole. No worries--I removed that last set of three and had her try just the 12 (rather than 15) and she was just fine.

Here are a few videos of her weaves...my dad was learning how to record video on a IPhone for the first time, so don't mind any of the rocky views.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Weaves at Harrods Hill

Yesterday I enjoyed a nice lunch break during a cloudy, cold day when I met up with Matt and the Stump Kids at Harrods Hill Park, a park near my old apartment. Matt brought the weave poles and we set them up by the walking trail (and, yes, there were people actually walking/running along the trail at this time). LaMesa was fired up to see me when he pulled up next to the car.

It was hard to get LaMesa to focus on me at the beginning. She was still revved up when I got the weave poles set up and Matt had a tennis ball for Dally, which meant she wasn't focused. Matt immediately started throwing the ball for Dally when we weren't ready for those distractions. It took a little bit of time, but I did eventually get her to come back to me and weave.

After a few minutes of weaves, we took a short break to walk over to the nearby creek so she could get a drink and relax. When we got back to the weave poles, she was ready to work.

This time Matt was able to video us with my phone:






And here are a couple more videos from our session:







It's interesting that this time she struggled with what were usually her easy weave entrances, which were the 90* left hand turn wrap-around entrances. I wanted to try a few things yesterday, which included running hard and fast towards the 90* entrance--which you can see she struggled with.

The last session we had, we made huge progress towards me not having to run alongside her--I could send her into the weaves and then hang back after the first couple and she'd finish all 12! So this time, I wanted to simulate if I had to speed up to get to the end of the poles for the next obstacle, so I'd take off in a sprint as she was weaving. She stayed in all 12 and maybe even sped up a little more! Nice!

So we had an interesting session, but it was good. I enjoyed my lunchtime weave session with the pups, so I'm hoping we can squeeze in a few more before Matt hopefully starts a new job.

An Introduction

I'm totally new to blogging, but I thought it would be beneficial for myself and others to blog about my experiences in the world of agility...with dogs on stumps.

My name is Megan, and I have been training in agility for almost three years, competing for two years this March. I started out with my Welsh Pembroke Corgi, Dallas Mae (aka "Dally." or Frontiers Honkytonkbadonkadonk CGC, AX, AXJ) doing agility when I moved to Lexington, Ky., as a means to exercise her and her mind, plus give us something fun to do together. After less than a year of training, we started competing in Canine Performance Events (CPE) and American Kennel Club (AKC) trials.

Dally is now 4 years old, and we moved up to Excellent B for both Jumpers With Weaves (JWW) and Standard (STD) last fall. We're now trying to earn enough MACH points and Double Qs for our first MACH (Master of Agility Champion), which is the ultimate goal in AKC agility.

I had always wanted to get a second dog in order to give Dally a canine companion, but I had always wanted to get a male Corgi. This past weekend, I was given the opportunity to co-own a Swedish Vallhund. For those who don't know, a Swedish Vallhund is a descendant of the Corgi. They look very much alike, except a little taller, with smaller ears and a more square muzzle. (You can read more about them here: http://swedishvallhund.com/).

She's currently a 10-week-old red sable female from a line of champions. Her father finished 2009 as the top Vallhund in the nation and is showing in the 2010 Westminster Show. He is also the littermate to my mom's Vallhund, Smoke.

My hopes with this puppy is that I can take what I've learned with Dally (my "Novice A Dog") and improve on things and maybe go farther. It will be a whole new experience and I'm looking forward to it. Check back with photos of the puppy (I pick her up this Saturday) and more on me and Dally's quest for that elusive first DQ (Double Qualifying Score) and hopefully many more.