When good agility judges go bad (for charity)

Many agility enthusiasts have probably already seen these video links circulating on email lists, but I thought they were worth posting. At the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of America's agility trial in Murfreesboro, TN on March 5-7 a special fund-raising event took place to benefit Chase Away K9 Cancer.

The judges for the weekend were Scott Stock and Blair Kelly (one of my favorites). Scott made a challenge that if $500 was raised by the exhibitors, he would run the Excellent Standard Course as if he were the dog. He also challenged Joel Lavalley (one of my favorite competitors) to run the course if $1,000 was raised. Blair Kelly, known for his white pants, challenged that if $2,000 was raised, he would run the course as well (in his white pants)!

I understand that more than $4,000 was raised over the weekend, and the resulting videos are hilarious! Boy I wish I was there! It's a good thing agility folks are always armed with video cameras, because we can all enjoy it!

Scott Stock expertly handled by Gene in his souped-up wheelchair:

Joel Lavelley handled by his wife Jean:

Blair Kelly handled by 4-year-old Lauren Denereaz (you will see that Blair followed all AKC rules by coming into the ring on leash!):

And Stacy Moss (another of my favorite competitors) of the GSPCA who was the chief fundrasier also ran the course, handled by Jamie Herrin with a dislocated elbow (I heard Stacy "won" the competition!):

Happy (Belated) Birthday Devon!

Devon turned 4 years old on Friday. The end of last week was incredibly busy for me, especially with the trial over the weekend, so her birthday post got delayed. Even if she knew, she wouldn't be too worried.

Devon knows she's the joy of my life. She's my heart. She wakes up each morning by burying her head into my neck as if to say, "Oh mom, just 5 more minutes! Make those other dogs go away!" But then she's up to start the day helping me carry down the food bowls.

She's a joy to live with and a joy to train. If the agenda calls for a quiet evening watching tv, she's all for that snuggled in next to you. If the day calls for field training, she's right there demanding her turn. She's great at anything you ask, and if there's an audience watching all the better! I have to keep her from taking her tracking articles back to the judges or the gallery when we track. In agility class, she gets her reward by getting a toy and taking it to the instructor or laying on her back and joyously playing with her toy to the sound of everyone saying how cute she is. I'd get a complex if I didn't know she'd only go home with me!

Last fall Agile Gold spent an evening here and got to witness Devon's demanding routine if I'm too slow to deliver her dinner. Kathy said this would be a perfect blog post, and I thought there is no other time than on Devon's birthday. I'm not sure if you can appreciate the foam around her mouth because she's so excited for her meal. Sometimes that goes flying when she barks at me. One editor's note: please forgive the large chunks of black fur on my floor. Ian is blowing coat and I've had to vacuum every couple of days lately, plus Page goes in and plays in the fur sometimes. I took this video clip pre-vacuum!

A found a few photos of Devon from this past year. The biggest event in our life in the last year was earning Devon's Senior Hunter title last fall. What an accomplishment for both of us and something I'll remember for a lifetime! This weekend Devon gave me her AXJ for her birthday. Frankly, the title and ribbons were the icing, the cake is having a great run with her!

So happy birthday baby girl! You're so very special and I'm so fortunate to have you in my life!

Wordless Wednesday: Watching snow

This is how Devon spends her day. Today she's monitoring the weather conditions from the second floor daybed. Usually she's on sentry duty for cats that come across our yard and hunt in the creek.

You see the snow burst has caught Page's attention and she came to investigate when it suddenly fades. Makes you wonder what Page thinks about the sudden loss of snow. Devon's been watching for several minutes, so she acts bored with the whole thing.

Agility Club of Indianapolis Trial

This weekend was the Agility Club of Indianapolis trial. This was our first trial back from Devon being in season, and she only had one class since coming back. The nice thing about this trial was that the Excellent classes were first, so most folks cleared out for the Open and Novice courses. As with most of our local trials, we were among friends, but we did miss Agile Gold who didn't make this one.

Saturday's run

Big dogs ran last on Saturday. The Excellent JWW was nice and flowing; I usually like Jeff Ipser's courses a lot. I only saw two areas of concern for us. The first was the final pinwheel after the weaves. After building up speed over the double, the dogs were staring at the off course jump #1. Jump #15 was hiding behind a post. It would only be visible to the dog if the handler cued the dog to turn after #14. The next area of concern was jump #18 after the second time through the straight tunnel. It was a very flat 180, so I knew I'd have to support jump #18 and not move on too early.

I hate that first run after we've had a break from trialling. As much as I try not to, I do get nervous. Because Devon and I are still a green team, I'm still not totally confident and that makes me nervous.

I think on Saturday we were just a little out of sync. Devon tugged well up to the ring area; but after she stopped tugging if I wasn't actively giving her treats for tricks, she would start scratching, which I knew was stress. I tried not to let it make me anxious and didn't crab at her for it.

Devon started the run a little sluggish, but we worked through the opening well. My first mistake came at the last weave pole. These were 24 inch poles and she's only seen them a couple of times. As she was in the poles I could see she was adjusting her stride from her usual striding for 22 inch poles to the 24 inch poles. I thought we had the poles and stepped laterally just a split second too soon and Devon popped out of the last pole. She wasn't fully committed to that last pole.

I didn't react and pushed forward with the run. However, I made a second mistake on her commitment point with the turn from the straight tunnel to the #18 jump. I even told myself each time I walked that course to stay by the wing for her until she was committed, and I can see by the video I didn't support it long enough.

I always hang onto my mistakes longer than I ever do if the dog makes a mistake (probably because if my dog makes a mistake it's lack of training which is my fault). It was a nice course and Devon ran it well; but I made a couple of small errors and one I even identified and still screwed up! I will say the other thing that struck me in watching the run is that Devon did speed up when I relaxed and started pushing for my position after we'd NQ'd. That tells me her speed has a lot to do with my nerves. Here's the run:

Sunday's run

I felt better Sunday after a good night's sleep. Big dogs ran first, and Devon was the very last 20 inch dog to run. We had another beautiful course, and this one had an interesting close. The line from 15 to 16 pushed slightly to the right before the course turned back to the left. It was a deceptive push with off course potential on either side.

Most of the big dog handlers were walking it with a rear cross, but I didn't want to be stuck behind the wing of the triple way too far behind my dog to make the turn back to 17. Even if you got the #17 jump, you were risking the dog turning back to you because you were behind and taking the off course before reaching 18.

With a front cross before 15 you still had to get around the jump standard for a slight push for the triple. During the walk through, I finally decided on the front cross on the landing side of 15. It showed the dog his path and with the tunnel it gave me enough time to get to where I needed to be.

The 14-17 sequence was the problem area for the big dogs as expected (as a side note very few of the small dogs struggled here because there handlers were able to show the pull and still get around the triple to support 17). Very few big dog handlers did a front cross; most chose the rear. A lot of people got the off course to #3 if they didn't show enough pull to their right. A lot of people got stuck behind the wing of #16 needing or choosing to do the rear on the flat after the triple and got hung up before 17. Those who did do the front cross after 15 just squeaked it in.

Needless to say after watching all the 26-20 inch dogs, I was concerned for my plan. But I decided to run my plan, trust my dog and push to be in the right location. I wasn't nervous at all for this run. And I told Devon all the folks around the ring were there to watch her. She always loves to perform for a crowd, and of course all the little dog handlers wanted to get at their walk thru! I even had to hand Devon off as the dog in front of us went to the line when I realized my shoe was untied. That threw Devon a curve right before going into the ring.

I ran with Devon off the line, and she loved it. We had a much better start than Saturday. My front cross before the 180 was late, but Devon handled it well with minimal affect on her speed. Devon was prepared for the 24 inch weaves and handled them beautifully. After the tunnel, I hauled it to my front cross spot, and I know I broke my connection with my dog. However, Devon was perfect and followed my direction and nailed this section of the course. You can hear my yell of satisfaction when she landed after the triple!

What a beautiful run! Not only did this run win the Excellent A class, but Devon finished her AXJ on it. When I looked back, Devon earned her AXJ with three first place finishes and earned two of her legs on Jeff Ipser courses (I also finished Ian's MACH on one of Jeff's courses, so he's lucky for us).

And once again I was reminded that when I'm relaxed and concentrating on getting to where I need to be (i.e. getting my job done for the team), Devon does her job just right. As someone said after watching Sunday's video, "You guys both looked like you were having fun out there." We were!

On training and goals and the will to win

There are a number of factors prompting this blog post. The biggest two are the Olympics and finding another quote I like a lot. First, the quote:

"Most people have the will to win; few have the will to prepare to win." Bobby Knight

If you know me at all, you know I must REALLY, REALLY like that quote, because I don't like that man who said it. I may be a Hoosier by birth, but I'm a Boilermaker by choice! I was a freshman at Purdue University when the great chair throwing incident happened ... but I digress.

Next, I have casually watched some of the Winter Olympic coverage. I'm not into winter sports. I've skied a couple of times in my life and I'm terrible at it. I fear falling, which I did a lot, and I have very little upper body strength to push myself up when I do fall. Ice skating is more frightening for me.

But what I have enjoyed watching is how these elite athletes handle the pressure of the spotlight they are in. Some of them don't handle it well. Some of the pair figure skaters fell on their jumps, prompting commentators to say, "They've been having that problem all year," or "The weakness in their performance is his jumping." After a particularly beautiful performance, the commentators said, "Oh they needed that! They've had a terrible year and they pulled out all the stops on this performance."

Last night in the women's downhill, Lindsey Vonn fought through a badly bruised shin to win the USA's first Gold in that event. What I found interesting is that she was running on men's skies, something no other woman was doing. She did that to give herself a technical advantage, and she'd been running on them all year long. As you watched her come down the hill on the replay, not only was her technical form the best of the entire field, but she was favoring her injured leg. In fact, there were times in her run she wasn't putting any weight at all on her injured leg, effectively skiing on one leg. And her line down the hill wasn't the best (compared with the Silver medalist), all in an effort to pull the pressure off that injured leg. But when you watched her run, you knew she was going for it. She attacked that hill all the way down.

Contrast Vonn's run to the run of her best friend, German competitor Maria Reisch. Both women have battled their share of injuries from bad crashes. Both women knew the course was rough, icy and fast. There wasn't any margin for error. And right before Reisch's run, there was a bad crash of a top competitor. Reisch had to wait in the starting gate knowing the delay was due to a crash.

And her run showed it. Reisch was visibly controlled down the hill. The commentator said, "It's as if she doesn't want to go fast and she's slowing herself down on purpose." The result was that the only woman who has beat Lindsey Vonn this year came in 8th in the Olympics, 2.07 seconds behind Gold.

Why did Lindsey Vonn win Gold and Maria Reisch place 8th? I would guess it's a number of things: heart, the will to win, confidence, and preparation. The mental game is hard to master. Put heart and the will to win together and you get a confidence you might not have had before. But preparation cannot be overlooked.

The course those two women ran was the toughest they'd seen all year. They never got a full training run on it; in fact the first time they'd seen that last hill was in competition. I find it interesting that Vonn chose to work in men's skies all season long. It gave her an advantage because the men's skies are longer and more forgiving.

I don't ski, but I imagine the transition to these skies took some practice and getting used to. Reisch actually tried the men's skies on the last training run before the finals but they didn't feel comfortable. Of course not, she hadn't practiced on them. And she never got to practice on the course in her actual skies. Makes me wonder if this lack of preparation combined with the wait at the top after the crash did a number on her mental game.

Preparation, foundation, whatever you call it, it's important. In my mind, preparation and technical skills were the key to Vonn's win. So, what does that mean to me? It means I need to get my butt out to the training building even in the snow and cold weather and train my dogs.

The longer I am in the sport of dog training, the more foundation I put on my dogs. Each dog knows more than the last before we ever step to the line to compete. Preparation eases my nerves, because there's very few things that are unknown. My dog and I have seen every thing out there, maybe not in that order or in this facility, but we've done our homework. My dog is confident on every piece of equipment. I have anticipated every off course or factor. I know how to handle my dog.

I may not be an Olympic athlete, but I go to the line to be tested. I put together our training program, and I trained the dog. Does our training hold up? If there was one bobble, even a minor one, do I go back and fix it or let it ride to become a bigger problem next time?

What I've realized is that accomplishing my goals isn't necessarily about winning. It's not about the act of passing or getting the blue ribbon. It's about the hours and hours of training. For example, my last four dogs do not have good contact skills. I thought I fixed that with Devon, but I didn't. I fixed it with Page. She has great contact skills right now, and that's because I worked on my training program. And the burden to maintain those skills through her competitive career will also be on me.

Devon's head was dropping in heeling. During our last lesson, Linda got on me for allowing it to happen. What an epiphany I had that day! It's my responsibility to tell Devon her head needs to be up and not allow it to drop. As Linda said, ask more of her and she will give it to you. The same applies for fronts and finishes. With just that extra effort in training, I now have a dog with beautiful fronts and finishes and heads up heeling.

It doesn't take a lot of time to train; it just takes the will to get out and do it day after day. And each day of training builds the foundation to accomplish the next goal -- and maybe even one never dreamed of!

Happy Birthday Page!

Here it is! The day she's been waiting for! Page is 1-year-old today!

I cannot believe Page is a year old. In some ways it seems she just came home yesterday and yet it seems like she's been here forever. Page is full of energy and lives to work with me. She's a training joy. Yet she's not all work and no play. In fact, the best comment I've heard about Page is that her personality is bigger than she is. Everyone who meets her smiles.

Page's first year has been mostly documented in video and posted on the blog. But today I went through photos of her taken in her first year, and I thought I'd share some favorites...

It's Grandma Julie!

Ian had a surprise on Saturday when his "Grandma Julie" (a.k.a. Julie Hite, his breeder) came to see him. I don't think his tail stopped wagging the entire time she was here! Ian showed off his house and all the photos his mom has of him. He also showed off the training building, although he would only do a tunnel for Grandma Julie; Mom runs him you know! He also got to show off how he plays ball. My dad taught him that particular game. However, Julie threw the ball in the largest snow drift, and he thought her aim was a little off!

And Ian got to play with his half-sister Donita. She traveled to Long Beach, CA, and back with us in December 2007 when Ian went to the AKC Agility Invitational and Donita when to the AKC/Eukanuba National Championships. Ian thinks he's way more impressive than Donita does, so she always has adjusted his attitude! Ian (left) is pictured with Julie (human) and Donita (dog on right). Gosh Ian looks like his sire Hank in this photo!

By the way, I've had a reader request to see more of Ian on the blog (bet you can't figure out who THAT came from), so I'll have to put him in the rotation!