AKC July 8th, 2012

Earlier this month, I entered Truly in just JWW at an AKC trial 5 minutes away from me. I get the confirmation e-mail for the two ring/one judge trial, and Ex. JWW is running after Standard. Sounds good, I don't have to head down for a few hours after they start and can sleep in, right? Well, didn't quite work out like that on Saturday. Apparently the DW was broken and they had to borrow a part, so they could fix it.  (I was very happy with my decision to not enter Standard because of the equipment.) Instead of waiting around to run it first, they just decided to run JWW first. I showed up about 10 mins too late and missed the whole class.  gj, me.  Guess I learned my lesson about showing up for check in.

On Sunday I actually went down in the morning JUST TO BE SURE that nothing was broken.  I went home after that and came back just as they were finishing Ex. Standard. Tru Qd, but she was melting on the start line, haha. I'd say it was a little warm for her.  She needs one more Q for her AXJ.  Then  I think she'll be done until I get her AX and she'll move to Preferred for any other AKC trials. Another memorable thing that happened at this trial was a bee swarm trying to land on various pieces of equipment while they were getting the course ready for Open Standard.  Really glad I wasn't entered, since that delayed the start of the class for quite a while.



We've got a couple NADAC trials coming up in August.  One in Mammoth and one more local, that I'll only be doing one day of since I have to check into my dorm on the Sunday.   I'm really excited about the Mammoth trial since they're doing EGC on Friday and I love running that with Tru.

Long Time, No Post

In an effort to put off school work, I am deciding to bring this blog back to life.  Sometimes I wonder why I even keep this.  How many people actually read this blog?  Seriously?  I'm probably better off posting longer trial enteries to Tumblr. le sigh.  Prepare for lots of videos.  (And I noticed my last post dropped vids.  So weird.  I had to go back and add them in.)

Anyway, we've had quite a few trials since I last posted.  There was the UDAC NADAC in January.

Yes, I said goodbye to a TV show in a dog agility vid.  (And I just removed all my 'Chuck' links from my blog.) Cries forever.


Blue was exceptionally awesome at this trial and managed THREE bonus Qs and finish her Vers-NATCH 4.  Not much else to say.  This was after my first wee of school and I think she missed me.  XD


Not one of Tru's most Q filled trials, but she finished qualifying for Champs and got her O-ECC.  (She was also spunky and cute, like usual.)

In February, I entered Tru only in a trial up in Lake View Terrace.  A friend offered to bring her up and let me stay in their motor home with them.  That was interesting.  Tru was very chill for that whole experience and didn't seem to have any issues.  I don't remember how she did at this trial.  I think she got both Jumpers, a few Regulars, no Chances, finished her S-HP-O, and I'm sure there was another class.  Whatever.  OH, all the courses we ran were the ones we did at the JCAC trial in December.  I still find it funny when you get the same courses twice.  It started to rain towards the end of the day one day.  I don't remember which, though, haha.  I only managed to get a couple runs filmed and here's one.  Silly Tru.


Then we had PAC's NADAC in Ramona.  I moved Blue to Skilled and had her jump 8".  That was an, um, interesting, and completely new experience.   It's definitely going to take some adjustment to my timing.  She didn't Q at all on Saturday.  I also moved her to Open Weavers.  Gah, treating her like an old dog.  She doesn't act like it.


Sunday was better.  8" is almost like hoops for Blue.


Tru was awesome at this trial.   She really enjoys this location.  I wish there were more indoor/covered places we could trial at.  Also, SHE BROKE HER PATTERN!  Truly seemed to have this Q Chances/NQ Jumpers or NQ Chances/Q Jumpers thing going and she managed to Q both classes both days at this trial.

She had a lot of nice, smooth runs.


And as of this trial, her current NATCH progress is 22/23 Regulars, 12/13 Chances, and 12/13 Jumpers!  So, fingers crossed that she finishes at the next trial!  I noticed that judge at the next trial was, in fact, judge at Tru's first NADAC trial.  While I think it'd be fun to NATCH under a 'friend' judge, haha, this seems kind of poetic.  That's if she isn't insane from the lack of practice and seeing me and ends up NQing all her runs.  XD

We did a day of AKC the other weekend.  I entered just so we could meet someone I know from forums/youtube/Facebook that was visiting.  I entered both dogs, actually.  Blue ran in Nov. Preferred and was a little nut.  She was an adorable little nut, but still.  She didn't Q either run, haha.  She broke her start line in JWW and took an off course right away, but then impressed the crowd with her distance skillzzz.  In Standard she actually decided to chase an airplane (this is the location right by an airport where the planes end up quite low) mid run.  If I'd have made her do the obstacle she ran by, she still could have Qd, haha, but I didn't care.  She was having a ton of fun anyway.  (And it's not like we get to practice. What I'm seeing is that Blue still needs SOME practice if I still want her to do well.)  I'd like a start line if we go to Champs and I think we're going to crack down on that at the next NADAC trial.  Tru NQd her Ex A JWW run, but Qd in Open Standard.  AND SHE WENT DOWN THE MIDDLE OF A SLATTED A-FRAME!  I was so proud and surprised that I pushed her a little to hard  to the table (next obstacle) that she bounced right off, haha.  Well, I think she might be able to tolerate rubber slatted A-frames in small doses.  I still think if she was asked to do them frequently, she would eventually slow down.  She's lucky I don't care that much for other venues.

Sooo, that's what we've been up to lately.  I'm at school doing lots of school things, but I've been home just about every weekend this semester for one reason or another.  I stayed up this weekend, and last time I stayed up, I really started to miss the dogs part way through the second week.  We'll see how it goes this time.

Boxes, Time Lords, Chuck and an AKC Trial.

This shall be a varied post.

Chuck: First, 'Chuck' has been renewed for a 5th and final season!!! I'm actually kind of glad that we wont have to deal with the whole 'bubble' thing this season even though it means that it ends.

Time Lords: So I started watching 'Doctor Who' the other weekend, and I think it's brilliant. (I just wanted to say brilliant.) It's sort of like 'Quantum Leap' and 'Star Trek' (well, I haven't seen very many episodes of ST, but I'd say it's like that) put together (time travel + aliens). I'm almost finished with the fourth series and I'd love to check out the older episodes. This show was created in the 60's and I think it's amazing that they have continued and revived it for this long.

Boxes: It seems NADAC might be reviving the bonus box and I can't tell you how excited I am to see this. OMG, Blue and I might still be able to get some bonus Qs. For those that don't know, bonus boxes were the precursor to bonus lines. It was just a 'box' in the middle of the course, as opposed to a line across the start and finish. Blue and I were just starting to get better at distance when they switched to lines. I think our distance skills are definitely at a place where we could do boxes somewhat consistently if they are like the old ones. I really hope we can get a few courses with them on it soon and that they wont go back away before we have a chance to try them.

AKC trial: Tru was entered in both runs at an AKC trial today. Yes, Standard too. She was great and Qd both runs with first places. (Don't tell her that she was the only dog to Q out of about 4 dogs.) Her weaves were really fast and smooth in JWW. I spaced out for a hundredth of a second because they were so pretty. She also went down the middle of the AF for about half of the back end! I think it might have been a one time deal though, since she was kind of distracted by my mom and Blue outside the ring. I dunno. Maybe the rubber is okay? She did end up at the edge by the end of it though. :/



Finals are this week then off to AZ for a NADAC trial, visiting with grandparents and my birthday!

One Day of AKC with Truly

Yeah, so this might be a little short or incoherent because I'm tired, but whatever, this will be a short post.

Truly and I actually drove further than 5 miles for AKC! I don't think I've traveled more than that for AKC since WAGS for Wishes in like, 2007, haha. Well, we wanted to see how this site worked out for the AKC people, even though we've already used it for NADAC so my mom asked me to enter one day. I got to chit chat for a long time, haha.

Tru had a great run, even though it was a long wait for it. (We got to the trial at about 10 am, Open check in was at 11 am and we ran at 3 pm!) I think if I ever enter her in Standard again, that will be all she runs until she gets to Excellent, haha. She Qd with a first place and that finished off her OAJ! Yay! She had the second fastest time (off by .04 sec.) out of all the heights in Open.

Video! I think her start line is adorable with that little rock back, haha. Also, yay for staying in the weaves while I try to get ahead!

11/13-14/2010 AKC trial

Blue and Truly were entered in JWW at an AKC trial this weekend. The 'best' part was Blue finally finishing her MXJ! She finished it Saturday and got to do some distance practice on Sunday. I (teasingly) got called lazy. I now understand that the AKC mentality is if you can run with the dog you should or you're lazy (or it's not right, as I heard last trial). It's okay for crippled people to use distance, though. Not like distance work is way more complicated than running with the dog... Oh, and this was probably her last AKC trial. I figured I'd retire her from AKC after she finished her MX and MXJ, because I don't feel the need to put her in Preferred and start over, when I don't do much AKC anyway.

Truly had a nice run. I felt it was a lot smoother than her other Open JWW runs, even though she popped the weaves. It's funny because I could see her speed change 4 poles before she popped and could see it coming. She's always had a problem with trying to do things faster occasionally and then not knowing how to control herself at those speeds.

Oh, and I made $15 for drawing. I'm going to try to sell sketches again at the NADAC trial this weekend. Can't wait. I'm hoping Blue doing fairly well on the AKC course bodes well for some bonus lines.

AKC Trial Aug. 7-8, 2010

Guess what? We actually had a pretty good weekend. I figured that we would do better.

Blue Qd both her runs, so that means only one more to go for MXJ. She got 3rd on Saturday and 1st on Sunday. Saturday's course was actually pretty technical for her, but she was a good girl and I was a competent handler and she got it. Sunday's course was much more "Blue friendly." If she had Qd both runs last weekend, I so would have run this with an imaginary bonus line. I guess the judge commented with something like "She can run, what's she doing distance for?" and someone replied that I did NADAC and I guess she said about bonus lines, haha.

Truly was okay. She got a JWW Q, with one refusal. It's like she isn't committing as quickly and I can pull her off jumps quite easily. Standard was blah. I pulled too hard as she came out of the chute, but then started driving too much. Then she didn't realize that she needed to jump the panel jump, haha, and didn't want to sit on the table. She did some nice layering from the DW all the way through to the weaves, which she popped out of the end. We are still figuring each other out, even after a year of trialing.

Now for my rant on Tru's contacts. I think I am just going to start really (re)working them. I hate how she comes to the side on slatted contact equipment. I don't know if it hurts her in some way, or if she's just a little sissy, but slats really bother her, especially on the AF. I thought she might be okay on the rubber granules, but I guess the slats still bother her. I'm thinking I'm still gonna go with her 2o2o. I keep thinking about if only one could have both running and stopped, but it seems so hard to let them know which they will be doing at any given time.

Yay for NADAC trial in a couple weeks. I think Tru's contacts will go back to being good. I'll be interested to see what happens though. She doesn't get to practice on equipment she likes, so it's hard to prep for that.

AKC Trial July 31-Aug. 1, 2010

Description copied off YouTube:

"Blue's first JWW run- I definitely turned her away too soon. Then she decided to have a fit. We ended up with an E.

Tru's JWW-First run in Open. I drove a little too much, too soon and then didn't drive enough, haha. I guess Tru's attempt to go sideways through the triple counted as a refusal? I knew she had two, but I'm not quite sure where that third one came from.

Tru's STD- Good layering, TruTru! I don't know what was up with the table, but it was rubberized and I don't think she's ever been on a rubber table. Or I could have driven her too far. Okay, so at the end, Truly was soooo avoiding the patch of bark. She's always had an issue with patches of odd surface in her way. She totally was going towards the jump and then turned off.

Blue's second JWW run- I called and turned, yet Blue still thought that we were going to the weaves. Luckily she called off, but then a spin out of nowhere! Refusal! She has done the before and I HATE when she does it. It's like she's too close and the pressure is just too much. I see a tiny something that might have turned her off, but my body was going the other direction. I don't know. Also, I could not have gotten her to wrap that cleanly the other way if I had tried, lol."

I hope we do much better next weekend. I don't know what was up, but I guess I just wasn't on it this weekend. I was really happy with Tru's weaves. She stayed in all twelve both times and that's her firs time doing 12 at a trial. We have NADAC later in August and I'm hoping she'll finish her S-NAC there, so she can start qualifying for Champs next year that I would really like to attend.

ACSD AKC July 10-11, 2010

Well, we actually had a great time at the AKC trial this weekend! Blue came home with 3/4 Qs and Truly got 4/4! Can you believe those results for our first AKC trial in about seven months? Blue did one day of USDAA and otherwise all we have done this year is NADAC!

Blue had some great runs and QQd on Saturday. She placed 1st in Standard. That was the first time she placed 1st in Ex. B ever and she's been in Ex. B for three years. She got 2nd on a nice Jumpers run. She was only .08 seconds behind the 1st place time.

Truly Qd both her runs. She had the fastest time out of all the Novice dogs in JWW.

Sunday went just as well. Even though Blue didn't Q in STD, she was great! Since I didn't care if she Qd or not, I planned to practice distance on that run. The course worked for an imaginary line and I went for it. I'm impressed with how far she got clean! I think she could have made the whole course clean if she could stay on the table at a trial, haha. I also forgot the four paw rule and got whistled off. I forgot for a second this was not a NADAC trial. She also had an awesome JWW run and got ANOTHER 1st place!

Truly did pretty well again. She Qd both runs and finished her NA and NAJ. She's only done three days of AKC and already has her Novice titles. I guess that might not be a big deal, but I've been told on a forum I'm on that dogs trained for NADAC don't need as many skills as dogs trained for AKC. I don't agree and that's part of the reason I entered Truly. Truly has only done three days of non-NADAC trials, not including this one and I mostly train her for NADAC type things.

Oh, and Truly does this adorable little hop out of the chute in Standard.

Both my dogs actually did pretty well this weekend. I have been told that I need to retrain Blue for AKC on one occasion. I do think the courses were pretty good for Blue and not "hard" like some courses. I've realize that the key for me on just about every course is I need to know how to handle it and sometimes I don't know how to communicate what I want to my dogs. That's the point where our run usually breaks down, especially on bonus lines. Oh, I should probably mention that Blue was back to normal this weekend (if you couldn't tell) and she was refusing to get in the ex-pen. :)

I've filled out entry forms for two AKC trials towards the end of the month/beginning of next month. Truly will probably do one day and Blue will just run in JWW both days. There's also a pretty close NADAC that we will be doing in August. Then I think Champs is the next event. Oh, my.

AKC 12/26-27/09

Last trial of the year!

Blue double Qd on Saturday. The courses were actually pretty flowing. She also ended up with a 3rd in JWW and a 2nd in Standard.

Truly had her AKC debut this weekend. It was also her first time jumping 16" at a trial. She did pretty well in JWW. Got two refusals and 5 time faults, but still Qd and got 3rd(out of three, lol). She kinda didn't get what that person was doing in the middle of the course. I forgot she hasn't done much with judges in the ring at trials. Maybe at her first trial (CPE). After she figured out that, yes, we were running agility, she was fine. Her Standard was really nice, except for the part where my keys fall out of my jacket pocket, lol.

Sunday didn't go as well, lol. No Qs. The courses were a bit more difficult, and I am just not up to those. Except for a couple of parts(where I was being fail), she did really nicely.

Although we did better than the last AKC, I still think well take an AKC break. I ams not sure on Sheltie Nats next year, but someone I know was telling my the courses aren't crazy hard at a breed specialty. Anyone have experience with Sheltie Nats? Next trial will be one day of USDAA with only Blue. We haven't done USDAA in at least a year and this will be her first time in PIII.

Catching up on the last few of weeks...

Well, we went to the a Ford Bronco meet up and off-roaded, had an agility trial, got some new furry family members, and had another agility trial.

We attended Bronco Daze in Borrego Springs for the second year. My mom and I got to the campground Friday, separately from my dad and brother because of school, and ended up waiting around for them to get back from a ride that went longer than expected. They rode for about seven hours, I think! While my mom, Blue, Truly and I were locked out of the trailer, Sirius was locked in and cried while we tried to find an open window or something. Eventually, we found a top window that was open, and my mom drove the car around and I got in, by standing on the roof of the car. That was our major adventure.

On Saturday, we went on another long ride, and it was beautiful. We drove through some gorgeous canyons and washes, saw a water hole and a empty pay phone on a cliff. Yes, a pay phone. I have some pics from that weekend here. I got some nice photos of the doggies.

Well, the next weekend, we had a NADAC trial! I tried quite a few bonuses with Blue, thus her 4/10 Qs. Only 2 NQs were not bonus line attempts. But, most of those attempts were actually pretty good attitude wise. At least I felt that way. We have been working on a moving wait, Blue decided she liked down better on Friday, before the trial. I don't even know if I am using this right, but I think it helped lower the barking/frustration after Blue went off course. It doesn't seem like she's taking that as a punishment or anything, just a "We are laying down, okay." I think my mom has been trying to get me to do this with Blue for years though, lol.

She had a gorgeous TnG bonus attempt that, with her mess up actually flowed easier, haha, that didn't completely get captured on video. I think that was her best bonus try of the weekend. It was soo smooth. Also, we did not get enough Chances for our NATCH-4. One more, next trial. Oh, and one of Blue's Regular runs from that last trial had a 100+ dri, so 5 more for a Platinum Speed Star.

Truly did well at her re-debut in stuff with contacts(and to a lesser extent, jumps). She Qd in TnG, and held all her contacts, and didn't miss a discrimination(well, I pulled too hard on one and she pulled off, but came back and did the right one). I believe that I saw she had the fastest Nov. Weavers time, another Q. One more for her WV-N! She also Qd in Tunnelers, and tried quite a bit of distance on that run. I was happy with the distance that the baby dog got. She did not Q in Reg., but didn't run around any jumps. Yay! She missed a tunnel/DW discrimination that Blue didn't even get, lol. Truly will be running a full NADAC trial in Dec. even though I said I wouldn't till next year, but she is doing so well. I will back off at the next couple after that, though.

Sirius got 2/5 Qs on Sunday, one in Regular and one in Chances. She got her OCC with that Chances Q!

Okay, we got two new fuzzy family members this week. Two kittens that came from my school's nursery and landscape department. Someone dumped mom as she is clearly a domestic cat, guessing by her behavior. She had four kittens and has been a great mom. She is very sweet and loves being pet, but her kittens are pretty much feral. I have been going with tuna the last couple of weeks, trying to get the kittens to associate people with good things. Well, I ended up capturing one on Tuesday. She had been so depressed, we decided to get another. We now have two new kitties. We haven't had cats in two years, lol. The brown tabby is Thyme and the black one Echo. Thyme is a little more laid back than Echo. They are both female. Here are some pics for yah.

Weee! Another agility trial. AKC, bleh. I need to stop entering because I really don't care much for it and this weekend only made me more apt to stop. Only Blue ran. Truly will have her AKC debut on Dec. 26th. Two friends are getting married and I wasn't planning on entering that trial, much less with Truly, but thought, "Aw, what the heck?", we would probably go down to the trial anyway.

One. Knocked. Bar. Gosh, when did she become such a bar knocker? Uh, after she got hurt and started practicing at 12". Oh, on that turn to the tunnel from the weaves, I randomly woofed there while walking, lol.

Started off real nice, well, both her runs did. lol, at Blue's table. Dork. Um, yes, I messed Blue up at the end. Yay, for trying to go to the thing you see that starts with a "T."

Most non-Blue and I incompatible opening ever. I fail at handling this stuff, it was so my fault, but aren't most mistakes? Did good on the rest of the course though.

Yay, for not being able to figure out where the table is and pulling Blue off the jump. I always say that I have trouble finding the numbers on AKC course maps. I guess I couldn't even find the obstacles while on the course. I didn't run the end like I walked it for the most part. When I have weekends like this in venues other than NADAC, I always feel discouraged. I am thinking I wont enter any more AKC after the one in Dec. I am also considering not going to the Sheltie Nationals, but we will see what happens with the time comes. I think I'd put the money towards NADAC Champs and Superstakes training, as that is where my main goals are.

AKC 9/26-27/09

We had an AKC trial this weekend. I entered it 1. because we didn't have a trial this month, 2. we need the AKC practice for Sheltie Nationals. I didn't realize NADAC Championships were going on the same weekend when I entered. I have gone the last 3 years, but couldn't go this year because of school. Tennessee is a little far. I watched the live stream as much as I could over the 4 days it was up. You had a hard time prying me away from my computer.

Here are Blue's runs from Saturday. QQ #3, MX leg #7 and MXJ leg #4

On Sunday, the JWW course started off with 3 jumps within 18 feet. Blue was clearly confused and knocked a bar. The jumps and I were to close for her. She did good in STD though, and came home with MX leg #8 and a 4th.

AKC 7/3-4/2009 and some other babbling

Blue and I competed in our first AKC trial in a year and didn't do that good. This was mostly due to the fact that Blue was very sore from a rabies vaccine she received Thursday. She was really not herself on the first run on Friday(JWW). I was layering some jumps while she was weaving and wanted to send her on to the double jump. So, she is on her way to the double, gets right up to it and stops. I'm like "What?" It was so unlike Blue, something had to be up. I figured out that she was reacting to the vaccine when I was petting her side where they injected her and she yelped. On the Standard run, Blue did the most un-Blue-like thing ever. She did a whole 3 obstacles and couldn't really go on. She did break the start-jump-teeter-trot up to the next jump-and knock it down. I took her off after that. If she was in that much pain there was no reason to keep going. I did not feel that the videos of these runs where worth putting up.

Here are Saturday's runs.

Blue was still sore and just ran past a jump. She also took the wrong end of the second tunnel. No JWW Qs for Blue this weekend. I find it kind of funny that Blue has 5 NATCHs worth of Jumpers Qs but only 3 JWW Qs.

Blue Qd and got 3rd! She received 15 MACH points and now has a total of 137 points. That was also her 6th leg for her MX. Wooo.

I don't really like AKC all that much, but I think I'm going to enter some more because I want to take Blue and Truly to the Sheltie Nationals next year. They are in Tucson so, they're not that far, so Blue could use some more AKC practice. Truly won't be competing in AKC until the end of the year or beginning of next year. I really want her to be in Novice at the Nationals.

Here's a random vid of Truly doing one of her tricks.

WAGS for Wishes is next weekend. Yay, NADAC! Oh, I forgot to mention that Truly broke a toe nail! Hopefully, she with be better by WAGS so she can run.