Photo Favorites

Here are just a few of my favorite photos that Wendy took at the trial the other weekend. 

Thanks Wendy for the great photos!!!!

Catch

I can't believe I haven't blogged about the little visitor I've had for the last week! Catch is a Shetland Sheepdog pup that belongs to a friend of mine. She went on holidays (that were planned pre-puppy) and needed a sitter.

Catch is the toughest little Sheltie I've ever met. He has settled right in and gets along great with everyone. I have taken him everywhere, and he has met tons of people, cat, and dogs. So far nothing has bugged him much. He is a very confident little dude.

He has been fun to have around- but I am sure that Wicca will be glad to see him go home. He is a horrible pest. :)

He is super duper cute though and I have taken LOADS of photos of him...

see? Pest!

tiger killer

cute. :)

looking extra smart here...

mr.nosey, gets  into everything, doesn't want to miss a thing....

sheltie zoomies!!!

another example of pestiness. :)

small and tall (I know he's not in focus but still too cute not to post)

ears glued... (i.e torture)

C-R-A-Z-Y

Wendy from Paws on the Run Photography took a TON of fantastic photos of my dogs last weekend. I will have more to share over the weekend, but this one took my breath away when I first saw it.  If you look closely there are NO FEET touching- just her left toes. She's a crazy one that Wicca.

Are you a good sport?

As with any competitive sport agility has it's fair share of sore losers, and bad sports. This past weekend I thought about that a lot as I watched people treat their dog unfairly, other people poorly, or beat themselves up due to something on course.

We all need to try harder to be objective about agility and put some thought into our actions and our words at a trial. Agility is first a spectator sport. Never forget there is always someone watching. Being a good sport is expected. Unfortunately that is not always the case. I won't go into detail about who/what/when/where but I do think that it will be a good discussion. I know that my area is not the only one with these sort of problems!

Agility is something we do for fun. We like the challenge, we love our dogs. A trial is really a test of your training. If your dog doesn't perform properly it is likely your fault, not the dog. It is easier to blame the dog of course, and often people do that. I bet that everyone of us at one time or another has blamed the dog for our bad training/handling. No one is perfect. I understand frustration- having a dog that slams into bars sucks. At the beginning I blamed her exclusively. Now, I realize that most bars are my fault. I had to learn that lesson though. Hopefully we all learn to recognize errors for what they are. Mistakes caused by us, or things that our dogs don't really understand. There is no sense in blaming the dog, or getting mad or upset by off courses, or knocked bars. And there is never cause for being physically or verbally abusive to your dog. There was an instance of that this weekend. It is upsetting to watch, and hopefully the person who did it will be reprimanded, and embarrassed enough to act better in public at least.

There is also putting the blame on other people. Your job as a trainer is to not only train your dog to perform the equipment, and to get around a course, but also to proof for trial situations. People at ringside, children, other dogs. Those are all things that your dog will be around at a trial- it is important that you and your dog can work past those issues at home, and then bring them to a trial. Blaming people at ringside for your dogs lack of focus is going to get you know where. Train your dog. Things are generally easier when that happens. :)

The other thing that I think people are guilty of is beating themselves up. Blaming themselves, and feeling bad about a run. I know from experience that once you get into the mindset it is hard to get out. Positive thinking is very important in agility. Sure, take responsibility for the error, but then Move On!!! Forget about it. You should be focused on the next run, and your dog- not going on about how awful the last run was. It really does make a difference in your game, and you will likely have more friends if you aren't whining about a crappy run all day....

I think we all need a reminder once in a while that Agility is Fun. Training is fun. Socialising with dog people is fun. Trialing is fun. Agility is just a game we play with our dogs after all!!

Anyway, just my 2cents on a cloudy Thursday morning...

Yay for Smarty-Pants

Brit has conquered two big hurdles this week.

1) Fetch. She will fetch almost anything I throw and bring it to hand. Woohoo!!! I am so proud of her for figuring it out. This was not an easy thing for her. Now we are working on tugging, which is proving to be a challenge for me. lol. But I am confident we'll get it. :)

2) Running WITH me. She likes to run of course, but getting her to stay with me and not cut in front was a bit of a process. Baby steps really. But she's got it and rarely makes a mistake now. We've been doing LOTS of big loopy circles, and now that she is understanding where I want her we will start asking for smaller, tighter circles.

Yay for Smarty Pants! :)

p.s It is VERY hard to take photos and train the dog at the same time. But they were too cute not to share. :)

Because It's funny...

I posted this on Facebook the other day- but thought I'd post it here too. She totally cracks me up. 

thanks to Wendy for the photo. lol

FAIL

FAIL, originally uploaded by manymuddypaws.

ha ha

A Little V

for being such a jerk he sure is cute. :)
I love my Vito.

Breakdown of the Weekend..

Lets start with Pixel for a change (mostly because I have spent the last half an hour watching her videos...)



The good stuff...
She was fast! Like actually ahead of me a few parts on each course.
She was accurate (when I told her where to go...)

The not-so-good stuff
Her dogwalk sucked. Only twice did she actually drive into position. Other times she didn't bother at all, or would stop and stare at me instead...
Her weavepoles sucked. Only twice did she dive into the poles and complete them all the way through.

Things I need to do
Train the dogwalk.
Proof the poles when she is fast. I think that is the problem- she is usually kinda pokey so when she is fast she doesn't know what to do with her body.

We've been working on these issues but they are still issues. Must try something new. lol. I will say that I was very proud of how hard she worked for me this weekend. Pixel can be kinda lazy sometimes and I didn't once feel that I was pulling her around the course. She was happy, and bouncy, and just very eager to work. She earned an advanced snooker q, and then a masters snooker q the following day...

Wicca



The good stuff
Only a few bars!!! Her jumping was very, very good. (mostly)
She listened. She had only one wild run (the last jumpers on sunday), and otherwise was trying very hard to be good.
Her weaves and contacts were super!!!!

The bad stuff
Her start line. I didn't trust her very much, which caused some issues.
My handling at times. I am still late, or sometimes early. I wish I could just figure it out. lol

Things I need to do
Be consistent with her start line. I could kick myself.
Watch my arms. Hello flingy arm, not so nice to see you again....

Overall I am very pleased with Wicca. She started it off with a smoking Steeplechase Q on Friday night, and just got better as the weekend went on. We did get the gamble, but due to a Scribe error didn't get the Q, but that's okay. We have lots of gamble Q's.... She also earned a Snooker Q, and a Standard Q. In the third standard she had the fastest time of all the masters dogs! I believe that was just a bar. She is such a good girl, I felt very connected to her all weekend. It's a shame about our jumpers run, and the resulting "on paper" Q. It really ruined my mood as far as the trial was concerned.

And Brit tagged along for the exposure and was totally awesome. I love that nothing bugs her- all the dogs and people, and tents, and trial noise didn't seem to phase her at all. We got in some training a few times each day- her retrieves are getting awesome! Her first hotel experience was a good one (minus the b*tch who kicked her in the hallway....) and I think that it was great for her to experience the whole travelling/trialing atmosphere.

So all in all a pretty awesome weekend. Even the rain, wind, hail, sun, and more rain couldn't put a damper on my spirits. :)

The ATCH that isn't

I am still trying to figure out my feelings from the weekend.

My dogs did really great. Wicca was super all weekend and only had one wild run. Pixel had some really good moments, and some good speed- just not quite focused in each run with just an odd bobble. And I didn't get lost once. So why do I feel all weird.

According to the AAC Wicca earned her ATCH today. She has needed one more jumpers Q for quite a while. Today she had a beautiful run- fast, smooth and with no bobbles. It was perfect, except for the first bar which she knocked. The judge didn't see it fall.

I didn't realise he didn't see it until ribbons later in the day and they called her for the Q.

I am upset about it. I want to celebrate my ATCH. We worked SO hard for it. I don't want it to be tarnished by a dirty Q. I went and talked to the judge- told him I didn't want it. He laughed and said sometimes you win, sometimes you lose (which is VERY true as I didn't get my gamble Q saturday with Wicca because the scribe didn't tick the box...) But still. I didn't want to win this Q, I wanted to earn it.

It makes me feel all weird- which is not what I want for my ATCH!

So I've decided to pretend it doesn't exist. I am still going to be waiting for that one last jumpers Q for her ATCH, and then we will have a party. With cake. Until then, I will just not look on her stats page.

--------------
I will do a play by play of the weekend tomorrow with videos, and will have photos later this week because Wendy (from Paws on the Run) came to photograph the event and I know there are some pretty kick ass photos of my dogs in among the 5000 photos she took over two days.... :)

Freedom is Blue

This shiny blue van is mine. :) It is unbelievably exciting.

My life will change a lot.

I am grateful to all of my friends and family who have helped me throughout the years-

words can't express how thankful I am for everything

but now I have independence

free to do what I want, when I want

which is an awesome, awesome thing.

Yay for me.

Blazingstar Visit

I went out to visit my friends Andy and Liz of Blazingstar Flatcoats on Saturday. I brought Brit and Pixel along and we went for a nice walk at their place. It is the most beautiful place in the world. Their place is very natural with lots of wild prairie. The river bottom area is full of trees, and it is just a very peaceful place. That is until the Corgi comes to visit and barks her fool head off. :)  Brit had a fabulous time playing with Puffin although Liz didn't manage to get any pics of them racing around together. They were a great match and covered a lot of ground with their chase games. Brit's other admirer was Tinbie. He thought she was pretty good looking and followed her around nearly the whole time. Pixel mostly was a third wheel barking at them, or off doing her own thing. They were both pretty tired after that! It was a nice visit, and we are looking forward to more visits this summer when the river is ready for swimming. Brit thinks flatcoats are awesome. :)

Brit stalking Puffin (who is off camera) and Tinbie following Brit...

Swamp Monster Pixel. :) They had a nice swim in a muddy little pond.

Brit on a mission

For once Brit isn't the stalker...lol

more dirty Pixel.

keeping an eye on those flatcoats!

thanks for the wonderful visit Liz, and for the photos!!!

Playing in the Rain

The dogs had a rather boring day today so I took them for a run this evening even though it was pouring buckets. They had a blast playing in the coulees and are now tired, wet dogs. Which is better than hyper, dry dogs. :)

Say Hi

Boone showin' off his new 'do and his new favorite trick. :)

Long Weekend

I love long weekends, well, I love any weekend but somehow that extra day just makes it more awesome. :)

This weekend is actually extra long for me as I was able to take Friday off too. Four days of no work!

Yesterday Sarah and I went to Calgary and did some training- we ran a few courses, and Sarah gave some private lessons. It was a great day- Wicca and Pixel both did pretty well. Pixels weave poles have fallen apart though and she is popping at the tenth pole more often than not. We have some work to do!

Today has been a busy but good day too- started off with a trip out to Blazingstar (flatcoat land!) for a nice walk and visit with friends. Pixel and Brit had an awesome time and are still a little tired from all the running. Brit met her match physically and she and Puffin had lots of fun chasing each other around. I am hoping to have photos later. :)  The afternoon was spent bathing and grooming dogs. It was way over do. All of the dogs had a bath and brush, and I shaved Boone. I know. He looks cute shaggy, I get it really. But you try to keep up with that coat! It is horrible. So off it went. :) He looks cute shaved too in a strange sort of way. lol. I trimmed his head a little shorter than normal- mostly by accident. Not sure if I like it or not yet. The nice thing with hair is that it grows. Now I am spending a quiet evening at home- with tired dogs.

Tomorrow as long as the rain holds off we are having an agility funmatch. Running a Jumpers, Standard, and Gamble. It will be fun providing we don't get rained on. :)

And Monday I have filled with private lessons in an effort to make some extra money. My money tree didn't grow even though I watered it everyday, so I guess I am going to have to make money the hard way- work for it. lol

Gopher??!!!

No other words are needed. lol

Happiness = Agility Wicca 20/52

Happiness = Agility Wicca 20/52, originally uploaded by manymuddypaws.

I was planning for something else for my project, but loved this shot (well, the whole series) Fun!