snowglader’s Neighborhood

We had an ANKC agility trial last weekend (Berwick dog obedience club). Merry was entered in Excellent Strategic Pairs,  Excellent Jumpers,  Excellent Snooker and Novice Agility.
Pairs was first. Merry ran the first leg then got the zoomies. Luckily we managed to call the 2 dogs away from each other and avert disaster (if play can ever be called that!) I ran her to the next bit and looked back to see Rochelle trying to call B'Ellanna back to her. I wasn't sure if she had finished her leg alright or not, so (like a fool) I waited, watching B'Ellanna run off and try to do the see-saw. The judge looked at me and said "You can go, you know." Oops. I ran clear and Rochelle ran the last bit fine, but we came in about 10 seconds over time. Snooker was next. It was quite flowing, as snooker goes. Merry added a creative little turn where there wasn't supposed to be one, but then settled down and ran very nicely. We finished the course clear and under time. Our first Excellent pass ever! Woohoo! Then came agility. I knew she'd make the time easily, so I decided not to take a risk with the weave pole entries - I took her way out to the left (the poles were set up to make right weaves the strategic option) and slowed her right down. We hit the entry fine and she weaved well - she's a very reliable weaver these days. There was a jump after the poles meant to distract the dogs, and Merry very nearly took it. I could see her gathering herself for the leap when she finally heard my call and turned away. PHEW! 2 agility passes down, one to go! The last run of the day was jumping. I wasn't holding out too much hope, because she's normally tired at the end of the day and Excellent Jumping times are way too fast (about 3.7 metres a second). It was quite a flowing course, but there were far too many rear crosses in it. When she's running very fast rear crosses are fine, but if she's slow they can throw her off step a little and cause her to look back the second before she jumps, which counts as a refusal. It shouldn't, but it does. As I watched other people run the course, I saw someone put in strategic front crosses instead of rear crosses. I hadn't even SEEN those possiblities when I walked the course. I decided that I would run the course like that. Changing plans at the last minute without being able to walk the course again is normally a very bad idea, but I was going to do it anyway. At the start line Merry seemed off with the fairies. She wouldn't look at me or sit, and when I took her lead off she wandered away. I scooped her in the right direction, glanced at the judge desperately and she understood and quickly gave me permission to go. I gave up on getting her attention and just ran. She ran with me, suddenly focused and happy. I managed to put in the front crosses and they worked brilliantly. There was a breath-catching moment when she very nearly put her nose past the line of a jump, but at the last second she turned her head and cleared the bar. When we got to the tunnel she hesitated for half a second. I think my heart skipped a beat. Mum said afterward that the judge had started raising her hand to call a refusal when Merry decided that it was okay and shot into the entrance. We made a clear run, like so many of our other Excellent Jumpers runs... but this time it was under time. A pass. OMG. WOW that was a good day. And to put the icing on the cake, that almost-pass in Pairs got us a neat third place, and even with the time I took to get the weave entry we got a third place in agility.
Did I mention that Merry rocks?
Go the little dogs :)

The other day I was helping my friend with his new rotweiler. She was wearing a choke chain because they haven't bought her a proper collar yet. We took her out and she saw another dog (she's not very well socialised) and got excited and started pulling and whining. I took hold of the chain so she would stop throttling herself, but then she lunged forward. The chain took some skin off three of my fingers and left them bruised and bleeding. These things people have on the dogs' necks and blithely say "Oh, it doesn't hurt them ..." They have a much higher pain tolerance threshold than us, but that doesn't mean that they don't feel it and it doesn't mean that it doesn't damage them. I've heard more than enough horror stories about cracked vertebrae from choke chains that I would never advocate letting your dog wear one, let alone jerking it repeatedly off its feet or until it yelps (!) as some people advocate.
How about shock collars? Well, if you've ever wondered how much they actually hurt, go to youtube and you will find plenty of videos of idiots trying out the collars on themselves. They get a lot more than they bargained for. In most, the result is one laughing cameraman and one collared person screaming and crying in pain. Why we enjoy watching others writhe in agony I will never understand, but I will never again be tempted to use one of these "Training Devices" on my dogs.
Why would you even think you needed to use one, when it has been proved over and over again that you can train dogs without using any punishment at all?
Clickers and padded harnesses all the way.

Wow, I'm getting quite a collection of ribbons now. I've filled 2 walls and have enough to decorate a 3rd, if my parents would let me!
I haven't updated for a while, so here are the little monsters'  qualifications at present:

Merry:
She has her VCA Novice Snooker, Jumpers and Strategic Pairs titles and one pass towards her Novice Agility title.
She has her NADAC Novice Agility and Hoopers titles, 2 Novice Jumpers passes, 1 Chances pass and 1 Touch n Go pass.
And 1 WCFO Beginners Heelwork to Music pass.
Whee, she's really collecting them now, isn't she :)

Mystic:
2  NADAC hoopers passes, one more for her first title! She's actually had fun in the ring the last couple of times we've run. She makes me so proud - a pass with her means so much more to me than a pass with Merry, just because she's had to come so much further to be able to get it.
1 WCFO Beginners Musical Freestyle pass, and one more to go for her first title ^_^

She has developed a luxating patella though...
When she lands badly, knocks her leg or twists her knee joint, her left kneecap pops out. It really hurts her. My poor little baby :'(
Hopefully it won't get any worse, but I'm going to have to be a lot more careful with her in future to try and stop her stepping badly. I was thinking that maybe I should teach her tracking and backpacking instead - nice long straight walks. I guess I'll always wonder now if she would have been fine if I hadn't trained her to do all those tricks ... But I've always believed the proverb "It's better to live one day as a tiger than a full lifetime as a worm." My dogs love life so much, and love training with me more than anything else in the world. I know that I have made the choices that have made her happy, and I guess I have to be content with that.

This is Mystic's first dance. She such a spunk :)
I've sent it of the WCFO - hopefully she'll get her title son, despite my rather dodgy handling :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUX1cTT_2hI