Jumping with Road Kill

Fins new favorite toy is a disemboweled squirrel. You will see me using it as our tug toy. Forget the expensive riot sticks and rope tugs, just give her a 10 year old toy that the dogs have pulled all the stuffing out of and we've got ourselves a motivational toy!

Well we've started a few sequences. We still have alot of one jump work to do and LOTS of circle work, but we are having fun and that's what counts.

I'd like to improve on the number of steps she is taking between jumps and get her focus on the jumps rather than me...but that will come in time. She is still pretty intense on wanting to focus on me so I have my work cut out for me.

The fire is still going in the hills. In the first video you can hear the helicopers above us taking water to be dumped. The wind seems to be blowing the smoke away from us so we took advantage and spent time outside. It is 35% contained so that is really good. Lots of people still waiting to get back to their homes.

Zoom Zoom

A fun weekend sums up April 11-13. The weather was "hot" but we stayed refreshed in Lauras 5th wheel. I have to thank her for driving the rig up there. It was roomy and comfortable and kept the dogs cool.

Doggy running report:

Laura got ther ADCH BRONZE!! with Brazen. Whoo hoo. This is big stuff. Most handler teams get this later in their career. Brazen is only 3.5 years old. A HUGE feat, an amazing accomplishment. I'm proud to call her my best bud!

Here is a link to her most AMAZING run and celebration: http://www.agilityvideoservice.com/node/1800

Tazz got an Advanced Standard Q! One more and we'll be in Masters Standard. He also Q'd in Masters jumpers and this was his Masters Jumpers Q. Whoo hoo.

Friday was an off day for Team Whiz. The human part of the team just couldn't seem to concentrate and was late on cues and sent her partner to the wrong jump. Saturday was much better, but "HOT!" Tazz N I weren't in any runs until 1:30. Then we were in 4 rings at almost the same time. Interestingly enough, we did the best we did all weekend. Sunday was a fun morning but no Q's. Tazz was really happy this weekend and my goal of just having fun was accomplished. Never once did I feel like Tazz and I weren't having fun.

The best news of all, we found a FABULOUS resturant for our Dixon trials thanks to Lauras husband Kelvin. This was truly important and may even overshadow Lauras accomplishment of her Bronze ADCH!

Training a curve

Today we worked on lots of speed. Accuracy seemed to slip as we put the pedal to the medal.

Still had fun and then slowed it down a little for accuracy. What I did was lower one side of the jump so that she could see that running the inside was better then running the middle or outside. Fin does have a tendency to go wide, so I think alot of drills teaching her to curve in the inside of the circle is going to be important.

I'm still working on one jump where she just jumps one jump and comes into me. She needs about 9037 more of those before we move on. She LOVES to jump out and doesn't quite understand to take a path that will get her to where I'm going faster. She just likes to have fun and put on those after burners!

After our great training session today, she was a little warm so we went to the pool and I took a little video of her new "get in" cue. She doesn't like to crowd with Tazz on the step, but she sure isn't afraid of the water anymore.

Fin

The definition for Fin in Wikipedia:

A fin is a surface used to produce lift and thrust or to steer while traveling in water, air, or other fluid media. The first use of the word was for the limbs of fish, but has been extended to include other animal limbs and man-made devices.
The foremost use of fins is to ensure the directional stability of an object moving through a fluid such as water or air and may be seen in the use of fletching on arrows and fins at the rear of some missiles, rockets, self-propelled torpedoes, and kinetic energy penetrators. They are typically "planar" (shaped like small wings), although grid fins are sometimes used in specialized cases.
Moving fins may be used to propel an object through lateral thrust (see mechanics).

To editorialize: Fin is used to produce lift and thrust, to steer while traveling through air. Fin has been extended to include other animals (my fin). The foremost use of Fin is to ensure the directional stability moving through air.