Small Things

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. Robert Collier

Fin is layed up with a sore paw. Someone (I'm not saying who as I might implicate myself) let her run in the heat on pavement around the pool.

During this time of laying low, I'm going to work on the small things that I feel will make a big difference.

Two things I absolutely need:

1. Fin needs to turn tighter.


2. Fin needs to "get her toy" after a behavior

So, my goal by next week, is to have Fin "get her toy" 100% of the time. I don't know if she'll bring it back 100%, but my first step is to get the toy in her mouth and at least look in my direction.

I'll let you know how it is going.

Major E Ticket Rides this Weekend

Fun times. Headed to the land of Angels called Irwindale. Little over a 5 hour drive Friday afternoon in the Ford 350 van. 3 dogs, a puppy with the runs, ice chest full of chicken/ rice/ cottage cheese & diet cokes, bunch of agility crap, and a best friend. Arrive around 8:30pm to the residence inn Arcadia.

Dog walks, one bed, and a pull out sofa later, we settle in for the night.

Up at 5:30, arrive at a lovely location where the temperatures are perfect for dog agility.

I'm feeling good. Laura is feeling good. Fin is anxious to run. Brazen is snoozing. SpaceMonkey is just woo wooing and enjoying life. And finally Tazzie is around back smoking cigarettes and drinking tequila shots.

Almosts and a few Q's reigned. Fin ran well. She got a standard and snooker Q. All of the no q's were close and still tons of fun. Just silly babydog and baby handler stuff. Laura did excellent with Brazen who brought home a bunch of Q's and a number of 1st places. Tazzie ran well and was happy the whole weekend...just didn't q.

My goal this weekend was enter and run in a full load of USDAA classes with Fin. Personally I wanted to run smart, calm, and work on my position to indicate turns. I feel like the weekend was a success. Was I perfect, no. Was Fin perfect, no. Did we have the most awesome time. Huh...Yep.

Left 12:30 on Sunday so missed a few classes to get home. 5:40 arrived in Morgan hill. A little tired, but that smile ... can't wipe if from my face.

Dynamic dog photos was there and Trista took some GREAT photos of Fin (will be posted later). No video. So sorry.

Fin Teeter on Saturday Standard

Here is a series of Photos taken at the trial on Saturday of Fins Teeter. I thought they were fun. The pics were taken by Dog Gone Digital.

This first one Fin is running to the end of the teeter, she is almost to the end and it is still at full height, just starting to go down.

Here she is at the end and the teeter is making downward progress. I like how she is working hard to ride the teeter. Head down and shoulders bent.

Here is where she starts to get a little stiff legged. I still like her position. She is really working hard to hold on.

This photo cracks me up. Her tail hasn't quite caught up with the rest of her. I feel I'd like her legs to be a little more bent to take the impact that is about to come (still about 3-4 inches off the ground).

She ended with legs bending to take the impact (don't have that pic) and then stepped into 2o2o position.

I'm proud of her teeter. She was TERRIFIED of the teeter and the bang when we started teeter work more than a year ago. She mastered the bang game before I started her on her run to the end and let it drop behavior.

A Busy Wet Weekend

First of all, I want to announce that I did the dishes on Saturday. I know, I know. It is hard to believe, but my kitchen is clean. I cleaned off all the counters and washed them down with the special granite cleanser that I paid extra for. I even "FILED" the old bills and documents in my filing cabinet so the paper is put away. I took all the documents for taxes and put them in an actual folder (purple of course) that I can find easily.

And if that isn't exciting enough, I rounded up all the dust bunnies from downstairs and herded them back outside where they belong. I'm tired of Fin hunting them down and eatting them...it is just disgusting to have dust bunny parts hanging off her face all the time. She can find them outside, chase them down, play with them, and then wash all the dust bunny parts off before she comes in.

And what is my motivation? Can I just clean to clean? Isn't enough that I want my husband to relax in a peaceful uncluttered environment.

I can hear you laughing. Perhaps some of you know me better than others.

Tis true, I have some motivation. Two in fact.

1. This weekend my husband is having 10 guys over for poker night. It would be nice if they could actually see the counter tops when they are here. Also, I understand that one of the guys is allergic to dust bunnies, and another screams like a girl when he sees them. So cleaning needed to be done.

2. I am baby sitting. I have baby sat before and I will tell you, that BC's are NOT like shelties. For my own protection, I must have a clean house when this little bugger comes for her visit out of my own self preservation. If my house is not clean, she will destroy it. So I am cleaning.

I also found time to do some training. Unlike some of my friends, my yard is not under snow and ice. It is muddy, but we can work with mud. Saturday found us at a friends agility field for some drills. We work front crosses, and rear crosses. I learned alot. I'm learning that I need to be patient and let Fin do the work. I'm tending to crowd on the rear crosses and I can see a big improvement by just getting out of her way.

Today was my mom's 75th b-day so I went up to San Francisco with my sister and we did a mini slave day. Pretty easy as slave days go. Then off to lunch. Home again and worked contacts and a little jumping. Fin is now sleeping :)

I will leave you with this link:

http://puppyeinstein.com/

This is rather funny. I guess a clicker, a stick, and some duck tape would suffice, but these people have "invented" a clicker treat dispenser, target...all in one. I like that is it recommened by "Tender Loving Canines Assistance Dogs Inc."....especially when you read the information and find out that Tender Loving Canines Assistance Dogs Inc. are the creators of the contraption. Not sure of it's usefulness, but I give them credit for coming up with something new that is providing a reward rather than restricting a dogs movement or punishing the dog in some way.

Training Dec '08

First of all the cuteness that is Wynn.

Next, Fin: (this video keep failing...I'll try later)

Laura working Fin. Look for the nice serp to weaves near the end. Super girly. I can not tell you how much fun it is to watch someone else run my dog. I never thought I'd have a dog that would love agility so much that she'd work for someone else (well, Laura is her auntie, after all).

Me working Havoc:

Love this dog. Laura, you've done a great job with her.

Going to the dentist vs Greg Derretts Handling System

Dentist: has drills

Derrett: has drills

Dentist: tells you, "You need to Floss EVERY day."

Derrett: tells you, "You need to practice EVERY day."

Dentist: says, "If you do these simple things, everything will be peachy."

Derrett: says, "If you do these drills, your dog will understand you"

Dentist: has a systematic approach to mouth care

Derrett: has a systematic approach to handling

Why do I hate the dentist but love Greg Derrett? (Well, ok, I don't actually love him, I've met him a few times..he seems nice, but well, hum, yeah, like I don't really "know" him well enough to love him...it's not like I"m a stalker or anything.....I do however love his systematic approach and the results of practicing his drills).

Fin is working on some Derrett drills. Video will be forthcoming. Last night = way to dark for filming.

We worked simple drills with front crosses, then serps (my fav) then rear crosses (fin likes these). Wow, getting to the correct place, decelerating, and then giving the next cue is not easy. Moe says, "do that 1000 times." Yikes. I've got a busy holiday planned.

A Fin Training Video

I know that you've been waiting for more Fin. Fin will start trialing in January 2009 so more video will be forthcoming at that time. In the meantime, all you get is one or two training videos.

Here we are back in Salinas as the sun goes down (Notice I actually have a sweat shirt on). I know that many of you think that here on the west coast it is always sunny and warm, but it actually does get cold. I think it was in the 50's last night (Brrrrrrrr).

Laura recommended to try to work pieces of the course rather than run a full course. Good advice. We start out and she misses her line. I reset her and changed my position and we got what we wanted. The rest is just working on her turns and making sure that she hit her entrances and contacts.

Fun Class Tonight

Fin's teeter is ROCKIN! Fin had the nicest teeters tonight. She "flew" to the end, waited till it hit and pounced into position. Very cool indeed.

Dog walk. Awesome!

Mom...well, I did great on the contact drills. I'm still needing work on my handling during our jumping drills. Fins doing great, I'm just needing to have more confidence in her ability to do the things I taught her.

Everyone else got to stay home and relax.

Indoor/outdoor, no worries

Last night I took Fin to indoor agility at my friend Ann's place in woodside. Laura teaches there and she has volunteered to let me practice there on Mondays when I can get away from my bi-weekly staff meeting.

I wasn't sure how it would all go (with the noise and all), but I shouldn't have worried. Laura had taken her when I was on the cruise and she settled in like she'd been doing it all her life.

So the teeter. The teeter was so loud it scared me! Not Fin. I did a few bang games with her to start off the day and in no time she was running to the end and letting it bang. I think the people in palo alto heard that darn teeter.

Table, beautiful!

Dog walk: She definitely has a good dogwalk. Somehow, she knows what to do. It is amazing when you take clear criteria and practice practice practice.

Start line stay: Hmmmm. again, I can see this is gonna be a challenge. Lots of start line stays in our future.

Herding while jumping: Hmmm....tooo exciting ...weeeeee...Mom needs to be in the right place so that little Finnie doesn't go around jumps :)

A frame: Still working on transferring to a 2o2o and so didn't even attempt. Just did some targeting on the end.

Loads of fun.