Celtic Fire
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"Whoo hoo! Yay CJ!!" Could be heard emanating from the ring and our crating area all through the weekend as my little girl CJ ran for me like I know she's capable of...only this time in a trial environment.
It's no secret that CJ and I have been struggling since we started trialing last June. She'd either bolt out of the ring from the start line, or lift my confidence, give me a handful of obstacles and then bolt out of the ring. Either way I was making a lot of donations to trials and entertaining my fellow competitors with my antics on course to keep her positively motivated and neither one of us was getting much out of the effort.
I will freely admit I entered the ring Saturday morning with a lot of hope and a good dose of trepidation. CJ's run was...unsure. That's probably a good term for it. She wasn't fast, and she balked on a couple obstacles, but she came back each time and finished the run for me. We ran the run clean and she ran the whole course with me, so I ran her back to our crating area for a big CJ Party! "Whoo Hoo! CJ!!"
We had a contingency in place in the event she ran out of the ring again that would hopefully freak her out enough that she'd begin to think twice about running out of the ring; but I was more happy to give her a super positive experience for finishing the course with me instead. A part of me wants to think that the party she got was enough to get her to perform for me for the rest of the day; but Sheri thinks that my tone and movements conveyed more confidence and "in control" of the situation similar to when we run in training.
Either way, CJ and I qualified in all five runs on Saturday to put us in the running for a perfect weekend overall. I qualified in the Full House Level 1 run that I needed to finish the Fun title, and the Standard Level 1 run to finish the Standard part of the Title. "Whoo hoo! CJ!! What a good girl!"
Sunday presented many new challenges to CJ's abilities. It would be the first time we'd attempted Jackpot and Snooker with CJ. Plus we were running now in Standard 2 as well as Colors and Jumpers Level 3. We needed the Jackpot and Snooker runs to complete the level 1 Strategy category and finish the CPE Level 1 Title.
Jackpot was first and she must have remembered the parties from yesterday because she was spot on for Jackpot not only giving me the Teeter obstacle with out a pause, but also reading me perfectly on the four obstacle distance gamble. "Whoo hoo CJ!!" Run back for another Sheltie Party!
Standard 2 introduces weave poles, which I know she can do 12 in training now. We've been working at them, but prior to this trial she's been about 50% on her weaves. So in competition I've asked her to do them, but continued through if she didn't so as not to risk her shutting down so we can at least finish the run. Not anymore though. She has to learn that she can't just "sneak by the weaves" in competition, so I corrected the weaves on this run. On the third call back, she charged through the weaves like I know she can, and gave me the next jump, but that was all the further we got. She bailed off the on-ramp to the dog walk (which is her favorite obstacle) and bolted for the exit. I coaxed her over another jump, but she bolted for the exit again so I called the run rather than stress her out further. The old CJ was back, but on the positive side, she did the weaves on course. It was worth the NT. She got praise, but it was significantly reduced which I hope sank in a little.
Right after that run was Wildcard 3 where we were once again confronted by the weave poles. Sticking to my guns, she needs to learn that it's no longer acceptable to sneak past the weaves. The run was going great and when I commanded she take the weaves, she charged in, made the entrance, gave me three poles and stopped dead. (Like OMG! I'm doing the weaves!) I had to guide and coax her through the last two weaves, but we did them without faulting them, AND finished the rest of the run. We were 12 seconds over course time which was an NQ...but again, she gave me the weaves first time this run, and even though I had to coax her through the last two, we got them and finished the run. (Have to watch the video to see if I stepped into her or not.) "Whoo Hoo CJ!" Big party!!
Okay, by now I really wanted this Snooker run to come out of the weekend with the Level 1 title. CJ likes to run nice flowing courses and she's tends to question whether I know what I'm doing when we have to repeat obstacles on a course. You can tell on our Snooker run that she was beginning to question her confidence that I really was in control of the situation. The opening was very rough, but she stayed with me and followed me into the closing and from there she even gave me a bit of speed. We qualified with plenty of time to spare, accumulated 45 points and beat Edan's time by a full second! (Though he'll point out he scored 5 more points in that extra second.) "Whoo hoo! Yay CJ!! Big Party!!
Last run of Sunday was a Level 3 Jumpers run...and this course was full of twists, turns and traps! CJ was tired, mentally if not physically, and she looked to the exits a couple times, but I got her back with me and we finished the course clean and a second over standard course time. "Whoo hoo! You CJ!! Big Party!!
So all in all, we didn't get a perfect weekend, but I wasn't really running for that goal anyway. Considering all the months and trials of NQ's, 8 for 10 is darned good. The two runs we missed were "working runs" anyway to fix the weaves in competition, and in both cases, we made positive strides forward. It's nice to come off an agility weekend confident the courses I laid out to run with her were correct, putting a Title on her after a year of trying, and being able to say CJ and I made positive progress overall as a team. (Not chalking it all up as "Ring Experience.")
So "Yay CJ! Whoo hoo! She's my little agility dog!"
I know it was long...Thanks for reading. Sheri will have the videos up soon for us all to enjoy.
-Glen; CJ's sheeple
It's no secret that CJ and I have been struggling since we started trialing last June. She'd either bolt out of the ring from the start line, or lift my confidence, give me a handful of obstacles and then bolt out of the ring. Either way I was making a lot of donations to trials and entertaining my fellow competitors with my antics on course to keep her positively motivated and neither one of us was getting much out of the effort.
I will freely admit I entered the ring Saturday morning with a lot of hope and a good dose of trepidation. CJ's run was...unsure. That's probably a good term for it. She wasn't fast, and she balked on a couple obstacles, but she came back each time and finished the run for me. We ran the run clean and she ran the whole course with me, so I ran her back to our crating area for a big CJ Party! "Whoo Hoo! CJ!!"
We had a contingency in place in the event she ran out of the ring again that would hopefully freak her out enough that she'd begin to think twice about running out of the ring; but I was more happy to give her a super positive experience for finishing the course with me instead. A part of me wants to think that the party she got was enough to get her to perform for me for the rest of the day; but Sheri thinks that my tone and movements conveyed more confidence and "in control" of the situation similar to when we run in training.
Either way, CJ and I qualified in all five runs on Saturday to put us in the running for a perfect weekend overall. I qualified in the Full House Level 1 run that I needed to finish the Fun title, and the Standard Level 1 run to finish the Standard part of the Title. "Whoo hoo! CJ!! What a good girl!"
Sunday presented many new challenges to CJ's abilities. It would be the first time we'd attempted Jackpot and Snooker with CJ. Plus we were running now in Standard 2 as well as Colors and Jumpers Level 3. We needed the Jackpot and Snooker runs to complete the level 1 Strategy category and finish the CPE Level 1 Title.
Jackpot was first and she must have remembered the parties from yesterday because she was spot on for Jackpot not only giving me the Teeter obstacle with out a pause, but also reading me perfectly on the four obstacle distance gamble. "Whoo hoo CJ!!" Run back for another Sheltie Party!
Standard 2 introduces weave poles, which I know she can do 12 in training now. We've been working at them, but prior to this trial she's been about 50% on her weaves. So in competition I've asked her to do them, but continued through if she didn't so as not to risk her shutting down so we can at least finish the run. Not anymore though. She has to learn that she can't just "sneak by the weaves" in competition, so I corrected the weaves on this run. On the third call back, she charged through the weaves like I know she can, and gave me the next jump, but that was all the further we got. She bailed off the on-ramp to the dog walk (which is her favorite obstacle) and bolted for the exit. I coaxed her over another jump, but she bolted for the exit again so I called the run rather than stress her out further. The old CJ was back, but on the positive side, she did the weaves on course. It was worth the NT. She got praise, but it was significantly reduced which I hope sank in a little.
Right after that run was Wildcard 3 where we were once again confronted by the weave poles. Sticking to my guns, she needs to learn that it's no longer acceptable to sneak past the weaves. The run was going great and when I commanded she take the weaves, she charged in, made the entrance, gave me three poles and stopped dead. (Like OMG! I'm doing the weaves!) I had to guide and coax her through the last two weaves, but we did them without faulting them, AND finished the rest of the run. We were 12 seconds over course time which was an NQ...but again, she gave me the weaves first time this run, and even though I had to coax her through the last two, we got them and finished the run. (Have to watch the video to see if I stepped into her or not.) "Whoo Hoo CJ!" Big party!!
Okay, by now I really wanted this Snooker run to come out of the weekend with the Level 1 title. CJ likes to run nice flowing courses and she's tends to question whether I know what I'm doing when we have to repeat obstacles on a course. You can tell on our Snooker run that she was beginning to question her confidence that I really was in control of the situation. The opening was very rough, but she stayed with me and followed me into the closing and from there she even gave me a bit of speed. We qualified with plenty of time to spare, accumulated 45 points and beat Edan's time by a full second! (Though he'll point out he scored 5 more points in that extra second.) "Whoo hoo! Yay CJ!! Big Party!!
Last run of Sunday was a Level 3 Jumpers run...and this course was full of twists, turns and traps! CJ was tired, mentally if not physically, and she looked to the exits a couple times, but I got her back with me and we finished the course clean and a second over standard course time. "Whoo hoo! You CJ!! Big Party!!
So all in all, we didn't get a perfect weekend, but I wasn't really running for that goal anyway. Considering all the months and trials of NQ's, 8 for 10 is darned good. The two runs we missed were "working runs" anyway to fix the weaves in competition, and in both cases, we made positive strides forward. It's nice to come off an agility weekend confident the courses I laid out to run with her were correct, putting a Title on her after a year of trying, and being able to say CJ and I made positive progress overall as a team. (Not chalking it all up as "Ring Experience.")
So "Yay CJ! Whoo hoo! She's my little agility dog!"
I know it was long...Thanks for reading. Sheri will have the videos up soon for us all to enjoy.
-Glen; CJ's sheeple
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- now why is CJ trying to enter you in horrible handlers?
Ember does the same thing but she sppeds up after she is done with the teeter. 
