Frustrating weekend. Some ups, mostly downs.

[k9kreationz]

Wow. This was a HOT weekend. Okay, it said it was 80, but it felt much hotter, especially when the breeze didn't kick in. That or I'm just used to my 65-70 degree weather. lol. (no dogs were seen in cars, yay for us)

Koji had a total of 10 runs, 5 on Saturday, 5 on Sunday.

Here's my breakdown. I'm sure you guys could relate. And strangely enough, the judge used the same courses for all levels. Weird. And frustrating....you'll see why.

Day 1

2 Touch n Go's (dog walk, A-frame, tunnels, and hoops).
Koji refused all contacts on his first run, so badly, I picked him up and walked off. Felt that was the way to go, versus skipping it and moving on. His second run, the judge said, "why don't you pick him up and see if he'll do it once he's on it". Okay, immediate Elimination, but whatevers. I needed the training. So I picked him up, got two feet on, nudged his butt and poof. Up and over he went. Crazy dog. He refused the dog walk. I put him on it (all 4) and as I went around the tunnel that was going underneath, he bailed, almost at the top. yikes! I picked him up and walked off.

2 Hoopers
Okay, this game is confusing and FAST! We didn't Q either, but we didn't E either! Yay! A plus. But, we didn't Q because we were over time. So frustrating to be over time. One error and having to repeat something and you're pretty much over. I had to have Koji repeat the hoopers weave and I was over time by 1.5 seconds. Tough!

1 Tunnelers
Oh, this was so frustrating. Koji was finally concentrating and focusing on me. I figured we had this in the bag (how many of us have said that and failed?). It was a great run, he was fast, he wasn't sticking so close so I didn't have to run as much. BUT he saw a bug. Got distracted. Ohmigod. Went after it. LOL. Got him back on course. Last tunnel, not sure why, but he went in, AND CAME BACK OUT!!! We didn't Q by 1.98 seconds. AUGH! So frustrating!

Day 2

2 Touch n Go's again. His first one, he was all over the place and basically ignored me. I had to once again, bump his butt to get over the A-frame, which he then did, but then decided not to do anything else for me. So, picked up and walked off. Eliminated. Ouch. His second one, went MUCH better. He refused the dog walk, then got on, but bailed. Third time I picked him up. He stopped almost to the top, so I held onto him (immediate E) and cheered him on. He got across slowly and yay, completed it. We had to cross over it again, and he ran past it, but I got him up on the second try and he went across....pretty fast for him. Ohmigod. I was so proud of him. Seriously, I was yelling happy things at him. Then we hit the A-frame. He first refused it. Then second time, up and over w/o me nudging or anything. Ohmigod. I seriously was yelling happy things at him by that time and all the way to the finish. I was so proud. Even the judge was like, "great job!" and a lot of others gave me lots of supportive comments (obviously, they saw our first 3 runs). LOL. I was so proud. Even with 2 E's.

2 weavers. He's got his weaves down pat. I now need to work on him running full speed and learning to slow down to enter. The first run, I had to get him through 2 of the 3 sets of weaves 3 times. Obviously, we didn't Q only to time. His second run was much better. So much better, we Q'd!!! We came in second, and first was 8 seconds faster. LOL. We have a lot to work on.

Last tunnelers and last run of the day. I was tired, Koji was tired. It was hot, we were all miserable. This one was easy. Two front crosses and since I had to pull him to me, even easier. I started my run, then guess what happens? I hear a bee buzzing in my ear, it even was IN my ear. AUGH!! It freaked me out, I lost my step, almost fell, then couldn't recall the course and dangit went to the wrong tunnel. Immediate no Q. Booo!!! We finished the course easy peasy. Darn handler!

So, out of 10 runs. We got 4 E's, 1 Q, 2 2nd places, 1 3rd, and 1 4th. Seriously, this was one frustrating weekend for me. And yet, we've come leaps and bounds. I'm so proud of Koji and him getting over both contacts w/o my help. I wasn't going to do anything really until end of May, but I think I will do two more shows before then. He really needs to get used to different contacts in different places.

He's slow to become comfy on equipment, but once he is, he's pretty solid. Minus him passing the weaves, he got them dead on once he was in. He loves his jumps and tunnels and even hoops. I just need to get him to love the A-frame and dog walk. Then we can move onto loving the chute, table, and teeter. Hopefully we'll get there before I have to retire him. LOL. He is almost 3 and we've been working on this for 1.5 years.

Then we can try out AKC and USDAA. We're trying out CPE in June.

 

[Silaria]

That sounds almost like my Saturday at Washingtonville's CPE trial. Talk about frustrating! Thankfully I didn't have to resort to taking him out of the ring before finishing.

Sounds like you handled the situation as best you could.

Speaking of hot weather, there is no denying that summer will be here before we know it - at least for those of us in the northern half of the planet. (Sorry folks "down south", but its time to start sharing our cold winter with you.)

While at the Harrisburg Dog Show over the weekend I picked up a cooling pad for Edan to use at agility trials. The one I got, called a "Canine Cooler", (http://www.soothsoft.com/cc.html) works off of water and the ambient air temperature. Basically as long as the air temp is lower than the dog's body temp, it will feel cool to the dog. The sample mat they had felt cool to me in the building and our body temp is lower than a dog's normal temp.

What I really liked about it was that it used water and was NOT wet. You fill it with water once, roll it to get the air out and never empty it. (Here are the instructions for using the bed: http://www.soothsoft.com/downloads/instructions/CanineCoolInstruct1.pdf)

I'm hoping it will keep him more comfortable, especially in conjunction with the fan I got him last year (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...D25X-_-100485407&locStoreNum=6866&marketID=34).

 

[k9kreationz]

Was Edan not up to par either? Glad you didn't have to take him off the course. I've found, it's just better if I take him off. Versus allowing him to skip things as he wants. Sigh.

Thanks for the Canine Cooler info. I may have to get him one. I bought one similar to that for Miko and Miko hated it. I have to say, I'm glad the club had set up a hosing down area. Very smart on their part. I didn't hose Koji down, only cuz I just put his flea stuff on him. He did get to walk in the water and get his tummy wet. I think that helped. Did you get Eden a small?

Funny story about my fan. I bought it from Clean Run on sale. It's okay. But every time I turned it on, the breeze would kick in. I'd turn it off and the breeze would stop. I was like, what in the world! It got to the point where everyone around me was saying, "leave it on, we'll buy batteries". Seriously, weird. It was like my little fan was cooling down the trial. LOL.

Here's to a better trial next time...for both of us.

 

[Justicemom]

Sorry you had such a hard weekend. Sounds like you did the best you could. Keep training. Hopefully he'll come around.

 

[corbinam]

Sorry about your weekend. I'm about to make a similar post about agility frustration, so I know how you feel.

It sounds like there really were some great positives to the weekend, too, though. The best advice I can give is to try to picture the couple things that you or Koji did really well. Sometimes I have to try to keep one or two mental images to not go crazy with frustration (I'm very competitive).

Also, think about how far you have come. I like to think about our first agility class and the things that I thought we would never get. Then you realize how much you really have improved.