Less than one month to the trial!!

I had to work with Lexi a little bit on this because she's wary of strangers, and our old measuring wicket made a weird metal on metal noise. I always bring treats (they can eat out of your hand while the judge does the measuring). You can also tell the judge if your dog is nervous, or if it's her first time--judges are usually pretty good about talking to and petting your dog to calm them down if they're nervous.
How did you work with her? Nellie is also very nervous around strangers. I'm hoping that at our next run thru or at class that they will have a wicket on hand and will let us try it

I've run under Mary Beam before. She a super nice lady. I think I may still have my course maps at home from when I ran under her. If I do, I can send them to you so you can get an idea of what her courses are like.
.
That would be great! She seems nice...I looked up both judges online to see if they had any course maps available but found a funny video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8EQ06aSj8I&list=FLe-Ebhp6cd7I2G7HLkRunUA&index=38&feature=plpp
 
How did you work with her? Nellie is also very nervous around strangers. I'm hoping that at our next run thru or at class that they will have a wicket on hand and will let us try it

Luckily we had access to our club's wicket, and we just used it every time we went out to the field for a couple weeks. I taught Lexi to "touch" the wicket with her nose for a cookie, and then we progressed to just lots of cookies when it went over her back, etc....she still doesn't love it, but got through it to get 3 good measurements. She'll need one more once she turns 3, but I think she'll be able to handle it.
 
I've run under Mary Beam before. She a super nice lady. I think I may still have my course maps at home from when I ran under her. If I do, I can send them to you so you can get an idea of what her courses are like.

That would be great! She seems nice...I looked up both judges online to see if they had any course maps available but found a funny video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8EQ06aSj8I&list=FLe-Ebhp6cd7I2G7HLkRunUA&index=38&feature=plpp

Sorry this took so long but here are some of the courses from my trial under her back in 2009.
 
Last edited:
Didn't want to clog stuff up making another thread, so another update. :razz:

We had an agility weekend! Thursday run thru, then another run-thru on Sunday, with class in the evening! Nellie did very well everywhere, even though my handling on Thursday was not the greatest.

The run-thru on Sunday was as close to a trial I think it could possibly be. They had a competition size ring, a PA system announcing dogs, ad spectators standing very close to the ring.

If you want to SEE the runs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S2Vi85K6x8


The summaries::smile2:
Thursday-- : Not our best, run-wise (my handling was really off) but she completely ignored my dad who was filming less than 30 feet away in the open!!!! That's a huge accomplishment for her! The course here was wicked tricky, and we skipped the teeter after two huge flyoffs xP


Sunday-- This run-thru was held at a fairgrounds, and it was sooo close to an actual trial! They had a loud PA system announcing dogs (the announcer Elise was quite funny!) People were standing directly outside the ring, and there were lots of people there. The courses were super, super fun.

First run: Really distracted, but she did some obstacles and ended together. Everyone was so supporting of her and the spectators loved her. If you listen at the first green tunnel, you can hear the spectators talking about her haha.

Second run: SOOO MUCH BETTER!!!!! She did the course, a little bobble at the blue tunnel/Aframe, and refusal at the chute, but I'm not worried about that. We were both so happy after this run. :)

Third run: Not trying to make excuses, but we ran third and I didn't know that until the first dog started. I had to run and get her, so she didn't have as much time to get revved up.
She had one nasty bar crash...thankfully she was ok. She was doing pretty good until the teeter where some little kid yelled something that sounded like 'Nellie' so she ran to the fence and we lost it for a minute. After we got back on track, she had a killer ending & serpentine.!!! SO proud of her!



Class:
6 hours later, we had class. We were the only ones that showed up, so we had private lessons! :D We worked on weaves and ran two courses. I couldn't believe her focus! Every time I looked down at her, she was looking at me!


We're counting down the days (12 left!! :eek2: :uhoh:) Mostly, we're working on focus WITHOUT the treat bag. (If worse comes to worse, would it be against the rules to rub hot dog on your hands?? :)

We also didn't get to have Nellie measured. Is there any way we can practice it at home?

Thanks for reading or maybe watching.
 
Didn't want to clog stuff up making another thread, so another update. :razz:

We had an agility weekend! Thursday run thru, then another run-thru on Sunday, with class in the evening! Nellie did very well everywhere, even though my handling on Thursday was not the greatest.

The run-thru on Sunday was as close to a trial I think it could possibly be. They had a competition size ring, a PA system announcing dogs, ad spectators standing very close to the ring.

If you want to SEE the runs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S2Vi85K6x8


The summaries::smile2:
Thursday-- : Not our best, run-wise (my handling was really off) but she completely ignored my dad who was filming less than 30 feet away in the open!!!! That's a huge accomplishment for her! The course here was wicked tricky, and we skipped the teeter after two huge flyoffs xP


Sunday-- This run-thru was held at a fairgrounds, and it was sooo close to an actual trial! They had a loud PA system announcing dogs (the announcer Elise was quite funny!) People were standing directly outside the ring, and there were lots of people there. The courses were super, super fun.

First run: Really distracted, but she did some obstacles and ended together. Everyone was so supporting of her and the spectators loved her. If you listen at the first green tunnel, you can hear the spectators talking about her haha.

Second run: SOOO MUCH BETTER!!!!! She did the course, a little bobble at the blue tunnel/Aframe, and refusal at the chute, but I'm not worried about that. We were both so happy after this run. :)

Third run: Not trying to make excuses, but we ran third and I didn't know that until the first dog started. I had to run and get her, so she didn't have as much time to get revved up.
She had one nasty bar crash...thankfully she was ok. She was doing pretty good until the teeter where some little kid yelled something that sounded like 'Nellie' so she ran to the fence and we lost it for a minute. After we got back on track, she had a killer ending & serpentine.!!! SO proud of her!



Class:
6 hours later, we had class. We were the only ones that showed up, so we had private lessons! :D We worked on weaves and ran two courses. I couldn't believe her focus! Every time I looked down at her, she was looking at me!


We're counting down the days (12 left!! ) Mostly, we're working on focus WITHOUT the treat bag. (If worse comes to worse, would it be against the rules to rub hot dog on your hands?? :)

We also didn't get to have Nellie measured. Is there any way we can practice it at home?

Thanks for reading or maybe watching.

said your video was private:(

glad to hear that things went well and that your run-thru was so realistic :yes:
 
You guys looked great! Despite her running off or getting zoomies, you were able to get her back and get her to work with you through a couple pretty long sequences. And you're right, she had some awesome bits and pieces in there (towards the end of a couple of her runs especially) and you should be really proud. She is really coming along.

As for practicing the measuring, it's sort of hard. You can try having random people take a measuring stick or ruler and placing it over her head, but it may not be the same.
 
Back
Top