Agility Saturday Part 5 - Recovery

In the end we had entered 3 games and qualified (Q'd) in 2 of them.The more Q's we get the faster we can move up to Level 2.  He had held his own, even running with Paula. He had met new people and new dogs. He had showed more confidence than I ever saw before. He had done more than I had hoped for and way more than I expected.

At one point we took both dogs out for a walk and the Judge was out there, walking her own dog. she looked at me said "What a great dog, it's so much fun watching him run and we all can see just how much fun he is having."  I started to cry. She had no idea what it took to get us all to this day.  No idea how many classes - how many times we worked in the corner of a class, on not barking. No idea just how fearful he was in the past of the Wicket, the people, the other dogs. All she saw was a confident dog having a blast in a agility sport. I cried tears of joys, tears of relief, tears of pride.  It all hit me at once and she had no idea! 

 Sunday was a day of rest.

I use to do dog therapy with Becke, and had mentored others getting started in dog therapy and told them once the therapy session was over, go home and let the dog unwind.  I followed my advice this time as well.  Becke was tired, Hubby was tired, and I was beyond tired. We went home had our supper and was asleep on the couch by 6:30.  I had the good sense to put chicken in the cock pot so we came home to dinner waiting for us!  Added Mac and Cheese and we were ready with dinner in no time.

We spent the day relaxing.  We went to church and let the dogs sleep. Had a good lunch and all took a nap.  We needed the rest. Becke is 13 years 10  1/2 months old, recovery took longer for her than I had expected. her Saturday was longer than usual, her lunch was not the same and her nap was lost watching her little brother for the afternoon. August was just worn out and hubby and I just really needed down time.

In the end I learned that goals are important. Both for our pets and for ourselves.  As we move forwarded with Cancer treatments and with agility  training we reach higher and higher, digging deeper and deeper and in the end come out winners!

Agility Saturday Pt 4 -Wildcard

By time it was time for August's 3rd run it was after 4:30 and I was fading fast.  Remember we were there at 7:15 AM.  I was tired, my body hurt and this day was getting a lot longer than I anticipated. I knew that if I stopped moving in the ring, so would August. Time for the back up plan - or should  I say, the back up handler, Paula. 

Paula and August have worked together before in our classes. Chemo simply wears me out and there were classes that I just couldn't do and Paula took him to class.  He  knows her and loves her so she was my back up.

We had a plan to make the change.  I would go into my office with August and Paula would come take him from me.  We have tried to have me hand off August to Paula and leave and August thinks I've gone to the ladies room or something  and looks for me.  We didn't want that, so if Paula takes him away from me, he seemed to think I was staying behind and he would go off with her and do whatever. So we had it all planned out.  Remember, we are working with a not-so-confident dog so we plan a lot.

Paula took him and I snuck around to watch without him seeing me.

The game was "Wildcard."

The object is to successfully complete the course, including enough "wildcards" to qualify.  The wildcards are optional obstacles that you have to choose to take.  When the course is set out one obstacle will have an "A" while another will have a  "B". The wildcards are 2 obstacles placed parallel to each other.  For our level we needed to complete 2 "A" obstacles and 1 "B" obstacle.

Paula and I talked about our options, what obstacle to take and what to use as a back up in case he didn't want to do our plan.

Paula is a competitor in agility and has several agility dogs with titles.  I knew she could direct him to the correct obstacle to make his "wildcard".  She did.

Even though he was getting tired, she was able to redirect him, get him to shake off the stress of the day and the very long day and still make it fun for him.

In the end, he came in 2nd place for his level and again we got a ribbon (although we left as soon as he came off the ring, we were all so tired and I really needed to lay down - badly -so we never knew he got another ribbon until the next day)

Agility Saturday Part 3 -Standard

It was after 1:00 pm before we were ready to run again in another game called "Standard."

While waiting our turn, we (And by "we" I mean August) visited without barking, walked around outside, watched the other dogs run, and even took a nap on my lap!  He was polite, calm, even looked bored at one point.  No stress at all.

In this game, the object is to run a full course of numbered obstacles in order, going over the obstacles in the correct direction as well.  The handler gets to walk the course without the dog so that we can see where the obstacles are, what direction they go and to plan how to get the dog from 1 to 2 to 3 and so on in the shortest possible way at the fastest speed/shortest time that the handler and dog can do it in. Sounds easy right, not so much as I've learned. 

We had 13 obstacles. We made no errors (mistakes like knocking down a bar, going over time, or running the wrong direction - yes that happens.). We had fun. We didn't have barking, or freezing, but we did have a slow time as he would turn around and look at the onlookers watching him. We also had the final jump that he first ran past, then tried to jump over it going the wrong way!! I was able to slow him down, get him to come back to me and go over the jump in the correct direction.! Then I exhaled.

In the end, he did qualify and came in 4th place.  I was stunned as they handed me a ribbon!  Yes a real ribbon that says 4th place on it.  He did it!

My cheerleaders included Hubby and big sister Becke this time (Hubby had a meeting for church in the earlier run).   It was pure fun.

Agility Satuday Part 2 -Jackpot

Agility trials are designed to test both the handler and the dog. For CPE, each trail has been created as a game and each game has a name and rules.  Our first game was called "Jackpot."

Jackpot tests the course planning strategies of the handler and the dogs ability to work at a distance.

Jackpot is run as a two part course. A tape on the floor signifies where the two parts are.

The first part consists of the handler and dog working the course, attempting to accumulate at least the minimum number of points for their level in the stated amount of time. Each obstacle has been assigned a certain numbers of points. Some are 1 point while others are 3 points or even 5 points. The judge tells you the point value of the different obstacles.  In our case we needed 12 points, higher levels requires more points. The end of the accumulation time is signified by a whistle.  After you hear the whistle, the handler and dog then proceed to work through a series of  obstacles on the other side of the tape on the floor (called the gamble) within a time set by the judge. The handler must stay on one side of the tape on the floor while the dog works on the other side. The obstacles must be executed in the correct order without faults and cross the finish line to earn those points.

Since on Saturday they were running the game from tallest dog to shortest dog, and from highest level to lowest level, and the games started at 8 am, it took a very long time to get to August as he was jumping 8 inches, AND it turned out that there were over 400 dogs there! So it was 10:20 or so before we got into the ring.

Remember, we were there for measuring at 7:15AM! So we walked around, met up with other class- mates, walked outside, and finally put August in my office to sleep (yes, I work at this facility as the class coordinator and obedience instructor).  I watched the Pros do their thing, was surprised that I understood when either they or their dog made an error, and I asked a lot of questions.

A lot of questions.

The people get to walk the course without the dog to see where the obstacles are, which ones they want to do and which ones they will not do. They plan how to get the dog from one obstacle to the other, which directions the jumps go (yes, there is a correct direction on these things) and what end of the tunnels is the "enter here" side.

Finally, it was about our time so I took August out of my office, walked him again. and got him ready to run like the wind.

I had lots of people helping me, encouraging me and making sure I was where I needed to be when it was our turn. Having my cheering section with me was HUGE. Not only was August doing this for the first time, so was I, and as someone battling Cancer, my energy runs out fast so this was HUGE. Some were there for the day, another girl friend came in just to sit in the chair and watch and encourage me and August on our very first run.  Having her there, knowing she drove all the way from her house to this place just for us made me feel so loved.  Hubby couldn't be there for the first fun of the day, as he had a church business meeting that he needed to be at. As we came off the floor, some were laughing, some were clapping and some were crying, all were cheering. It felt so good!!

We began, we ran and we ended in under a minute.  We needed 12 points in the beginning, we got 29 points. We needed all 4 of the ending obstacle's, we got 2.  We ran out of time. We had a blast but we didn't qualify.  We did do something else however.

August gets uncomfortable and then barks and shuts down. He barks at new students that come to class, he barks at students that come to class late. He barks and freezes if he see something that is new and scary to him.  So here he is, in a large room with a woman in the middle of the room talking into a microphone, there are people sitting around the room that he doesn't know, there is a whistle going off, onlookers - lots of onlookers and dogs walking around - lots of dogs.  I was sure he would shut down and or bark like mad.  My goal for him was to have fun and we sure did.  He didn't bark, he didn't shut down and he stayed with me.  Here is our very first video of us. He sure did have fun, even if we didn't qualify.

Note to self: Why oh why did I wear white?? Note to self: NEVER again wear white!!! After 6 months of chemo and steroids, I've gained way too much weight and really need to do something about that. That aside, didn't August do great?

Agility Sautrday Part 1- Getting Started

Saturday, November 9th, August and I had entered our very first Agility Trial. It has taken us a year and a half to get to this point.  It's been a long road. August is our Powder Puff Chinese Crested and he is 11 inches tall and 10 pounds.  He's a small dog that is not very confident. When he faces things that he is unsure of, he can bark, back up, hide and shut down.

Agility can help build confidence in dogs and for him, it's been wonderful.
If you've ever watched Animal Planet then you've seen the obstacle course that dogs run and jump over, on, run through, or weave around.  It's a fun sport and I was looking forward to giving it a try but August just couldn't do it....Until November 9th.

There are many different agility organizations out there. We joined CPE (Canine Performance Events).  Why? Well frankly it was because the other students in my agility class were in CPE and I wanted the company.  They understood the rules. They understood the way they worked and their dogs would be in the same trial as me so I had a built in support system. I'm no fool!

Since we are "newbies" we start at Level 1 but many of the people at the trial were at much higher levels (5's and C's are the highest levels in CPE) so we have a very long way to go.

But before we get to run in the trial, August had to be measured - hence the photo above.

It's call the "Wicket" and the dog has to straddle the bottom bar while the top bar is lowered onto the dogs back to measure the dog from the shoulders.  The bar is pushed down on the shoulders just to make sure that the dog is getting measured and not all the hair that the dog has.  August has a lot of hair so he had to stand under this thing, while a strainge person pushed the top metal bar down on his shoulders to make sure he is short enough to jump 8 inches.

August hates the wicket!  I would take it out during class and he would walk around it but wanted nothing to do with walking under it!! As soon as I would lift that bar, he would run away!  So it took weeks and weeks of work getting him use to that device. Over time, he did get use to it as long as it was lightly placed on his shoulders.

On Saturday, they had the wicket on a table, so now August not only has to stand under it but he has to stand on a table under it while a strange woman measures him.  Measuring dogs was at 7:15am. The thought occurred to me that there would be nothing like ending the day before it begins because if he will not allow himself to measured, he cannot run in the trial. This may be one short day.

I knew we could use food for this so I had boiled chicken with me.  I got the food out and set him on the table. I told the judge that he was not very sure about this thing.  She was so kind and said "We'll go slow."  We started out with him facing her but he wasn't going to have any of that and turned around and put his butt in her face. I got him to straddle that bottom bar (praying "Don't have gas, don't have gas.) She then lowered the bar and pushed on his shoulders. My eyes grew as he began to lay down under the pressure and that is when I pulled out the chicken and held it over his face and he stood up to get the chicken.  She got his measurements, told me he was good to jump at 8 inches and let us go.

I finally exhaled. One challenge down and since he's over 2 years old he will not have to be measured again (CPE rules state that dogs need to be measured before their first trial run and if under 2 years old, need to be measured again once they are 2 years old).

He would not actually run in this first trial until 10:20am. We had a long time to do nothing.
More tomorrow because we didn't do just NOTHING, we did SOMETHING.

A Humble Thank You for a New Award

Julie over at What Else is Possible? was kind enough to give me this award.  Julie is a talented writer who has been published already and has time to visit my little blog and encourage me to continue.  Thank you.

The award is designed for new bloggers who have less than 200 followers. - but hopefully not for long. Here are the rules:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the Internet – other writers.
5. And best of all – have fun and spread the karma! 


So here are my five picks for this great award.
1. The World According to Tracy
2. Life of a Honey Bee
3. Patiently Waiting
4. The Quest for Me
5. Anearthenvessel


Thank you Julie!