The 14 Weave Pole Experiment

  At a recent agility trial, a friend said "Now that my dog is in Open, she'll only ever be trained on 12 poles. I don't ever want her to do 6 poles again."  He's afraid she's going to pop out of the poles.
  This made me wonder what would happen if I set up 14 poles at the training center. The weaves at the center are made so that they are 2 sets of 6 poles, not joined in the center. We have another set of 2x2 weaves, so it was easy to add another 2 poles.
  This is an edited version of the results of my experiment:

  The two more experienced dogs took a couple of reps to get comfortable with the extra weavies. The youngsters, the Scotties, didn't miss a beat and just weaved them on the first try.

 Obviously, 14 poles isn't much of a challenge for the terriers, so on another day I set up 18 poles. That's the regular set of 12 plus the set of 6 2x2s. These are all 24 inch wide poles.

  Here's the video:

  My next challenge will be more proofing, and working on more difficult entries.

Weekend Report

   We had a fun weekend June 10-11-12. Friday found Kilda at a RallyO trial, her first after taking some classes to help with her "stage fright." The trial was in Colorado Springs, and was very small and quiet since it was Friday. The course was wonderful for Kilda, starting with a "FAST" sign and ending with the jump. She thought about quitting a couple of times, but gathered enough courage to make it through the course with a score of 84, and third place. We'll try for that last RA leg in August at the Greeley shows.
  On Saturday and Sunday, we participated in agility in Castle Rock. Cozy got a leg in Standard and one in Jumpers, but not on the same day, darn it. I was glad to see her running her usual speed. She's had a recurrent soreness, and was really slow in Amarillo a few weeks ago.
  Jackson had some screaming fast, fun runs, but has decided that weaves and Aframe contacts take too long and should be avoided. OK, we have something to work on all summer.
  And Wager competed in AKC agility for the first time. I wasn't sure that he would maintain focus, but he performed beautifully! Not perfect, but fast, nailed his weaves, didn't visit anyone in the ring, and followed my lead.
  Here's his Saturday run:

  And here is his Sunday run:



  This vid is a classic example of stress signals- did you notice the scratching and the shake-off? That's why I decided to NOT go back and fix the second jump he ran past. It was better for his confidence to just ignore it and keep running. Then he dropped the bar right before the weave poles, but after a brief pause he completed the weave poles (and the rest of the course) like a pro. I think that with experience, Wager will be a darn good agility dog. And if not, I'll still love him dearly.

Jackson Finds A Treasure

  .......Sorry about the lack of blogging for the last few months. I'll write a post about my life over the winter of '10-'11. There's enough to make another complete blog...

  Yesterday I took the dogs (Cozy, Tucker, and the Scotties) up to the mountains for a hike. The temp in town was over 90 and I was hoping for a little cooler up there. We've also had hazy smoke from wildfires, and I was hoping for a little less up there. It was a little cooler, but much more smokey. I learned last night that there is another wildfire near Lake George, hence the extra smoke.
  I decided to hike up Crystal Creek so the dogs could cool off in the water frequently. They were having fun, running up and down the hills, sniffing everything, wading in the creek, when Jackson spotted The Rat. To be more precise, What Was Left Of a Dead Packrat. In this case, everything was there except the head. It was freshly dead, probably offed by a fox.
  I forgot the camera in the car, so I don't have photos of the corpse. Here's a photo from Google of a live packrat. They are big, about 5 or 6 inches long excluding the tail. In the case of yesterday's deceased treasure, excluding the head and including the tail it was about 10 inches long.

  Jackson picked up the treasure on the way back to the car. I was able to convince him to drop it by offering to trade treats. But he wasn't going to leave his treasure there, he was going to take it to the car! Ick! Gross! No! Acky! I know from experience that eventually Wager would steal it, and eat it. Should I have warned you, dear reader, about the graphic details that may be written in this blog? Do you want to hear about the pieces of squirrel they found on a walk last week? Another time....

  The story ended with me standing over the dearly departed, keeping Jackson away from it long enough for me to find a couple of sticks. I used the sticks to pick up the body and carry it to a tree branch, high above the dogs' heads. I stashed the packrat there, figuring that a fox would be able to retrieve it, or a hawk would enjoy it. I'm sorry I don't have photos. I'll be sure to remember the camera next time!