Jade FG40K

We attended a flyball tournament over the past weekend with the crew. While a variety of issues kept me from fully enjoying myself as much as I usually do at these events, the dogs had a good time and did well, and that is what was important. Plus, Jade received his plaque for earning 40,000 points in flyball, a feat he accomplished back in September.

Jade is our first dog, and the one who started all the craziness. He was so full of energy and eager to learn, and we were having a blast finding new things to do with him. We signed up for a 6-week flyball class at a local dog training club, taught by our current team captain. At the end of 6 weeks, Jade had already learned the basics, so the instructor invited him to a team practice. After only two more practices, Jade ran in his first tournament!

Jade was 2 years old already when he started flyball, but has still been able to reach the 40K mark and is currently the 15th-highest point scoring Lab in NAFA. In his prime, Jade was running an average of 4.1 seconds, with his best times being 3.9 seconds (I think he did that twice). He has been a valuable addition to our club's Mix team over the years, and helped them be runners-up in the Multibreed Division in our NAFA Region last year.

Jade turned 9 in the fall, and it seems that his stamina just isn't quite what it used to be (though he still has more energy than many dogs half his age). On the second days of tournaments when he would start to get tired, he began dropping his ball more and more. So, we are now running him part-time and sharing spots with other dogs, which is working out well. It is keeping him happy and active, and not setting him up to make mistakes.

It is a little bittersweet putting the new plaque on the wall. I don't expect we will earn another 10K in his career, so this will probably be the last title he earns. It is an impressive one though, and I am proud of all he's accomplished and feel fortunate to still have more days ahead of us on the racing lanes together.

Q's

Since one-half of our human family had Presidents’ Day off as a holiday, I decided to take a vacation day myself, and we attended a one-day agility trial on Monday. We just brought Django and Maebe, and only entered them each in a few runs, but they had a good time.

Django had a goofy Jackpot run to start off the day. Often his first runs of the day are silly as he burns off a little steam. Our first Standard course was pretty fast and flowing though, so I was optimistic about it. The run itself went nicely, except that Django blew his A-Frame contact! Django NEVER blows contacts – I couldn’t believe it. We still had one more chance for a Standard Q, but the second course was considerably more difficult, with some tricky obstacle discriminations, and a few tunnel entries that were not terribly obvious.

Of course, Django does tend to actually do better on the more difficult courses, and he ran the second course very nicely, earning 2nd place and a Q! The only slight wrinkle in the performance was my fault. As we approached the final tunnel, I got worried that he would choose the wrong entry and get an off course, negating our perfect run to that point. In my concern, I basically called him off the tunnel, even though he was heading for the correct entry. At that point he started to head over to the wrong entry, since I had inadvertently made it clear that his first choice was incorrect. Being the good boy he is though, he turned around again when I called him, and I directed him back into the correct entry. Our biggest hindrance lately has been my not trusting him and babysitting obstacles more than I need to, which slows us down and causes unnecessary confusion. I know I am getting worse about that lately, as we are only about 12 legs away from earning our C-ATCH title, and I think in my excitement I am just trying to make every run count.

Up North

We spent a long weekend with the dogs at the Winter Outing at Dog Scout Camp in St. Helen, Michigan. We try to get up to camp about three times a year to visit with good friends and spend a lot of time with the dogs. There are plenty of trails to hike around on, and a lot of dog activities to do. It is always a good time.

We arrived mid-day Friday, and took all the dogs for a hike, then took Django out skijoring. We knew we had to get some time in on the skis early, since the weather was expected to warm up drastically on Saturday. It was ironic, given the low temps and high snowfall that we’ve had in Michigan this winter, that our skiing and sledding weekend would be affected by thawing. We made the most of it though. Lowell got Jade out with the kicksled on Saturday morning, but by noon when I took Django and Maebe out, the ground was already becoming exposed on the trails. We turned back, and spent the rest of the weekend hiking through the woods with them all, which is always a peaceful activity.

The dogs all had a great time and came home very tired and happy. Plus, we came home with a new toy: a training-sized dogwalk that we won in a fundraising auction. It is the perfect size for our yard (too many trees back there for a full-length one), and we’re hoping will be just the thing for fixing Maebe’s contacts.

Now I’m looking forward to the warmer weather predicted for this week. With the snow melting, we might actually be able to pull some equipment out in the yard and do some more training than we’ve been able to in the last month.

Speedy Girl

Last night Django and Maebe started their new session of agility class. It is our usual Thursday night routine; however, this night I had to handle Maebe, since her usual wrangler (my husband) was out of town on business.

I have handled Maebe on occassion in classes and a handful of times during trials. I am well aware that she is fast. But, I'm a runner, and I've handled Tristan plenty of times before, who is consistently one of the faster dogs out there. I know it is a struggle to keep with her, but I didn't figure I would get so completely dusted on the course. That dog is just insane on the agility course.

We started out OK, then had a tunnel/chute combo, which basically just provided a straightaway for her to gain speed. Out of the chute were 12 weave poles - not bad, you can usually catch up to the dog in the weaves, so I was counting on that. But I swear, she hit those poles and freakin' ACCELERATED. Those led to a curved tunnel, so I quickly crossed behind her and ran like hell past the next two obstacles - two bar jumps - and headed toward the dog walk. She caught me in no time, clearing both jumps, hit the dog walk and was past it before I was anywhere close to the up-ramp. At which point, I just stopped, doubled-over laughing because - really - how do I possibly handle when the dog is almost the width of the building ahead of me? Keep in mind that Maebe screams continuously the entire time as she runs, so I can shout the commands at the top of my lungs, but odds are slim she'll hear them at that point.

The sad part of all this is now I can't really give Lowell all my armchair-coach handling advice like: "Don't try to race her," "Stay calm," "Don't get frantic and rush," etc. I think the only hope is to teach her to read and show her the course maps beforehand. I think all I can say to him now is "Yeah . . . Good luck with that."

Farfel, and another CPE Weekend

We had a dog-filled start to our new year.

On New Year's Eve, we had pretty much decided to have a quiet evening at home, cook a nice meal, and attempt to stay awake until midnight this year (not an easy task for people who normally get up at 5 AM even on the weekends). We failed on all accounts. At about 6 PM, we decided that it might be nice to actually get out for a bit and go in to town for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.

On our way to town though, we caught out of the corner of our eye a brown, furry tail cruising at top speed down the sidewalk. Then, a little brown dog darted into the middle of the intersection we were approaching, came to a stop, and stood there in the road wondering what to do. There is a lot of traffic at this intersection, and we were sure the little guy was going to get hit. Cars slowed down around him though, fortunately. My husband got out of our car, at which point the little guy made a bee-line for him, looking happy and relieved that someone was there to get him out of this predicament.

We tossed the dog into the crate we keep in the back of the car, and drove back in to the neighborhood, feeling sure we would come across frantic owners searching for him. No such luck, and though he was wearing a collar, he had no tags. Since the Humane Society was closed for the holiday, we realized we had a house guest for a couple nights.

We called him Farfel, after the Seinfeld episode "The Dog", where Jerry unexpectedly has to take care of a stranger's dog for a few nights. Unlike that dog, though, Farfel was a perfect little gentleman, and about the friendliest thing I've ever seen.

On Jan. 2, when the Humane Society opened, I took him there to see if there were any lost dog reports or if he had a microchip. They recognized him right away, said he had been there before, was a "repeat offender," and they had already been contacted by his owner. So, Farfel got to hang out there for a bit to wait for his owner. I hope this time they keep him contained and put identification on him. I hate to think what could happen if he got out again - he came awful close to being squished during this adventure.

We also had another weekend of agility on Jan. 3-4 with Django and Maebe. Both did very well. Maebe especially was tearing up the courses. She especially excelled at Jackpot, which is a point-earning game where you complete as many obstacles as you can within a certain time limit in order to gain points. In order to qualify, the highest levels need 44 points. Maebe earned 71!

CPE Trial: December 27-29

We spent the last three days playing agility with Django and Maebe. Sadly, Tristan had to be pulled this weekend, as he has been a bit lame on his front leg. We think he slipped on the ice in the skating rink that is our back yard right now on Christmas Eve, so we'll have to rest him for a couple weeks.

Django had a good weekend, and had several qualifying runs. He was able to pick up the last leg he needed to complete Level 4 in CPE, and is now closing in on his C-ATCH title. I'm hoping he can finish it perhaps by this spring.

Even on the runs that he didn't Q on, he had some very nice moments. He took a teeter (his least favorite obstacle) on a Jackpot course from probably at least 10 feet away from me. I was very proud - I didn't expect him to do that at all. Unfortunately, he missed the tunnel entrance right before the teeter, so didn't Q but I thought it was a success all the same. He also had some great weave pole performances, which is something we have been working on for a long time with him. I was very proud of him, and he is always so fun to run.

Maebe also turned in some impressive performances with Lowell. She needs to work on keeping the bars up on jumps and hitting her contacts, but - man - she is fast and she is a weaving demon! She is a blast to watch. We realized that this trial marked her year anniversary of competing, so given her young age, she is really doing well and has accomplished a lot already.

The Dogs

Since a lot of this blog will be for keeping track of my training of my pack, and for keeping friends and family up to date on what we're up to, I will start by introducing the gang:

Jade, is a 9-year old black lab mix, and was our first dog. We got him when he was about a year old from a local rescue organization. He had so much drive and energy, that we went looking for new ways of having fun with him. I say he's the dog who changed our life, because he led us to flyball, agility, and so many of the other crazy activities we are obsessed with now. Jade recently earned over 40,000 points in NAFA flyball - not bad for a dog who started training and running well into his adult years. In his prime, Jade ran 4.0's and 4.1's, and even turned in a 3.9 second time once or twice. This year he has entered semi-retirement - I know he'd keep running, but I want to go easy on his body as he starts to age.

Tristan is our 7-year old, tri-color Border Collie. He is head dog in our household, a position that all the others respect. "T" is an intense dog and hard worker. He isn't one for snuggling and loving - he wants to be on the move and is ready to go at all times - a quintessential BC. Tristan had a TPLO surgery for a partially torn cruciate and a subsequent plate removal when he was two years old, and it took him 2 years to return to competition. Despite this setback, Tristan is now tearing up the agility courses, and even took Reserve High in Standard at CPE Agility Nationals in 2008. He may have a bionic knee, but he can still keep up with the best of them in the agility ring. Tristan is primarily handled by my husband (though he'll gladly work for anyone).

Maebe is our 2-year old Border Collie/Staffy Bull mix. As the only female, she is truly princess of the household. People who hear her screaming and clawing her way towards the agility ring would never believe that she is a quiet, laid back girl at home, who can usually be found napping in her crate. When it is time to go though, she turns on the afterburners. While her agility career is just beginning, it looks to be a promising one. My husband also handles her, so he will be the one struggling to keep up with her.

And finally, the "red dog" of the title: Django. Django is a middle-aged red Border Collie. He was a stray picked up in the Detroit area. After making his way through shelters and rescue organizations, he found his way to us. After the first week in our house, we talked to the rescue group, concerned that he should be in a single-dog, pet home, because we were afraid he was overwhelmed by the business of our household. They encouraged us to give him one more week to adjust, and I will forever be grateful for that advice. Django has turned into my "heart dog", my constant companion, who would do anything for me and only wants to please. Although not our fastest, he is our most reliable and most accomplished agility dog. When he came to us, Lowell laughed at me running around like a fool with a bag of hot dogs, trying to get Django to slowly retrieve a tennis ball. Now he is a ball-crazed nut, who runs in the low to mid-4's in flyball. He is my perfect boy, and I couldn't be prouder of him.