Monday, July 27, 2009

This and That

I just have no time to post lately, I'll put the blame on Indy. She keeps me busy!

Here's a quick run down of what we've been up to:

Kittie will be moving to preferred, it's just the best move for her.....and my mental health. There is nothing worse than running course after course beautifully, with one or two knocked bars. She has more than enough points for her MACH 2, but the DQs just aren't coming, we need to have fun again.

She was invited to the invitational again, ranked #1.....with a completely embarassing points total for the year. Between taking off most of the Winter, only doing a few trials over the summer and knocking dozens of bars she ended up with less than 500 points for the year. As fun as the invitational is, we'll be skipping it and waiting to watch it from home. We'll save the money to put it towards Indy's education fund!

Abby couldn't run at the last trial, she was off all week, and by the end of the week before the trial she wouldn't even come up the stairs. I think she hurt her back. She saw a chiropractor, and rested up, she seems back to herself now.

Indy went to her first agility lesson last week. Instead of group classes, I'm mainly working with her myself and taking periodic private lessons. We're starting weave poles (2X2), her dogwalk contacts are looking great (Silvia's method), I'm loving her teeter, she charges straight to the end, crouches down and stays until released. We're working on foundation work for front and rear crosses, and forward and lateral sends. I'm pleased as can be with how she's doing!

Rudy's healthy, just waking up earlier and earlier for some reason lately. And Willy's....well, Willy. He's the laid back guy who prefers to hang out at home, living in a house of crazy girls.

3 comments:

Margie said...

It's all about the fun for sure! So you have to go back and start with novice? That actually should be fun! I've been doing Novice Fast with Clancy and having a blast. So low pressure.

I'm planning on emailing you - I'm having fits with Clancy's weaves. We finally nailed down the entry but now he is popping out! Like around pole 10 and eleven most of the time. It's driving me crazy, we are leaving so many Q's behind because of it. I'm having a hard time finding advice online but I think I'm going to start working his exits. That is one piece of advice I got from Karen Holik that last time I chatted with her. And since she gave me solid advice regarding our entries, I'm going to start to train our exits - today! :-) I'll have more videos midweek of our weekend. We are so close it getting everything worked out.

And I think I've finally decided on my next agility dog and I'm going in the opposite direction you went – I think I’m going big! Belgium Malinois! But not for at least two years – I have some pugs to MACH first. :-)

westoverpugs said...

Yep, back to Novice. Too bad Kittie really doesn't like those courses, she hates all the straight lines. Kittie really has never had much ground speed, she gets pretty good times from fast contacts and efficient lines....for a cobby little thing, she's a nice turner!

Abby on the other hand loves novice, she has a bigger stride and just loves to really open up and move.

You know, I'm not sure I've ever "Trained exits" on the poles, just keep weaving until there's no more poles.....I'm really liking 2X2s, I used this method with both Abby & Indy, Donna's now teaching a slightly modified version to the beginner dogs, and it's working well.

I'll keep an eye out for your new videos

westoverpugs said...

Oh, I forgot. I like a lot of the belgium breeds. One of Indy's best friends is a belguim Tervuren (sp?).