Friday, July 29, 2011

conditioning VODs

I took advantage of a couple of the video on demand dvds that clean run has, strengthening your performance dog and stretching your performance dog. Both are pretty good, not so long that my short attention span starts to wander. There wasn't a ton in the strengthening one that was news for me. We already do most of the things listed, and I have to admit the section on "dancing" your dog kind of freaked me out. the dogs just looked like they were hanging on for dear life.....I'm not a professional, so I assume they were fine, although funny to watch.

The stretching dvd was great though. I've never done much of anything like this, so it was all new. watching it, I assumed no way would my dogs be too cooperative, but to my surprise so far they seem to really enjoy it. I've only done it with Indy and Abby, but Kittie's next. Both times I've done it, Indy's spent the next 30 minutes sprinting around the house/yard. stetching = a very frisky Indy.

Will have to see if it goes over as well at trials, there's a shortened version to use before & after runs included.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

This, that & a QQ

Went to the golden retriever club trial this past weekend. It's held at my favorite trial venue, the Pittsburgh indoor sports arena. Field turf, LOTS of room around the rings and for crating, air conditioning, a creek to play in near by and it's only about 20 minutes from home. Sadly this was the last trial of the year being held there.

Indy picked up another QQ on Friday, we messed up our standard runs on both sat. & sun. On Sat. I front crossed at the end of the dog walk, (late I'm sure) and she didn't pick up on it and ended up behind me, and we danced around for what felt like 5 seconds with her behind me, not knowing where the heck she was supposed to go. Then she came off the table. On Sunday, I was too focused on her finishing the weaves (she did) that I had no idea where I was and pulled her off the correct jump. She did get 2 Ex B JWW legs though, finishing her MXJ title!!

Indy hurting her back has got me really thinking about conditioning, and proper warm up/cool down I always do a fair bit for conditioning, but I'll admit I'm not great about warming up. We just go from crate, walk around a bit, maybe do a few tricks, tug a little and off we go.....afterwards is just about eating a jackpot of chicken and then (whenever possible) getting away from the trial a bit to go chase her ball for few minutes, a short walk and then she sometimes hangs out with me for a little to watch agility or just goes back to her crate to rest a bit. Now I'm wondering if there are some specific things we should be doing, and there are a ton of things on the market to buy......this is big business.

I imagine the whole products for performance dogs is a relatively small market, but seriously there is a product for every possible problem you or your dog may have. Products to calm them, to perk them up, reduce stress, fix all manner of structural/muscular injury. You can set up a whole gym worth of equipment for your dogs. I'm not saying any of this is a bad thing, we've used a lot of these products, but some of it does bother me a bit. There's a vibe of "my dog doesn't like agility, so I need to fix it with special powders, drinks and pills" when rather it's probably a training issue or an actual physical problem. People get desperate though and our society loves a quick fix.

I'm off to shop for canine conditioning and stretching dvds. Now that I'm closer to 40 than 30, I find I need to stretch (when did this happen?)....so I guess it would be good for the pups too.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

BFFs

Indy's best friend Callie stayed with us for a few days. This is pretty much how it went the whole time. They slowed down every once in a while....probably talked about hair care products.






Whenever there is a camera, Abby usually isn't far behind.


Look at ME I'm the cutest!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Terrible

What a weekend....We drove out to Cleveland for a trial saturday morning, well more like the middle of night. I got up around 3:00am so we could get there a little after 7am. I was just exhausted, don't even know how I got through courses. My thinking was I normally get up around 5, how much different can a few be? A lot apparently.

First run, the weaves were right after a straight line of a tunnel, dogwalk and a jump, so Indy was just flying, and collecting for the weaves with that much speed continues to be a problem. We need to work on this, but can't do it at home, or at most training buildings for that matter. We just can't get that kind of speed. Then she popped out of the weaves around the 10th pole in JWW, which really bothered me. This has been an issue that pops up from time to time, we had a really good run for a few months of no weave pole pop outs and lately it's been happening regularly.

There was a chiropractor at the trial who a lot of people regularly use, so I figured what can it hurt. Don't ask me what he said exactly, but all I heard was she was a mess. He was saying that another dog must have slammed into her from the side, and I couldn't think of anything and then remembered a few weeks back her and abby crashed into each other going for a ball. Indy yelped and took a few steps to the side, it scared me to death at the time, but within a few seconds she was bouncing around like normal. Abby's a tiny pug, but she's built like a tiny football player, she didn't even move an inch and Indy just bounced off of her.

Day two, had a good run going, but the judge caught her eye (bigger guy, with facial hair) she wasn't too sure of him and stopped dead right in front of the table, getting a refusal. the weaves were the 3rd from the last obstacle and she did great, I think that was the fastest weaves she's ever done! I ended up having her massaged later that day too, and Maria confirmed she was still a mess.

I finished up the weekend by front crossing completely out of position (who moved those weaves? ) sending her to an off course jump instead of to the weaves.


I'm spending the week, applying ice and heat to poor little Indy (who you would never know was sore) and she'll be getting another adjustment at the trial this weekend, and maybe another massage.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Now it's Abby's turn

Oh great.now abby's sick. Poor girl has been having diarrhea all week. Did the whole with hold food, then bland diet thing, pumpkin, but nothing seems to be helping. she's acting pretty much like her usual self, but it's hard to tell with her. she tends to have only two speeds, crazy or slug. Off to the vet this afternoon.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Outside agility

Indy ran at an agility trial this weekend, that was outside in a park. Now I know this isn't a big deal to most, but we've gotten really spoiled around here, almost all our trials over the summer are held in air conditioning, indoors, on field turf. pretty much perfect conditions. Indy ran in one class outside when she was a baby at her second trial ever, but that hardly counts.

The weather wasn't too bad considering, it is July. It was pretty hot though. The grass was really high. Overall I'd say Indy thought outside agility was pretty much the same as inside agility, FUN! We did have some issues with slipping, especially in the weaves, so no Qs all weekend. I think part of it was also she just wanted to run, run, run and the last weave wasn't part of her plan.....I don't even know if she even sees it sometimes when she really gets moving. I opted to let her keep running and not re-do the weaves, really hoping i'm not kicking myself for that.

I didn't check her times on Sat. but on sunday she posted her fastest standard & jumpers runs to date, so I can't complain. She had a lot of fun swimming in the creek, fetching her ball after all her runs. we have one more trial that's held outside at the end of the month, hoping she can figure out her footing the second time around.

In other news, there was a water main break near our house on the 4th, so we had no water, what fun......thankfully it's back on today, I was pretty worried it was going to take forever to fix. No shower in July is not a good thing!