Too Much Sadness

Today a friend of mine lost her 4 year old sheltie unexpectedly.  She was young, spirited, and fun.  My friend is devastated.  I can only imagine how I would feel if I lost one of my two, and I've been depressed all day at the thought.

So today, I thought I would make a list of the 10 unique reasons why I love each of my dogs.  Everyone loves their dogs because they are cute, or sweet, or smart, or cuddly.  So here are some things that my dogs do that I just adore.

Bentley:
1.  I love that if you are late with a command in agility he lets out a bark.  I like to say that he "grrs" at us.
2.  I love that sometimes he goes and plucks a toy out of the toy box and just noms on it.  He doesn't play with it, it's a cross between suckling and chewing.  He closes his eyes and just looks so happy about it.
3.  I love that he tries so hard when you have a treat.  And if he can't figure it out, he just circles and circles and I can see the little wheels spinning in his head wondering "what does she want?!?!" because he wants to please us.
4.  I love that Bentley loves my husband and I equally.  One day at a park we ran in opposite directions to see what he would do, and he stood stock still, as if refusing to make a choice!
5.  I love the way Bentley wiggles his butt at us when we get home.  He doesn't bark, just wiggle-wiggle-wiggles everywhere.  Now when I spread my arms out like I want to give him a big hug, he starts the wiggling all over again.
6.  I love that Bentley puts up with Lexi's nonsense.  No matter how much she pokes and prods at him, he has never once so much as snapped at her.  He is the perfect big brother.
7.  I love that Bentley sees us as his protector.  When he has had enough, he comes over and tries to hide behind my husband and I.
8.  I love that Bentley was willing to try whatever I asked of him.  Obedience?  He's a natural heeler!  Agility?  ADCH!  I have to thank for the many amazing experiences I've had, and the many friends I've made through shelties and dog sports.
9.  I love that Bentley is the best napping partner in the whole world.  If you're sleeping, so is he, and he never gets tired of it.
10.  I love when Bentley looks at me with his slightly-too-round eyes.  I feel like I can see into his soul.

Lexi:
1.  I love that Lexi is in tune with everything around her.  She follows us from one room to the next.  She never sleeps deeply, because the second we are up, so is she.  She knew when a very minor earthquake hit (we couldn't feel it), she knew when Bentley was sick, and she knows when something is amiss.
2.  I love that Lexi can't take no for an answer, but it's somehow adorable.  If she wants to play with a toy, she will politely ram it into your leg until you throw it for her.
3.  I love that this girl is up for anything.  She will go for a hike, she'll catch a frisbee, she'll give flyball a shot, wading into the lake, etc. and she does it all with a joie-de-vivre and enthusiasm that is unrivaled.
4.  I love that despite her crazy, she always finds time to cuddle whether it's on my lap while I drink my morning coffee, or it's curling up on top of my pillow when we nap.
5.  I love that no matter what we're doing, she is giving it her all.
6.  I love that she trusts me implicitly.  I'm not sure why, but she has always been worried about things, but she knows that we will not force her to do something that will hurt her.  So she is brave for us--and always seems proud when she steps out of her comfort zone.  When she is scared, she crawls into our laps as if she knows we will keep her safe.
7.  I love that we can take her anywhere.  Boat, ferry full of people, restaurant, outdoor mall, local fair, and she is well-behaved and people can't get enough of her.
8.  I love that she tries so hard to please us.  She has allergies in the fall, and I discourage her from chewing on her feet.  I can actually see her trying not to bite at them just to make me happy.  She also wakes up in the morning and lays on my (or my husband's chest) quietly.  As if she knows we would prefer not to be woken (though clearly being laid on and stared at does the trick, haha!)
9.  I love that she seems to greet each day as if it were the best of her life.  She bounds out of bed, smile on her face, and gives a happy bark every single morning.
10.  I love that this girl sees right into my heart.  She is mine and I am hers.

Wordless Wednesday

Regionals Flop

Well, I'm still not ready to go through our videos from Regionals last weekend.  I'm not sure if I'll ever be ready!  And I doubt I'll ever share them, either!

I already posted on Facebook, but for those who didn't see, we had the worst weekend we've ever had.  I was so disappointed.  I would be lying if I said there weren't tears involved as the weekend unfolded.  It wasn't that we didn't win, or place, or qualify.  It was that we are WAY better than what we showed.  We just chose the worst weekend to have the worst weekend.

My frustration and disappointment was compounded because the trial was poorly run, and some of our runs were eliminated due to time (because our team was out of the running for placement).  And also because of time, as soon as you took an off course, you had to leave the ring.  Multiple times over the course of the weekend we were eliminated in the first few obstacles.  So I couldn't even focus on the positive.  Usually after an off course you have the opportunity to run the rest of the course--and sometimes those are even the best runs because you aren't worried anymore, you're just running and trying new things.  But, we were whistled and had to leave.  So the only thing on my mind were mistakes.

On the positive side, my girl is healthy and happy.  I always go back to this, but after we found out about her patellas I didn't know if we would get to play together again.  And I didn't know if she'd be able to trial, or hold up during a long weekend.  But she did--like a champ.  She was raring to go on every run, and had a blast doing it (even when I didn't!)

The positives from the weekend were few and far between, but on the first day we did really well.

Masters Gamblers:
The atmosphere was busy, loud, and crowded. But my crazy baby girl held every single one of her contacts until I released her.


Masters Jumpers:
So proud of this run.  Lexi won the class across all 16" dogs--and many, many dogs were eliminated.  Check her awesome back side of the jump before the tunnel.  Good girlie!

Mishmash Monday

Back to 2o2o Training

Back several years ago the purpose of this blog was to teach Bentley running contacts.  We gave up on that when he gained confidence and just jumped them constantly (not to mention we didn't have any idea what we were doing!) and went back to 2o2o thinking that if we set clearer criteria, we would have more success.  We did for quite some time (probably a year or so) but, his criteria ALWAYS deteriorates at a trial, and it's morphed into not even having a 2o2o on the a-frame.

But, we can't pull him in the ring because I'm sure the fault is ours (he is ring wise, and we've done a poor job teaching the criteria).  If you put Lexi in front of any raised piece of anything, and tell her "touch", she gets into a 2o2o.  Bentley has no idea what to do.  He tries laying on it, turning around the other way (2off2on) etc.  So it's further proof that we need to do more teaching.

So now we're teaching the criteria with his head down (to encourage him to drive to the bottom into position, a current problem) and the 2o2o.

We started in the house on a couch cushion (just barely raised off the ground) and then moved outside to a board.  But, in working with him outside (we have seriously limited time because the neighbor's dogs are outside 99% of the time), I think he understands the nose down, but still not the leg position.  If I help him get into position with my motion, he's got it, but he isn't quite there on his own.

Herding

Yesterday we took the dogs herding for the first time.  I've always wanted to try it just to see what the dogs did, but there was never a convenient time or place (even this place was an hour and a half away!)  I figured Bentley would really love it (he used to try to gather up all the dogs at the dog park when he was younger), and I thought Lexi might be scared of the sheep, but enjoy herding ducks.

The first thing we did was a sheep "meet and greet" where the shepherd caught one of the sheep and held it while each dog took a turn smelling the sheep. Bentley walked right up, gave the sheep butt a couple sniffs, and was like "okay I got this!"  Lexi was really worried (as I thought she might be), especially when the sheep stomped his legs.  I thought she would be too scared to herd (thought she might like ducks, though, since she has chased geese before).

Enjoying the sun

Watching the ducks

Bentley was a natural!  He really only wanted to turn clockwise (come bye), but I guess it's common for dogs to prefer one side over the other.  The woman kept calling the pups "super shelties" :)  At one point she turned to the other seminar participants and said, "it's not about size!  Do you think this little dog has control of these sheep?  YES!"

Lexi herded the way she does everything else--with reckless abandon.  She definitely put less thought into it! I don't know if you can hear me, but I told the shepherd "I can't tell if she's herding the sheep or trying to play with them!" And she said "the sheep don't think she's playing!"

It looked like this duck was herding the sheep!

Incredipaws Day 2

(Still trying to catch up!)

Masters Gamblers:
Lexi Q:  It's hard for me to post this video, because I stepped on the gamble line.  I came off and was really mad at myself (not happy) because I didn't think I Qd.  The judge didn't say anything.  I still feel a little guilty about it.  But, I know Lexi would have done it even if i wasn't on the line, so I guess that's a good thing.  I was really proud because Jonathan came up with a great plan.  First of all, the course is sort of a mirror of itself, so we could "practice" the gamble on the opposite side of the course (which you can see we did twice).  And then Jonathan noticed that if the dog came out of the opposite end of the tunnel, they had a straight line out to the jumps, and they couldn't really see the weaves at all.



Bentley:  This was too bad, because I really felt like this was something that Bentley is capable of.  He was able to get out just fine as he "practiced", but the weaves threw him off since we practice getting out to weaves so often.  Oh well.



Masters Snooker:
Lexi Q:  Jonathan ran this course and came off discouraged.  I think I've mentioned it before, but Lexi only needs Super Qs so he typically goes for riskier plans.  During this run I realized that his timing is really off with her.  He managed to get her around the course, but there were a lot of miscommunications.  I'm sure it's due to the fact that he doesn't run her very often in practice.



Bentley Super Q:  And again, Bentley with the Super Q!  A really nice run.  He is quite fun to run in Snooker :)




Masters Challenge Jumpers:
Lexi:  Yikes.  This course was tough!  I knew it would be, and in fact, I didn't enter it.  But, the trial secretary entered us by mistake and since we were helping her all weekend, she gave it to us as a free entry.  I asked my trainer and she said we should give it a try.  And in all honesty, I wasn't disappointed!  We struggled where I thought we would (the weave entry, for example).  I was a little surprised that we got the refusal at jump 4, but it happened to a lot of people.  Because of the angle, dogs were pushing off to jump 8, or were reading it as a rear to 8, so I held her too far to the left purposefully.  Can't be mad about that :) I really liked how we went through 10 through 16.  And I saw a ton of dogs go wide around 16 and miss 17.  Oh well.  It was a good experience!



Bentley:  This run was really nice.  Even Bentley went wide at 16 to 17 for a refusal.  But, the crazy thing?  He was 4 seconds over course time.  Even if he hadn't missed that jump he wouldn't have Qd, he would have been over course time.  Now I know that Bentley isn't the fastest sheltie out there, but he isn't THAT slow.  I guess course times are tight for these challenge-type courses.  It's a little discouraging, though, because I don't think we could have tightened it up that much.



Masters Jumpers:
Lexi:  Darn darn darn.  One day we'll get it together!  Unfortunately we only got half of the run on video, and it was the bad half.  The remainder of the run was clean.  I'm still really struggling with timing of forward sends.  And I peeled off too soon here--definitely my fault.



Bentley:  Well, again we had a video camera malfunction and didn't get this taped.  Good thing, though, because it was awful!

Steeplechase Finals:
Lexi:  I decided to try to use Finals as a testing ground to work on things I might not be as willing to try elsewhere.  That's why I threw in the blind.  I also tried to push Lexi a bit more, and keep myself moving.  I think we did a pretty good job.  We got one of the weave entries, but I don't know if my FC was poorly timed, or if Lexi didn't read it correctly (probably me) and she missed the second one.



Bentley:  Yay!  1st place!

Incredipaws Day 1

(Someday soon I'll post about training and other things...luckily this is our last trial for a month, so we have some time to train and blog in between!)

Masters Gamblers:
Lexi:  My RC was too late, and I didn't have any more pushing to do once she got to the jump.  In other words, she and I got there at the same time, so I had no where to go to indicate for her to go out.





Bentley: Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.  Heartbreak!  This is the first dogwalk contact he's missed in MONTHS.  But, you can feel the energy of the entire place change when Bentley got on the dogwalk, and Jonathan got all amped up, and pushed him too hard.  As much of a bummer it was, it proved to me that he DOES have the skills, and that we will get there eventually :)

Masters Standard:
Lexi:  How many times is a random thing going to go wrong in Standard?  And it seems like every time it's something different!  Lexi LOVES tunnels.  Never in her entire little life has she ever come out of a tunnel.  I think she must have hit the wall or the dogwalk legs (she banks heavily on the sides) and got either weirded out or confused.  I got such an amazing, amazing, amazing turn in the pinwheel headed towards the chute that I stopped and told her what a good girl she was (and was consequently out of position) but I didn't care.  I was pretty dang excited!


Grand Prix:
Lexi Q:  This made my whole weekend!  It wasn't a perfect run, and you can see me show too much forward motion into the tunnel (I was worried after the previous run's tunnel incident) and she goes super wide and almost misses the teeter.  The judge called a refusal because he was convinced (and so was I!) that she was going to miss.  But, he took the refusal away when she climbed on at the last second, and barely put her little toe in the yellow.  But my very favorite part was that fast weave entry out of the chute.  Good girlie.  With this run she earned a first place and another bye!


Bentley:  Darn that a-frame!  Nice run, otherwise.


Steeplechase:
Lexi Q:  Good run.  Luckily the judge from this weekend didn't give us a lot of tough weave entries, so that was a plus!  We really do need to work doubles at speed, though, because she has dropped a lot of them over the past few trials.  Unfortunately, I don't have one at home.


Bentley Q:  Tricked into getting the a-frame contacts, Bentley had a nice run!  Actually, he beat his sister :)

Indy Day 2

Masters Snooker:
Lexi:
Not much to say about this run.  Lexi beat Jonathan out of the weaves and his push was too late--pushed her right into the off course.  Oops!  Really nice recall to heel though :)


Bentley Q:
I don't usually run snooker (ever) so when I do, I try to pick an easy plan.  Bentley doesn't need Super Qs, so I just went with the easiest plan and 3 reds.  Not sure why he dropped the bar, but I had a lot of fun running him again!


Masters Standard:
Lexi:  I thought this was a great run.  We got a lovely weave entry, even though the bar fell.  I think it was my fault as I was pushing her line a little bit to line up the entry to the weaves.  I'm okay with that!  One day she'll keep that bar up and we'll get a Q :)

Steeplechase Finals:
Lexi: (Ignore the terribly naughty scooting at the beginning...)Amazing run!  Got a great turn the second time to the a-frame, got a nice push out of the tunnel and into the weaves.  Also quick released the a-frame, and it didn't mess her up the rest of the day!

Grand Prix:
Lexi:  And how do we go from the above, to this mess?  Yikes.  The dogwalk was my fault.  I was so worried about getting a good turn at the red, that I watched her (make a bad turn) and then didn't get there to set her line up the contact.  She was okay, though I'm sure she'll need an adjustment when we go to the chiro.

Of course I wasn't upset about her dogwalk, that was my fault and I was glad she was okay.  But I wanted to mark it when she broke her a-frame contact, so we missed the tire (8).  And then, she cut behind me at jump 13.  I was not happy about that at all.  I should have just kept her on my left and RCd the weaves, but I didn't think she had that skill (she proved me wrong, clearly!)  And then she cut behind me AGAIN at jump 16.  Not allowed.  I think I said "stop cutting behind me!" haha!  And then she took down jump 16.  Seriously.  What a mess.


Bentley:  I guess he watched Lexi and wanted to top her crazy antics, because he certainly did!  He jumped his a-frame contact (par for the course, these days), and he just ran around the ring.  I have no idea why.  He has never, ever done that before.  So bizarre!

Indianapolis: Day 1

I guess being inconsistent just means that we have a lot to learn!

Masters Gamblers:

Umm yeah, this was just too hard for both of our dogs!  That jump was SO far away.  I thought Lexi might have a chance if I pulled her back and sent her, but I was angled slightly, and didn't pull her back enough.  Bentley, well, Jonathan set up for the turn too soon and it wasn't even close!  (As a note, notice Lexi's weave entry in this run...nails it).

Lexi:


Bentley:


Masters Standard:

Lexi: I really am not sure why she dropped the first bar.  Bad luck, I think.  Honestly, I was kind of glad in the end that she dropped that bar because if the weaves had been her only mistake I would have been very sad!  Really loved her convergence to the teeter--that is not something she excels at so I was really proud.  This is the exact same weave entry as in gamblers, and she didn't hold onto it and did her weird stressy run that she does now when she doesn't think she can stay in the weaves (not sure if you can see it, but she gets into the first pole then runs past).  But the mistake pushed me out of my comfort zone and I handled the end as a push, not a cross and it was nice and faster than a cross would have been.



Steeplechase:

Lexi Q:
Knowing her struggles, I love her first weave entry in this run.  But, it cements the fact that the entries on her right are harder.  Clearly the turn at jump 13 was not our plan.  She read my deceleration as a rear cross.  And then did her stressy weave pole thing :(


Bentley:  Bentley has always had trouble being called off a tunnel entrance for a closer one.  He gets set on one and goes for it--no amount of name calling or eye contact makes a difference if he gets locked on.



Masters Jumpers:

Lexi:  I can't even watch this run I'm so mad at myself about it.  Seriously.  What an amazing run.  But I forgot the course.  WHO DOES THAT?  Lexi looked stellar!


Bentley:  This was definitely Bentley's best run of the weekend (year?!?)  He was up in the 5 YPS, which is flying for him.  Jonathan had a great mix of getting ahead of him and accelerating with him.



To sum it up:

Things to work on for Lexi:
1.  Weave entries at speed.
2.  FCs at speed (not allowing her to cut behind me).

Things to work on for Bentley:
1.  Distance/Gamble work.
2.  A-frames.
3.  Opposite entry tunnel sends.

Sunny Days

Michigan Again

Not a great showing for us.  I don't think the courses were the problem, I just think Lexi and I are still a green team which means we're pretty inconsistent.  We have some great weekends, and some not-so great ones.  And of course, our hotel was terrible and we got no sleep.  So that didn't help.

There was some incredible competition at this trial, and I've never been in a more competitive 16" class.  As an example, Bentley ran clean in Steeplechase and came in 11th place!  Sure, it wasn't he and Jonathan's best run, but that's saying something.

Masters Gamblers:
Not much to say about these runs.  I think 4 dogs total (Championship & Performance, ALL heights) Qd on this course.  It was REALLY tough!

Lexi:  Naughty, naughty contacts!

Bentley: Clearly, Bentley was feeling a little out of sorts at the beginning of the day.  Jonathan's cues weren't very clear, and Bentley wasn't up to snuff, either.


Masters Standard:
Lexi:  Our worst run in a while.  I knew the weave entry would be tough, and I wasn't pushing enough towards them, but I told her weave early and hoped she would look for them on her own.  Nope--I need to help more.  Got a pretty nice turn to the table, though :)  And then, why did she cut behind me?  That was reminescent of the Lexi of old--she was facing sort of behind me, and coming to my right side would have taken more effort, so she just didn't.  I guess I could have been more aggressive with my cue, but I have my arm out, and am looking over my shoulder.  And then she went SO wide coming out of the tunnel that I wasn't prepared and pushed her back in.  And then we were in that vicious cycle!  But, we got (and HELD) a lovely dogwalk contact.

Okay, and to focus on the positive.  I got AMAZING collection at the end.  I stopped and cheered for her and we ran off and got cookies.  I don't even care that she dropped the bar.  YAYAY!


Grand Prix:
Lexi:  Not a bad run considering this course had some similarities to our terrible standard run.  I knew the corner to the dogwalk would be hard, and she was pushing her contacts all weekend.  I didn't think I could get her to hold the teeter long enough, and I was right.  She broke too soon, and I wasn't able to get down and cue the jump and turn, so she peeled off too soon.


Bentley: Bentley wasn't really up to par this weekend.  I think he was feeling the after effects of his rough week.  He was significantly slower, missed his weaves a couple times, and dropped a few bars.  Very unlike him.  Still a good run, though.



Steeplechase:
Lexi:  I really agonized over whether or not to throw a blind in, but was afraid I wouldn't get there.  I sent Lexi to the tunnel and had SO much time.  I just stood there waiting for her!  But on the positive side, I was standing still and thus got a really nice, tight rear cross.  Then I watcher her and forget to get into position for the cross, and was late, and she cut behind me.  Same thing out of the weaves.  I stood and stared at her after my forward send, and forgot that I was front crossing.  Luckily Lexi forgave me!  We got a Q, too, which was an added bonus.


Bentley:  Jonathan admitted that he got a little lost on course (you can see some very late handling moves!) but Bentley was still clean.  I was happy that he got his a-frame contacts, though you can see that they were NOT 2o2os haha!  Anyways, poor Bentley was clean, and got a Q, but came in 11th place!

Masters Snooker:

Lexi:  Jonathan is SO good at Snooker.  He just GETS it, and always comes up with amazing plans.  We have had several people compliment him on his approach.  I wish I could think like that!  Anyways, he had a really great run with Lexi.  It was a bummer that she dropped that bar, because the opening was just perfect.  He wasn't planning on having her take the back side of 2, but he got turned around, and she dropped the bar.  

Bentley:  Mr. Reliable!  Jonathan didn't walk the course for Bentley (I was actually going to run him), but he decided to just run the course he had planned for Lexi.  Maybe not the best plan for him since he's not as fast off the line, but he still Qd!

Masters Jumpers:

Lexi:  I just love this run of ours.  Yes, she drops a bar, but it was the end of the weekend and knowing our trouble with Jumpers, I was so pleased with the remainder of the run.  She was really moving, and had the fastest time of the 16" dogs that ran (and as I mentioned, there was some SERIOUS competition!). 

Bentley:  Yay!  Good run, boys!

Steeplechase Finals:

Lexi:   I was really, actually, running all out in this run.  I figured, why not?  We didn't have anything to lose, so I thought it would be fun to just run hard.  And then Lexi was so excited about that idea, that she broke her a-frame contact! :)  And then I didn't push far enough into the weaves (recurring theme: no independent weave entry!), so we had to try those again.  And then, I'm a huge jerk.  I'm running too fast down the straight away that I don't show enough decel, and Lexi crashes the double.  She limped for a second and I was SO worried and felt horrible.  Then she realized she was okay, and jumped up and was fine.  WHEW.  (Don't worry, she went to the chiropractor after this day!)

Bentley:  Another good run for Jonathan and Bentley.  I will briefly mention his SERIOUSLY shaped RC at the end.  We've been getting on him for class for that, and it's crazy obvious at the end.  ;)