Wordless Wednesday

 

K9 Kup Starter Standard

Happy Leap Day!!

Beckett and Keltic love to leap and wish it was leap day every day of the year!

K9 Kup

Once again this year, Keltic and I are running in a house league called the K9 Kup. The team we were on last year, Snow Dogs Unharnessed divided in two and added some new members, so now we have Snow Dogs Unharnessed and Snowdogs Unharnessed Too. Some of my agility friends have joined me in having honorary snow dogs. Now in addition to the huskies and australian shepherds, there is a keeshund, a border collie, a sheltie (Keltic), a duck toller, a collie and a mini poodle.

Both teams together
 

Snow Dogs Unharnessed

We've had two K9 Kup events so far and two more to go, unfortunately Keltic and I will miss the next event as we'll just be coming back from New Brunswick. At each event, we run three courses, a Standard and two games courses. At the last K9 Kup we ran Snooker and Steeplechase as the games. Keltic ran rather well, he even got his weave entry in the Standard and stayed in the weaves.

The best four runs from each team are added up to determine the team's placment. We got a third place and a fourth place in the first two events, Standard and Snooker.  Keltic's runs counted toward both of those placements. The score from the last event hadn't yet been tabulated at the end of the match so it will be awarded at the next K9 Kup. Snow Dogs Unharnessed was sitting in second place in our Divsion after the first K9 Kup.

Keltic - K9 Kup Standard

 

In the Standard, Keltic did very well even getting on the table that they had forgotten to lower without a problem. Too bad his Mum didn't tell him to target on the dog walk.

Keltic - K9 Kup Snooker

 

In Snooker, he did pretty good but he was just a little excited, perhaps because my course isn't as flowy as it should have been. At the first red (the first obstacle), I thought he was going right on by the backside so I turned too much to get him over. That meant I wasn't heading for the double jump on the correct line so, of course, Keltic knocked the bar.

 

Keltic - K9 Kup Steeplechase

 

Keltic got distracted by something on this course, not sure what, but once he came back he ran nicely. This might have been a Q in K9 Kup standards as they use Starter Jumpers times. It likely wouldn't be a Q in the AAC, since the event is considered a Masters event, the times are much tighter.

 

 

Looking forward to our next K9 Kup. Keltic will have been in  two AAC trials by then and if we are lucky he may have to carry a handicap in his next K9 Kup. Any dog with their starter agility title has a handicap since they have demonstrated some skill in agility and K9 Kup is trying to encourage newcomers to the sport.

 



 



Mish Mash Monday

Steeplechase

Yesterday, Beckett and I did four runs at Dream Fields. I only did four as I'm still a bit worried about putting too much strain on my leg.  Keltic came along as a spectator but that won't be for long as I've decided to enter him in the November trial.

Our first run was a Standard, I worried about faulting right at the start as the second obstacle, a jump was right by the dog walk and I thought Beckett would take dog walk for an off course. He didn't and our run was going smoothly until my agility champion took a tunnel instead of the A-frame.  I hadn't even worried about that. The rest of the run was really nice.

Next up was the Steeplechase. I've probably said it before but we love Steeplechase since there are no refusals I can push things and not worry if Beckett spins. This run ran beautifully, the only hiccup was that I didn't front cross in the right place after the A-frame and found myself nearly running into jump 5. I had to reset, which caused Beckett to spin a little, and continue on.  We ran the course in 40.06 seconds and the allowable course time was 48 seconds. It was not only a Q and first place in our jump height but also the best run of all the regular dogs. It is Beckett's 18th Steeplechase Q, we are closing in on the next title, seven more to go. The run had felt really good and I hoped Beckett and I would be together like that for Jumpers as well.

Jumpers ran pretty well. We had a time of 38.73 seconds on a course that had an allowable time of 45 seconds.  We had five faults though so no Q. After telling Beckett to go around a jump (as he had to do the backside), I had tried a blind cross to get to the other side of the jump. I must have begun my rotation too soon and he pulled off and came back to me for the refusal.

Last up was a Gamblers. I had barking spinning Beckett with me and we didn't get through the opening I had planned when the buzzer to begin the close went off. Beckett went out to the dog walk, the first obstacle of the main gamble,  nicely but instead of turning into the tunnel after the dog walk, he took off for a jump.  I didn't think we had enough points in our opening but as it turned out we had exactly 28, the minimum you need to Q.  Oh well!

No video today. I could have asked a few folks but since there was no title on the line I didn't worry about it.

It was a gorgeous day and we got home in time to spend an hour or so playing Frisbee in the backyard.

St Patrick's Day Trial

Well, as we mentioned in Keltic's birthday posts, Beckett and I had a trial at Dream Fields on St Patrick's Day. The luck of the Irish was not with us and we didn't get any Q's but we did have some really nice runs, unfortunately there are no videos.

We ran two Gamblers, two Standards, a Snooker and last up, a Jumpers. First up was a Gamblers, I didn't try any of the minis, just went for points. I know Beckett is fast enough to get the points so if I'm not sure that he'll do the minis I don't waste precious seconds trying to get him to do them. I was really happy that he did the first four obstacles of the main gamble, quite a few dogs didn't get this gamble. It was very hard to get them back out the far tunnel mouth.

In our first standard, we got five faults. I wanted to make sure that Beckett took the frame after jump 7 so I did a front cross which kept him out of the tunnel mouth I was worried about but very nearly put him in the other tunnel entrance but in almost doing the other tunnel entrance we got a refusal on the A-frame.  The rest of the run was just great. Beckett ran the course in 45.99 seconds, going 3.91 yards per second (yps). The Standard Course time was 61 seconds.

The Snooker run was another nice run. We did the red near the far end of the weaves, then the weaves, then the red near the start/finish line, then the weaves again, then the red by the tunnel followed by the A-frame. Then we started our opening, Beckett did 2 and 3a and took off for the obstacle 3b, the tunnel like a little streak. I was going to try to run 3c and 4a like a straight line with Beckett on my left, unfortunately I got a little ahead of Beckett and never cued him to take 3c so he came right by the standard of 3c. Good boy, Beckett.  We needed to get through 6 to qualify. On the course map, the reds are the single jumps with no numbers, they're not even red, they are blue lattice jumps.

Our last run of the day was Jumpers. Having NQ'd all of our other runs I was hoping this would be the one but nope, we came up empty handed. Well I did anyway, Beckett still got his hot dogs as he was a good boy and ran very well all day, hardly any spinning.  Jumpers went very well right up to nearly the end of the run. I wanted to front cross between 17 and 18 but Beckett was so far ahead of me that I shoulder turned him over 18 and rear-crossed but I knew I didn't want to go too far to the tunnel so I hesitated on course as to what I should do. Beckett not receiving any information as to what he should do, back jumped 18.  The course time for this Jumpers was 48 seconds. Beckett ran it in 35.30, for him a very fast 4.9 yps. How can you not be happy with that!

Our next trials are in April, 7 April at Dream Fields again and 14 April at Absolute Agility.  I hope the agility gods will be with us then as the leprechauns weren't with us last weekend.

First Q

Yesterday we went to our first trial of 2013. I thought Beckett might be absolutely wild since we hadn't trialled since Nov 2012 but he actually ran quite well. Our first event was a Master Standard. It walked nicely so I hoped that Beckett would do all right; he did more than all right, he Q'd. He did a bit more spinning than I would have liked but we didn't incur any refusals for them. It's something we'll have to work on though as a spin like that did cost us a Snooker Q later in the day, where we got a refusal on the second part of obstacle 5 of the close and we needed to get through obstacle 6 to Q.

Beckett ran this standard in 46.72 seconds and the standard course time was 65 seconds. He was running at 4.05 yards per second which is pretty good for Beckett.

Beckett Master Standard - YouTube Link

Next up was a Masters Gamblers run. I didn't think Beckett would get it as we are still working on a good get-out so when I saw the main gamble with the line from 2 to 3, I was sure we would have our work cut out for us. Beckett dropped a bar on the double jump in the mini so we couldn't get those points. When the buzzer went to end the opening I was sure we didn't have enough points. Beckett did the teeter no problem as we have worked  a lot on a teeter going away and he came nicely over jump 2, then he barked and spun as I tried to get him out over 3. Well, he eventually did get over 3 and when I told him to get out over 4, he did get out but went too far down the line and actually went over 4 in the wrong direction. It turned out we had 29 points in the opening but we were way over time for the Main Gamble and in any case, Beckett didn't do 4 in the right direction.

The next run was the Master Snooker. We had a really nice opening and the close was going great until Beckett decided to spin between the two jumps of obstacle 5.  They weren't that far apart and I wasn't trying to rear cross so I don't know what happened there.

Our next Standard ran pretty well. At one point you had to send your dog into a tunnel that went under the dog walk and they had to stay out to a jump. Beckett came between the jump and the dog walk and started to get on the dog walk, so an off course and elimination. We had another off course later in the run when I did a front cross and Beckett rather than taking a jump went around it. My cross was probably too wide again.  The Standard course time was 57 seconds and even with the two off courses, Beckett ran the course in 46.93 seconds.

Our last event was another Master Gambler.  It had a flip or a get-out to the weaves in the Main Gamble so again I didn't think it was one that Beckett would do. We went in with the view of doing a good opening so I sat Beckett on the start line lined up with obstacle "a" of the mini and led out to the tire, obstacle "c" of the mini, called Beckett to me and then did a front cross to get him over obstacle "b" of the mini. A pretty easy 14 points. We did the 4 point obstacle and the tire and headed to the weaves, then to the jump followed by the teeter and the jump on the other side of the teeter.  My plan was to do the teeter and jump twice but as I turned Beckett back to the teeter, I saw that the teeter hadn't dropped. I post turned Beckett around and waited for the teeter to drop and carried on with our plan which was the tunnel, jump and dog walk. Beckett just touched the contact zone on the dog walk when the buzzer sounded. Beckett got the tunnel and jump of the main gamble but wouldn't turn away to get the weaves so we didn't get the Q. But we did have the nice opening that I planned getting a total of 35 points.

So all in all I was pretty pleased with our first trial of 2013. To top it off, we won a volunteer prize, a fleece and fur tug toy which will be a birthday present for Keltic. The tug toy is green with red fox fur, perfect for Keltic.  Our next trial is at Dream Fields on St Patrick's Day, Keltic's birthday.

Double the Fun

On several occasions, Beckett has crashed into the second bar of a double jump. I think it's because, unlike with the spread jump, he doesn't get any cues that he has to jump further to make it over. I've been using the same verbal cue for all the jumps except for the tire. I decided to invest in a double jump for the back yard but after researching several jumps decided to make one myself.

The Agility Nerd has a great blog entry on building a double jump including some tips on avoiding what, I would think, would be quite common mistakes.  The jump cup frames come from J & J Dog Supplies, they weren't inexpensive once shipping was added in, but all in all I think building the jump myself did save a bit of money.  It sure was a good thing I had found the Agility Nerd's blog as what I thought were instructions in the box with the jump cup frames was just an instruction on how to measure and fasten the jump cup frames to the standard; there were no instructions on how to build your jump standard.  The specialty PVC fittings I got from Formufit; as unfortunately other than straight lengths of PVC, those fittings are hard to find here in Canada, well at least in Ottawa.

I ordered everything to make the jump some months ago but just got around to building it this week. I went to cut the PVC on Wednesday afternoon and I found out that the size of the cutter is measured by the outside diameter of the tubing while the size of the tubing is measured on the inside opening; so it was off to Lowe's to get another cutter. Needless to say that I didn't get the jump built on Wednesday.

Thursday, I was just going to cut the PVC for one standard but then decided to cut all the pieces for both standards.  My hands were some sore after cutting the PVC; I really need to have a bench vice grip or something to hold the PVC while I turn the cutter.  It's pretty hard to get the pieces cut to exactly the same length and as a result one standard is a bit taller but that's okay since you measure from the ground to fasten the jump cup strips.

All the PVC parts for our double jump

After I got all the pieces cut, I decided to go ahead and dry fit the standards; I found as the Agility Nerd mentioned in his blog that the fit was so tight no PVC glue was required.  The assembly went so well that I went ahead and fastened the jump cup strips to the frames. Again, thanks to the Agility Nerd I knew to start measuring how the holes of the frame would sit on the PVC standards before tightly fitting the standards. If you had made the standard too small it would have been quite hard to pull it apart again.

One double jump standard assembled.

Even though it was past supper time, I went ahead and finished the other jump standard since the assembly had gone so smoothly. The hardest thing was putting some of the end caps on the feet, boy were they tight. Today, I got my rubber mallet out of the camping gear and pounded the taller standard down just a bit, now they look almost the same height.

Both jump standards

I have some lengths of 3/4" PVC in the garage that I bought to make a "Hit It" box; they've been there for about a year (or more). I may use that PVC to make the jump bars or I could just use the bars from the jumps that are already in the basement.

I hope by retraining Beckett on the double jump; I plan on using a different verbal cue that he will begin to realize that he has to jump farther to clear the double and the days of crashing on the second bar will be over.

Q - less, not this time

This weekend Beckett and I trialled again at AARF. The weather was warm but extremely windy and since we had snow during the week, it made for very sloppy conditions so other than for pee breaks we didn't go outside much.  We had five runs, two Masters Standards, a Masters Gamblers, a Steeplechase and a Masters Jumpers.

First up was a Masters Standard. Beckett ran just awesome; we were in sync for the whole run except for one little bobble. I didn't tell him to "Go tunnel" while he was still in the chute so he curled back towards me as he came out and then began to spin which gave us a refusal on the tunnel. It was the first time we were not eliminated in a Master Standard though and I was very happy with a 5 fault run especially since he was nearly 10 seconds under time.

Next up was our Gamblers event, I didn't much like the opening I had planned. It had us trying a mini-gamble right off the start line. Beckett wouldn't send out to a tunnel so I ran the mini with him hoping he would pattern it and do it the second time. No luck and he even flew off the teeter the second time around. The main gamble was a jump, tunnel, weave, jump combination. Beckett got the jump and the tunnel, they were nearly right on the line so no reason for him not to get them but he wouldn't stay out to the weaves. As I called him back to send him out again to the weaves, I said "tunnel" and guess what he did. Even the judge said, "Well you said tunnel".

Next was our second Masters Standard. I think he was still wound up from the Gamblers. I'll let you make your own opinion on how that went.

Masters Standard - March 2012

The next event was Steeplechase, where there are no refusals and weaves are judged at the Starters level. Luckily for us this Steeplechase had two sets of weaves and not two A-frames since we usually run out of time when there are two A-frames. Beckett ran fairly well, a few spins, one missed weave entry and a little pokey coming down the frame.  The standard course time was 50 seconds, Beckett ran it clean in 47.41 seconds. Good thing he was clean as even 5 faults would have put us over time.

The last run of the day was Jumpers. It walked nice except that there was a lot of places were you had to rear cross. I knew that if they weren't timed perfectly that Beckett would spin and maybe incur a refusal, so I tried to walk it putting in a front cross wherever I could. The course time was 47 seconds and Beckett ran it in 37.53 for his second Q of the event and his first Masters Q. Now we can say he really is a Masters level agility dog.

It was a long day and a long drive home. But both Tucker and Beckett enjoyed Beckett's winnings when we got home, two very large milk bones.

Happy Leap Day

Leaping Lizards? No just Beckett!

Beckett, the Frisbee Fanatic

Tucker, able to leap tall dandelions

Blended Front Cross

I went to an agility seminar yesterday with Beckett. Wouldn't you know it spring-like weather all week, then Friday we get a snow storm. It was still snowing and the wind had picked up on Saturday morning so the highway going down was snow covered and the visibility was not great. Again, I thought, why am I doing this. But once we got there and got started, we had so much fun and learned so much that it was well worth the drive. I car-pooled with friend and her dog so that made the drive down and back fun too, well maybe not that much fun going down.

I found out once again how awesome my little Beckett is, we did lead-outs that I didn't think he would get. And while he might have not got it the first time around, he was quick to pick up the new skills. Some times he surprised me by getting things the first time, and I would think: how did he know that?

One of the big things we learned at the seminar was a blended front cross. If you can find places to use it, it is so much easier on your knees.  Personally, while I understand why they called it a blended front cross, I don't know why they didn't give it another name all together like S-cross or just Blended cross. The seminar presenter told us that it can be used where you have to do two front crosses on one obstacle or where there is a serpentine.

Blended Front Cross Exercise

This was the first exercise we had that used the blended front cross. If you look at the course map, you could have run the sequence with a front cross on the take off side of 3 to get the dog over obstacle 3 and a front cross on the descending side of 3 to get your dog around to obstacle 4. The other option to handle it was as a serpentine composed of 2,3, and 4; lead out between 1 and 2, supporting the dog to stay out after they've taken 2, call him over obstacle 3 and move off to obstacle 4.

But as a blended front cross, it was so much easier on the handler and I think would flow smoother for the dog too. In a blended front cross, there is no change of arm and, for those of us with older knees, no hard pivot.

Blended Front Cross - first position

The first position for this exercise depended on how much of a lead out you could take from your dog, but I would have to say that in this sequence, you would have to lead out to where I did, between 2 and 3 as shown in the picture. As you can see the dog would be on my left and I'm facing towards jump 8.

Blended Front Cross - position 2

Once you released your dog and they have committed to obstacle 2, you start side-stepping to the right hand wing of obstacle 3.  The seminar presenter called it a grapevine step. If you've seen line dancing, you should get the idea. Your dog will come back in to you. I gave Beckett too much room the first time and he came between me and the jump, of course though he had never seen this move.  Note, the dog is still on the left arm and I'm still facing obstacle 8.

Blended Front Cross - position 3

As your dog is approaching the jump, you drop your shoulder back over the plane of the jump and, when a dog is learning this body language, you may have to take a step backwards.  Again, note the dog is still on the left arm and the handler is still facing obstacle 8.

Blended Front Cross - position 4

In this sequence, once the dog is committed to 3, you start to move off to obstacle 4. You might think the dog would back jump but this isn't likely since you're heading off the other direction, they just wrap around and follow.  Note the dog is still on the left arm and the handler is only now turning their shoulders towards obstacle 4.

I hope I've got the key components down correctly. I didn't take notes yesterday. I find it better just to listen.  I find I miss too much by taking notes and often miss things that are even more critical than what I'm making a note of. I had people try to explain and show me a blended front cross before, but I didn't get it. The key things are no change of arm and no hard pivot like in a front cross. I didn't get any video yesterday so I've added a YouTube video that might give you a better idea of what I've been trying to say.

Blended Front Cross example